[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/hWBpf7r/cooltext381472891944913.png[/img][/center] [hr] Yaerna was bored. It wasn’t that she didn’t have things to do; the black sludge covering the landscape after her and Algrim’s battle with the extra-dimensional abomination still needed cleaning up, the realm could use a real push towards proper growth, she could create any number of species to seed new life and a full ecosystem. Furthermore, she needed to learn the ins and outs of her new perch at the top of the Pillar of Vines, the full maze of twisting vines that each led to their own outlooks and artificial branches. There was a lot of exploration and planning and hard work to do. Well, hard for a mortal, but it’d require some effort at least. The problem then, was that the restless flutter in her arms and legs didn’t make her jump at any of those. They all sounded boring. Like work. Like something that needed figuring out and adjusting and fine-tuning. No, the mere thought of it made her loathe the idea of getting to work fixing the world. It went against her nature, or at least her fickle interest in having fun. The world should sort itself out, she had planted vines and seeds and roots, and they were spreading. She just had to wait for them to spread and for the forest to grow. That couldn’t take more than two-three decades. Four, maybe? Then it’d spread over the next.. several centuries.. and animals would migrate, eventually, when it was liveable and sustainable. Probably only a few dozen decades… Yaerna groaned with frustration, kicking the air as she dangled her legs off of the side of the massive tree. Waiting sucked. Doing these things sucked. She wanted to see the fruits of labour now. Preferably without having to work for it. She sighed, leaning back to cast a forlorn gaze across the landscape. Once more, something shone in the north, stealing her vision towards the horizon. At once, Yaerna remembered her pledge to explore the world beyond her own bleak landscape, and drew a long breath. She waited for someone to bring up how she should probably finish what she was doing before heading off to see new sights, but since she was alone there was no one to offer such rational insight. Content with her freshly made choice to abandon Algrim’s specially constructed pillar, she pushed off from the massive ‘tree’ and into free-fall. Effortlessly her body shifted to that of a large bird of prey, and she flew north without a thought to her prior engagements. From the air, such a journey took no more than a handful of hours, a pointless measurement for an immortal being, especially given her predilection for observing new things. Soon enough, the goddess touched down in a crystalline land where large gems and beautiful yet imposing crystals jutting out of the ground in incomprehensible patterns. Yaerna turned herself back to her humanoid form and walked the shining landscape for long enough to lose track of time, watching the strange and captivating crystals in their endlessly varied and chaotic patterns. It was so foreign to anything she had experienced before that it took her breath away, yet filled her with wonder. Not only that, but the land was unmarred by the folly of builders and homesteaders - the sign of a truly great place. When the wanderlust again began to grow too great in the goddess again, she resolved to bless this empty land with a touch of life. She did not know or care whether sentient life could ever manage to make such a curious place their home, but it remained a wild place no matter how inhospitable. As such, Yaerna scooped up a selection of small crystals, dirt and salt. Consumed by the fickle urge to create, she shaped a set of crystals into small canines with long, crystalline tails and a reflective fur that would pick up salt and gem alike. She threw clusters of salt into the air and they took the shape of long eels that navigated the mystical properties thick in the air from the crystals to remain afloat. She made broad-pawed big cats, with thick claws to leap and burrow and a crystalline body that shifted colour to suit the landscape. Finally, she made scuttling crystalline shrimp that fed off of the salt and gemstones, and in turn would be hunted by others. Satisfied with her first foray into creating something entirely fresh, the Queen of Thorns once more turned into a bird of prey and abandoned her creations to see more of the world. She flew east, eager to take in the expressions of the world; she was not disappointed. It turned out much of the shard was already a marvel of creations, with spreading life and wonder taking root. She spied many a creature, countless new plants, and even some things that she made a mental note to hunt in the future. All in all, Yaerna took it upon herself to fly and explore, and let such a fulfilment of her curiosity take as much time as it required. Eventually, on the far eastern side of the shard, she found herself hovering over a bleak patch of land amidst a green on each side (and red on one). When she lowered herself to the ground, she found it inhabited mainly by the resistant weed that seemed to be infecting most of the world, ripping up soil and digging itself into the ground, but even that seemed to struggle here, in a forgotten corner of the new world. Yaerna took it upon herself to adopt this struggling bit of land, deciding on her own authority that it needed her creative help and passion. Inspired by all that she had seen, and her own experience as ruler of the wilds, she planned a future for a place for the first time. Her hands rose as she gripped the cordgrass with her mind, and all around her the plant began to grow. She shaped it into massive vines and liana, the smallest of which was as thick as her arm and coiled far away in a chaotic mingle with its kin. The largest vines grew firm and hard as tree-trunks, as they erratically lifted and snaked over the landscape at such a size that a man would be able to walk on them. It was a literal jumble of vines, liana and underbrush, with no seeming rhyme or reason to a lesser creature, beyond the natural difficulties it would present for wildlife. Almost satisfied, Yaerna opened her fist quickly, and all at once the woodland grew spikes, thorns and prickly blades, all sized appropriate to their placement. The thorns on the largest of trunks were almost as big as Yaerna, the smallest no larger than a needle. Everything had them, though, from the smallest fruit plant to the largest walkable vine. They were sharp as well, specifically made to grievously harm the unprepared and the reckless. Content with this dangerous landscape, Yaerna filled it with animals. Fruit bats, climbing marsupials, snakes, mammals that scurried between the large thorns to hunt the other creatures. The only rule she followed was that all the wildlife was smaller than the largest blade of a plant. These creatures navigated the deadly wood unhindered by the large thorns, and those foolish enough to injure themselves on the smaller would be easy prey for others. Content with her creation, Yaerna walked her new landscape for a time to watch her wildlife adapt to the new setting, a ‘forest’ she would come to call the Razorwood. She caught her cloak on thorns numerous times, adding to the tattered rips in her clothes. Eventually deciding the landscape was more or less perfect as it was, she once more turned towards the sky. She did not know how long she had been away from the west, but maybe it was time to go back. The dread she felt about fixing the place up did not creep up on her this time. She had had her fun. It was time to get to work. [hr] [hider=Summary] Yaerna struggles with her self-assigned duties of restoring the lands, and runs away to explore the creations of others. She finds Wyn’s crystal biome and puts animals in it because why not. She then flies across the landscape to look at all the cool biomes. Finding an untouched patch between other places in the east, she creates a new place of her own; the Razorwood: a forest made of thick vines and liana, all covered in prickly and sharp blade-like thorns large enough to impale someone. Satisfied, she flies back towards her pillar, reinvigorated to work on the land. [/hider]