The Prophecy and the MOG - Alternate Ending!!!

Hey people! I bring you the alternate ending for the Prophecy and the MOG! In actual fact, this was the original ending for the story, except that it's not actually the ending, it is more like the middle! (It was changed and ended early for publication in Outflow as a trilogy!). Call this alternate ending an interlude if you will, it is simply the prelude to another trilogy of stories for this series! Stay tuned for much much more!

Did you ever wonder what might have happened if the Oracle had succeeded in his plan to swap the babies between the two worlds? Did you ever wonder how his plans to rule over High and Low Earth could possibly be thwarted once he had completed this deception? Did you ever wonder how a rescue attempt could be launched for Cynthia's baby if she truly did (and unwittingly too) lose it to another world?

All and more will be revealed soon...read on and enjoy!!!

The Prophecy and The Man of GOD
The Alternate Ending!!!

5.

Abidel and Beza rode their horses through the plains of the Masai as quickly as they could. They had to reach the Path before it was too late. After a period of forty days and nights in the wilderness dedicated to fasting and prayer, the Oracle's plan had been divinely revealed to Abidel. The Oracle planned to simulate the birth, death and resurrection of the Chosen One in one fell swoop. By stealing a baby from the other world called Earth, he would deceive the people of High and Low Earth to worship him as a deity and thus cause the abomination that would reek utter desolation to the ends of this world, and beyond. If Abidel was right, they only had three days to stop him!

On the third day, the Emperor and his men went to the Oracle's hut to take the baby's body and begin the long procession back home. The Oracle met them at the door, stopping them in their tracks. "Have thou forgotten the Prophecy of the Holy Temple, that it shall be destroyed and built again in three days?"

Ebed-Melek, the head of the Royal Guard and the Emperor's right hand man stepped forward. "Of what consequence is the Holy Temple to the Great Prophecy? Hath thou not proved thyself a false prophet already? I should run my sword through you right now!"

"O thee of little understanding," the Oracle cried as he lifted his hands to the sky and the clouds began to darken and gather above them. "Now thou shalt understand the meaning of the prophecies and see the very power I have to give life!" The Oracle's eyes turned a pupil-less black as lightning flashed across the skies above and a storm engulfed them. The Emperor and his men began to run for cover but the Oracle simply smiled and lowered his hands as if to tell the storm to calm. As suddenly as the heavens had opened above them did the storm suddenly subside. As the clouds began to move away and the skies began to clear, a cry could be heard from inside the Oracle's hut. The cry of a baby!

(This is where it all changes!!!)

The servant of the Oracle ran into the hut, and moments later, came out carrying the baby, alive and kicking! "Look! The child has risen from the beyond!"

There was a riotous cheer from the Emperor and his men. They now understood the meaning of the prophecies - the child was indeed the Chosen One, the Holy Temple that was destroyed and rebuilt in three days! And they had the Oracle to thank for opening their eyes and making all of this possible! Right there, at the Path of the Oracle, they all bowed down and worshipped him. Following this, Emperor Melek asked the Oracle to return to with them to his palace in High Earth to become his personal spiritual advisor. The Oracle accepted the offer with glee. The first phase of his plan had worked like a charm.


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6.

As Abidel and Beza arrived at approached the Path of the Oracle from the plains of the Masai, they could see a long procession readying themselves for the journey back to High Earth. Abidel saw that these people were joyous in song and in the highest of spirits, and it was then that he knew they were too late! From what he could make out, The Emperor rode on the Royal Chariot near the back of the procession, surrounded by the finest warriors of the Royal Guard. And from what he could see, his wife Marah stood by his side cuddling a healthy bouncing baby boy. The boy from the other world, stolen from his real mother who during childbirth unwittingly received, in exchange for her dead baby, the Emperor's baby who had died three days previously. All this to fulfil the Oracle's selfish desires, not the prophecies that he had claimed were being fulfilled. Abidel shook his head in disgust. Righting this wrong and convincing the people of High Earth that they haven't been deceived was not going to be easy.

"What do we do now?" Beza asked despondently, as they peered at the leaving procession from the cool shade of the trees that concealed their presence at the scene.

"We wait."

"We wait? Wait for them to leave? What good can we do here once they tak the baby and return to High Earth?"

"The only good we can do is here. We cannot follow them back to High Earth to take the baby. Even without our banishment, that would be impossible. But now, if we are so much as sighted a rising and falling from High Earth they would take us in chains immediately!"

"So what good can we do here?"

"I have a plan. I believe that the Oracle's hut is the portal to the other world, the place called London. It is the place I saw when I dreamt through the eyes of the woman called Cynthia. Do you remember?"

"Of course I remember, thy dreams began the next rising of the sun after our first visit to the Oracle!"

"Well, I believe that she is the real mother of this baby trapped in our world. The Oracle found a way to bring him here, and I believe that one can travel there in the same way. It may be our only chance of rescuing her baby and saving this world from the Oracle!"

Beza was caught totally off guard by the revelation. "How is this possible? And even if it is, how will this save High Earth from the great deception that has befallen them?"

"We shall know by the rising of the sun if my plan will work. And if it does, here is what we shall do..."

Beza listened intently and his eyes went wide with amazement as Abidel explained this plan in intricate detail. Only a man of faith could believe that such an audacious and bold plan could possibly work. And Abidel was a man of great faith.

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7.

When Johnny woke up in his living room in the middle of the night, he had barely slept a wink. Earlier that day Cynthia has lost their baby during childbirth so understandably he was too distraught to sleep. He got up to fix himself a drink but stopped dead in his tracks before he could get to the kitchen. Right in front of him, where his own kitchen should have been, he saw a charcoal scarred fireplace with a large obtuse black pot sitting underneath it. While he was still trying to make sense of this anomaly, a slim tall man wearing flowing white robes and brown sandals stepped into his line of sight from the corner of this strangely transformed kitchen and stood in front of the fireplace.

Startled, Johnny took a step back, and then the man spoke. "Don't be afraid. My name is Abidel, servant of the Most High. I am from the Edge of Sara, and I'm here to help you."

"Help me with what? What are you doing in my house? What on earth is the Edge of Sara?"

"Well that's exactly it - It's no place you know of on this earth. In my world, it is the town at the end of High Earth. I am the man of God that Cynthia spoke of from her dreams."

Johnny was taken aback at the mention of Cynthia’s other-wordly dreams. They had abruptly ended at the start of her pregnancy, and they now seemed like distant memories. "How do you know about her dreams?"

"Because she was seeing my world through my eyes, and I was seeing your world through hers."

Johnny paused, at a real loss as to how to respond. He was still trying to digest everything this man was telling him. He was sure that any minute now he was going to wake up and have a very interesting dream to talk about.

Abidel continued. "Your baby isn't dead. He was taken by a man called the Oracle and replaced with a baby from my world. I bore witness to this act some distance from where this deception took place, but unfortunately I could not arrive there in time to stop the Oracle."

"What are you talking about? Even if such a thing possible, why should I believe you?"

"The Oracle found a way to link our worlds and stole your baby to simulate the birth, death and resurrection of the Chosen One spoken of in the Holy Scrolls. You must be familiar with the prophecy? I gather that this has already happened in your world, long ago?"

"You mean Jesus Christ? Yes, but I don't know of any Holy Scrolls."

"I think you call them the Bible. Well, the ones that we have are part of what you call the Old Testament."

"How do you know all this?"

"Some things can only come by intense fasting and prayer. I have been in the wilderness forty days and nights. There I discovered what was necessary to appear to you now. Listen, we don't have much time, so I will have to explain to you fully later. Right now, you're the only one who can return your son to your world."

Johnny was having a hard time believing anything this strange man said, but he decided it might be easier to humour him and play along. After all, this was just a dream and he’d be awake any minute now. "How will I be able to do this?"

"You will cross over to High and Low Earth to convince the Emperor to return the child to you. My apprentice Beza will be there to help you every step of the way."

"And where will you be?"

"I'll be here, in your world. It seems that the only way for one to cross over is for someone else to move in the opposite direction. It was how the Oracle took your baby. I will remain here until you return with the baby, it's the only way!"

"Okay...," Johnny hesitated as he looked across the kitchen. It certainly seemed it was from another world. "So how do we do this? Do we just walk across at the same time?"

"No. This is just a dream, but the next time you sleep you will wake up in my world. Beza will be there waiting.”

“I didn’t need you to tell me that this is a dream! That much is already clear to me! The next time I sleep I won’t be waking up anywhere else but my bed!”

Abidel smiled sheepishly. “Don’t worry. In time, you will believe. You should have faith that your baby is still alive. And you will.”

“Perhaps,” Johnny paused, “hopefully I will wake up and find that Cynthia’s miscarriage was all just a bad nightmare?”

“Perhaps,” Abidel responded knowingly. “There is one more thing,” he said as he turned to leave.

"What's that?"

"Make sure you hold on to one or two things from this world. You will need them to convince the Emperor that you are indeed not of High or Low Earth!"



Find out what happens next week, in "The Detective and The Man of GOD"