Something had gone wrong. Buttons were ablaze on the control panel of my spaceships, they glowed and flickered on and off like the luminescent bugs that surrounded my childhood home. But this link to my past held no nostalgia behind it. No, I felt only the cold jolt of fear cause through my bloodstream like electricity. I had to land it and now. It would be off course and I would be lost but I would be alive. Flames licked the sides of my vessel, outside my window, and retracted only to climb the metal again, like a tide of fire. Back and forth, back and forth. I readied myself as I entered this atmosphere and the flames continued to grow, swallowing my vision until all I saw was the hot red colour then empty blackness…
I stepped off the hard metal and was greeted with the soft carpet of lush green grass. An array of greens and blues and purples and yellows and all sorts of colours imaginable were presented before me, a welcomed sight. The soft melody of a creature with brightly coloured wings drifted through the clean air, carried by the wind. It was the complete opposite than the cacophony that was my home planet. The noises where too loud and too many to compare to the blissful symphony that was found her. They were the sounds off a busy planet, too many people all stuck in their own world, existing within the one. Metal scaped on metal, engines roared and the birds were none. The sights were just as atrocious. They were all hard edges and dull colours. Smog filled every crevasse on every street, even those already claimed by people who had nothing else to claim, for the city’s stench of filth knows no mercy. But all of that was gone now. With no motive or means to return home I had decided to stay, so I began walking.
I was a commander at war on my home turf and was still clad in its required uniform, tight metallic armour, worn across my chest, that glowed under sunlight and a matching helmet, however, my pants had become ruined during the crash so I had grabbed some fabric of a line as I was passing a cottage. It was light and flowing and contrasted perfectly with the solid lines of the metal.
By this point I had reached a village and had decided to stay. The natives gaped at the sight of me. We looked similar enough, both species had pale, hairless skin and fair hair, but where mine was glowing and radiant as if lit up from within, there’s was leathery and dull as if it had faced too many hardships. My otherworldly clothes where polished and rich with colour whereas there’s were barely rags. After living here for awhile I noticed that I aged differently to these natives. They would waste away in no time at all while I frolicked in youthfulness. I guess, it was no wonder they revered me as a goddess.
I taught them what I could. I showed them what it was to be courageous. I shared my wisdom with whoever needed it and taught them to do the same. I spoke of laws and policies and justices and rights/wrongs and they listened and obeyed. I spoke of war and how wasteful it was and only to be used in the direst of circumstances. I spoke of strategies and armour as to save as many lives as possible should it come to war so that lives weren’t lost and widows weren’t gained. What started as a spark in a small village soon turned into a conflagration and spread like wildfire. Civilizations bloomed where mere villages stood. Hundreds, thousands flocked to see me, ‘The goddess amongst Mortals’ and more shrines and statures and building of worships were erected in my name.
But eventually time moved forward and my statues eroded away, and my places of worship were knocked down to make room for skyrises and malls and banks so the rich get richer. The war I spoke of that was used to defend the innocent from the greedy was now used as a means for the greedy to control the innocent. My name was never spoken except for when it was mumbled in history class and dismissed as some long-ago myth. This world was unrecognisable to what it had been when I first stepped foot on it some years ago. However, it was beginning to look a lot like the home I had escaped from, one that has since turned to ruins. It was beginning to look as if these creature, homo-sapiens as they so modestly named themselves, were fated to the same end as my home planet.
Alas a light bloomed in the darkness, like a candle refusing to be snuffed out. People were waking up out of there stupor guided by youth, the future of their planet. They lead protest and inform others of their planets suffering. I witness each individual do whatever they can to help, however small, and soon those small acts amount to a tidal pool of change that will one day wash this world into a better era. I smiled and decided it was time I take my leave.
Before I left I went back to where it all began, some village in the middle of nowhere Greece and although it has changed my statutes still stands proudly were I once stood. I wipe the plagues and read for the last time “Athena- Goddess of wisdom, courage, civilization, law and justice, and strategic warfare. Our inspiration.”