In a World without God

Chapter 38

In the southern jungles, female jungle crows thin drastically away after giving birth to their young. She is so busy bringing food to her young that she starves herself. By the time the young are independent enough and can leave the nest, the mother dies in exhaustion.

It's a noble death. A maternal creature. Everyone should learn from this! That's what foolish humans often say.

However, there's a behavior most people overlook. If a predator comes near the nest before the chicks are old enough to fly, the mother crow will peck at their throats with her beak, killing them all. Then she'll fly off on her own to escape the predator. A wise choice. If she didn't leave her defenseless chirping young behind, they would all be annihilated together.

And so, can one call the feelings a jungle wren has for its young "love"?

"Uh... mommy... why did you... abandon me?"

"No! Noooo, go away!"

Amid the chapel of St. Trisis, in the middle of the synagogue, something that could hardly be called human was walking. Its hoofed legs clacked like those of a cow or a horse, its nails long and sharp like the scythes of a mantis, and a youthful face that didn't match its body. It was staring at a woman.

The woman threw everything she could grab at the creature. A cane, a chair, a book....

"Lady Lutea, isn't this different from your promise? You said that if I sacrificed one child, you would spare the rest of my family!"

"Yes. That's what I was going to do, but didn't you make a wish? But you wished to see the face of your sacrificed child again, didn't you? I just granted your wish. Was it a lie?"

"I never imagined... it would be like this!"

"Ha! What? You changed your mind just because your child looks different? What kind of mom does that?"

Akale giggled as she sat cross-legged on a blue sphere. See, how is a human any better than a jungle crow?

"Mommy.... Why.... did you...."

"I had to, we can't all die, you have to understand Mommy, please!"

"Didn't you... love me...?"

The monster's nails dug into the woman's neck. Blood spurted like a fountain, and the woman collapsed to the ground.

"How heartless. How could she not tell her child that she loves her?" Akale wonder.

"Mom... why...."

"Shut up. Stop whining and go back to the basement."

"Mommy......." the monster kept mumbling.

"Kashti, put it away!" Akale shouted, and a blonde woman in a priest's robe stepped forward. She pulled aside the carpet, opened the iron door that had been concealed, and kicked the creature. It fell to the ground, still calling out for its mother.

"See, they're all the same, Blood spurted like a fountain, and the woman collapsed to the ground. The nerve to claim that I don't know humans?"

"Lady Akale."

The woman called Kashti knelt before her. However, Akale didn't even look at her and muttered.

"Just to survive, they casually toss each other aside and only speak of love when it's convenient for them... Humans are like that!"

"Lady Akale... this is the thirty-fourth time."

Akale kicked Kashti in the cheek with her foot.

"So what?! What am I supposed to dot?"