Long ago there were almighty gods everywhere. Boys and girls. They knew they couldn't hurt one another, and so they were cruel to one another more often than they were fair. They were forever quarrelling and fighting.

Shivvy was a boy god whose hobby was making things from stone and wood and metal. He ran away from the fights the other gods enjoyed waging against one another. All the other gods, boys and girls, thought Shivvy was needlessly cowardly for running away from fights, and that his cowardice was in keeping with his low-intelligence choice of making pretty things of stone and wood and metal.

Why would an almighty god waste time making pretty things out of stone and wood and metal? Stone and wood and metal perished sooner or later. It was useless for a god that lived forever to spend time caring for things that would not last forever.

Sometimes some of the gods, boys and girls, would hang around to watch Shivvy working, just so that they could make fun of him. Shivvy didn't care. He loved his hobby.

One day Shivvy was concentrating his almighty powers on some metal in order to generate enough super heat to melt it so that he could mould it. A few gods lounging around, boys and girls, were so out of control making fun of Shivvy that some of them tripped. They bumped Shivvy. Shivvy fell into the hot melting metal.

He wasn't hurt. He was almighty. However, something strange happened to the metal. When Shivvy pulled himself out of the molten metal some of his skin was cooked into the metal. Instantly the metal turned cold and hard. The other gods could not stop laughing at Shivvy.

For the first time in all his life, Shivvy became angry. He lost control. He threw the chunk of metal at them. He knew he couldn't hurt them with it. He chucked it at them, anyway.

One of the boy gods pretended to be frightened. He jumped into the path of the hurtling metal and grabbed it in the air. When he touched it he exploded into dust.

Everybody was stunned. For the first time in billions and billions of years an almighty god was destroyed instantly, forever. All the gods fled helter-skelter screaming in fear. Only Shivvy remained even though he, too, was scared.

Shivvy was afraid that if he touched the metal where it lay on the ground he, too, would explode into dust. Nonetheless, he couldn't resist the urge to reach out for this metal thing he had made. He touched it.

He did not explode into dust. After carefully touching and examining the metal, he knew why it had not destroyed him. It was because the metal had some of his skin cooked into it.

A wicked thought occurred to Shivvy, almighty god; his first in billions of years.

Shivvy called all boy gods to a secret meeting. At that meeting he offered to make each of them a metal weapon that could destroy any other almighty god it touched. If they proclaimed him King over them he would make them weapons so that boy gods could kill off all girl gods, sooner or later.

The boy gods were thrilled at having a world with no girl gods. The boy gods proclaimed Shivvy their King.

What Shivvy did not tell them was that the weapons he made for them would be able to kill boy gods, too, because the reason the metal could kill all the other gods but not him was because he was going to cook some of his skin into each of their weapons. Nor did Shivvy tell them he intended to make their weapons to instantly explode into dust if they got within an arm's length of Shivvy with his weapon.

Shivvy fully intended to kill off all boy gods and girl gods so that, sooner or later, he would be the only almighty god in the Universe.

After the boy gods proclaimed Shivvy King, he made each one of them whatever weapon they preferred.

Some chose bows and arrows. Some chose swords. Some chose daggers; some long swords; and so on.

Boy gods went about destroying girl gods. Girl gods took to hiding. Many fled Earth, forever, to hide on stars.

Had boy gods organized themselves into an army, they could easily have destroyed all girl gods within days. But the boy gods did not get together as an army because they did not trust one another.

Each with his weapon stayed as far away from another as he could. Perhaps every boy god was like Shivvy who wished he were the only almighty god in the Universe.

Girl god Kohey, while walking through a forest, heard girl-screams. She hid behind a tree. She saw a girl god come crashing through the forest. She was running from a boy god named Ollop.

Ollop's almighty Shivvy-weapon was a bow and arrow.

The girl god tripped. She fell to the ground a few steps away from where Kohey was hiding.

The girl god pleaded with Ollop to not kill her. Ollop grinned cruelly as he slowly and deliberately armed the bow. He grinned evilly as he aimed the arrow at the girl god cowering on the ground, crying. Kohey struck!

She jumped, and pushed Ollop away. He tumbled to the ground. His bow and arrow went spinning out of his hands. The girl god scrambled up and flew away.

Kohey dashed for the bow and arrow. She picked them up, armed the bow, and shot Ollop in the neck while he was still on the ground. Ollop, almighty god, never knew what hit him; he exploded into dust, forever.

Kohey wore a baggy cloak to hide the bow and arrow she fastened to her back. She didn't care to hide from boy gods anymore. When they approached Kohey to kill her, they took no precautions because they didn't think a girl god would have a weapon. It was easy for Kohey to turn a boy god attacker into dust. She always ran away when there were two or more boy-gods around because she did not want to risk revealing, by accident, her secret Ollop weapons. She was also careful to not reveal her weapons to girl gods.

One sunny day, Kohey was flying along above a beach when she saw King Shivvy fast asleep in the sun on the beach. She was not about to risk a fight with the King. She turned to fly away. As she turned, her eyes caught the glint of gold partially buried in the sea sand next to King Shivvy.

A jewel? The attraction of the jewel overcame her fear of King Shivvy. She flew down to land on the sandy beach. She walked slowly up to the jewel. When she got near it she saw it was not a jewel. It was a metal weapon no longer than her arm. Another boy god weapon! She was excited! She would have two weapons when she stole this one!

Before she could reach out for it, she felt the bow and arrow underneath her cloak explode into dust. She did not understand why the bow and arrow exploded. She didn't know at the time she had discovered King Shivvy's secret.

What she did know was she now had no weapon. She quickly pulled the weapon out of the sand. It was a gold trident.

King Shivvy awoke. He jumped up and faced Kohey. He was not afraid because he knew no weapon could hurt him. He did not want to frighten her to run away with his gold trident.

Kohey took up a defensive stance on the sand. She kept the tines of the trident pointing at King Shivvy. "Neat weapon, Shivvy. Why so small?"

"All right," he said through his clenched teeth "just stick the trident in the sand and leave!" "Uh-uh," said Kohey. "It's mine, now. I'm leaving with it. How many girls have you destroyed with this weapon, huh?"

King Shivvy looked at Kohey and spoke to her quietly in his best gentle voice. "Uh, all right. You know who I am. I don't know your name. Tell me your name."

"I don't think so," Kohey replied. "I am leaving. Do not follow me." She backed away from him.

"Wait! Wait! Here! Look at this." Shivvy took out a ring from his pocket and held it out in the palm of his hand for Kohey to see.

It was a huge flawless diamond ring. It sparkled as if it were on fire. It sparkled more, much more than the gold trident in Kohey's hands.

Kohey was almost in a trance as she gazed at the beautiful jewel. King Shivvy smiled contemptuously when he saw how enthralled the girl was with his jewel in his hand!

Kohey spoke softly and hesitantly, her eyes glued on the shiny ring in King Shivvy's hand. "You---you---you want to trade?" She was already moving the trident to return it to him. He stepped back. He spoke cunningly softly and falsely sweetly.

"No. Not really." Kohey felt herself wanting to beg King Shivvy to trade hers for his.

King Shivvy held the ring to his eye and looked out to sea through the hole. He spoke slowly as he looked.
"It's a magical ring. I made it.” He lowered the ring and looked sweetly, genuinely sweetly this time, at Kohey.

"This ring can take you and me into the past to the very beginning. Before there was life. Before there were even gods like us."

"I don't want to go to the past. The present is good enough for me," said Kohey in a soft voice trembling in excitement under the spell of the King’s jewel.

King Shivvy said, teasingly, "Come on. Sooner or later everyone wonders where everything began. This jewel can take me and you there."

Kohey mightily pulled herself out of the power of the ring. "Us?" She said firmly. "You're not listening, king-boy. I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Even if where it all began could show you secrets that will give you power over all the gods? Boys and girls?"

Kohey looked at King Shivvy. He saw in her face she was becoming interested. He continued malevolently speaking softly.

"Lately, when I sleep, I dream I am in the company of a girl god." "Liar!" shouted Kohey, struggling to mean it. “In my dreams, the girl god keeps telling me I need her in order to travel into the past and to be there in the past for as long as I wish to be. And I need her to be with me for me to return here. There was just no way I was going to approach a girl god and ask her to come with me into the past. I was determined to find a way to travel into the past without taking a girl god with me. But look what has happened! You show up! A girl god has come to me!"

Kohey did not trust him. She took comfort in having his trident in her hands. She wouldn't have felt so confident had she known that no weapon could harm King Shivvy. Especially not his own. Nobody knew this. Only King Shivvy knew this.

Kohey repeated firmly to King Shivvy "I said I am not going anywhere with you." "Even if I give you your own ring?" He took out another diamond ring from his pocket. He lightly tossed it to her. This diamond was as huge as the other one in King Shivvy's hand. The fiery sparkles from this one were bright blue.

Without thinking what she was doing, Kohey mightily impulsively hooked the ring in midair with one of the tines of the trident.

She stopped paying attention to King Shivvy because she couldn't take her eyes off this blue-fire diamond.

King Shivvy could have easily grabbed the trident out of Kohey's hand. However, he so wanted to travel back in time, he did not grab the trident from her. Instead, he spoke to her in his best satanically sweetly toned voice to her.

"Each of us must wear a ring. We must hold hands. The moment our hands touch we will travel back in time to the very beginning."

Kohey slowly slipped the ring off the tine and slipped it on her finger. The ring fit perfectly. She cleared her throat and said softly, "I keep the trident at all times." "Of course," replied King Shivvy. Secretly he felt royally triumphantly happy! He had won! Silly shallow girl!

He slipped his ring on his finger. He held out his hand. She took his hand. In seconds they travelled at great speed back in time.

When they stopped, they were in a place being violently rocked and wrecked by explosions of fire and of darknesses everywhere. Violent winds swirling around. Millions and millions of tiny things, animate and inanimate, rushing about in every direction. Violent collisions here there and everywhere.

Kohey and Shivvy had to hold on tightly to each other to steady themselves.

"This is what it was like at the beginning, huh?" "Looks like." "Still want to hang around?" shouted Kohey. "Just for a little while. We are almighty. None of this can hurt us."

"Are you sure?" shouted Kohey. "You said this is a time before there were gods. We could be just ordinary living things here. I don't want to hang around to discover I am mortal."

A cunning idea occurred to King Shivvy, of how to get his trident back. "Try the trident out on me," he said. "Stab my hand. If I'm still almighty, the stab will not hurt me." He fully intended to snatch the trident from her when it touched his hand.

"But if you are not almighty, you will disintegrate into dust." "I'm willing to take that risk," said King Shivvy, fully believing there was no risk since he believed he was still King of the gods here so far in the past.

At that moment, a burst of darkness at their feet caused both of them to lose balance. Kohey fell to one knee. King Shivvy tumbled onto the tines of the trident she was holding. He exploded into dust. The King of almighty gods was gone instantly forever, which proved that in the beginning, there were no almighty beings.

Kohey was not aware King Shivvy had exploded into dust. She was too busy trying to get back onto her feet. She was puzzled when she saw King Shivvy's ring in her hand, but he was nowhere to be seen. When she saw dust clinging to the tines of the trident she knew the King was no more.

A second or two after King Shivvy turned into dust, a boy god appeared out of nowhere. He looked around in bewilderment. It was obvious to Kohey that he had no idea who he was or where he was.

Kohey remembered that King Shivvy said there had to be a girl god and a boy god for either of them to exist in the past, or to travel back to the present.

"Darn it!" thought Kohey. "I can go back only if I take this confused and ignorant runt with me."

She did not like the idea. She was prepared to risk living forever in this past. Then she recalled she now had Shivvy's secret power. All she had to do was hide the trident under her cloak until she got close enough to use it! She could rid the world of all other weapons; and, better yet, of boys!

She smiled sweetly and most divinely hypocritically as she slipped the late King’s ring on the runt’s finger.