As Tesel and the other warriors went down Gaya’s head and toward her neck, they remained vigilant of any possible sudden emergence of Aisa’s army. Their foe could have been anywhere in Gaya’s body by now, since so much time had gone by from the last time they’d fought them.

Despite Lia’s words that they all had to fight on the way they always did, and how those words brought back Fil’s resolve, a number of the men marching behind still felt discouraged and doubtful of success against Kappitta and Aisa. Some felt that a quick death would have been better than enduring those all too formidable foes.

Now that they were past Gaya’s neck and approaching her chest, most of the troops were careful this time not to go down the tunnels that led to the lungs; three of the men, however, ran down a detour to one of them.

“Wait!” Fil shouted as he saw them suddenly making a dash toward an entry to a lung. “Where do you think you’re going?”

He received no reply. The three men just kept running.

“Stop them!” Fil shouted. “Those cowards are deserting us!”

He and a few other fighters ran down that tunnel after them. The deserters came to the windy opening leading into one of the lung chambers. They all jumped in, screaming as they were being blown down to the floor.

“Stop!” Fil shouted to the fighters behind him. “Don’t get too close to the opening, or you might get sucked in by Gaya’s breaths. Let the deserters go. They’re unworthy of us!“

He shouted that last point loud enough so the deserters would hear him. As he and his men walked back down the tunnel to rejoin the others, they heard the screams and grunts of pain of the deserters as they flew up and down the lung chamber, crashing against the ceiling and floor of it again and again until their injuries and broken bones were so many that they died of them.

Fil and his followers reached the others. He pulled out his sword and pointed it at them angrily.

“If any of you wish to desert, as those three cowards did, just come to me, and my sword will make your deaths far slower and more painful than Kappitta or Aisa’s men could ever do!” he shouted.

There was a moment of silence as those others who, like the three just then, had considered deserting, decided with shame in their hearts to carry on with the mission after all. They all resumed their march downwards.

“It’s obvious that we need to visit Gaya’s heart again,” Lia said. “The surge of love for her has faded somewhat.”

“Agreed,” Tesel said, then shouted behind them, “We’ll make another stop at Gaya’s heart, troops, to boost our resolve and love for her!”

They continued on their way to her heart. They knew they were close when those marching in front saw a faint red glow. As they continued toward it, they imagined that the glow would get brighter.

It didn’t.

The pulse was even slower than it had been the last time, too.

They were all standing right in front of the heart now, seeing that glow as every bit as dim as it had looked farther back down the tunnel, and the heartbeat, if anything, was even slower now.

“Oh, no,” Lia said, tears coming to her eyes. “This can’t be. This is too much.”

“If those three deserters could see this now, they’d be so ashamed of themselves for abandoning us,” Fil said, choking back sobs.

“How many times do you all need to be reminded?” Tesel shouted back to the dwindling members of his army. “Gaya is dying. If she dies, we all die. Do you want to die having given up, as those three did, or do you want to die fighting?”

The troops behind, as teary-eyed as Lia, shouted, “Fighting!”

Those who’d considered deserting were now shaking with shame over having even contemplated giving up.

That heart looked so weak, so dim in its light…it was so slow in its pulse, it looked as if it would die any second, right then and there.

“We not only must fight and defeat Kappitta and Aisa, we must do so now!” Tesel shouted. “We can delay no longer. March now, double time!”

They immediately started a long jog down from the heart to the stomach. Their eyes looked everywhere for a possible ambush from Aisa’s men. The tunnels were so shrouded in shadows that the enemy could have easily been ensconced anywhere in them.

As they jogged on, they heard more voices from the heavens above. Urgency demanded, though, that they not stop to listen. They wouldn’t have understood the fast-flying words anyway, but they could still know the feelings given out. This is what they heard:

I’msopissedoffatAsarightnow.Allhecaresaboutisthemoneyhe’slosingfromGaya’snotsuckingdick.
He’sabusinessman,Lila.Whatdoyouexpect?
HecouldatleastappreciateGayaforwhosheis,Phil!Ihopehispornbusinessdoesdie!
Ifhisbusinesdies,we’llallbeoutofwork,Lila.
We’llallbefree!

The troops kept marching, feeling a vague sense of inspiration from what otherwise sounded to them like a vague flurry of words.

They rounded another corner in the tunnel and heard munching sounds farther off.

“Halt!” Tesel shouted. The men did. “Listen!” he whispered.

Those munching sounds were much clearer now.

“Kappitta,” Lia whispered.

“Yes,” Tesel said in a low voice. “This is it. Time to kill the giant worm, or be killed by it.”

Everyone, even the three leaders, was shaking all over, many of them feeling nauseous. Fil took a secret swig from his cup of wine to calm his nerves.

They all knew that they couldn’t stop now, though. They couldn’t turn back.

“Let’s move in as quietly as we can,” Tesel said softly.

They all crept forward until they saw Kappitta.

The worm was now almost twice the size it had been the last time they faced it.

“It’s done a lot of eating since last time, hasn’t it?” Fil asked in a shaky voice.

“While our army is fewer in number this time,” Lia said no less tremulously.

The gargantuan worm was now looking down at them with hungry eyes. Its gaping maw of a mouth seemed to be smiling at all the food before it.

The warriors, continuing their march through a tunnel on the way to Gaya’s brain, came to a point that was level with her nose and ears. They heard a whispering female voice.

“Welcome,” the voice said.

“One of the gods from above?” Lia asked Tesel.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “It’s much too close to us.”

“Gaya’s voice again?” Fil asked.

“Probably,” Tesel said. “Let’s listen for more.”

“Your marching is so noisy,” the voice said. “It’s disturbing my sleep. Try to move more quietly.”

“Forgive us, Gaya,” Lia said gently. She motioned to the troops behind her to march softer.

“You all smell…of blood…and mud,” the voice said.

“Oh, that’s definitely Gaya’s voice,” Fil said. “Only she would be close enough to smell our stench.”

Soon, all the warriors came up to be level with Gaya’s eyes. Though closed to the world outside, they were open to see Tesel’s army.

“You all look so tired, so dirty, and so beaten from all of your struggles,” the voice whispered.

“We struggle, tire, and hurt for you, Gaya,” Lia said. “We do this all out of love for you.”

“Now, tell us how to defeat Aisa’s army,” Tesel said, “and tell us what to do about Kappitta, if the giant worm is not to be slain.”

“Help us to be victorious,” Fil said, “if our suffering and deaths are not to be in vain.”

“Continue up to my brain,” the voice said, “If you are to receive the answers to your questions.”

The fighters continued their march up to the brain.

As they approached it, they sensed a soothing warmth emanating from it. That feeling made them all want to get over there faster, but Tesel warned them not to do anything to disturb Gaya’s needed rest.

Finally, the tunnel they were marching through rounded a bend, and they all could see the brain from a distance. It glowed an almost blinding white light. They all had to cover their eyes with their hands as they came closer.

That warmth, like a massage vibrating throughout the body of each and every soldier, buzzing from head to toe, was making them all want to run up to the brain. But again, Tesel ordered them not to march any faster.

The light, however blinding to the fighters’ vision, was paradoxically illuminating to their minds. It spoke to them in ways that words couldn’t. The closer they got to the brain, the more that light ‘spoke’ to them.

The warriors, all in a mesmerized state, said out loud all the wisdom and insight that the light of the brain was shining on them.

“How this war ends,” Tesel said in the monotone voice of one in a trance, “will depend greatly on where and when we confront Aisa’s army.”

“Before we face Kappitta,” Fil said in the same, hypnotized monotone, “or after.”

“If we face Aisa first,” Lia said, “we must resist all attempts made by his men to entice us with sex and the female body.”

“His magician, Gujon, will hit us with images of dancing naked women far more seductive and distracting than before,” Tesel said.

“We must be strong,” Fil said, “and resist the urge to have these mirages of women, lest we die.”

“We can resist lust with love,” Lia said. “We must recall what the heart taught us.”

“The heart taught us to love Gaya,” Tesel said.

“It taught us to love her mind and her heart,” Lia said, “not to lust after her body, but to seek to save it.”

“Compassion,” Fil said. “Not carnal passion.”

“We already know we must resist the dancing girls, though,” Tesel said, coming out of his trance. “We were tempted by them before. Our encounter with Gaya’s heart, moreover, should strengthen us if we meet Aisa before the worm; but what is the secret to defeating them all?”

There was a moment of silence.

They heard Gaya’s whispering voice again: “Kill worm…kill will…”

“Does that mean, if we kill Kappitta, that we’ll kill our own willpower, and we won’t be able to defeat Aisa’s army?” Tesel asked. “Must we refrain from killing the worm?”

Then they heard the voice of hypnotized Lia telling them the brain’s counsel: “Kill the worm, and kill the will…of Aisa’s men.”

“If Kappitta is dead,” Fil droned in the same mesmeric state, “Aisa’s men will fight with no direction, no purpose, no aim. They’ll be mere automatons, chaotically fighting as if without brains, for the worm is their brain.”

“That’s it!” Tesel said. “I knew it! We must kill the worm. In fact, killing the worm is key to winning the war!”

The others came out of their trance.

“But killing the worm will be almost impossible,” Fil said. “Even with our improved skills as fighters, even with our strong, loving, determined hearts. The last time we faced Kappitta, we barely fended it off, barely escaped with our lives. A number of us died. If we were to try to fight Kappitta to the end, there’s a slim chance, at best, of winning. If it isn’t all of us who die, surely the great majority of us will.”

“And that small number of our survivors will still have to face a huge army,” Tesel admitted. “An army of randomly slashing fighters, but still a huge number of men. Surely their wild, aimless strokes of the sword will be lucky enough to kill our few surviving fighters. Then they’ll continue to slash at Gaya until she’s dead.”

There was another moment of silence, a despairing one.

Then they heard voices from up above:

Anyprogresssincelasttime,Lila?
No,Cecil.Shehasn’tevengrabbedmyfinger,evenafterItellhertograbit.
Trynottoworry.I’msureshe’llpullthrough.
Iwannabelievethat,Phil,Ireallydo,butit’ssohard.
Don’tcry,Lila.Givehertime.

“I wish I could understand what the gods are saying,” Lia said. “Are they encouraging us? Are they telling us a secret to killing the worm? All I can sense is their sadness and despair, like ours.”

“I know,” Tesel said. “What we must do is hard, but we can’t not do it.”

“How are we going to kill Kappitta, and still have enough fighters left to take on Aisa’s army, as disorganized as they’ll become without the worm’s guidance?” Fil asked.

“I don’t know,” Tesel said, “but we must try.”

“We might confront Aisa’s army before we get to the worm,” Fil said. “That’ll mean fighting them when they’re still sharp and focused. They could have moved up to Gaya’s chest area by now, while Kappitta’s still eating in her guts. What can we do?”

“We’ll do what we’ve always done, Fil!” Lia said. “We’ll fight! We’ll fight because we love Gaya, and we want her to live, even if we don’t survive. Have you forgotten the lessons we learned from her heart? Have you, Fil?”

He looked down at his feet in shame at his defeatism. “No,” he said.

“Then let’s get moving!” Tesel said. “Whichever we confront first, we must fight them all, if Gaya is to live!”

They started their march back down her body.

After a long march up Gaya’s arms, Tesel’s group and the one led by Lia and Fil met between the shoulders. They found a tunnel up the neck that was behind the windpipe, so they were able to avoid those powerful winds that had killed a number of their warriors in the lung chambers.

Once all of them were level with Gaya’s mouth, they began to hear faint, whispering voices.

“Are the gods and angels speaking to us again?” Fil asked.

“I don’t think it’s’ them,” Lia said. “These voices sound different, and much too close to be from heaven.”

“Let’s listen,” Tesel said. “This could be important.”

“Kill…worm…kill…will,” the voice whispered, over and over.

“Can you understand that?” Lia asked Tesel.

“Unlike when the gods speak their indecipherable babble, I can make out these words…Gaya’s words,” Tesel said. “But how do we interpret the meaning of, ‘Kill worm, kill will?'”

“We know we have to kill the worm,” Fil said. “That’s obvious.”

“We’ll be facing Kappitta on our way back to face Aisa’s army,” Tesel said. “It will probably still be in the stomach and intestinal areas, because that’s where it gets its food. So surely we’ll kill it first, before we face Aisa’s men.”

“But what does ‘kill will’ mean?” Lia asked. “Does it mean that killing Kappitta will destroy our will to carry on and defeat Aisa’s army?”

“That hardly makes sense,” Tesel said.

“Yet, it rather sounds like that’s what Gaya meant,” Fil said.

“Is this the wisdom that Gaya’s brain has for us to defeat Aisa’s army?” Lia asked. “That we have to let Kappitta live?“

“That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Tesel said. “Kappitta has only been bad for Gaya. It must be killed. Besides, it will be in our way before we get to Aisa. We must at least confront it and fight it.”

“So shall we fight it, but not kill it?” Fil asked.

“Let’s continue up to the brain and find out for sure,” Tesel said. “Let’s not jump to any hasty conclusions.”

“Very well, then, troops!” Lia shouted to all the warriors behind her. “Let’s continue up to Gaya’s brain!”

They marched on up.

Finally, Tesel’s men reached Gaya’s right hand, and the group of fighters led by Lia and Fil reached the left hand. The tunnels of Gaya’s arms opened out into the spacious chambers of her hands, and all the warriors could fit into each chamber with ease.

As they filed in, they felt a presence enter their bodies like air entering the lungs. This ‘air’ seemed to be their trainers of newer and better fighting skills, for they immediately found themselves moving with better grace.

The presence felt as if it were flowing through them…and making them flow everywhere they went. Swordsmen moved their swords in graceful arcs, almost like dancers. Spears were thrown in similarly flowing arcs, always landing exactly where intended. Arrows were shot with the same, flawless marksmanship.

The next thing to improve was their speed. They practiced drawing out and swinging their swords, and they were amazed at how lightning-fast they’d become in so short a time.

“This is incredible!” Tesel said of his own movements, as well as those of the other fighters he was watching.

“I feel as though I can take on all of Aisa’s army all by myself!” Lia shouted with pride as she swung her sword so deftly.

“So do I,” said another female fighter, doing the same faultless cutting of the air with her sword.

“This is so miraculous,” Fil said, with his sword swaying so poetically and swiftly, “that I need to put this improvement of mine to a test.” He took out his cup of wine, and instead of just sneaking a swig for fear of Tesel catching him, he now gulped it all down openly, without inhibition.

Then, once the cup was empty, he waited a moment or two to feel the buzz. He sheathed his sword as he waited.

Now, feeling nice and tipsy, he resumed his practice. He pulled his sword out of its sheath; as quick as a flash, it came out with perfect smoothness, with a screech of the metal blade. Then he moved about, with it slicing in the air as swiftly and adeptly as before. His wine buzz was in no way slowing him down or making him clumsy. It was as if he were completely sober.

“I cannot believe it!” he said with a grin. “I want to take on Kappitta all alone!”

Indeed, all the warriors were letting out triumphant shouts as they continued dancing with their swirling swords, tossing their spears with calculating accuracy, and firing arrows to hit what seemed microscopic targets.

“This is joyous news!” Tesel shouted, loud enough to be heard also in the other hand. “We now have the heart to defeat our enemies with resolve and determination. We have the skill to hit them fast and with precision. Now, there is only one more thing we need to ensure victory: insight from Gaya’s brain to know the secret of Aisa’s power. What weakness, in his army and in Kappitta, must we exploit to defeat them? For this knowledge, we must reunite at her shoulders, and march up to her head. Onwards and upwards!”

They all turned around and began their march out of the chambers of Gaya’s hands; but after only a few steps of each pair of feet, they noticed a slight trembling. Was it another earthquake? They looked back and saw slight movements in one or two of the fingers.

Then they heard a female voice from above:

MyGod!HerfingersclosedaroundmineafterIaskedhertodoso!
Whatwasthat,Lila?
Phil,Iwhisperedtohertograbmyfingersasmyhandtouchedhers,andshedid!Shecouldbebeginningtocomeoutofhercoma!
Maybe.It’sagoodsign,butlet’snotgetourhopesuptoohigh.
Yeah,wedon’twannasetourselvesupfordisappointment.Still,it’sexciting!

Not knowing a word of what was said by the god and goddess, but still encouraged by the feeling they were getting from the two above, the warriors continued their march out of the chambers of Gaya’s hands and back up her arms to her shoulders.

The separate groups reached Gaya’s shoulders and began their descent along her arms. Anticipation was high as they all wondered what new fighting skills they were to learn when they were in the chambers of her hands.

They all stopped about midway along the tunnels of her upper arms when they heard two male voices from above:

SothatisthegreatandfamousGayaWeld,pornstarextraordinaire?
Yes,itis,andshe’sallyoursforanhourfortwohundredbucks
Hereyouare,buddy
Thankyou,andherearetherules.Nohittingher,nobiting,andnoscratching.Shecan’thaveamarkonher,anywhereonthatbeautifulbody,’causeifthereis,anursewho’smoreofagirlscoutthanI’lleverbeaboyscoutnursewilltelleveryoneandwe’llbothbeinshit.Here,letmegiveyousomething.
Lube?
Yeah,incaseshe’sdry.Soaslongasyouremembertherules–don’thurtheratall–havefun.I’llbebackinanhour.
OK.

The troops still didn’t have the slightest clue about what was said about Gaya by the two gods, but they all had an instinct that told them it wasn’t anything good.

“I have a feeling that the gods are about to punish us, for some reason,” Tesel said with a frown. “I don’t know why, but I just have that feeling.”

The soldiers soon found that their instincts were correct, for they felt a few shakes, like the beginning of an earthquake. Then the shakes became regular, even rhythmic.

Back and forth, and back and forth, everything around the troops shook…and they were forceful, violent shakes, throwing the fighters in the air and making them all crash on the floor, only to be thrown again, back in the opposite direction, and forward again. Back and forth.

The thrusts forward were particularly violent, tossing the fighters further ahead than the being thrown back, so hitting the ground when going forward was harder than when thrown back. Fighters often fell on the backs of those in front of them when going forward, and when they were thrown back, they fell on the chests and bellies of those behind them.

In between this flying back and forth, Tesel, Lia, and Fil tried to give commands to cope with the problem.

“Can we try…Oh!…to grab onto anything…Ah!…the walls…Ooh!…the ground…Unh!…the ceiling!” Lia asked.

“Let’s try it…Ah!” Fil shouted.

The soldiers tried to grab onto the sides of the tunnels, but generally couldn’t. They just grabbed onto other soldiers, irritating each other in the process.

The shaking back and forth was getting faster and faster, making even fragments of conversation impossible.

Tesel wanted to tell his men to try to huddle up side by side, with men on the extreme left and right squeezed so tightly against the walls of the tunnel that the men would be stuck, and therefore, the shakes wouldn’t throw them anymore. He couldn’t, however, communicate the idea to his troops because the gaps in between the shakes back and forth had become far too brief to get a word in. All anyone could do was put up with the accelerated shaking, and hope it would end soon.

After another few minutes of the ordeal, the shaking suddenly stopped.

All the warriors just lay there on the ground for several minutes, alert, eyes wide open, waiting for the next shake and hoping it would never happen. Their hearts were pounding the whole time, they were sore all over, and they were breathing heavily.

During that time, they heard a few loud moans from high above.

“It seems to be over,” Tesel said, then he got up.

All the warriors finally rose to their feet. They rubbed themselves everywhere they were sore.

“Do you think the gods were angry with us?” Lia asked Fil.

“I don’t know what we could have done to anger them,” he said, “but they sure fucked us over.”

“That seems true, in too literal a sense for comfort,” she said. “If anything good came of that, at least we’re a bit closer to our destination.”

“That slight bend in the tunnel must be the elbow,” Tesel said to his men. “We’ll soon reach Gaya’s hands. Let’s carry on.”

They all continued down the arms.