CHAPTER 33: A TALK IN THE GARDEN

"Tell me, mortal, how should I punish you?"

As if by an evil spell, Goddess Paliamoth’s question kept echoing in Elio’s ears, over and over again.

It was driving him crazy.

He could feel his heart pounding against his ribcage. The tempo was higher than the Jumanji drums. His limbs went limp. Luckily, he was in the water, hence no need to stand on his feet. Otherwise, he would have collapsed.

The goddess had asked a question. Rhetoric or not, he should have been trying to think of an answer, but his mind was blank.

Oddly enough, he couldn’t pull his gaze from the goddess’s eyes. He was sure she was compelling him. And even though he was afraid, he could sense that his body was reacting in a dramatic way.

The feeling that he was going to die grew thick and broad, spreading inside of him. Coldness seeped into him and all of a sudden he started trembling.

’Yes. I’m afraid, but this feels... Wrong?’ he thought, really not knowing how to describe how he felt. Not only did his mind feel blank, it also felt like he was slowly forgetting some important things. Of course, he couldn’t tell which things exactly.

The state of feeling overpowered went on for God knows how long, then, all of a sudden, the goddess burst out laughing.

Elio felt like himself again!

He just stared at the goddess dumbstruck, unsure if the laughter was a good or a bad sign.

You could understand how confused he became when the goddess said, "I’m so sorry I scared you. I just wanted to make sure you are human."

"What do you mean?" asked Elio.

He was sure he might regret asking, but the urge to do so surpassed the fear of infuriating the goddess.

Still to Elio’s surprise, the goddess became even more cheerful, but instead of explaining anything to him, she sank into the water in front of him and asked him to give her an ice-cream.

When Elio hesitated a little, wondering how she knew about the ice-cream, the goddess urged him to be quick about it.

"Don’t worry," she said, her eyes fixed on the growing mist on Elio’s hands where the ice-creams were emerging. "After I taste all those mysterious delicacies, I will answer all your questions. And you will answer mine."

With this, she reached for the ice-cream on Elio’s right hand and took it cautiously, turning it here and there as she intently inspected it like a dealer examining a piece of jewelry.

"Just so you know," she said, still examining the ice-cream. "I’m not your enemy. In fact, you are lucky I noticed you and your little tricks before the others. So, if there’s any poison in this, I advise you to say so before it’s too late. Not that I’m afraid of poison, of course. I’m immortal, therefore, immune. It’s just that I don’t want you to give me a reason to kill you when we were just starting to know each other. Is there any poison?"

"Why would I poison you?" asked Elio, offended that she had even implied such a thing. Yes, she was a goddess. And yes, he was kind of still afraid of her. But he would never stoop that low.

Meanwhile, the goddess, oblivious of the damage her words had caused, smiled and said, "It’s rude to answer a question with a question, especially when in conversation with the Queen of Moth, don’t you think?"

"There’s no poison in the ice-cream," said Elio through gritted teeth.

"Very well!"

With this, the goddess slowly brought the ice-cream closer to her lips and licked it with the tip of her tongue. When the sweetness hit her taste buds, she started licking it hungrily.

She finished it in the blink of an eye.

"It tastes like strawberry," she said, reaching for the one in Elio’s left hand.

"Because it is strawberry flavoured."

By the time Elio finished saying this, the goddess had already swallowed the ice-cream, licking her lips.

"Give me more."

Elio obeyed her command.

"More!"

He obeyed.

"More!"

"More!"

"More!"

After eating 22 ice-creams, the goddess finally stopped him from purchasing more. Instead, she asked him if he wasn’t cold.

Elio shook his head.

"But you want to be out of the water, don’t you?"

Before Elio could respond, the scenery had already changed. He found himself sitting in a gazebo in a beautiful garden, the goddess sitting on a chair opposite him, this time wearing a beautiful soft white dress.

There were strange swans in and on the shores of a pond nearby, a magnificent castle behind him and the sun bright in the sky.

What surprised him the most was the fact that he was dry, clad in a white shirt and pants. The modern clothes he had purchased back in the meadows were gone.

He was mesmerized, until he heard the goddess’s voice. "Do you have anything we can eat while we talk?"

For a while, Elio just stared at her, still mesmerized. Then he realized he ought to say something. "Uh... Yeah! I do."

He purchased some snacks, some biscuits, chocolate, donuts... And even a pizza. He wasn’t sure what the goddess would like, so he purchased as many different things as possible. And for some reason, he wasn’t holding back even when the things turned out to be expensive.

It’s like he was no longer worried that he would exhaust his PPP. Was the goddess manipulating him?

He watched astonished as a table materialized in between him and the goddess. Just how powerful was she?

From the memories of the original king Elio, he tried to recall anything he could about this goddess.

Known as the Queen of Moth, a mountain where the gods resided, Palia or Paliamoth was the wife of the God of thunder, Niemoth.

Goddess of Life and Goddess of Marriage were among the many titles the priest had referred to her with over the years while preaching to the masses.

They would talk a lot about her, about how she had given birth to so many other gods like that of war and order, but it was the story of how she felt Mount Moth that was very popular.

In that story, she pleads to her husband to let her direct the Spring of Life into the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers of the human world.

’If humans become immortal,’ she said, "then they would try to live in peace with each other, conscious of the damage they cause to the world. They wouldn’t always do haste things which they mostly do because of fear of death. They wouldn’t live everyday in desperation. They would think their actions through.’

Niemoth was furious. He couldn’t stand the idea of the mortals becoming like him. Like gods. "What will we become then?" he asked.

They argued, fought and Niemoth triumphed. He couldn’t kill his wife though. His children would have been angry with him. So he banished her.

Before that, he made sure that she would never give the water from the Spring of Life to humans. And he achieved this by declaring that to drink the water from the Spring of Life, one must be dead. If one drank it alive, it would be like normal water, or worse, poisonous.

All the gods signed the agreement.

Since a dead person can’t drink, it rendered the Spring of Life useless.

And now, Elio was sitting with this banished goddess, sharing a pizza with her. He couldn’t believe it.

She had asked for something to eat while talking, but as Elio watched her hungryly tasting each and everything on the table, Elio was convinced it had been a bad idea.

Clearly, she couldn’t talk while eating. So, he just leaned back and watched her as she gobbled down the snacks.

’She’s cute, and beautiful, and gorgeous.’ He realized.

Some people would say that all these words meant the same thing, but Elio could swear they didn’t. He could see beauty, cuteness and... gorgeousness?

He burst out laughing... internally, of course. He wouldn’t dare laugh aloud lest he risked infuriating the cute, beautiful and gorgeous goddess.

After she had finished everything on the table, she belched and finally raised her head to look at him.

"Ask your questions!" she said.

Before Elio could answer, she added, "I think I know exactly what you are wondering. I shall save you the trouble and answer you. So, I’m the goddess of life, which you already know. When you died, I was supposed to confirm your death so you could be recorded in the book of the dead and proceed to the underworld, but before I could finish, you came back to life."

"I was intrigued. Minutes later, you started behaving strangely, doing all these mysterious things, claiming you are the son of Niemoth. I thought to myself, that’s a strange one. And that’s why I decided to hide your existence from the other gods. Now you’re in my debt. And it’s going to cost you a lot. More than you can afford, I’m afraid."