Starcrossed, by Gregg Chamberlain

“Starcrossed: was first previously published on the FunDead blogsite, February 24 2017.


“Absolutely not!” roared Yob-Soloth. “I forbid it!”

Ten eyes swivelled on their stalks to glare down at the object of the Elder God’s wrath.

“I don’t care!” screeched Yag-Soloth. “He summoned me. I answered.”

A dreamy look spread across the Elder Godling’s quivering eyes. “We bonded. It was wonderful. We’re soulmates!”

“You’re WHAT?” Yob-Soloth raised his squamous body to its full towering height. “No spawn of mine is going to conjugate with a…HUMAN! Go to your plane, and don’t manifest until I say so! Not for an aeon at least!”

“I HATE YOU!” Yag-Soloth shrieked before vanishing.

“My own sprog consorting with a human!” moaned Yob-Soloth, pseudopods flailing against the aether. “Oh, the shame of it. How will I ever face the Nigguraths and Haggoths at the next conflagration?”

The Elder God paused, eyes flaming bright at a sudden thought. “Unless I put a stop to this right now before anyone else finds out. Yes! I’ll track down this human defiler of my offspring and obliviate him! There’s no other way! Otherwise I’ll be shunned in all the infernal circles that matter. Never to appear in the pantheon again. I can already hear that oh-so-superior-I-Rule-for-All-Eternity Cthulhu, giggling through his tentacles in his sleep in R’lyeh.”

Yob-Soloth waved a pseudopod in a complicated eldritch pattern. “Pray to whatever gods will listen, human,” he rumbled. “I’ll teach you to bond with my spawn!”

The Elder God vanished. Silence reigned in the netherverse. Save for a faint tittering giggle.

Gregg Chamberlain is a community newspaper reporter, living in rural Ontario, Canada, with his missus, Anne, and their two cats, who may or may not be from Ulthar but if they are, they're not telling their humans. Gregg has about five dozen short-fiction credits in speculative fiction, ranging from microfic to novelette in venues like Daily Science Fiction, Apex, Mythic, Nothing Sacred, Weirdbook, and other magazines, and various original anthologies.