Chapter Text
The car falls just as I wanted it to.
Water from the falls flowing over the windows and windshield.
The headlights shining down flashing and dimming interchangably every couple of seconds due to the water.
However, it stops before it hits the rocky bottom of the waterfalls.
I get held back by the seatbelt and I look around, confused as the car lifts up at least 100 feet over the highest point of Niagara Falls and levels itself.
I spot something to my left that flashed shiny brown… scales. It also weirdly smells like a… post office..? I finally turn my head towards it. It’s a huge and absolutely—holy shit—terrifying koi fish suspended in midair. It’s triple the size of my fucking car!
All I see is some of its scales and its large and shiny brown eye that is staring right at me. I scream loudly. Then, I hear more people screaming in the back seats and I look behind me. It’s my friends Timothy, Ben, Will, and Henry. I yell ever louder,
“I thought I was alone! How are you all here?!”.
They say, “We snuck in before you left.”
I can’t believe I was so stupid that I didn’t notice them for hours in my car. I knew I heard some shuffling noises in the back of the car, but I could’ve sworn it was my football gear in the trunk. I turn to the foreign koi.
“Who are you?” I ask.
It responds in a polite yet still commanding voice,
“I’m a goddess, the goddess of Transportation.” Her mouth is opening and closing, moving her fins slightly, and she flashes its gills as if she’s a normal fish.
“Okay then…” I say hesitantly. My mamí used to talk about gods and goddesses being real when she was still alive. I hadn’t believed her when I was little though.. Guess she was right? I snap out of my thoughts and ask pretty nervously “Why are you just noticing us?”
“I have been watching you all for quite some time, actually.” the flying koi—-being—-no, disguised goddess remarks.
“Wait, huh? What do you mean by that?!” Will yelps. He looks cautious and terrified. I can tell him and I trust that “goddess” the least. He says it just as the starry-eyed Ben responds simultaneously.
He beams, “Really?! That’s sick, dude!” My other two friends and I continue to be silent from the goddess who is terrifyingly holding up my car.
“¡Ay bendito! What is that?” I exclaim, frightened as I carefully peek outside to spot the wax wings holding us 10,000 miles above the bottom of Niagara Falls itself. Being held over the falls is much more horrifying than just plummeting down, so I’m wiggin’ out. I thought it would be just a quick fall to my death, not being held over Niagara for like 15 minutes. Plus, my friends are here. I thought I was going to die alone, I don’t want them to die too.
“Simple, Ángel. It is wax wings. It is quite an important aspect of the empire and our culture.”
Henry confronts the goddess,
“What do you mean by “our”? And “the empire”? This sounds completely bogus!” Me, Will, Timothy, and Ben agree with a rapid nod. The goddess is not helping our confusion. Are we part of an empire or something? Like the Romans or the Egyptians?
“Hm, haven’t you noticed how rare your last names are? Laetegu, Secerve, Amoraci, Elictor, and Volvaven. Those are specific to the empire and the culture all six of us belong to. Each belongs to a clan, where you are all heirs to the role of the head of the clan you belong to.” The goddess explains, slightly exasperated.
Us five look at each other confused and shocked. I can tell Will and I don’t believe her. She sounds like she’s high, but then again the whole situation is making me feel like that already. We’ll still listen to her… for now. We need to know more. We should definitely ask what empire she’s even talking about.
Ben’s face starts to light up. Of course, his first question is,“Wait, so you’re saying we’re related?! Wicked!”. While the goddess confirms it with the tail flicks her tail–a nod?, the other four of us facepalm. “Seriously, Ben? That’s your FIRST question?!” Will and I whisper-yell to him. Timothy mutters “Ben, you’re seriously such an airhead, dude!”