then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem, then--

[monzun]

Monzun watches over their people. They teach their Creature. That was all they knew and all they really wanted initially, when they were freshly-created, and perhaps it ever would have been if another god's cruelty hadn't cut in.

Their goal had never been to be the only god. It was that, and then it had been surviving to oppose Nemesis, and now he was gone, and it seemed they were the only regardless.

("Eh, screw 'em! What've other gods been but trouble for us, huh?")

("Well...It is a bit lonely. And Khazar's actions are the only reason we're around today, isn't that right?")

The power of the Creeds trickle back alongside the power of the people. And then torrents, and a flood. The Miracles they use grow stronger beyond even Wonders' assistance.

Generations of their people live and proliferate and die, and Monzun's strength doesn't waver, but increases even as the populations settle lower than the war efforts and post-war burst their levels to being.

("Yeah! We're badass! Even if it could use a lil more fireballin' to make all this peace more exciting, Boss.")

 Their Creature and people are safe. They revel in being only gentle without consequence but worshippers' occasional disrespect, and they find they care little about that--unless they harm others in their village, and then Creature gentle scolding or abrupt relocation across the land tends to work nearly as well as lightning would have.

Their intervention is needed less even as they notice more. Little beacons where their people were, somewhere well beyond the seas, still worshipping where it once couldn't reach. 

And something else. A shard of something.

Another...another god? Near their people? The numbers waver, some converting to the other, fewer converting to Monzun, as reasonable without them there to demonstrate their power. 

They need to look. 

("Could be a fresh threat we need to squash.")

("Or they may be a new god in need of a Guide?")

A fragment of them even hopes...

...

...Nemesis' brutality means their consciences say nothing while their Teleports are slowly practiced until they look something closer to a Vortex the old gods used.

It's not quite as large. Redder. But far more than a simple Teleport.

The day comes where they reach across the Lands and place it where they sense their lingering people and that god.

("Let's go!")

("It's so exciting! But we don't need to rush quite yet--")

Monzun takes some time to look over their nearest people and discuss. Khazar brought them Disciples; they could bring some possibly willing to convert to another, although they seem confused by the conversation. Do any of theirs know Miracles? Oh? Yes? One of Sable's decedents picked up the Wood Miracle, they hadn't realized that was possible--

A part of them is distant, distant, distant.

Monzun reaches for their Creature and finds they stare down into the Vortex.

Ah. 

It seems their impatience was noticed and acted upon.





In another part of Eden, a Vortex opened on the side of a mountain that Monzun's old Temple still stands on. The air splits with a shocked bellow as a massive Leopard Creature steps onto nothing and tumbles down into the water.

Ouch.

Only a little ouch. It wasn't that far, but Sweetheart wasn't expecting it. She stands and shakes the water off a little--oooh, fish. Scoops up a handful of fresh fish to eat, and then turns around to claw up the mountain to peek over the edge.

There are a few people! Worshipping wrong, or maybe just frightened. That's okay. She's pretty different now. She doesn't mind when they take off running when they un-freeze.

...Most of the trees she grew are missing. She doesn't like that, she worked hard on those.

She climbs up all the way--oh, the Temple's smaller, or she's so big as to match?--and immediately gets to Miracle Watering the withered ones in the worship sites left.

Comments

[monzun]

They sink nearer to the soil, disgruntled. "I will not. I said I could go and look, not redecorate for you." Monzun is distracted from the meaning of his words somewhat, absolute points of view clashing but also they see what Sweetheart is doing over there;

"None of that, now," Monzun says crossly, and yanks away the tree she was about to fling across the land at Laetes' back. She jumps with a rumble-yowl of offense and gets a small swat on the wrist for it. Come on, she picked a small one, he can catch it!

But Monzun is not dealing with an aggressive Creature who might goad their Sweetheart into both crushing the nearby buildings so easily. Act friendly, not act as if attacking. They redirect her attention to the nearby water, to eat or gather fish for whoever she pleases instead.

The tree is dropped into the green-roofed Workshop, and their attention swings back to the land's first Village. Speaking of redecorating...

They begin plucking a few more just-grown trees and feeding them through, as well. Those fields genuinely require a redo.

[lethys]

Lethys is taken aback. The question circles: why? He remembers catching a distant glimpse of a strange carving, far off beyond his realm, and sneering at the realisation that Monzun's followers would stray. The next time he looked, it was gone. He knows such things are not beneath their disdain. What self-respecting god does not guard against stolen worship?

...But their attention has drifted again, away from the other god shining over their territory and towards building. As if he were not here at all.

Through the shock, Lethys is a little insulted. He knows they could crush him like a mortal under their thumb, if they so chose. But that they don't even show concern that he's here is purely insulting.

He is left hanging over the Village with no audience. Pride damaged, perhaps unreasonably so, but nothing else. It begins to sink in that he is alive, and looking to stay that way a little longer.

And Nemesis is dead.

Lethys flickers to one side, and back. He glides to the nearest mountaintop and hovers there, watching Monzun from afar. His thoughts won't sit still long enough for him to pin any of them down.

Eventually he flits back to his Temple and to the Village beside it. He conjures miraculous rations into their stores. And probes, gingerly, at the distant sound of prayers in the cold. And again, and again, and again, crosses the landscape almost to Monzun's Village borders and finds himself returning to his Temple without thinking about it.

He lives. And Nemesis is dead.

Laetes, who has been Leashed to the Pen and held there, peers up at his listless god and whines.

It is another mortal day and night before Monzun will find Lethys streaking over and flaring too-bright and too-close, demanding their full attention.

"What do you want? Tell me!"

[monzun]

Monzun has done as they planned, so far: a few fields have been made closer to their Village stores, a few more poorly-placed ones burned (after being blocked off by Sweetheart and several rocks), and they've decided to start fixing up that mountain by the green-roofed Village. Without their god, a few had begun replanting the forests destroyed by the old holy war, but it was very slow going, and many houses were looking quite shabby because of it.

And, simply enough, Monzun enjoys forests.

They work side-by-side with their Creature to grow them, just as they did when they first learned of Miracles in times centuries past, when Monzun couldn't even cast under their own power.

"Greetings, Lethys," they say dryly, as if his appearance hadn't had their hand jerk from the forest they'd been watering to somewhere far to the left. (A single straw-covered house suddenly suffers a deluge on half of it. The people who come out expect Laetes and are confused not to see anything at all.) "I thought I'd answered that already, and am doing such right now."

[lethys]

"Not this!" he insists, sweeping a Gesture across the land, broad and wide and spiralling, painting their view of it blue. "If not to destroy me, why linger here? Why do you not seize what you already won?"

Surely they must have a long-term goal. Something beyond his knowledge. To ask is already overstepping but he can't stand not knowing. For his cruelty, at least Nemesis was clear.

Feeling frantic and out of sorts, and half-watching Monzun's rainwater soak the roof, Lethys absently traces for a Storm - not that he can cast, even if this was anything more than a fidget. So far away from his own Influence the blue tinge of power sprinkles away from him like dust in the wind.

"What is this for? What is your true aim?"

[monzun]

Some already-building frustration dissipates with his blue. "Lethys, you perplex me," they say.

("Let him wonder! He doesn't need to know jack about you, getting all uppity in your face like that! Not that you have a face...")

("He's certainly expecting more enmity than you're giving. Perhaps we should be careful not to stoke the flames, so to speak?")

"I did not win anything," they say tiredly. "I was forced to wage war I did not want, for people I did not desire, to kill a god that tried to destroy everything I knew first. I would have left it all alone if not for that."

They twist a Gesture, smaller and tighter, for more watering.

[lethys]

Lethys flicks from one side to the other as they speak, anxiously processing. He doesn't like the answer they give him.

His temper erupts.

"Eden is a battleground! Every realm is won or lost! If not Nemesis, sooner or later your realm would be challenged. You claim the power you won was against your will? If that were true, you would have fallen to him in an instant!"

Some drive led them to this point. There are no accidental victories. Lethys will not accept their victory over him was by chance.

"You chased me here because I took your Creature. Was that the only reason? What of taking ground from me in the end? You dare tell me my banishment was not your desire then?"

there is a lil wi-fi here lol. (love u)

[monzun]

Monzun is unshaken by his emotion.

"...That was for my Creature. I cannot say I wasn't angry about that then. Or for watching how you warred with my rescuer, Khazar, alongside him."

Sweetheart's head rises from the treeline, head tilted, listening intently.

"And I freely admit that I used that same rage, when he stole and defiled my homes, when he cursed her; and of how he killed Khazar, and how he killed you, to gather my strength to kill him, too. Without it, he would have crushed me."

Monzun lets the water run. They're not really hitting many saplings.

"You stole her on his orders. He is dead. I am not. My Creature is not. You are not. My rage does not linger. I don't want to do as he did. I do not want to make Eden my battleground."

[lethys]

What his impulse wants is to hurl a spiteful rebuke. He doesn't even identify why - but he wants to accuse: Then you will die to the next god who challenges you!

....But will they? And who would try? They hold the raw power of the Creeds. There may well be nothing anyone could do if Monzun doesn't want to fight.

Such a thought is absurd. Gods warring for dominance is how Eden has always been.

"I did what I had to. I will not pretend remorse."

And why bring him into the equation?

Feeling lost, Lethys warily pulls back a little.

"Eden will choose its victor, whether or not you seize it by force." More importantly: "You truly think yourself so righteous?" It comes out as a sneer, though it's not clear if Lethys has another tone.

[monzun]

"I do not expect it. You would have been killed," Monzun agrees.

Although they pause, and then grouse, shifting to hover over Sweetheart's head as a halo: "excepting the torment of my Creature after her capture. You should apologize for that eventually."

Without Laetes to distract her, the Leopard's attention continues flickering back and forth between both gods.

They consider this. Righteous... "I do, yes." (The more destructive part of their mind grumbles. They ignore him.)

Below them, a handful of mortals stand around. It's been a while since any were particularly impressed by the forest growing exponentially, but a few are still taking time chattering to each other, observing.

"The deaths of my homes and my people were miserable, Lethys. The land that was Nemesis' still isn't recovered by what we did to it warring over it."

Again, Sweetheart hears that name. Something important is happening, so this time she stays, crouching down, choking on a snarl that goes lower and lower until it rattles the leaves.

"Villages were reduced to nothing, not one child, not one structure remaining. Again and again. Do you desire to do that to me and mine?" they ask, voice almost quiet.

[lethys]

He considers all this with growing resentment.

Miserable. Telling him like he doesn't know! As though such misery -

He is not about to air his personal experience to a god who nearly erased him.

"I desire -" the briefest of pauses, barely perceptible "- what all gods desire."

Lethys feels his attention dimly tugged. People are distressed, somewhere.

"You may have won, but you were late to this war, Monzun." His next words are quieter, but far sharper. "Do not look for pity from me."

[monzun]

"I look for no pity. I meant it, Lethys."

Voice still low but light flaring, Monzun rises from their Leopard's head.

"You feared me killing you not many moments ago, and yet you encourage me to war. Shall I lie and say--say--" they visibly shift around to survey the nearby area, to Sweetheart, to the living people herding livestock back home "--that I will hunt you and any that may be born as a Creature will chase and devour sheep? I ask you questions you don't understand, you ask me questions I don't understand, what do you expect me to desire? Do such concepts please you?" The sun is sinking, Monzun's red staining the ground bright, brighter, brighter, and all the fresh forest's shadows a far deeper black.

[lethys]

Lethys' symbol flashes. "I do not thrive on your ignorance - believe me!"

There are mortals vying for his attention distantly in a growing swell; children tugging at the skirt of their parent. He ignores them for now. It is more important that he finishes this conversation properly. Monzun thinks him confusing?

"You expect apology from me for acts waged in war - while you understand I will not afford you remorse! Who wishes who to lie?" Coldly, but suddenly acutely aware he's questioning a Creed-blessed god in their own home territory, Lethys retreats a little. "If I understood your desires we would not be speaking now."

There's a note of silence for one short moment, and Lethys relents, sounding cautious once more:

"I desire agency."

[monzun]

Dimming the slightest, Monzun halts mid-air, neither following nor retreating. "I would like you to apologize to my Creature, yes," they say stiffly. "I do not think she's interested in what you have to say currently even if you were willing, which you clearly are not."

The Leopard is a pair of shining eyes amidst the mountain's sea of far-too-large trees.

Monzun shifts agitatedly, left-right-left-right, trying to calm. There is fear and confusion at work here between them. "I am not attempting to bar you from this. I just don't want to fight any longer."

[lethys]

It is difficult to believe. That is, he'll believe that when he sees it for a few millenia. A god who wishes not to fight, but - and here is the obstacle - they do wish to exist. How do they expect to do both? Even with Eden wiped near-bare of other gods thanks to Nemesis' push for dominance, sooner or later, more gods will be born...

Lethys knows they are young, relatively. Perhaps Monzun does not remember a time before Nemesis.

Silently, Lethys ebbs backwards and away from them, pensive, as night draws in.

"Were you to fight, there is little doubt you would win," he tells them, and then carefully advises: "Consider the power you wield. Maybe then we will understand each other more."

[monzun]

They barely keep a hissing 'Of course' back. They won against Lethys without even their Creature! But perhaps that is the point. They are powerful. They are expected to war. They are not believed they will not, no matter how it claws against them.

"...I will try. And I would like to. Understand."

They hover back somewhat, hesitating. Monzun feels there should be something they should do, now, but they don't know what.

"You're welcome to visit my Lands whenever you please," they say abruptly, and leave to vanish within their Temple. As though lacking permission has stopped him just now.




Monzun does not know their own power.

Monzun doesn't know the power of a god's word alone.

As Khazar allowed their Miracles and power across his Influence, Lethys now has access to his on theirs.

[lethys]

There is an awkwardness to Monzun that Lethys was not expecting. His personal meetings with Monzun have been few and forced, and his attention was not on understanding. Nemesis knew them better. Perhaps Khazar did, even.

What Lethys does now see is they fit into the category of 'gods who never should have survived Nemesis'. Mercy and aspirations of peace did not carry many gods very far, let alone naïvety - but now they are here at the end of it all, and with their strength they get to set the rules going forward. And it seems they have no intention of doing so, or even making demands of their peers - at least, of Lethys. At least, so far.

As Lethys watches Monzun leave, his mind is spinning with uncertainty. This is not the problem; the problem is when inertia catches up and his mind comes to a stop, Lethys is not prepared for the conclusion it may draw.

He feels the inevitable wobble of the spinning coin when, suddenly, a circle of isolation melts away and the sudden freedom of Monzun's godly welcome lands on him. Like blood rushing back into a dead limb, his people's prayer and belief hits Lethys all at once, no longer cut off by overreaching his virtual influence.

Scarcely able to believe at first, Lethys turns curious attention to the burgeoning copse of trees by Monzun's Village. He reaches - and uproots one easily, earth tearing from its roots like wet paper. Shaken and unsure what to make of this, Lethys drifts back towards his own territory, grasping the tree tightly and staring at it as though it might burst into flames in his hand.

He is an expert at testing the thread of his influence far further than others expect. Time makes skill; necessity hones it. But this is not that. This is Monzun's permission made manifest. There is no doubt.

His shock is palpable. How could they grant him this? Why? They know him only as an enemy!

...

Mercy!

The villagers he has been ignoring are louder still. Finally Lethys shoots back across the landscape to find Laetes pacing insistently, urgently, unthinkingly, back-and-forth through the dead centre of the village in the plains. Along his path, a trail of frightened families huddling in doorways, fields trampled, and clawed-up roads.

As Laetes turns to retrace his path for the nth time, his eyes fixed on Monzun's temple and his jaws parted and slavering, Lethys catches him on a Leash and tugs.

"Enough, Laetes. What has gotten into you?" Despite this, the Creature's behaviour is not new.

...Lethys finds himself planting the stolen-not-stolen tree by his temple. He doesn't know what else to do with it; he didn't even mean to bring it back with him.

[monzun]

They distantly hear as Lethys takes a tree. That is something familiar, annoying and frustrating and nearly amusing for it. In truth, they were expecting him to take several as soon as they started growing the first copse.

Pausing only to feed their worshippers, Monzun settles in their Temple without reaction.

...They were going to give the god of this land a Wood Miracle. When they check on the one who can (Willow, the revived Sable's descendent), she sleeps in a corner of their Creature Cave. Mortals live swift lives, but they're fine at judging them by now; they can discuss this with her later.

They meant as they said, impulse though it was: they see no reason to bar Lethys without active danger. If he wants their trees to build, so he can have them. If he wishes to wage war, he will need to take more Land than this one, even if they leave it entirely. Even if he returns to the one he...may have came from?

Monzun made an offer there, as well. Although Lethys hadn't answered their line of questioning if that was his home, as the Land of warmth and the Guide's bones is theirs.

If it were, would it matter? He expected them to destroy it for only knowing it was there. He likely does still!

They dislike all this immensely.

But they are a god. Daunting odds and absolute confusion hasn't stopped them before.



Sweetheart wasn't upset with Lethys, Monzun's words about apology going over her head as much as the gods. The bone-itch feeling returned with talk of Nemesis, and her god isn't around to rein her in quite so close.

In the dark, she crosses boundaries of blue, shaking a few followers that don't follow Monzun from sleep, beholding her stepping over straw huts with panicked awe. Even with the eyes on her she doesn't greet them; it's been years since impressing people is something she's needed to do for more than fun, and she doesn't want to do anything like that right now.

A little way into the plains, she stops.

There was a Village here. It was Monzun's. It's nobody's, now, not even peoples' who trickled back to the green-roofed one their grandparents came from, meant to be a stopgap while they frantically reached for Lethys' last two Villages as well.

Well, almost nobody's. Sweetheart crouches and prods at the familiar-but-dilapidated ruins, and finds a surprise when from beneath the house bursts a wolf, very unhappy to have its den trifled with.

Her fur is too thick to even get a pinch at her skin when it tries to maul her finger. She lifts it curiously, considering whether toss it or not. Maybe eat it...? Predators are uncomfortably chewy, though. Fish and pigs are better.

[lethys]

Lethys keeps himself busy. There are Villages to maintain; there are always Villages to maintain. Many gods thrive on busywork, and after his time under Nemesis' thumb, Lethys finds stability in it. The stronger god's ambition was insatiable, and Lethys' task had been establishing footholds in his name. Failing to show the same ambition was met with punishment.

Lethys has no inclination currently to try to seize Monzun's territory - this would be a fool's errand - but solidifying his own is reassuring.

He flits back and forth between his Temple and the town on the mountain and the thin, straggly Village in its shadow. He fills stores, and in rare moments he seeks out Villagers who have accidentally become injured and Heals them, surreptitiously, choosing his moments when rumour will more dramatically spread. More than one body is damaged in some small way by Laetes' incessant pacing; he should try harder to stamp out that habit.

His small Miracles here and there are enough for continued faith. For a while he lingers over their homes, listening. For a while now the desire to expand and make room has been steadily climbing. For the diminished size of the Village, it's no wonder.

This Desire he ignores, and has been ignoring for a long time. The forests this side of the mountain range are in a pitiful state; what they'd use to build homes would be stolen from their fires next winter. The land needs time. (Or a Hand more inclined to stewardship. For a moment, his attention flicks to the lone, stolen tree, but he bitterly turns away.)

When his Villages desire for little, Lethys finds himself tracing his realm, taking the time to look closer than a bird's view of the Land. He probes the thin, young trees in the crook of the mountain, takes stock of the season, and of his people and their fields and the children playing and dancing.

When his attention finally lands on the trespassing Leopard, Lethys is feeling unusually quiet.

Perhaps this is why, when he sees her bothering some of his realm's wildlife, he does not immediately reach for a lightning bolt.

Lethys pins his presence directly over her head, and speaks.

"Creature. That does not belong to you."

[monzun]

The Leopard flicks her ears with slight defiance. It does, now, because she holds it, but she doesn't even want it. She can go get some fish instead.

Sweetheart stands to better put the wolf down when she pauses and looks back up. At Lethys.

He's a god. Like Monzun's a god.

This was always clear, but this is the first time she's just been around another god without immediate attack. Monzun's used lightning before, and she saw Lethys use a Leash...

Sweetheart narrows her eyes and points at him thoughtfully with her unoccupied hand. Her nose scrunches up.

And then she carefully tosses the writhing wolf through the air in his direction.

[lethys]

He has never had a stand-off with a Creature before. She is almost the height he is from the ground, a rather unsettling thought. He remembers Nemesis achieved similar with his Creature, though Lethys quickly pushes this from his mind.

Either way it is unsettling that she is here. His attention lingers on the wolf she's holding, watching it struggle. He would bring Laetes. Perhaps he should. Once upon a time that may have been the more appropriate etiquette, but the winner of a fight between the two is already clear just as it is between their gods. No, better to let Laetes sulk.

(Distantly, there is a howl. Laetes is trying to engage the villagers, to mixed success. They are somewhat afraid of him, the same as they are afraid of true wild wolves. Fear without respect is... useless.)

He is considering the merits and drawbacks of frying the superior god's Creature with Lightning when she makes a sour face and chucks her prize at him.

He reacts without thinking. The wolf is snatched neatly out of the air. Lethys finds he is angry, more so than he should be.

"Insolent beast!" he snaps, holding it possessively away from her.

Lethys sets the wolf down, far more carefully than his temper might project. The animal struggles nevertheless out of his grip for the last few metres to the floor, fur standing on end and teeth flashing, to drop and roll clumsily and tear off in the direction of the poor excuse for a forest in the distance.

Lethys turns back to Sweetheart and traces a shape on the ground.

"If I ever see a normal leopard," he threatens, "I will hurl it into the sea."

[monzun]

After watching the wolf disappear into the distance, her head snaps back up and she huffs at him, nearly whistling from her nose. Now, that's no way to catch, a game or prey.

Sweetheart backs up a little, twitching lightly when her foot snaps through an empty once-workshop.

The sea...she's still hungry. And thirsty, too. Lethys can try to push her into the sea all he wants! She twists around and lopes towards the nearest coast.

...She's never seen another leopard. She hasn't been a Leopard forever, body orange and striped before. A Tiger. She hasn't seen those, either. Only little lions, once. Maybe there are some of those around here?

[lethys]

He traces a second shape. The Miracle comes to hand quickly; his worshippers are well looked-after at the moment, for whatever respite Monzun seems to be affording Lethys.

Occasionally mortal men have one advantage over their gods. Being able to glare scornfully at each other is a merit Lethys would like to borrow in this instance. Instead, Sweetheart is treated to a short, irritable silence before Lethys speeds off after the wolf, a trail of disdainful purplish-blue following behind.

He is not the sentimental type, but some things one does because it is just... the way of things. Lethys hovers low over the still-fleeing wolf and drops the warm glow of a Heal onto its body. He lingers only long enough to be sure any injuries are gone, whether from a clumsy Leopard's paws or from its own attempts to escape or from the last tumble to the ground. Then without any wasted time he turns and hunts down Sweetheart, wherever she may have gotten to.

Humans spin each other tales of places where certain beasts of the earth are stronger, bigger, wilder, healthier, more formidable: as if by the Land itself, or as though the very tracks they leave lay claim to the place... and other such nonsense. There had been many tales like those, once, and Lethys had seen no shame in encouraging them, in playing along. Not the case here. Beasts are few, now. The land is not as healthy as it was. Certainly Lethys' forests cannot support such large predators. Hence the makeshift den.

But old habits, and all. There is still the way of things.

Where has that gigantic Leopard gotten to, now? He was only away for a moment.

[monzun]

Sweetheart wandered to the sea, well past a familiar beach of strange stones. There are no fish for her to scoop up, but there is water to drink.

...There seemed to be no fish, she thought. There aren't the handfuls of schools, but something significantly larger, out in the deep.

Hmm.

The Leopard shuffles out until deep enough to nearly reach her waist, and plucks it up.

The thing bites her.

The world shakes as she shrieks.

As it turns out, sharks have a bigger bite than wolves. Her blood spills, but she just barely manages not to drop it, just swings it around until it's held by the tail. Ouch ow ow!

[lethys]

Lethys is only slightly surprised at his own inability to find her right away. Almost universally, Creatures have a habit of disappearing as soon as they leave line of sight and finding trouble to get into.

He hasn't quite tired of looking for her when the sound of an impossibly powerful yowl echoes across the landscape.

Lethys is very familiar with that exact sound. The glow of his symbol appears a little too close at first, almost within shark-flail distance, and he backs up quickly.

...It is difficult to tell, and likely the Leopard would be entirely unable to pick up on this. But for a brief moment, a feeling similar to smugness passes through Lethys.

"Let that teach you a lesson about mishandling wildlife," he says, not much caring if she's listening. He doesn't care what lesson she learned from that. But it does feel karmic.

In the crowded square of the mountain Village, Laetes' ears prick up. He loses interest in his task of showing himself off to the people, and rises from a crouch to immediately begin loping in the direction of the sound.

[monzun]

Sweetheart rotates around, waves rippling and cresting away from her waist, so she can give Lethys an actual glare this time. Her chest puffs up.

...

...

...

Her shoulders slump. What she was aiming for...failed.

But it ate up enough time that she can start to hear something beyond the rocky cliffs, heading over. There's only one being big enough to make such big footsteps here: Laetes!

Which reminds her again, ow ow ow. She snaps the shark into her mouth tail first (and makes a face, it crunches wrong) before sweeping a more minor Heal onto her poor hurting hand.

Regardless of her lack of Gesture, with the continued boost of Monzun's Wonder, Laetes, the wolves of the area, the nearest people and quite a few lingering wild horses are healed as well.