We have been here five years, as I continue this report, and I cannot say we have not had some difficulties. The males among us have been trading their services among the natives for wives, and we have produced many offspring among these people. But some of those children are turning into representatives of some of The Olympians' earliest races, and they are aggressive, if not even vicious! Some of them grow to maturity in less than a year! We have had to isolate some of them on uninhabited islands around the region, and have warned the natives to stay away from them. After we had been here a year or so, we began to get sick, and my wife could not understand why. Again, it was our ever helpful Creos who came up with the problem and also the solution! We have so little of our own food that it is not enough to sustain our advanced metabolism. Creos said "There's temples in every major city sacrificing to you daily. Set up teleport systems and when a sacrifice is made, have it transported to a storage vessel here on Olympus. Then, once a day, concentrate it into a liquid food source that you can drink with your meals that would provide you with the extra nutrition that you need." My dear wife quickly developed the system, and our sickness disappeared! We are strong and vital again!
2 We have had two more children, ourselves, Odin, a fine son, and Crysta, both fine children. When I introduced Creos to my latest son he got that odd look and I asked him what the matter was. "Odin," he remarked, "is our word for one, and first. When it is combined with our word for maile adm, it means father. I believe from the information that I got from your wife in your ancient tongue it means All Father. These coincidences still fascinate me! It is like somehow in some odd way, our races were connected!"
3 I, too, wondered at what he was saying, then had to bring up another subject. "My wife stops off at least once a week, on her way back from the south to visit precious Helen. Her husband greets her warmly, and my wife is overjoyed by how they get along with each other. But whenever she gives Helen some message from you her husband walks away, in disgust. If it is not too private a thing, what is the discourse between you too?"
4 "I got along very well," Creos answered, "with Menelaus' father. I tutored him and, his brothers. Then one day his youngest brother offered himself to me. I rebuked him very harshly, because I had told them repeatedly that this was not my people's way, and such a thing was offensive. But no matter how many times you tell these people something, sometimes they believe just the opposite, that you're merely saying this for others to hear, but in private you'd do the things that you're saying you won't. Anyway, the young man was very upset by my rebuke. A few days later they were out hunting lions and the young man separated from the others and when a lion charged him, threw down his sword and shield and knelt before the charging animal. It tore him apart! Menelaus' father understood it wasn't my fault. The boy could've simply avoided my company. But Menelaus has always felt my rebuke was too harsh, and if I had been kinder his brother wouldn't have thought it necessary to sacrifice himself to regain the family's honor."
5 "These people seem awfully prone to that," I comforted. "We constantly have to tell people that we don't do that. I had to rescue that boy a little while ago and have him living here to please the ladies. Now some people are saying he shares my bed, no matter how many times we tell them we don't do that!"
6 "And you'll never be able to stop it," Creos warned. "Those that do it just want to believe that you will, no matter how much you tell them you don't. It's part of their sickness. I appreciated you taking care of that, by the way!"
7 "I was glad to help!" I answered. "Have your people come up with any idea why our people are degenerating?"
8 "Only a theory," Creos answered, "that your high genes can't always bond with these people, that sometimes it's the primitive ones that join during fertilization, and that is what is creating these primitive creatures. We've never seen anything quite like it! We were quite genetically comparable with them, even before our enemies modified them. Have you also noticed that some of those that have been born of your own women do not have your full longevity? They have only inherited six or seven unfertilized eggs and sperm. It is absolutely amazing that your people have developed a system of holding unfertilized eggs in your body that they somehow receive from the mother and sperm from the father, and keep them in suspension until you need them to regenerate! You're able to live up to a thousand years without any artificial process, whatever, a tremendous adaptation! But even your full blooded children are losing it!"
9 "My wife is trying to find an answer," I told him, "but it just makes no sense. But at the rate it's continuing all of us will probably die off about the same time, and our children will probably live only a hundred or so years. A lot better than the natives, but still, only a tenth of our life span!"
10 "Well, I've got to get going," Creos managed. "I've got some dark ones in Mesopotamia that need to be dealt with. They always seem to be trying to mess with the people there. In the future they're going to be a real problem. I've got to talk to the computer before I leave. I need those calculations it's doing for me."
11 "Do you ever stop fighting those things?" I asked. "Never have!" Creos answered, "Probably never will, as long as I exist! As long as there are creatures of Darkness causing trouble I'll be pounding them into submission, getting rid of them for a while. Unfortunately I can't win every battle! And sometimes they're going to cause trouble, REAL trouble. But we prevent as much as we can!"
12 "Well do have your lady take a break," I insisted, "and drop by for an evening's entertainment! We'd like the next part of that story you've been telling us!"

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