ORIGIN

Zeus ran and ran and ran. He had no idea where he was going though. All he knew was that he had to get far, far away.

The bear’s mind whirred and confused him. How could he have lost a match about thwapping? It just didn’t make any sense. He was the champion at thwapping. He was supposed to have won for his brother Fawkes. Now he lost, and he didn’t know if he could face his brother again.

His gemclaw suddenly became caught on a rock, and he crashed down onto the wet floor. His entire body was sore from the fight, and the fall aggravated his pain. He roared in fury. He hated feeling so weak!

He flailed on the floor like a baby throwing a tantrum, crushing the small pieces of nearby rock into dust with his sturdy paws. He rolled around and snarled at nothing in particular. Unhelpful thoughts came into his mind, and he roared some more. He hated thinking!

Finally rolling back onto his paws, Zeus lumbered towards a nearby wall. There, he began to slap his paws against the stone, letting out his anger and frustration some more. He didn’t know where he was, but he didn’t care. The scene of losing in that wrestling match played over and over again in his head. He thought he could see his brother’s disappointed face. Bad Zeus, naughty Zeus, his brother would say. How terrible it would be if his brother rejected him for his weaknesses.

He roared once more and slammed both paws against the wall. A large chunk of rock tumbled down from above, but he paid it no mind.

“ZEUS MAAAAAADDDD!!!” he screamed.

"Zeus speaks" 'Zeus thinks'

The bear’s tantrum went on for a long while before he finally grew tired and slumped still on the earth on his back. Beaten paws were outstretched and still in the air. Beady red eyes stared dully at the crescent-shaped hole in the ceiling where water came pouring through into a deep bowl lagoon. The thunderous, crashing sound of water was oddly relaxing now that he focused on it. Thinking back on the wrestling match hurt his head so he decided to stop. He didn’t like thinking. It was too hard.

The bear slowly scrambled to his paws. His entire body still hurt from the wrestling match, but he didn’t want to keep lying there. He briefly considered going to find his brother, but then decided not to. He wasn’t ready to face him just yet. He had to prove his strength first, somehow.

He lumbered forward when he suddenly noticed something strange. When he stepped forward, small fungi sprouted where his paws had touched the earth. Especially where his tiger-eye gem had brushed the soil. It felt warm. He didn’t understand why it was happening, but he felt very excited by this new development. He had found cool looking mushrooms (he called them mushies) before with Fawkes. It appeared he could also make them appear whenever he wanted them to.

The discovery of his new talent cheered him up. He ran his tiger claw all around himself against the earth, feeling it swell up with a tingling feeling from within. Purple and orange fungi sprouted in a ring around the bear. His small bobbed tail wagged in excitement, becoming squashed when he sat down on his buttocks. Soon, he was surrounded by these pretty mushrooms. The bear cub squealed in delight and continued his act of growing fungi. Like an obsessed madman, he grew more and more colourful mushrooms that were also bigger in size.

"Zeus speaks" 'Zeus thinks'

Uhhhh… Zeus blinked slolwy, as if waking up from a trance. There was a large accretion of fungi around him, he had no idea what happened. Did he really grow all of those? They were of all sizes and shapes and colours. He tried to wriggle free from the snug cocoon of mushrooms but he was too tired. He supposed he could just sleep here for a while. All this fungi made him feel very happy anyway.

Yawning widely, the bear curled upon himself and lay on the earth. It felt as if the mushrooms were giving him a cosy hug. With a big grin on his muzzle, Zeus drifted off to sleep.

"Zeus speaks" 'Zeus thinks'