"So there he stands, braced against that boulder, so it wouldn't fall on the city below." She closed her eyes. It had taken her nearly her entire lifetime to dig up even a little bit of information on Atlas, but it was enough for the scientist to sift through, and connect the dots in other legends and mythologies. The archaeologist nodded eagerly.
"It was thought Atlas held up the world on his shoulders, but it simply wasn't true. He held the safety of the city on his shoulders. A statue carved to resemble a titan who saved their lives. Just look at how they forgot him." He shook his head in distaste. "I don't know if Atlas was ever a living being, but this statue shows him being truly heroic." The woman nodded.
"He was tricked by his own brother. That boulder was sent down from the mountain top, not to crush the city, but to keep Atlas out of his way. He knew Atlas wouldn't let him destroy without restraint, so he had to occupy him with something else." She sighed sadly. "He couldn't throw it though, or move it after it became wedged in like that. All he could do was hold it in place." She looked out over the valley. The city had long since crumbled to dust, and many of the surrounding hillsides had collapsed, covering over the city he sought to protect.
"To protect a city that only walled him in afterward, hiding his memory from other eyes. A testament to their cowardice." She nodded. "That is a tragic story, but this is a statue, and though legends have some basis in reality, this can't be what we seek. This might point to his real location." She looked down at the much smaller man.
"Unfortunately, its not just a statue. Atlas was said to have been carved from the very stone of the mountains from which he was born. His heart was another matter." She clutched her chest in pain. "It was a gift from my mother." She grew incredibly angry, and her eyes flashed with such blinding light, the small man cowered.
"I didn't mean to offend you!" He knew she was powerful, but only glimpsed the barest of hints of her true power from time to time. She had rescued him from a few outlaws a number of years ago, and he had worked for her ever since.
"You haven't." She shook herself, and grit her teeth. "Its time." She looked down at him and smiled softly. "Your service will never be forgotten. You should get out of this cavern, for when I free him, it will come down in a glorious hail of debris!" He looked extremely frightened.
"He really is Atlas? Where should I go?"
"North. To the town we stay in. I'll be there in the morning. It might take that long to convince my father that I'm not his enemy."
"Father. Its time to wake up!" She stood before the behemoth statue, jumped up high, and hit him square in its chest of stone. The statue blinked.
"Who...." she smiled. "Why does it hurt?" He asked, and she sighed happily.
"My mother's bones lie at your feet. Within your chest lies her heart. She gave it to you before she died, and hoped you would one day rise again." He blinked again.
"The city? Was it saved?" She growled.
"Those cowards left you to rot here for centuries! Look around!" He turned his gargantuan head slowly. "Walls carved from the stone, and stacked, to keep you hidden from sight! You saved them, and they left you here!"
"But....my brother! Why...."
"That bastard is the one who loosed the boulder! You would have interfered in his glorious war! Its time, father! The city is dust! Let your burden go!" He tried to shift his weight, but the stone started to move.
"I can't! That's why I haven't moved in so long! I remember now! I can't move or the stone will crush me anyway! I didn't save the city! This was meant to be a prison!" He saw her eyes flash, then her body change into stone. She grew to his size, and beyond.
"Then I will break your prison for you!"
"I thought I would have to convince you that I'm not your enemy." She said softly as the behemoth stone giant stretched and moved his limbs for the first time in thousands of years.
"I can feel your mother's heart beating within your chest, and you changed to a daughter of the stone. You are my child, aren't you?" She smiled.
"Yes, I am. The world is not as you remember it, father. There are cities everywhere, with humans numbering in the millions. They built weapons of war that put the old gods to shame. They murder each other in wars across the planet, and respect nothing. Not nature, no god, or each other. They worship gold as their god now." He chuckled. "What?" She asked indignantly.
"You truly are her daughter. Men were like that when I was young, child. They didn't worship the gods. They worshiped gods of gold. They weren't smart enough back then to figure out the world was orderly, so they made up gods to give that order a name. They destroyed entire forests to make charcoal to process their iron and gold, and ripped up vast patches of fertile farmland to keep it out of the hands of their neighbors. Things have not changed." She lowered her eyes.
"Maybe not. But how will you fit in? You are a stone giant, father. I never considered.....what the?" She was taken aback as her father shrank and took on the look of a lowly human, albeit a large human.
"Did you think you got the ability to change your form from your mother?" Then he started to laugh loudly. The laughter sounded like a large war drum, rumbling deep from a massive chest. "Your mother was a wonderful, loving and beautiful woman. That stone was my prison only because your mother lived in that city. Had I known she had left, I would have slowly pounded that stone into dust! But time is different for the likes of us, daughter." He smiled a large smile that beamed with happiness at knowing he had kin such as her. "Now, let us go into this big world of theirs and see what kind of trouble we can stir up!" She smiled.
"Are you an outlaw, father?"
"Of course! The laws of men have always protected the rich, and the wicked, and I do nothing of the sort!" He laughed again. She watched as the sky flashed with lightning in response. She had thought that her power had no equal, but Atlas was now awake, and the elements responded to the emergence of one of the oldest kinds of gods.
She could also feel a deeper truth then she once knew. He was far more powerful then she. A true Titan that gains power the longer he is in his natural state. Her father was in his natural state for thousands of years, and there is no telling how much power he gained during that period of time.
Atlas was free, and the chains of the gods were ready to be broken.
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