The Divine Union
A Short First ever Omake
Not many years ago Fythhagyna, Goddess of Fertility, tilled the fields and tended to all of nature for the People, she ensured that our bellies were full with veal and bread and that no issues were found in the lives the People. The Kingdom was prosperous at her bosom.
Then came the Crow.
It started innocently enough at first. The Crow would come and peck at the seeds in the fields and berries on the trees, Fythhagyna ignored it, for it was but one Crow, large though it was. Yet as time went on, the Crow ate more and more each year, less food was harvested and grown and the other Gods looked to Fythhagyna for answers. But she had none. She had tried to shoot the Crow with an arrow, it had laughed at her, she had tried to hit it with her sickle, again it laughed, finally she had dipped some of her seeds in poison, yet somehow the Crow avoided those ones most of all, laughing a third time at her, even as it glutted itself on the food meant to feed the People.
Finally, enraged, she gathered her bow and quiver, she gripped tightly her sickle and was directed to the Crows forest by the hunting goddess Ayrixyia. She set out to find the Crows nest and slay it whilst it slept.
During her travels she found herself again and again drawn off the road into the deep forests by the laughter of the Crow, meeting great beasts and demons which beset her, aiding many a woman and domestic animal with the birth of their young, many are the tales of her March, many are the tales of her actions. Yet still she could not find the Crows nest.
Worried about returning for the first harvest and the start of the collection of food by the People she decided to finally rest inside the canopy of a tree. Her beautiful form stretched out as she rested amongst the blades of grass.
This was her mistake.
When she awoke she had been pinned under a tree, it had been cut down, she realised, so that it would fall and trap her for a good amount of time. She heard the laughing and saw the Crow, plump and full to bursting, for whilst she had been hunting, he had swallowed up much of the seeds and with his wing beats had blown away the clouds that were full of water, creating a food shortage and drought for The People, reducing the fertility of the soil for his own ends, this is the same shortage and drought that affects us now.
It was then she realised the truth, this was no Crow other than The Crow! The Trickster had tricked her! Having never met the Crow Fythhagyna had never seen his tricks in action, but she had been impressed, if enraged, by his deception.
She lay under the tree for many a day, until she saw a traveling man along the road, she called out to him for aid and so he approached her, a kind and strange smile upon his face. Fythhagyna was beautiful and kinder than most and thus she asked him politely for his aid trying to lift the tree. This he refused, but he offered something else instead.
He offered to teach her how to release herself.
Fythhagyna accepted eagerly, and so she was taught. She was taught how to use things such as 'leverage' to pull at the tree, she was taught to reach inside the earth and pull at the Metal there to mould it and use it to cut away at the tree. She was also taught many other things, for the man sat by her and schooled her on the secrets of the world and soil, hinted at new techniques for her to use for her farms and new ways to breed her cattle and sheep.
When Fythhagyna finally released herself from under the tree she offered to take the man back to her abode and to feed him and clothe him should he teach her all he knew.
At that the man shook his head. He smirked at her and proclaimed that some lessons could not just be taught, but must also be learned, and in flurry of Crows wingbeats he was gone. Only then did Fythhagyna realise she had met Crow, The Teacher. And she felt herself feel all the happier for meeting him, and found herself missing his great wisdom, just as she found herself missing the challenge the Trickster presented her with.
When she returned home she prepared to fight the drought and protect the people, she took up her sickle and went forward to reap what harvest she could with all enthusiasm and to ensure that life returned to the plants and beasts of the land.
That was when it happened.
All across the land, discontent spread, fear bubbled up alongside plain nervousness, mortals looked towards tomorrow and shuddered. They knew something had changed, they knew something was wrong.
Fythhagyna discovered what it was when it appeared outside her door.
Crow, The Devourer.
She realised that he had come to sow misery amongst her farmers and her herders, come to sow the thoughts of an everlasting drought. Seeking to protect them and all beasts, plants and farms she leapt forward sickle at the ready.
She should have been smote by such a being as Crow The Devourer, but she was not, perhaps he had decided to be merciful, perhaps what happened next was all a part of his great trick or one of his schemes, this we do not yet know. They tussled and fought, Crow laughing constantly for hours, before being silent for days, only to start cackling once more. Then on the third week it ended.
Crow laughed, Fythhagyna smiled and laughed back.
Crow whispered in her ear that she was such fun, she whispered back that she wanted a boon for all the trouble he had caused. This shocked Crow, no one had ever been so bold as to ask him for something! Always had men and Gods and all things been his puppets, never being able to ask what fate they had in his grand scheme. So shocked and impressed by the simple but truly beautiful Fertility Goddess was he, that he allowed her this boon.
So she asked him to show her his true face.
Once again the Crow was shocked, even before the Garden had been made he had been split in three, all beings before had feared to look upon the Spider Eyed Crow. He asked her then if that was what she truly wanted. She replied that it was.
And so he showed her, he showed her the face that made Gwy and Goya scream, made Arxyn near flee and had been too hideous for his own world and creations to bear.
She simply smiled back.
You wonder why we still suffer the drought? You wonder why that feeling of doom has increased? Why there is more discontent?
It's because Fythhagyna is too busy with her new husband to care for mortal lives at the moment. Yes she will return, yes she will once again make sure our bellies are full and that life fully returns to the land, but that will be then, for now, she loves the unlovable, she is the only woman to catch the eye of The Crow, and though they may be happier for it, we have yet to see what it means for the world.
------So yeah, my first ever Omake, I did a thing, I couldn't resist it. I just needed to write something about the Divine Union that probably isn't gonna happen, hope this doesn't annoy you too much
@Academia Nut
