5. The Chance Disasters

This morning, the highest steps on the staircase were already swallowed by the clouds. That sight removed any doubt in the gods’ hearts about their plan.

The piles of wood and stone were almost invitations. As if the animals knew someone would steal these and wanted to help them. But that could never be true, because the animals had also stationed guards around the stairs. It was too dark at night to work at the top, but the bottom could always be strengthened. Surrounded by fireflies and moonlight, they kept adding extra planks and stones, even around midnight.

Cosmo’s wings made too much noise, so he had to enter the camp on foot. As long as he held a wing over his head and beak, he was hard to see or recognize in the dark. He walked between bushes, a hidden burglar, until he could almost touch the pile of wood.

A guard, however, sat right on top of it. And that’s why Eeris entered the camp from the other side, fully visible. “Hey hey, I was wondering if you needed any help?”

Fiante slept standing and opened one eye. “You’d help by staying away.”

“Hmm, you guys look tired. Or should the gods stand guard for a while?”

“Ha! Good one, Eeris. We won’t fall for that!”

But they had already fallen for it. The other guards had come over. Cosmo could calmly wrap a rope around the pile and carry it in his beak. With a powerful swing, he threw it away, deeper into the woods.

The pile of rocks was much harder. For that task, he had brought along his brother Darus, god of the earth. A wolf who waited calmly, lying flat on his belly in the mud.

He had hesitated for a long time, because Darus was known as the clumsiest god of all who also liked to hear himself talk. Even now, he had arrived too late.

Something had changed, though, since the extinction of the dinosaurs. He did his duty—without seventeen bad jokes.

He simply made all the rocks sink into the ground. Blink once and the pile was gone.

“A rock solid trick, if you ask me,” Darus mumbled.

“I found it quite wearthy,” Cosmo joked.

“Listen, Fiante,” said Eeris, surrounding the guards with her long neck. “The gods want to be your friends. What’s that saying again? Oh yes, we want to improve our bond, one step at a time.”

“Then your will does not align with our will.”

“Well, okay, then I wish you lots more fun,” Eeris said overly cheerfully. Then she left.

The guards returned. Cosmo and Darus calmly walked away, cloaked in shadow, up the trail from the Maybemountains. From there, they could overlook the entire camp.

Morning broke.

When Fiante noticed the piles had vanished, he didn’t react like they had expected. No panic, no angry shouts, no chaos.

“This is a test from the Supreme God!” he called until everyone was awake. “How badly do we want to reach him? How badly do we want to leave this world? Well, we’ll show it.”

“But why do those creatures want to leave the world so badly?” asked Cosmo, mostly to himself. “And why build a gigantic staircase?”

Darus sharpened his teeth on a piece of rock. “And I was thinking you were the smart one. No, wait, I only think that because you say it all the time.”

Small groups left the camp in all directions. Fiante directed them. They had just lost almost all their supplies, but you’d think it was a celebration. The least important parts of the stairs were dismantled so they could continue their work.

Before the sun reached its highest point, three more steps had already been added and Equids streamed in with new planks.

Eeris suddenly stood behind her brothers.

“What now? Just a few more days. Maybe one day. And then they all die trying to escape the world! I won’t let that happen.”

“Calm down,” said Cosmo, his wing on her neck. His gaze fell on the tools the Gosti were holding. That’s why they’re so much faster than I expected, he thought.

“I have a next plan.”

That evening, Eeris took another detour around the Maybemountains, so she could enter the camp from the other side. As if she “coincidentally had to pass through” on her way home.

But she was stopped by the Proto-Turtles. They crept closer. They left only destruction behind on their path to demolishing the stairs. An ever growing herd followed them. Communication kept improving, since snakes no longer had to act out everything with their bodies.

She didn’t understand their goal. Weren’t they happy in the sea? They’re the dinosaurs of the ocean, the boss. What are they looking for on land?

But the moment she steps out of the shadows and strikes up a conversation, would be the moment they’ll change their plan.

They’ve already destroyed so much life force. All those plants and trees that are gone, she thought gloomily. Was it worth it? What if I misheard their plan?

She couldn’t stand it any longer. It had to stop now. She made herself as tall as possible and walked up to the Proto-Turtle.

“Go back to the sea! You don’t belong here.”

“Good evening, Eeris,” said Abrahon solemnly, not startled at all. “Go on. Warn your god friends that we broke your rules.”

She opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. She was a goddess and could, if she wanted, lock up this Proto-Turtle in an enchanted forest for a year. She just felt small and hopeless.

“That’s what I thought. The moment you helped us, you placed us on the same level as you. Now you have to live with the consequences.”

“I’m done living with the consequences.”

Both her front paws dug deep into the earth. Roots snapped from the ground, twisted around, and grew into ever larger trees that enclosed the Proto-Turtle like a wooden prison.

He took the trees in his mouth, but had no strong teeth to bite them in half. The more the forest confined him, the less he could move and stomp, until he could only move his head to glare at Eeris.

“I’m a just goddess and I will not be talked down to by my own subjects. As soon as you’re free, you’ll go back to the sea. If not, I have no choice but to inform my family. Have you met my brother yet, the fire god Ardex?”

The Proto-Turtle growled. His followers began the long process of pulling apart the ivy, leaves and tree trunks.

Eeris walked on, put on a cheerful smile, and entered the camp. But Fiante was nowhere to be found. There was absolutely no one. She heard someone say “Good one, Darus” but didn’t know from whence it came.

Until, on the other side of the stairs, she saw Darus juggling tools.

“Where were you?” Cosmo whispered, jumping from the bushes.

“Sorry, but what is Darus doing?”

“You’ll see later.” He ended his show by balancing a few hammers on his tail.

We call them hammers, dear reader, but in this time period it was just a small stick attached to a thicker stick. He hadn’t dropped anything, or secretly made anything disappear, so Eeris didn’t get the point.

Just like the previous evening, they visited the Maybemountains. They watched as morning broke and the great stairs now cast an enormous shadow over the entire continent.

When the first Gosti wanted to hammer a plank, their hammer spontaneously fell apart. The sharp stone,, which they used to chisel other stones into the right shape, crumbled at the first touch.

“Micro fractures.” Darus smiled. “Not enough to break immediately, but if someone puts even a little force on it.”

The pile of broken tools in the middle of the camp grew quickly. Fiante triumphantly stood on it. “Our next test from the Supreme God! Will we let this defeat us? Don’t we have paws, teeth, and strong backs? We can achieve anything, anything for him!”

The creatures cheered. They took the pieces of what had first been hammers and grindstones, and used them creatively to make new steps. Steps that were only visible to Cosmo if he flew between the Cloudbeings.

“If only our family could help,” said Eeris.

“They’re busy with their own problems,” answered Darus. “Putting out little fires all over this strange world. It’s up to us.”

“What now?” asked Eeris, her voice high. Her brothers no longer calmed her.