of Men!’ murmured Ma—
‘You shall bear the new races of men
Who shall in due course roam this earth.
You are the only Amarire I’ll spare,
You and you alone shall survive this holocaust.
I wish I could have spared
A great deal more of my children;
But I cannot, as a Power greater than myself
Bids me to save only you from all the Red People.
A Power greater than myself bids me also to save Odu—
The sub-human here, for he shall be your mate
And the Father of Future Races.’
Amarava stared horrified down at the sub-man
And a flood of unimaginable contempt,
Hatred and naked revulsion
Swept and overwhelmed her completely.
Surely the Goddess was not giving her,
The beautiful Amarava,
To this smelly, hideous thing for a mate!
Surely she, Amarava,
Daughter of the First Red People,
Was not being mated to this—
This odorous revolting, soulless beast—
This beast-of-burden the Emperor created
From putrid animal flesh!
A scream left the girl’s mouth in repulsive horror—
She cried and begged to be killed outright
Rather than be wedded to so contemptuous a thing
As Odu the Bjaauni – the Lowest of the Low!
‘My child,’ said the Goddess above the howling storm,
‘Forget your childish feelings and obey my commands;
Now place your hand on my thigh and swear
That you shall do as I tell you now—
Lo! There is little time left and I must needs leave
This evil world at the earliest moment!’
Suddenly the girl’s eyes were opened
In a strange and mysterious way—
She peered into the depths of Eternity itself;
She saw a cloud of swirling, dazzling living vapour
That shone brighter than the brightest star,
Brighter than the summer noonday sun,
And faintly across the immeasurable distance
Came a voice: ‘I Command – All Obey!’
The voice, faint as it was, seemed to tear
Into the very fibres of Amarava‘s being,
Until each of her pulsing veins
Strained and tensed in agony.
‘What . . . what was that?’ queried Amarava.
‘That, my child, is the All-powerful—
Who is, who was, and ever will be—
That is the Great Spirit, my child, Whom we must Obey!’
‘Goddess, First Mother, I promise to obey,’ she sighed,
Placing her hand on the deity’s blazing thigh,
Taking the Oath – ‘I swear to obey!’
‘Swear again, my child, this time
With your hand on my lower left breast’
This she did and found her hand scorched
By the radiance of the Goddess’s being.
‘I shall now create a robot shark
To transport you across the seas
And there you shall find new land
Which the earthquakes have left in peace.
There you, and Odu here, shall love each other
And once again re-populate the earth with men.
But since I can fathom your stubbornness
I am forced to take measures to see you obey—
You have touched me with your right hand
Which has been badly burnt as a result—
And I have burnt both your nipples with my finger,
While leaving a burn mark on your abdomen.
Now, whenever you think of breaking your oath,
Those parts I have touched shall give you such pain
As you have never felt before.
If you try to escape your mate and go into hiding,
I’ll give you three days of grace in agony—
Agony that will build up progressively.
After the three days in which to return,
Your flesh shall rot and fall off your body
But death will never come to your rescue
To release you from your eternal suffering.
I shall now take you to the robot shark—
That I have specially created for your transport,
And the mate I have chosen for you;
And child, may your breasts be ever full—
And your hips be ever fertile—’
* * *
These were the last words that Amarava heard
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