1. A New Face

As a demigod, Ardex falsely believed his life to be one of comfort. Sit back and gently nudge the world with his magical powers. Allow the universe to slowly blossom into something beautiful. Father called it “Zyme”.

The same Father who furiously sent him away.

Just now he stood before His throne in the Heavenly Palace. Then the room turned into a whirlpool and his world faded to empty darkness. His stomach turned upside down, his vision grew hazy, flashes of light followed—until he slammed into this ground.

Ground was a grand word. The planet was a liquid fireball and the floor was lava. For every gigantic flame that lashed out, a large rock crashed down from space, only to be swallowed by the magma.

Ardex was glad he was a god. The enormous heat would have incinerated any other creature within a second, and there was no shelter from it. In fact, there was nothing else at all. No sound, no smell, no grass, certainly no food.

Very funny, Father, he thought. Now I get to search for my brothers and sisters and take the long road back to the Heavenly Palace. You have punished me—happy now?

But that didn’t bother a god. He had no body like living beings, he could float carefree over—

“Aaaaah!”

A scream escaped his large mouth. His body tumbled through the air, but precisely so that he landed on his paws. His vision was no longer hazy; he wished it still was.

For he was no longer floating.

His own back was replaced with an orange fur decorated with black stripes. His belly was now a circle of white fur.

He felt his head. Soft curved ears stood sideways and from his mouth protruded two gigantic saber teeth.

He studied his hands. Four black dots ran across the bottom, one for each toe. These soles allowed him to leap back and forth between the rare solid lumps of ground.

A second roar escaped him. He slowly gained control over his body—and his powers. When his front paw stomped, steaming lava bubbles sprang from the holes in the ground, floating through the air without his touch.

He didn’t understand. Had Father only banished him? No, he was angry with everyone, they went along in the whirlpool. Was he the only one transformed into an animal? Was this really a prank by Father?

The lava bubble burst apart. As it flowed back into the cracks, pebbles danced like grains of sand across the floor.

The planet rumbled, as if she were hungry. The pebbles rolled away and the sun suddenly stood much lower on the horizon.

Ardex’ new body lost all its strength. He felt nauseous. Weak, dizzy, vulnerable. This must be how living beings felt when they were sick—and he no longer understood why his parents had invented diseases.

This looks like that hell Mother talked about so often, he thought. Father has banished us to hell! But why do I still have my powers?

No, not all his powers. No matter how hard he tried, no flames burst from his mouth. No matter how his ears perked, they didn’t work. The planet was a bomb that kept going off over and over, but he heard nothing.

They had to return to the Heavenly Palace. He would take revenge on Father! But for that he needed his family members. For that, the planet—

His world rumbled and quaked again. Streams of lava scraped past his paws, interspersed with streams of pebbles.

“Darus!” he called out.

You may think now, dear reader, that this cannot be. In a world without sound, how does he shout his little brother’s name?

But you must understand that I translate everything into words you can grasp. In the end, it is the same. You know something as a spoken word, another being as a gesture, a scent, a signal, or an electric shock. But I translate everything for you. My greatest love, my greatest mistake.

No response. Or wait …

A paw stuck up behind a tall black rock, followed by a soft playful voice. “Shush shush, keep it down. Some beings are trying to sleep over here.”

“Kept your power of laziness, I say,” said Ardex with a smile.

“Love you too.”

Ardex shuffled towards the rock, curious what form Darus had taken. For a moment he thought Darus was the rock itself, until a tail and snout appeared. “No time for jokes. What is this place? Why does the sun keep moving?”

“The planet is unstable. All this rock has only just come together.”

“How? Did Father make this? Is this my punishment?”

“No silly, due to gravity. Heavy particles attract each other. So, stardust forms larger and larger clumps, until they become planets and moons. But we need a good core if we want to spin steadily.”

Their snouts bumped each other. “If this continues, we’ll be sucked into the sun soon.”

He looked at Ardex for the first time. His voice sounded like a little kid who received a magnificent present.

“Super cool!”

“That’s not cool at all!” Ardex grumbled. “I already feel awful. Hot. Sticky. That’ll be much worse in the sun.”

“No, look, you are … you are a saber-toothed tiger! And I … what am I?”

Darus examined himself as if a terrifying spider crawled on his belly. Ardex surpassed that by staring at him as if he saw a spider for the first time.

A grayish-white fur covered Darus’ muscular body. Two pointed ears stood straight up. His nose jutted far forward and he dragged a broad tail far behind.

“A labrador wolf,” Ardex concluded. “Father’s lessons will prove their worth now. But you wouldn’t know that, of course.”

“Shush shush, don’t like that tone mister. This is fun, isn’t it? I’m so soft. Let’s see what animals the others have become!”

Ardex hooked his tusk around Darus’ paw and prevented him from leaving.

A rock from space struck his back. He felt the blow but had no pain. Yet the fact that he felt it at all was frightening enough.

“Not important. Make the planet calm down! I tried to pull pebbles from the ground—”

“Stop that! They need to stay in the ground.”

“Darus! Show some respect for the eldest son of God.”

Ardex showed who was tallest. His tusks pressed lightly on the head of his little brother, who didn’t even notice. He studied the ground, examined all the rocks carefully, squeezed them together, and threw them back down the hole.

“Lots of iron and nickel. If we just wait, gravity will pull them down. With such a large magnet in the core, the planet should become stable.”

“How long will that take?”

“Hmm … a few million years.”

“We don’t have that time.”

“Why not? We’re gods, brother dear. Gods! According to Father we have eternal life.”

“In the palace, yes. Not on this dead planet, I’m afraid.”

“Ugh, you too? You also believe Bella’s vague story about life force and thingies?”

“How else have our powers grown? Father only gave us a tiny pebble of his full might. Now you alter entire planets. Do you have a better theory? Come on, you know what you must do.”

The sun suddenly changed position, again, and now set definitively.

The holes in the ground were barely distinguishable from the rock. Darus sighed. His front paw made a graceful arc, which magically pulled the rocks upward—so he could lean against them comfortably. He staggered on his paws and studied Ardex with tired eyes.

“Could you shine some light here?”

“I can’t do that anymore.”

“A bit disappointing, eldest son of God.”

Darus tapped as if knocking on the planet’s door. Again and again he shifted his paw to a different spot and laid his ear against the rocks.

The rumbling grew louder. Everything inside the planet was changing. The rocks shook more and more violently, as if they were cold.

Until the sun inexplicably rose again.

“The planet no longer spins randomly,” Darus said with satisfaction. “You’ll have to fix those lava and explosion thingies yourself. Too bad the night’s this short. Sleep well, Ardex.”

He hadn’t even closed his eyes before his big brother pulled him upright.

“Why do you think Father sent us here? He could have taken our powers. Turned us into a piece of rock. Maybe even killed us! But instead he banishes us to God knows where.”

“No idea. Maybe he was grumpy. Maybe he was disappointed in us. Maybe this is his idea of a prank. We all know he doesn’t understand humor.”

“Ah, so you got your sense of humor from him.”

“Love you too.”

Darus turned around and fell asleep.

Specks drifted through Ardex’ vision. His front paws slowly transformed into tiny red shreds that orbited around him like stars.

This isn’t right, he thought calmly, until he could no longer restrain himself. I’m dying. I’m dying. I have to find the others, quick, quick, quick.

With each footstep, lava shot up like a fountain. For hours he ran, tirelessly, all that time finding nothing. Absolutely nothing. No hill, no river, no plants, no insects.

The sun already set when something appeared in the distance: a round swelling in the rock.

He feared he’d accidentally looped around and was back at his brother—until the swelling grew into something on two legs.