Book of Enki: 

‘They’re all so filthy, so soft and pathetic…’ Enki thought. Not like him. He was a marvel of organic engineering. Broad shoulders and thick muscles covered bones denser than titanium alloy. His emerald green scales shimmered in the afternoon sun, giving him a glorious glow rivaled only by the bejeweled crown upon his smooth, scaled, hairless head. 

Humans could be split open by a light breeze, but Enki’s hard scales could shatter diamonds. His black nails were equally strong and razor-sharp. They were the only thing on this pathetic planet that had a chance to pierce his hide. 

Humans were short too, even the tallest among them, dwarves by comparison. Enki at just under 8 feet tall, was shorter than a good portion of his fellow 5th-density reptilians, a fact his father and brother loved reminding him of. 

Here though, Enki was a god emperor of the Mesopotamia, untouchable, invincible, the sky serpent, bringer of water, knowledge, and creation. His father’s inventions were so feeble it disgusted Enki. All he had to do was introduce them to aquifers, farming, rudimentary civics, and the filthy beasts groveled at his feet, hanging on his every word. 

They did make excellent slave labor though, great thralls, expendable assets. This of course was Anu’s purpose when he created these humans, but Enki’s father lacked vision. Anu loved to act all-powerful, but Enki knew deep down, Anu feared the humans and their potential, which is why Anu put so many regulators and dampeners on their genome, and forbid any further genetic alterations.

Enki watched the crowd of spectators from his perfectly perched position. He had laid out in excruciating detail the plans for the coliseum so that his private booth would always have the lion’s share of the sunlight. It was also precisely placed at an ideal vantage point for the bloodshed of the fighting pits below. Just close enough so he could smell the carnage, but not so close that a stray fountain of blood could ruin his fine silk attire. 

Silk was a divine fabric, and while he could simply mass produce it in the replicators, he enjoyed watching the humans toil for it. Knowing how much suffering it took the humans to produce it gave Enki great satisfaction, one that was only rivaled by the smell of freshly spilled blood, and basking in the afternoon sun. 

Something was off this afternoon, however. The fighting pits were usually the highlight of Enki’s day, but he felt himself growing bored. Watching the pathetic, filthy apes thrash around, killing each other, enduring unfathomable anguish just for a minuscule hope of clinging to their short, brutal, and irrelevant lives a few moments longer used to make him cackle with glee. This worried Enki. If he could not find satisfaction in that, perhaps he was suffering from a mental illness, as his father often suggested. 

“Figures I would find you here, frittering your life away watching these meat bags slap into each other until one of them bursts.”

Enki’s vertical pupils narrowed in the center of his yellow eyes, and his scales bristled at the energy of the thoughts beaming into his head. “I knew there was something foul in the air today,” Enki retorted.

“A zenith of intellect and originality as usual brother,” responded a towering figure. This being was reptilian as well, only he was far taller, just under 9 feet. Instead of green scales with black stripes, this reptilian had scales as white and pure as fresh snowfall. His body was muscular, but leaner than Enki’s. Another distinction was a pair of wings folded neatly behind each shoulder blade. Also, instead of yellow irises, this being had ice blue ones.

“What do you want Enlil?” Enki growled.

Enlil smirked, showcasing an array of pearl-white, flawless fangs. “What? I can’t visit my favorite little brother without having some kind of agenda?”

“No, YOU certainly cannot,” Enki commented without even as much as a sideways glance toward Enlil. The only way to get under his brother’s skin was to treat him like he was insignificant. Enki could tell the strategy was working, because he could hear his brother’s scales start to bristle. 

Enlil only laughed in a dismissive tone. “Forever the problem child. I guess that is why father has relegated you to watching over the livestock on this desolate rock, to minimize any collateral damage you might cause by your famously unscrupulous behavior that might embarrass our house further. I suppose he privately hopes that the Draco Federation will simply forget about you altogether if you spend enough time in the middle of nowhere. Enki the ape shepherd, how delightfully droll.”

Enki’s rage gurgled in his belly with the heat and intensity of a supernova, but he masked it carefully with a psychic shield. This took great effort, as Enlil was an adept psychic, far more talented than Enki himself. Fortunately, Enki had the aid of nanites he had installed in his skull to boost psychic shielding. They would not stand up to a direct psychic attack from Enlil, but they would suffice for hiding thoughts and emotions Enlil was oblivious to. 

“Your hubris will be your undoing brother. These humans are far more useful than you think. They are surprisingly adept engineers, and excel at following orders, my favorite part about them. Look what I have created here with only my command and a bit of instruction.” Enki said, gesturing to the grandeur of the coliseum.

Enlil’s smirk only widened. “Ah yes, and what a fine pile of sticks and rocks and mud it is.”