A Slow Night at the Salty Dog

A Slow Night at the Salty Dog

A Lost Goddess Origin Tale
By
J Mallone

The Rain pounded from the dark skies hammering against the doors and windows of houses and skyscrapers . Lighting flashed across the city skyline and thunder rolled through the urban canyons . Only people with little sense or urgent business would be out on a night like this.

Down a little used side street near the docks, Phil the barkeep was wiping out the glass in his hand for the tenth time and musing on the contents of the nearly empty Salty Dog Tavern.
Wednesdays were always slow. The nights patrons, what there was of them, consisted of four peopel huddled together at a table in the back and one nice looking redhead at the bar.
He eyed the four at the table huddled and talking together in whispers since they entered and decided to try and strike up a conversation with the redhead to kill some time till closing.

“Another one for ya Miss?” He asked the green eyed woman who was staring into the mirror behind the bar deep in thought. She looked up at him and smiled . “Yes please.”
Phil poured her another shot of the straight whiskey she was drinking.
“What brings you out on a night like this, if ya don’t mind my asking?”
She downed the shot, cleared her throat and drew a breath. “If I were to tell you the truth, you would think I was crazy. Sometimes I feel like trouble follows me around like thunder follows lighting. I wouldn't want to bore you with my troubles.”
“Nah, I bet it just seems that way.” Phil chuckled. “ Look,I been at this job along time, ain’t no sob story I ain’t heard at least a coupla dozen times. Talking about it sometimes makes a situation better.”
“Hmmmph.” The woman snorted casting a furtive glance back at the table in the back.
“I’ll tell ya what, if you can tell me something I ain’t heard before your drinks will be on the house.” Phil smiled.
The woman laughed softly and pointed to her empty glass. “Well keep em coming then and I’ll do my best.”

The woman cocked her head and seemed to be lost in thought for a few seconds as if calling up long forgotten images then drew another deep breath and started her story.
“This story I’m going to tell you might sound as fantastic as any fantasy but every word is true and it happened just this way.
It all started long ago, about twenty thousand years or more, at that time men were just learning to farm and settling into villages and cities. The Earth itself was a verdant green jewel, unspoiled and wide open, a paradise.
Then the others came across.

In another universe, separated from this one by a supposedly unbreakable dimensional barrier, war, death and utter destruction had raged for thousands of years. The inhabitants of this Universe , once all of one race but long separated by form and philosophy , were locked in a deadly ages long conflict. Each faction lived only to exterminate the other.

The warring parties, The Immortals and the Titians had exhausted the resources of over a thousand worlds in their efforts to eradicate each other. Finally there were only a few of either side surviving to carry on the fight. Outnumbered and facing defeat, the Titans used all the resources of their arcane science to find a way to breach the dimensional barrier and cross into this reality.
The power drain was enormous and it took ninety nine percent of their remaining power supplies just to create the trans dimensional portal to allow them escape .

Just as the portal was activated the Immortals launched their final attack and broke the last defenses of the decimated Titan armies.
A special immortal commando team trained for the purpose attacked the science citadel and arrived just as the last of the Titans escaped through the portal to Earth.
Knowing their duty, the commandos sacrificed themselves by splitting into two teams, one to follow the Titans, while the other remained behind to destroy the portal mechanism. If the portal remained open very longer or was reopened after closing both dimensions could be destroyed.

The one way trip brought the Immortal soldiers here but due to the odd physics of dimensional travel they unexpectedly arrived several decades after the Titans they were perusing..
The monstrous genetically altered Titans had in that time enslaved huge numbers of the primitive Earth men and laid waste to entire areas gathering materials to sustain their new empire . This was the first of earths dark ages when terror and fear were introduced to mankind.
The Immortals sought allies in the men who had somehow escaped the Titan conquest and over time gathered their strength and trained the simple men in the art of war.

After an age passed the final stages of the seemingly endless Titan war erupted on Earth. With the two sides pitting their primitive allied and slave armies against each other and using their super science the two groups devastated entire continents . Entire mountains ranges were blown to rubble, rivers were diverted from their course to drown armies and eventually even the seas ran red with human, immortal and titan blood.”
The long time of destruction was so dark, so terrible, that no full record of it would ever be made and legends would only whisper of it.


The woman paused with a shudder and downed another drink trying to erase the terrible images from her mind.
“Across the word at wars end, not a city, village or even mud hut stood undamaged, entire species of plants, animals , birds were now extinct. Once verdant forest were now cracked and scorched plains where not a tree grew for miles, such was the terrible destruction.
The Titan power was broken and the pitiful few surviving of that horrid race put on trial for judgment.
The Immortals looked across the burned , decimated earth with horror and shame, knowing that this war had done the same to countless other worlds, and made the vow that such must never happen again.
Using three of the six power crystals brought from their home dimension. They bound the surviving Titans, opened a smaller version of the trans dimensional portal and cast them into a desolate void between the realities, from which they could never hope to escape.
Such was the end of the first age of the Gods."

Phil refilled the woman’s empty glass. “You saw all this?”
She looked up at him with a haunted glance. “No I wasn’t born yet, not for another few thousand years but I can see it all as if I had been there, its one of the more unwelcome gifts o my race possesses , a kind of genetic memory we all share of things from long ago.”
“Lady are you seriously telling me your some sort of immortal being, a Goddess or something?” Phil raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I’m getting to that part.” She answered.

There was a shout from the rear of the bar as the huddled group demanded more drinks.
Phil excused himself and went to serve. He fetched the bottle of rum they requested and one hissed in a gravely voice that he could just leave it. All seemed to want to keep their faces hidden under the hooded cloaks they were wearing,. The bottle was passed the from one to the other, each making satisfied noises as they drank.
“Strange bunch.” Phil muttered as he returned to the woman at the bar. The woman looked up from her thoughts again..
“It’s the sugar, Rums full of sugar , and they simply can’t resist sugar.”
“Who is they?” Phil asked.
“Now, now, that would be getting ahead of our story.” The woman laughed softly.

“Where was I, oh yes. The Immortals were stranded here and there was no guarantee there was still a home to go back too even if they could. They looked across their burned and shattered planet and resolved to use their resources and science to rebuild it. Taking the survivors of mankind under their protection civilization was slowly rebuilt and there was an age of peace known as the second age of the Gods.
The Immortals were always first and foremost soldiers, over time dissension began to breakout in the ranks over how the rebuilding was being directed. Zeus the overall commander of the mission found his position challenged by his two top lieutenants Odin and Ammon and instead of once more casting the world intoa destructive civil war the three sides agreed to a split with Odin and his followers going North, Ammon and his group to the South. The groups would each have domain over their respective territory and people but would meet to settle disputes among themselves by forming a high council.
And so it remained for a very, very long time.

Now ages passed and the world was rebuilt with new shining cities and marvelous wonders. The Immortals were careful to only give mortal men the knowledge of their science slowly so that their development would be natural, because of this the men came to consider the Immortals divine and their science as something akin to magic. Maybe it was some inborn vanity, but the Immortals liked the idea of being thought of as gods and as time passed even encouraged this notion.
Now finally I come into the story. For it was their growing vanity and animosity toward each other brought my creation about.”

One of those shining cities I mentioned earlier was called Atlantis. Sharing its name with the rocky, forested island upon which it sat, the city was a jewel among the waves. Now the Atlantean people were a traders and their ships crossed the entire world filled with spices and silks and gold. The island's men were strong, the women fair and life was prosperous there.
To this favored shore came two fugitives seeking shelter, young lovers in desperate need. They were the son of the Immortal Poseidon and the daughter of the Immortal Vulcan.

The lovers had been forbidden by their quarreling fathers from meeting. Vulcan, especially was jealous of his only daughters affections and even constructed monstrous mechanical guards to follow the poor girl everywhere and frighten off potential suitors.
Despite her father and his constructs when Maeve first laid eyes on the lithe form of the light blue skinned merman Homri cavorting in the waves she lost her heart to him.
Poseidon and Vulcan both flatly refused the pleas of the children to be allowed to marry and tried to imprison each to stop their love affair.The young ones were determined to be together and escaping both parents, ran away and found shelter in Atlantis.
They were welcomed and soon adopted as the islands patron Gods.”

Phil cleared his throat. “So you mean Atlantis, as in The Lost City of… Atlantis?”
"You got it." The redhead smiled and winked.

“Now after some years of happiness together the two lovers Maeve and Homri decided to have a child to make their lives complete. It had been decreed by Zeus, Odin and Ammon however that the Immortals would be allowed no more children as the world was now filling up with both men and Gods.
The unrequited longing for a child ate away at Maeve and broke her heart until she started to waste away from sadness.
Homri seeing his love in such pain was determined to fulfill her wish somehow. Now due to genetic differences between the altered mermen and the other Immortals conceiving in a regular way was not possible but there was said to be another method.
The knowledge was derived from the arcane Titan science and its use strictly forbidden on order of the Council but Homri ordered the Atlanteen traders to quietly search the world for the records and materials he needed.
Soon there was but one object left to collect in order to restore Maeve's heart and it was the most dangerous of all to obtain.

Hidden beneath the Immortal citadel, atop Mount Olympus, in a dark secured vault rested the six power crystals brought from the home dimension. Together they held almost unlimited power reserved to be used only in an emergency used by the Gods.
It had taken three full crystals to banish the Titans, and those were now dark and burned , useless. Homri planned to steal one of the remaining three.
He made the dangerous entry into the heart of the Citadel, took the precious crystal in his webbed hands and marveled at its intricate and delicate facets. It seemed to hum with power as he slipped it into his pouch then made his way out of the citadel undetected.

Once back upon Atlantis he hurried to the shore, placed the crystal in the matrix he had built and sculpted the form of a child from the sea sand, placed samples of both his and Maeve;s DNA into the device and activated the mechanism. As they watched the crystal glowed until they could no longer look at it, then the entire apparatus vanished in a blaze which lit the seas for miles around fading back to the dark of midnight. From inside the blaze shadows of a forming double helix merged with points of light spreading in all direction in multicolored rays .Then there was nothing at all.

Holding back tears of sadness and uncertainty the lovers caressed, consoling each other over their apparent failure. From the waves came a soft and happy giggle. Both ran to the waters edge and searched for the sounds until they finally located the small crimson tressed girl resting on a rock, still clutching the now blackened crystal in her chubby hands.
The child appeared to be near the age of three or four, red hair like her mother and green eyes from her father, she looked up at them and laughed as the incoming waves crashed against her rock and soaked them all.
Happily the new parents gathered her up and rushed back into the city where a celebration was soon held for the islands new little Goddess.

The daring theft of the power crystal was detected immediately but the investigation dragged on for sometime and the child was a few years older before the finger of suspicion began to point toward her parents. Called to trial before the council of the Immortals Maeve and Homri had only one defense, love for their child and each other. The haughty old Gods were horrified that one third of their reserve power had been stolen and used to create what they called This little abomination.
The child's parents were pronounced guilty of high crimes against the entire Immortal race and even their Fathers would not speak in their defense. The sentence was cruel and unjust, exile like the Titans but in this case each lover would be cast into the void slightly out of phase with the other. They could see each other but not speak or touch and would spend eternity in that state separated yet close to each other.
Zeus was counseled in this decision by his second in command, Ares, who had reasons other than justice for the suggestion.
After the exile, the Gods were left with one remaining fully powered crystal and one severely depleted crystal used to power the exile portal. The depleted crystals might in theory recharge thenselvs but it would take centuries if not thousands of years to draw the required energy through the dimensional barrier from the Home dimension. That left the Gods with a power shortage, however as Ares pointed out there was still one other receptacle of power available, the young child created by the crystal.

Seeing her as an unwanted outcast Zeus had no problem ordering the small child subjected to every painful test science could devise to try and drain the energy from her, all to no avail. Finally he ordered Ares to take the child, Erania, to his own citadel and hold her there as a slave until such time as a way could be found to return her life essence back into the crystals.”

The woman stopped talking then and sat quiet for a moment.
“I bet you thought you had family problems huh?” She said with just a touch of bitterness in her voice.
Phil nodded his head. “Yea relatives can be a real pain sometimes.”

“The child was taken to Ares' citadel where she was put to mopping floors, cleaning stalls and being beaten or ignored regularly.
Its not easy to be small and helpless, but all the adversity filled the child with determination to better herself, knowing someday she would not be so small and helpless.
Erania watched as Ares , who fancied himself the God of war, surrounded himself with the best fighters and soldiers from the mortal cities. Secretly, from the kindly men, she learned infantry tactics, cavalry movement and the art of weapons. Other men with slanted eyes and long pointed mustaches taught her the art of fighting bare handed and tossing an opponent like a paper in the wind. From books ,stolen from her masters library, she learned of the forgotten warriors of her own race and deeds done in that other universe.
As she grew to young womanhood she became quite formidable and the beatings became dangerous for the beater.
Still in thrall to Ares the young Goddess found herself forced to accompany his minions on missions to battlefields across the earth as the war god dabbled in the affairs of men.
In time she came to command those missions herself with great success. Men began to whisper her name in prayers before battle just as they did Ares.

Now Ares plan all along had been to find a way to drain the crystal energy from the young goddess and claim it for himself . Seeing Erania's power and fame on the battlefield beginning to eclipse his own, he worried that she would soon challenge him for control of his secretly expanding armies.
Ares was planning on using the reclaimed crystal energy to challenge Zeus and Odin for control of the council.
Ammon’s Egyptians were already secretly on his side and several of the Greek and Northern gods as well. Seeing that he might never be able to gain control of the energy he finally decided to eliminate the Erania once and for all.
Ares crafted a trap so clever it was a work of art, Sending the young woman on a suicide mission from which she would never return .

A simple courier mission with a small guard detachment, they found themselves surrounded.
Five armies converged on Erania's small band in the wilderness and with less than four hundred men somehow her defensive lines held them back till at the end of the day bodies both mortal and immortal lay scattered like cord wood across the empty plains
Erania burned with rage as she galloped home. Her master, her mentor, had sent her to die and in the process many of her most loyal followers had been slain as well. It was unforgivable.
She entered the citadel alone and killed everyone in her way until she reached him.
The coward hid behind a chair until she ripped it apart with her bare hands exposing him.
The battle was joined and though hard pressed both fought well, she from rage , he from terror.
Finally disarmed and cowering Ares, the mighty war god, granted her the freedom she demanded .”

Phil was perplexed. “If Ares is immortal how can he be afraid of death?”
“The Immortals are not really so, they were genetically enhanced during the long Titan war to be long lived and disease resistant. In effect , perfect soldiers, they don’t die from old age or the common cold but if you stick a sword through them they will bleed, and if they bleed enough before their advanced healing factor kicks in or you cut off their head, then they are going to be quite dead.”
“Oh.” Phil answered as if that explanation was as natural as why is the sky blue.

“Now with her new freedom won Erania set out to return to the one place she could ever remember being happy.
Atlantis had suffered very hard times since the exile of its patron God and Goddess. With no protection or voice to speak for them the merchants had seen their ships ruined and trade routes stolen by worshipers of the other Gods. The land itself had been attacked and infested by foul bloodsucking creatures originally created by the Titans, the loathsome Harpies.
Erania’s first act upon returning was to make war and drive out the vampirish female harpies destroying their nest, earning their hate for all time. Next she organized, armed and refitted the Atlanteen merchant ships into a formidable navy which soon retook control of the seas in the battles of the merchant guild wars.
With control of the seas most merchandise now began to pass through Atlanteen ports en route to its destination causing the Islands power and fame to grow.

Ares long dreamed of plan to challenge the power of Zeus and Odin had not been stopped by Erainas victory over him, just placed on hold. As the years passed and men grew wealthy and complacent from peace and quiet so did the Gods but some continued to plot and scheme.
Ares and Loki, a double dealing lieutenant of Odin, one day were visited by an old man lately exiled from Atlantis for dabbling in black science. This former priest, Legolaias by name, told the two schemers of some interesting lost scrolls recently unearthed near the extinct volcano at the islands center. For a price, he added, he could produce those very scrolls for them.
The scrolls were produced and he received his just payment , in treachery.

The writings were from the time before the end of the Titan war and detailed a weapon being created of such power that the full sized version would have cracked the very planet open had it been built, a doomsday weapon.
Only a very small working version of this planet killer had been built and was hidden in a secret place known only to the Titans.
Together the two evil ones began to stir unrest among the Gods.
Messages between the Northern, Middle and Southern groups were mislaid or misdirected. Whispers of supposed insults and plots spread from mouth to mouth.
The Mortals became uneasy as tensions grew and former friends who worshiped other Gods became enemies. Farmers prepared to become soldiers and armies appeared on every border.
From the shores of Atlantis Erania watched with cautious eyes. She had no love or allegiance to any of the groups but the clouds on the horizon were growing dark and that would not be good for her land or her people.
All the while things were growing worse Ares and Loki kept their minions searching for the clues to where the Titan device might be hidden.

After years of building tension there finally came a break between Asgard and Olympus.
Armies of huge blond bearded northmen swept down clashing with the men of the middle regions as the dark southerners vowed to remain neutral.
The Immortals once more girded themselves for war and battle was joined. At the critical time , when both sides were exhausted from years of warfare the allies of Ares and Loki revealed themselves to be betrayers and cut down those close loyal to Zeus and Odin. Ammon’s legions, under the command of Anubis, rushed into the fray, but not as an ally, as Ares expected, but as a competitor. Socked and reeling the now combined armies of Zeus and Odin fell back taking massive causalities. Fully two thirds of all the Immortals then living perished during the great betrayal and its aftermath. The dark legions pursued the survivors relentlessly pushing them back from one position to the next until the decimated ranks of both armies had but one place left to fight.

The woman stopped her story and locked Phil in a pained stare. “This part is always the hardest to remember, unhappy endings always are I guess.” Phil poured just a bit of whiskey in the glass and slid it over.
Taking a sip of the offered glass with a nod of thanks she continued.

Erania had been in the thick of the fighting from the start. Through countless blood soaked battles she had fought the good fight always fearing her end would come before she could save her beloved island. Now as the remnants of the two great armies gathered she stood upon the shore of Atlantis and waited for the end.
The ships came, there was no stopping them. The last remnants of the Atlanteen navy took many enimies down with them to their watery graves .
The invaders were held in some places, broke through in others. The few remaining Immortals leading the exhausted and battered armies of mankind in a last defense stood strong before the city walls.
The battle was savage and no quarter was asked or given. Erania was seemingly everywhere, galloping from point to point aiding in defense here or leading a charge there .
The blood stained her as red as her flaming hued hair as exhaustion made it hard to even lift her sword, still she fought on under the darking skies.

It was near the battles end that she found him across the field, among his men.
Summoning just enough spark in her exausted body to scream and charge, Loki was startled to find his personal guard slaughtered right before his eyes and then himself held at sword point by a blood splattered demon.
She then made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
With information in hand she now searched for Ares, knowing he had to be nearby. She found his trail high up the slopes of the mountain. Entering the caverns she tracked him right to the very chamber he had been searching for all those years.
The chamber of the Titans.

The device itself didn’t look all that dangerous.
A smooth white egg about the height of a normal man and four feet in diameter at its widest. Cables snaked away into the darkness drawing power from the superheated magma deep below the surface . Around the eggs circumference where six identical rods of steel reaching to and bored into the rock walls.
Near the edge of the cavern stood a small control panel which held Ares attention as she entered.

With an air of complete triumph Ares revealed now that this all along had been his master plan, to gather all the remaining Immortals in one place and annihilate them together, leaving himself as sole and all powerful God of the mortals. He had always meant to betray his allies and his enemies and now only slaying Eraina stood in his way. The two joined battle, the exhausted Goddess and the War God and the fight was epic though no scribe or poet would ever write of it. Fear came over Ares as he realized he could not bring down the interloper no matter how hard he tried, though she could barely stand she fought on.
Finally in desperation he gained the advantage, time growing short he attempted to activate the machine and escape.
The activation console must have been booby trapped or maybe was just so ancient it didn't function properly anymore because when he activated the device timer the controls exploded right in his face.
Energy, like miniature lighting, seared his entire body as the battered Erania struggled to her feet. In terrible agony Ares managed to run screaming from the chamber as the egg like device began to hum.
In a heroic last act Erania tried to deactivate the device but was too late.

The explosion was the greatest ever seen on the Earth before or since, even the world war two atomic bombs pale beside it.
The Goddess was instantly vaporized as was the chamber inside the mountain.
From the outside the still fighting armies watched in shock as the top of the mountain vanished in a blaze of searing light and a concussion wave raced across the island leveling everything standing and reducing man, beast and even solid stone to powdery dust. Those who could manage it ran for the boats, most never made it.

As a gigantic mushroom shaped cloud of dust and debris rose into the blood red sky a thunderous rumbling started deep below the ground.
The explosion cracked the cap of the long dead volcano, the superheated magma, millions of tons of it, under intense pressure shot up from below in a burning geyser a mile high adding ash, soot and a hellish rain of fire to the choking dust already strangling the pitiful survivors above. As the magma spewed into the sky and pressure below released, it created a hollow vacume under the island and cracks and fissures spread. The whole of the island began to settle with sicking groan.
Lighting from the ruptured skies lashed at the sinking land as its very center collapsed in upon itself taking all who were still trapped there with it. The entire death scene took some three days to finish and from the few surviving ships battling the monstrous tidal waves and winds the survivors, Immortal and mortal alike, threw themselves down on the decks and wept.

The redhead drew a ragged breath and wiped the tears from her eyes.
Phil gave her a kindly smile and glanced over at the corner table then back.
The group seemed to be enjoying their second bottle of rum.
“That was a helluva a story I must say, kinda sad at the end .” He said.
She rubbed her nose with a napkin and bit her lower lip.
“Well that isn’t exactly the end you see, its almost like the beginning.”
Phil placed his chin on his hands. “Do tell.”

“Well after the destruction there were very few immortals left, just a hand full would ever be remembered in myth. They were saddened at the utter destruction they had unleashed on the world and vowed that the time of open contact between them and mankind was at an end. The groups retreated to their citadels taking their science with them and leaving man abandoned to discover or rediscover what he could on his own. Years passed then centuries, then millenia.
The Second age of the Gods passed into legend.
Something strange though happened during those quiet years, the Goddess Erania woke up.
Though her body was long destroyed, the crystal energy inside her somehow kept her conscious alive. Over the course of several millenia she gathered her dispersed essence together into a living yet disembodied spirit.
The form was weak and could not affect solid objects nor communicate with others living things, but it lived and observed as the world changed.
The time of the Immortals passed and they became just legend and myth. The remaining Gods finally grew tired of their secluded lives and settled into the mortal population posing as normal folks from one life to the next.

Eraina drifted across the centuries a forgotten ghost until she happened by chance upon a dying young woman.
The Girl had been captured during an attack and the soldiers savagely abused the her leaving her for dead. Being drawn closer to the dying girl the Goddess spirit suddenly found itself seeing through her eyes and feeling her feeble heartbeat in its last seconds of life. Memories of a life quickly fading to darkness and sudden joy at the feeling of the spirit inside carried th woman across the final seconds of her existance.
This was the first merging.
The girl was too far gone to save and the Goddess spirit quickly exited the body but she now understood she could live again if she could find a willing host.
All the candidates it was later learned had to descend from the secret groups Erania sent away before the last battles. She secretly placed small Atlanteen colonies across the globe in hopes of rescuing her people. With their homeland gone and the world devastated, the groups survived but over time lost the true origin of their heritage, merging into the populations of the lands in which they found themselves and becoming lost. Some unknown factor in their genetic makeup allowed the Goddess spirit to merge with females of the Atlanteen blood and allowed the host to take on the best attributes of both.

Down through the centuries there were many host, each special in her own way.
From the Goddess they gained knowledge and skill, increased endurance and if not immortality at least an enhanced lifespan of about one hundred thirty years or so barring death in combat or accident.
When the Host died some portion of its memories and life was added to the spirit and carried to the next. When possible the dying host would seek out the next candidate and help prepare them for the transition. Down through the years the sisterhood endured , each host doing its best to protect an unwary mankind from the still present threats of immortals and mortals alike.

Phil raised an eyebrow. “So this Goddess chick, she’s like some kind of superhero fighting evil and all?”
The woman nodded.
Phil broke into a big grin. “You really had me going there until that last part, aint no such thing as superheroes except in comic books. But that was a helluva story so you won the bet.”
Phil walked back down the length of the bar still chuckling.
All heads turned as the door way suddenly crashed open and rain blew in from the street. In the doors center stood a large man wrapped in a long coat, hat pulled low over his eyes.
He stepped in and looked over the nearly empty room then to the four huddled across the back table. They looked at him and then to the woman then one of them stood up crashing his chair against the wall with a bang.
“Immortal it is now your time to depart this world and join your cursed ancestors in hell.” The voice was like a hissing whisper.
The other three stood also joining the challenger.

The woman gave Phil with an, I told you so look and quietly slid from her stool.
She looked to the newcomer then to the four in the shadows, briefly closed her eyes as if in silent prayer then unbuttoned her dark leather coat and slipped it off, laying it carefully across the bar.
The black woven leather armor she wore under the coat melted into the bars shadows leaving only her red hair, tan face and green eyes to mark her presence. The supple material hugged her every curve and accented the slim figure with decorated plated metal guards over one shoulder and ornate wrist bands of the same metal. Two thin belts crisscrossed her slim waist, one held a sword and scabbard the other a holster.

“Now girls we can work this out nicely can’t we? No need to bust up the nice mans place.”
The four crouched figures hissed in response fanning out around her with arms raised .
In a flurry of sudden motion they shed their human clothing to reveal emaciated gray female bodies. Bat like wings unfolded from their backs fanning the air.
“This is for all our sisters you have slaughtered down through the years.” Hissed one bitterly.
“Paybacka bitch.Its been long since I tasted the blood of an immortal” Hissed another happily.
"Yes we feast well tonight my Sisters, she should be weakening now." The third hissed.
The one who hadn’t spoken charged first, coming in low and hard she tried to knock the woman down quickly so the others could pounce. Being first isn’t always best as the repulsive creature found out.
The blow to the ugly head was almost hard enough to shatter reinforced concrete and though it didn’t shatter the thick skull with its small horns it did ring some bells inside it.
The enraged thing went down hissing angrily and spitting out broken teeth.

The others dived in and one took the narrow sword blade right through its middle exploding into a flash of light with a wailing scream.
Another tried to pinion the woman’s arms only to suddenly find the quarry executing a flip over its head and splitting it down the middle from skull to navel with the blade.
Another flash and wail and then there were two.

The harpy with the busted mouth was now leaping back into the fray but came up short as the Immortals knee slammed into its midsection. An elbow to the back of the skull sent the creature face first into the wooden floor with a shattering impact. The enraged
harpy screamed and once more threw itself at the woman only to find its tortured mouth suddenly full of shotgun barrel.
The roar of the sawed off twelve guage erased the beast head in a blaze of vapor and light.
Now there was one.

Not having learned a thing from the fate of her sisters she came in flying low across the room and the woman easily broke a bar stool across the scaly horned head. The momentum sent the thing crazily veering into the tables and it smashed them as well, coming to rest against the wall in a heap. The thing harpy moaned but did not get up.
The sugar made them happy but it also sapped their strength. Unusual they would challenge her like this.

Suddenly there was a shout and the woman turned to see Phil the barkeep pointing his own shotgun at the newcomer by the door.
“Remove that hand slowly stranger.” He motioned with the gun barrel and the fellow slowly removed his hand from the coat to reveal a cigar. The Man bit the end off the cigar giving then a sardonic grin.

There was a savage hiss and the feel of wings beating the air behind the woman, instinct made her clutch the sword handle flip it and thrust the blade up just under her arm as she bent.
The Harpy was impaled on the blade in mid leap and its momentum drove the blade deeper.
The horrid thing screamed and spread its leathery wings to their full span of six feet as it clutched the blue silver blade in its gut.
“Noooooooooo.” was its last wail as the blinding light consumed its withered form.
The Goddess dropped to one knee, spent from the last few moments exertion.

The man in the doorway lit the cigar and tossed the match on the floor. He gave a respectful grunt at the recent show of skill. "You still got the moves red."
“Was this your doing?” The woman asked regaining her feet and motioning Phil to drop his aim on the stranger.
“Nope, not my style, you should know that. I’m only here to deliver a message.”
The redhead slid the sword back into its scabbard and popped open the shotgun ejecting the spent shells. She slammed two fresh ones in then returned the gun to its holster along her thigh.
“And I can just guess who this message is from, your lord and master wants something from me?”
The man pulled back the hat to revealing a badly scarred face to the light. The cigar was clenched tight in his teeth.
“Not my lord and Master anymore. I’m freelance now, and the message isn’t from Ares, its from Edgar.”
The woman’s face went pale. “ Edgar, that’s impossible he’s dea…”
"The message is personal, you want it you come find me later."
She looked up but the figure in the doorway was gone leaving only the blowing rain and lingering cigar smoke.

Phil looked from the open doorway to the stunned woman. “What was that all about?”
“That was a fellow by the name of Skirmish, former minion of Ares and as he said, now freelance point man for who ever can pay him and needs an immortal to do their dirty work. I gave him that nasty scar myself,on a pirate ship, about three hundred years ago.”
She walked back to the bar and poured a drink for herself.
“And this Edgar?”

“Edgar was one of the few men I have ever been truly in love with, but he was a mortal and died well over a hundred fifty years ago. He can’t be alive.. can he?”
Slipping on the coat, she fished in the pocket for some cash and placed it on the bar.
“That should cover all the damages and I enjoyed our talk. I’ve got to find Skirmish and retrieve that message. If there’s a chance …”
She rushed out into the pouring rain as Phil watched from behind the bar.
He collected the bills and shoved them into his pocket then shook his head and turned.
Something brushed against his leg and he looked down to see the pale arm of the real bartender hanging out from the small space under the bar where the body had been shoved. he kicked it back out of sight with a grunt.

The phone in Phil’s pocket started buzzing , he took it out and flipped it open.
“Yes master she was here, I stalled her as long as I could but an unexpected visitor caused the harpies to act prematurely before the drug in the whiskey could affect her.We must have over estimated its potency.
Yes master all of them were destroyed , I am very sorry for failing you , with permission will end my life quickly for my failure.”

He closed the phone and slipped it back in his pocket then grimly grabbed the shotgun and headed for the back room.
Loud rolling thunder echoed across the city drowning out the sound of the shotgun blast in the now empty Salty Dog Tavern

The end for Now.