[center][color=a2d39c][h1]Phelenia[/h1][/color]

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[color=9e0b0f][h1]Tuku Llantu[/h1][/color][/center]

A green otter was gently floating in the middle of the Bay of Zelios. Above Phelenia could see the Palace of her father drifting across the sky. But its light was dimmed so it almost looked like a moon. Though a vastly less scarred one. She wondered who had made the darkness surrounding the planet. Though only around the equator. Did they hate her father? Or was there another reason? Questions to ask later.

In the water she was surrounded by the song of life. Glowing plankton clung to the sides of her fur. Every time she moved even an inch, the rippling water would make the rest of the plankton alert. Causing ripples of bioluminescent light to travel with the elsewise near invisible ripple of water.

She felt peaceful now. Life had been seeded into the water. Across the whole planet there would be fishes, sharks, lobsters, shrimps, octopuses and other aquatic fauna. As above, so below. The world was now teeming with life. And she was the queen of it all. Of the tallest trees and the deepest, blind fishes.

There was the sound of something skipping across the water, something small, a little shell? It would skip right over the goddess merely inches from her snout, before arching back towards the water and vanishing. Another little thing would come zapping across the water, this time a little bit of gravel, almost miss the goddess and vanish away. The third object to be launched was a small pine nut, once again arriving in small arches before making a bigger one just above the goddess. If the first was weird, the third of these small objects left no doubt that someone, or something, had been launching them at her.

Phelenia frowned. What was throwing things at her? Perhaps a chimp that saw her? Or something else that one of her brothers or sisters had made. None the less her curiosity was peaked. Still in her otter form she started to swim towards the shore that the glowing plankton marked so beautifully.

It would take some time to actually reach the shore, although it was visible in the horizon, Phelenia had been previously in the open sea. The shores were empty of any living being however, even the buzzing shining insects that seemed to so often lurk everywhere in the pale forests under the shadow ring were not fluttering by nor chirping their songs. Among the expanse of marble white sands however, there was a pile of small objects, much like the ones thrown against her, some of it stood out for being from other areas, clearly visible from how the shells and nuts had not been adapted to the dampened light.

A bit further deeper into the beach there was a small trail of such items leading to one of the trees with colorful leaves already inland, at the border of the forest, the pale bark of the tree had been marked with a red pigment, which went up until it led to a juicy looking fruit, bound by a small vine rope against the tree trunk. 

The goddess had no idea what was happening. The vine rope was clearly made by something. No such thing existed in the natural world. Phelenia transformed into a more terrestrially fitting form. That of a large, black cat with stripes of green on her back. The eyes were much more fit to see through the dark. Though she didn’t spot anything immediately. She kept herself low as she approached the fruit to sniff off any smell of it, so she could track whatever had bound the fruit there in the first place.

Not soon after she approached, the flimsy hope that was barely held together would give away, the fruit for its part had cuts in it only closed by the binding, with those weakening a splash of bioluminescent fruit juice would fall right into the goddess’ face, causing someone to laugh at the scene hiding quite farther from the scene than their pride as a sneaky hunter would allow them to admit.

[color=9e0b0f]Greetings.[/color] the masked figure would tell, now actually approaching. [color=9e0b0f]I am sorry sister. I saw you coming to the shore and felt the need to play around.[/color] they bowed lightly. [color=9e0b0f]I will say however the shining coat of orange pigment does look quite stunning on your face, almost makes me want to tell the local wildlife to dip themselves in these shining pigments more often, albeit I do not think that would help their survivability.[/color]

Phelenia, for her part, didn’t find it that funny. [color=a2d39c]“A joker.”[/color] She sighed still in her cat form. How uninteresting. And one that seemingly reveled in disrupting the natural flow of life and death considering the comment he made. Perhaps he was even the one that made those strange rodents up north built those disgusting things. [color=a2d39c]“I hope you’re here with a purpose.”[/color] She said as she sat down. Showing no real desire to even approach him.

[color=9e0b0f]”A grump.”[/color] The deity answered, continuing to approach Phelenia, until at an acceptable distance. [color=9e0b0f]”And do I need a purpose to be here? This beach does not seem to be sacred ground to any god and the crabs and fireflies that live here did not forbid my entrance. I was merely trying to see if I could hit these small rocks all the way across the bay, I made sure to aim it in a way that they would miss you while you swam, I am sorry I couldn’t increase the safe space between the shots and you, it would cost too much momentum from them and I could not see enough waves to do such thing.”[/color] they not so humbly bragged”.

[color=9e0b0f]”But where are my manners? I am Tuku Llantu, deity of the hunt, curator who shaped this continent’s fauna and flora.”[/color]

The goddess wasn’t at all impressed by his tossing. Though the work he had done on the continent did earn him a little praise: [color=a2d39c]“I admire your work, Tuku Llantu. This land, all of it, is beautiful. However, you yourself are clearly a liar.”[/color] Phelenia added dryly. [color=a2d39c]“Or am I supposed to believe that fruit was put up on its own? No. No, you were here to play a trick on me and laugh.”[/color] But she was in no mood for tricks or laughing. The pause of her work had been cut short. Now she’d have to return to her duty of guiding and beautifying the world.

[color=a2d39c]“But if you have no purpose other than playing tricks then I must bid you farewell.”[/color] With that she got up, turned around and headed back towards the marked shore.

The deity’s expression showed some shock beneath the expressionless mask for a moment before some relief as Phelenia detected the harmless one among the two lies told. Ignoring the fact she had announced her leave, the god continued speaking casually. [color=9e0b0f]”Thank you sister, your work is also very venerable. We really need to appreciate them in this early state of untouched natural beauty, after all, soon enough, in a few millenniums or so, so much of it will have been altered by either disaster or the hands of the more intelligent creatures who appear at faster and faster rates.[/color] they baited with each word.

It stopped Phelenia dead in her tracks though. At first she reveled in the compliments for her work. Yeah! She had made this world more beautiful than before. Finally someone recognized that. His later comments struck a cord though. The Goddess of Life had already encountered sinner-beasts. How long until more of their kind would be made by whatever sibling?

She turned around again to face Tuku.[color=a2d39c] “Disaster is only part of nature. Change - even in the scale of the world - is inevitable.”[/color] She stated. Animals would have to adapt to their circumstances. Of course, some of them would die. But death was the price of life. Even if all other things remained equal. [color=a2d39c]“As for the hand of so-called intelligence, I will make sure that will not come to pass. Even if I have to wage a war upon it.”[/color] In a way she was already at war with the sinner-beasts. And for a moment she wondered if they had already renounced their sinful paths or if they needed a harder lesson.

[color=a2d39c]“So what about you, Tuku of the Hunt? Will you side with prey or predator?”[/color]

The masked deity rubbed the side of their mask as if that was their actual face. [color=9e0b0f]”Hmm. Hierarchy wise I would say Predator but it's notably difficult to have a hunt without both sides, no?”[/color] they leaned back slightly. [color=9e0b0f]”And the line between both can be quite thin, the dragonfly is at times a predator to other insects but may find itself a prey to frogs, which in turn may be eaten by oh so many creatures.”[/color]

[color=9e0b0f]”But anyway, I will not stand here talking about things you already know. You must be absurdly busy if you are to eradicate intelligent life, as it spreads so quickly, north, south, beneath the land and the seas itself and I am sure soon enough in the skies and the void as well. Not to count the oh so many allies they have, for our siblings who could not hear the voices of nature these mortals are quite a marvel, beings who are able to worship them, honour them, plead for help when they are being quickly murdered by savage beasts. We may be diverse but we are all children of our father’s exploded bowels, and much like our father, we are attracted to praise and reverence like moths to a flame.”[/color]

The god shook their head. [color=9e0b0f]”I cannot quite say I have the same courage as you have, to go out and claim all of the lands and the oceans as yours and pick a fight with, hmm. One, two, three…”[/color] they counted on their hand [color=9e0b0f]”Eight? Nine? Of our siblings. Quite a lot. Not counting the ones that are always on the offensive for matters outside of the fight between natural and mortalking. Oh and the ones that pick up a fight by surprise. Like Yesaris! Have you seen those parasites they made just to mess with the food chain? Nasty creatures, surely not of their own design, but convinced to wage war on nature by a sibling.[/color]

Never in her yet short life did Phelenia feel this much of a need to kill someone, while at the same time agreeing with almost every word they spoke. She knew, of course, that she would have opposition. She didn’t anticipate so many to turn against her though. Alas, she would fight the just fight. Even if the numbers were daunting.

[color=a2d39c]“What is it you want, Tuku Llantu? Are  you here to mock me? Persuade me away from my war?”[/color]

[color=9e0b0f]”Nay. It would be bad manners to intrude myself upon your work and realm. Especially a god as reliant on your realm as I am, after all, it would not be of my wish to ever see you lose this war, to have nature become an orphan or a puppet of an imprisoned god.[/color] the god landed their staff upon the sand and drew a small globe, starting to make the shape of continents in it, and then move those colorful foreign shells to spots within it.

[color=9e0b0f]”What I really desired is to share with you some of my work, know that in this continent you will always be welcome, especially here.[/color] they pointed to the spot where the core of the wildlands were, their homestead. [color=9e0b0f]”The eternal wildlands, where the tools and craft of the intelligent species are of little to no use due to an enchantment of my own.”[/color] they then traced the line about, crossing oceans and continents. [color=9e0b0f]”Now, see how these lines connect this spot? This is the flow of energy within this world, areas where the more wild and untamed forces congregate. We have varying beliefs on whether we the wild god can claim the world, but these spots, I believe, would be better off in mine or your care.”[/color]

They then stepped back. [color=9e0b0f]”Of course, we are only one entity, powerful but limited in numbers. It is in these times I think we should look upon the bees and ants for inspiration. Gather allies, or create them, more hands to do more work. Of course… the ones closest to satisfying the needs of a god would be the intelligent species of this world. You know, I know you dislike them, but they are a diverse sort, many with many different ideas, I found some who were willing to give away their natural greed to follow my rules, I am sure there are some that would too would agree you are right, their kinsmen are sinners, albeit some might be reluctant, after all, their intelligence is their advantage, to ask them to unconditionally give up their ways is to ask a fish not to swim or a cheetah to take it slowly, as in, they will quickly die. Well, that is none of my business anyway. Nevertheless, I think that is what I wanted to communicate.”[/color]

The goddess wouldn’t admit it but the mere mention of her imprisonment conjured an unholy fear in her. They wouldn’t dare, right? They wouldn’t dare chain her up and abuse her creation for their own goals. Galbar was meant to be beautiful. For the first time Phelenia truly, fully, feared for her own existence. Maybe it was time to think about protection.

With that in mind she kept quiet as Tuku told his story. Phelenia - in her cat form - remained utterly expressionless as the hunt god talked. The gathering of wild forces caught her attention though. If she could wield those forces she’d have a potent weapon. No, not a weapon. Just an insurance that none would be foolish enough to try and capture her.Of course that meant laying claim to several of those points.

And how would she do this? It would seem like the good Tuku Llantu had it all figured out already. Which made Phelenia suspicious. Would she be acting out of her own interest or dancing to the tune of the hunter-god? Tuku would have her use the curse of intelligence. The goddess, for her part, was not convinced. After all that was exactly what laid at the root of the problem. At the same time though, she could hardly disagree with the hunter that they wouldn’t make useful servants. In times of war some rules had to be broken.

[color=a2d39c]“Some subtlety would suit you well, Tuku Llantu. You seem to have thought out an entire plan and would want me to play a pawn in it.”[/color] She noted dryly. Still, it was a suspiciously good plan. One grand enough in scale and magnitude. [color=a2d39c]“It might just work though.”[/color] Phelenia’s form shifted again. She turned into a familiar sight. That of a giant eagle. With the same green tipped wings she had back in the Giant Lands. [color=a2d39c]“I’ll head for the other continent to find these spots of power and make sure they remain in the right hands.”[/color] And with that she flew off towards the horizon with godlike speed.

[hider=Summary]Phelenia is enjoying the Bay of Zelios when she is disturbed by something throwing small projectiles at her. She goes ashore to check out what is happening and only encounters the curious sight of a fruit tied to a tree. When she gets too close, the fruit splashes its bright juices on her face.

Much to the enjoyment of Tuku Llantu. Phelenia is not really amused and calls him out on his trick. He claims he has no specific purpose here. Something the goddess of plants doesn’t believe. Tuku comes clean, somewhat, and tells Phelenia against how many of their siblings she is standing against in her war against civilization.

She asks where Tuku stands and he somewhat sides with Phelenia. He shows her the leylines running through the world and explains how sapient servants should be used to measure their ownership. Phelenia, feeling as if she is manipulated, does agree and flies off.[/hider]

[hider=Vigor]
Phelenia start: 11 Vigor
- 8 vigor: Offscreen seed the entire world’s water with natural, mundane life
Phelenia end: 3 Vigor

Tuku Llantu starts with 0
Ends with 0
[/hider]