Durga

The sun had set over the front lines, and the only source of light was the hazy glow from the lanterns. In the middle of Europe, in a small tent, Durga, Goddess of war and protection, was attending to patients. Despite the hours growing closer and closer to dawn, the women inside of the tent were not sleeping. In fact, for Durga and the rest of the nursing staff, the work had truly just begun. Time never really seemed to slow for nurses, especially in the midst of war.

Not that Durga really needed any sleep, of course. It was just nice to have a few hours to relax every once and again.

“Did you tend to the patient in bed fourteen?” Elizabeth, the youngest nurse and most calm, asked.

“Yes,” Durga said, smiling softly. “He’s doing better. Hopefully he’ll be up and moving again before Christmas.”

“Hopefully,” Elizabeth nodded in return. “I’m surprised he survived, if I’m being honest.” She shuddered, and Durga knew it was because she had been one of the nurses to take care of the war-victims first-hand. Seeing what they saw every day would be enough to give anyone nightmares.

Of course, being a nurse in the trenches and a Goddess who had been alive for thousands of years, Durga had seen her fair share of grisly wounds.

The year was 1917, and the Great War was still raging strongly. More and more men were coming back to the tents every day near death, but that didn’t stop the military from replacing them twice as quickly.

For any human, it was hard being a nurse, especially during wartime, but Durga was used to the pain that war inflicted. In fact, she hadn’t just joined to help humans heal from near-death experiences, though she did enjoy that part of being a nurse, but she was looking for someone--something.

On the enemy lines, a demon named Mahishasura was fighting, and Durga was the only one who could stop him.

Durga opened her mouth to say something to Elizabeth, but outside, there was a loud explosion, followed by a series of screams and shouts.

Elizabeth met her eyes in fear. Although they had always been close to the fighting, it never seemed to get any easier when the sound of bullets infiltrated in the air.

“I’ll go out and see what’s happening,” Durga said, knowing that it would be the only way to assure Elizabeth.

She walked towards the front of the tent, right as a nurse was helping a wounded soldier limp back to safety.

“Nancy! What’s going on?” Durga asked, trying to get a glimpse over her soldier.

“There’s a surprise attack. It’s the Buffalo Brigade. They’ve got a secret weapon. Quite possibly the strongest man I’ve ever seen.” Nurse Nancy said, stumbling over her words. The look in her eyes told Durga that she didn’t think that they would make it out alive.

Despite the tension of the environment, and the screams loud around, she knew her time had come. Mahishasura was the secret weapon of the Buffalo Brigade, and she had finally found him.

Now, she knew it was time to slay him.

Author's Note: For the first part, I decided to write about the Goddess Durga, who is considered the mother goddess but is also the goddess of war. She can be very protective and nurturing, but she can also be quite fierce. I wanted to write about her in a time period that could perfectly show these two traits, and I believed that a nurse during the war would be a great way to go. For this story, I also thought of the movie Wonder Woman, where she comes out of the trenches to be the hero. It's not exactly historically accurate, but I was more focused on the story since it could go however I wanted it to! One of the famous legends involves Durga slaying the demon Mahishasura, which is the enemy I talked about in this story. It is said in the legend that he believed women were weak, and so I liked the thought that Durga would come from the tents, where there weren't really any other woman fighting, to slay him. Also, in the legends, Mahishura is a shape-shifter, and she slays him while he is shifting into the form of a buffalo. That's why I decided to call them the Buffalo Brigade at the end.

Banner: Soldiers on the Front Lines from Image Source.

Image: Durga battling Mahishasura from Image Source

Story Source: Durga from Wikipedia