Chapter Four: Hailley. I Think About Gods For Some Reason

Here's chapter four of Evils: The Other Four. Sorry it took so long

I Think About Gods For Some Reason
I had no idea where I was.

One second, there was... a bunch of snake-things, and then all of a sudden I was sitting on a grassy ledge overlooking an ocean.

"Hello?" I called out, hoping someone could hear me. One of my sisters... Oh my gods, what were my sisters' names?... Did I just think Oh my gods?

I took a breath to clear my head. I looked around to try and find some mark of where I was. Fifty foot fall to the ocean in front... fifty foot fall to the ocean on my left... fifty foot fall to the ocean on my right... creepy dark cave behind me.

No points for guessing which way I went.

There was no way I'd climbed that ledge, which means I got there through the cave. So, to get out, the cave was my best bet.

Lakshmi, a voice said. You have not become wise.

"Who said that?" I called.

The cave entrance sealed itself. I screamed.

Hush, life of Lakshmi, the voice whispered. This new life shall all be over soon...

"Don't think so," I said as I looked around. I picked up the biggest stick I could find and stabbed at the wall. The creepy voice shrieked in pain as the cave entrance opened up again. I took the stick with me as I ran outside the cave.

"You shall pay for that, Lakshmi," the voice from the cave said. I could see now that the voice was not from something inside the cave, but rather from the cave itself.

For what I thought was a cave was actually an enormous snake.

I stabbed it with the stick again and noticed green sparks coming from the end of the stick. "Banda vāpasa, sarpa bāta!" I shouted. I had no idea how I knew that that meant Back off, snake-thing. Or what language it was.

The snake tilted its head. "You are quite powerful for one of Lakshmi's. Her livers are usually far less powerful... You may be useful to the Ouroboros later, young one..."

The snake turned around and sank into the earth, and I saw a girl running up behind it.

"You got rid of the Aghasura?" the girl asked.

"If that's what the snake was, then I guess so. Who are you?"

"My name is Asha. Liver of Hanuman and resident of Camp Life for the past two years. And that was an Aghasura, an enormous demon. As you saw."

"What's an Ouroboros?"

Asha bit her lip. "An Ouroboros is a symbol of a snake biting its own tail. In Hindu legend, an Ouroboros circles the great tortoise Kurma and holds up the world. But the way the Aghasura described it, it sounds like a bad thing, almost. So what do you want to call your staff?"

"My... staff?" I looked at the big stick I found inside the Aghasura's mouth."This thing? Um... what can I call it?"

"Well, which Hindu god do you live for?"

"Um... the Aghasura kept calling me Lakshmi..."

"The goddess of agriculture. So, your staff's power comes from the earth, or you wouldn't be able to use it."

"So, a name like... Earth's Strength?"

"Uh... it's a good name in English, but you may want to convert it to Hindi so it's power will be stronger. So that's... uh... Pr̥thvī kī tākata."

"So what happens now?"

"I take you to Camp Life to find out why the Aghasura was scared of you. And what the Ouroboros has to do with it. And how come we've never heard of you before, Lakshmi-kid."

"It's Hailley," I told her.

"Sorry, let's go!"