Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

Seven did not, in fact, master Ping Pong. Her heightened athletic skills notwithstanding, Elder Athena slapped her around on the green table, showing an incredible focus while beating her every round. Seven showed a little improvement as she scored a few points, but it was still a sham as far as presenting herself in the best possible light to the golden-dressed woman she admired.

On her fourth loss, the Elder called it, saying she needed to practice more in order to bring her A game. Seven didn't understand the last part, but she did understand that practice was a healthy way to improve at anything. With that in mind, she spent a large part of the day working on her running, trying to eek out the slimmest possibility that she may become just a little faster.

While she and her fellow numbers were spending their time talking to each other, eating, practicing different skills, and generally recovering from the last five days...the first five days of their lives.....the Elders were hard at work on different tasks. A large circular wooden building went up as Elder Hephaeustus showed his superior skill in crafting yet again. When she ran a circle around it, she heard the word arena used several times. Her translator kicked in and presented a series of images to present what it interpreted that word to mean. She wasn't sure if she liked it.

Seven moved off and spent some of her time running around Sonata, exploring as many of its nooks and crannies as she could. The first thing she decided was simple.

It was big.

She didn't think she'd have enough time to run across the entire...moon....if she wanted to. It was simply too large. Maybe if she combined all of her free days together she might be able to, but certainly not in one run.

The second thing she decided was that the dark wooden structure between Elder Cagna's chair and the tree was special. She knew it was special because Elder Minos was constantly standing near it, keeping an eye on everyone.

That must be where he is, She thought to herself.

The Creator. Walker himself.

They said he was recovering, but that could just be an excuse. Strange thoughts filled her mind as she looked at the simple wooden walls keeping the distance between her and meeting her Creator.

For a second time, she mentally amended.

Staring at it while she slowed her jog, intrusive thoughts began to creep into her mind. Maybe he didn't like her and her fellow numbers. Maybe they were a mistake. What if he came out and took them all away somewhere? What if he decided that he needed to try again with a new set of numbers, and they were just in....the way? She didn't know, but it began to fill her with an itchy feeling, like someone was scraping their...nails...down her back.

She thought back to what Elder Athena had said the other day.

Who are you?

She didn't know, and that worried her.

Seven jogged over to a bench near the archery range and sat down. Letting her body cool off, she pulled out her Creator's strange book.

Scripture

While the Universal Translator did its job in translating the words on the page, it was incredibly slow to impart the knowledge to her. Reading a single page took over ten minutes and she wasn't even sure she'd understood everything she read. The first few pages were strange too. The translator even got one of the words wrong. Jourrrnall? Plus, what is poetry? Why did he seem so sad yet....defiant?

She read a few more pages, taking over an hour to do so, and had to close it when One began walking up to her. The other woman sat down on the bench beside her and looked at her hands.

"Do you feel like you know the Creator better than you did before?" She asked her fellow number.

Seven shook her head, "No, not really. It doesn't make sense. I keep wondering. What's a bully and how is hope one? Why did he make a monster? It's con-confusing."

One nodded, "And are we the monsters? He made us, right? Could we be the monsters?"

"You took the oath?"

One responded by pulling an identical copy of the book out of her pocket, "Most of us have, with just a couple deciding they don't want to. I found the chat kind of...funny." She said with a smile.

A sigh shook Seven's frame, "There's just too many questions, and the only one who can answer, is in that building right over there." She said, pointing a finger at the wooden structure.

One squinted at it, "Hrmm." She said in a thoughtful tone of voice, "How do you know he's in there?"

Seven shrugged, "It's the only place they haven't really explained to us about. Well, that and Elder Virgil's weird tubes. Plus, Elder Minos is constantly standing in front of it in a strange pose. Almost like he's....protecting...whatever is in there."

One looked over at the building again, "Where's Elder Minos?"

Seven shrugged as she looked at it as well, seeing the large bronze-covered man missing, "I don't know. He was there a minute ago."

One gave her a quick smile that Seven didn't recognize, "Want to see if we can break in?"

"Break....in?" Seven said with a confused look on her face as the translator gave her mind an idea of what it meant, "You mean violate Elder Virgil's instructions? He told us to let him recover."

"No." One said with a shake of her head, "He never said we couldn't go in there. Just that Walker was recovering. So." She raised her eyebrows at Seven, "Do you want to go in?"

"I...." She thought about all of the questions still sprinting through her mind, and the only way to get answers for them. "Yes." She said with a nod.

One gave another weird smile, "Then let's go!" Saying so, she got up and sprinted for the structure, leaving Seven with an open mouth still on the bench. She stood up quickly and ran after her, quickly catching up and running beside her as they approached it.

We're actually doing this, Seven thought with excitement.

Once they got close, Seven reached out and touched her arm. They changed their speed to a slow walk, trying to make as little noise as possible in case anyone was around.

When they got right next to it, they found the structure was one solid piece of wood with no way in that they could see. There was, however, an odd hole several feet up one small part of the wall. One winked at her, grabbed it, and pulled. The seamless wall opened, showing a dark interior that to Seven's mind seemed foreboding. They stepped in quietly, still aware that Elder Minos could be back at any time. Seven closed the door behind her quietly, and they were in.

"We did it" One said in a whisper as they looked around. The room held no decoration. Nothing to indicate that anyone was currently living there. All that could be seen was a large bed of stone that looked quite uncomfortable, and a behemoth of a man laying on it.

"That must be him." Seven said in wonder, looking at the person who gave her life. A small stream of white was drifting off of his body as he lay there. Seven focused in on his face, moving a little closer, and found....nothing special about him. His nose was perhaps a little too large, his chin jutted out a small amount, and his hair had random white patches throughout it. As she looked at it, another small area near his ear turned white, changing right before her.

Looking at him, that feeling she'd had before came back. Like there was something about him. A....weight. A.....presence, that couldn't be shaken off. It was strange and she didn't know what to make of it. But his face was just so....ordinary.

"Huh. I expected....I don't know. More?" Seven whispered as she looked at him.

One snorted, then covered her nose as the sound was a little louder than she expected, "Sorry.' She said quietly. She cocked her head, looking at the man below her, "I don't know. He's extremely...large...compared to us. That's kind of how I thought he would be." She looked a little closer at his face, "He's not....ugly." She said, finding the word she wanted to use. "Also...there's something about him....something...special."

As she spoke, he rolled over and an arm shifted, his hand almost touching the floor. Outside, they could hear the sound of loud footsteps approaching at a sedate pace.

"Oh no." Seven said in the smallest whisper she could make while still making sure One heard her, "Elder Minos is back. We need to go."

"Wait...I just wanna." She said as she looked down at Walker's hand nearby, "I just want to touch him."

"What?" Seven said, thinking the request was strange, "Why?"

"Because...I need to make sure he's real. That this isn't...I don't know."

"A dream?" Seven said.

"Yeah, that's the word. I have the strangest dreams."

"Me too, but I don't think this is one. Maybe we should just go now, before someone sees." Seven said, her body already getting twitchy from the energy running through her in that moment.

"I'm just gonna do it real quick-like, nobody will know." One said, already slowly reaching out.

Seven was flabbergasted, but they didn't have the time to argue, "Do it fast" She said, hearing the footsteps grow ever closer, "we need to leave."

"Okay." One said, then picked up the speed a little and touched his hand.

Seven was looking at the entrance when a loud piercing scream began to erupt right next to her, causing her to jump in place. Her head swiveled and her eyes landed on the open mouth of One making a sound like she'd never heard before. She followed One's eyes to her hand, the one that had just touched their Creator, and a gasp slipped out of her mouth.

Where she'd touched Walker, the tips of her fingers were turning grey and shrinking before their eyes. Seven looked from the hand to One's face and felt all of the blood drain out of her own. The woman's eyes were terrified as she held up her quickly changing hand, the grey spreading from the tips of her fingers to her knuckles. As it spread, the shrinking changed and the former tips of One's fingers faded to dust. As the dust fell to the floor, the grey coloring moved further up her hand toward the ends of each finger. One never stopped screaming.

The door flew open with a crash and Elder Minos came storming in.

"What happened!" He bellowed in a high-pitched voice.

The large man looked from Walker, still sleeping, to Seven who barely even seemed to notice his arrival. Following her eyes, he found One staring at her hand, now grey up to her wrist.

Watching the encroaching grey rise further up, he made a quick decision.

"Hold her down." He said as he grabbed the end of her afflicted arm, then kicked One's legs out from under her. Seven regained her senses enough to plant her body on top of One's awkwardly, but she didn't know what to do after that. They hadn't had their unarmed training yet and too many things were happening at once.

Elder Minos pulled a long axe from his side and lifted it high up, before slamming it down on the pinned arm, a few inches above the rising gray. One screamed again as a fountain of blood sprayed out of her arm, before she stopped moving entirely. Elder Minos pushed the hand away from them to a corner of the room with the end of his axe, then put it back in his belt. He picked them both up in each arm and quickly carried them away without speaking.

When they got out, several Numbers and a few Elders were already there, with more running over at that very moment. Elder Minos handed One to Echidna, and gently put Seven down on her feet. He left them for a moment, presumably checking on Walker, before coming out and closing the door behind him.

Elder Rimi came running over with a few stacks of some type of cloth. He opened them and pulled out a flat rectangular piece with something green rubbed into it, then handed them to Echidna. The yellow-eyed woman started to wrap them around the still-gushing arm of One, tightly pulling the cloth as she bound the forearm as much as she could.

Seven was trying to collect her mind while she watched them work, the she heard a calm voice say, "What happened?"

Nobody had even noticed the massive black squirrel arrive.

Minos nodded at Seven without saying anything, but she didn't understand what he wanted at first. Then, as she looked at the large crowd of people in front of her, clarity dawned. In her five days of life, fear was a constant companion. Dodging and running away from Hades. Her spear lessons with Elder Triton, and Elder Rimi's Monsterology class where he taught them how dangerous being on Symphony would truly be.

But this was a new kind she hadn't experienced before. She had done something she knew was...not right...wrong. The rational part of her mind recognized that. If it hadn't been, they wouldn't have felt the need to be quiet about it. She...had done wrong. Something wrong.

Her tongue felt stuck to the top of her mouth and a sweat broke out in the middle of her back. She didn't like the feeling one bit.

The monstrous squirrel looked at her, saying one word, "Well?'

With an effort, she opened her mouth and spoke, "We....we just wanted to see the Creator."

Elder Virgil sighed and put a hand on his forehead, "And you touched him, right? That's why it was necessary for mi-Elder Minos to cut off her hand. I assume that is what happened as that's the only way such a clean cut is delivered." He said with a nod toward One, still lying on the ground with her eyes closed.

"Yes, Elder." Seven replied. She had done wrong, she...needed to accept what happened now. "I am ready for my......punishment." She didn't like that word one bit.

"Punishment....yes." He looked at One on the ground then back at her, "You are in charge of making sure One can still complete all future trainings. She will have a few days rest, then it's back to work. She cannot fall behind the others more than that, or it will set our plans back and cause a distortion in our goals." He looked at a streak of Silver in One's previously all-brown hair. "Hrmm. You will also inform me of anything strange occurring with her at any time. I expect you to give me a daily update before you sleep."

Feeling relieved, Seven nodded. Taking care of One was something she had already planned on doing as she felt a lot of blame for what had happened. If she hadn't agreed to go, maybe One wouldn't have gone by herself. This never would've happened.

"Excellent. This has certainly been an interesting moment. Echidna, please wrap One in some new medicated bandages. We created a medical station over by Walker's former Creation Instrument area if you were not aware. Rimi can guide you if you have trouble finding it." He looked at the large man who Seven was now a little scared of, "Minos, please come with me, I would like to speak with you."

Everyone broke up except for One, Seven and Elder Echidna, with the older woman waving Elder Rimi off saying she'd find it. The other numbers walked away, and she could hear them speaking about her and One loudly, causing her eyes to grow hot for some reason.

She offered to help her carry One, but Elder Echidna laughed it off and easily picked the injured woman up. She gently placed her on her shoulder and together they walked over, quickly finding a building around the same size as her Creators. Everything inside was orderly, with small labels beside each tool, instrument, and prepared material. Elder Echidna spent some time showing Seven how to change bandages, then had her wrap the wound while she watched. Wanting to know what to do in case she was the only one around next time someone was hurt, she asked about the green substance on the cloth.

"Oh, that's from crushing a Harmonic Bud. Walker received them for completing a task not too long ago and it really works wonders. Asclepius, who you will be training with in two days time, has been studying it since he first arrived. It is quite wonderful. Look here," She said, pointing at the open wound, "The bleeding has already stopped. He prepared several bandages just in case of an accident like this happening."

Seven breathed hot air out of her mouth, "It wasn't an accident, we chose to go in there and....."

"Yes, you did." Elder Echidna said with a nod, "But, I assume you didn't know that touching Walker right now would destroy your body. He can only touch inorganic material for the time being. You didn't notice the large dead spot from when you first arrived?"

Seven thought back to what had happened right after she'd arrived, when a man in torn-up clothing had fallen over in front of them and they had all.....stared at him.

Thinking about it, she answered, "They took us away before we could really look at it....or....him"

"Ah yes. Right now, Walker is bleeding time, as you would call it. Well, that's what Elder Virgil says." She said with a smile, "To transport him, we had to move him with a metal pole, which was a lot more fun than I thought it would be." She took over for Seven to finish wrapping up One's arm, tying a neat little bow on the end. "There we go. I can't say good as new, but I can say it is an improvement over what was there before. Now, let me just get you up." She said, speaking to herself as she lifted One in her surprisingly strong arms. They walked back to the communal hall and dropped her off in a cot with the number one above it. "She'll be terrified when she wakes up. I'll be staying nearby if you require me."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome Seven. You know, you're holding up better than I thought you would be, considering how recently you've...existed." She said, as if tasting the word. She looked directly into Seven's eyes, "Why do you suppose that is?" Elder Echidna asked, but she didn't wait for an answer, walking away without looking at her.

Seven spent some time thinking about that, and what she'd learned in the last five days. She knew that Elder's Echidna and Athena were pushing her towards something, but she didn't know what that something was. She went out, remembering that Elder Echidna said One would sleep for awhile and wouldn't need her. After searching for a moment, she found three by the food table nearby. She convinced him to swap cots for the time being, that way she could be close to One in case she needed her.

Seven ran around Sonata for a time, grabbing food and water when she saw it, trying to think about what she needed to do now to make sure something like that never happened again.

When she ran around the corner of the Tree of the Gods, she found her least favorite Elder sitting on a log in front of a fire. He didn't look up when she tried to pass him by, but regardless he seemed to know it was her.

"Come sit over here, fool." Elder Hades said in his harsh voice.

Seven mentally sighed, but didn't say anything as she sat beside him. She was already in enough trouble and didn't need Elder Virgil to hear that she'd ignored an Elder's request.

The darkly-dressed man began to laugh, "I just heard an interesting story from my niece and nephew. They said that one of you already lost an appendage." He laughed again, "I said no way! There's no fucking way that on the fifth day of your lives, one of you idiots did something that caused you to lose an arm."

"A hand." Seven replied.

"What was that human? Did you whisper something into the night air?" He said in a mocking voice.

"I said she lost a fucking hand!" She yelled at him, cursing for the first time in her life, "And it's my fault. If I didn't go with her, One would never have even thought about intruding on the Creator. She lost a hand because of me and..."

"Bwahahahahaha." Hades laughed while tears fell down Seven's incredulous face. His laughter continued for an unnatural amount of time, long enough that her incredulity shifted to anger. When he finally stopped and looked up at her, seeing the track marks her tears left on her dirty face, a slight giggle erupted out of him.

"Oh, you are just too much for me Seven." He said, wiping a tear away from the side of his face. "I am a truly terrible teacher after all. My wife always said so, but I didn't believe her." He sighed, his face shifting from one of mocking joy to something she didn't recognize. "You would've liked her Seven. You two had a lot in common."

"Oh, and what's that? The...the...inability to deal with you for more than a small amount of time?" She yelled at him, feeling a hot liquid drip from her nose.

"Yes yes." He said with a smile and a nod, "She used to yell at me like that too. Ah," He leaned back on the log, "I dearly miss that woman." Hades looked up at the night sky, "I wonder where she is now."

"I'm assuming she realized how terrible of a person you are and ran away as fast as she could." Seven said with fury.

If he was affected by her words, he didn't show it. "No, she was quite happy from what I could see. She always loved the flowers that bloomed in the Under." His face shifted again, "Then came Heracles, Zeus's true golden child." Veins began to distend in his neck as he continued speaking, "He killed my guardian, broke into my home, insulted my subordinates, then absconded with my wife." Hades grip on the log below him caused fissures to erupt throughout the wood, "No one knows what happened to them, and I didn't even have enough time to search for my dear Persephone because of our BLASTED-CREATOR-TAKING-ME-AWAY-FROM-SEARCHING-FOR-HER!" He screamed at the same night sky he'd just been smiling at a moment ago, dragging out each word with his rage.

Seven's own anger died in her heart, "He stole your wife?" She asked.

"Oh yes, and let that be the lesson for you, dear Seven. DO NOT be a hero. They ruin lives."

Seven didn't know how to respond to that. She leaned back on the log next to him and looked at the sky.

A Hero