Her wooden brow may have indicated a softer expression but her gaze held a solemn understanding for his concern towards them.

"I fear that you may not have the time to help those before sleep claims you." She warned him. Underneath Hayim a flower bud that was even tinier than him emerged from the wooden limp he was sat upon. It grew and then bloomed, it's lovely white and light green spotted petals unfurling beneath him. It became platform for him to stand upon as it outgrew him, growing large enough to support his frame.

"When we merged into the wood of these trees we found our roots connected. We could hear one another's thoughts and feelings through our roots and so we spoke with those of our tribe. While there are some who still seek to return to their humanity our majority wish to keep the divine power this event has filled us with. As humans we were small and frail but as trees we are tall and hard. We can still move despite our changes and should another catastrophe like this occur these new forms of ours will help us endure. Though we welcome you to aid those of us who do not wish to remain in this form we must ask that you consider yourself. We will survive until you return, even now we adapt to better accommodate ourselves to this strange new life we now live. While we will do all that is within our power to keep you safe during your stay whether or not you wish to return to the safety of your realm is your choice to make alone."

As she finished her words the ninth chime rang. It was not solely Hayim that felt this exhaustion but all gods, all goddesses, all deities of every form. The chime resonated with their Divine Cords, echoing inside the mind that resided within these tiny strands of endless power.

Whichever choice was made by Hayim the tenth and final chime rang soon after. Should he have stayed his unconscious form would be shielded by the flower which would enclose him, concealing his form from the harshness of the world.

As for Ral the pod did not answer. The chimes rang no further in distance from him than it did for Hayim or even Oao. With the ninth chime it was made clear that no matter what he was doing sleep was no longer an option, it was guaranteed. After a short time the tenth chime came and, no matter where he decided he would be there is where he would rest.

There is where they would all rest...

For the next ten thousand years.
[hr]

She felt herself stirring. Though Oao's eyes were opening the form they took were not quite the same, her form was not her physical manifestation.

She rose from her curled fetal position like smoke from a smoldering ember, her body a vaguely humanoid mass of living shadow. It flowed like air, an immaterial conglomerate of lightless space occupying the space in which her mind resided. She looked down to herself to see this form, a form quite familiar to her as it was similar to how she molded the shadows when she cast her senses forward, operating them as though she were there as, in a sense, she was there.

This was simply how he dreamt herself to be. She was the darkness and this was the form she picked for herself, not the one that was picked for her at either of her births. This was a dream.

A familiar dream too. She had stood before these massive golden gates before. What she stood upon was nothing but a solid nothing she could not pass through. Behind her from every direction except from the gates was a deep black nothingness. It wasn't simply the darkest darkness for even darkness was something, a something that she was. This was nothingness, an empty black void which pulled at the mind the longer one looked at it. She turned away from the void and back to the gates again. A massive beautiful ornate solid set of golden doors set within a wall which towered overhead. The doors were seamless, nothing able to slip through the cracks and the walls would simply extend upwards against those who would think to fly above them.

Except now these doors were no longer closed. They were left ajar, their flawless golden surface seemingly inviting her inside. What laid beyond was something she could have never conceived of without seeing it for herself. It was a large temple of sorts, It's entrance a long corridor bereft of walls as tall pale white pillars supported the arched roof above. The structures were perfectly smooth, formed to exact angled and shaped without flaw. Beneath the formless wisp that were her legs joined together she could see the floor was long perfect smooth surface. This surface, unlike the pillars, had a split pattern. Half the entire floor was perfectly black while the opposite half was perfectly white. This pattern was split lengthwise down the corridor into the temple itself, dividing the entire structure down the middle into two halves.

_
She continued down this corridor, drawn by this amazing structure which had laid hidden since the dawn of man and deity alike. Something hidden like a pearl within the maw of a clam for so long now open for them.

[i]Why?[/i] She asked herself. [i]For what purpose does this great structure open it's gates to us now of all times? What changed?[/i]

She had to explore. To be kept in mystery for so long it would be a disservice to not investigate deeper into this wondrous building.

At the end of the hall was a massive set of doors, similar to those that kept them from the courtyard of this temple to begin with. Unlike the golden gates however this door was divided along a similar pattern to that of the floor. One door was white, one door was black. On them a massive insignia was emblazoned onto their surface, occupying a majority of the door's face. It was a clock.

She did not recognize what it was though. She had never seen a clock before either. They did not exist, not yet.

The half of the clock on the black door was a brilliant white while the half on the white door was a tenebrous black. She could not tear her eyes away from this strange design.

[i]What does it mean? Is this the symbol of it's creator? It's chieftain?... It's god?[/i]

Her thoughts were cut off as she heard distant movement behind her. A few of the other deities had come as well. She turned, the long thin fibrous strands of darkness that her hair comprised of roiling as flecks of darkness flit out from the tips like sparks from a flame. She shrank somewhat, receding behind one of the pillars though there were no shadows to hide within here. She might not be at risk of exposure in this form but her disdain for being looked at had not abated.

...
Those few that remained...

[hr]
Relevant to:[@Duoya][@Noodles][@Archangel89] And any other participants I may have missed.