The fall quickly became uneventful. Mor was falling, unable to move/adjust/fly anything.
You see, in that time, the windows of heaven were quite magical. They could open to any view desired, and to any height. Almost like the gateways. Except unlike the gateways they only allowed one way travel…. Out.
Mor had seen people thrown out before. Some were simply tossed onto the mountainside nearest heaven. Others into the depths of hell. When the window opened to hell, it was unmistakable, you knew it. So Mor could, she reasoned, safely ignore the possibility that she’d been thrown into hell or the abyss.1
A sudden thought hit her, she didn’t know how long she’d been falling, but she did suddenly have a feeling she hadn’t felt in a long long long long long time. Like a … cramp? Or no, like a headache but in your gut…. It wasn’t gas…. What…
Her eyes opened wide. She was hungry. Oh.
In Heaven, of course, you know, you are never hungry. There is plenty to eat but only for pleasure, never for need. Mor hadn’t eaten their food for the same reason that one often doesn’t. Because it isn’t polite to take a bite and then spit it onto the floor while making gagging sounds and rolling on the floor acting like you are poisoned by their horrible food that it seems impossible one would enjoy.
Besides, it wasn't part of the agreement.
There was a long moment, about as long as the time it takes a bear to nap through a winter. Mor came to the realization that she also hadn’t thought of the agreement in a long time. She almost couldn’t remember it, but she knew nothing had been said that required her to eat food. There was a lot more to it but at it’s core she remembered being invited, to a party, and vowing she’d only leave when they kicked her out.
“Huh.”
This of course was Mor speaking. She was the only one there.
She started keenly watching the area she was falling past. Looking for something that might be considered food.
There was a flash of scales and she shot her hand out like someone doing that really cool thing where you sit by a river until SPLASH you catch a fish.
When she opened her eyes, yes she had closed them in anticipation and excitement, she was holding a medium sized coatl. This was not a fish.
She thought about throwing it back but then the coatl hissed at her. So she conjured a silver flame and roasted the coatl over the silver flame gently pondering being thrown, throne?, Thrane? She wasn’t sure how to spell, only how to read. And of course how to eat overly burnt coatl.
It was crispy but satisfying and the effects of Heaven’s lack of hunger were still lingering.
She watched a sunset.
She watched a moonset.
She watched the sun and moon put on a play about bored scholars falling endlessly down.
Okay maybe that last one wasn’t true.
She tried to stand up in order to practice her sword play but there was nothing to stand on.
She tried to create something to stand on but kept losing focus too easily.
So she took a nap. A good long happy nap. The kind of nap you take when you very much aren’t incredibly angry that you weren’t allowed to finish your book. Or angry that you were invited to an event, then made to go, then thrown out for not being enough… something.
After the time it takes for a mountain to become a slightly raised hill, she fell asleep. And in that moment, the exact moment when consciousness had finally given up and was opening the door to leave, she hit the muddy swamp water with a tremendous splash.
For the record, unlike some swamps, this one was absolutely stagnant. And was filled with fish poop. And insect poop. And that slimy green gunk you find on lake shores. And at least two murdered farmers. And an escaped ox. And some soggy tax paperwork.
It was unpleasant.
Mor was unpleased.
And now she smelled like stagnant, fish poop, insect poop, green gunk, wet ox,and dead bodies.
So she was like the swamp after all.
And everyone knows that like calls to like. Afterall, aren’t people most often in love with themselves, the being they are most like?
Mor wasn’t sure about this question. She was pretty sure most people were not in love with themselves and in fact, had a deep self loathing that it took years of cultivation to remove. This may have only been her, she wasn’t sure.
With a big sigh, and holding her hand high aimed at heaven in a very very very obscene gesture, Mor got up, picked up some sticks and threw them into the air.
Watching how they landed on the water, she muttered. “Figures. Guess I might as well start walking.” And proceeded to do exactly that.