The Nature Of

Late morning sun streamed through the sliding glass door, shining through the empty bottles, past the abandoned cups, to a large snack tray denuded of cheese, crackers, and dignity. Just past the tray, sprawled on the sofa, that same light stabbed through the closed eyelids of Anika, exciting her photoreceptors and waking her mind that desired nothing more than to continue pretending nonexistence.

Why are the curtains open? she wondered. Ah, right, fireworks.

Anika crawled to a semi-seated position, her head throbbing. “I can’t do this anymore. I need new friends…I’m too old for this,” she said to the empty apartment.

A moan from behind the sofa told her she wasn’t as alone as she thought. “Who’s that? I’m too hung over right now to really care, as long as you’re alive.”

“Ugh. Do I have to be alive?” the other voice asked. It was a higher voice than she recognized, almost like that of a child.

“Seriously, who is that? Did somebody’s kid sneak in here last night?” Anika’s head pounded, but she wasn’t nauseated, so at least this wouldn’t be the worst she’d ever had.

“I’m almost as old as you, Dio, now shut up, I think I’m dying.”

Anika forced herself to her feet and turned around to see who was behind the couch. She looked, squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed them, then opened them again and waited for them to focus. “What the—”

“You’re not Dio!” The figure wobbled to its feet, barely four feet tall. It looked like a small woman in a light dress of silk with gold-covered goat horns on her head, a slightly flattened nose, light tan skin with a pale tinge of sickness, a small tail with brown and white fur, and brown furred lower legs ending in two-toed hooves also covered in gold.

“What are you and how did you get in my apartment?” Flashes of the previous night swam just behind her consciousness. “Wait, I thought I was hallucinating last night. Your name starts with an M….”

Anika pulled the blinds reducing the light in the apartment to a more manageable level. She moved to the kitchen to grab a large glass of water and a handful of ibuprofen. “Want some?”

“Water, please, I think I’m dying.” The little satyr — satyress? — pulled her light wrap dress tight. She looked around the apartment and lay on the sofa with a groan. “This is a comfortable place to die.”

“You’re not dying.” Anika set down a large glass of water and an ibuprofen. “First time drinking?”

“Of course not. I am Medea, favored of both man and Dionysus.” She moaned. “Maybe I’m no longer favored, though. Why else would he leave me here to perish in the mortal world?”

“Well, I’m Anika, you’re in my apartment although I don’t know how, and you’re not dying. You’ve seriously never had a hangover before?”

“Is that what this is?” Medea gulped down the glass of water. “Now we eat boiled cabbage to treat it? According to Aristotle, anyway.”

“Uh, what? No. Eww.” Anika refilled Medea’s glass and pointed to the pill next to it. “Take that pill — uh, just swallow it whole with some water — and I’ll order some breakfast.”

Anika gathered the bottles and placed them in her glass recycling bin, being careful to do so quietly. She followed that by collecting all the trash in a large garbage bag. Before she’d gotten past the kitchen, Medea was helping from the other end, gathering up the obvious trash, despite the fact that she looked as though she would fall over at any moment.

The apartment still smelled of spilt wine and booze, and could use a vacuum, mop, and carpet cleaner but Anika thought it was good enough for the moment. When breakfast was delivered, she sat on the sofa next to Medea and turned on the television to watch the Rose Parade as they ate their hangover egg sandwiches and hashbrowns.

Anika looked at the woman next to her, and the half-finished breakfast in front of her. “So, this is, uh, real?”

“What do you mean?”

“Dionysus…uh…Greek gods and satyrs and all that.”

Medea laughed. “Dionysus is real, but don’t let him know he’s still thought of as a god. He gets a big head about it.”

“But you said you were almost as old as he is, and he’s got to be at least Ancient Greece — roughly three thousand years old?”

“Closer to twelve thousand. I’m a few hundred away from eleven thousand, myself.”

“So how did he end up being the god of wine?”

Medea shook her head. Her color was returning, and a blush of pink showed under her cheeks. “He is as his nature, as we are all. His nature is that of fermentation. He learned the secret of fermenting grapes in Asia first. When he got tired of their mixed grape and rice wine, he went west, and taught it to others. Every time he got bored of the same wine, he’d move and teach new people.

“The Greeks liked it so much, they gave him his name and called him a god.”

“If you’re not gods, then…what are you?”

“We are our nature. Nothing more, nothing less.” Medea wiped her hands on a napkin. “Our realms are intertwined. Yours gives rise to our natures, our natures give rise to your reality. No one has been able to say which came first or whether one is more real than the other.”

“Does everyone in your realm live as long as you?”

“The oldest is life. She’s also been known as Gaia, but that’s not quite the whole of it. All life is her nature, not just on Earth. The second oldest is death. He has many names, but without his nature, life would not be able to continue. It is in life’s nature to consume death to further life, and it is in death’s nature to consume life.”

“What is your nature?”

“It is in my nature to be domesticated, cared for, and treasured, and to provide wealth.”

“How did you get your name?”

“Dio gave it to me, after he got his. He thought we should all have one. It’s easier than saying, ‘Hey, nature of domestication,’ after all.”

“What about dogs and cats?”

“The nature of Canis is older than myself and Dio…even older than humans, and just happens to have become my friend. The nature of Felis as well, though she tends to consider herself the domesticator of humans rather than the other way around.”

“All the nature spirits or whatever are related to one concept, then?”

Medea nodded. “We are as our natures and can be nothing else.”

“Then how did you end up here, getting hammered at my New Year’s Eve party?”

Medea thought for a moment. “Following is in my nature, but so is being stubborn. As long as I know I’m being taken care of, I can ignore the instinctive fear of the wild.”

“And?”

“I’m getting there. Dio often joins in a human celebration when he can get away with it. You probably didn’t notice him here last night.”

“It was pretty crowded, and I’m sure there was more than one uninvited walk-in.”

“He was here, and I followed him. I stayed hidden until the sky exploded in noise and lights. He returned to our realm, but I was transfixed. Once he was gone, I didn’t know how to get back, so I joined in the party and hoped no one would notice.”

“And I ended sharing a bottle with you on the balcony.”

“I’d never had such wine, but Dio says it is the perfection of his nature.”

“It’s not wine. It’s fermented grain that’s distilled to get the alcohol content high.” Anika turned her head side to side until her neck cracked.

Medea turned back to the television and pointed. “Hua Hsien would enjoy this.”

“What?”

“This celebration. Hua Hsien, the nature of blooming, would find this enticing.”

They watched for a while, until Anika asked, “What about the nature of humans?”

Medea laughed. “Too big for a single being. There are at least a thousand, probably more. And new ones are showing up, and sometimes…rarely…an old one dies.”

“How does a being like yourself die? I mean, you represent a concept.”

“Concepts come and go. Some last longer than others, but those that are directly related to humans…,” Medea shrugged. “We tend to be the youngest and shortest-lived of all.”

A shimmering door appeared in the middle of the room, and an androgynous teen stepped out, scrolling on a phone, never looking up. “Medea, Dio sent me to take you home.”

“Who are you?” Anika asked.

The teen shrugged and continued scrolling.

“Anika, meet Nico,” Medea said, “the nature of artificial socialization. One of the ‘new kids.’”

“You coming, grandma? I don’t have all day, and Dio’s shook. Or I could just yeet you back over the fence.”

“I’m coming, Nico. It was a pleasure to meet you, Anika.”

“You too, Medea.”

The two beings walked through the shimmering door that disappeared as quickly and silently as it had appeared. Anika flopped down on the sofa and took a nap.

When she woke, she was certain it had been a dream, until she saw the settings for two, Medea’s half-eaten sandwich, the loose furs on her couch and shirt, and the clear hoof-print in last night’s spilled wine.

“Shit! It was real!” Anika shook her head. “I should’ve invited her and Dionysus back for next year.”

Her phone chimed, and she checked the new text from no number. “dio sez bet”

“What? Does that mean she’s coming, or—” Anika was cut off by another text.

“yeah duh”

“Thanks, Nico.” Anika knew there would be no more replies, as it wouldn’t be in Nico’s nature.