This month’s story is a bit of a departure; it’s quite short, and there really isn’t a whore in it, but I think you’ll enjoy it anyway. The Muse whispered it to me one evening in early January and…well, I’ve explained how she is when she wants my attention, so here it is.
“How many of them do you think are out there?”
“I don’t know, sir; far too many for us to fight off, that’s for sure. I can hear them moving all through the tree line, and they’ve sent several scouts out into the open.”
The chieftain tried not to show his concern, but he knew the young warrior would sense his feelings anyway. “They could attack at any time.”
“I’m afraid so, sir, and if they do we’ll surely be overrun.”
“That must not happen,” he said firmly; “Our mission is to protect the domain from invasion, and we will not fail while I am alive.”
“No, sir,” said the young one, though he lacked his chief’s resolve.
The leader drew himself up. “There is no choice, then; we must call upon the gods for assistance, lest we fail in our sacred duty.”
“But sir, were we not taught that the Holy Ones hate to be disturbed?”
“Only without sufficient reason, and I feel this is more than sufficient. We cannot allow the infidels to defile this sacred soil with their filthy presence, and surely the gods will understand when they see our dilemma.” He turned to the others, who had drawn up behind him, and addressed them: “My people! We must lift up our voices to the sky, in the hopes that the gods may hear our prayer and look with favor upon us. We must ask them to smite our enemies, or we are surely lost!”
He then began the Prayer of Summoning, lifting his face to the moon and chanting the ancient rite. The others joined him, and together their shouts rose up toward the sky and spread out through the night. As if in answer the invaders began their own chant, crying out to whatever strange deities they worshipped in their rude and barbaric tongue.
Suddenly, the square was filled with a radiance like that of a tiny sun, and the form of the goddess appeared in their midst; she took no note of them whatsoever, but glided to the barricade and looked out into the darkness. When she beheld the enemy, she lifted her staff and Behold! She smote them with a thunderbolt! The people trembled, but they had faith that she would not turn the terrible power upon them; the same could not be said for the barbarians, who fled in terror lest her divine weapon destroy them all.
When they saw that the danger was over, the people rejoiced and performed a victory dance; the goddess then smiled upon them, and with a gesture spread before them delicious foodstuffs. And then she was gone as suddenly as she had appeared, and the people shared the feast and praised her goodness and generosity.
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“What were the dogs barking about?” her husband called from the bathroom.
“Oh, just coyotes,” she answered. “I scared them off with the shotgun.”
“Honey, you didn’t have to do that; I would’ve taken care of it after I got out of the shower.”
“It’s no big deal,” she shrugged; “I had to go out to give them those table scraps anyhow.”
LOL. It’s a pity the gods most humans worship don’t act that way (they tend not to intervene at all). “The Holy Ones hate to be disturbed without sufficient reason”: now that’s a sensible attitude for more powerful beings toward less powerful ones in their care.
Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark!
My little English Bulldog would have kicked those Coyote’s asses. 🙂
Or maybe not!
Great story Maggie but …
Did she approach you while you were on your way to feed the dogs and … were you actually carrying a shotgun? 😀
Speaking of coyotes … I was actually an outdoorsy hunting / fishing kind of kid growing up … and coyotes were a LEGEND to me because I never saw one.
I see ’em on I-10 coming out of the swamps all the time now.
Same for alligators – never saw one as a kid. Used to love swimming in Black Creek in Mississippi … no gators. But … not anymore … I have to dodge the damn things on my motorcycle on Highway 90.
Same for dear … I NEVER ONCE killed a dear hunting as a kid and only saw one once or twice (briefly). Where I work now – have to shoo the damn things away from car in the evening when I leave!!
Thanx for that! I love reading your posts 🙂 Have you considered writing novels? If you are published, I’d love to know where to purchase your books.
Unfortunately, where I live, the police consider coyotes a threat to the public (due to their tendency to eat small pets) and so they are shot on sight. Such a shame, they are beautiful creatures.
Cry Havoc and loose the dogs of war.
This reminds me of an old story I read that appeared about aliens invading a primitive planet, but actually turned out to be about the arrival of the Conquistadors in the new world.
I read that story! Sadly, I can’t remember the title or author, but I’m pretty sure it was in an anthology called ‘Laughing Space’, featuring humourous stories from Analog.
Yeah, I can’t remember the author either… but I read it in an anthology too.
It was by Randall Garrett, and the title was “Despoilers of the Golden Empire.” I read it in Garrett’s anthology Takeoff!
This story is more or less based on fact. I can totally see you shooting a sawed-off shotgun to scare away old Wile E and chums.
Quite frequently; in fact that’s what gave me the idea for the story. 🙂
It’s a lovely idea that dogs see us that way – cats certainly don’t!
I’m pretty sure that my dog (may he rest in peace) just saw me as some other kind of dog, though.
Maggie, Your kink.com article is exxxxxxcellent. Thanks for putting it out there. The debate with anarchist book fair and kink.com is the most interesting debate happening in the moment. very powerful i’m sure it will be a hard road and a win win for all in the end. x Annie
I didn’t know I had one there! I reckon they must’ve reblogged something I wrote…a couple of days ago a spanking site reblogged my column on Lupercalia; was it that one or a different one?
Masterfully done, your excellency! Now close your eyes and…
would kill to know MM how you’d go about sorting out THIS little masterpiece, which in one foul swoop appears to re-introduce then reinforce almost every last cliché about prostitution you’ve worked for how long now to overturn; so far as i can see there’s not a single source given for the ‘information’ laid on so thick here, save for “an expert in the sex trade” holed up in Kent university…
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8835071/flesh-for-sale/
It’s Julie Bindel; she considers her ignorance about sex work to be a point of pride.
I would really enjoy seeing sell some of your stories, join SFWA and run for office in the organization. Even as a non-member I have found the current political battles to be highly amusing. I would love to see you produce even more rabble rousing…
This is a good illustration of why I don’t believe in gods or karma in any form: no matter what their point of view, there’s so much going on in the world that they would have to consider bad that they would feel the need to intervene often, and in highly visible ways. And it just doesn’t happen.
The closest thing we have to a verified historical account of divine intervention is the Exodus story depicted in The Ten Commandments, and that, of course, has been pretty thoroughly explained by the explosion of the volcano Thera on Santorini.
On the other hand, given the chance to play God in video game simulations, I find that no matter how attentive and helpful to my people I am in the beginning, I am cruel, arbitrary and capricious by the end….
Now that was pretty good! No, it was really good!
And hey, for all we know the woman with the shotgun could be a harlot. Or perhaps a retired harlot?
Yep, a retired one. 😉