2011, just as the war began. Fae Apoc, for lilfluff‘s prompt

They had a Ranch.

At the moment, they were a bit crowded on said Ranch. It had one old farmhouse and a small cabin, and they had all of Mom’s crew, and-then-some.

Yoshi and Viddie were sharing a tent, sometimes with Ruki, while Mom and Uncle Howard worked on building new houses – cabins, Uncle Howard called them. Yoshi thought they were awesome.

He knew, in a fuzzy way, that something bad was going on with the world. Sometimes he’d catch the grown-ups taking about it – Uncle Leo, usually, but sometimes the others. They’d talk about the gods that had come back.

He’d asked his mother, when he caught her attention between moving-supplies-around and building-buildings. “Gods? I thought we didn’t believe in gods.” She coughed and changed the subject, thus indicating to Yoshi that he was going to have to try harder.

He tried Uncle Howard next, only to get not only a brush-off but a half-hour lesson in house-building.

He knew better than to ask Uncle Leo, at least if he wanted an answer based in reality. Uncle Leo told the best stories, but they were still stories.

So he cornered The Refugee, Mom’s latest Kept. He was still new, and didn’t know, yet, how to avoid being cornered.

“So. Gods.”

“Um.” The Refugee – Gaheris, that was his name – blinked at Yoshi. “The ones in Vegas?”

“Yes. I thought gods were a myth.”

“Oh.” This one had also not yet learned to tell Yoshi to ask his mum. “Well. That’s what they’re called, because they’re old. But they’re a lot like your mom’s crew, really. Just bigger and more powerful.”

“Bigger and more powerful than Uncles Leo and Howard?”

“And smarter than your mom, and more clever than your Aunt Zita.” Gaheris nodded solemnly. “They’re very old.”

“Wow.” Yoshi wasn’t sure he believed him. He wasn’t sure that such creatures could exist. But it was something to think about, at least.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/524749.html. You can comment here or there.