2

A Beautiful Sky

The sky in this world was nice, beautiful even. A perfect shade of blue that was devoid of all clouds as far as Carrion had seen in the last seven days. Not a bad sky to die of hunger under, he thought.

    Why was he dying of hunger here? Not but a week ago Carrion was living in the countryside of Ireland, a Secondary school dropout working at a corner store and working out at the boxing gym in his free time. Everyday. Alone. For years.

   But then he had been left in this world by the beautiful Goddess Amoura, but was left on a deserted island devoid of fruit, animals and anything remotely edible, not even the tree bark. In the distance though he could see other islands and wondered if they were deserted too or if he had just gotten amazingly unlucky. Probably the latter. 

   It wasn’t all bad though, he had figured out to use his magic, while trying to kill birds that flew too close he meant to throw a ball of shadows but threw one of fire instead, and the sensation was wonderful. It filled him with a great and cosy warmth that no matter how much he held always stayed the same, though the island nature didn’t quite like it, with most of the plants around now burned to ashes. And he figured out the shadows but they were the opposite of the fire. Cold, unnatural, it didn’t make him feel good or powerful like the fire it just felt... Empty. The mask that accompanied the magic didn’t do any better for him, he was deemed the ‘Sin of Wrath’ and the rage filled demon mask only served to bring his insecurities to light in his mind.

   The choice he made so quickly before now haunted him.

   But none of that mattered now, he was going to die on this island without even seeing what another world was really like or even saying goodbye to... Anyone.

   Strangely, Carrion didn’t mind this. The last few days had been more interesting than his last few years at least.

   As the world faded and darkness crept into his sight, Carrion smiled. It really was a beautiful sky.

Greed didn’t know what the people of this world were going to be like when she first came here two months ago. She hoped they would be better than her own world. They weren’t. 

   This world was stuck in an archaic age where slavery of the unfortunate and second class citizenship of women ran rampant. And here she was on an island of just women who fight for their and anyone else’s freedom in a struggling war. It was nice, in a way. The circumstances that brought them to this island in a cluster of islands wasn’t of course, but the women themselves were full of life and had a culture of their own.

   They survived on crops and fish, trained in combat day and night, and laughed with friends while drinking coconuts. They were full of life, happy and free. It was so different from Greed’s experience. Happiness, even from a scared past.

   It wasn’t all good all the time though, they left on raids to free slaves frequently and many warriors would not return. She helped by using her teleportation to transport them when she could but they didn’t wanna risk losing Greed due to her usefulness. 

Huh, when did she stop using her own name? 

   Before she could continue that line of thought someone had burst into her hut. “Lady Greed!” The woman exclaimed, “Come quickly, the fishers found someone in strange clothes on one of the islands.”

   Well that sounds familiar, she thought.