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

[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.

[lethys]

Lethys spares a look across the Land, automatically scanning the sky for tell-tale glitter of the approach of another god. The Leopard's noise of distress was loud - and distinct. If Monzun suspects foul play, he will have some explaining to do.

He snaps back to paying attention to her when half the nearby landscape gleams.

More displays of strength. Lethys is growing used to them, as he did with Nemesis. At least so far they have consisted of... harmless things. He would rather this than thundering bolts from the sky.

"Laetes," he warns, as the wolf strides up to the edge of the shore.

Laetes obediently stops, though it's clear Lethys' tone is the only thing keeping him still.

Laetes was not injured. But he knows that flood of warmth, and he knows where it came from. He stares intently at Sweetheart. And paces, just a little, back and forth along the shore, watching.

"Maybe I should call your master to keep you Leashed," Lethys muses, half to the Leopard and half to himself. "What is it you want, I wonder?"

[monzun]

Laetes! She waves a greeting.

She's feeling better than when she started wandering, less unhappy, less hungry--she can start messing with him now, but how...?

Sweetheart wades back nearly to shore, stopping when the sea laps around her shins. Her thumb rubs along where the shark bit. It's not the same hand where the wolf tried to get her.

Laetes is a wolf. He might bite her if she tried to pick him up. But he's too big, that would just be silly.

...

Sweetheart keeps looking at him, jaw canting to the side.

Shuffling forward a little more, she carefully reaches up to try patting him on the head the way she like how Monzun does it. Except more tense. She's going to get bit. She wants to try anyway!

[lethys]

Laetes is flinchy. He keeps stalking her, back and forth, and then stopping as if to contemplate whether it's worth risking his god's ire to lunge into the sea at her, and stalking again. Lethys does not react to either of them, but there is a kind of buzz in the air, godly tension Laetes can feel in the pin-needle stand of his fur that says do not make a move.

He scowls, anyway, and goes rigidly still as Sweetheart closes the distance. Lethys does not make sense, telling him to leave their borders unwatched, telling him to dismiss the presence of this Creature in their Land.

Closer.

She touches him. He is trembling. Not with fear, but with restraint. This is the Creature he hates, should hate, is supposed to hate; a Creature from whom he defended their realm, the Creature he spent a countless era torturing - he learned malice from torturing this Creature, from fighting her, his restless patrols leading up to vicious fights, he anticipated her and her master even during her absence and now she is back and his task is singleminded -

The Leopard will get in two pats to Laetes' head before his restraint snaps and his head lunges forty-five degrees sideways and fastens teeth around her wrist like a metal trap, a growl rumbling from his chest.

[press C]

[monzun]

Though every inch of her fur rises to an impressive fluff, Sweetheart doesn't scream this time. She was expecting this, displeasing as it is--she got a couple pets in, she was hoping for more!

She knows how to fight, but more than anything, even beyond Monzun highly encouraging gentleness, warring against Ichor when cursed to be stunted and fragile taught her how to respond without attack directly.

Her other paw sweeps up to hover above his head in a motion like pouring water from a bottle, and glittering Holy Flies cascade down.



A small sense of Creature-concern-danger has Monzun finally shaken from distraction. They rise from their Temple and focus on where their Creature is apparently in trouble--oh, Sweetheart, they haven't been paying enough attention! They streak over (and streak swears in their thoughts) so fast they appear nearly without warning, Leash snapping to her. "What are you doing," they ask her exasperatedly, and after a long moment, "Lethys, greetings."

They survey the area and both Creatures. Did she destroy anything of his around here? Was she recently aflame?

[lethys]

Lethys expected this. Creatures have their own will; as much as he can keep Laetes on a short Leash, it is not his priority to micromanage him. And anyway: if the Leopard is foolish enough to provoke a Wolf with bared teeth, that's no one's fault but hers.

...And no one's fault but Laetes' for the ensuing trickle of buzzing and itching that ensues.

This smugness fades somewhat when Monzun's symbol appears in the sky. Lethys is very quick to give context, though he does not return the greeting.

"Your Creature has been interfering in my territory," he accuses.

A faint, high whine emanates from somewhere very quietly. It rises in volume until it becomes clear it's coming from Laetes, head still sideways and latched firmly around Sweetheart's wrist. He twitches and tugs once, twice, then abruptly lets go and immediately resorts to plopping down on his haunches and scratching insistently at his neck and ears with a hind leg.

[monzun]

Sweetheart's chest puffs up.

"Apologies. I was preoccupied." By trying to think of things to do with him. Saying so would be absolutely foolish, so they visibly drift to look at where their Creatures are in a tug-of-war over a limb.

It looks as though there hasn't been too much of a fight as of yet, and Sweetheart, outraged as she appears, has little damage after the wolf releases her. They still indulgently give her a Heal (as far-reaching as her own had been only minutes prior).

They rise to level with Lethys. "My Creature--"

"Creature game."

Godspeak rolls across the world, clumsily as thrown pebbles.

They rotate to look down.

Sweetheart stares back up, paws slapping on her thighs.

[lethys]

The waves lap at the shore nearby, oddly loud in the aftermath of the Leopard's albeit short speech.

Lethys is perhaps less surprised than Monzun. But they seem surprised. He guesses this must be novel to them.

He affords them a moment or two of processing this new information, and then acknowledges it himself.

"She did not learn that from us." In case they were wondering.

Laetes eyes her wildly - out of the corner of his eye, as best he can manage, still fervently biting and scratching at himself. He achieves some interesting levels of contortion attempting this, and barks snappily in complaint. He doesn't want a game. Why is he the only one taking this seriously?

[monzun]

They had visited the Creature Cave recently, but gave the informational scrolls no attention. Sweetheart hadn't been behaving in a way that left them concerned over her learning or losing skills.

It appears they should have.

Monzun wobbles a little in acknowledgement of Lethys' statement.

They are swept up in pride and melancholy both. How long has it been since they were in awe of the Guide teaching the eager Creature and God novices? Monzun had nearly forgotten how badly they hoped their own Good Girl would learn the capability to communicate the same, eventually. To speak with them, and him. And today only they remain.

...The matter of the subject should be addressed, shouldn't it?

Sweetheart is tugged sideways. Her claws leave reluctant furrows into the sand. "This is not the place for games," they tell her.

A pause. Not indulging their Sweetheart doesn't occur to them, after all her loyalty and hard work.

They observe the other scratching Creature. Lethys may be allowed to share their resources, but the Wolf is wild enough they'd rather he keep from wandering too deeply near their Villages.

A spark of ancient resentment rises. "Perhaps near the old Yogi's Temple, some time," Monzun suggests to all. They haven't checked to see if he's kept himself alive. They don't care.

[lethys]

Lethys is not listening for the most part. At least, he can hear, but clearly none of this is aimed at him and so he's not paying notice. He is busy with other thoughts, like how the Leopard's size and booming voice have a disturbing familiarity to them.

Thus the silence stretches between them, until the back of Lethys' mind nudges him that the last thing Monzun said sounded a bit like a prompt, and how he is one of only two here that might respond to such a thing.

They were talking to him.

Lethys quickly re-runs the conversation and struggles to understand.

"What suggestion are you making," he says, tone flat with suspicion.

[monzun]

...What suggestion are they making, in particular? Hm. Monzun arcs lightly downward. "What is a Creature game?" they ask Sweetheart.

Sweetheart's jaw works, though her voice didn't come from there. A small rumble escapes. She can't explain! She doesn't have enough words yet.

A claw rises to start a swirl of a Gesture, carving red in the air, but she cuts it before it can form anything, and her hand and head both droop in frustrated disappointment.

"Whatever it is," Monzun offers peaceably to Lethys, "it can be done away from any Villages of mine and territory of yours."

[lethys]

At the sight of Monzun attempting to converse with Sweetheart, Lethys is thrown somewhere else. He keeps his grip on the present just fine, but there is an echo here. He focuses on their next words and stiffly responds.

"We are no match for you in a show of strength," he points out. "But we will rise to any challenge you set."

Laetes has pulled himself up to his feet and begun backing away and scrabbling at himself with an angry scoff. He saw Sweetheart gesturing, and it spooked him.

[monzun]

Monzun stills, then makes their light move a little ways away. Sweetheart's head swivels between them, Laetes, Lethys, back again.

"I am not trying to set much," they point out in return. "Only fulfillment of my Creature's desires."

[lethys]

"As you wish," he curtly replies. "If it pleases your Creature."

They can frame it how they like; it is bound to be a challenge. There is no other game gods play.

Laetes narrows his eyes, shuffling like he intends to begin again his obsessive stalking, but the plague of buzzing things distracts him from the task.

"We will meet there - and I will bring my Creature. Is there another rule you would have me follow?"

[monzun]

Monzun is dissatisfied by this. They don't know how to express it, or if they should. They are getting what Sweetheart wants, after all.

"...I will interfere if they do anything to the point of one nearing unconsciousness." Tactfully, they do not say that it will likely be his Wolf. "I plan on only observing otherwise. You...do as you like. And what your Creature may like, as long as it doesn't harm my Villages or Temple."

Because they will be fairly near their Temple, after all. A battle there will not cause harm. A Storm might.

[lethys]

A fight, then. Of sorts. Monzun is being strangely cagey about it, but it sounds like a fight.

They will lose, of course. Lethys steels himself to accept this inevitability. It is a necessary part of staying in Monzun's better graces; but that doesn't make it less humiliating to agree to.

"I will not try your people's faith," he declares, since they're performing the dance of setting rules. "Nor will my Creature. I will see to it personally."

Laetes is grumpily trying to lick and chew parts of himself untoward. He has already stopped listening to the gods overhead.

[monzun]

"Very well," they say cautiously. This is sounding far more serious than it's meant to be, from how Monzun has seen Sweetheart's previous attempts to be friendly. They've done all they can to protect what is theirs, however, and even the old Yogi (if he still exists) doesn't need a Temple in the way a god does, should it end up ruined.

("Not like it'd matter anyway! Stealthy ol' bastard.")

("And it might be fine, in the end! And...well, our Creature may be big, and his may be ferocious...but we can repair it later, still!")

Perhaps. They require and desire his regard less than ever.

"We shall meet when your Creature is recovered?" Monzun suggests, tugging a lightly-vibrating Sweetheart away further. Holy Flies can linger for quite some time.

[lethys]

Laetes is scritching and scratching and it is really quite distracting and so Lethys Leashes his Creature and gives him a light tug.

Laetes reluctantly staggers to his feet and thumps to his god's side - that is, on the ground, below. His face turns up briefly to take stock of Sweetheart standing there, almost shoulder to symbol with her own god, and then he makes a wet ruffing noise through his teeth and whips back to bite at the itching.

"Very well," he gravely agrees. "I will bring my Creature as soon as your curse fades."

With that, he snaps the Leash home - lingering only to watch Laetes haul his body in that direction before flitting ahead, back to his Temple.

He has no reason to linger. Monzun has set the rules. He will be there, as agreed. Dragging out this conversation any longer would be... unwise.

[monzun]

Their curse. Well. It is their curse, in that they worked to teach their Creature to use it, but they hadn't been around when it was cast. They say nothing to it.

"Farewell," is instead said to the pair's retreat, too quiet to be heard, while they pull Sweetheart in the opposite direction.

On the other hand, Sweetheart's head snaps back, nearly goggling at the disappearing wolf silhouette and gleam of blue upside-down and almost unbalancing backwards: "Farewell! Fare-WELL! Faaaaaarewell!" she sings, and goes.