The tsunami came

Erupting from the from the bottom of the sea

As the comet buried itself into us

Our men were too close to it

We watched them drown from the mountaintops

With no war songs to offer them

Only moments ago we had been warring

But over what, no one could remember

All we saw and could ever see again

Were the waves

They fell

And red painted them.

My friends

My brother’s

My father’s too

I fell from the mountain then

Whether in shock, madness or defeat

And a widow whispered to me

‘Please’

‘I cannot save them’

‘I gift you the winds’

A maelstrom fell from me as her voice quietened

Howling in the echoes of my cries

I soared the skies and sea

And commanded the storm

The tsunami seemed to reel

Like a frightened dog

Before I hurtled into it

Seeing this maddened my people

With the idea that they might survive

They saw before them, the birth of their demigod

Their prophet

Their miracle even

And grandeur took them

The women returned to the war songs of moments ago

Heralding the arrival of a saviour

As the gale tore through the waves

Bodies uncovered the further I pushed

Living ones

Many still living ones

They woke terribly coughing up darkness

And looking around frantically bellow themselves

Wholly terrified of something

They roar and bludgeon the earth with their palms

Stomping and straining their chests ferally

Something had changed in them

And their spirits made the earth shudder

They were, all of them, frightening to behold

Yet their strikes became truer, stronger and calmer

As the women’s songs reached them

We let go of everything in pride and fearlessness

Waiting for the moment to come

When our last will die proudly

But it never came

The women howled from the hilltops

The men shook the earth

And I reeled in the tempest and agony

As a god melded its soul into mine

‘My name is Nangae’

I said to the God as she invaded me

‘Please let my people live’

‘Help me tame these waves’

‘Kill the dragon’

She whispered

‘And I will’

I accepted her terms blindly.