“My Lord, I must tell you of the wanderings of the God Zeus. The Gods we talk of are not the omnipotent God of Christianity or Islam. These Gods were powerful, but not all powerful. They were capricious, often selfish, could be malicious, they held grudges and displayed many similar characteristics to humans. They were not human, in particular they lacked human curiosity, but they could and did breed with humans. In fact, they probably had more children with humans than with their own kind. We, that is the Protectors, believe they originated elsewhere in the universe and ended up on earth somehow. They are extremely long-lived compared to humans – no God has ever died of natural causes.”

“The Senior God was Zeus, although he was not the first of his kind. He became senior by killing and manipulating those who came before him. His consort was Hera. She was also his sister, but the rules of human behaviour did not apply to the gods. She knew from his behaviour already that he was likely to wander. Indeed, he had already fathered children with others of his sisters and some of his daughters. She kept a close eye on any Goddesses living on Olympus who might catch his eye. However, because the Gods are incurious, it never occurred to her to look beyond Olympus.”

“We don’t know how Zeus found out, but he discovered that there were other groups of Gods. These new gods were living in what we now call India and China, and in South America. Somehow he evaded Hera and found his way to South America. There he sported with many new and, to him, exotic beings. We don’t know if the Gods of South America came from the same place as those of Greece, but the inevitable happened and Chia, the local Goddess of Evil, bore him a child.

Chia was married to Bochica, the supreme god in that area. That didn’t stop her though, she was evil after all. This daughter she called Chiacucha. Soon, her husband began to wonder how his wife was pregnant. They had not lain together for many months as he travelled around his realms. So to protect herself, she threw the child from the mountain top into the Amazon basin. Chiachuca did not die, though. She was found by a flock of humming birds, who brought her nectar and so kept her alive. They also taught her to fly, and she enjoyed flying to and fro across South America.”

“Inevitably, she began to hear stories of her birth and how her mother had tried to kill her. So, in revenge, she flew back up the mountain and disguised as a humming bird whispered the truth in Bochica’s ear. In a rage, he seized Chia and threw her down the mountain. She fell and fell until she found herself in the local version of Hades, where she was trapped. Chiacucha stayed with Bochica for a while. She would flit around his house during the day. Climbing into his bed at night, back in her normal form, she gave him numerous children. Eventually, tiring of Bochica, she decided to fly off in search of her father.”

“In the meantime, Zeus having enjoyed his first trip decided to head East, to Asia, There he landed in what we now call Thailand and met another beautiful goddess called Nang Kala Anjana. She already had two children to other gods, cuckolding her husband, Lord Khodam and convincing them they were his. So when Zeus arrived, she had no trouble seducing him and producing a third child, who she called Kala Tewa. While she was still there, Lord Khodam discovered that his wife had been unfaithful. In a rage he turned the first two children into apes. He had second thoughts about doing the same to Zeus’s daughter. The two of them were much more evenly matched, and he could not be sure of victory. So, Zeus was allowed to take her away and back to Olympus.”

“Of course, once back at Olympus, Hera inevitably found out about Kala Tewa and Chiacucha too, when she flew in. The two half sisters immediately became firm friends, and to defend themselves against the wrath of Hera began to cultivate the other gods on Olympus. First they both seduced Hermes, although that wasn’t difficult, then in turn, Apollo, Hephaestus and Dionysus all succumbed. Hera found herself unable to take the revenge she wished, but managed to banish the pair from Olympus, sending them far to the North to the eternal cold – or so she thought – but of course she was simply sending them to yet another family of Gods.”

“Once they arrived in the North, they set about the same games as they had on Olympus, but with less success. The Norse gods were much less promiscuous than the Olympians, but they focused their attention nevertheless on Odin and on Thor, who they saw as being the most important. Neither of them succeeded, and eventually, tired of the endless winter, they decided to head south again. This time they went to India, where they felt they were much more likely to find the sort of fun they were looking for.”

“There, they found Ganesha, already married to Siddhi and Riddhi. They attached themselves as maidservants to his entourage and soon found a way to separate him from his wives, by tricking him into sending them to meet his mother Kola Bou, another Goddess. Once Siddhi and Riddhi were gone, the two took on the their forms and lay with him, both becoming pregnant. Chiacucha gave birth to a son whom she named Kalavata while Kala Tewa had a daughter whom she named Cuchichana.”

“So it came about that because of Hera’s jealousy, Zeus’s grandchildren were descended from Gods scattered across the Earth, from South America to Thailand and India. Of course once the deception was discovered, Chiacucha and her son and Kala Tewa and her daughter could not stay in India so they fled once more, this time to the middle of the Atlantic, to the country of Atlantis. The Atlanteans had no truck with Gods, so the two sisters settled down with their two children and lived a quiet life for a while. Of course, given their ancestry, it was unlikely that they would be content with a life of quiet domesticity forever, and they soon yearned to get up to their old games of seduction.

They spent their days in drinking and reminiscing about their adventures leaving the two children, who did not know they were brother and sister, let alone Gods, to get by on their own and the inevitable happened. Cuchichana became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Girsu, then very rapidly to three girls, Mara, Kala and Jivana. From the start Girsu was a bully causing the three girls to band together to defend themselves from his attentions but his maternal grandmother Chiacucha would hear nothing said against him while Kala Tewa sided with her three granddaughters.”

“Eventually Chiacucha and Kala Tewa decided, for they remained firm friends despite their disagreements over the grandchildren, that what the children needed was a father figure, so they decided to return to Olympus, in the hope that Zeus would exert some influence over this new extension to his family.”

This is a part of a fantasy novel I started on about 4 years ago. I have much of it plotted out, but I still can’t decide what the central threat should be that the main character has to defeat. That’s a pretty important flaw, so I’m stalled for now. It is also incomplete. To make it stand alone would need a different ending to the way in which it is planned out.

To see other short fiction, go here