Author's Note

"Speech"
"Thought"

The Confused God

I awoke to the sensation of my bones screaming in pain from the slightest movement, indicating that I was currently the farthest thing from fine. Every breath was agony, which was woefully unfortunate, as I rather liked breathing, making me let out a small groan of pain that I immediately stopped doing as my ribs screamed for mercy. While I processed the sheer agony I was in, a single drenched Zebra walked into the shelter where my broken body lay, studying me with her curious green eyes as she realised that I was awake, though she made no move to approach me, as my shield wasn't the most pleasant thing to touch after it recovered from the impact earlier, so she couldn't help me despite clearly wanting to. She approached my still form, sitting beside the makeshift bed she and the foals made for me to rest on while I was immobile, "I see you're awake, though you certainly seem to regret doing so." She said with a hesitant smile, leaning in close enough to enter my line of sight.

I stared at the oddly expressive, miniature Zebra leaning over me with wide eyes, her muzzle only really encompassing her nostrils and mouth, with the rest of her face was nearly as flat as a human face, if said human face had the distinctive black and white stripes of a Zebra and was dripping with water. Overall, she looked like she was the perfect design to be animated, which was a little odd, but I was oddly not put off by it despite the nagging feeling that came with the uncanny valley effect. No, if anything I found her oddly adorable in a weird way, weird enough to make me question myself on if my concept of cute was broken.

While I was internally putting my concept of cute on trial for its clear brokenness, the odd zebra moved out of my visual range for a moment, re-entering my line of sight with what looked like a wooden bowl, bringing it up to my lips. "Here, this is your holy water, you're going to need it if you're going to recover from your miracle, I'm sure" She said, holding the bowl of water with reverence, which confused me somewhat and made the atheist in me groan. "My holy water? Miracle? Y'know what, I can worry about her after I'm not so thirsty." I thought dismissively, opening my mouth a little, my eyelids twitching from the discomfort of moving, allowing her to steadily pour the supposed 'holy water' into my mouth, which I rapidly gulped down like I hadn't drunken anything in days. After up drinking all the water in the wooden bowl, I immediately felt just a smidge better, not by much, but it was definitely better than before, making me speculate about the mineral content of the supposed holy water she had given me, before realising that I couldn't really focus due to pain.

Ayaan felt relieved that her God, whatever it was, was capable of being healed by his own holy water. She believed that the deity had used all his power to break open the sky and call forth the rain that healed the world around her and her tribe. Aware that her God was still in pain, she decided that asking it any questions about why it answered her prayer could be pushed to the wayside until the God recovers properly. "Would you like some more water my lord?" She asked, watching as her God's face contorted in confusion, said expression vanishing as it said, "If you please.". The masculine voice that came from her God confirmed that it was a he, or at least she assumed he was. She quickly refilled the wooden bowl with more holy water by dipping it into the bucket she had with her, missing his look of confusion at his own voice, and bringing the full bowl of water back up to her God's lips and continued to help him drink up until he could move on his own.

As Ayaan's God slowly sat up on the makeshift bed she and the foals made just for him, she watched how his body moved in ways she's never seen anything move before, but then again, nor has she seen a being like her lord before, so she had to assume that the way he moved was natural for gods like himself. She observed what she could only assume were clothes made of some unknown material that obscured most of his body, save his hands and head, all devoid of any fur except for the hairs of his eyebrows and his eyelashes. She observed his neck which seemed to be made entirely out of gold, with the only other place on his body with gold was a triangle shaped piece just above where she assumed his heart was, if he even had one. His entire image in general screamed 'You're worms who oozed through the cracks of my basement.', the only way her Lord could possibly look more deserving of the title of God is if he had a halo floating over his head like a crown.

Ayaan's God slowly turned his head to one side, audible popping could be heard, likely from his golden joints stretching out a bit, as apparently even gods needed to stretch. He then turned his head to the other side, his joints making more pops as he continued stretching. After stretching his neck, he turned his head to face her and asked something she didn't expect from her God, "Pardon my language, but what the fuck was in that water?" His question caught her off guard, how did he not recognise his own blessed water?

"Y-you don't remember?" She stuttered slightly, to which she felt foolish for stuttering in front of a god.

He gave her a confused look, "Remember what?" His seemingly genuine confusion made her several times more confused, before her mind came to a startling realisation. He did fall like a ball of fire to the ground really, really hard, clearly having landed with enough force to shatter his bones and knock him out, so it's entirely likely that he now had a major case of amnesia, meaning he might not have any memory of his godhood. With this explanation in mind, she looked at him with solemn eyes, watching as his face contorted in stronger confusion at her expression, making her truely feel horrible for her Lord, as he didn't even seem to notice his missing memories.

Ayaan internally vowed to help her God restore his memories of his divine origin, but decided that she would, for now, simply treat him with the respect he deserved, even if he didn't remember why he deserved said respect.

I stared at the zebra with confusion as she stared at me with what I could only describe as pity, as if she realised that I had forgotten something, something majorly important. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, weirded out by her expression whilst trying to ignore how different my voice sounded, chalking it up to my previously broken state.

The zebra's eyes go from pitying to determined as she grabbed my right hand with her forehooves and stared point blank into my eyes. "You may not remember what you've done for us, but I promise you, my lord, that I'll help you regain your lost memories of it's the last thing I do.", she said with an amount of conviction that I would've admired if she didn't just imply that I was a God, which was impossible considering that, as far as I'm aware, I am not a God, nor would I ever want to be seen as one.

I decided to just give it to her straight, as beating around the bush with someone who was clearly confused as fuck, never led to anything good. "Okay, look little zebra, I am many things, but a God ain't one of them, frankly I have no idea what would lead you to that conclusion in the first place." I said bluntly, adding, "Besides, even if I was one, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't of had every bone in my body broken not too long ago, as gods shouldn't be capable of being hurt in my humble opinion.".

Despite my words, her gaze remained firm, stating, "With all due respect, my lord, my entire tribe and I saw you literally break through the sky as a ball of fire and cause the largest rainfall we have seen in years, said rainfall restoring all plant life and restoring out bodies to peak physical condition." She said calmly, looking me dead in the eyes with the most serious expression I have ever seen, especially from a zebra of all things, "So please, don't talk down to yourself, because as far as we're concerned, you are the one God who has responded to our prayers when others ignored us.", The level of her loyalty already making me feel nervous. "So forgive me for contradicting you my lord, but you are far superior to those selfish pricks calling themselves Gods, and are the only one worthy of the title in my opinion." She said with not one bit of shame in her voice or expression, honestly making me feel a little impressed by her audacity.

Regardless, I stared at her for several minutes and then sighed, "If you want to think of me as a God, then go ahead, I can't stop you, but please, don't worship me or make sacrifices to me, and don't force your beliefs on others." I responded bluntly, deciding that if she wasn't going to budge on her belief in my apparent divinity, I might as well try to leverage those beliefs to try and prevent her from spreading her personal 'faith'. The Zebra stared at me blankly for several moments, before saying, "With all due respect my lord, you aren't in a right state of mind to know what you actually want, considering that your memories of your time as a God are gone." She said with complete certainty, making me feel offended that she'd dare suggest that I didn't know what I wanted. Despite my anger at her suggestion, I couldn't deny that her words held merit as if I really did have amnesia, I would be completely unaware that I had forgotten anything, leaving me in a stalemate with her assumptions of my supposed divinity. Regardless, I swung my legs off the makeshift bed, allowing me to notice my clothes properly, which I distinctly remember not wearing before ending up here, where ever here was.

My clothes resembled that of a twentieth century style, dark green business suit with a golden irregular triangle over where my heart was located. Despite its appearance however, it seemed a bit too futuristic to be anything other than a power suit made to resemble the style of business attire. "Hmm, don't remember having something like this, nor do I recall this being on the market." I muttered, my voice suddenly sounding a hell of a lot more familiar as I began to put the dots together. I suddenly began feeling my face, noticing how my features were now vastly different from what they were before, I also learned that I was bald, which I felt like I should've cared about, but didn't for some reason. I realised, to my growing shock, that I appeared to be in the body of Gerrard from Horizon: Forbidden West. Despite my shock, I realised that I almost didn't care about this development, as if my new body didn't care in the least that I was panicking and was forcing me to calm down and keep an open mind. I realised that it must be because of the cybernetic augmentations that Far Zenith went through, preventing many of them from reacting properly in a survival situation because they were constantly being artificially calmed down to the point of being lazy. this ultimately led to their downfall, but thanks to my knowledge of this weakness and my high anxiety, I should at least remain calm in mind and remain on alert enough to compensate for my lack of survival skills.

I apparently stayed in a single position for longer than necessary whilst I was thinking, because the Zebra began poking me out of it. I turned my attention back to her, her expression conveying worry for me, "Are you alright my lord?", she asked carefully, to which I responded, "Perfectly fine, I just forgot what I looked like for a moment there.", my words seemingly only making her worry more apparent. Regardless, I steadily stood up from the bed, allowing my full hight to become apparent to the much smaller zebra, her body barely reaching up to my hips. Forgetting my manners for a moment, I bluntly stated, "You're shorter than you looked a moment ago.", which she seemed to get a tad defensive of, "My lord, with all due respect, it is not I who is small, it is you who are huge.", she said as respectably as one could be when contradicting their God. I shook my head as I remembered myself, stating, "Apologies, I forgot myself there.", this seemed to please her somewhat, stating, "No need to apologise my lord, you're still recovering from your loss of memory, so it's understandable that you'd accidentally say some insensitive things.", she said with a small, genuine smile.

With that out of the way, I found walking towards the doorway of the mud brick hut far easier than it should've been with my prior injuries, chalking it up to my nanotech power suit making me stronger and more stable than I would be otherwise. Opening the door, I walked outside to see a small collection of mud brick huts, all arranged in a way so all the doors were facing the campfire in the centre of the small village. Surrounding the village was a lush green meadow, stretching as far as the eye could see, with a rainbow seen arching over the meadow, painting a very positive mood over the general area. Above all this floated many white clouds of various shapes and sizes, the bright blue sky further above the clouds making a beautiful overall image. I wasn't focused on the sky itself though, my attention was on the massive jagged hole in the sky, the dark purple vortex held within the hole being the true focus of my attention. I had only one question in my head as I stared at the hole in the sky...

"What the fuck is that?!"