questioning wonder. Seth just shrugged his shoulders at them, with a smile still on his face, climbed out of their shelter and stood to stretch. Garret too began to climb out giving his nemesis, the evil root, one last menacing glare, and then crawled out to join his brother. Ashton and Garret cleared the cover of their shelter at the same time and echoed Seth’s stretches with their own.
“Eat now or later?” Ashton asked the brothers, willing to follow their lead.
“Well, I could defiantly eat now.” Garret replied and walked back to the fallen tree to retrieve his pack.
“Good enough for me.” Ashton replied. Then he and Seth both went to gather up their packs as well.
The three boys sat outside the pit that was created by the tree’s upheaval, they sprawled themselves out in a rough semi circle, their packs in their laps and each pulled out a little something to eat. They ate in silence, Seth often smiling to himself thinking about his brother’s early morning battle. Catching the little secret humor Seth noticed Ashton looking at him, then Garret and smiling. The morning meal went off without a hitch, and soon they had their bedrolls back in their packs, and had their packs on their shoulders ready to go.
The day passed by quickly filled with small talk, all three of them avoiding any discussion of The Choosing. The trail was easy, winding forever downhill and the large pines that made up the forest above began to give way to oaks and elms. Less leaves had fallen at this lower altitude so it almost appeared to the boys that they were walking back in time from fall back into summer, though the occasional brisk breeze at their backs told a different story. It was just after they had stopped for lunch, and had hit the trail again that one of Garret’s questions spurred a lengthy tutorial by Ashton.
“Well let me think.” Ashton had started. “There used to be dozens of gods that people from all the races of men worshipped. Most of them are now forgotten or dead I assume.”
“Wait hold up.” Garret stopped him in his tracks. “How is it that a god, something all powerful, would be dead?”
“Good question.” Stated Ashton. “Sorry I didn’t think about elaborating on it, but I will. It is believed that a god can only exist a short while without worshippers, though none can prove it. It kind of makes sense though, think about it. If a god holds the power to alter men’s existence then to balance it out should not men hold the power to alter the gods’ existence? Like I said it can’t be proved of course, but with wars lands are taken over, with the new rule laws are set in place outlawing worship of a certain god. Time passes and so too the knowledge of the god, even the memory of it passes, then when no one is left to worship the god supposedly even the god vanishes. At least that is what some of the scholars think. My mom told me about it. Anyhow back to your original question, how many gods, who worships them, and what does it entail? Well to be honest I don’t think I can completely answer your question Garret. I have a limited knowledge of most of the Gods that are openly worshipped besides my own. Even less knowledge do I have of the few gods who are not openly worshipped, yet still have a few followers. But in any case I will try to tell you what I can of those I know if that will do?”
Garret simply nodded in response to Ashton’s question, and so Ashton continued.
“Well first and foremost of course is Lorentia. She is widely accepted as the Goddess of healing and nurturing. Being that most of us with a gift for healing come to worship her, and heal in her name, it is thought that we her followers have a gift for magic, but through us she channels healing powers to restore the wounded or dying. Most of us pray to her, I know at least my family does, even my father who doesn’t have the gift, though he knows firsthand of its power. Let’s see, I guess next, and of special interest to you would be Gorandor. As I said last night, he is the god of Honor and Valor. Mostly warriors worship Gorandor, and nearly all of his followers are human, elf, or dwarf, though some other races probably make up a small amount. It is said that of his followers, only those with a pure heart and pure intentions are blessed with his gifts. There are a few of his gifted followers in Valdadore so I won’t spoil the surprise for you, you will know them when you see them I promise. I don’t really know how his followers carry out their beliefs though; I assume they pray to him as well. Next on the list, who may also be of interest to you is Vikstol, the God of battle. Now this one is a bit trickier I think. Most warriors, if not nearly all of them give their spiritual allegiance to Vikstol. Not because he gives them wondrous powers, or grants them wishes or anything, but because he is supposedly the god who controls the outcome of every battle. It is believed that he is the difference between you dying from a single shot from an arrow, or you taking the impact of twenty arrows and still living just long enough to slay the man holding the bow. Most followers of Gorandor, who do not receive his gifts drift off to worship Vikstol instead. I do know that at least before a battle, Vikstol’s followers will pray to him, and some of his followers that still carry old traditions will often make a sacrifice in his honor. Next up I guess would be Valonore, the god of nature. He is the god of the green robed Druids you are sure to see around Valdadore. Druids use earthly magics to create natural things. It is said they can sculpt plants, animals, even stone and earth with their thoughts. Oh and most Ranger types, you know trackers, worship him as well, they say the gifted ones can follow a year old trail buried beneath desert sands if given the gift of a magical sight by their god. But who knows right? Let’s see there is Saranadia, the Goddess of defensive magic, though from my understanding not many people worship her anymore, most preferring offensive magic. But through worship of Saranadia followers are often gifted with the ability to shield themselves from nearly every type of harm, the most powerful of her followers were said to have been able to shield entire regiments of the Kings army. Though I don’t think any are currently alive that can do that. Hmm let’s see who have I missed…Oh yes Zeranthil the mighty god of offensive magic. He has many, many followers all of them wear the red robes of his order of mages, all with the gift of magic of course. He cannot give his blessings to those who do not already possess the gift. He gives all of them his blessing to varying degrees, those who worship the greatest, and sacrifice the most of themselves to him, wield his most powerful blessings. Let’s see there is Ximlin, the Dwarven god of stone and steel. Ximlin has blessed the entire race of Dwarves with the ability to create the most wondrous items with those elements. It is said he is very particular to dwarves, however my mom once said that on occasion he chooses a member of another race to bless with his gifts if they are worthy. Who does that leave?” Ashton questioned himself. He thought about it a moment and started again.
“Well I think that just about covers all the Gods still openly worshipped among men today, but there are a few that I don’t really know much about that a few still worship. There is Gompidil worshipped by some Gnomes as the god of inventiveness. Though most every gnome, that I have heard of who worshipped Gompidil, and invented something truly amazing, died shortly after unveiling his creation. Then there is Ishanya a Goddess believed to be the Goddess of lost souls, though some called her the Goddess of hope a long time ago. It was said that she sometimes gifted her worshippers with either great magics, or great speed and strength. Warriors who followed her, and had her blessing fought with unimaginable fury and unbelievable speed. They were once called berserkers, though it is widely thought that no more exist. Followers of Hers who possessed the gift of magic were said to hold the powers of life and death within their hands, killing with a word, reviving a fallen comrade with another. Most people today think these are just old legends though as not a single person with her blessing has been seen in hundreds of years if even the histories aren’t mistaken. I think there is still a temple for her somewhere in the older part of Valdadore though.
That leaves Dazilen, the patron god of thieves and assassins. Good luck finding his temples as they are all very well hidden. His blessings to my knowledge haven't even been revealed to anyone outside his worship, perhaps those gifted by him are sworn to secrecy though no one even knows if he is a real god, or really gives his blessing to any of his followers without even a shred of proof. There I think that does it, at least as best as I can answer your question. I’m sure there are a couple I am forgetting, probably even some I haven’t heard of considering the Orc, Ogres, Trolls all retain some of their old gods as do the Elves, Centaurs and Minotaurs.”
Seth and Garret both simply stared at Ashton in disbelief. Not because they didn’t believe his words, but because his words were so hard to digest. They had heard mention of many of the gods through stories from travelers at the inn in the past, even heard tales of all the other races of men that walked Thurr. But what completely caught them off guard is the fact that they had written them off mostly as simple stories. Tall tales created to fetch the imagination of young children to keep them from wandering off into the woods, or go out playing in the dark at night. Being that as far as they knew, James and their mother had never served the Kingdom, not out of any fear or any misguided feelings toward the Kingdom, but simply they were raised so far from the Kingdom he hadn’t even known about The Choosing until he and the twins’ mother had moved to Vineleaf shortly before the boys’ birth. The twins knew Dwarves and Elves were real, even Orcs and Goblins, but centaurs, Ogres, trolls, and Minotaurs too. It was a bit much. Next Ashton would be telling them that dragons and Unicorns were real too. It took a few minutes for the twins to regain their composure and realize that they had stopped walking to listen, then a moment longer to close their mouths, still open in disbelief.
After they had been walking again for several hours Garret peered off into the distance, and seeing
