When Hali woke up everything had come back to him. He stayed in the bed, looking up at the ceiling and listening to Zale snoring. Oddly, he also remembered the whole of yesterday and wondered how he could have gotten through it so blindly. Casting his thoughts further back, he saw himself standing beside his great great grandfather, Poseidon, their pleasant conversation falling into a heat debate.
Hali sigh and turned his head into the pillow as he recalled Poseidon’s harsh words, ‘why should I save the sea if the humans are hell bent on destroying it and the rest of the world?’
‘Because, it’s important Grandfather and some of the humans do care,’ Hali had counted back.
‘This world isn’t ours any longer,’ Poseidon had answered thoughtfully, with his free hand running through his long blue-green beard.
‘So, what does it matter that no one believes in you or the other Gods anymore? You still have the right to do something!’
Poseidon shook his great head and clutched his golden trident tighter, ‘it matters.’
Hali groaned into his pillow, not wishing to remember the argument. He got up and went to the bathroom. Splashing water on his face made him feel better. He got dressed and went downstairs without waking Zale. He unlatched the front door and went outside.
The sun was shining in a too blue sky and dappling the tree leaves on the ground. Hali sat on the porch and listened to a breeze rustling the leaves and the distant tumbling of the river. He put his head in his hands and wondered how his grandfather could be so blind to all of this.
If I had it in myself I’d change everything, Hali thought.
He got up and walked towards the river. Birds sung in warning of his approach and darted from the trees as he walked. Far in the distance, he thought he heard the delight cries of humans and a dog barking. Forests were no longer the perfect hiding place. Throwing that thought away, Hali reached the edge of the river and sat down before it.
With his right hand, he reached out across the surface and watched the water eagerly coming towards him. He syphoned more water from the natural course of the river then turned it into a bubbling fountain. The water, happy to do as asked, cascaded down from a single jet and back into the river. Hali dropped his hand and stared into the bubbling depths.
He couldn’t command the sea like Poseidon could, he was only one third God and thus could only bend willing rivers and streams. Hali hung his head and knew he should be grateful for his gift, but it seemed all but useless in the twenty-first century. He thought about how in the past he had wowed crowds with his power to control water. He had given visibility to the water sprites, made huge waterfalls, redirected might rivers away or closer to towns. Now people could do most of that themselves and they now longer believed in the ancient magic.
Hali had watched the humans longer enough to see their fears changing and the old worlds slipping away. Ancient Greece was little more than a few broken statues and buildings, with the imaginations of tourists or children studying history giving but a glimpse of what it once was. He was kidding himself if actually knew that world though. Ancient Greece had already fallen by the time he and his brother were born, they had merely been brought up in the shadows of it.
Hali raised his hand, dismissed the fountain and watched the river get on its way again. He should go wake up Zale and discus what to do. Instead he turned away from that idea and plunged his hand into the river. He pictured a towering waterfall, with the water roaring over the edge and white waves below.
The river was happy to oblige the command.
To Be Continued….
The Story Files 