Of The Gods

“Summer? Summer, I think that those bulls are talking to us!” Seth was clinging to her, just as she was clinging to him.
“They are, Seth,” she whispered back at him.
“Ah!” The largest bull suddenly exclaimed. “You are fearing us! You have no knowing of the Bovates?”
The two of them continued watching the three bulls warily, Summer shivering, transfering some of the cold water soaking her clothes and hair onto Seth, making him shiver too. “Summer, Summer, I think that one is speaking English.”
“English?” he boomed, almost seeming genial. “Is your tongue that you speak called English by the people of whom you are from? I speaking am Esperanto. English is of a dialect, Esperanto?”
Summer stared at him, the fear gradually beginning to evaporate from her eyes. “I... I think that I understood that.”
“You understood? Good! Good the great! We have made tongue, yes? Names do you have? I am being called Toraphrate. Names do you have?”
“I... I’m Summer, and he is Seth. Where are we?”
“You are named The Season of Heat? You are people of a strange. Home is far from here, yes?”
“Summer, do we even know where home is?”
“Not after that explosion, but then again, we don’t know where here is.”
“Here!” boomed Toraphrate. “Here is the Jesville. It is the kingdom of Cawnet, region of Taurso. What village kingdom is your life?”
“We live in Moda Garden,” Summer said.
“That’s in Colorado, in the United States of America?” Seth offered, still clinging to Summer as tightly as ever, though she had loosened up a little, and was hunching over less.
“Moda Garden? Colorado? United States of America?” The first place rolled right off of Toraphrate’s tongue, though Colorado and United States of America stumbled off. He seemed to think. “United States of America. Familiar, those words. Oh! Not the words are the familiars! The, what, the... Moomurr... letters? Is the meaning being the Unified Society of Ablide? Different name, of same letters?”
Seth and Summer stared at the bull for a moment. Then they looked at each other, the way that Dorothy looked at Toto just as she said “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever called it that... But maybe.” Summer said finally.
“Hm. Perhaps not of The Third World beings?”
“The Third World?” Summer asked.
“Yes! No? You being Otherworlders? Otherworlders! I never have met Otherworlders! I hear that beings Otherworlders arriving in The Third World previous! I never had belief it was truth, now it is truth!”
“Oh, Goddess, Summer, we’re somewhere called The Third World, and a standing cow is calling us Otherworlders! Summer, I’m scared! This is weird!”
“Weird?” the Toraphrate boomed, less genially than before. “Weird is strange, yes?”
“Yes,” Summer said, half calmly. Toraphrate stopped watching them for a minute, because the other large bull had mooed something. The two larger bulls mooed at each other for a few minutes
“Seth, we need to stay calm,” Summer said in hushed tones. “This Toraphrate... Cow... seems to want to help us...”
“The other two look like they want to... To... Gore us!”
“If that looks like it’s going to happen, we’ll run. That door... Hole... In the side of... The... Hut...” She paused. “You know, we’re in a hut full of bipedal cows. That’s just not normal.”
“No, I don’t think it is.”

“Toraphrate!” Dr. Taurii, M.B. interrupted Toraphrate’s conversation with the monkeys. Toraphrate twitched slightly, and tried to continue his conversation. Dr. Taurii, M.B. called him again, and so Toraphrate turned to him.
“Toraphrate, what are the hairless monkeys doing? Why are they crouching? And why is the one with udders watching the door?”
“Dr. Taurii, these monkeys are astounding! The monkey peoples rarely have this solid a grasp of their own languages, much less Esperanto! Yes, it’s an unusual dialect, but...”
“Toraphrate! I don’t care how astounding their language skills are. All I want to know is where they’re from, and why they’re here.”
“Dr. Taurii... They don’t know where here is. They were surprised when I mentioned The Third World.” The conversation halted as Dr. Taurii, M.B. suddenly realized what he was being told.
“You mean... They’re Otherworlders?”
“Yes.”
“You know, they do look a little like...”
“A little like what?”
“Oh, just something I saw in an ancient text once. An old picture of...” Dr. Taurii, M.B. looked around the hut, conspiratorily, and lowered his voice. “Merlin.”
Toraphrate gasped, and quickly began to shush Dr. Taurii, M.B. “You know it’s not safe to talk about him! He could... He could do what he did to the county of Gold Hinds!”
“I know. But have you ever actually seen... Him?”
“I’m proud to say that I haven’t.”
“Neither have I. Except for that picture of him decimating the Minnowan Fleet. And you know, he did bear a terrible resemblance to...”
“Hush!” Toraphrate commanded. “You’re saying that they could be...”
“They could be of the Gods.”
“Then why are they so scared?”
“I don’t know! We’ve only ever even heard of two, maybe three of the Gods. Maybe they’re not all... Psychotic. Maybe some of them are just like us.”
They both glanced nervously at the dripping monkeys-or Gods, maybe. The one with udders wasn’t just dripping water; it was also dripping some red from its face.
“They bleed,” Dr. Taurii, M.B. said.
“That one does, at least. You know, if they are Gods, maybe they know... Him. If we help them, they might just... You know... Put in a good word?”
“Or not put in a word at all,” Dr. Taurii, M.B. conceded. “We don’t want... Him... Coming around under any circumstances. You know how even the nice things... He... does always turn out. I don’t think he even means to be nice.”
“Shhhhh!”
“Alright. Tell them that I’m going to fix the nose of the one with udders.”
“I believe that her name is Hot Season.”
“That’s... Odd. What’s the other one’s name?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t hear it well, I suspect. It sounded like... Seth.”
“Ew. That’s awful.”
“I know. But I’m not going to tell him that, since he may be... Related.”

“Seth, the one who speaks English is coming back...”
“Oh, Goddess, they’re going to kill us, I just know it...”
“Remember: we can accelerate faster than a bull, and we can hide better.”
“Ah! Yes! You are safe!” Toraphrate said in his genial voice, though now he looked nervous. “Hot Season, your... Facial protrusion... Nose? Nose! Your nose, it drips with the interior!” Summer looked at him oddly for a moment, and then reached up to touch her nose. When she pulled her hand back, it was surely enough dripping blood a little.
“Oh no! I must’ve broken it!”
“Broken? Ah! Your face is fragile? No worrying! The other big Bovate, he is a Medicine Giver. He is being called Doctor Taurii. He agrees now to be stopping the dripping, and likely is fixing the break!”
“Fix it how?”
“How? How do you mean how? He being Medicine Giver. He fixes. You will let him, yes?”0
Summer looked at Seth. He returned the look of cautious curiosity. She turned back to Toraphrate. “Okay.” Toraphrate smiled, and turned to the other bull and mooed something. Summer looked at Seth.
“Summer,” he said, “That bull just smiled at you.”
“I know,” she nodded.
“That was creepy.”
“Nightmarish.”
“Okay! The Medicine Giver will see you now!”
The second bull, who Summer and Seth both assumed was the Medicine Giver, came up to him. They both held their breath for a moment, but exhaled a sigh of relief when he didn’t smile before he began muttering some moos and waving his fore hooves in front of Summer’s face. She cringed, afraid that he was going to hit her. Seth watched in amazement, realizing what was happening, but refusing to let himself believe it. A flutter of strange purple light passed between the hoof of the Medicine Giver and Summer’s nose; Seth gasped quite loudly, as immediately after the flutter of light, Summer’s nose was not at all crooked or bloody.
“Omigoddess! That was Magick!”
“Magick?” Toraphrate asked. “What is Magick? That was Magic.”
Seth blinked. “What’s the difference?”
“Ah! You are pronouncing it with a way that you cannot hear is different from the way I can hear it is different! Hearing of yours is not as strong as Bovate?”
“Seth... He fixed my nose, didn’t he?” Summer looked at the Medicine Giver. “Thank you!” She said. She was astounded. She thought that these bulls wanted to kill them, and in one bizzare motion, they had corrected her. They were friends.
“Moomoo?” The Medicine Giver asked Toraphrate.
“Moomoomoo.”
“Moo! Moomommommooo.”
“Dr. Taurii has said ‘Are you greeted.’”
“What?”
“Oh, apologies. I have translated not correct! He said ‘You are welcomed.’”
“Oh.”
“He has also said that he will let you live.”
“What?” Seth squealed.
“No, no. I have said the wrong word once more! The word is... Reside? Yes, yes, reside! He will let you reside.”
“Here? Where is there room?” Summer looked around the hut awkwardly.
“Ah, the Medicine Bove owns many properties. He has one... Words are... Out the ass?”
“What?”
“No, I mean to say... Behind the back! Yes?”
“Oh!”
“Why would he do that for us?” Seth asked, nervous caution edging his tone.
“You are being Otherworlders. We have not known of Otherworlders but in legends. It is being a very special happening.”
“We’re guests of honor,” Summer said.
“In a world full of magical cows,” Seth retorted.
“Cows? What is being a cow?”
“Oh, er...” Seth mumbled. “You’re cows.”
“Oh! You do know of Bovates, but you call them different! We are what you call of cows.”
“I don’t think you’re quite cows,” Summer said in her high, ponderous tone. “Cows don’t talk, and stand on all four of their hooves.”
“We are then not cows? You have us confused with a different race?”
“Er... Yeah.”
The Medicine Giver bull mooed something, and Toraphrate nodded.
“Dr. Taurii has now said that he will now be showing you to the room for your residing.” Dr. Taurii-they hadn’t been able to remember his name before-walked out of the hut through that little hole, and after a moment of severe uncertainty, Seth and Summer followed him, themselves followed by Toraphrate.
Bean stayed behind, staring at the vat of frigid water that he knew he had been left behind to dispose of.