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The Game of Earth
By Archana Sohmshetty
"Stop! Please, no! I’ll do anything! I’m sorry! Sob, sob…" The vulnerable wimpy kid cried, buried under the arms of a massive14-year-old.
"I told you, and this is what you get!" The obnoxious 14-year-old screamed.
The area buzzed with 13 and 14-year-olds ready to take on the challenge of becoming a god. This kid already was fully matured, though, with enormous power. He reached up to give the kid another punch.
The obnoxious kid was different than everyone else. Was it his name? Was it his strength? Was it his obesity? Well, a 350 pound heavy weight lifter named Yttr (Yit–er) is pretty strange, even to a school for gods.
As Yttr’s bulky fist reached the stomach of a young classmate, he felt something weird. Yttr turned around to see his older brother standing right behind him, giving him the look.
Behind him was Chronos. Chronos was a slender young man with eyes that glimmered in the sun. He had bog muscles that you could see, etched on all of his shirts. His skin glistened beautifully as his hair was pulled back into a nice row of spikes at the front. As he smiled, shining white teeth sparkled.
Yttr was jealous of this. His own complexion was very dark, and his hair was always messed up. He was fairly plump, and never smiled. If he smiled, you could see brown rotten teeth with decay. Although he lifted weights, he never got that muscular.
"Chronos! Uh…"Yttr trailed off.
"Come on! You don’t beat up someone for accidentally stepping on your pencil!" Chronos laughed, "You’re so over-reacting!"
* * *
Back at home, the Elder God and Goddess had a problem of their own. They had ruled everything for centuries, but things started to get off hand. The Elder God’s beauty was covered up by old age and wrinkles lined his perfect face.
The Elder Goddess, however, retained her perfection and still had those pretty features. Although she was sort of plump, it was not easily seen.
"I’m OLD!" Whimpered the Elder God.
"Oh, its okay honey. We’ll pick the sons to rule for us,"
Yttr and Chronos were great sons to them, but the only question they had was who would rule the heavens, and who would rule the underworld.
That instant, Chronos and Yttr popped out of nowhere. They had been at a school for Gods. Because they were the sons of the Elders, they had already received their powers. Unfortunately, the Elders didn’t know how they were using their powers.
Yttr had been always good with fire and Chronos had always had a knack for life and greenery. Aquette, their sister could do anything with water. She loved water. That’s why she got to be the ruler of the sea.
"Oh! Hey boys. Where’s Aquette? You were supposed to walk her home!" The Elder goddess questioned.
"She stopped by at a pool and said she would come home later," Chronos stated, flicking his fingertips at a drooping plant in the corner, instantly returning its life.
Home for the Elder Family was a magnificent castle located at the remote corner of their cloud.
Yttr saw Chronos fix up the plant, and shot up his fingertips evilly, making the plant burst into flames. The Elder Goddess gave Yttr a nasty look and quietly put out the fire.
"Who wants to rule the Heavens?" The Elder God quickly asked.
"I do!" The brothers said in unison.
"That’s going to be a problem," The Elder Goddess shuddered.
"Let them make up their own decision, my Goddess," The Elder God quipped as he strode out of the room, clearly to annoyed about not having an immediate solution.
The Elder Goddess followed her husband respectfully. Now the brothers were left, glaring at each other.
"You clearly don’t have the guts to rule such a vast empire like our great father, Chronos," Yttr rudely commented, "Let me take over his job and you’ll be lucky to get the underworld,"
"How dare you say something like that to your older brother!" Chronos thundered, anger pouring off him in the form of raging thunderbolts.
Aquette had arrived back by then, and sensing her brother’s anger came into the room to help out.
Aquette was a brunette haired young lady that was active all the time. She had long hair, down to her waist that was as wavy as the ocean. She was tall for her age, but she didn’t look out of proportion. Her skin glistened like Ivory as she walked into the room.
"What’s wrong?" She inquired, brushing her long hair out of her face.
"Chronos doesn’t like me admitting that I am better than him!" Yttr snickered.
"That can’t be true! I know my older brother!" Aquette shot back at Yttr.
"Aquette, we are having trouble decide who should rule the heavens and who should rule the underworld," Chronos said, still staring down Yttr.
"Why can’t you come to a solution?" Aquette chirped, "I know! You guys can play that new game I found the other day!"
Chronos and Yttr turned to her and burst into laughter.
"Sorry, Aquette, but we can’t let a game decide who rules what," Chronos objected in between laughs.
"This is no ordinary game, I’ll show you!" Aquette growled crossly.
With a snap of her fingers, Aquette brought out a holographic board game.
"Earth? What a stupid name for a game!" Yttr roared.
"SHUT UP!" Aquette hollered at Yttr.
He quickly became quiet; knowing that Aquette rarely ever used words that are said to be put-downs.
"Here’s how you play, and you better listen carefully," She continued, "The cover says that it can help decide something, but it really doesn’t tell what the game is about,"
The brothers finally agreed to say yes to play the game, but they missed one instruction. In the right corner of the back of the box, in small calligraphy, something was written.
Everything becomes real once you start.
* * *"Let me see that! I’m such a better reader than you!" Yttr argued, pulling a small instruction sheet out of his older brother’s hands.
After successfully grabbing it, Yttr was about to start reading it, but his sister’s stern look made him hand it over to her.
"Thank you. Now let’s see… Aha! Here it is. Okay… Players must be gods… Objective: Keep your people alive the longest by doing heroic deeds. Whoever’s people are still alive wins," Aquette read.
"Who cares! We probably have to push the start button to start the game," Yttr exclaimed, reaching toward a big red button with the word ‘start’ on it.
They were sitting in a circle around the game in a room they were sure would be safe to do this. Games in the God world could be traps to injure you.
Aquette reached out to stop Yttr’s hand from pounding into the red button, but she was too late. A bright light blinded all of them as they were sucked into a new realm.
"Where are we?" Chronos gasped as the light slowly faded, "Oh no! Don’t tell me… You IDIOT! FOOL! You… You…"
Aquette understood what had happened and turned to face Yttr.
"Dad will be so mad if he finds out you made a new realm. This will disrupt all time and nature, as we know it! Clouds may break…What will we do? Go up to dad and say ‘we made a new realm called Earth’! We are in so much trouble because of you! Ugh..."She trailed off.
All three of them started arguing, but quickly got quiet when they realized where they were. They were floating above a large green plain, divided by a think black line with the word ‘border’ on it. Underneath were lay lifeless bodies.
All of a sudden a figure popped up in front of them.
"Hello," He said, "My name is Master Huang Ke Nurasuki Shuma Li. I am here to guide you. Bring these people to life and they are yours! Keep them alive and help them out. Get more people by doing good deeds. Your bet is set. Whoever wins shall pick where they rule,"
"Master who what where when?" Yttr mumbled, but he was gone.
"Let’s get out of here. Maybe the game wasn’t a good Idea," Aquette insisted.
"We can’t get out until we finish the game," Chronos sighed.
He lowered himself to the lifeless humans and pushed his hands in an upward position. One by one the people stood up, dazed. Once they saw the mighty god, they took to their knees and bowed down.
Yttr watched all this and went to his side of the people. He made the same motion as Chronos but failed to awaken his people. Aquette rushed over to Yttr and awakened his people for him. Without a thank you, Yttr pushed aside Aquette and made all the people bow down to him. With that, the brothers split up to occupy the rest of their own areas. Aquette decided to stay with both the brothers alternating.
* * *
Chronos led his people to the end of the forest, and into a small clearing.
"We’ll start living here," He tried to tell the people.
They looked like they understood, and they sat on the ground. Chronos felt pity for the little people and ripped down a couple trees to make them houses. Once they were done, the people rushed into their houses. They bowed their heads in gratitude to Chronos.
* * *
Yttr dragged his people to a small clearing at the end of his forest too. Sensing that he was done leading, Yttr’s people sat down in a perfect circle, shivering together from the cold.
"You’re right, it is cold today," Yttr agreed, ripping down trees.
Arranging the trees in a nice house pattern, he lit one branch on fire with a snap and snuggled around it. The people saw the fire and started crawling around it.
"Ah! Shoo! Go Away! My Fire!" Yttr screeched greedily, sending off the tiny humans to shiver off in the cold.
* * *
As morning came, Chronos realized something new in his people. They were building something. He got up to see a magnificent shrine. A couple people came over to him and beckoned him closer. He came and saw that it was a temple to worship him! Chronos felt happy, but even happier when he saw Aquette coming toward him. She was greeting the people on her way.
"Aquette! What are you doing here?" He grinned.
"Checking on progress, big brother!" She yelled, giving him a great big hug, "You’re people look a little hungry, though,"
"I want my people to be happy! What do people eat anyway?" Chronos questioned.
"I don’t know… but I saw one of them eating these seeds," Aquette said, handing him a bunch of seeds, "I think you plant them. I’ve seen mom with these before,"
Chronos took them and went to an open area. He ripped out all the grass out of that area and made little holes. He filled each hole with a seed and covered them back up. A group of people gathered there and watched anxiously and said "Farmer! Farmer!"
"Farmer? What’s that mean? You want to help?" Chronos comprehended.
Chronos turned toward Aquette and quickly said,
"Farmer is probably the word they say when they wish to help out on something. I’ll call these people farmers!"
They nodded their heads as Chronos started teaching them how to grow food. Aquette silently slipped away to check on Yttr.
* * *
Yttr woke up surrounded by mini people.
"Ah!" He screamed, as they backed up, pointing at their stomachs.
"Oh, so you’re hungry?" He asked.
"HUNGRY!" They said in unison.
Yttr got up and went out into the forest. Come on! What were those creation lessons for? I need to create food. He thought, as a big word flashed across his mind. Animals.
All of a sudden, a bunch of animals appeared and frightened Yttr. In his fright, he flicked his fingers at the animals and they got on fire. Suddenly, they were put out by water.
"Huh?" Yttr stuttered, as a figure appeared, "Aquette!"
"Hey Yttr! How the peeps?" She commented.
"They say they are hungry or something, so I gave them animals," Yttr proudly boasted, as the humans gathered around the good stuff.
"Why don’t you give them fire? You need them to live! You only have 10 people!" Aquette observed.
"How do I get more people?" Yttr greedily asked.
"Good deeds," Aquette replied.
Yttr turned around and saw the people eating wonderfully.
"Does that count as a good deed, Aquette?" Yttr asked.
"No, that is just a necessity. You have to do things that would help them, even if it won’t really be a need for them. I have to go now. Good luck," Aquette said quietly, as she started on the long journey to her own place.
Why do I have to do good things? Ugh. The main objective of this game is to take down Chronos, so that’s what I’ll do. Yttr thought, as an evil plan to defeat his brother in this strange game was slowly devising in his head…
* * *
Chronos noticed that his people were struggling with farming, as they didn’t have proper tools. He took out a thunder bolt and hit a stone. It shattered into many pieces and was jagged. Chronos took them in his hands and carved out tools to uplift the ground, scatter seeds, and even out the soil. When he showed them to the ‘farmers’, they jumped with joy.
Chronos watched them for a while, but something horrible interrupted him. Cries from one of the houses.
Chronos rushed away from the farmers into the house to see what’s wrong. When he stepped inside, he saw a baby in a woman’s arms. She set him on the hard wooden floor as he started rapidly growing. Soon enough, he was a grown man sleeping on the floor. Chronos watched in awe the whole time until he realized what had happened. This was what Master Huang Ke Nurasuki Shuma Li had said! Every time you do a good deed you get more people!
"Oh my!" Chronos exclaimed.
"Oh my!" The people repeated in unison, and Chronos understood what his next ‘deed’ was.
* * *
Yttr decided to give the people the needs of life, like water, food, and a somewhat shelter. He didn’t care if he was a good god or not. The whole day, Yttr sat in his amazing home thinking of ways to take down Chronos. He had thought that he could teach the people how to fight, so he could use them as minions to attack Chronos’ people.
Yeah… But what is he has more people than me? What if I lose trying to defeat him? I need a new idea…Yttr thought, frustrated by his thinking.
I need someone to deceive Chronos. Someone he can’t refuse to apologize to, someone that can win his heart. I’ve seen it in many movies… Yttr thought, as he threw another meat slab at the starving people.
I could send one of them to do the dirty work for me… but I don’t have their trust… I could send myself…NO WAY… I got it! I’ll make Aquette deceive him! Yttr thought, as a wicked smile once again spread across his narrow face, his mind working out all the details.
* * *
Chronos watched his people sow the seeds with ease and then taste the wonderful outcome. He sat on a rock watching them, when all of a sudden a cry came from one of the houses. Thinking it was another transformation, Chronos smiled as he ran across the grass to see it.
When he reached there, though, his smile turned into a gasp of horror. In front of him, one of his people was being attack a huge beast. Chronos rushed over to save the person. Once he was out of the way though, the fire-breathing beast dragon turned toward Chronos.
Yelling a cry of honor, Chronos jumped at the beast and clutched its neck. The dragon started swinging his head around, making it harder for Chronos to hold on.
I need a weapon. Chronos thought.
As if he read Chronos’ mind, a person threw him a sharp farming tool to use. Right when Chronos took it, the dragon pounded him against a house, and was about to make him toast, when Chronos threw the tool at it. The sharp end pierced the dragon’s eye. A loud shriek echoed across the forest as Chronos ripped the tool out, and pierced the dragon in the heart.
As the dragon breathed it’s last, Chronos put his foot down on it and sighed, "Victory!"
"Victory!" The crowd cheered happily, while whispering amongst themselves.
* * *
"Aquette! Aquette!" Yttr called out.
"I’m right here," Aquette said, popping out of nowhere.
"I need help. Promise me you’ll help me," Yttr pleaded.
Aquette felt really bad for Yttr, with his pleading, puppy dog eyes. She instantly gave in.
"Fine. I’ll do it," Aquette announced.
"Gods honor?" Yttr asked, smirking.
"God’s honor," Aquette repeated.
"Poison Chronos’ people’s water, so they die. You obviously know who sent the dragon," Yttr grinned evilly.
"What? NO! NEVER!"
"You made the God’s honor!"
"So what? I’m not going to poison my brothers’ water! I’m not going to…Fine!" Aquette sobbed, tricked.
* * *
Aquette darted through the forest, weeping. She had to poison her brother’s people’s water. How could she do that? If Chronos accidentally drinks that water to test it out for his people? But she had made a God’s honor promise. She was trapped. She climbed into a tree and fell asleep…
When she woke up, she realized she didn’t know where she was. She ran away from her younger brother a couple hours ago. She knew that because of the darkened heavens. She was about to start crying again when she saw a spur of glistening water.
I have to do this. She thought. As she walked toward the water. She pushed her hands into her favorite thing. Uttering a strange spell, the water around her hands turned a sickish bluish purple. A tear rolled off her cheek and landed into the water around her. She took her hand out and watched as the color spread. Then, the deadly water turned back to looking normal.
Aquette collapsed onto the bank of the pool. She was about to get up when she saw a human walk to the edge of the pool she was just about to tell him to not drink the water when she realized that he was one of Yttr’s people. She looked around and was in horror when she saw that she had poisoned Yttr’s water instead of Chronos’.
She watched the human drink the water. She watched him suffocate. She watched him suffer. She watched the poison act.
When he wasn’t breathing anymore, she picked him up and flew off to Chronos.
* * *
Chronos pointed his fingertips down to the lifeless body for the 9th time and closed his eyes.
"Ah!" The person said, the one word Yttr used in front of him a lot.
"Are you okay?" Chronos asked.
"Okay," The person repeated, bowing down to Chronos, offering loyalty.
"I’m so sorry Chronos!" Aquette cried.
She had already explained everything and brought back the countless number of bodies who drank the horrible water.
Chronos pointed his fingers at another lifeless body.
"Ah!" She said.
"Yttr must have used ‘Ah’ a lot," Chronos said, but before Aquette could reply, a bright light blinded them…
* * *
"Where are we?" Chronos asked.
"I am Master Huang Ke Nurasuki Shuma Li! You have finished the game! Winner has been declared. Results will be posted shortly. Results will be posted shortly results will results will posted GZZZCHZH!" The diagram faded and the 3 gods were back in their palace.
"What just happened? I was winning!" Yttr sneered, giving Aquette a wink.
"Actually, Chronos won," Aquette stammered.
"What?" Yttr stammered.
"I accidentally poisoned the wrong water… And took your people to Chronos," Aquette mumbled, ashamed.
Yttr was fuming mad.
"Are you saying that because of you I have to rule the underworld?" Yttr wailed, "Ugh!"
And off he went to the underworld to reign. But thing’s weren’t better yet. The Elders came stomping into the room.
"How come we have another realm? Two are hard enough to control!" The Elder God questioned, clearly angry.
Aquette explained what had happened, and then one more question came up.
"Who will rule the ‘Earth’?" The Elder Goddess asked.
"I will," Chronos continued, "I will rule the Heavens. I will rule Earth and its people with truth and honesty,"
And now we have an underworld, renamed as Yttrium, Heavens, and Earth. Yttr still wants revenge on Chronos for winning the Heavens and Earth. The only thing that stops him is the people supporting Chronos. Humans.
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