On top of some city walls, a group of white men were staring off into the distance. Beside them, there were dozens of natives. The sun shone over the horizon, illuminating the fields and road beneath them. It also illuminated a monstrous reptilian head peeking over the horizon, staring at the city. It was gold, and the sun rose right behind it, forming a golden corona that hurt the eyes when directly stared at.

“What in God’s name is that?” the head of the white men asked. He was wearing a full set of plate armor, covered from head to toe in shining steel with only his face revealed to the outside elements. The other white men with him were dressed in steel as well, but only one or two wore full suits. The rest wore chainmail and armored pants. Chainmail was enough to stop the weapons of the natives. Donning a full suit of armor was overkill, but it made them nigh invincible with the drawback of having to wear it around all day.

The native beside the leader of the white men squinted and shielded his eyes with his hand. He gasped and swallowed before exchanging eye contact with the other natives that had seen the creature in the distance. “Do you think it’s…?”

“We’ll have to get closer to find out.”

“Should we approach?”

“Isn’t approaching the same as not approaching if it really is what we think it is?”

The leader of the white men glared at the natives before looking at the translator. “What are they saying? What is that thing?”

The translator wiped at his forehead and exhaled. “They … think it’s a god.”

“A god?” the white man asked. When he first arrived in this new world, the natives thought he was a god as well. That just meant everything the natives had no knowledge of was classified as a god. However, that monstrous reptilian head staring at him over the horizon…, maybe it really was a god?

“Is it a statue?” one of the white men asked. “It looks like a statue made of gold. It’s not moving either.”

“A statue?” The leader of the white men muttered. How could the natives build a statue this grand? But if it wasn’t a statue, then it had to be a living creature. A dragon? Didn’t those only exist in legends? He turned towards the translator. “Do dragons exist in this world?”

The translator shook his head. “A few of our gods are dragons, but they don’t live in this world. We sacrifice warriors to them, so they can continue protecting us.”

The white man pointed at the monstrous head. “Do they protect you like this?”

“Never like that,” the translator said and swallowed. “If it really is a god…, it might be Feathered Serpent—if we’re lucky.”

“Why would that be lucky?” the white man asked.

“Feathered Serpent is opposed to human sacrifices.” The translator exhaled and wiped at his forehead again. “It would be best if that were him.”

The white man frowned. “What if we’re unlucky?”

“Then he is Smoking Mirror.”

“I’m guess that’s a god that really appreciates human sacrifices?” the white man asked with a grimace.

“Yes,” the translator said. “He has many names. Two Reed. Night Wind. Lord of the Near and the Nigh. Possessor of the Sky and Earth. He by Whom We Live. Enemy of Both Sides. And lastly…, We Are His Slaves.”

“The god’s name is We Are His Slaves?” The white man raised his eyebrows. We Are His Slaves? Couldn’t they have named the god something less ominous!? “Did this Smoking Mirror look like that?” he asked and pointed at the monstrous head on the horizon. “I assume the feathered serpent does.”

The translator’s forehead wrinkled. “Smoking Mirror has no forms that are snakelike. However, what if he does, but we don’t know it? He’s a god. He can be anything. Just yesterday, the capital should’ve celebrated the festival of drought. That’s the festival dedicated to Smoking Mirror. If you tell me that’s a coincidence, I won’t believe you.”

“Captain,” one of the white men said. “What should we do?” He looked around. The natives were getting riled up, and the soldiers down below were climbing to the top of the city walls. “Is it really a god?”

“I think it’s a statue,” the leader of the white men said and frowned. “We’ll have to get closer and see.” He glanced at the natives. “But not all of us. We’ll send a few natives to scout ahead and report back. If it’s a god, we’ll….” What would they do? Return to their home country? That seemed to be the only choice. “Well. Let’s wait and see before we decide.”

***

Vur stood in the air in his human form with the help of Zilphy. He circled around the statue of himself, checking for any flaws. The statue was standing on its hindlegs with its front legs raised up as if it were about to claw down at something. Its wings were fully spread, and its neck was extended with its head looking down. Its mouth was opened, ready to roar with its teeth bared. The only flaws were that its scales were gold. Its eyes were gold too. In fact, everything about it was gold. What if Tafel mistook it for Vernon? Vur frowned and stroked his chin. “Diamant, can you make it blue?”

“No.”

Well, if Diamant couldn’t do anything about it, then the statue would have to remain gold. Vur shrugged and landed, eliciting gasps from the crowd that had gathered beneath the statue. They were on their knees, worshipping him. Vur looked around before approaching the base of the statue. Then he wrote, “Vur was here.”

“Hey, Vur,” Stella said, climbing out of the rose tattoo on his chest. She pointed at the prostrating people. “There’s a lot of sick people over there, like, a lot of them.”

Vur turned around and followed Stella’s finger. She was pointing at a woman who had so many open sores on her body that it looked like her face was falling off. Vur wrinkled his nose and waved his hand. A gust of green wind encircled the group of worshippers, and their flesh wriggled as it healed. Vur scratched his head and frowned. Why were there so many sick people everywhere? Maybe he should go around healing them while leaving statues behind. Yeah, that was a pretty good idea. Vur nodded. He couldn’t let his maybe-future subjects die now, could he?