Fledgling Demigod

"I just...can't go...any longer," Galen panted, out of breath and out of stamina as he pulled out of and moved out from behind the love of his life of thirty years. Elle, his wife, was visibly disappointed. Her perfect supermodel body and goddess-like face turned down in a worried frown as she turned to look at him over her shoulder.

"Honey, I love you very much," she said as she lay beside him when he fell sidelong onto the bed. "But you have to do something about your weight. It's going kill you one day, and I can't bear to think about living without you."

Galen Ford was devastated. He loved his wife, and she loved him. However, his constant battle with his weight strained their relationship. He was now up to four hundred pounds, and no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to lose the weight. He dieted and exercised, but nothing seemed to work. He pulled her naked body into him as much as he could as he pulled a lock of his dark-brown hair out of his face.

"I know, baby, but I've tried everything," he panted. "I just can't seem to lose the weight."

She sighed into his arms. "I don't like it, babe," she said. "Something's wrong. I wish you would go to the doctor."

"So they can tell me the same thing they've been telling me for two years?" he said. "'Cut the sugar, Mr. Ford. Exercise, Mr. Ford. Watch what you eat. You're the picture of perfect health, Mr. Ford.' I've done all of those things."

"But, maybe now they will see you've been doing those things, and they'll look into it further," she pleaded. "Maybe there's a test or something they can run that will tell us why you've suddenly started gaining so much weight. It's not natural, honey. There has to be something medical going on."

He ran a soft hand across her beautiful face. Her blood-red hair starkly contrasted her milky-white skin. He was worried for her. If something happened to him, well, he couldn't bear the thought of someone else holding his Ellie, but he needed her cared for. "Promise me something," he said as he kissed her softly.

"No," she said flatly. "You're not going to make me promise to marry again if something happens to you because nothing is going to happen to you!"

He sighed. "I'll make you a deal, then," he said and held up a hand as she started to protest. "I promise you that I will make an appointment first thing Monday morning and make sure they know that I'm not leaving until I get some answers."

"Okay," she said hesitantly.

"If you promise me that if something does happen to me, you'll find someone else to help take care of you," he told her sternly.

"I don't need anybody to take care of me, Galen," she said hotly. "I can take care of myself. I need you!" Tears filled her eyes and started to fall down her perfect, porcelain cheeks.

"I know that baby love," he said, emotions threatening to break his resolve. "I just can't bear the thought of you being alone."

She looked up at him as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I won't be alone, sweetheart," she said. "I'll have the kids. Brad and Susie have little Galen on the way, so I'll have plenty to occupy my time." Then, she shook her head. "This is pointless, anyway. You're not going anywhere because the doctors will find something."

"Promise me," he told her. She was shaking her head. "Promise me, Ellie May," he said again, smiling now.

She fumed at him. "That's not fucking fair, Galen, and you fucking know it!" she half shouted and slapped his bare chest.

He smiled, knowing she'd agree. She could never say no to him when he called her that. Ellie May was her favorite character on The Beverly Hillbillies, her favorite show when she was a little girl. She also looked just like Donna Douglas. Galen cupped her cheek and kissed her softly. "Promise me. Please," he pleaded.

She sighed dramatically. "Fine," she said after a long pause. "I promise."

He grinned as he leaned his hand down and cupped her naked sex. "Thanks, baby. Now, let's see if we can get you off, shall we?" he said as he started rubbing her clit.

She moaned into his chest. "Not fair," she said in a whimper as her hips started gyrating on his hand.

The next day, Galen kissed Elle bye and took off for Jack's house. Jackson Jefferson was Galen's longtime high school buddy and hunting partner. "Hey, Jack!" Galen called out when he pulled his truck into the driveway. "Ready to go, slacker!?" he asked, laughing.

"Fuck you, meathead!!" Jack called back from his garage, laughing as well. "In a minute. Lemme say g'bye to the wife!"

A minute later, Jack hopped in the passenger seat of Galen's truck. "Whaddaya know, pencildick?" Galen asked.

"Are we ever gonna grow up, nut knocker?" Jack asked, grinning.

"God, I hope not!" Galen said.

They rode in silence for a while. Finally, Jack spoke up. "Got to some time, though, old friend."

"I know," Galen said after a sigh. "Got to make an appointment on Monday with the doctor about my weight. Promised Ellie." When Jack didn't say anything, Galen said, "Will you look after her if something happens to me, I mean?" Jack opened his mouth to make a witty reply, but Galen cut him off. "I mean it, Jack. Serious, this time. I don't think she's gonna keep her promise to me to find somebody else."

Jack sobered up. "Sure, Galen, sure. I'll make sure she doesn't need anything."

"Thanks, Jack," Galen said. "I'm worried about her, is all."

Jack clapped his hands together as Galen parked the truck in their favorite hunting field. "Come on, numb-nuts, let's go bring home the bacon. Literally!"

Galen grinned. He loved to hunt, and hunting hogs was his number three favorite animal to hunt, behind deer and turkey. He went to unlock the shed housing their two rides, and after gassing them up, he fired them up and pulled them out of the little shack. "Good of John to let us build this little shed on his property," Galen said as he wedged himself out of Jack's RZR.

"Yeah, he's a standup guy," Jack said, and Galen could hear the sarcasm in his friend's tone.

"Aw, come on, Jack. You're not still mad at him, are ya?" Galen asked.

"He ruined our wedding, Galen!" Jack said hotly. "Diane was livid!"

"Yeah, but it's been twenty years, Jack," Galen countered. "Surely the coal has died down to embers by now."

"Not hardly," Jack said, snorting. "Diane is furious with her father for what he did."

"He's trying to make up for it," Galen said. "This is partial proof." He motioned toward the shed.

"Eh, maybe you're right," Jack said, calming down. "Maybe you're right."

"Come on, shit-head," Galen said, climbing onto his four-wheeler. "Let's see what kind of hogs are terrorizing the land."

"Right behind you, fat ass!" Jack called after him, and Galen roared with laughter as he took off down the trail.

A couple of hours later and two hogs each found them making their way back to the truck when Galen suddenly pulled off to the side of the trail. He was looking into the woods when Jack pulled alongside him. "Hey, why we stopping?" Jack asked.

Galen pointed into the tree line. "You see that?" he asked.

"See what?" Jack asked. "They're trees. Now come on. I'm hungry."

"No," Galen said, still pointing. "Between the oak and maple. Right there." He suddenly took off in that direction.

"Hey!" Jack called and roared off after him. "Wait up!!" When Galen stopped at the edge of the trees, Jack pulled alongside his long-time friend. "What are you doing, Galen?"

"Look, Jack!" Galen said, looking at his friend. "It's right there. Do you see it?"

Jack looked in the direction his friend pointed but still didn't see anything. "I don't see nothin', Galen. What are you seeing?"

"I don't know," Galen said. "It's like this swirling blue and red...shimmering...thing. Wait here. I'm gonna go check it out."

"No, Gay, wait," but his friend was already walking into the woods, rifle in hand.

"Turn on your cam and point it towards that spot over there," Galen ordered as he pointed to what only he could see. He slowly approached with his gun in the ready position. What he saw could only be described as an archway of shimmering light. Red and blue sparkles swirled in a lazy counterclockwise motion. As he got closer, the colors swirled faster. There was this deafening sound of what sounded like a whirlpool when Galen got close enough to touch it. He reached a hand out, and as he made contact, the colors turned a violent shade of purple, and Galen felt as if his body was being sucked out of his skin.

"GALEN!!" Jack shouted as he ran to the spot Galen had been, but his friend was gone. Jack couldn't believe his eyes. One second, Galen was there, and the next, he wasn't. He just disappeared into thin air. "Galen!" he called again as he looked around the trees. Jack took off for his RZR and hopped in, gunning it to the truck. He skidded to a stop and ran to the truck. Inside, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed nine-one-one.

~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~

Galen was in agony. He screamed until he couldn't scream anymore, and then his mouth was open in a silent scream. He had no concept of any reality except pain. He felt as if he were being eviscerated over and over for what seemed like an eternity. And then it was over. As suddenly as the pain had come, it was gone.

He groggily opened his eyes, but everything was a blur. He took a minute to bring everything into focus, and eventually, he could see a canopy of vibrant green, orange, and red leaves above his head. That couldn't be right. It was barely summer when he'd... He shot bolt upright and looked around. He was in a small clearing surrounded by trees. He couldn't make out what kind, though. No maple or oak trees. No birch or ferns. He sat on some sort of stone altar, and the heat of it warmed his cold ass. He was about to wonder about that when...

"Welcome, traveler," a raspy voice said from behind.

Galen spun around to face the speaker. "Who are you? Where am I? Did you bring me here? What's going on?"

The old man held up a bony hand, and Galen stopped his barrage of questions. The old man looked like a walking corpse, with sunken eyes in their sockets and wispy strands of grey hair fluttering in the light breeze. His skin appeared to be old parchment, long dried up that would flake at the slightest touch. His bones protruded hauntingly at every joint. He wore a simple brown robe that fell past his ankles. "Indeed, I brought you here, traveler," the old geezer wheezed. "I fear I have insufficient time to answer your questions, my boy. Only that this land is in chaos, and if you do not reconcile it, this world is doomed."

"Send me back," Galen ordered as he hopped down from the altar he was lying on. It was then that he realized he was naked. Looking down, he blushed slightly as he tried to cover himself with his hands. It was then that he also realized this body was completely different from the one he had left. He was a bit taller than before and had a physique that would leave a bodybuilder green with envy. He also noticed that his package was larger in every way. Much larger. He looked up at the old man. "I need to get back."

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't," the old man said. "I have spent half my life devising that spell to bring you here. I could no more duplicate it than I can to live past the next few moments. If I had a few more years to perfect it, maybe I could have, but this world, my world, is running out of time."

"Running out of time?" Galen said, confused. "I don't understand. Why am I here?"

"You are our savior, my boy," the old man rasped as he wearily sat down on the forest floor.

"What, like Jesus?" Galen asked.

"If he is the savior of your world, then, yes," the old man rasped and lay down on his side. "There are clothes under the altar for you." He looked up at Galen with a fierce determination that belied his current physical state. "Save my world, my boy. Please." With that, he closed his eyes and rasped his last breath.

"Well, shit," Galen cursed. "Ain't this some shit, Jack?" he said to himself. He looked under the altar and found the clothes the old man had mentioned. They weren't much. Just a shirt, a pair of pants and a cloak. "Better than nothing, I guess," he mused to himself. He tried on the pants and found that they were only marginally tight around his waist but were way shorter than he wished. They only came down just past his knees. The shirt, however, was almost too tight to be bearable. The cloak was large and covered him from head to ankle, which would help spare him the embarrassment of wearing too-small clothing.

He looked over at the dead man on the ground. "Guess I'd better bury him," Galen said. "Do they do that here? Maybe they do funeral pyres. Hell, I don't know. No way to bury him anyway as I don't have a shovel." He stood there for a few minutes contemplating. He couldn't just leave the body here, could he? I mean, it's not like there's anyone around to say anything if he did, right? No. Galen knew he couldn't just leave the body lying there like that. There's no telling what kind of technology this world has. Better to burn the evidence.

"Burn the evidence!?" he reprimanded himself. "What am I saying? I'm no criminal! It's not like I killed the guy." He sighed. "But I can't leave you out here all alone, now can I, you old fart? Guess it's the funeral pyre for you." He approached the body and knelt down to pick it up, but paused. "I'm no criminal, but neither am I one to let good things go to waste. Especially if they're useful."

Regretfully, he searched the old man's body for anything of value. He found a few copper coins and a silver in the man's drawstring purse. "That level of technology, huh?" he asked as he looked at the old man. "What else ya got that can help me? A map would be..." He trailed off as he pulled a piece of parchment from the inside pocket of the robe. Opening it, he noticed that it contained a list of what appeared to be ingredients and instructions, almost like a recipe for a cake. There was even a drawing of the end result. It was the swirling mass of colors he'd seen in the woods back home. He looked incredulously at the dead man. "Thank you!" he whispered excitedly. "Thank you. Now I can go back home."

He finished looting the old man's corpse and picking him up, laid him gently on the altar, and crossed his arms in the traditional way for burial. It took about an hour of gathering dried kindling and wood to make a proper pyre for the old man but eventually, he had enough. Using a single stick, he placed the end of it on a flat piece of wood and surrounded it with dried wood shavings he'd found hanging off of a tree. "Don't really want to meet the animal that did that," he mused.

He rubbed the stick between his palms rapidly until a few embers started showing and a slight wisp of smoke rose. He bent down and lightly blew on the embers. It took a few tries of this before the fire flared up, and he quickly added more wood shavings and some dried leaves to get it going. When he was sure it would stay lit, he added bigger sticks and twigs until, after about an hour, the flames roared over the old man.

Galen had a somber expression as he watched the pyre burn. "Never really been good at eulogies and the like," he muttered. "But it doesn't seem right just to stand here and say nothing. I can't say that I'd thank you for giving up your life to bring me here as I had a life of my own back home, but it shows the truth of a man's character when he's willing to risk his life to save the world. That I can respect. Yeah, I read the notes on the back of that spell parchment. 'Death is most likely, but for the world, it's a small price. I dare not tarry longer no matter the cost.'"

Galen hunched into himself and sighed heavily. Then, he straightened as if he'd made a decision. "I can't promise I will be able to finish this quest you brought me here for, old man. But I can promise you this; I'll do everything I can to see it through until I get back home. I'm sorry, but that's my priority." He walked away and found a large, overturned tree to sit on until the pyre had died down. It took a few hours, and the sun was about an hour away from setting for the night when the flames died down to low-burning coals.

Galen sat in contemplation about what to do next. He wasn't given instructions or directions on how exactly he was supposed to save this world, only that he needed to save it. So what was he supposed to do now? He heard a twig snap off to his left. He was so deep in thought that it didn't immediately register that it hadn't come from the fire. He saw out of the corner of his eye a figure moving through the trees. Very slowly, Galen eased himself backward over the log he was sitting on until he was out of sight of the figure. They wore a dark cloak with the hood obscuring their face, so he couldn't tell if it was male or female. A second later, he got his answer.

The figure approached the old man's pyre and knelt before it. Galen could hear crying from the figure, and he could have sworn he heard a female's voice whisper, "Oh, Papa. You old fool." He eased himself silently back into position on the log and waited. Eventually, the woman sat up and looked around. "OH!" she said, startled, and stumbled back on her butt.

Galen sat still and looked at her with an easy smile. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. I heard you come up and hid. When I realized what was going on, I didn't want to interrupt your grieving."

Composing herself, she stood. "So, it worked, then?"

"Apparently so," Galen replied and spread his hands in a mock 'here I am' gesture.

"Why are you here?" she asked. Her tone was curt, almost indignant.

"I'm supposed to save the world," Galen said in sarcastic disbelief.

"I know why you're here in this world, traveler," she almost spat out. "Why are you still here? Why build this funeral pyre for my idiotic father?"

"Don't speak ill of the dead," Galen warned.

"He's my father, traveler," she hotly replied. "I'll speak of him how I wish."

"Maybe so," Galen replied, shrugging his shoulders. "But maybe not. I don't know. But I do know that bad things can happen to people who speak badly about the departed."

"Only nobles and fools believe such things," she said. "And you're no noble."

"Well, ya got me there, little missy," Galen said in his best John Wayne impersonation. Why was he acting like this? A man had just died, and she claimed him to be her father. He should be more understanding, not joking around. She looked at him with narrowed eyes. Galen paused and put his hands up. "Sorry," he apologized. "The truth is that no man should die alone, and he didn't. After reading what he wrote on the back of the spell paper he used to bring me here, I figured he was honorable in his own right and deserved a decent burial. Since I didn't have a shovel handy to dig up the ground for a grave, I figured this was the next best thing."

"Thank you," she said, sobering. "It was far more than anyone else would have given him."

"People hated him that much?" Galen asked.

"More like feared him," she answered as she looked back upon her father's ashes. "He was a powerful wizard, one of the most powerful in the land. That's the only reason I'm not..."

She trailed off, and Galen got the impression that this was a touchy subject for her, so he didn't pursue it. "So, are you a...uh..."

"Yes, I'm a wizard," she said. "Though not nearly as powerful as he was. He was mentoring me, but my affinity for the arcane is lacking at best."

Galen stood up from where he was sitting and rifled through his pockets. Pulling everything out that he had taken from the old man's corpse, he approached the woman and held a hand out to her with everything on it. "I don't even know his name, but this is what he had on him when he died. It's only right that it should go to you if you're his next-of-kin. And by the way, my name's Galen. Galen Ford."