Led Zeppelin 1 was how Morningstar began his day today. The perks of being a deity allowed him to listen to whatever whenever by just thinking of it.

I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do

I can hear it callin' me back home

Morningstar’s hands twitched as the song played through his head and he gave into the feeling, drumming away on the air with ethereal drumsticks. He’d told himself that he was getting better and maybe this was a sign he was growing. He cracked a small smile, partly in relief of how long it was taking the pain to come and partly in love of the music he’d never forgotten.

As he had that thought, the wave of memories hit him again and he succumbed to them again.

-----

He had just turned on the app and began driving to slowly roam around the downtown arena. Ding. Already someone had asked to book him for a ride. It would be 15 minutes. Pass. He’d get way better ones by the time he got downtown.

His first passengers were a couple. They were young, maybe in college or just recent graduates. Both were nice, they asked him about what he did besides the ride share app. He told them he was a drummer for two bands, Tales of the Tomb and a Led Zeppelin cover band. The ride would be 37 minutes, so he decided to just keep on talking.

His wife had taken a second job at a retail store and her first was as a dental assistant. They needed a lot more money if they wanted to do the destination wedding they had always dreamed off. Natasha, his wife, wanted to get married near Niagara Falls but he had dreamed of Italy. His mother was from the countryside and she had gone back when he was 15. Not that he cared much but the postcards were fucking lovely and after watching so many spaghetti westerns he thought his head would burst, he really wanted to go to Italy.

The couple were talking again. The young guy was talking about how both him and his girlfriend were moving to another state where he was going to graduate school. Ah so they are in college. The girlfriend was sweet, asking about what flowers they were thinking of and saying how she’d help her sister prepare for her wedding.

The Morningstar as not yet the Morningstar dropped them off near their college. They rented a house nearby, they were seniors so of course they had to!

It was like fate. When he tapped “Ride End”, he got a text from Gio asking if he could play tonight. He’d gotten them booked, miraculously, at Luc. It payed, it definitely payed but maybe he might make more money tonight in the ride share app. But he knew in his heart he was going, fuck the ride share.

He drove home quickly, staying 10 above the speed limit always, and packed his stuff into the van. Carefully. He was always careful. A musician who damages his instruments isn’t worth half a rat’s ass is what he believed.

The next memory was playing Dazed and Confused. They’d decided to throw in a Led Zeppelin song in anyways and holy shit the crowd went wild. This time he was nearer the front than he usually was and feeding off the crowd felt like a drug. He was lost now, he was drumming and he was watching himself drum as if from a dream.

The song ended and the crowd’s scream almost deafened him. He cracked a smile.

After the set, Gio had introduced them to Luc’s manager. The manager had loved them, offering them another spot in a month. Maybe they’d fucking done it. Maybe they’d gotten some break, however small, this was a BREAK. He was ecstatic.

Finally, he took a seat at the bar and ordered a gin and tonic. Before he could pull his phone out, the Morningstar not the Morningstar yet was approached by the previous Morningstar.

-----

He came back from the memories and bobbed his head to Led Zeppelin. He’d decided to block out everything after the bar. Until he could get some therapy.

Turning his gaze downwards upon the city he was floating above, the Morningstar mused on how he had become the protector of this metropolis. The people of this republic were more than able to protect themselves from danger and yet had summed him as their Guardian.

Morningstar, Jörmungandr has responded. It will hear out our negotiations. We are circling the eastern border of the Litani river now and await your response.

Messages like these had become less jarring for Morningstar but it still astounded him how far these telepathic messages could cross distances. As Morningstar prepared to answer, wave of nausea hit him with full frontal force. He nearly dropped down to the city, gasping for breath. He angled down and pull his wings behind him into a nosedive towards a clearing far from the city.

Something in the world was wrong. It felt like a puzzle piece had been fit in incorrectly, making him uneasy and nauseated by its existence. The Morningstar left his body and began a slow dissolution to become part of the surrounding atmosphere. The atoms in the air made way for Morningstar to enter, the gas molecules shifting to the side. He permeated quickly, becoming a size so tiny he could zip through the gases surrounding him. He expanded until he came closer to the otherworldly thing. It was crawling, slowly and steadily. The more he looked the more he was nearly overcome with fear and disgust.

He began to approach but it had made its way into dorsla. He sighed and molecules zipped all over. Pulling himself back into his body, he pondered over what he had seen today and what Jörmungandr would want.