3.4 Sorcery Invasion

Evil or not, the Unicorn had won the attention of the crowd at the Farewell Celebration, never had the aribu seen such a beautiful animal in their lives, horn or no horn, none could look away. The textbook renditions hardly did the creature justice, in the images the horn looked like some sort of dangerous skewer and the Unicorn actually looked evil. But in real life, the evil was hard to imagine, no one had entertained the idea that the horn was some sort of illusion! In their hearts they all knew it was too late, too. They all had learned the consequences of looking at a Unicorn, and all of them could agree it was ominous given the Coming War yet now, with so many questions arising to contradict what they knew, curiosity was challenging fear.

         "Can I touch it?" A goddesses dared to ask, utterly captivated by the magical animal she abandoned all the rules.

         "Is it really evil?" Another goddess asked.

         "Where did it come from?" A merchant dared to ask.

         "What happened to his horn?"

         Dena was more interested in the handler than the horse, she really couldn’t look away.

         "Oh. My. God" she gave Mel a gentle nudge. "Look at his jacket!"

         "They stink!" Mel hissed, sensing lust in her tone, troubled by her stupidity.

         Dena barely heard it. "He’s soooo sexy, Oh. My. God!" She was captive, instantly jealous of the attention he was giving the goddesses petting the horse. She wondered now if there was a deeper history Mel was hiding, her distain was revealing more of this untapped resource. "Wow, you really don’t like them…"

         "Shut up!" Mel snapped, cutting her off. "You sound like an idiot!"

         As Vikkar helped the party crashers off the ship, the aribu discovered that it wasn’t just the god of Death and his Unicorn which weren’t anything like they were taught to believe. The savages hardly looked like savages close up, they were in fact beautiful people, so why were they so evil? It made no sense at all.

         Next, Jasun walked down the ramp carrying his golden harp. Crowned with long strawberry blonde hair, beaded and braided with exotic crystal ornaments that sparkled in the sun. Everyone craned their necks to see... What was he carrying? Was it a weapon? It didn't look like a weapon... He looked like some fantasy warrior - one that was completely missing from their text books. He too wore elaborate clothes and attracted their attention like magic.

         Questioning eyes took their turn glancing up toward the Villa... Was this paid entertainment? Or were they under attack?

         Mel was raging inside, she knew how much this would aggravate the king. "Oh. My. God! Look at that hideous hair! What a WASTE!" She was so angry she didn't know whether to feel sorry for Atalon for this obvious nightmare or wowed by the secrecy of his plans. If he planned this so called entertainment, then why wasn’t she in on it? Either way she was mad!

         Akku's toned chocolate physique triggered the next round of gasps from the crowds. Not only was he striking to look at, he was carrying what looked like golden drums... Were they drums of war? Were they to expect a War Gong next?

         It was all very logical to be afraid, however their fearful theories had holes. If this was an invasion, these soldiers weren't dressed for battle. There was a competing theory in the aribu hearts growing with this new discovery. Were these 'savages' in fact, the legendary Origians? Like the Unicorn, they were still alive? According to their textbooks, the Origians were extinct, too.

         Following Akku down the ramp was a beautiful goddess, she wasn’t carrying a War Gong, she was carrying a beautiful little Dogon boy, his chubby face, framed with bouncy ebony curls stole the hearts of the crowd in seconds.

         "Oh. My. God…" Dena whispered. "Oh. My. God, I had no idea Products could be so cute!"

         Mel felt sick to her stomach, embarrassed to be so close with Dena now. If Dena was malfunctioning like this, then the other aribu would most certainly malfunction. Fearful too now she glanced back up the hill toward the Villa… Atalon obviously knew what was going on… Why hadn't he told her? Either she was being deliberately left out of the loop, or Atalon was not going to be a happy king at all...

         Whistles and cat calls suddenly broke out as Mina and Min stepped off the ship together, their long red hair glistening like fire in the sun, wrapped around their bodies like blazing shawls, sparkling with the halo of crystals and mistletoe woven throughout their crowns. The merchants were smitten, hypnotized by their beautiful presence, these goddesses were beyond any textbook rendition of what an Ultimate Goddess should be, they had never seen such striking beauty before. These weren't savages! So who were they? Was this a demonstration of things to come in the New Empire?

         "She should use a rinse" Mel hissed as the goddesses stole all the attention, without so much as a word.

         "Uh-huh..." Dena agreed, just before the most enormous pregnant belly anyone had ever seen, barely covered by a very sheer dress appeared on the ramp!

         "Oh! My! God!"

         Whistles morphed into gasps as the aribu beheld the forbidden sight, many shielded their eyes or turned away in shock. But no matter how hard they tried not to look, they couldn't help but peek! The pregnant goddess was being followed by another pregnant goddess, and another! The crowds retreated, scared of what they saw. What was this? A Sorcery Invasion? Fear set in next, almost immediately, eyes turned once again toward the Villa. Would they be charged with a crime for looking at them?