Prompt #254- From Whence We Came - We Gods - Tekia - original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: We Gods
Fandom: Original
Prompt: From whence we came
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: Jacky can finally speak with the people around him. What he learns may leave him wishing for ignorance once more.

Jacky woke on the back of a horse, once again. He blinked in the bright light of the midday sun and wondered how he had slept through so much. He feared he was becoming narcoleptic. He rubbed a hand over his unshaven chin and looked about him. Mata’ka’ala was a solid wall at his back, his arms surrounding him as he held the horse’s lead. There were dozens of people on horses around them, more walking, and still others herding sheep, cattle, and pack animals.
He had known that the people had left Hattusa in an orderly fashion when they had faced destruction from their enemies, but it was quite another thing to see it happening before him. They had all their belongings with them as they moved away from their empire’s center. There were wagons loaded down with everything they possessed, for he knew they had left nothing behind for the archeologists to find.
Jacky twisted about in the saddle to look behind them and saw that their group was larger than he would have thought. Maybe two hundred people, in all, he guessed. He had always fancied they fled in smaller groups. How else was he to explain how they all just disappeared into the fog of ancient history?
Finally, he turned to Mata’ka’ala, to meet those startling blue eyes that were watching him. His mouth suddenly went dry and he could feel his body reacting, heat coiling low in his gut. He had to clear his throat before he could find his voice. Still, it shook when he spoke.
“Where do we go?”
“Jarablos. We go to rebuild. You will be greatly needed there.”
Jacky frowned, watching the people around them move forward with ease and an almost pleasant atmosphere. These people may be sad to lose their home, but they were already moving on, looking forward to their new home.
“Why will I be needed?”
“You are Telepinu. With you there, we can rebuild after the Sea People’s attacks and we will survive this trial.”
Jacky looked back up at Mata’ka’ala. “My name is Jacky. Why do you still call me Telepinu?”
Mata’ka’ala frowned down at him and began speaking rapidly, leaving Jacky to catch a few words here and there. He held up his hand.
“Whoa there, I can’t follow you when you speak so quickly,” he said in English before switching to nešili. “Slower, it is hard to understand you.”
Mata’ka’ala took a bracing breath, his eyes closed, as if speaking slower just for Jacky’s benefit were a trial on it’s own. “The people must know you as Telepinu, if we are to survive this. You and I, we have nothing to help us out of this mess, save for our gods. As long as our people know you as Telepinu, you will find all doors open to you. We need this.”
Jacky took a moment to take this all in before he asked, “What does Telepinu mean?”
Mata’ka’ala’s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped minutely. “Are you simple?” he asked, incredulous. For a moment, Jacky was offended. Just because he didn’t know…
He shook his head, clearing his thoughts. There was no point in anger. “I do not know your language well. I do not know what is happening.”
Mata’ka’ala was silent for a long time. Jacky faced forward, his fingers idly playing with the course hair of the horse’s mane. Jacky was beginning to nod off from boredom when Mata’ka’ala’s deep voice startled him awake.
“Hannahannah is our mother goddess.”
This much, Jacky knew. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes and tried to focus on what Mata’ka’ala was saying, and not how his body was reacting to his voice. The deep tone, the way his voice caressed each word he spoke with deliberate slowness just so Jacky wouldn’t become confused.
“Teshub is our lord of the skies and storms. Telepinu is the summer prince, our guardian of our farms.” He paused to untie a water skin from the saddlebags. He offered it to Jacky first, and Jacky drank the warm water gratefully. He hadn’t realized how dry his throat was until then. He gave it back to Mata’ka’ala while wiping the back of his arm over his lips.
“Why do I have to be known at Telepinu?”
“Telepinu grew angry with the world and left us. Our farms failed. Many died. We prayed for a very long time for Telepinu’s return.”
He paused again to drink from the skin, and Jacky watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed with his drinking. His eyes were drawn to where a drop of water escaped the corner of his mouth, slowly trailing down his chin. Jacky swallowed heavily and forced his eyes away. He didn’t like how so much about himself was suddenly different. Very different.
Mata’ka’ala returned the skin to Jacky. “Teshub was sent to find Telepinu, but could not find him. We had all but given up hope. The Sea People were at our door and we were weak without Telepinu to give us strength through our crops. Teshub went to Hannahanna, and she sent a bee to find Telepinu.”
Jacky’s eyes went wide and his hand instantly went to the spot on his neck where he still remembered the bee sting that had happened just before he first lost consciousness.
“Telepinu was sleeping, and the bee awoke him. Brought him back to us.”
Jacky was shaking his head. “I’m not a god.”
Mata’ka’ala leaned over to look at Jacky’s ashen face. “You host Telepinu, the sleeping fertility god inside you, as I host Teshub.”
“Teshub? The sky god?” His mind going a mile a minute, Jacky quickly came to a conclusion. “That means you are … the god king?”
“I am. We are living gods, Jacky.” He said his name with the strangest of accents, and Jacky liked it quite a lot. A shiver coursed down his spine. “The gods will be with us until we return from whence we came and reclaim their holy center from our enemies.” His arms tightened around Jacky. He looked up into those blue, blue eyes. “It is you and I who must save our people.”