No free lunch
By amordantbaron
- 680 reads
No Free Lunch by J.B. Pravda
Free, free&;#8230;&;#8230;after six long days in the desert, he
had spirited a prow of fine design in the harbor near the Pillars of
Hercules. Having no provisions aboard save a few gords of water, young
Artemis of Syria, whose uncle had taught him to sail, plied his craft
West, to the end of the Earth, anything but slavery. His feet were
blistered from the sands but they soon healed with the aid of strange
bird droppings from the fabled Albatross, and the briney waters of the
open sea. His fisher skills kept him fed, his trusty hook a Phoenician
device of unerring quality. Seven storms did he brave, his sail,
somehow remaining straight and true, though battered to near sinking.
After 30 suns he sighted land&;#8230;&;#8230;..did his eyes
deceive him; no, he spied maids and men hardly clothed, with markings
over their brown bodies; strangely, they did not slaughter him, no,
they bore him on a bier and fed and housed him like a king. Soon, he
was festooned in raiment fitting of his former lords in greater Arabia;
indeed, he was their god, no doubt due to his strangeness among them.
One day, they took him to their highest temple, there to be crowned
their ruler: through a drawing, he was shown that it was his duty, as
their leader, to don the wings of their deity,Henarta, the great sky
God; this he did, and the priests led him to the high point, where they
aided him in spreading his affixed wings: the people bowed before him.
The priests then, in unison, threw him from his perch-----in mid air,
he remembered his name. He crashed to the ground below, his skull
crushed instantly, slave no more save to Death&;#8230;.as his new
subjects had the magic to bring him back every year to repeat the
ceremony, each time, dying differently .
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