The sound was like thunder.
What finally woke up little Meriah was the tumultuous shakes that accompanied the loud crashing sounds. She threw off her blankets and slipped off the bed, balancing herself on the quaking ground.
“Papa? Mama?” she called but received no answer. Her hut was empty.
Clutching a small ragged doll that her brother had sewed up for her, she made her way out of the hut. She winced at the bright sunlight shining down on her upon exiting the dark interiors of the small mud hut that her family called home.
She stood on the dirt, confused. The sky was clear – not a cloud in sight. Yet, she could hear the thunder. And the ground still shook in repeated intervals.
“Meriah! You’re awake!” It was Remul, her brother, who was running towards her.
“Da!” Meriah squealed. “Papa? Mama?” she inquired.
“They’re off to the Hallowed Grounds,” Remul answered, excited. “The Gods have returned!”
Remul scooped up his sister in his arms and started running in the direction of the sun. He had been told to stay behind and look after his sister as his parents had rushed away to investigate the claims of breathless tribesmen who had come running into their land claiming that the Gods had returned to the sacred ground. Soon after, the thunders had started and the ground had begun shaking.
“If it’s true that they have returned,” Remul gasped in between pants as he ran barefoot across a grassy knoll, “then we will be the first people in over a millennium to have seen them!”
The thunderous sound continued to echo around them. The shake always came a few seconds after the sound.
With each subsequent thunder, Meriah grew more scared. She clutched the worn rag that her brother had thrown over his torso, her grip growing tighter with each quake.
The quakes seemed to grow in amplitude the nearer they drew to the Hallowed Grounds. Remul avoided twigs and pinecones as they fell down from trees that groaned and shook in sync with the quakes.
Relum would have collapsed from exhaustion if not for the energy that seemed to refill his body every time the thunder sounded. It came in waves with the quakes; he could feel his breath come back and the energy return to his legs and arms each time the wave passed through him.
“Look Meriah, the Sacred Henges!” Remul exclaimed.
The tall rocks had been built by his ancestors on the Hallowed Grounds in reverence for the Goddess that had given up her life in that location to seal away the Enemy.
Something crashed into one of the rocks. It exploded in a shower of stones.
Remul stopped in his tracks at the sight.
The ten foot tall rocks had stood strong for a thousand years, weathering against all the elements and barely showing any outwards sign of wear. They had been blessed by sages of the old to stand forever until the end of time. The strongest pickaxe would break down and the rocks would still remain unscathed. They had survived lightning, fires, and floods.
And yet, one of these legendary rock had been shattered into a thousand pieces as if it were ice struck by a hammer.
Another crash. His view shrouded by the shrubbery before him, Remul saw the tip of another rock wobble and fall with a loud thud.
Remul frantically scrambled up the final dirt mound before him, hugging Meriah tightly.
Something was not right.
Looking below, he instantly knew that he was correct. For he was looking at the source of the thunderous sound emanating throughout the valley. He saw why the earth shook. He saw what was destroying the indestructible Henges.
The Gods had returned.
And they were fighting.
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