Chronicles of the Flying Dolphin

Chapter 12: Homecoming

M'suier Le Privateer was stretched out most comfortably in a hammock on the poop deck. The great galleon was not a speedy craft, but lumbered through the seas stably and steadfastly. It had been ages since he had had any need of speed. Long realities ago a far younger Fractal had doubted the existance of as simple and primitive a thing as the very type of vessel upon which he now sailed. As with so many things that had once mystified him, he had learned to take the ship for granted.

Worlds had been won and their histories lay ahead unencumbered by the societal woes of politix or religion. Having begun at the end of time and fought back through the ends of a great many other things, his love and he had made certain that the fates of peoples and planets would only improve upon themselves.

The domes and spires of Atlantis shone to the east, the divine princess of that tranquil isle leant on the galleon's gunwale and meditated on it's beauty.

Fractal, in turn, marveled at the sunrise-colored locks of his life long love cascading down her muscular olive hued back.

"We've done far more than we set out to do, Princess."

"be done yet and not much to," she responded. She was right and he knew it, but it no longer saddened him. He only wanted to go Home. Maybe to start over...

Kristal took three small steps to her closest friend in all the worlds and stroked his forehead until the thought within him was still.

Go Home, she thought into his mind, Start over.

She turned and stepped onto the railing of the great wooden ship. Before she dove into turquoise sea and struck out for Atlantis, she stole one loving glance back at the sleeping infant man-child in the hammock. As she swam away she did not have to look back to know that the ship was gone - guided by dolphins which soared a mere meter above the waves on it's way to the eastern shore of an island not unlike the one toward which she swam, but on another world.

As she strode up the beach toward the palace Kristal remembered the most basic concept of her training as a temple girl. The foundation upon which her status as a Goddess was based; That any person, thing or place that was loved and/or worshipped became - by virtue of the love or worship bestowed on he/she/it - a god or Goddess. And, reciprocatively, that any person, thing or place which was feared and/or hated was made by the fear or hate into a demon.

Her love for the babe that had been a man, and for the man that had been a boy, and for the boy that had been a babe, was a love that reached back through her mind to her own infancy. It was a love that had crossed the line to become worship on a concious level many times. Kristal knew that it had been Fractal's love of her that had granted her immortality, and she felt fulfilled knowing that she had returned the kindness.

From where they sat in the hot tub, shaded by an ancient gumbo limbo tree, Lilith and Lilitu saluted her,

"Where's the Privateer?" they queried as one.

"He's gone Home."

"When will you see him again, Princess?"

"I see him even now." she answered in perfect, nondyslexic English.

No one even noticed.