Tree of Savior Forum

The Things They Did (Concluded)

Vakarine’s Night Off?
248 days before the Goddesses disappeared (688 words)

Above the world, far upon the highs of the astral currents of moonlight, swam Vakarine, Goddess of the Evening Star. It was She who guided mortal travelers by night; pray to Her, and She’ll spirit you home.

Swimming in moonlight was a favorite pastime for the Goddess. Floating on her back among the lunar rays, Vakarine peformed a slow, gentle backstroke, flicking droplets of light from her fingers across the universe. Every one of them remained, each one a birth of a twinkling new star.

Like mortals, however, even the Gods grew bored every now and then. Goddess Vakarine huffed a sigh, sending a slow gust of wind across the earthly mountaintops far below, and climbed out of the moonlight current. The Goddess dried away the starlight, creating several new stars in the process. Vakarine called out for Gabija, the Goddess of Fire, and the latter answered, tip-toeing Her way into Vakarine’s part of the sky.

“What’s the matter, Vakarine?” said Gabija, chewing a mouth full of food. In Her hand She held a “froasted” (fresh roasted) boar’s leg by the bone, and it was half-eaten.

“Gabija,” Vakarine said, “I have need of you.”

“Sure,” the Goddess of Fire said, accidentally spitting a small morsel of meat through Her teeth. She gulped down Her bite of meat. “What is it?”

“I want you to take my place for tonight.”

Gabija took another bite of boar meat. And She chewed… chewing… chewing. “What?”

“I said, I want you to take my place for the night,” Vakarine repeated, patiently. “There is something else I must do, and I do not wish to grow too terribly bored of my duties here in the stars.”

“Mm,” Gabija said, chewing. “Look, Vakarine, I know it gets dull sometimes, but face it, there’s no one more suited than you for ruling the stars. I mean—” Gabija swallowed Her food. “—you don’t expect me to do as good of a job as you, guiding mortals to here, from there, from there, to here, do you?”

“No,” Vakarine said truthfully. “But I know I can rely on you, for just one night.”

Gabija brandished Her half-eaten boar leg. “Hold on a second. Why don’t you call for Zemyna? She’d be more suited for it than me.”

Vakarine broke eye contact with the Goddess of Fire, looking across the eastern horizon. “I don’t trust Zemyna. Besides, she’s asleep right now. If you wake her up, she gets cranky. If she gets cranky, the earth will quake. I don’t think the mortals need an earthquake tonight, do you?”

“Urk. That’s true.”

“Besides, humans love you more than any of us. You’re the bringer of fire. You gave them warmth, you taught them how to nourish their food. In the night time, humans cherish that above all else. That’s why I called for you.”

Vakarine’s words brought a fire to Gabija’s cheeks. The Goddess giggled. “That’s true, isn’t it?”

“So you’ll take my place tonight?”

Gabija made a straight face, bit off another chunk of boar meat, and said, “No.”

“Oh.”

“Not unless you want to represent fire. Do you want to represent fire? The humans would ask so much of you!”

“U-um… no.”

“You see? Hehe!” Gulp. “There must always be a Goddess of Fire—me—and there must always be a Goddess of the Evening Star—you. If we were to switch places or abandon our duty, well, that’d spell disaster for the humans. What if all your stars disappeared?”

“Well—”

“Or if every fire in the world burned out, leaving the world cold, and the humans would have to huddle together for warmth…” Gabija started to sulk further and further as She spoke. “Or some helpless child couldn’t find their way back home, and their prayers were left unanswered… because I can’t… transport them…”

Vakarine groaned. “Alright, Gabija. Alright. You win. I’ll stay up here.”

“Yay!” Gabija threw Her arm around Vakarine’s neck and pulled the Evening Goddess in close. “Have a bite of meat,” She said, sticking the mostly eaten boar’s leg up to Vakarine’s mouth.

“I’ll pass, Gabija. I’ll pass. I’ll just take my vacation at sunrise.”

The Giltine Excursion
365 days before the Goddesses disappeared (301 words)

All through the battlefield She walked, among the flames and steel of conflict. Warriors clashed, magicians hurled fire, arrows found their marks, and men died.

Oh, so many men died.

No mortal eyes could see Giltine, the Goddess of Death in Her purest, pale beauty, but every lifeless husk of a soldier laying upon the bloodstrewn battlefield reflected Her smile within their empty gaze. They felt Her scythe the moment their hearts stopped beating. With mortal souls, Goddess Giltine did not affiliate. Her presence lasted only as long as mortal man’s final moments in life. Thus did She leave their souls behind, lost in a state of confusion and woe.

Giltine reaped, Giltine walked, and Giltine grinned at the destruction that lay before her. Mortals went to war for such silly reasons. Beliefs? Riches? Power struggle? All of it served to make Giltine laugh. Humans died every day. Animals died every day. Plants died every day.

All things mortal died, every… single… day. Giltine was there to witness it, and She was there to sever their ties to the realm of the living.

The battle was soon over, and nearly all lives were lost. In the silence of the battlefield that now lay sleeping, borne of body, blood, bone, and wounds in the form of trenches blown out by deflected magic, Goddess Giltine was already gone. 'Twas now a valley of lost souls.

The souls cried, weeped, and gnashed their teeth. They wanted to escape, but there was nowhere for them to go. Not until a face of love emerged from a golden light above, for it was the face of Goddess Ausrine, the Finder of Lost Souls, come to lead the dead home.

Across the battlefield of dead boies She drifted, shepherding the souls of the lost into the afterlife.

Waking Her
1,000 days before the Goddesses disappeared (337 words)

Saule, the Goddess of the Sun, was crouching upon snow-capped mountaintop where the icy winds blew Her hair sideways but did not take away Her warmth this morning. She was crouching next to the sleeping Zemyna, covered in a blanket of snow.

“Zemyna?” Saule said. She poked Zemyna’s face. “Wake up, Zemyna. You’ve got prayers to answer. Zemyna? Zemyna? Awaken.”

The Goddess of the Earth stirred, rolling over to Her side. She faced away from Saule, who frowned. Without standing, Saule magically teleported to Zemyna’s other side in a flash of golden sunlight. She prodded Zemyna’s face again.

“Zemyna. The people need you, won’t you wake? Zemyna?”

Still no answer. Saule raised Her voice slightly.

“Zemyna?” Nothing. She spoke louder. “Zemyna?!” Still nothing. Saule was now yelling. “Zemyna! Wake up! You—have—prayers—to—answer—they—need—their—harvest—this—year—please!”

Still no reaction. Saule huffed. Rising to a full stand, Saule created a blindingly hot ball of light in Her hands, and She willed it to shine down on Zemyna’s face. The Earth Goddess’ eyelids twitched. “Zemyna, wake up,” sang Saule, confident that this plan would work.

Zemyna’s eyelids opened, barely, just enough to make out Saule’s magic. The Goddess of the Earth sat up, the snowy blanket falling from Her chest. “Saule? Ugh… stop this light, please, I’m awake.”

Saule’s ball of light burned out. The former clapped Her hands together. “Good! You’ve awoken. Hear me now, the mortals have begun their yearly prayers for harvest. Won’t you answer them?”

Rubbing Her eyes, Zemyna lifted Her face to the morning sky. A moment later She said, “Saule… the harvest does not begin until next week.”

Saule’s face reddened. “I… I… I… I knew that!”

Zemyna knitted Her eyebrows, looking now to Saule. “Did you? Then why did you wake me?”

“Uhhhh, eh-heh… ummm… good night, Zemyna!”

Saule disappeared in a flash of bright, golden light, leaving Zemyna by Herself to brood on the mountaintop. The earth rumbled in a brief foreshock, before Zemyna flopped back down onto the snow and drifted off, again, to slumberland.

Falling Out
40 days before the Goddesses disappeared (379 words)

In the heart of a realm that was neither here nor there, with no ground, no sky, no sun or night, only a light of eternal white to float upon, Laima, the Goddess of Destiny, faced Her sister, Goddess Giltine. Neither of them were smiling.

“Spare me your words, Laima,” Giltine said quietly. “You are Destiny, it’s true… but you’re not my destiny. I serve no one, not even Dievas! I am Death. All things must face me in the end.”

“You cannot stray from your birthright, Giltine,” Laima said coolly. “I say this not as a superior—I don’t place myself above or below you—I tell you this as the Goddess of Destiny. Destiny, Giltine, is something you cannot change.”

“But you can, can’t you?” Giltine shot back. “At your Word, you could change anything, can’t you? So set me free, Laima. If you are Destiny, then forge mine into something new! It is I who must rule. Even Dievas knows this.”

“It’s not that simple, sister,” Laima said, shaking Her head sadly. “If I could change destiny so easily, I would change my own. I would make the mortal world a place in which mortals could not, and shall not, suffer. We all would be Dievas’ equal. It just cannot be, Giltine. I’m sorry.”

“Then I will show you. I will show you all! I have the power to exact my will anywhere I please! I am Death!”

Laima closed Her eyes, a wisp of a sigh escaping through Her narrowly parted lips. “Yes, as you’ve stated with our every meeting: you are Death. Tell me, do you have the bearings to bring Dievas down? Or, perhaps, me? You could, very easily, but will you?”

“No,” Giltine said coldly. “If I did, there would be no one left to see what I will become. Dievas’ throne will be mine, and all of you will grovel before me.”

A black mist enveloped Giltine’s body. The mist wrapped around itself and twisted into nothing, leaving only emptiness behind; Giltine was gone, with the fading sound of rattling chains as a reminder of the Goddess of Death’s resolve, for those were the unbreakable chains of death.

Laima concluded, “So it begins, does it? It seems the battle lines have been drawn.”

Gabija’s Curry
200 days before the Goddesses disappeared (414 words)

The Goddess’ realm was a place where They could shape Their quarters by their will however They saw fit. Gabija had sculpted Her quarter to resemble a world of flames in which the sky burned in a deep red, tufted by fiery orange clouds. Her streets and palaces were forged in holographic make, tinted the color of Gabija’s flames. Gabija loved to line Her streets with burning braziers. That was where She received all of her food; every meal was a tribute from the humans.

Carrying a clay bowl of curry and a wooden spoon to go with it, Gabija wandered out of Her quarter and into Ausrine’s. In short, Ausrine’s quarter was nothing but a beautiful morning sky. At some point the ground dropped off, and Gabija had to fly the rest of the way across Ausrine’s bottomless sky realm.

Ausrine was reclined on a body of swirling wind formed into the shape of a comfortable chair. In Her hands: a book, titled Morning Star Chronicles.

Gabija flew up next to Ausrine and held the bowl of curry under Ausrine’s nose. Ausrine squinted, a single tear rolled down Her cheek, and She turned Her head away from the curry to hack up a lung.

“It doesn’t smell that bad,” Gabija said dejectedly.

Ausrine stifled Her coughing fit and caught Her air back. Setting Her Morning Star Chronicles book aside, face down like a steepled rooftop adrift on nothing, She rounded on Gabija.

“Are you offering me a bite of your food, Gabija?” Ausrine asked.

With a single nod and an Mm-hm, the Goddess of Fire held out Her bowl of curry again, this time keeping it away from Ausrine’s nose. Ausrine grasped the wooden spoon and scooped a healthy bite of curry into Her mouth, throwing caution to the wind.

“Mmmm,” Ausrine hummed. “Humans never cease to amaze me. Their food is simply divine!”

Gabija chuckled. “Ausrine, are you alright? Your face is turning color. And your eyes are leaking. And your… nose is leaking… is that drool coming out of your mouth? Ausrine? …Ausrine?”

Ausrine’s body floated freely now, no longer held up by Her recliner of wind. She’d fallen unconscious, and that was when Gabija realized Her error. She remembered that curry was spicy, and the only deity aside from Gabija who enjoyed spicy treats was none other than Dievas Himself. For a Goddess like Gabija, no food was too hot or spicy.

She was, after all, the Goddess of Fire.

Silence Of Us All
3 hours before the Goddesses disappeared (206 words)

“Laima?”

“Yes, Gabija?”

“What’s that you’re wearing?”

“Oh, this? It is a crown.”

“Ohhhh. Who did you get it from?”

“A human.”

“Did you?! It’s pretty! Look what I received from the humans.”

“That… looks like a hearty meal.”

“It is! Mmmmm…”

“Gabija? Laima? Why are you here?”

“Mmm—hm? Zemyna! I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Zemyna, hello.”

“I remember falling asleep on the mountain top as the Vakarine took to the evening sky.”

“You called?”

“I did. Do you know why we’re here?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. What is this place?”

“Ummmmm, I thought it was Laima’s quarter.”

“No, it is not mine.”

“Then… then whose is it!”

“Who’s even speaking? I can hardly see any of you. Your voices are beginning to sound the same.”

“What?”

“I said, who’s even speaking? I can’t—wait… what’s that sound?”

“It sounds like… chains.”

“Chains?”

“Zemyna? Laima? Vakarine?”

“Wait—Saule—was that you?”

“I can’t see anymore.”

“Hummmm. This is sort of nice.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. We can’t see each other, and our voices all sound the same. We’re just six in the dark, if we include Ausrine. Ausrine, are you here, too?”

“Yes, I’m Ausrine.”

“There’s only one of us missing, though…”

“Yes. Where’s Giltine?”

The Finest Feast
1,573,283 days before the Goddesses disappeared (397 words)

Dievas’ throne sat upon the dais, overlooking the large crowd of Gods and Goddesses gathered at His feast. A single, great table stretched from one end of Dievas’ throne room to the other, and sitting in every chair furnished at the long table was a reveling deity, toasting to Him. The Gods and Goddesses enjoyed the music and the food—They simply could not eat enough!

Among the feasting deities was Laima, the Goddess of Destiny; Vakarine, the Goddess of the Evening Star; Saule, the Goddess of the Sun; Ausrine, the Goddess of the Morning Star; Zemyna, the Goddess of the Earth; Gabija, the Goddess of Fire; and Giltine, the Goddess of Death.

Dievas cupped His golden chalice in his fingers, swirling the contents of His wine around and around in the chalice. When He stood from His throne, the reveling deities fell silent and gave Dievas Their undivided attention.

Here we are again,” Deivas bellowed throughout the hall, His large, powerful voice projected by His unmatched power, “feasting upon the humans’ tribute. Does it not feel deserving to be awarded for all of your work?

“Hear hear!” the Gods and Goddesses rang.

Does it not make you feel alive, dining together in this sanctuary?

“Hear hear!”

Dievas raised his chalice high. “Let us mark this gathering as the finest feast in which we’ll ever partake together. Should the humans worship us, we shall answer their prayers. Should the humans pay a tribute again, as fine as this one…

The deities cheered.

Then, perhaps, on the next feast, we’ll invite them all to dine with us. Until then, my children, drink this wine, and eat this food. For faith.

“For faith,” echoed the deities. They all raised Their own chalices and, following suit with Dievas, put the golden rims of Their chalices to Their lips, tipped the cups, and drank down the wine.

The seven Goddesses were all sitting together in the midst of Their other counterparts. The seven Goddesses drained Their chalices of wine and all of Them reached across the table toward one another, clinking all Their empty chalices together.

“For Destiny,” said Laima.

“And Fire!” added Gabija.

“And cloudless nights to take them home,” Vakarine chimed in.

“For the souls of the dead,” came Ausrine.

“And forever the harvest,” Zemyna chorused.

“May the sun shine down,” Saule agreed.

“And bring balance to all,” whispered Giltine.


I wrote these because I just wanted to have a fun little slice of life fanfic, but I ran out of ideas rather quickly. Thanks for reading!