Adventures of Jacko the Conjurer by Jamie Ott (love books to read txt) 📕

Just as he was considering excusing himself, so he could return to Earth and eat, she said, “Don’t worry, Jacko, you’ll be fine. This place isn’t the same as the place where the demigods rest.”

“Why do gods eat?”

“As Althenio said to you, one needs to live off of something that lives, in order to live. We like to take something that lives in food form because it’s pleasurable. We invented eating.”

“But what about meat? It’s dead when we eat it?”

“Yes, but only recently. The molecules live, though they slowly die. It takes much time to consume, and literally snuff out life force energy, than you realize. More than fire or your digestive system has.”

Not wanting to wait anymore, Jacko shuffled into a chair and reached to pull a leg off the pig.

“One moment, Jacko.”

He froze with the pig leg meat just touching his lips.

Suddenly, bodies began to appear around the table. Immediately, he recognized two of the figures from the montage.

“This is my brother, Helius.”

He sat directly across from Jacko.

Instead of hair, flames danced on his head. As he nodded, the fire momentarily lost its balance, making it look as though it had extinguished, but appeared again once his head set upright.

To Jacko’s relief, Helius looked away quickly, because in his eyes, flames danced across the surface showing no regard for the boundaries of his pupils, irises, or scleras.

Gesturing to the man who sat to Helius’ right, she said, “And this is my other brother, Oceanus.”

He was much easier to look at, as he seemed to be made of sparkling blue fluid that moved about inside his bluish-clear skin. In a way, his appearance reminded him of a human shaped water globe. In his eyes, Jacko could see the oceans of the Earth sway and sparkle.

“Gaia,” Aurora said, sounding surprised.

Left of Helius, three seats over and across, sat the ghost child he’d met some weeks ago.

“I heard you’d awakened but I didn’t believe it.”

She stood, walked over, and kissed her on both cheeks before taking a seat next to Jacko.

Right as Aurora sat, they were joined by one more guest.

A bright light shone right beside him, even more blinding than the white of the floors.

“Aah!” screamed Jacko. He covered his burning eyes with his hands.

“Lucis!” said Aurora. “It’s okay, Jacko, you may look now.”

“What was that?”

“This is Lucis, the infamous light demon.”

Where the white light was, a moment ago, stood a man with skin and eyes as black as coal, like the skin of the demons from the red lands; only their skin was shiny black like patent leather. When not luminous, this demon appeared to be absent of all color and light.

“If he’s a demon, then why is he here? Shouldn’t he be on the other side?”

“Unlike the others, he cannot survive in the dark. Ever hear stories of burning bushes and men being blinded by lights? What they really saw was light demons, like Lucis.”

Like marble statues, the gods looked strangely mechanical as they chewed hill sized bits of food that they shoveled into their enormous mouths with their ruler sized forks.

The size of the dinnerware was also a problem for Jacko, who had to scoop water from a mug with his hand because it was made with a material that was very heavy. Finally, Oceanus was kind enough to summon an angel to serve him.

“Actually, Jacko, this is a putti; they’re not angels.”

“What’s a putti?”

“Servents of Cupid. They’re lesser gods that were made to serve Eros. Eros is long gone into unconsciousness, so sometimes we borrow the putti; otherwise they’d have nothing to do.”

Jacko observed the little winged baby-like creature. It was almost exactly like the bat babies Jacko saw in the red lands. Bat babies were little black leathery infants, except with the head of vampire bats with chubby cheeks. They were actually quite cute, despite that they’d tried to eat him and stuck their fangs, repeatedly, into his body.

The putti didn’t have a bunch of eyes in their wings, like the angel he saw at Oganat’s, the African god of war and ambassador to the red lands.

“That was Sam,” Aurora said, reading his thoughts. “He’s an angel from the tribe, Seraph. They’re smaller but proportioned like a man. I warn you, though, don’t ever refer to any angel or god as a baby. You will regret it!”

“What kind of angel was the one that dropped me from sky? The one that flew me to Ouranus?”

“They serve the Seraph; they’re called ophan. They’re smart creatures, and they’re great for transport. They usually travel in herds.”

Another problem in dining with gods is they could eat forever. After a while, his eyes began to droop.

“Jacko, wake!” said Aurora.

“It’s rude to doze at the table,” Helius said grumpily.

“I need sleep!” Jacko snapped.

“As I was saying,” said Oceanus, sounding impatient, “when souls were discovered, they were simply intelligent little flecks of light, similar to the tadpoles you’ve seen in the fountain of youth. When we turned them to the Earth and watched them grow to form, they were like interesting pets, but they grew in the image of the gods. Perhaps because of the energy they absorbed from us.

Still, their evolution took much more time then did other species. In the early days, they were primitive, beastly, and went from bad to worse. That is why some agreed to turn over the Earth to the control of the Titans. The other gods had given up, except for a few of us who fought for humanity. That is what my father and I were divided over, and that’s why he disowned my brother and imprisoned me. Wake up!” he shouted.

“Sorry,” he sighed. “Can I go, now?”

Ignoring him, Oceanus continued, “It was all because of Lucem who saw the potential that man had, if only they were educated, and then given choices. And so he sent his first piece of goodness into the world.”

“The first conjurer?” asked Jacko.

“Yes.”

“Tell me about him.”

“He was a boy born to the early dark ages, long before the Rome Republic. It wasn’t a pretty time. War was everywhere, and there were parts of the Earth that were still inhabited by the demons and their half human offspring.”

“What happened to the conjurer?”

“The demons fought him all the way to the Garden of Eden. Tired and severely beaten, he hid there for many years while the Earth went to hell as the Celts fought desperately to save humanity.”

“He hid while people died?”

“He was not so different from you, Jacko. After all, wasn’t it you on the mountain hiding these last few weeks?”

“That was different; there was nothing I could do to help.”

“Wrong, Jacko!” yelled Helius. In his outburst, his hair flamed several feet off his head, and his eyes literally blazed. “You were told to seek the orchard, but you didn’t listen.”

“Helius, sit down,” said Aurora.

When he’d rested back into his seat, Jacko asked, “So he was Lucem’s first son? What was his name?”

“Like others, he’s had many names. Most recently, he’s been known as Jove, but he’s in rest right now. He’s not supposed to come around for this war; in fact, we’re not sure that he’ll ever come around again.”

“But Jove couldn’t have been Lucem’s son. His father was Saturnus.”

“Though Lucem had many, many human sons,” said Aurora, “Jove was really his first. They bonded in a way that only a father and son could. When Saturnus found out, Lucem protected Jove as if he were one of his own, training him in battle, and giving him the skills he needed to defeat his crazed father.”

“Will he be mad if I visit him?”

“I don’t recommend it, Jacko,” said Aurora. “Never wake a sleeping god, lest it be the last thing you ever do.”

The conversation carried on for some time during which Jacko repeatedly nodded. Finally, he’d had enough and said, “I think I’d better be getting home, now.”

“What home? You have no home, boy!” Helius bursted. “You’ll stay here until battle time.”

“Helius,” said Oceanus, “the boy may leave if he wishes.”

“Where will he go? What if the demons get him?”

“He’ll go to the summit, of course,” said Aurora.

“Excuse me, gods,” Jacko interrupted. “I’ve taken care of myself my entire life. I don’t need you telling me what to do. However, I do plan to go to the summit, but there’s something I must do first.”

“What is that?”

“Bury my sister and my father.”

“Out of the question!” stood Helius.

“Sit down!” Oceanus also stood. “War hasn’t officially begun! The demons know not to touch him yet. He’s lost enough. At least allow him to mourn properly. Jacko,” Oceanus turned his eerie fluid ocean eyes to him and said “you may go.”

A mere second after Oceanus excused him, a traveling whirl of wind swept him up into its funnel.

Warring World

Chapter 2

He was in the funnel a few minutes before it cleared.

The first thing Jacko noticed was how the world had changed. Looking up, his heart pounded at the unnatural charcoal gray hue of the sky.

There were also no clouds. Perhaps the gods warring in space polluted the atmosphere. He couldn’t even see the sun; there was no wind and it was terribly cold.

The emotions of the gods were connected to the Earth’s atmosphere. Just like in the old stories, when the gods warred, so did the skies; that meant natural disasters. However, never had he ever heard of a sky so dark that it blocked out the sun and moon.

Eyes glued upward to the sky, Jacko put a foot forward and yelped. Painfully, he slammed backward onto his butt. He’d almost walked off a cliff the height of a small mountain.

He laid a moment, examining the topography below, which seemed to have many massive piles of rubble. At first, he thought he was looking at a trash dump. But after a second, he realized the funnel dropped him off on the mountain that towered behind his hometown, Mariton.

Jacko gagged on his breath, sitting further up on his elbows.

Since he’d been gone, the entire shopping district had been leveled. He wondered how many other cities had been destroyed so completely.

He pushed himself up and looked for a way down. Upon seeing nothing, he decided to use his power.

With just a thought, he was instantly there, in front of his father’s house.

The neighborhood seemed to be deserted. Most of the houses, up and down the block, were turned to rubble. His was the only one still standing, although just barely.

There were no birds in the sky, power lines were strewn about, and trees were upturned. Not a single car that wasn’t buried or crushed in rubbish was there.

He walked up the stone steps and, hesitantly, over the threshold of the unstable looking house. Inside wasn’t much different than last time.

Stepping over a pile of broken wood slats, he made his way to where the living room used to be. He braced himself for the sight of his dead sister.

Jacko’s jaw dropped when he saw that his sister was no longer there, lying on his father’s couch. His breath quickened and his eyelids widened.

After a moment of seething in anger, wondering if the demons came back for her, he told himself to focus. There wasn’t any more time to fall apart.

He stood at the foot of the stairs, noticing how more of the planks had collapsed.

Jacko jumped to the very top of the landing, which shook dangerously when he landed. Extending his arms outward, he focused on keeping the landing up and intact.

Wood continued to splint as he walked gently down the hall.

Slowly, he walked into his father’s room. The sight of him there, decayed, made him lose focus so that he fell through the ceiling, slamming face first down onto a pile of wood and drywall.

He lay stunned