In answer, a huge rumble shook the ground.
Ahh yes. Snow, heat, flood and now we were at the earthquake part of this whole trip.
#FML #ApocalypseWorld
The shaking stopped briefly before I was hit with an aftershock. This went on and on until I eventually realized it was no earthquake. It was footsteps.
Giant footsteps.
Rushing to a small cracked window, I peered through and spied an honest to gods giant. Over thirty feet tall with a gnarled face and vaguely humanoid features, he sniffed the air, looking in the direction of the red brick building.
Fear crashed through my fatigue, and with rapid breaths I backed up, trying to find another miracle. Right now I was human, pregnant, with no weapons. And my baby Titan appeared to be napping, because the belly had been kick free for a while.
“Wake up, baby, we got trouble.” I jiggled my belly a little and felt a squirm.
At the sound of my voice, the footsteps intensified until the red bricks shook and wobbled.
“Baby…?” I said again, more urgency in my voice. “Mommy has to protect you, but right now she's a little low on power.”
I mean, sure, I did magic stuff, but that was always because of the baby, right? I needed her cute little face, saving me like the hero she was.
More squirms and wiggles, and then the roof was ripped completely off the building. Covering my head, I ducked down low so that none of the debris smashed me to the ground.
The giant was briefly interested in the roof, before tossing it aside, but now my movement must have caught its attention. It peered closer, and blinked its single eye. That wasn’t the only defining feature. It had wrinkled skin and a full head of feathers. This was no friendly giant like from the stories. Nope. This was something maybe even more weird than the chimera camel, and that was really, really saying something.
“I taste terrible,” I screamed, attempting to run for the trunk but not being able to because the rest of the roof landed right in the spot I was about to step. Spinning on my heels, I sprinted as fast as I could in the opposite direction, heavy shuddering steps getting closer and closer behind me.
A sharp baby kick in my side was the first indication that shit was about to go bad; the next was a severe gust of breeze as the giant swiped for me. Somehow, I stumbled under those massive hands, avoiding being grabbed, but sprinting while pregnant was neither advisable or particularly effective. At this point I was at a fast waddle; he could have crawled quicker than me.
A heavy hand grazed my side, and my shriek was cut off just as I was yanked out of the world of insanity. Like, literally. That familiar feeling of being zapped hit my body, and I sent out my sincere thanks that we were leaving this world.
When I hit my next destination, I landed heavily on my hands and knees, great heaving breaths puffing in and out of me. I gave myself exactly three seconds to hyperventilate before pulling myself together. My daughter clearly got her sense of direction from her momma, so that meant I could be literally anywhere right now, with any unknown danger.
The trunk!
Lifting my head, I wanted to cry as a very familiar world came into sight. Not to mention a familiar trunk, sitting right beside me. #ThankYouBaby #You’reMyFavoriteChild
I was back where I’d started, the world where the Titan-god challenge went down. It looked completely deserted—the type of deserted that came after a war. Not a single tree remained in the ground.
Hauling my aching, tired, hormonal body up, I swayed for a second on my feet, my mouth bone dry, stomach growling. “Cronus,” I tried to shout, but it came out more like a strangled croak. “Please, for the love of gods, please be able to hear me in this world…”
“Tell me you didn't just say 'for the love of gods,’” a familiar, snarky voice said from behind me. “I mean, have you no loyalty?”
Spinning, I almost fell over, my head still swirling even after I stopped. “Rhea!” I croaked again. “I need Cronus.”
Stumbling forward, I almost fell to my knees, my legs way more unsteady than I expected. Hopefully this was just exhaustion, adrenaline crash, and thirst. I refused to think that anything could be wrong with my baby.
“Cronus is on a war path,” Rhea said, and for once she looked terrified, her sass drying right up. “He ripped through the gods. I'm not even sure which ones are alive or dead, and now he's bouncing around all the fucking worlds because he sensed you were taken to one but couldn't get an exact location.”
Rhea wrapped her arms around my shoulder to steady me, our frenemy bond staying strong.
“I was on this fucked-up world where the landscape changed constantly,” I told her. “And this flying camel attacked me, followed by giants. If it wasn't for baby girl, I'd be dead.”
I patted my tummy, which looked bigger again. This kid was going to get an eviction notice soon if she didn't stop growing. I felt like I was about to topple over.
Pulling my focus from the protruding belly, I blinked at the expression on Rhea's face.
“What?”
“A world that changed terrain?” she asked, leading me over to a tree that had been sliced off at the stump. We both perched on the edge, and I was relieved to not be holding myself up.
“Yeah, like snow, then desert, then floods, all within a single day … or what felt like a day.”
“That's not possible though,” she added, her hands cupped together creating a ball of ice.
“I know where I went!”
#IHaveLowBloodSugarBitch #GetWithIt
“Not even Titans can breathe the air on that world,” she added in a rush. “It's legitimately the most uninhabitable place in the first ten galaxies.”
Well, great. “Do I look okay?” I asked, panicking that I was about to drop dead from the toxic air there. “I was there for like twenty-four hours at least.”
Rhea's eyes dropped to my stomach and I thought she muttered something about “What fucking baby did they make,” but I was probably wrong because that was super rude even for this super bitch.
“Well, you look alive and your skin didn't melt into a puddle of goo, so it mustn't have affected you.”
Okay, she was that rude, but I ignored her because she handed me the ice ball, dropping it into a bowl that was sitting nearby from my camping tent.
“Have the baby use light magic to melt it so you can rehydrate,” she told me.
Desperate for water, I held my hands over the bowl and willed some heat. It melted instantly, and I pulled the bowl to my lips and chugged the warm water greedily.
“Go get Cronus for me,” I said through gritted teeth, reminding myself that it wasn't okay to use my baby as a weapon and send Rhea to that same planet where her perfect skin would become toxic sludge. As tempting as that was…
She crossed her arms, opening her mouth to say something assholish, I was sure, when there were two pops beside us, and Hyperion and Theia appeared.
My grandparents ran toward me, throwing their arms tightly around me as soon as they reached my side. “Maisey!” Hyperion said, sounding emotional. “We have been searching for days.”
Days?
Relishing in the love and warmth, knowing I was cared about, that I had a real family … way too much for the hormones. I started to bawl.
“Can you get Cronus for me…” I choked out. I was still thirsty, which scared me, and so hungry I wouldn’t rule out eating Rhea if shit got rough.