On the God of War

Winds that carried heat ran across the ruined barren landscape of red soil covered by yellowish moss like vegetation, bringing forth dust and dirt along with it.

As the winds blew upon the vast plains, the heat difference swirled the wind around in circles, forming small tornadoes which were a sight to behold.

These desolate lands of the dying planet Mars, not only had lesser gravitation than what the humans were used to, but also a thinner atmosphere, which would make the head of any human here feel lighter as a result of not having to carry as much weight.

As such, the normal force that a human may need to apply to walk otherwise, now carried me several meters into the air. This was baffling to some extent. I did know that the gravity was lesser, but not so less. In fact, I had sometimes imagined what it would be like to be on another planet. And honestly, such high jumps from barely any efforts would be expected from the moon, and not Mars, which was just a little smaller than the Earth.

At most, I had expected to be carried 3 feet, which was about 1 meter into the air. But here, I was being carried about 4 meters into the air. This was also the reason that I was constantly falling down onto the ground every few jumps or so. I was not used to travelling around as so.

But I was determined to explore the strange structure that I had seen all the way out to the very edge of my vision. And so, I had to learn how my body works. And what better way to learn about your body than Yoga? That thought might seem bizarre to most, the thought of doing Yoga a few minutes after arriving on an entirely new planet.

But I did not question my decision making skills. For I was not going to do an entire yoga session out here in the middle of nowhere. John Carter had never done any type of yoga or any other related activity in his lifetime, at least none that I could remember. And so, getting control of this body that way would not doubt take days upon days of time.

It was merely a passing thought. But that didn't stop me from concentrating and meditating to some extent. Damien Smith was someone that could meditate as he walked down the street. He had perfected the art of the union of mind and body, such was his craze about Hindu practices like Yoga.

And although the fact that this was an entirely new body proved to make things difficult, it was not wasted effort.

And then, with an intense flow of heat from the depths of my body, I received my second Martian surprise and one that was totally the best surprise that I think I would ever receive in my life.

What I saw, or rather senses while meditating, was... everything. That was all I could describe it as. It was glorious and beautiful.

What I sensed, was myself. It was my very existence, the soul's connection with my body, one that was capable of covering and spanning across the entirety of the Universe through its sheer size alone. At least that's what I think it is.

In all the memories of mine, I had never even thought of the possibility that such a thing would be possible. This revelation was one that could topple the entire Earth on it's head upside down.

Just the existence of the soul was a curious thing, not to mention the spiritual-physical connection it had established that almost looked to be the size of the Universe.

I was elated. I was invigorated.

But then, I noticed the fatal flaw. The connection, which interestingly enough, could be sensed, was in an absolute mess.

The Chakras, which were supposedly gateways for the connection, were all over the place. The only chakras that were actually in their places were the first and the last.

It's funny how humans can be happy over something but immediately ruin that happiness by finding flaws.

I shook my head at these thoughts. Whatever this gateway or whatever it was, I would deal with it later.

For now, I had to check out that strange structure.

I jumped again, only to realize that I was more in control this time around, the jump only carrying me a meter in the air. I landed on the ground again, this time avoiding my fate of falling face first into the dirt.

I looked at my still naked body in curiousness. It was confusing. Just a moment ago, my muscles who were completely in tune with the stronger gravity of Earth were playing the mischief with me, but now, it was like they had been shaken awoke with a strong dose of caffeine.

Perhaps me discovering the seven chakras had something to do with it. I remembered the sudden heat flow that coursed through my body the moment I discovered the chakras, and this theory suddenly began to make so much more sense.

I didn't intend to dwell on it for too much time and again began jumping towards the only structure in my vision that told of a possible civilization existing here on Mars.

And with the amount of distance I could cover with jumping, it did not take long for me to be standing in front of the small enclosure like structure.

The enclosure appeared to host neither windows nor doors of any kind, on the side nearest to me at least. The enclosure stood a little more than a meter in height which put me well above the necessary height needed to peer over it.

The roof of the enclosure was solid glass which was about 12 cm in thickness. The glass refracted the light of the sun perfectly and made it hard to view what was inside of the enclosure. But it was plenty visible alright.

Inside the enclosure were hundreds of perfectly round and snow white eggs which were of a diameter of about 15 cm.

Some of the eggs had already hatched and the grotesque creatures that sat inside of their own demolished eggs, blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my eyes. And so, to be safe, I gave my eyes a good rub. When I opened my eyes again though, the sight had not changed at all.

The creatures inside of the enclosure had huge heads and small scrawny bodies with had what seemed like 2 pairs of arms and 1 pair of legs. Their eyes, which had blood red irises and a dark pupil, were set at the extreme sides of their heads, a little above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed in any direction. And seeing as to how these queer animals reacted to seeing my figure, they could be directed independently of each other.

The ears which were like cup shaped antennae were placed just above the eyes and protruded not for a great length. What they had for noses on humans, were two longitudinal slits at the midpoint of their mouth and ear. Their body color was a pale shade of yellowish-green and there was no visible hair anywhere on them.

The teeth, as are the eyeballs, are pure white in color, which highlighted the sense of danger one got when they saw the two tusks that protruded from their mouths in the upward direction.

While I was observing the features of the first ever Martian creatures I had laid my eyes upon, more of the eggs started hatching. Slowly but surely, they broke out of their shells which seemed quite comical in my vision. The way their little scrawny bodies were able to break out of such thick shells of their eggs was beyond me.

But just as I was engrossed in observing these small grotesque creatures, I heard a voice from behind me. I turned, and what I saw was a group of fully grown Martian men, like the ones in the enclosure. Their bodies were more defined and not at all scrawny like the young specimens. Their skin color was darkened to a more olive green in contrast to the yellowish green of the recently born. Along with that, the head, which seemed so out of proportions in the smaller ones, was no as so in these adults.

They all stood at a terrifying height of about 4 and a half meters and rode these giant 8 legged animals, 3 meters in height and had a large flat tail, broader at the end than at the base. It had a gaping mouth, which separated its head from its snout to its long neck. And just like its master, this creature had no body hair and was of a dark slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. The feet themselves were heavily padded and nail-less.

The one at the front, of what I presumed to be the leader of these abominations, Held a giant metallic spear about 12 meters in length with as much distance as about 3 meters from my breast. Seconds away from piercing me.

Naked as I was, the very first law of nature, and of survival manifested itself in me and so, I jumped with all my strength.

My legs carried me with utmost confidence, high into the air and away from my attackers. A feat that surprised me as much as it did them, for my mighty effort made through my legs carried me 30 meters into the air and about 100 meters away, passing right over the egg enclosure and a good distance away from it.

I landed on the ground with an impact, one that seemed to only shock me for a moment, not being uncomfortable in the slightest. And then, I looked back towards my pursuers. Most of them had an extreme expression, what I could only make out to be astonishment and the others were understandably checking up on their young and making sure that I had not hurt them in any way.

Their expression that still held the same astonishment had somewhat calmed down and now, they looked towards me with nothing more but curiosity.

And I understood the reason why. Their bodies, were were immense in size were in no way capable of performing such a feat. The reason that their bodies were of such proportions was because they were built to withstand the higher gravitation of Mars, and hence, the multiple appendages to balance themselves more proficiently. Damien Smith was kind of a space nerd and always theorized about alien life and all.

Back to the point, since the Martians, were inherently made to withstand the lesser gravity of Mars as compared to Earth, they could not do such a feat that I had just shown them. The result of my muscles being more attuned with the living conditions of Earth, was that I was infinitely more agile and powerful. I doubted the fact that if any of the Martians I see were to be sent to Earth, they would be able to even lift their bodies from the ground.

My feat was a marvelous upon Mars as it was upon Earth, and so, long gone was the hostility that they exhibited when they tried to attack me. What remained was an underlying curiosity.

This curiousness also gave me plenty time to observe their figures and formulate plans, in case they had more sinister plans for me. Each of these adult Martians were armed with several other weapons in addition to the huge spear I had seen beforehand. For a second, I had a thought about escaping from them. With my agility and jumping ability, they would not be able to capture me, I was confident of that fact.

But the thing that made me decided against it was the several gun like weapons they possessed, which I had a strange feeling they were plenty proficient in utilizing.

The Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned and rode away in the direction from which they had come, leaving one of their number alone by the enclosure. When they had covered perhaps two hundred meters they halted, and turning their mounts toward us sat watching the warrior by the enclosure.

And so, what remained in the area, was me, an adult Martian and what accompanied us both, an awkward and uncomfortable silence.