And so the days passed, until the hundredth day of the Flower season came. The end of every season was set aside as a day to recognize and thank the gods as well as the great Primordial CREATOR for everything they had done. Gods' Day also came with public celebrations, though they were less for the gods than for the people. Not that there weren't gods who appreciated public celebrations, but it was a day for the best storytellers to entertain the children, for everyone to share food, and for those inclined to dance and make merry.

Aono had already made preparations in the preceding week, setting aside her offerings which consisted of mana gems from her slimes and a few odds and ends. And one of the mana gems was from herself. It was a strange feeling pulling out from her own body a mana gem just like a larger version of the ones her slimes produced but she had gotten slightly used to it since it had happened a few times.

She reflected on how busy she had been immediately after her change, busy enough that she hadn't really thought much about what it meant to change species. But as things quieted down and she finished making adjustments like a new bed and new clothing, she'd found herself with more time to think more about it.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad. It had been a little weird to her more than anything. There was a lot to get used to, like having to wear her gloves if she didn't want to get something slightly damp, or the young children trying to put rocks and sticks into her body just to watch them sink in, or how nice it was to just lose cohesion inside her bathtub and just relax there in fluid form.

Aono didn't mind those children's actions; there was no malice in their actions. Though they did get scolded by their parents, so instead she showed them fun tricks she could do with her body. They were particularly fond of her ability to change her shape and asked her to take the shape of things like a dog and a turd. She drew the line at turning into a penis, though.

But it did get her thinking about how little attachment she'd had to her humanity. It wasn't that being a human had bothered her. It was just something she had gone along with, much like Tamu had gone along with the whole gender thing.

Honestly, Aono liked being a slime but that had more to do with her love of slimes than any specific wish to be one. It was fun and neat to have the same flexibility and fluidity as her slimes, though. And she definitely felt more of a kinship with them and it was clear they felt the same way about her. Okay, being a slime was nice.

She still kept a human-like form because it was what she was familiar with. While she no longer had her blessing from HUMAN (though the god had left her a parting blessing making it easier for her to take on human shapes), FOLK had stepped up to give her their blessing, allowing her to retain thought and language.

In a way, leaving behind humanity was like leaving behind the part of her that was Gara. It felt like a full clean start. PURITY definitely wouldn't approve, she preached that things should remain true to themselves and that meant staying in the shapes they were given by the gods. Fuck that, for Aono being true to herself meant taking the shape that was right for her. And she was happier like this.

But enough woolgathering. Aono started the gratitude ceremony by thanking CREATOR, saying, "Thank you for your creation of the world, the gods, and everything in it. I'm doing well and so is the world." She left no offering; CREATOR did not care for offerings but did appreciate hearing how its creations were doing. Really, it was a very remote entity, preferring to stay engrossed in the act of creation.

Now she placed a mana gem in her offering bowl. "Here's to all the gods that work hard making everything possible." There was too many gods involved to thank every single one, but it was custom to thank all the gods before thanking specific gods that had done particularly nice things for you. Immediately after her thanks, the mana gem disappeared as it was consumed.

Another mana gem went into the bowl in as Aono said, "Thanks, HARVEST, for helping me gain a bountiful harvest. May you continue to do so." That mana gem disappeared as well. It wasn't as if gods really needed those offerings, but every little bit was appreciated.

"And thanks, CREATURE, for helping me gain a closer relationship with the creatures in my life. May you continue to do so." This mana gem disappeared as well.

Now to the most personally important thank to give. This time the mana gem placed in the bowl was the one directly from Aono's own body. "And thank you for helping give me the beautiful body I wanted, HARVEST and CREATURE. And thank you SYSTEM for making that ability available in the first place and for listening to those two' petition to lower the level requirement."

Aono gently touched the statues of HARVEST's porcine feminine aspect and of CREATURE in their primal, protean shape, as well as the number-covered sphere that was SYSTEM's sole favored form. HARVEST also had masculine and neutral aspects, but the feminine one was her favorite. CREATURE's nearly shapeless form of many limbs and heads was the one she felt the most connection to as a slime. And SYSTEM only ever took one form. The statues of CREATURE and SYSTEM were the newest one, she had gotten them made.

There were no statues of CREATOR, for CREATOR's form was reportedly difficult for even the gods to understand. There were records of them complaining about CREATOR refusing to take a form that made sense.

"Thank you for lightening up my days and reminding me to share merriment, COMEDY." This time her offering was the most silly and funny drawing she could think of. COMEDY had definitely helped her get through her days of being Gara. She wasn't sure if she would have survived to this point without the trickster god.

The offering to COMEDY didn't disappear, but there was an addition to the drawing that made it even funnier. Aono removed the piece of paper and placed it next to her statue of COMEDY, which was of a donkey's ass with two legs attached. The asshole was clearly visible on the donkey ass. COMEDY liked it that way.

Aono placed another piece of paper, this one with just the word for Thought. "Thank you, FOLK, for your gift of thought and language."

As that paper was consumed, Aono placed a drawing of a human in the bowl. "Thanks, HUMAN, for being with me until I left your care. And thanks for your parting blessing. The shape of a human is still the most familiar one to me."

And that was it for Aono's offerings. As tempted as she was to leave an insulting offering to PURITY, she felt it better not to get that god's attention at all. Cursing a single annoying person didn't cross the limits imposed by LIMITER on the gods and there were tales of folks who had incurred misfortune that way. You could get another god to lift a god's curse, but it generally required a generous offering and a favor owed to the god you asked.

She ventured out of her house to join the festivities, only to be immediately accosted by Tamu. "Heyas," he cried as he waved, "I made another thing!"

Aono smiled at that. Tamu had been creating even more things since he got a class change to Crafty Trickster. He'd lost a few of his abilities, like the shapechanging, but gained the ability to make devices allowing him to do those things and more.

Tamu continued enthusiastically, "So, you know how we have a pact with the Guardians not to cause trouble on Gods' Day? I'm not gonna break that, don't worry! But I asked Sardu if I could do something, and she said okay!"

Aono just chuckled. "Come on, you should ask Kilnu. You know Sardu's in it more for the monster patrols than keeping the peace."

There was a pouting look on Tamu's face. "But Kilnu's no fun!" Then he grinned mischievously, "Actually, I got his permission, too!"

"Oh? So what did you make?" Aono excitedly asked.

Tamu snapped his fingers. "Fireworks! I had to follow a whole bunch of rules Kilnu made up right on the spot about what designs I could and couldn't use, but I figured out some cool stuff!"

Now that was exciting news. "So Gods' Day fireworks?" There were a few places that did them, Aono had heard.

Tamu flashed a thumbs up. "Gods' Day Fireworks! Kilnu said no to the design I wanted to use for COMEDY, but I've got one he okayed! It starts out as a donkey but turns into a giant nose!"

Aono stared, then burst into laughter at that pun. "Because 'donkey' sounds like 'nose', right! And COMEDY likes donkeys."

Tamu nodded "The other designs're a little more boring, but I still managed to make some neat stuff, like HARVEST throwing seeds. Everyone'll love that."

"Everyone here loves HARVEST," Aono said.

"Exactly!" Tamu exclaimed, "That one'll be popular!"

"So what did you want to make?" Aono asked as she opened a gate in the pair's way.

"Donkey farting from their ass. Simple and immature, but that kind of humor's okay too." Tamu stopped short as his ears perked. "Wow, that's sure a conversation going on over there."

Aono frowned and walked forward further. She saw Jouu, a bat, and Lim, a human, having what looked from their expressions like a rather serious discussion. When she got close enough, she overheard a sentence that made her blink.

"You think the Empire'll take this nation too?" Jouu said as she rubbed her head.

Jouu had recently announced herself as a woman, also saying that folks would be seeing changes as she had already started taking potions. Those potions were the slow and expensive option, but Jouu was doing well enough to afford them. Aono hadn't even heard of those potions, but apparently Jouu had asked every passing trader until she learned of an option for herself. Apparently Jouu's wife had given the go-ahead and started treating Jouu as her own wife.

Lim just shook his head. "Not much standing in their way. Who'll stop them, those useless nobles constantly fighting each other? Mark my word, we'll hear of them marching here soon."

Jouu sighed, "Suppose who we pay taxes to'll change again. Well, such happens."

Lim emphatically nodded. "Aye, happened two times in my life. A pain every time, different folks calling the shots on what rules to follow."

"Three times in my life," Jouu said.

"Seven times in my life. Bah!" Ghei said as he descended from the sky. "Useless nobles, maybe the Empire'll be better."

"Could be," Jouu allowed, "I heard they're real orderly. Really got their act in order."

This was when Tamu chipped in with a groan, "That sounds like a real pain. Hope we at least get some nice roads. Heard those Azure Empire folks like their nice roads."

"I've heard some really strange rumors about them, too," Aono said as she seated herself on a fence.

"Oh, yeah, that one about the Empress being a Wild parrot. They treat the parrot as a oracle, see which seeds she pecks and make their decisions off that," Tamu said in a conspiratorial tone.

"Pretty sure you made that one up," Lim sighed. "I did hear the one about the Empress being level 20."

Ghei scoffed, "Level 20, really? What kind of a bleeding blistering lunatic do you have to be to reach that level?"

"I heard this one about the Empress being a god," Jouu said.

"What, don't they have AZURE already?" Aono asked.

"That's just what I heard. Can't say if it's true." Jouu shrugged.

Tamu scratched his chin. "Okay, this one's serious. Heard they figure out your talent at everything and you have to have the right qualifications for things like being in government offices."

"Heard that, too," Lim said.

"It's common knowledge, you wailing fools." Ghei snorted. "Traders who go there talk about the certificates they have to get to be allowed to do trade. And so on."

Aono frowned. "Wasn't there something about them executing evaluators who lie about evaluation results?"

"Not execution. It's an evaluator oath where you die if you lie about that," Ghei said. "Those drippy eyed fanatics."

"Damn, that seems extreme." Lim's eyes widened.

"Yikes," Tamu just said.

Jouu held up a finger. "What about this? All their streets are blue."

"Not true." Ghei did a dismissive flip of his flipper. "Traders who go there get asked about that all the time."

"And then there're the more bizarre rumors," Aono said. "Stuff like everyone being mind-controlled, the Empire being created by a dream by AZURE, them having people living on the bottom of clouds, a secret army of tamed monsters, everything being rigged with explosives in case of invasion. You know, stuff only weirdos believe."

"You heard all of those from Oddball Huju, didn't you?" Tamu said.

"Best source of ridiculous theories." Aono nodded.

"Implausible theories aside," Lim said, "I suppose we'll find out what the Empire're like if they come here. I think they'll."

Jouu sighed. "Entirely possible."

Tamu glanced around then tried to brighten the mood. "...In brighter news, I've got some wild fireworks planned for tonight! Guardian-approved, no less."

Lim raised an eyebrow. "Like they do in Gods' Mistake? Now I'm interested."

The fireworks that night were quite impressive.

kajarainbow

Exciting news! I commissioned an artist (@aiyuki4s ) to draw Aono and the sketch recently came in. The picture can be seen under the spoiler.

Spoiler

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