Shard

Welcome to my first attempt at writing, I hope you enjoy it.

"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.  "Combining that with your own blessing will mean you cannot do anything else with your world for the next century, as per the agreement when you requested aid forming it."

Atryna turned to face Knowledge, body shifting below her dark blue robes to become 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," confirmed Atryna, goddess of cooperation, "I have been trying to change things for centuries without success.  Clearly I need to try a new approach."  She nodded towards Conflict, continuing, "And yes, I accept Conflict's conditions 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 changing into his robe, with the river transforming as well into a blue-tinted walking stick in 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 Conflict's conditions as well, though I do ask to be allowed to send messages to my blessed starting next century, per the typical period."

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

The formless Conflict shimmered between red and orange before bobbing in the air, "I agree with the request, simple communication without a place on the council seems fair.  I believe the others would agree as well?"  it ventured, flickering towards each of the founding gods, as they signaled their agreement.

"Since all are in agreement, let us go ahead.  Since Conflict is biased as well, I have requested that Conquest join us to make the choice in which individual to bless."  Knowledge proclaimed, flickering towards the insectoid god of Conquest.

Conquest turned to face Atryna and Inari as they separated portions of their power into floating orbs of blue and green.  With a wave of its antennae, the two orbs flew before Conquest, merging into one swirling cyan ball, before rapidly compressing into a crackling bolt of energy.  After a moment of focusing below, Conquest jerked its head downward, the bolt following then accelerating away.

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

"Indeed, though only higher overload," responded Conflict, "as that will be more interesting.  And as usual, the position of leader of my church shall remain blessed."

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

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

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

"And lastly, I desire a higher chance of mana-based mutations being inherited onward rather than being personal only," Evolution declared.

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

**********

Far below on Atryna's planet, a fox finished hunting, catching a rabbit that was covered in bone plating.  Quite an unfortunate mutation 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.  On the other hand, the single bolt of cyan 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 moment later the fox stirred, no trace of having been struck, save for his eyes.  Formerly amber, now one eye shone blue as the ocean, one eye green as the forest canopy 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 was possible.  He shook his head, surprised at being fine after 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 considering leaving the forest.  The feeling resumed as soon as he decided to stay, turning into a feeling of fear and danger as he considered going deeper into the forest.

Thinking about returning to his den resulted in a faint feeling of danger, leading him to consider making a new burrow near the edge of the forest rather than the current location within a small clearing within the forest.  For now though, he still returned there and went to 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 place, no 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 constant 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 seen recently, now that his mind was more clear.  He had noticed a lot more of the altered animals recently, as well as a number of altered plants in a certain direction from his old den.  He would have to look into that when he had more time; today was a moving day rather than an exploring 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 reaching the edge of the forest, he began searching for a new den.  He quickly found multiple potential locations that would previously have been discounted immediately due to simply being too close to the humans' plains.

Picking a spot between a few trees, he quickly began digging multiple holes into the ground before linking up four of them into one network of tunnels, leaving the others as areas to bury anything interesting later.  After digging the holes, he wondered why he even did that, as he could store things in his den instead.  Once the simple tunnel was dug between the four entry points, he then began excavating a larger room in the center, 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 central chamber, even if it was not completed yet.  As dusk approached, he woke up and resumed digging.  Once he finished the central chamber, he began working on a few smaller rooms for storage as well.  He managed to finish two storage rooms before it was too late 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 much.  There were far fewer animals of any sort, though that was also fortunate in a way as it meant less twisted 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 insects were common, thus giving him numerous other sources of food besides small animals.