Ala once told me that I was never truly a mortal. In one of my darker times, I huddled crying to her warm shoulder, the only mother I knew. As I mourned the evils that mortals could cause without remorse, I hated myself, for I had once been among them.

Not true, she insisted. She had watched me in my seventeen mortal years, from my birth to the moment I lost my mortality. As I slept, she said quietly, I had grown wings of mist on which my immortal spirit flew to the world of dreams.

I know now that gods and goddesses cannot dream. The plane of dreams is open only to humans, to mortals. Perhaps that is why I have given so much to them.

For sometimes, I try to remember what a dream feels like.

Pallien’s first sight outside of mortal eyes was that of a woman beside what appeared to be a perfect pear tree. She was lying in the shade of the same tree, wearing a gauzy green-white dress. Disoriented, she simply looked up at the other woman.

She returned with a grave look, only somewhat befitting her gentle face. She was thin, wearing a violet dress similar to Pallien’s. "Do you know where you are?" she asked in a calm, neutral voice.

"I… I don’t," Pallien admitted. Her eyebrows drew together, and slowly she turned her head. The soft grass she lay on spread infinitely in all directions, the tree a sole interruption.

"It will take you time to understand," she said sagely. Pallien could see a bit more of her now; the thin figure was standing across from where she looked. Dark blonde hair was piled in a perfect twist on the top of the woman’s head, and thick lashes framed her cobalt eyes.

Slowly, she plucked a pear from the tree and handed it to Pallien. "Sit up and eat this."

Pallien took the light pear in her hand as she pulled herself up. No bruises or imperfections of any kind marred its surface. Carefully, almost reverently, she took a bite, letting the thick juice pour over her tongue.

The woman watched her eat, not moving until she had scraped the fruit down to the core. When she had finished, the woman took the core from her hand and placed it at the roots of the tree. She crouched in front of Pallien. "Where are you?" she asked, her head turned. She was looking into the distance.

Pallien looked again around her. Not in her most pleasant dreams, not in the wildest corner of her imagination had she come up with an image so vivid as this. "I don’t know."

"A simpler question, then," she replied. She still looked away. "Who are you?"

Her throat locked. Who was she? It seemed as if she had once had a name, but lost it, or as if she were someone completely new… "I don’t know."

"In a minute you will know at least part of who you are." She looked back at Pallien. "I am Ala, and where you are has been known by many, many names. Some people have called it heaven, though that is somewhat of a misconception. More appropriate is the Greek idea of Mount Olympus."

"I’m dead?"

Ala smiled. "Probably the farthest from it that you can be. That pear you ate, this tree – this tree is better known as the Tree of Life. Its fruit has been called ambrosia. You will become a goddess."

Before Pallien could begin to process this, the woman continued. "You have certain powers now that you have tasted ambrosia, but you need to serve a certain penance before you can reach your full potential."

"Penance? For what? I was mortal?" Pallien’s vague awareness that there was a world outside this one had been slipping away slowly since the first bite of the pear, and now that she was calmed, it seemed only natural that she was a goddess.

For the first time, Ala smiled and let out a soft, short laugh. "This is part of why you will be serving penance. Nobody, no matter how young, has led a perfectly pure life. You will have plenty of time to meditate on what you’ve done while you serve your first duty as a goddess."

Of course she was a goddess. She would, apparently, soon be serving her first duty. "What’s that?"

"You will guard the tree of life." Ala paused, sighing. "Many mortals in this day and age don’t believe in multiple gods and goddesses." Another pause, as if she were interjecting. "As of now, we are the only two goddesses in the pantheon. The others are all males." She paused again and continued. "But there are some on earth who have seen us, who know of our presence and know of our powers.

"In the past, some have tried to come between the planes to this one, where we now are. They desire power, immortality. A few have succeeded in even coming to the Tree of Life. We need a guard here at all times to make sure that none make away with any ambrosia. They must never leave the plane alive."

"I’m going to guard the tree?"

Ala nodded. "Right now, you can shapeshift, although into only one form other than your human form." She gestured to Pallien’s left, where, suddenly, a reflective pool appeared. "Stand and close your eyes."

Pallien did so, carefully lifting her body onto two legs. Facing the pool, she closed her eyes. "Let your mind clear, and invite the form," she heard Ala’s voice speak behind her.

Taking a deep breath, Pallien did her best to invite the form. To her surprise, there was fur growing quickly over her arms, torso. The cloth of her dress melted seamlessly into her skin as she felt her upper half grow too heavy to support. Two gigantic paws fell with a loud thump to the ground just under her shoulders.

Pallien’s new tail twitched as she explored the new form. Her face was no longer the same structure it had been before; her mouth and nose had pushed forward into a snout, whiskers protruding. As she ran her new, large tongue around my mouth, she found vicious fangs, so sharp that a wrong move would cut open her own gums.

With awareness of the new body, she moved paw by paw towards the pool. She hesitated only a moment before thrusting her head over the water to look; she was a beautiful white tiger, a cat far larger than those that roamed on earth. Her fur was tinged with the slightest bit of green, almost the color of the dress she had been wearing.

Ala moved beside her; she saw the reflection in the water as she gazed. "Even mortals have an animal form, though it is impossible for them to attain the form before tasting ambrosia. Sometimes the forms are skewed versions of mortal animals, such as your size and the color of your fur."

Pallien stared at her face, her fur for a few more moments before attempting to turn around. Ala’s gentle hand stopped her with a touch to her soft forehead.

"Wait," Ala said quietly to me. Firmly she directed my gaze back to the pond. In her pause, I looked once again at my beautiful new form. I had power, power I could only have dreamed of as a mortal.

Ala’s hand dipped into the water, taking a small portion of the diamond liquid. The ripples shook the surface, further striping and blurring my furred reflection. Her fingertips went between my ears, where droplets of the numbing water fell onto my fur. The cold pierced straight through to my skin.

This was the true end of my mortality, I felt. The weakness that had inhabited my body before I had grown into my vicious new form melted away, molding itself instead into armor. The water was making me invincible, I thought with a shudder going through my spine to my tail. When I changed back into human form, I would never be quite the same.

"This is the end of your short life on earth," she intoned. "You now reside in the planes of the gods. From this day forward you shall be known as Pallien, the converted mortal who shall bring not only humility, but also female influence to the ranks of the gods. May you learn during your penance all that you need in order to govern properly those who dwell on earth."

Thus began the life of Pallien.