Dance Of The Damned :The Dawn Gods War

The morning of mourning

The destruction of Gorias, the second planet turned out to be entirely successful. All of the traitorous Fomorii hive minds were eliminated. All that remained were those in the possession of the Aos Sidhe.

Murias had become space rubble, Falias a blasted ruin, Gorias a seething hell.

Power breeds arrogance, arrogance brings complacency. Complacency is the killer.

Victory often brings a delusion of safety.

Arrogance and stupidity go hand in hand. Both are extremely foolish choices.

Dreams are a deception.

Memories that twist, writhing in anticipation of , understanding.

Understanding what though?

Emotions? Fears? Love? Lust?

Desires? Perception?

Yes. All of that and more.

Catha twisted through her memories. The dying screams of millions, the outrage at sudden destruction echoing through her mind. Replaying again and again. Repeating until each spark of agony had been sorted, accounted for and experienced individually. Only then could the shock of loss be understood and could mourning begin.

Mourning , it rhymes with morning because mourning is the birth of healing just as morning is the birth of day, the end of the darkness of night. Both are the basis of hope.

Mourning is the birth pangs of hope born out of the pain of loss.

Physically Catha had spent most of her physical healing unconscious. That did not mean, unaware.

Amidst the dying screams of her world, one voice brought love.

Nodens touch, his presence brought comfort, a place of safety amidst the consuming flames of horror relived. Death re-experienced.

Those Aos Sidhe tl did not share a hive mind like the Fomorii. The Aos Sidhe shared a common heart with the Draeg and each other.

Love, more than an existential idea. Love as an underlying state of union, an existence of quantum entangled souls. A state of being in which individual spirits retained separate identity while sharing wonder and joy, curiosity and connection, both pleasure and pain. There was no fear, no envy, in that union.

There had been no sorrow, no fear until it had been betrayed.

When that bond was shattered, fear was created, sorrow was born, madness and rage, fury the new reality.

Paradise was lost. A burning sword of fury guarding the way back into the garden betrayal had destroyed.

Nodens voice whispered through her terror, bringing her hope, reminding her of love. His touch, caused Catha to remember that she was not alone. That she was loved, that she loved.

Whenever the horrors overwhelmed her, Nodens called her back from the abyss. Each time, Catha discovered love anew. She found hope, strength and purpose.

Nodens laughed. The unicorn bellowed enraged, stamping, shaking it's massive horn.

Nodens stamped a war dance in reply posing with his spear. This confused the unicorn.

This continued until the monstrous beast calmed, allowing Nodens to approach close enough to touch the unicorn. Which progressed into petting. All the while Nodens alternated between a gentle baritone whisper and a lilting song soothing the wary monster. In time, Nodens was walking around the beast, casually touching it, the beast stopped trembling, now studying this strange creature.

Nodens, emboldened, made an arrogant mistake.

Suddenly leaping up onto the great shaggy unicorns back. The beast froze at first startled, then began to shake its head trying to scrape this annoyance off off it's back with the long curved horn.

Nodens swaying, squirming to hold on grasped an ear. Unfortunately for Nodens, a unicorns ears are highly sensitive. The more the unicorn shook it's head, the tighter Nodens held on.

The Unicorn froze in place. Nodens let out a victory laugh.

No, the proud unicorn was not going to tolerate this. The long necked white birds that followed the herd were bad enough when they boldly sought to steal a perch.

This circumstance could not be tolerated.

The unicorn huffed twice in warning. The pest ignored the warning. The Unicorn lowered its head, stamped, pawed the ground. Nodens shouted at his men in victory. “See! I told you I could!”

Watching Aos Sidhe warily approached, debating amongst themselves , making and paying off wagers.

The Unicorn bolted, charging the Rangers. The Aos Sidhe scattered.

Nodens dropped his spear, clutching the unicorn’s Ear in a death grip.

The enraged unicorn ran, bucking, spinning in circles huffing and bellowing. Nodens held tight to the ear until finally the great horn caught Nodens hurling him to the ground.

Nodens rolled struggling to his feet, dodging the long curved horn. “Do not harm it lads. This one is mine! No matter what harm it not!”

The duo danced until at last Nodens was impaled. The unicorn raised its head shaking Nodens, who flopped back and forth limply.

“ Do nae kill it lads!” Nodens shouted until once again hurled to the ground. That was when the enraged beast stamped it's discontent emphatically into the wounded, bleeding, silent body of Nodens. Tearing off most of an arm in its frenzy.

While the Unicorn danced in victory the Aos Sidhe rangers worked to distract it. One being gored in turn for his troubles. While the unicorn was focused on it’s new horn ornament the other Aos Sidhe gathered up the smashed, torn and broken Nodens.

After freeing it's horn the unicorn charged away. It could not go far. A herd had been trapped in the box canyon. The entrance fenced , with a deep ditch and fencing of coiled razor wire on both sides of the embankment.

In minutes both Aos Sidhe were aboard the transport and airborne returning to base at full speed. A sonic boom shook the box canyon sending the herd of unicorns into panic.

Nodens was taken back up to Cruithne, placed in a healing bawn beside Catha.

The Dagda Osiris was not precisely pleased. Though Nodens would live, it would some time before he would be able to walk again. Almost every bone had been broken except the skull. Nodens right arm had been torn off. That would take longer.

The only redemption from the fools debacle lay in the recording of the entire event. Sixteen different angles.

Nodens curses, shock, dismay and refusal to let go was an entertaining distraction. Nodens was right. Taming those beasts would be a challenge. They would make magnificent, if somewhat ugly mounts.

Perfect for hunting the Mastadons, mammoths, Aurochs, cave lions, the giant short faced bears.

Tigers prowled the mountain valleys as well. There were these other creatures, vaguely man like that wandered following the beast herds as well. Unlike the monkeys and larger apes, these had less hair, made stone tools, and used fire. There were not a great many of them, and they traveled in small groups. So far there had been no direct interaction. The manlike creatures were very good at hiding and avoiding the Aos Sidhe. They presented no threat and aside from evasiveness, no challenge. The Aos Sidhe ignored them.

The Aos Sidhe were well provisioned by the bounty of this world. It was honestly as if it had been designed for them.