Shard

  "Atryna, are you certain you wish to split your slot with Inari and allow them to use a blessing on your behalf?" inquired the formless god, Knowledge. "bining that with your own blessing will mean you ot do anything else with your world for the tury, as per the agreement when you requested aid f it."

  Atryna turo faowledge, body shifting below her dark blue robes to bee a young man, maintaining the same bright blue eyes from before. With a slight frown the young man shifted into an older woman again before she resumed a friendly expression.

  "Absolutely," firmed Atryna, goddess of cooperation, "I have been trying to ge things for turies without success. Clearly I o try a neroach." She owards flict, tinuing, "And yes, I accept flict's ditions for the blessings, though I'd prefer a better situation. I had hoped for a full bloodline, not a single individual."

  The river valley that Inari appeared as shimmered, shifting down into an old man, the walls of the valley ging into his robe, with the river transf as well into a blue-tinted walking sti his hand. He nodded slightly, agreeing with Atryna, "It would be better to have more than one, but as she stated, trying something new is needed. I agree with flict's ditions as well, though I do ask to be allowed to send messages to my blessed starti tury, per the typical period."

  Inari's form flowed once again, staff turning into a scroll as he colpsed into the form of a fox, the robe melding into his fur before he tinued, "I do io stick around, though I am not foolish enough to try to usurp a g position from those who lent their power i of creation."

  The formless flict shimmered between red and e before bobbing in the air, "I agree with the request, simple unication without a p the cil seems fair. I believe the others would agree as well?" it ventured, flickering towards each of the founding gods, as they sigheir agreement.

  "Since all are in agreement, let us go ahead. Since flict is biased as well, I have requested that quest join us to make the choi whidividual to bless." Knowledge procimed, flickering towards the ioid god of quest.

  quest turo face Atryna and Inari as they separated portions of their power into floating orbs of blue and green. With a wave of its antehe two orbs flew before quest, merging into one swirling ball, before rapidly pressing into a crag bolt of energy. After a moment of fog below, quest jerked its head downward, the bolt following then accelerating away.

  "With that done," tinued Knowledge, "let us proceed with the other requests. flict, more push towards instinct from mana overload, correct?"

  "Ihough only higher overload," responded flict, "as that will be more iing. And as usual, the position of leader of my church shall remain blessed."

  , the rainbow-hued formless god of Magic floated forward, "I request that mana mutations tio take time to set in rather than being immediate, this experiment seems to be iing. Everything else seems to be proceeding well, so no further requests."

  "I shall tihe past cycle's choices," began the god Humanity, appearing as a perfectly generic male in tinually shifting clothing, "one blessed hero, and instinctive avoidance of lower mana areas from those adapted to high maies. How about you, Knowledge?"

  "As usual, I shall bless three seekers of knowledge, so that they may tinue where the others left off st cycle," Knowledge replied.

  "And stly, I desire a higher ana-based mutations being ied onward rather than being personal only," Evolution decred.

  "Very well, it seems no ges to the pn are required. Let us proceed," Knowledge remarked.

  **********

  Far below on Atryna's p, a fox finished hunting, catg a rabbit that was covered in boing. Quite an unfortuation on the rabbit's behalf, taking away its agility for armor that was easily defeated by simply shaking it until the neck broke.

  While the fox was busy eating, it missed the formation of a small storm cloud over the top of it. Oher hand, the single bolt of lightning did not miss him, striking directly between his ears, causing him to crumple in a heap atop his half-eaten kill. The blood barely colored his reddish brown coat, though it was quite vivid against his white underbelly. Immediately, the clouds faded away again, and a momehe fox stirred, no trace of having been struck, save for his eyes. Formerly amber, now one eye shone blue as the o, one eye green as the forest opy above him.

  He had just begun feeling strange, as if his mind was expanding, then something had struck him from above. Waking back up, he felt he could think far more clearly, the past suddenly easily remembered rather than a foggy haze, and he could guess at the future where before only the present ossible. He shook his head, surprised at being fier being hit from above before looking around, not finding anything. He decided to finish eating his kill, only to suddenly feel danger which caused him to jump back, looking for the threat, even as the feeling stopped as though it had never been there.

  Looking around suspiciously, he couldn't find anything out of the norm and decided to finish eating, just for the feeling to return the instant he decided on it. Oddly enough, again as soon as he stopped, so too did the feeling of danger. Apparently, he decided, there was something wrong with the rabbit, hopefully what he ate before wouldn't cause him problems. As he walked back to a berry bush he had passed earlier, he found a slight sense of unease growing the further into the forest he traveled, which rapidly faded upon sidering leaving the forest. The feeling resumed as soon as he decided to stay, turning into a feeling of fear and danger as he sidered going deeper into the forest.

  Thinking about returning to his deed in a faint feeling of danger, leading him to sider making a new burrow he edge of the forest rather than the current location within a small clearing within the forest. For now though, he still returhere ao sleep, as he had been awake for too long already, as night settled in.

  Upon waking up again, he quickly jumped up looking for what was wrong before remembering the oddness of the feeling, ending up in less of a rush. Nothing seemed out of po odd noises or smells, so he carefully poked his head out of his burrow, also finding nothing wrong visually, and instead a beautiful dawn beginning. Due to the unpleasant awakening and stant sense of danger, he decided it was time to move today. He headed towards the edge of the forest as quickly as he safely could, skirting around a boar that had wandered into his path.

  While he was on the way, he thought about what he had seely, now that his mind was more clear. He had noticed a lot more of the altered animals retly, as well as a number of altered pnts in a certain dire from his old den. He would have to look into that when he had more time; today was a moving day rather than an expl day.

  Aside from the boar, he didn't run across anything threatening on his trip out to the forest outskirts, though he did pass by some new berry bushes, and saw some potential prey roaming around. After a while, he felt no more danger, fear, or unease from anything around himself, and upon reag the edge of the forest, he began searg for a new den. He quickly found multiple potential locations that would previously have been disted immediately due to simply being too close to the humans' pins.

  Pig a spot between a few trees, he quickly began digging multiple holes into the ground before linking up four of them into owork of tunnels, leaving the others as areas to bury anything iing ter. After digging the holes, he wondered why he even did that, as he could store things in his den instead. Ohe simple tunnel was dug between the four entry points, he then began excavating a rger room in the ter, though partway through the sun fully rose and began hurting his eyes as he was removing dirt. Due to this, he decided to rest through the day in the tral chamber, even if it was not pleted yet. As dusk approached, he woke up and resumed digging. Once he fihe tral chamber, he began w on a few smaller rooms for ste as well. He mao finish two ste rooms before it was too te in the evening; he headed back to sleep, having finished enough of the den for now.

  After finishing his den, it was time to explore around his new home, as he hadn't been around the edge of the forest mubsp; There were far fewer animals of any sort, though that was also fortunate in a way as it meawisted creatures that were extra dangerous. He did find quite a few berry bushes nearby, as well as trees that dropped nuts, and several areas where is were on, thus giving him numerous other sources of food besides small animals.