Ariadne and the Tales of Heroes

"You have this power?...," he asked her.

"Of course. I am the Goddess of Labyrinths, the Goddess of Weaving, the Goddess of Wine."

"You literally have the god of make whatever she wants," Daiyu added. "Give her a few minutes, and she can give you any type of clothing and makeshift items."

"She made me a great sweater!" Sárkány also added.

Within a couple of minutes, two tents were being formed from her hands. These tents were large. They sat side by side and were large enough to hold Ariadne's or Sárkány's large forms with ease. They were simple pop up tents with their own flat roof. One was green colored and the other purple. Toha noticed two large beds in each of the tents.

"One is for us," Daiyu said. "The other is for you two."

Ariadne told him, "I can make another tent when I am done if you are uncomfortable with being in the same tent as I am."

Toha shrugged, "It doesn't matter too much for me. I am being exposed to so many new things that I am struggling to keep my mind from snapping like a twig."

"I imagine you have had a long day. You are welcome to go to sleep in the soft beds."

Toha saw the formation of the bed. "Those beds must be wonderful. Beats the rough beds and racks from the trenches."

Within a few minutes, Ariadne finished her work. Two fully formed tents with beds were constructed. There was even a privacy curtain over the tent's entrance.

There was a smile on Ariadne's face. She genuinely enjoyed doing this and felt rewarded every time she did it.

Toha nodded "Thank you for making these. It is beautiful. I could fall asleep in it."

"Hmm, we need more. To finish this all up, are you hungry, Toha?"

"Yes, I am. I don't suppose you have any food? I do have some rations with me to eat."

Ariadne smiled, "Make yourself comfortable, Toha. I have an idea. In about an hour, I will have food brought here."

Daiyu went and took her heavy coat off of her. She still wore a shirt and pants, but she made herself comfortable. Sárkány followed suit. He took his sword and stabbed it into the ground by the entrance. Daiyu took her shoes and jumped onto the large bed in the green tent.

Toha shrugged as he unbuttoned the top layer of clothing as he placed the MP-18 by the entrance of the purple tent. Ariadne then unfastened her chest armor and lower armor leaving just a bra and underwear that she wore underneath it. Toha's eyes focused on her body now as he noted her looks underneath her heavy armor. He could see her breasts lined with the orange fur with white spots that dotted the top of the breasts and see her cleavage well. He could see her abbs that lined her stomach. She looked like she could lift a house with ease. She then went and lay down on her stomach as Toha took off his boots and some of his uniform.

Ariadne turned her head and noticed that Toha was looking at her body. Toha quickly looked away as she smiled. She nodded lightly and noted it.

"Beats being on the battlefield, isn't it Toha?" Daiyu asked.

"Yes. I can't see you in my bed. There is a tent wall in the way."

"I will handle this!" Sárkány said in a striking voice. In less than a few seconds, Toha saw a giant hand grab the curtain wall and list it so that Ariadne and Toha could see Daiyu and Sárkány.

"Thank you," Toha said. He went and lay down on his stomach on the bed beside Ariadne. He felt ready to fall asleep.

"Everybody looks comfortable," he thought to himself. "It is so quiet and peaceful...away from the explosions and violence. Ariadne certainly chooses a quiet place to be."

"So...we have all day to sit here and discuss things Toha." Ariadne explained to Toha. "We can discuss anything that you want to. Name your topic, and we explain everything to the best of our abilities."

"Ok," he nodded. "My first question that I wanted to discuss is what is a dragon and an old Greek god doing near the area that I was fighting and struggling to survive?"

"Goddess..." She corrected. "The answer is somewhat easy to answer. It is you that got near us. Our paths just happened to intersect ours. However, that being said, I believe you had helped to encourage those paths to intersect by the deity known as Coyote."

"About a day ago, all those stories when I was told when I was young about gods and goddesses, deities, creatures, such as yourself were just that...stories. Coyote is a legend in our people of a guide, a trickster, depending on who he works with."

She nodded on her comfortable bed. "Well...nothing has changed much, Toha. We do exist just not in the number that you think exists. Coyote is one of the deities or 'mythics' as some of us are starting to call ourselves, that do not serve in the Coalition of Deities but is not a malevolent deity either."

"Coalition, what?"

Ariadne shrugged, "Hmm...perhaps, I will explain this whole story when you tell me some more about yourself."

Toha nodded comfortably in bed. He noticed that Daiyu had pushed her bed beside Sárkány, and they were comfortably together.

"Well...I was born in Arizona, United States, in the Pima Reservation. I was born in May 1890. My father is white and was a Lutheran. He taught me a lot of the societies of white men and raised me with my mom. My mother was a Native American born and a fellow part of the tribe. I lived off and on in the Reservation and outside the reservation. It is one of the reasons why I am a citizen of the United States."

Daiyu was listening to everything. "I am not very familiar with the Indians. From what I know, the Americans were either trying to convert the Indians to their ways or trying to eradicate them. It was only rumored, though amongst the French, until I have learned more recently. I am amazed you served in the United States Army. The French Foreign Legion could have used someone of your abilities very easily."

"It is true that some of the Native Americans did join the Foreign Legion before the United States joined. I was not very interested in joining the Legion unless the United States decided to commit to it fully. Nonetheless, I had a sense of patriotism not towards the United States but towards my fellow people. I still cared about my tribe. Most of my people, what was left of my family, and fellow associates are not citizens. I joined the war to try to make sure that all Native Americans become citizens."

"Even though the general opinion towards the natives was that of genocide and relocation? Your people certainly shine brightly against such...evil."

Toha nodded, "I feel the same way, to be honest. I am not ignorant of what the white men want of us. Even my father was a bit eccentric at times. I still loved my father, but in certain beliefs, he was a little aggressive towards attitudes against Native Americans. Him loving my mother was his way of making peace with those misconstrued attitudes. I think if time continued, I think he would have continued to change his viewpoints on things further. Unfortunately, both my parents died in a regrettable accident. While I was spending time with my grandparents, they died in a house fire while they were asleep."

Ariadne looked down, "I am sorry to hear about that."

Toha shook his head "It's ok. That was ten years ago. As a tradition amongst our people, we make sure never to say their names. It would be disrespectful to say their names to others."

"Seriously?" Daiyu asked.

"Yes. Amongst our tribe, even saying our name till the age of 15 is frowned upon. We have our ways and customs. At the same time, though, it is changing as our ways are becoming lost or adapting to the white man's ways. I live in a blended world of combining customs. I am...trying to do my best."

Daiyu nodded, "Now here you are in Oklahoma while Europe tears itself asunder. Four years of them trying to eradicate themselves. At this rate, the Europeans are going to make themselves extinct. Colonialism will end, and the nations controlled by the Europeans will be free as they keep trying to destroy each other. I feel sympathy for all sides in the war."

Ariadne asked, "What drove you to the town of Fresnes?"

"During my sleep, I was told by Coyote that I was supposed to go to Fresnes. I fought some Germans there, but I had help from the aircraft. That's why the town looks the way it does now. Coyote told me that there was some sort of debt that he was repaying. He 'guided' me to meet you."

She was thinking hard as she replied, "And now you are here. Do you feel comfortable?"

Toha nodded with a smile, "I certainly do. It feels comfortable under the nice sun in the shade. Well...enough about my story, tell me about what is going on. Why are a goddess, a dragon, and a Chinese woman doing at a wrecked town in the middle of a war zone?"

"We are on a mission to find a Lintarsha Shard," Ariadne responded. "It is part of a powerful crystal that can save the deities from extinction. I will explain more about this later. I suppose it is time to give you our full story."

"I can fill in some of the story." Daiyu added. "I made a massive effort to study the deities, and with the help of Sárkány, I have a library in my head."

Ariadne shifted herself to her side and faced Toha. "A long time ago before Greece was ever united, and when humanity was still pondering the wheel, the deities existed. We like you, were trying to figure ourselves out. We tried to learn of our environment, what we can do, how to use our powers, and at the same time, learn about the human race. I can tell you things from my end from the Greek deities' perspectives, but other deities can tell you a similar story in the end. We all learned that we were more powerful than you ever were. We took advantage of that and established ourselves as your deities, your protectors, and compass in life. In time we met the other groups of deities such as the Egyptians, the Norse, the Hindu, the Chinese, the Americans, Africa, Oceania, and more. We like them, held a certain place and belief in your society."

"The gods, goddesses, mythological beasts, stories in your fairy tales, we all exist. Good and evil, they are all on the basis of fact," Daiyu added.

Toha's thinking made him ask, "So...you are saying that...you the deities came into existence just like us humans and decided to be worshiped by the mortals?"

Ariadne nodded, "We all have a different story to tell Toha. Gods, Goddesses, mythical creatures, sometimes the oddball fairy tale are all on the basis of fact. Eventually, however, a problem arose. So large in number, we became that we started to compete against one another. Heaven and Hell, Chinese and Egyptian, Norse and Africa, American and Hindu, we all started to fight one another. While human societies sometimes worked around the sheer number of us in 1588 AD of your year, Cataclysm began. By then, Greek and Egyptian Gods were being looked at less and less as a massive disaster was being foreseen. The foresight and fortune deities were seeing a massive disaster coming. Something large and powerful was going to strike, and it was going to wipe out everything. Heaven, all the deities, the underworld, and eventually humanity was going to be wiped out from this Cataclysm. It was as if something was determined to wipe out everything was coming. We were left with little choice."

Daiyu once again started to interject, "Even with the most powerful magic, the ability to alter reality, alter the sun, alter time, this cataclysm was coming. The power of whatever this thing was at the time was unavoidable. Therefore a decision was made. The Hindu deities were the first to propose an alliance of all the deities. They were already in an area where the people had learned the face of many gods' concepts. To them, they were patient and knew that a massive alliance against Cataclysm was perhaps even if a small one, the only way to combat the end of all. They proposed the Treaty of Rudra and listened to see if all the deities would work together to combat what we simply called 'The Great End.' It worked, and all the greatest minds worked together to resolve what we simply knew was unavoidable. Eventually, a discovery was made."

Ariadne shifted in her bed as she continued, "It became known as the Lintarsha Crystal. This powerful crystal would combine all the magic of every deity from all the groups into one super-powered reality-altering device. When activated, the crystal could be used to destroy Cataclysm and save everyone. You could use this crystal for just about anything. It was too much power for one deity to use, but we were desperate as any mortal could ever fathom. We set out to construct the crystal, but time took longer to make than usual. There was no way even with the best foresight, intelligence, and wisdom to see that this thing would take to manufacture. Eventually, our time was up, and the crystal was at 98% of completion when it happened."

Toha was glued to the bed as he looked at the other bed. Sárkány was almost asleep on his stomach as Daiyu was using one of his wings as a blanket. They were quite cozy.

"We seem to be still here. It looks like we would be dead if you guys failed."

Ariadne nodded, "It was simply known as the Great Cataclysm. The end of everything. I don't know if it was alive or simply a force of nature. It was pure evil, bent on destroying all life, and with the power to destroy everything. It targeted the American Deities first, wiped them out almost completely before moving on to the Norse, the Chinese, the Hindu, the Underworld. One by one, we were systematically wiped out. The crystal was our last hope. We fought for a full year. Once we were wiped out, then humanity would be next. We were your shield trying to fight Cataclysm on every level of reality. For the War gods, even if it was a war of defeat, it was truly a war to end all wars."

"There would certainly be some sign on all of humanity's stories if Cataclysm was showed up."

"Part of the Treaty of Rudra was just that Toha," Daiyu jumped in. "You were us, and we were you. The deities would ensure that some of the magic they used would shield the world of any knowledge or destruction that Cataclysm raged. Cataclysm itself was not something that could be seen by the regular sight of mortals. It consumed everything, including light, as it tried to approach behind Earth's shadow. The deities, even the ones from the underworld, had profound undying respect for humanity. You showed respect for all, even with some underworld aspects, and even respecting the concept of hatred as love and respect. Everyone knew what was at stake. However, once the deities were wiped out, the shield would collapse, and Earth would be vulnerable."

Ariadne jumped back in. "During the struggle, we did discover a weakness in Cataclysm, though. It is challenging to describe it in your terms, but by the time we discovered it, we were down to 10% of our deities and mythics left. Maintaining the shield to protect humanity and completing the crystal were the only main priorities left. Amazingly we did it, and without hesitation, we activated the crystal. Suddenly Cataclysm shattered and was wiped from existence never to be seen again forever. One of the things we did not anticipate, however, was that it did more than that. The crystal was designed to do more, or at least that is what we thought."

Like clockwork, Daiyu jumped in. "The Lintarsha Crystal was supposed to restore the deities that fell in battle that is, back to life, but it did not happen. It might have been something we did not foresee or something that was supposed to happen but didn't because we were desperate to finish the crystal's completion. We believe that the crystal can do more, but the crystal shattered upon using it. The crystal fragments flew to all parts of Earth. We have no idea how many crystals shards there are, but the remaining deities proposed a more permanent alliance under the Treaty of Enki. Up to 85% of the deities accepted the proposal and united under the Coalition of Deities. The remaining deities that did not join the organization have become rouges or simply stayed out of our way as we search for the crystal shards."

"The Coalition has several goals," Ariadne continued. "The 1^st goal is the collective cohesion of the deities. We as a group are responsible for helping one another out in times of danger or to assist our members. There are so few of us that we need to ensure our own survival."

"Can a mortal kill or injure a deity?" Toha asked.

"There has been no recorded event of a mortal killing a deity. Even with the weapons, you have now can do no damage. Only with god killing weapons that we give to you or the inflicted damage of another deity can you actually inflict harm. We have had to kill off some deities in the past that have gone too far in trying to bring harm to mortal beings. That brings me to the 2^nd goal of the coalition. Our goal is to ensure that humanity survives and that we do not reveal ourselves to you."

"You have a strong sense of loyalty to those that are not as strong as you," he added.

"There are many reasons as to why. One, we have become more enlightened to our time with you. At first, we enjoyed the idea of being worshipped, but the price was high. You would go to war with one another, claiming that we were on your side. Some would wave banners with us backing you up. Sometimes we did get involved at first, but it was becoming apparent you were becoming dependent on our miracles. Some of those miracles were your sacrifice and valiant efforts of man, not us. You should be praised for some of the things you have done to uplift yourselves. You truly don't need us anymore, but at the same time, we have the right to exist as well. A vast majority of us have the ability to take human form to disguise ourselves amongst you. It is, however, our weakness, though."

Toha had a questioning look, "And why is that?"

"Taking up human form drains our magic. It is also uncomfortable for us after some time. Usually, we can maintain the form for half a day. It works well since night time usually hits for us by then. We make sure we take missions that involve us, limiting our exposure to mortals to ensure no one ever finds out that we are the very things you worship or hold dear or at the very worst offend. We don't want to alter and influence your society any more than we have to."

Toha nodded, "And what about Fresnes? You got involved in our war."

Ariadne shook her head "That is what our 3^rd goal is all about. We were not involved in your war, and killing that mortal with my trident was a tragic event for me. The third goal is to find the Lintarsha crystal shards. So far, we have found four of the shards. Our goal is to scour the globe and find these pieces so that we can assemble them or at least have them in our possession. We have been coming up with new ideas on what to do with our future if we can find all those pieces."

"I saw you searching up Fresnes trying to find a shard. Have you ever found a shard?"

Ariadne shook her head again, "I myself have yet to find a shard. They are tough to find. You will know it when you find it. These shards require a deity to be very close to pick it up. We have no idea how many shards are out there. This mission may take a few years, or it might take hundreds of years to find them all. The only few ways we can pick it up is through conflict. The more you inflict damage on the planet such as this Great War of yours, the more it disrupts the magic flow of the environment. The shard poses no threat to anything, but it gives off a massive disruption to everything around it. Your own wars give off a shard reading, so we have to send in our own to see if a shard is around it. Even with the best foresight and wisdom, gods cannot locate the pieces. We just have to luck out and find one. It is as if the shards have a will of their own and don't want to be found. I have been searching for almost five hundred years with no luck, but some have managed to find one such as Sárkány here that has managed to find one."