“People see what makes sense to them, reality
notwithstanding.”
A swarthy, handsome man with sleek, dark hair framing his
angular face and flowing down beyond his shoulders sat down on the ground beside
his daughter, a lovely child clad in an eye-catching patchwork dress emblazoned
with embroidered flowers. The child waved her hand, and a sprout pushed its way
up from the grass, growing and blooming into a lovely white daisy. The
youngster’s magical abilities alone would have been impressive. They were
infinitely more so considering that the child and her father were on the dwarf
planet that would come to be known as Pluto in an infant planetary system
coalescing around its juvenile star.
The girl had a miserable look on her face as she tried to
hide behind her plentiful waves of coal-black hair. She turned to her father
and threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him.
“Papa, I know this,” the child replied in a quavering voice
that went straight to her father’s heart. “I didn’t intend to be contrary. It’s
just that I’ve thought about it and thought about it, and I simply can’t make
myself understand, no matter how hard I try.”
“Yadira, my special little sprout, you’re not contrary at
all,” the Cosmic Trickster replied tenderly. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Anything, Papa,” the child declared, drying away her tears
and sitting cross-legged facing her father, a conspiratorial look on her face.
“Well, as you know, this Universe we find ourselves in now
was born of the tragedy that befell your homeworld, Zaïs, on the day that you
were born.”
“Of course, Father. I know that you had to race through time
and space and countless wormholes and dimensions to keep me safe from the evil responsible
for the destruction of Zaïs. I also know that you were not native to Zaïs but
that you arrived there in the time between winter and spring. You brought hope
back to my mother’s soul. She had waited a long time to find you.”
“Yes, my pet, and for me, it seemed that every journey from
the past led me along the path to my Nathicana. She was like water to my
thirsting soul. Alas, the path back to her does not lie on a straight line, but
arduous though it may be, we will one day find our way to her again. My point
in telling you this is that some things are not readily apparent, even to an
immortal. Even I, the mighty Nyarlathotep…”
The God scooped up a handful of dust, tossing it into the
air. The particles sparkled, grew, exploded, and raced into space to become
companions for Pluto. Yadira laughed and clapped her hands at her father’s
exaggerated performance and manic grin. Nyarlathotep’s expression softened as
he took his daughter’s hands.
*************
This is the first segment of a new chapter in my WIP, In the Time Before.
Yadira Root is the creation and intellectual property of Team Netherworld Creations/Naughty Netherworld Press. Those of you who have been coming to this juke joint for a while may know the older, snarkier version of Yadira. This tentative new novelette, novella, or novel introduces the young Yadira and illustrates the close bond that she has with her father, the Outer God Nyarlathotep.
Nathicana, the Gardens of Zaïs, Dzannin, and the white nephalotë are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft, initially appearing in his 1927 poem Nathicana.
The bolding of certain words is simply to indicate where words from the Sunday Whirl Wordle were used. The remainder of these words were used in the second segment of this chapter.
The full chapter is available for purchase from Odysee for 15 LBC (approximately $0.45).
https://odysee.com/@naughtynetherworldpress:d/The-Teaching-of-Terrible-Truths:5
If you don't have an Odysee account, you can get one here:
Full chapters are also available to patrons at the Cultist ($5 per month) and above tier level on Patreon.
The story was also submitted on 1 April 2021 for the weekly Reedsy short story competition. If accepted, stories generally appear on my Reedsy author page a week following submission and are available to read free of charge. I've never had a submission rejected yet, but I make no guarantees.
If you haven't subscribed to the Naughty Netherworld Newsletter yet, you can remedy that error in judgment here:
http://bit.ly/NaughtyNetherworldNews
Prompts Used
The Daily Spur
Path
https://thedailyspur.wordpress.com/2021/03/25/path-2/
Pluto
Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie
First Line Friday
https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2021/03/26/first-line-friday-march-26-2021/
Ragtag Daily Prompt
Cling
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/03/18/ragtag-daily-prompt-thursday-cling/
Sprout
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/rdp-friday-sprout/
Reedsy Prompts
https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/
Write about a mischievous pixie or trickster god.
The Sunday Whirl
Wordle 496
https://sundaywhirl.wordpress.com/2021/03/28/wordle-496/
evil
hope
inhumane
line
race
shame
soul
spring
suppress
vote
wait
water
