บท 47: The 9 Statues
Linri was standing in front of the 9 giant statues, he would be lying if he said he did not feel like paying respects to them. Still, he did not want to do such a thing. If he did not have to he did not want to bow down his head to anyone even if they were gods. Though it would be a different scenario if the other person can kill him easily. After all his life was more important them some so-called pride.
The statues were neatly placed, there were 4 to the left of them and another 4 at their right. The last one was directly before them. From their placement, it was not hard to imagine that the one in the middle was the Leader of the pantheon. There was one curious thing though. One of the statues on the left side was broken in pieces and considering the deities could interact with the real world they shouldn't have let something like this happen. Unless something happened to the owner of it, at least this had confirmed something for him. Linri felt some kind of unexplainable emotion. If he had not chosen his current route maybe he could name every single one standing before him. They could have even been his closest allies instead of enemies. Actually, 'enemies' wasn't the right word as he was nothing more than a toy to them.
"Are they?"
"Yep, they are the Togk deities. I do not know each of their names but I can at least name three of them. For example that one." Linri pointed at the only female statue of the bunch. She wore a crown mask with 5 spikes on it. She had long hair that was touching her back and she wore a simple skirt. Her hands were clasping in front of her face and she seemed to be praying.
"She is Solas, the great Goddess of Sun and Justice. She is known for her benevolence and kindness. If not for the sun gracing our fields every single day none of us would be able to eat. She is considered to be the mother of creation. Though from personal experience I can also say that she also has a mischievous side as well. Did I get anything wrong?"
"Excellent! I still do not know how you know all of this but what you spoke was the dogma of our religion. It seemed as if you were one of our people, almost like you lived back then. But you got one thing wrong, I do not consider myself mischievous it falls under some else's name." Solas talked to him for the first time ever since he stepped inside the temple. One thing that puzzled him though she sounded like pouting. Could a Goddess that was older than millennia even pout?
Linri then pointed at another statue. This one was a male and had a serpent coiled around his arm. He did not have any kind of crown unlike others but he had huge circular earrings. His chest was bare and had a long skirt that covered his ankles. There was also a mirror strapped around his waist. He had a fierce expression and you could feel the bloodlust coming from his eyes.
"This is Lozna, the great God of Moon and War. At night he illuminates our way to keep us from getting lost in the jungle and helps us find our way home. He is the protector of Togks, during wars he is the one blessing our warriors to keep our soldiers safe. He is a great warrior and there isn't anyone that can beat him in a fight and his valour is known throughout the world. He has a straight personality if he likes something he likes it if he doesn't he does not. He never beats around the bush and conspires against others because that is not his warrior's way. Did I get anything wrong?" Linri said everything seriously and everything he said was right but there was hidden malice behind his words. According to what he wrote this was supposed to be his personality but because of the changes he made later on it made Lozna a liar. That should be his greatest shame, also considering that this world had become reality he wondered how Solas convinced him to lie like that.
"Hahahaha! You are exactly right. There is still hope for you yet Harclaw!" Hearing Lozna he could not help but let out a 'tch' sound. He hoped to shake Lozna with his words but apparently either he was playing dumb or he really was dumb enough to not notice the meaning lying behind his words.
He had then pointed at another statue and kept on explaining.
"This one is Udcek, the God of Death and Harbinger of Anaya. He is the one that guides the souls of dead people to the underworld. One day he is going to swallow the sun and that day will be the start of Anaya. Everything has a life span that includes our world, just like our souls he is going to lead the soul of Earth to the underworld. I do not know much about him but there is one thing I remember. He has many faces and his true form is a mystery. It's said that he would only reveal his true form on Anaya and the statue in front of us is nothing more than his many masks. Though I have to say it is the mask I hate the most because of how frequent I see it."
The statue of Udcek in front of him was the spitting image of the one he saw in his 'dream'. He had a skull-like face and a feathered crown. He was so skinny that you could count his ribs, there was an owl perching on his shoulder. The only difference he could probably say would be the lack of blood covering him.
Now that he was done explaining Linri looked at the other statues. On the left aside from Lozna, there were still 2 intact statues. The reason he was looking at them was that they were the most interesting of the bunch.
The first statue had a dog-like face. The only clothing he had was the poncho like thing on his shoulders and the cloth that was covering his private parts. Seeing him there was only one name that was popping in his mind, Anubis the Egyptian God of Death. That should not have been possible though. Even though they were close to Egypt of this world he had based them of Aztecs. The Aztec civilization was located in Mexico so how were they able to believe in similar gods. Thinking about similar gods he could not help but remember a book series he read in his teenage years, Pearl Williams the Daughter of Sea. In the universe of that gods also existed just like here. Though the most important point was Greek and Roman Gods could switch their persona depending on the people believing them so was this a similar thing?
Linri eyes wandered to the second statue. This was probably most bizarre of the bunch as it was literally a giant monkey. Yes, this was a monkey god and the only thing that separated it from a normal monkey was a feather earring it had. There was also another thing, its expression. It had a human-like expression. He wondered if this was the mischievous deity that Solas mentioned. After all, monkeys were known for their outrages behaviours.
"What about that one who is he?" Jaime asked a question while pointing at one of the statues. It was the one in the middle. What separated it from the others was that this one did not have a face. He had a giant feather crown like the Indians of North America, a giant necklace covering his chest and lastly a cape on his shoulders.
"Well, he should be someone like Odin of this pantheon. Aside from that, I am sorry but I can not say anything since this is also the first time I saw him." He shrugged his shoulders helplessly. He did not know everything and compared to others in this world his knowledge concerning Togks were already at the level of a college professor focusing on this particular subject. Maybe even better since he wrote some stuff about them but that was about it.
"Anyway, we should continue our search I don't think this place leads to anywhere." He was about to leave when he was suddenly stopped by Jaime.
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