Yun flew towards the planet with Ella in tow, who turned around and waved at Jalen. The giant imposing physique of her younger brother shrunk in her view as she was pulled planet side at blinding speed.

“Brace yourself,” Yun said, her voice rich with crackling textures. “We are entering the atmosphere.”

She gazed at the planet below, her view obstructed by hot plasma flowing around her protective sphere, caused by the speed of entry into the planet and the accompanying friction. Soon, Yun slowed down, and subsequently the sphere housing her as well, the stark darkness of the lands below greeting her.

“I think he forgot to add a sun,” she said, gazing at the empty night sky devoid even of the twinkle of stars.

“Patience, mortal,” Yun said. “Even the Christian God worked for six days. Take a closer look.”

High in the dark sky, a faint point of light appeared. Then it grew in size and brightness, bathing the planet in its warm radiance. The sky turned a beautiful light blue, dotted with the white fluffiness of countless clouds. She had to pry her eyes from above to find out what existed below, now that the light of a star illuminated the planet. To her right, a vast ocean covered the landscape, extending into the horizon. Below was a massive expanse of rolling hills topped by brown-dry grass and interspersed with what looked like Acacia trees.

They landed softly on the arid grassy ground. Her protective sphere dispersed so the familiar smell of dust and the burning heat of the sun hit her. She already felt thirsty just from breathing in the low-humidity air. However, despite the uncomfortableness of the place, she couldn’t hide her simmering excitement.

“A savannah close to the ocean. Not bad!” she exclaimed.

“Good, you know your geography,” Yun said in a mellow manner. “You’re off to a brilliant start.”

She observed the being of pure golden energy standing before her. How something like Yun could exist baffled her. But then again, her younger brother just spat out a planet and paired it with a sun to boot. The realization dawned upon her that there was a vast unknown beyond her comprehension. She found a cluster of dusty rocks and sat down on the flat one, waiting for her arbiter to begin.

And Yun began. “To become a god is to shed your mortal limits and transcend into a being of power, responsibility, and leadership. I presume you know that much, correct?”

Ella said after some thought. “Yeah.”

The test had already begun. It was vital that she reason and choose her words wisely.

“Then you must understand the burden that comes with this power.”

“Do you mean the burden of choosing right from wrong with such power?”

“No. Your morality is of no importance here.” Yun said. “I am talking about the burden of carrying out your responsibilities. The burden of a people depending on you. It could be your worshipers. Or people you rule over. The strength and resolve needed to protect what is your own and to deal with powerful foes seeking your power. You have to be willing to bear this burden to ascend. Are you, Ella?”

She squeezed the white linen of her pants. What seemed like a while ago but was just early this morning, she had brushed off Jalen’s concerns about her safety. She had been terrified of what he said the night prior and what he had become, too shocked to think rationally, so she resorted to burying herself in work. If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of her brother, she would be six inches in the ground by now, probably headed to heaven, she hoped. This power offered to her came from the love of her brother, Jalen, who was determined to protect her. So she would not take it for granted. No! All her life she had been pushed and pulled by the tides of powerful forces, too weak and beaten to forge her own path. Here, now, was the opportunity and power to have her say.

Thank you, younger brother, for the best gift ever.

“I am willing to bear my burden.” She declared.

She detected a faint smile on her arbiter.

“Very well. Know this mortal. There are rules to abide by if you are to become a god. Killing a god in our pantheon is strictly forbidden. And you must display unyielding loyalty to Jalen, Host of the Cosmonar, and I, Life Force of the Cosmonar. Break these rules and you shall suffer the harshest of punishments.”

She nodded, her hands trembling. These were not things she expected to hear. Weren’t gods meant to nurture and protect living beings? To uphold justice and fairness for the people? She shrugged. That could be dwelled on and debated later. Presently, she had a trial to pass.

“What domain did you choose?” Yun asked.

Ella racked her brain. “What do you mean?”

“You are to become a god. The god of what is what I’m asking? War? Lightening?”

“Oh, so I made up my mind earlier about that. The god of crows, magpies, or birds.”

“I see. A very specialized domain. Anyway, let us begin.”

The forces molding Yun’s energy form shifted into a streamlined, compact shape. The surface of her energy skin became erratic, like the surface of a stormy ocean. She felt hair singing from the heat radiating from Yun. The ground beneath her feet suffered tremors and groaned. 

Ella looked up at her arbiter. “What are you doing?”

“Adding the finishing details to the test grounds,” Yun replied, followed by her skin calming, as well as the groaning of the Earth, quieting.

The calls of animals echoed through the air. She stood up from her rocky seat and peered at the expansive landscape laid before her. Fields of tall grasses swayed in the wind in gentle rhythms as a large variety of animal life moved about. Birds soared overhead, their wings outstretched, embracing the freedom of the open sky. A large herd of elephants feasted on Acacia trees miles ahead, their cries and roars reverberating through her. Amongst the grasses, a herd of wildebeests grazed, their heads held high and eyes darting, ever vigilant of the pride of lions, lazily basking in the sun, to her right.

Oh shit!

As if preempting her panicked state, Yun said. “The animals will not hurt you. They can’t even perceive us. Your goal is simple during this first stage, Ella. You will experience what it is to exist as the animals you will rule over. I will see you soon.”

“Wait—”

What escaped from her mouth next was the bleating calls of a gazelle. Yun was nowhere to be seen. As she looked around, she found herself amid a herd of gazelles, their soft footsteps blending with the sounds of their contented grazing on the ample supply of dry grass. She backtracked instinctively, only for her nimble body to almost trample her child.

My child?

“Sorry child,” she blurted out in gazelle speak. Then gasped at the fact that she spoke in a language utterly foreign to her, made up of bleats and snorts. There was also the fact that what she said translated to gibberish for the gazelles. It would seem their language lacked sophistication.

Her child, barely half her height, stuck to her like glue as the small gazelle fed on the grass. She took one glance at the tall, dry grass and gagged, her gazelle physiology clashing with her human mind, by telling her it was delicious.

No fucking way I’m eating grass. I may be vegetarian, but this is a step too far.

She held out for a few hours, ignoring the grass, until the groaning from her empty stomach beat her into submission. Before taking a bite, the other gazelles went into a frenzy. One after the other, they bleated loudly, saying:

“Killer!”

“Killer!”

“Killer!”

Then the herd sprang into action, their slender bodies propelled forward by powerful hind legs. Their burst of speed and the ensuing dust kick-up startled her and frightened her child. It wasn’t until she spotted charging cheetahs at the edge of her peripheral vision that she understood the imminent danger.

She darted forward across the grassy plain, her child in tow. Soon she reached her top speed, her legs pounding into the ground, fast enough to evade every other predator in the savannah except for the cheetahs closing in. The two cheetahs skillfully separated her child from her, chasing them in different directions, to her abject horror. However, there was nothing she could do to aid her child with a cheetah hot on her tail.

A distressed cry from her child jolted her into action. Casting her safety to the side, she darted right, her slender and powerful body providing her with enough speed and traction to narrowly evade the outstretched paw of the cheetah. A few paces ahead, her child desperately fought for her life. But it wasn’t long until the other cheetah’s jaw found her neck. 

So Ella charged with her head down, and her long horns pointed at the cheetah, who wrestled with her child. At the last second, the cheetah sidestepped her attack and smashed a heavy, clawed paw into the side of her head. She crashed to the ground with no reprieve as the cheetah dove at her, sinking its sharp teeth into her throat. It growled and thrashed about, ripping her throat. As blood seeped into her lungs, each breath became increasingly agonizing and weaker. Her legs stiffened and eyes enlarged as her body fell into shock. Out of the corner of her blurry vision, the second cheetah panted, its eyes scanning the landscape. Further behind the cheetah was her child limping towards the rest of the herd. She closed her eyes for the last time, knowing her child survived.

Then She opened her eyes once more, taking in the arid, sandy grounds down the hill. Her cheetah cubs play-fought by her side, rolling, tousling, and wrestling with each other. After a quick inspection, she concluded that she was indeed a cheetah and mother to these cubs. Then the images of her death at the hands of the cheetahs came flooding into her. It was the soft, worried touch of one of her cubs that snapped her out of the impending panic attack. 

Oh, the irony, she thought, when she calmed down. I see where this is going. And I don’t fucking like it.

She chirped at her cubs to follow her as she traversed across the sandy terrain. Her sleek, tall form glided across the open plains with the grace of a seasoned hunter. After noon, her cubs started to groan in hunger. She knew what must be done, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. Especially after she just experienced being hunted prey. 

A few hours before sundown, the crying of her cubs became unbearable. There was no way she could continue to starve them. Their calling was to hunt and feed on prey. Did she intend to have them starve to death while she twiddled her paws, sulking? With a determined resolve, she kept her cubs under a tree, on a hill overlooking vast grasslands. Then she crept up to the peak of the hill, her steps instinctively soft and measured. Spotting a keen eyesight, many times more powerful than humans, she observed the prey she had heard a while back, grazing several miles ahead. It was ironic that they were gazelles.

She stalked down the hill, creeping ever closer to the herd. The tall grass, coupled with her natural camouflage, provided ample cover to close the great distance. A couple of times, she had to crouch low and stay still for minutes at a time, to evade the vigilant gazes of the herd’s watchers. Her keen gaze scoped a lone gazelle, straggling behind the main body of the herd. Suddenly cries broke out among the gazelles. They had spotted her and fled en masse. So, throwing caution to the wind, she launched forward, after the gazelles, her powerful long legs working with her flexible spine to propel her to blinding speeds.

The targeted gazelle zig-zagged across the plain, its goal to throw her off. Nevertheless, her keen sight never faltered, locked onto the fleeing prey as she cornered at high speeds, keeping up with the gazelle. Once she closed in, she swiped at the gazelle’s hind legs to topple the rapid animal. It worked just as she imagined, though the gazelle sprang back up immediately and darted in a direction she couldn’t follow. She turned, wincing as fatigue arrested her muscles. A cheetah was built for top speed, not endurance running. With a desperate glance, she spotted a juvenile gazelle separated from its mother. She pounced, closing the distance to the confused gazelle. Its death was a brutal affair, the gazelle crying for its mother during its last breaths. Standing a few paces away from her was an adult gazelle rearing to charge her. She growled at the mother gazelle, the blood of the juvenile gazelle dripping into her jaws and the sand below, its life drained from its eyes.

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