Submission (#2123) Approved

Staring up at the cloudy sky Zeus contemplated his existence, he didn’t know who he used to be but sometimes… sometimes he had brief phantoms of emotions he long had since lost alongside his mortality.

He wondered, he wondered why he was still here, the strange feelings that weren’t truly feelings at all that clouded what was left of his mind.

Thunder boomed as lightning streaked across the sky in a brilliant display, mirroring the not-feelings choking up zeus’ chest.

He wasn’t who he used to be- he could never be, he was something that wasn’t alive, but wasn’t dead either and that left the poor soul with many confusing not-feelings, and so Zeus decided to sleep. For sleep was the only thing that could take away these not-feelings and the phantom pain from who he used to be.

When Zeus woke, the snow had fallen around him, the season had changed once more and the biting cold of winter did nothing to his undead body.

He moved his massive body slowly, registering the sound of voices as he cracked open his holo eye to see what was there.

“Zeus…. What happened to you?” It was a tiny bird like male terra looking up at him alongside others who reeked of terror.

Zeus didn’t comprehend the question, only that the tiny group of Terras was there and interrupting his nap.

And so, he brought his massive body up and began slithering through the trees of the snow covered wasteland of a forest before him.

He saw a massive cave and came to a stop before it, turning he paused at the sight of lights in the sky.

He wondered again why he was still here and why that bird had called him by that name.

It seemed to suit him, he pondered as the lights danced and twirled in the night sky.

Coiling his body, Zeus settled his upper body on his lower half and simply watched the heavens’ show.

Perhaps he didn’t really need to know who he used to be.

His chest expanded with the breath he took into his lungs before he let it out in a long sigh as the lights twisted and lit up the cliff he found himself upon.

But he couldn’t get the nagging not-feeling out of his tattered mind at the sound of that name.

And softly, in the depths of his broken soul a voice he longed to remember and hear once more whispered….

“I will love you always, my sweet Zeus.” And he saw the fuzzy flash of a green apple in his psyche.

“Ze…us…” the rasp of a long since unused voice echoed softly into the wind, dancing among the lights before fading like the dream of a strange green apple.