[ WP ] `` And did you ever take a moment , just one , short moment , to consider the CONSEQUENCES of killing a God ? ''

Samuel ran into the tent, almost out of breath. 
 
 `` What fool thing have you done now?'' said Carmo, rising from the fire. 
 
 `` And what's wrong with your face?'' said Bas, face scrunched in confusion, `` and your clothes?'' 
 
 Samuel looked down, noticing for the first time that his skin had begun to glow, faintly, but gentle tendrils of light drifted up from his shoulders, like a flame dancing but slowed to a crawl. `` Uh, that's nothing, do n't worry about it. We have to go.'' 
 
 Carmo pointed his piece of broken bread menacingly at Samuel, `` If you've gone and slept with that farmers daught-'' 
 
 `` No, no, no. No daughters for me.'' said Samuel looking back and forth around the tent to find his bearings. 
 
 `` Then what? His wife?'' Samuel began rushing around the tent throwing his pack together. `` What in hells are you doing?'' demanded Carmo. 
 
 `` I am trying to leave. As you should be too.'' Samuel had finished and was wrapping his bedroll with belts and lashings. Spare clothes were falling out of the sides and one of his belt was n't fitting around the mess. 
 
 `` You're definitely glowing.'' said Bas, still sitting and drinking by the fire. 
 
 `` Why exactly should we be trying to leave? What have you done that we ca n't stay here for the next day like we planned?'' Carmo stormed across the room and grabbed Samuel by his shoulders and spun him. `` Stop flitting about and talk to me! Are you in trouble?'' 
 
 Samuel, suddenly looking very small let out a whimper of a breath. `` Yeah, I think I am.'' 
 
 `` What happened mate?'' Carmo's tone shifted to the brother in arms, the friend, the leader. From behind Bas let out a shout of triumph. Samuel and Carmo's eyes' shot to him. `` You've gone and killed a god, have n't you?'' 
 
 Carmo's face whipped around to Samuel's wide-eyed fear, stepped back to arms length and saw the glowing skin and the golden aura. `` Aww, no.'' 
 
 `` I did n't mean to. I mean, I did, but I was n't thinking when I did it.'' Samuel broke between Carmo's hands and fell to his knees. `` I just went into town to see the sights, maybe meet some friendly company. I was in the tavern having a quick drink when I heard screaming. Outside it was chaos. Half of the buildings I could see were on fire. At least a dozen bodies down in the plaza and at the center it all was this blazing god hurling power left and right. There were children Carmo!'' Bas had stood up and walked past the kneeling Samuel to the opening to the tent, and flipped it back revealing the distant lights of the still-burning town. 
 
 Samuel, emboldened by his tale, continued. `` Men were running forward to challenge the beast, but this must have been a very old god because none could get within a few feet without being scorched by his aura. I looked about for whoever had called it, but saw no one. He would have killed everyone, Carmo. Thousands lived in Belim. Thousands still do because of me!'' 
 
 `` And now thousands more might die because of you as well!'' cried Carmo. `` They'll be coming for you, damn it!'' Carmo turned to his own pack and began haphazardly throwing it all together. Samuel, still kneeling but turned back to his bedroll to try to fix its bindings. 
 
 Startlingly calm, still looking out into the night, Bas turned back to the conversation. `` How did you do it? Kill the thing, I mean.'' 
 
 `` I do n't know.'' Samuel started, arms shaking. `` I did n't think it would work, really. I've heard stories of men killing gods, myths and legends, only, y'know, but I was n't sure how. I did n't even know which of the gods he was!'' Bas wandered over to his pack and started slowly, methodically putting his things together. 
 
 `` One of the stories I remembered said something about the'blood of the sacrifice' penetrating their armor, so I found a spear from one of the fallen city guards and went searching for that sacrifice.'' Samuel had managed to tuck all of his belongings back into his pack and was pulling it onto his shoulders. 
 
 `` And did you ever take a moment, just one, short moment, to consider the consequences of killing a god?'' Carmo interrupted, tightening the last strap onto his bedroll. 
 
 `` No, but I have thought at length about the consequences of being killed by one and find them entirely unacceptable.'' said Samuel, some of his humor returning, at last. 
 
 `` And you found this sacrifice, I assume?'' said Bas, his pack now neatly put together, he began work on his bedroll and bindings. 
 
 `` Did n't even mean to,'' said Samuel. `` I was running through the district looking for a shrine that he could have been called from. Turned a corner and nearly ran over a small man in rags. He had been bent low over a small fire and when I leaned over to pick up the spear again, I saw that the handle was glistening with something sticky and black.'' Samuel reached up and began to untie the main tent post from the the fabric. 
 
 `` Leave it,'' said Carmo. `` It would take too long to get this all packed up. We'll just grab the weapons and go. Make better time anyways.'' 
 
 `` I take it the old man was the one who called the god down,'' said Bas, standing and slinging his pack over his shoulders in a smoother motion. 
 
 `` Never would have pegged him to know the magicks to pull it off. Summoning a god of that power.'' Samuel was smiling now, the glowing was getting brighter and the aura was growing warm. `` But he turned to me and snarled. The man called out to his god, he called out to the beast named Noach, the Unchanging and it appeared, rising out of the ground at the end of the street. I felt the heat from him from even thirty paces away.'' The three men stepped out their tent into the cool night air. Looking out at the city of Belim and hearing the distant panicked screams of the people fighting fires. 
 
 `` Gods... Noach. You killed an elder god,'' said Bas, grabbing his spear from the floor and passing the others across to Samuel and Carmo. `` I suppose these wo n't be much use in what's to come. No sacrifices. No blood.'' 
 
 `` I did n't even realize that it was blood on the spear until I had already thrown it.'' said Samuel, turning away from the city. `` I was sure I was a dead man and I prayed to my own gods for a quick end. My damned eyes were closed when I threw it or I would have seen the thing burn away. I wish I had watched its surprise, the surprise on the small ragged man's face when his god consumed itself. I imagine he was close enough that it took him with it.'' 
 
 Carmo turned and started walking out to the desert. Ten paces out, Bas followed. Samuel took much longer to disengage himself from the campsite. He looked up into the night sky, up where the gods watched and waited. From where they would soon come to meet their new brother and play with the mortals once more. He ran up the path to catch his brothers. 
 
 `` At least we wo n't need a torch to see where we're going,'' joked Carmo. The light from Samuel's skin now radiated like a campfire. The heat would grow in time, as would the difference between Samuel the man and what would become Samuel, the Unchanging God. For now, three friends walked to nowhere, to save who they could from the frivolity of the all-powerful and laughed while they could still laugh. 
 
 Above, the sky grew bright with the light of a thousand falling stars, descending on the desert. 
 
 And the three men still laughed.
