King of the Hill (part 3)

King of the Hill part 1

King of the Hill part 2

----------------------------------

...until a voice came screaming, "Stop it! Get your hands off of him!" The voice was fierce and feminine and not going to be silenced. Mod looked up and saw Pomo rushing toward him. She moved close enough to grab his hand. She pulled and pulled, but couldn't budge Mod. The mud has completely cemented him in from the waist down. Pomo gave it all she had, but she didn't have the strength to pull him out. The rain began to fall hard. Mod's opponents and enemies remained nearby, but only to mock and see if they would be able to seize an opprtunity to be the next king.

Mod was fighting for his life in desperation, but also found that he was not actually being helped by Pomo. So he screamed above the noise, "Woman, I don't want you to pull, I want you to dig." When she heard this, Pomo realized that she was not using her strength to help, but her weakness. So she began to dig. Slowly and not without much trouble, she did begin to loosen Mod's position from the cement-like mud. The crowd of enemies began to disperse when they realized Mod was going to be freed once again

When Mod was finally free, he grabbed Pomo's hand firmly saying, "Come on, let's get out of here!" They ran swiftly away from the hill. After they left the hill, the legion of enemies Mod had accumulated converged back on the hill only to have the hill completely swallow them all. Mod and Pomo looked back to see the horror of it all.

Pomo said, "We've got to go back."

"No," said Mod, "it's too late."

Pomo knew he was right, but her heart broke at their demise She wept. Mod looked at her, and for the first time in a long time, wept as well. He wept for their death, but also wept because he was one of them. He felt he deserved their fate.

When they had found a field full of flowers, the sun came out and they stopped for a break, both exhausted from the journey. Mod looked at Pomo and asked he why she came for him. She told him that it was not that she didn't like him, but rather that she didn't believe in the way he used his power.

She then invited him to come to the valley. Mod had been anti-valley for so long that he was quite uncomfortabel with it all, but agreed. They traveled to the valley, but when they arrived where the valley should have been, they found what looked like war zone. The hills surrounding the valley collapsed into the valley as the result of a devastating earthquake. There were still screams of suffering people who needed to be saved. Mod and Pomo rushed to their rescue - Pomo digging and Mod pulling them out. They couldn't save everyone; there were just too many of them, but they did save as many of they could. They saved hill people, valley people, field people, sky people and even some animals that were stuck in the debris.

Finally, they collapsed onto their knees under the weight of their work - half crying, half laughing. They had sought every last voice calling for help and heard no more. Completely covered in mud, smelling like sweat and blood, Pomo looked at Mod and said, "You know what?"

"What?" Mod answered.

"You're kind of cute."

"Geez! I didn't think you'd say that."

"Well, it's true," she flirted.

"Well Pomo," Mod flirted back," I have to be honest - you look hideous." Mod smiled to reveal his lie.

Pomo sat back with her hands on her knees and looked down at the ground and said, "The only problem is that it would never between us."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know it's true, Mod," Pomo insisted, "we don't really agree on anything."

"Agreement?" Mod retorted strongly, "You saved my life. I agree with that."

Mod and Pomo lived their lives hand in hand looking for people crying out to be saved. On the quieter days, Mod looked to the hills and Pomo looked to the valleys, but they were too busy saving people who were covered up in the mud to bother with hills and valleys much. They both had times when they secretly wondered if they were missing out on something, but the joy they felt while pulling people out of the mud was what they had been missing out on all along.