(P.S it’s canon that the little gryphon says treasure in the same way OG Fred Jones does!)

<This child really is… Weird.>

Alice was having a very hard time understanding the strange boy(?) as he bounded through the empty streets at an inconsistent pace; at points showing grace and other times tripping over his own paws. There seemingly was not a single thing about the entity that remained stagnant… Except his small size and overall excitement at finalling interacting with someone. She actually found the crazy cat-bird hybrid to be kind of adorable even if she remained somewhat cautious due to prior experiences.

The last time she looked down on some divine entity - that she did not recognise - she ended up getting taught a very humbling lesson. One that saw her learning what the ground tasted like. As such she was not keen on being caught by surprise by whatever the black being had hidden away under its appearance.

“Tray~sure~♪ Tray~sure~♪ Tray~sure~♪ Gonna give tray~sure~♪” Little Black Gryphon>

Who knew if its excitable persona was but a deep seeded trap - laid all in order  to get one to lower their guard before an ambush is sprung?

She wasn’t too cautious to not interact with the child, at least, as she slowly pondered what would be a good conversation topic. Patting her chin as she cautiously kept her senses pinned on every last action being made. Although (other than the strange power scaling of the kitten) there was nothing particularly suspicious about them.

Slowly but surely the pair made their way towards the docks but Mother found herself unable to really find something to talk about. She was hardly experienced when it came to dealing with kids - she was far more used to being the child who was being dealt with. While considering the irony of someone titled“Mother” being bad with children… She noticed that the hybrid creature abruptly got distracted by something it saw in one of the many storefronts that existed.

Initially she suspected that this way was the long awaited trap but she soon gave up on that thought as she saw it staring up towards a set of mannequins. Turning her own head toward the display; finding that there was actually a collection of dresses. Certainly a strange thing for a male beast to be looking at.

“Do you think those dresses’ to be pretty?” <Mother>

“Nn~!” <Little Black Gryphon>

She expected it to end there nevertheless the young beast was not done yet.

“Dresses are adorable and people like charming things; as such I want to wear all the cute dresses that I can in the future. Then I’ll make a lot of friends - no longer be lonely - maybe have some handsome boys   chase after my skirt. Ah~ the future holds such wonderful things~!” <Little Black Gryphon>

“... But aren’t you male?” <Mother>

The little thing just tilted it’s head towards her for a moment before promptly whipping it’s head so as to avoid looking at her with its eyes. Still, those cat ears cutely twitched, as it appeared confused by the question of the mature (looking) woman. Its flaming tail wagged around as it looked towards the dresses with a glow around its body.

“Boys can still feel lonely and stuff~!” <Little Black Gryphon>

“That is not what I-” <Mother>

“Even I know that and I have never talked to many people before. Only people I have the chance to talk to are those people who really want something - like the dragon who wanted to be adorned head to tail in gold for some reason. Never understood the appeal but he tracked me down through some ‘seerer’ and was very insistent so I helped him live his dream!”

<Hm… That is quite interesting.>

She had never heard any stories concerning anything like that however she also did not think that the little thing would actually lie about something so seemingly meaningless. It did bring an interesting thought to her mind though. One she decided to air out then & there.

“Where are your parents?” <Mother>

That made the chick appear even smaller in the eyes of the dragoness.

“I don’t know… They’re not here at this time?” <Little Black Gryphon>

<Why was that a question…?>

For the first time it was the little fuzzy fella that did not feel like talking; head lowering as it began to head towards the docks with no answer for Mother. Of course this allowed for the smart girl to quickly come up with many different theories yet she decided that it also didn’t particularly matter to her. As a result she decided to just follow behind for a moment until something caught her attention.

Upon one of the various mannequins was a hat which could only be called comically large. A wide brim that would hide all of her face with a rather impressive peak that folded backwards - making for what some would consider an iconic wizard hat in the future. Deciding nobody else was using it; the goddess decided to snatch the thing from the head it was sitting on. Turning it around as she walked, studying every inch that she could, before deciding to let her infinite run through the curious item of clothing.

The next moment she appeared to merely take a standard step forward yet abruptly flashed right above the fledgling. Dropping that oversized hat atop it the things head. Although, much to her amusement, the feline-bird’s size made it so the entirety of his body was essentially hidden under the brim.

Only his tail escaped this fat; wagging behind as the hat turned to look toward her.

“Hohoho~ all we need is a face~!” <Mother>

“Huh?” <Little Black Gryphon>

She didn’t answer the cat-tailed hat as she flicked her hands around to summon some crimson thread & buttons. Using those two materials to create both a pair of eyes and a simplistic mouth using a collection of cross stitches to make an upward arch. In a few seconds a rather cute looking cap was left looking towards the goddess with a bright smile that hid the confusion of the entity underneath.

Afterall… Nobody had ever given him anything.

Few were able to resist their natural curiosity and then their lack of strength made it so they would never be able to talk with anyone anymore (let alone the child). Those who did not care about the mystery of his eyes instead desired something from him. These combined essentially ensured that life, for as long as he could remember, had been a very lonely endeavour,

As such, he simply didn’t know how to act, the poor little guy could only turn around as if looking around for an answer that never came. In some ways she could see herself in the child. A being thrust into a world they did not understand and forced to hide away their eyes else destroy those they interacted with.

It just so happened that Alice had far more time to adapt than the bird brained cat.

Especially considering she had the major advantage that her powers seemingly were not fully developed while she was within the confines of the ocean. Speaking of the ocean; it did not take too long after randomly gifting the hat to finally happen upon the docks. Due to being quite a ways from where the fighting took place there were still a few people around yet none of them were walking outside.

In fact the docks clearly had a lot more open space than one would expect - those who could escape decided to do so. Meanwhile many eyes watched the strange pair (specifically focusing on Mother due to her companion being too small to immediately notice). Neither really cared as the tiny beast continued guiding the {True God} toward their destination.

“Say hello… To one of the finest treasures I have crafted; the {Crimson Princess}!” <Little Black Gryphon>

“Ara… ara…” <Mother>

In front of the goddess, seemingly staying still on the rolling waves, was a beautiful wooden ship with a slick finish that made it appear to be shimmering like the crimson setting sun on a peaceful lake. An uncountless total of crimson paper sails awaited to be finally drawn to bring its (as of yet non-existent) crew to as of yet unseen horizons. Across both sides of the ship were cannons that glimmered a familiar magenta aura that weighed down heavily on those who found themselves within the crossfire.

Not at all helped by the fact that - on a single side - it possessed a frightening total of 42 cannons on each level of the hull. Including the deck that meant the ship had a total of 336 cannons on each side for a terrifying total of 672. Although a caveat for that was that some of the cannons clearly had different purposes and that included some that were intended to act far more like large range artillery of short range.

It also didn’t include cannons that weren’t on the sides of the hull…

Upon the back was a set of 22 cannons that seemed  primed to make any would-be followers reconsider any clever thoughts of acting up Meanwhile, front and centre, was a final cannon of truly frightening size that literally no beast dared step in front of for miles. Instinctively each and every creature on the planet unconsciously avoided the path straight in front of that mighty weapon.

Said cannon was perched beautifully within the maw of what appeared to be an elegant mixture mix between a salamander & easter style dragon. The wood given a special lilac colouration on the main head as two white branches came out from the dragoness that was depicted. A set of exterior gills even came from the beasts cheeks; adorned in gold plating that seamlessly melded into the holes that held the prior mentioned 672 other cannons.

To this monstrous invention of water combat…

“Oh myself I love it~♥” <Alice>

She squealed like the girl she was for probably the first time in her life.