[centre]
[img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/550431755719409675/686579426099724300/Screenshot_2020-02-25-18-50-051.png[/img]
[img]https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/divinus-mk4/images/3/3b/Afc6efa58bae4f9c3be8ed679a7ac131.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/310?cb=20200229065521[/img]
[h2]Gibbou[/h2]
[/centre]

[hr]

It had taken roughly thirty minutes or so for Gibbou to stop crying. The grove had lost its neat magical sheen, and now it looked about as dull and sad as the rest of the fen. Thinking about it again once more made Gibbou’s nose sting, but she had wept herself so dry her eyes looked like overripe plums. She gave a stiff sniff and patted her shoulder blindly.

[colour=lightblue]“Hey… Adrian, are you there?”[/colour] she mumbled in a cracked voice.

"Ye- yeah!" Adrian's voice came out as a struggle -- the little thumbling's face was hidden behind a massive pile of houllin berries caught in his arms. He dumped them at Gibbou's feet and patted his hands free of dust.

The moon goddess offered him a weak smile and gave another sniff. [colour=lightblue]“So… Packed and ready, huh? It’ll be a long flight.”[/colour]

"Not quite ready, Blue," Adrian rubbed his nose with his arm, "You're gonna need some pockets." 

[colour=lightblue]“Blue, huh. I should give you a nickname, too, y’know.”[/colour] She patted her hips on both sides. Pockets subsequently sprouted by the rim of her midnight pants she had touched. She knelt down and shoveled some berries into the left one. [colour=lightblue]“How about… Addy?”[/colour]

"Hmm." Adrian hummed as he climbed up Gibbou's right leg, a bundle of bedding and tiny tools tied to his back with some blue hair. He threw his bundle into the Goddesses right pocket and slipped in himself. There was a slight rustling as everything fell into place and then a tiny:

"Yeah that works, though my sister's name is Addy."

[colour=lightblue]“Oh, that’s cause some confusion if she was around, huh…”[/colour] Gibbou slowly stood up and stretched her arms over her head. [colour=lightblue]“Are you okay down there?”[/colour]

"Almost..." Adrian said passively. There was some more rustling and then finally a tiny bark sign threaded into the pocket with primitive fibers was flipped out of the pocket so as to hand at the entrance. On it was an imprint of Adrian's hand in blue. He poked his head out, "Happy as home." 

Gibbou leaned over so she could see him better and giggled. [colour=lightblue]“That’s amazing, truly. Alright,”[/colour] she did some standing calf raises, [colour=lightblue]“make sure to stay put during the whole journey. If you feel yourself getting sick, uncomfortable or about to fall out, make sure to tell me to stop, okay?”[/colour] 

"I'll poke you with this,' he held up a particularly menacing pine needle.

Gibbou made a face. [colour=lightblue]“Be nice, please.”[/colour] She then hopped back a few steps. [colour=lightblue]“Get ready…”[/colour] She began jogging, testing the bounciness of the fen moss. [colour=lightblue]“... Seeet…”[/colour] 

"I'm always niiiiii--!"

Adrian was interrupted as she kicked off and rocketed into the air westwards, shouting [colour=lightblue]“GOOOOOOOO!”[/colour] as her body was encapsulated in the whitish blue light of a shooting star. The pair soared across the land, occasionally spying downwards at the enormously diverse continent underneath them. Gibbou clapped her hands in celebration at the sights, pointing to the various new biomes that had formed during her time with the thumblings.

[colour=lightblue]“Look! Look! That shiny place over there! That has to be my sister’s! WOO! Go, Oraelia!”[/colour] she boasted while gesturing madly to the Luminant far, far to the south, viewable still in the dark of the night.

A tiny fist raised out of her pocket, forming a thumbs up and a muffled response. Gibbou giggled and landed on a Black Rock peak for a second before jumping back off towards the southwest. She blinked down at the shoreline and gave her head a scratch.

[colour=lightblue]“When did those reefs pop up? Has Mr. Klaar been wanting to move ashore?”[/colour] Not too long after, she noticed a spot on the sea like a hot coal. Her brows furrowed - it looked inhospitable to life. [colour=lightblue]“Ugh, why do people have to make such nasty places? Adrian, are you seeing this?”[/colour]

Adrian poked his head out and gave an agreeing nod, "Looks like a lot of places are missing the Golden Light." 

[colour=lightblue]“Yeah… The Light would certainly fix it up.”[/colour] She sighed. [colour=lightblue]“I’m sorry again. I messed up so badly for you and your people.”[/colour]

"It's okay," Adrian patted her hip, "No thumbling is without a mistake or two -- besides, Elder said the Golden Light will return someday. Uncle Gary doesn't think so, and my old neighbor Ruth didn't seem to really understand what happened, but..." He took a nibble of a Houllin berry he stashed away, and politely swallowed. "But most of us seemed to understand and I don't think anyone can really blame you if it was already said by the gate that it was going to happen. But for now I guess we have to be our own Golden Light."

[colour=lightblue]“You thumblings really are something,”[/colour] Gibbou sighed thankfully and looked up. A distant landmass was approaching, and over her shoulder, she could see the hard, searing rays of the sun. Her divine eyes noticed that there were a number of deep crevices and canyons on the continent. [colour=lightblue]“We’ll hide from the day down there!”[/colour] she declared and changed their trajectory downwards.

"Whoop!" Adrian interjected at the sudden change of winds buffeting his face. He slunk back into her pocket and out of sight. With her divine ears she could still hear him, "Hey Blue?" There was a sense of concern laced in his usually cheery voice.

[colour=lightblue]“Hmm? Yeah?”[/colour] Gibbou mumbled passively as she eyed the canyon around them up and down.

"I don't think the Golden Light splitting was entirely your fault anyways," Adrian added before rustling around in her pocket. There was a hum and a sudden change of topic, "Are you the tallest thumbling in your family?"

[colour=lightblue]“Oh… Thanks,”[/colour] she answered softly, flashing a sad smile. The following comment made it genuine, though, and she failed to swallow a giggle, resulting in a few snorts, as well. [colour=lightblue]“Haha, oh, Adrian, I’ve told you before, right? I’m a goddess - it’s kind of, like… Not a thumbling, y’know?”[/colour] She gave the question an additional ponder. [colour=lightblue]“I do think I’m taller than my sister, though.”[/colour]

"You heard the elder; you're a thumbling through and through, just tall and blue," Adrian poked her. "Goddess or not."

[colour=lightblue]“Eh-heh. Thanks, Adrian, that helps. Say, you’re sure about coming along, right? You aren’t feeling homesick or anything?”[/colour]

"Nah," the answer was shorter and quicker than most, "let's keep going."

[colour=lightblue]“Sure.”[/colour] The pair subsequently followed the length of the canyon, remaining in its deep shade even as the sun above began to bake the surface. 

"Hey, Gibs?" Adrian poke his head out of her pocket.

[colour=lightblue]“Hmm?”[/colour]

"Ya think I could get a pair of pants and shirt sometime?" He scratched at his leaf made clothes, "Seems a bit less 'chaffing'" 

[colour=lightblue]“Oh! Right, sorry about that.”[/colour] She snapped her fingers and, surely enough, a pair of tiny pantaloons and a white, threaded-up shirt appeared in her hand, as well as a small pair of sandals. She held them down to her pocket for Adrian to grab. His tiny hands snatched them up and in moments he was hanging out of her pocket by the waist, showcasing his new shirt.

"Ta-da!"

Gibbou took one look and burst out laughing. She cackled to the extent that she had to support herself against the wall of stone. She gave a few snorts as she tried to steady her breathing and gave her face a rub with her palm. She leaned her back against the wall and lowered herself down to a seated position with a wheezy sigh.

[colour=lightblue]“Oh, you’re just too sweet.”[/colour]

"I'm not the one walkin' around lookin' like a houllin berry," Adrian played with the collar of his shirt, "but I do have to agree with ya."

Gibbou lifted her head up and eyed the blue sky. [colour=lightblue]“Yeah… Speaking of berries, though…”[/colour] She looked around the canyon crevices and even by the small waterways that ran through the crag centres. Theirs was a particularly dark crag. [colour=lightblue]“This place is pretty empty, huh.”[/colour]

Adrian hopped out of Gibbou's pocket and paced around the blank rock, "Very empty, and monocolor."

Gibbou approached the water, rolled up the legs of her trousers and gave her feet a little dip. [colour=lightblue]“Suppose I could add some.”[/colour] 

"Make it purple!" Adrian suggested, "Whatever it is we are making. OH WITH YELLOW STREAKS."

[colour=lightblue]“Alright, alright,”[/colour] Gibbou soothed and stood up, feet still in the water. Drumming her cheek ponderously with a finger, she walked over to a stalagmite in the middle of the little waterway and grabbed tightly onto its shadow. Then, pulling roughly, she snatched herself a nice circular sheet of shadow. The stalagmite had, for a moment, an uncannily bright spot where the shadow had been, before it healed shut again. Gibbou filled the shadow skin with water and tied it into a ball. She then walked out of the water over to a huge boulder. She lifted it up and placed the shadow ball underneath it. As she dropped the stone, the bag went ‘pop!’ However, the shadow and water didn’t flow outwards, but covered instead the whole stone in a black shroud. While it was incredibly hard to see, the shroud revealed that the stone was being broken apart and ground up within the shroud. Then, the shroud itself went pop and unleashed a sea of small, purple geckos with yellow tiger stripes. They immediately scurried in every direction in search of food, and Gibbou made certain to keep Adrian safe as they passed by them. 

Joining the commotion all of a sudden was a hungry legged shark. Gibbou screamed as it jumped out of the water, ready to snatch a piece of her (or try to, anyway). However, before it could truly leave the waterway, it keeled forward suddenly, smashing face-first into the ground. Crawling on top of it curiously was one of the geckos, its lethargic stillness occasionally being interrupted by a few nibs and gnaws at the tough sharkskin. Gibbou sighed in relief and loosened her protective grip on Adrian.

[colour=lightblue]“Their bite contains a powerful sleeping agent. I reckoned that was the most humane way of killing something - so, you know, they wouldn’t feel it! I’ll call them Nightsnappers.”[/colour] She eyed the shark curiously. [colour=lightblue]“Although… Maybe we haven’t explored all these canyons have to offer yet.”[/colour]

"Hm." Adrian rested his elbows on Gibbou's hand as she held him like a doll, "We should take a look around, who knows. Maybe we will find something me-sized and fun."

Gibbou nodded and deposited Adrian on her shoulder. Then, she slowly began to climb out of the dark crevice. The sun was stronger up here where they came out, but not unbearable yet. In fact, Gibbou found its light almost comfortable. Here, the cold stone similar to that of the crag below was thickly clothed in trees and shrubs growing out of the walls; from these trees, some of which formed great arches to roof the crag, hung vines which drank from the salty waters below; the waterway which had been almost barren down there was here a teeming pool of plants, fish and birds. If she squinted, she could occasionally spot the odd shark fin lurking just above the water surface between thickly growing reeds. 

Gibbou gasped and clasped her hands over her mouth. [colour=lightblue]“It’s beautiful,”[/colour] she whispered intensely.

"Reminds me a little of home, if not more," Adrian made a motion, "Varied." He thought to himself, "You know what it is missing though?"

[colour=lightblue]“What?”[/colour]

"Mushrooms," Adrian snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. He frowned, "Guess this one is on you again... How do you do that anyways?"

Gibbou blinked and started looking around for a sufficiently moist spot where mushrooms could properly grow. [colour=lightblue]“Huh… Haven’t really thought about it much, to be honest. I kinda, y’know, think about something really hard and then, poof!”[/colour] To illustrate her point, she conjured forth a truffle. [colour=lightblue]“They sort of just appear. By the way, you can have this.”[/colour] She offered him the truffle as she dove in under a low cave entrance into a small water reservoir.

Adrian took the truffle and nodded slowly. A solemn look came over his face, "So I've done that once, then." 

[colour=lightblue]“Hmm?”[/colour] she hummed passively as she probed the air inside for its moisture content.

"Well..." Adrian rubbed the back of his head. He paused, "Gibs, remember when I said the Golden Light splitting wasn't entirely your fault?"

Gibbou eyed Adrian on her shoulder to the best of her ability and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. [colour=lightblue]“Yeah?”[/colour]

"Ah," Adrian stuttered, "Well, nah I'll tell you later. We are busy, right? Makin' stuff."

Gibbou pursed her lips in light disappointment and then nodded. [colour=lightblue]“Yeah, alright--"[/colour]

"Alright fine -- I'll tell you," Adrian cut her off, "Well remember when that troll snatched me and it was all scary and we had no idea what was going to happen?"

[colour=lightblue]“Uh-huh?”[/colour] 

"I thought of all the terrible things I wished I could do to it," Adrian admitted, "I wanted to punish it... Then when I saw the light following us, I asked it to. I asked it to and I heard a voice. It did what I asked but at... But at the cost of peace." Adrian hung his head, "it was my fault."

Gibbou dropped her arms to her side and stared in disbelief. [colour=lightblue]“What… What’re you saying? Are you saying you asked the Light to punish the askeladd in exchange for the loss of the harmonious existence in the garden?”[/colour] She lifted Adrian off her shoulder and cupped him in her palms. [colour=lightblue]“Adrian, how could you do such a thing?”[/colour]

"Well no!" Adrian defended himself, "I would never ask the Light to leave the grove. It wasn't even... It was just anger and the light responded with its own. It was just a thought, just an emotion and then suddenly." He paused, "Joab-Balaam."

[colour=lightblue]“Joe-ab-whatnow?”[/colour]

"It's the name of the fragment that was left behind," Adrian explained, "I didn't want to say it before... And even now saying it gives me the feeling that it is suddenly close."

Gibbou hunkered together slightly and sat down up against the wall of the cave. [colour=lightblue]“You mean… This Joab-Balaam is around here? Did it follow us? Is it…”[/colour] She eyed the surroundings accusingly and whispered, [colour=lightblue]“It’s a god, isn’t it?”[/colour]

"It's angry," Adrian whispered, "Very angry."

[colour=lightblue]“Sunlight,”[/colour] Gibbou cursed. “Just what the world needed - an angry god.” She groaned and stood up. [colour=lightblue]“You haven’t wished for anything else, have you?”[/colour]

"Uh," Adrian cleared his throat, "Well that's a little personal, isn't it?"

[colour=lightblue]“Relating to this angry god, Adrian,”[/colour] Gibbou sighed. Meanwhile, she crawled back out of the cave and back towards the dark ravine they had arrived in first. She had a sneaking suspicion. Adrian clung quietly to Gibbou, clearly ashamed.

When they finally descended back into the crevice, where little light could reach and thus next to nothing grew, they saw a few nightsnappers lick suspiciously at something that hadn’t been there before.

There with grotesque pain painted on its face was a statue of salt in the shape of the landshark.

Adrian shuddered, and then suddenly: "Look!" He pointed to a crack in the wall but there was nothing there. His finger drooped, "I coulda sworn I saw it."

Gibbou stormed over to the wall and placed her hand on it, blasting a tunnel deep into the mountain. The ground quaked as stone was reduced to dust that blew away on the wind, but alas, nothing was inside. The moon goddess grit her teeth and walked over to the statue, placing her hand on it somberly. [colour=lightblue]“It was only doing its part in the cycle of life… Now it can’t even feed the vultures and fungi.”[/colour] She drew a furious breath. [colour=lightblue]“Who would do such a thing to such a creature? To the ecosystem?”[/colour]

"Do you think we can fix it?" Adrian asked, "If it is a part of the Golden Light... Do you think we can make it like how it used to be?"

[colour=lightblue]“I… I don’t know. It’s salt all the way through, but… I might be able to do something else for it.”[/colour] She placed her hand on the salt statue’s head and breathed in deep. The salt began to crack and crumble, drizzling and collapsing down on the ground. Once the statue was reduced to a large pile, the salt began to move. A few curious nightsnappers scurried over to inspect it - one tried to lick at the moving salt. Then, a claw emerged to snap at the tongue, and the nightsnappers retreated immediately. The salt pile began to collapse in on itself as swarms of small, round, white crabs all emerged with snapping clippers. Most of them entered the waterway and followed the stream deeper into the canyon.

[colour=lightblue]“These are saltcrabs. I figured since the waters here are already salty, and that this may not be the first statue of its kind we’ll see here, I made a creature that can sustain itself off of salt and seawater. Then it can be eaten and contribute to the cycle of life once more.”[/colour] She gave one of the crabs a curious look, picked it up and ran her finger down its back. She gave her finger a lick and frowned. [colour=lightblue]“... Well, edible given that you have a lot of water to filter out the salt taste…”[/colour]

"Very clever," Adrian nodded with respect, "but I meant the source of the problem; the Light that we broke. I mean it used to be very peaceful and now... This. It's completely different."

[colour=lightblue]“Oh, the Light’s what you meant.”[/colour] Gibbou put the crab down with an overt hint of embarrassment on her plum-coloured face. [colour=lightblue]“W-well… I could try to convince him if we got in touch, but… I dunno, it might not listen to a fellow goddess.”[/colour] She hummed. [colour=lightblue]“It could be more inclined to listen to the prayers of mortalkind - after all, that’s what we live to protect, right?”[/colour]

"Well we gotta try something... Right?"

[colour=lightblue]“Yeah!”[/colour] Gibbou agreed and jumped back up to the “sunlit” area. There, she did a roundhouse kick, whipping up a great deal of dust in the process. The kick blasted the dust forward to form a canvas-like cloud before them. In the span of a few seconds, Gibbou materialised an enormous brush from bits and pieces of the midnight making up her clothing and painted two humanoid shapes in black on the dust canvas. Once the figures were done, she let out a ‘woosh’-sound as she slapped the canvas away with a strike like a hurricane. The dust travelled all around the area, spawning more shapes as it went on. Around two hundred shapes made a small crowd before Gibbou and Adrian. Gibbou smirked and snapped her fingers. The black around the shapes went ‘poof!’ and the next second, two hundred humanoids, seemingly male and female, with skin like plums, grapes and blueberries, eyes like quartz and hair like midnight, stood blinking in wild confusion at what just happened.

"That's a LOT of berries," Adrian murmured in awe.

Gibbou gasped. [colour=lightblue]“They’re so beautiful! Eeeek!”[/colour] she squealed happily. The creatures screamed back and immediately tossed themselves behind whatever cover they could find. Gibbou jumped back at their reaction. [colour=lightblue]“Woah! Hey! No need to be scared! I’m not gonna hurt you.”[/colour]

"This time!" Adrian added with a mocking growl while nudging Gibbou and laughing. The excitement was replaced with curiosity, "but uh... Whatcha do? How is this going to help? What's the plan, Blue?"

[colour=lightblue]“Well, uh… Was thinking that they could petition this Joab-Balaam about, maybe, putting aside their wicked deeds and, y’know, return to being the Light?”[/colour] She gave a shrug. [colour=lightblue]“No, you’re right, it’s a terrible plan.”[/colour]

"I didn't say that," Adrian gave a reassuring smile, "It is worth a shot, after all The Light seemed to care deeply for all life before, maybe new life will be what it needs."

[colour=lightblue]“My thoughts exactly,”[/colour] Gibbou assured, her vigour reignited. Proudly, she strolled over towards the creatures, who were hunkering even tighter together behind their cover. She then knelt down next to the closest rock, where a group of five were covering themselves as if shelled from above. A few of them were crying, even. Gibbou gasped quietly and whispered to them, [colour=lightblue]“Hey, hey - it’s alright. Why don’t you come out, hmm? I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.”[/colour]

Slowly, but surely, the creatures eased up on the tension, looking up at Gibbou’s smiling face with eyes like the shining moon. The corner of Gibbou’s mouth twitched, but she choked to death any urge to celebrate her achievement of making these beautiful creatures. Gently, she led the group of five out in the open, and after a while, more peeked out from behind their rocks to follow. Sunset was approaching above, and already it was getting hard to see down in the canyon. Of course, this only served to calm the creatures, who already now seemed much more at ease with the world. Quiet mumblings arose within the crowd, followed by gasps as the creatures realised they could communicate. Gibbou chuckled proudly and clapped her hands to gain their attention. The creatures turned to her.

[colour=lightblue]“Okay, sorry to interrupt the lovely conversation, but I feel like I owe you all an apology! I created you in such a rush and didn’t give you the time to adjust to life before I interrupted you. I’m really sorry about that.”[/colour]

Mumblings once more bubbled through the crowd. “Who are you?” came a question from the back.

[colour=lightblue]“Why, I am Gibbou, goddess of the moon! Oraelia’s my sister and I am your maker.”[/colour] She sighed happily. [colour=lightblue]“Oh, you are all just so beautiful! Oh, I’m sorry, I know it’s inappropriate to say, but… Oh, I just can’t help it!”[/colour] She picked up a nearby child who was sucking its thumb and danced around with it as it screamed and cried in her arms. [colour=lightblue]“Beau-ti-ful, beau-ti-ful!”[/colour] The crowd stared in disbelief and the mother stood there with shaking hands and a quivering lip.

"And I'M Adrian," Adrian gave Gibbou a glance. Out of the corner of his mouth he whispered into her ear, "Blue, stay focused. Putting a God back together, remember."

[colour=lightblue]“Oh! Right!”[/colour] Gibbou put down the child, who ran screaming back to its mother. The whole crowd seemed to shrink away. Gibbou cleared her throat and put her smile back on. [colour=lightblue]“Alright, so… I have a mission for you all.”[/colour] The crowd further retracted. Gibbou blinked. [colour=lightblue]“Uhm… I, I need you help?”[/colour]

“Why should we help you?!” came the mother’s cry, backed up by a chorus of “yeahs!”

Gibbou stood dumbfounded. [colour=lightblue]“Be-... Because I asked? Hold on, is that not how this works?”[/colour]

“You frighten us, yell at us and then try to steal my baby! You are a monster!”

“Yeah, a monster!” the crowd echoed.

Gibbou found her nose feeling that familiar sting, and her eyes welled up with chalk-white tears again. [colour=lightblue]“I… I didn’t mean it! I just thought… You were all so sweet and, and, and… Oh, Adrian, I messed up again!”[/colour] She squatted down, facing away from the crowd, and began to sob.

"Hold my hat," Adrian said with a determined face. He swung the hat onto the curve of Gibbou's ear and leapt off her shoulder.

He landed with a poof of dust, that menacing pine needle in his hand. Standing between the lone Goddess and crowd of mortals he brandished the needle like a stabbing sword, "That wasn't very nice! You should all apologise to the poor lady. Shame!"

As he spoke, wisps of light began to snake in from the darkness and unseen crevices. The creatures all grew wary at the sight, their sensitive eyes easily picking up the creeping light. Careful whispers pittered and pattered between the many heads until one stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at Adrian: “Why should we?”

Adrian let the needle droop to the ground as his voice lost its stiffness, "I don't know, because you're being a real prick?" He winked at the point of his weapon.

The man blinked, then grit his teeth furiously. “Why, I never--... Come here, you little--!” He stomped towards the thumbling.

"Wait." A different elf suddenly piped up, her voice one of concern. She focused as if listening to something beyond quiet, a gentle horror behind her eyes. "Do not..." She concentrated hard, "...do not approach this thumbling. It has been decreed that all mortal life which harms this being shall be punished or destroyed." The horror didn't end as her voice picked up volume, "So says. The child of night will be brought to light; he will bring the end." Her words sped up, "He will begin again. Know him by the white of his eye and the purity of his soul. Know him by the way he sees new where there was old. Know him by the door he opens where no one can. Know him by the year of his birth, when sky rains with sand. He will begin again or forever will remain the end."

The crowd was shocked and there was an uncomfortable pause before the woman's voice boomed again. "First notice the line across the ground, then hear these next words and be bound."

A golden light suddenly carved a violent line between Adrian and the stomping man, causing them both to recoil. 

"It is in first decree, that no word shall be greater than Joab-Balaam's and thus Joab-Balaam's shall be first and final in all matters. The word now is a lesson." The woman was whimpering but her tongue kept spouting. 

Gibbou stood frozen. [colour=lightblue]“Wh-what the… Get away from her!”[/colour] She encased her fists in orbs as black as the night and glared all around in search of something tangible.

"Know this line," The woman pointed back at the line, "And know that on one side Joab-Balaam is your protector, your guardian." A light engulfed Adrian. "And to those who cross it and transgress Joab-Balaam, Joab-Balaam is your punishment. Know this line as dogma, and know not to transgress it. This is Joab-Balaam's first lesson."

A sudden howl of wind sounded and the woman fell silent. Her eyed scanned the crowd, suddenly bursting into tears, "I see so much..." She babbled. 

The crowd surrounded her, then parted as Gibbou shoved herself over to her. In her hand, she held a clay cup filled with some chalky water. She knelt down and offered it to the woman. [colour=lightblue]“H-here… It’ll calm you down.”[/colour]

“What are you giving her?” a nearby man asked suspiciously.
8l
[colour=lightblue]“Don’t worry - it won’t harm her. In fact, I hope it’ll help her calm down a bit.”[/colour] She paused. [colour=lightblue]“Actually, how about you all have a drink, hmm?”[/colour] She thumbed over her shoulder at a small clay well that had formed behind them in a spot that seemed to align perfectly with the trajectory of the moon above. The well seemed to slowly fill with more of the chalky water as the moon’s beams washed over it. Gibbou took a sip of the drink herself as to show the crowd it was harmless. [colour=lightblue]“I call it respirit. It concentrates the peace of the moon’s passing into a drink. Go on - tastes like blueberries.”[/colour]

Adrian hopped over (after carefully circumventing the line), his presence causing a few of the elves to scatter from his path. He climbed up to Gibbou's shoulder as the elven woman drank and snagged his hat. 

"Sorry about the commotion," He discretely whispered into Gibbou's ear. 

[colour=lightblue]“Don’t worry about it… I hate to say it, but your commotion got their mind off of being angry at me,”[/colour] she whispered back. [colour=lightblue]“Well, I suppose we now know what the Joab-Balaam is now… And knowing makes me even less confident that we can bring the Light back as it was.”[/colour] Gibbou sat down properly and let the woman rest her fatigued body against her chest, gently caressing her creation. [colour=lightblue]“And now, well, we have to take care of these.”[/colour]

"We have to fix the Light though," Adrian sat down, clearing a spot of her hair, "We caused this." 

[colour=lightblue]“Sure, but it won’t change overnight, I think.”[/colour] Gibbou materialised a cup and offered it to a bypassing girl. It was now late in the evening and the sun had set. The only visible parts of the creatures now were the sheen of their eyes - the rest was neatly camouflaged in the darkness. Gibbou smiled at them all with the same glitter in her own eyes and waved over someone else to care take of the woman on her lap. Once a substitute had been found, she slowly rose up and gave her head a scratch, making sure not to flick Adrian away. [colour=lightblue]“I may need some time to think about a solution. I think we’ll head to my home and--...”[/colour] She paused, her voice shifting towards a somber alto. [colour=lightblue]“... Actually, I don’t think I can bring you there. It’s apparently cold and airless up there.”[/colour] She fished out some houllin berries from her pocket and began distributing them around to the creatures, some having already gone to scavenge for food and look for shelter. [colour=lightblue]“Could I entrust you to watch over these people while I’m gone?”[/colour]

"Oh," Adrian's voice sounded disappointed, "Yeah I can do that for ya, Blue." He patted her shoulder, "Guess I'm pretty safe anyways, whether I like it or not."

[colour=lightblue]"Yeah,"[/colour] she sighed and handed off the last of her berries to a small family of four. [colour=lightblue]"By the way, I think I will have these people be known as Night Elves."[/colour] 

"Children of the night for sure," Adrian attempted to make light of it all. Gibbou smiled

[colour=lightblue]"I'll be back before you know it."[/colour] She did some squats before blasting off up towards the sky, leaving Adrian in the middle of a night elven crowd. The elves were staring in bafflement at the goddess and then down at Adrian. 

"Ah boo!" Adrian smiled, and a few elves recoiled. He shook his head, "We have a lot to work on."

[hider=Sammaree]
Gibbou and Adrian jump over to Toasty’s islands (thinking the topmost one) and land in a dark spot in the canyons. Seeing as it’s actually so dark down there that nothing grows, the two of them mistakenly believe the canyons are barren. As such, Gibbou makes the nightsnappers to liven up the place. A landshark attacks them right thereafter, but is put to sleep by the nightsnappers as per their trait. Gibbou and Adrian then hop out of the dark hole to find that life’s actually teeming in the canyons. Adrian points out that mushrooms are missing, though, and they crawl into a humid cave to make mushrooms. While there, Adrian says he doesn’t blame Gibbou and admits that he may have been partially responsible for the loss of the Light back in the thumbling home, as he traded the peace for a curse upon the askeladd trolls. Gibbou is shocked and Adrian explains that the being who talked to him is known as Joab-Balaam. Gibbou asks if he wished for anything else to get hurt, and the pair then find that the landshark from earlier that attacked them has been turned into a pillar of salt. Adrian spots some light moving into the wall and Gibbou blasts a deep tunnel into the mountain - however, they find nothing. Adrian asks if they can fix this and Gibbou then makes salt crabs as she thinks this won’t be the first pillar of salt on this continent and that it’s important that there’s no loss of nutrients in the system.

However, it turns out that Adrian meant how to fix the light, and Gibbou proposes making mortals to petition it and then makes Night Elves. However, she thinks the night elves are so beautiful that she scares them away. Then Adrian tries to lecture them when they subsequently chastise Gibbou for her attitude. An elf answers the challenge. However, among the crowd, a prophet of Joab-Balaam is temporarily chosen as their voice, and she warns that no one may touch Adrian lest be punished. This turns the elves off of attacking him. The prophet then warns of the crowd that Joab-Balaam is a protector to those who follow his dogma and an executor to everyone else. Then the prophet comes to her senses and is offered some soothing drink from the Moonwell, which Gibbou made then and there. Gibbou then tells Adrian he’s responsible for watching over the elves and that she has to fly to the moon to think about a solution. She then soars off.
[/hider]

[hider=MP Summary]
Gibbou start: 4MP/5DP

1DP, discounted to 0 - Make the Nightsnappers, a small species of yellow-striped purple gecko with an incredibly powerful sleeping toxin in their bite. This allows them to take down much, much bigger prey than they otherwise would be able to. Depending on the size and venom resistances of the prey, the sleeping agent can last anywhere from a few hours up to several days. 

1MP - Make the saltcrabs, a small, white, amphibious crab species that sustains itself off of salt and seawater. They can then be eaten, provided the eater has some water to filter out the salty taste.

2DP: Make Night Elves, a sapient race. Night Elves are nightwalkers, meaning they sleep during the day and work during the night. They have excellent night vision, but rely mostly on their magnificent hearing and keen sense of smell to move around. They are also easily sunburned.

1DP: Make the Moonwell, a holy site with the power of Waters of Respite I. Like the Lake of Radiance heals physical wounds, the Moonwell soothes mental ones, helping those suffering from trauma, sleeplessness or other diseases of the mind calm down and take their mind off their burdens. The Moonwell is only active during the night, and its contents evaporate during the day. It also fills faster or slower depending on the phases of the moon, maximum when it’s full and minimum when it’s new. (1/5 DP spent to unlock Respite port.)

Gibbou end: 3MP/2DP

Joab-Balaam: 0MP 5DP

0 spent on punishing the land shark

Joab-Balaam end: 0MP/5DP
[/hider]