[centre][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 and Boris[/h2] [/centre] [hr] With a relieved sigh, Gibbou soared lethargically in a zig-zagging pattern, trying to woman herself up for her encounter with the boar. She wasn’t looking forward to it at all, but if anything could be used for self-defense, it would be stone - that was a truth of reality. She would lay a plan - sneak in, capture the pig’s consent and be halfway across the planet before the boar got wise, and--... Wait, how would that even work? Okay, okay - she’d go in, politely say hi to the boar and just ask, like she’d done every other time so far, and… Oh, but what if the boar got difficult again? How long had it even been since they saw each other? A week? A year? Millennia? No, wait, it couldn’t be millennia - then Adrian would’ve already died long ago, and that hadn’t happened yet. Right? A pang of anxiety slammed into Gibbou like an oncoming meteorite and she wondered for a moment whether she should rocket back to Mydia to check up on him. It would only take her a few minutes and--... No! No, no, no, she couldn’t have been away for that long. Come on, Gibbou - focus! She just had to obtain the final blessing on her artifact - then, she could return home and offer one of the night elves the first drink. Although, she would then have to take it back to Toraan… And then take it over to Kubrajzar. Wow, it was such a hassle to move this thing! How would mortals even do it?! She pondered this thoroughly as she approached the tallest peaks of the World Anchor. She landed on the highest zenith, completely ignoring a certain nearby punctured stone with a sword stabbed through it. She sat down on a similar, yet much healthier stone and pondered the solutions some more. Unbeknownst to Gibbou, the boar kilometers away, chuffed in the crisp fallen leaves of the subalpine. For hours he sought the perfect spot to spoil himself upon. And for hours he rustled the damp undergrowth in his self-pleasure. He deserved the moment of respite. Creating had drained him, and the Lifeblood seemed to need a break itself. What better to do then to disturb the rest of fallen leaves with his nose and break them apart with his mighty hooves and back. Amidst his activity, the presence of another caught his attention. He froze. He recognized this scent. The moon girl. The one her rump upon his former woman. The boar snorted, blowing leaves every which way. What could she possibly want? Maybe a divine had come through these parts, doing every sort of weird thing. But this one in particular peaked his interest. Not so much as to what she could be doing, but it gave him a chance to reconcile…”past misdeeds”. And so the boar sunk into the earth, crashing his hooves against rock and anhailiating it until he reached the peak of the World Mountain. Earth shifted and Boris poked his head out of his hole, ignoring the sword and gazing at the god. [color=Saddlebrown]”Hello you.”[/color] Gibbou jumped with a [colour=lightblue]‘waaah!’[/colour] and fell backwards off her rock, kicking her legs all around as she struggled to get back up from the snow. It took a few good seconds before she regained her posture and redeposited herself upon the rock. There, she attempted to assume a majestic, formal pose with a raised chin and a partially squinted look, almost as if she was looking down at him. [colour=lightblue]“Hello, mister Boris,”[/colour] she said curtly. She then looked around, twisting her neck an unbalanced angle further right than left, challenging the seriousness of her composure. [colour=lightblue]“Nice place.”[/colour] The boar snorted. [color=Saddlebrown]”Thank you. What brings you here? I hope you brought snacks.”[/color] Boris intoned curtly. [colour=lightblue]“Oh, uh, yeah, hang on…”[/colour] With the snap of her fingers, Gibbou conjured forth a tray of blueberry muffins. She willed the snow between them to pack itself into a table, pulled her stone seat over and leaned her elbows on the table, propping her chin on her two hands. She hardened her squint at the pig and voiced with a mouth hidden behind intertwined fingers, [colour=lightblue]“The muffins are fresh. Baked them just now. Go on… Have a taste.”[/colour] She punctuated her sentence with a raised brow. Delighted, Boris dug himself out of his hole and plopped his rump in the cold snow, his body large enough to reach the table. Clumsily, he craned his neck to take a muffin into his gullet and chew. Blueberries exploded in his mouth and Boris’ eyes widened. [color=Saddlebrown]”Ohhhhhhhrrrr…how did you know I loved blueberries!?”[/color] he bleated between mouthfuls. [colour=lightblue]“Call it… Intuition,”[/colour] Gibbou replied, her right eye squinting to the point where it was almost closed. Her voice put on a certain odd wheeze and she took a muffin for herself, biting into it with cold, calculating snaps. She drew a breath through the teeth and clicked her tongue. [colour=lightblue]“Listen, I’ll be straight wit’ch’yu, mister Boris - I’ve a lil’ proposal for ya.”[/colour] [color=Saddlebrown]”Mmmhmmmm.”[/color] he hummed, swallowing another muffin. She extracted the horn and put it discreetly on the table, looking over her shoulders as if someone who definitely wasn’t there was watching them. “[colour=lightblue]This is the ‘package’ - it needs a blessing from the mountains. You in?”[/colour] Saucers of white fire became rivers as the Boar’s eyes narrowed.The thing reeked of divinity. [color=Saddlebrown]”You ought to explain.”[/color] [colour=lightblue]“Sure, I owe you that much, I can see that.”[/colour] The stone Gibbou was sitting on formed a chair-like back which she leaned against and crossed one leg with the other. [colour=lightblue]“This is [i]Hir[/i], the druid maker. It’s a tool me and my sister made to help mortality protect themselves. Using it, mortals can summon miracles in our names to do wonders so we won’t have to. Of course, their power is dependent on our willingness to help them - this is why these ‘druids’, as I call them, will piously work to show they are worthy of this help. I used the example of taking care of groves for Mister Tree, but for mountains, uh… Stop exploitative quarries, I suppose?”[/colour] If the mountainsmith could laugh, it would sound sort of like a boulder crushing a howling monkey. Such was the sound the boar made. [color=Saddlebrown]”In return for my blessings, thinking-things will love and protect my crafts? A fair trade.”[/color] the boar affirmed. [colour=lightblue]“I knew you’d see it my way, mister Boris.”[/colour] Seeing as the sun was coming up, Gibbou snapped into reality a pair of disks fashioned from black glass, held together by strings of metal. She deposited the central metal string, which was slightly curved, over her nose, and wrapped the others behind her ears. [colour=lightblue]“Please, if you would offer it its blessing,”[/colour] she said and gestured at [i]Hir[/i]. The boar nodded, and summoned from the depths of the earth a great energy. The mountain quaked, and the foundations of Galbar twisted under the weight of the mountainsmith’s power. And granting himself the power of the world, the realm of Actuality folded upon itself, and from the depths of his throat he hacked and coughed and spit a loogie the size of a pea upon the horn. And all stilled. [color=Saddlebrown]”Be sure to rub it in now.”[/color] A frown formed behind the glasses. [colour=lightblue]“Do, do I have to? Caaa-, can’t you do it?”[/colour] Boris tilted his head. [color=Saddlebrown]”Hooves.”[/color] he said flatly. There came a groan, followed by surly mutters as the moon goddess flexed every muscle in her face and started rubbing the ‘blessing’ all over the horn, releasing quiet squeals of displeasure every now and then. The boar nodded. It was done. [color=Saddlebrown]”The blessing of the mountain is yours.”[/color] In the hands of a god the small increase in weight would go unnoticed, but the spirit of the mountain had been imbued in the artifact. Gibbou washed her hands thoroughly with the ice cold snow, sobbing dryly a “boo-hoo” to show that she felt sorry for herself. She took the horn, tied it to her belt and eyed Boris where he sat. [colour=lightblue]“Know that this only accounts for -half- an apology for what you did to my moon!”[/colour] she scolded with the point of a finger. [colour=lightblue]“I won’t forgive you that easily!”[/colour] [color=Saddlebrown]”Hath no mercy? She has long forgiven me. You need plenty of healing time.”[/color] Boris surmised. She and Moon were nothing alike honestly. [colour=lightblue]“Has not! She, she would’ve told me if she had!”[/colour] She looked up at the moon, which was retreating away from the scene over the horizon. [colour=lightblue]“You would, wouldn’t you?!”[/colour] The moon gave no answer and dipped into hiding behind Galbar. Gibbou was stunned. [colour=lightblue]“You, you cheater!”[/colour] A gaze followed the moon. [color=Saddlebrown]”O Moon, O Moon, fair and sweet and soft like milk, forgive your keeper. She doesn’t mean it.”[/color] Gibbou sucked in a breath through the nose and pointed at the boar once more. [colour=lightblue]“This isn’t over, mister Boris! I, I’ll be back - and we’ll settle this score once and for all!”[/colour] With that, she squatted down and jumped, soaring westwards with great speed to outrun the sunrise. [color=Saddlebrown]”Farewell.”[/color] the boar intoned. Noticing a untouched muffin left over, Boris dove and snapped the thing into his gullet. Divine. [hider=Sum-Sum] Gibbou boutta grab that last blessing, then suddenly starts wondering how long she’s been gone from Adrian and the rest. Generations? Anxiety overtakes her, but she quickly remembers her mission again and flies to the Anchor top. There, ignoring the sword in the background, she waits for pig. Pig appears. They eat blueberry muffins and Pig spits on the horn to bless it, making Gibbou rub the spit all over it. Gib then goes from mobster to tsundere and I don’t even know what we were writing anymore. The end. [/hider] [hider=MP-sum] Nothin’ here, fam. [/hider]