Negaduck

I used to just be some common boy. Before the fall I lived in the north of the Concra Jungles. The only thing that changed in all this time is my status of being common. Now I’m one of the most uncommon people that you could find.

I’m still not positive how it all happened, to be frank. The fall was swift, Leaders of the Empire all disappeared. Some thought it was assassination. Others thought it was some sort of conspiracy. I personally had no interest in matters of state at the time. No one would listen to some boy living out in the jungle. Now they want my help with everything. The great “Zviroupar” they call me. A union of two species. True harmony, that’s how everyone else sees it. I never wanted all of this.

Back before I had this visage I was just a boy living on a small farm. My parents wanted me to start taking initiative with either the crops or livestock. So they gave me two things to raise. A seedling for an apple tree and a small egg. I was allowed to raise both, whichever one I like raising more became my job. One or the other was the choice. The seedling was easy enough. I found a nice clearing and planted it. It was just a waiting game. The egg was easy too. Well at first it was. The egg hatched after the first week. Climbing out of the egg was a small duckling. After a few minutes of readjusting, it came over to me and started to nuzzle me. It was a cute little thing. It thought I was its mother.

A few weeks later I was given a choice by my parents. Plants or Animals. I wanted both, I asked for both, they said I had a few weeks to pick just one. If I couldn’t they would for me. In those few weeks the tree started to sprout. It was fragile. Local fauna wanted to try and eat it. The bugs were swarming it, so I stayed with it night and day. The duckling was with me the whole time.

That’s when everything went sideways. Some soldiers came into town carrying the Empire News. The whole paper this month scared my parents. The Khalashiri mining operation had caved in. Thousands of people were stranded. Fidal Ruradin the renown general had passed suddenly. Along with several other high ranking officials in the Empire. Everything around the world was on high alert. Everyone was scared. My parents left me to my own devices for a few days while they helped the town prepare for the worst. All of my time was spent with the tree and the duckling. My two closest friends. I never really had many living in a farming community like this. There were not very many children my age. So I spent the night out in the forest with them.

I awoke to screams and a bright red glow in the night sky. Fear gripped my soul. I tried to run but my legs wouldn’t move. Instead I stayed by the tree. The ducking cowering between my legs. Then everything went quiet.

The red in the sky coalesced into a beam that shone directly into the clearing I was inside of. The rush of fear made me faint. I wasn’t strong enough to look my own mortality in its eyes.

A cool breeze woke me up. Soft down rubbing on my face. I open my eyes to a bright blue sky. As I go to rub my head I hear what sounds like knocking on wood. I look for what made the noise. My hands are covered in what appears to be bark. I started to panic. In my confusion I tried to stand up. My feet never touched the ground, I was falling. Hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air. I thought I was a dead man. The descent was slower than it should have been, I was like a chick thrown from the nest. I touched down on the ground. BEhind me was the largest tree I had ever seen, in front was a familiar beak.

He was larger than moments before, my duckling that once stood at barely 6 inches was now taller than 3 men. I don’t know how but I knew these two were the ones I raised. The tree now stood taller than the entire jungle, the duckling larger than an elephant, still attempting to nuzzle up with me. Only to knock me to the ground. As I stood up I saw my reflection in the puddle I fell into. 

Barky skin stared back at me, poking out of my clothing was what looked like the feathers of a newborn bird. I was scared, my whole body changed. Everything was different, and I had no say in the matter. I sat there leaning onto the tree and my duck curled up next to me. Tears in my eyes. I was just a kid, now I had no clue what I was. I cried myself to sleep then and there.

I awoke to voices. Words I didn’t understand. A group emerged from the tree line, they all had different animalistic features. They started shouting. From the opposite end of the clearing emerged a different group, this time they had plant-like features. They were armed to the teeth. Spears and Bows aimed at one another. “Ainpar”. “Augpar.” was being shouted across the clearing. They looked ready to kill one another. Then two older beings walked out from the crowds. They approached the tree and my duck. Bowing down in some sort of prayer. They looked up and met eyes with me. A bleary-eyed kid about to be caught in the middle of some form of race war shouted. “Zviroupar” while pointing at me.

A hushed whisper fell over both of the crowds as they passed the name around in what I now know was astonishment. Soon they all gathered around me and prostrated themselves. The older gentlemen talked to me. When they learned I didn’t speak their language they both put a hand to my head. A small spell was cast and soon I understood everything they were saying.

I was being called and worshiped as a god. I was their prophesied leader, the one to unite the tribes and usher in a golden age for the Pars. A child no older than 15 was now to be the rule of the entirety of the Concra Jungles. I wasn’t ready for this, no one could have been.

They left me there at the tree that night with some scrolls. They said the scrolls contained the entire history of the tribes. With nothing better to do I began to read. The tribes claimed the tree and the duck were here before they were. They claim to have once been part of the two. For the last 300 years by my estimate, on account of the scrolls saying the father of my father of my father, et cetera. The two tribes have existed and been warring. The leaders wanted peace but found no way to create it. The foretold that the one who shares the traits of both tribes will then unite the jungles into one tribe. It was too much for me to read all this. If it really had been 300 hundred years then everyone I knew was gone. I had to get out of here and find out if it was true

At this point a lot of my life began to blur together. I am almost 2000 years old now after all. The cliffnotes of that part of my life would be that after a while I began to get used to my station. I was sought out by the different tribes who after meeting me all fell in line and began to worship me. I told them not to but they didn’t care, I was a god. They thought they had no right to even talk to me. Soon I was back at the tree, Cereblemuos they called it. The Tree of Life. While I found out what they called my duckling. Negaduck the Killer of Gods. They said that someone came through here and claimed to be me. He beat anyone who claimed otherwise, until he tried to cut parts of the tree for a house. That’s when Negaduck killed him.

Only I was able to get close enough to touch him. At least until now, with all the people coming to me I was able to calm his spirit and have him let people near him, without them getting killed. After my first few decades of rulership I commissioned the people to build a great city in the center of the jungles. It would be a place where anyone could go, without any judgment. Zviro, union is what it meant to them. They built it in my honor. WIth the city came a trail, one used for a holy pilgrimage to Cereblemuos and Negaduck. All the trees around Cereblemuos made it difficult to get close without a special passage being made. THe trees would turn you around and send you away. It was some form of defense mechanism to keep it safe.

Over my many years I led the people of the Concra Jungles. After a while they became like my children, I was no longer a sobbing child, I became their wise grandfather. Always watching over them.Their devoutness would rise and fall over time, but it never bothered me. As long as my people were happy. One day Cereblemuos opened up to me. A small nook was made inside of its bark for me to live in. I felt safe in here. Though this nook had a stairwell that led to the top.

As I ascended my heart started to beat louder and louder. Until the sound of it filled the entire chamber. That’s when I saw it. The most vibrant apple I had ever seen. Then I knew it then and there, the reason why I was still alive. The reason why I couldn’t bleed. That apple was my heart. I was forever tied to this tree. For better or worse I was one with the tree. This is my closest guarded secret. I’ve never told anyone about it before. If I did then my life would be at risk. Not even just that though, the race war might start again, if the people found out I needed the tree and was more Augpar than Ainpar then the war would start again. It would be all my fault. So I kept it a secret, no one will ever know about it.

Throughout my time I’ve seen gods rise and fall. The one I think of often was the Reaper. He was also from the Empire of Humanity. He controlled death and war. He was always looking for his next big fight. One day he came to my door. He caught me off guard and nearly killed me. That was until I found myself back at Cereblemuos with him on my tail. That’s where he fought Negaduck. That duck beat him handily, the Reaper ran scared for his own life. He was in a rut after that, he wanted to feel better so he found a mortal to kill. He picked the wrong mortal. Now instead of the Reaper we have Stirgis and Maria. A father and daughter just trying to live their lives, forced into a new one. Gods among men. They always have a place with me, they did kill the Reaper after all. Though my heart does reach out for Maria. The poor girl is the goddess of death. It’s not an easy job for someone so young.