There Were Giants In Those Days

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6

Part I: The Birth of Venus

Horse, Shoe, and Scallop

"Give me the tool, Aleskar!" the nursemaid, Jamalla, ordered me. I hesitated as I looked over the many metal instruments she had splayed on her doctor's table. Which one did she want? I asked myself as I hovered my hands over the silver instruments.

"Oh, by Cygnus! You are so slow. Out of my way," she used her large hand to push me aside and grab a long set of prong-like-looking instruments. I quickly backed away, grateful to be brushed to the sidelines.

"Come on, Divinia! You can do this!" Jamalla urged on my wife. "I see her head; now keep pushing!"

Divinia looked pale and like she was about to pass out. I fought the urge to touch her, unsure if that would make the whole situation worse than it already was for her. After this ordeal, my gorgeous wife would probably not want me to touch or so much as look at her for at least a year.

Just when I felt certain she'd die from the pain, she gasped as a baby fell out from her and into Jamalla's hands. The nursemaid cut the emolicol cord and slapped the baby's bum to make her breathe. A small cry rose up from her mouth, and I struggled to make sense of what just happened.

"Divinia, you are a mother," Jamalla smiled as she handed the small child to my wife. She glanced at me fiercely, obviously condemning my limp expression as I stood cowering in the corner. Divinia's gaze was lost on the child, which was good. I'd hate for her to see how baffled and stunned I felt.

"You are a father, boy!" Jamalla's powerful voice echoed through the small room. "Get over here and be a man!"

I swallowed and marched to my wife's side. She looked gorgeous, but the child in her arms was beyond compare. Her small nose, gentle fingers, and head of strawberry blonde hair took my breathe away. I leaned in to touch her when an evil voice whispered in my ear: That's not your child!

"We will call her Innana," Divinia announced, smiling at me brightly. "She is the daughter of the dawn, the light bringer, and the daughter of Love. All shall adore and honor her. All shall bend the knee to her magick."

I shook as a cold breeze struck my back, calling to mind the legends of the West Winds. The daemons come and flow into the minds and hearts of our kind, poisoning us, and tempting us from the truth. But someting inside me could not shake the idea that this little angel could not be mine.

I was small. I was weak. I was ugly. Why Divinia ever married me is beyond my knowing. But there was no way this child, this goddess, was my child.

"You whore!" I shouted at Divinia, as if controlled by an external force. "This is not my child and you know it!"

A look of sheer terror crossed her face as she struggled to make sense of my words. This look was soon replaced by rage and disgust.

"Jamalla, remove this man," Divinia told the nursemaid. "He's right; no child of mine will be the daughter of a coward."

I never saw my wife again. I was banished from the village and forced to scavenge amongst the pathetic humans. The humans were small apes who lost their hair a few millennia ago and learned to walk upright like us.

But they were nothing like us. Ignorant brutes were little more than chimpanzees. My people kept them at bay and in the dark. Normally outcasts would be torn apart by these violent beasts, but not me.

Why?

I brought them fire, that's why.

Part II: Prometheus Bound

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Isaiah 14

I spent the better part of a decade wandering the marshes of the south. Here the human-apes created a somewhat permanent settlement amidst the lands that my people deemed the outskirts. This was the land of mud and death, where the Earth crept over your corpse and swallowed it as a man consumes meat.

The lives of the hairless apes were miserable here and short. They scavenged and hid amongst the rocky outcrops to hide from the rain and sleet. They had not yet learned how to build a proper shelter or to build thatched rooves to shield themselves from the weather. Although, they were learning, thanks to me, how to build and harness fire.

I watched them one evening from beneath the lean-to shelter I constructed against the rocky walls of the cliff face. The miserable little brutes brought their chunks of hunted meat to the small fire they built. The flames were protected from the rainfall thanks to the slanted rock they all huddled beneath. The creatures began tossing hunks of flesh into the flame.

I realized at that moment that these beasts were beginning to copy me, albeit ignorantly and without skill. They grunted and made loud chimp noises as they excitedly watched the flesh burn. Obviously, the smell tingled their senses and made them even more excited to keep pouring flesh on the flames.

I chuckled as the flesh became too much for the fire and the last of the flames teetered out under the burden of carcass meat. The beasts moaned and eventually became agitated. One of the males slapped a female across the face. To my astonishment, tears fell from the eyes of the pathetic brute as she hastened away from the abusive male.