[Hey Avaya?]
"Yeah?"
[What do Elves worship?]
"...well... do you mean god or deity?"
'...?'
[Whats the difference?]
"Well a god is a bring elevated by worship to rule a concept and law of the world. A deity is a master of something intrinsic to the laws."
[...the fuck?]
"The six deities rule the elements of magic; gods use lower concepts to survive off worship."
[Do the elves worship either?]
"I believe the legends and rumors say the elves worship a Mother Tree of unimaginable size, but it's just a god of nature and nurturing."
I fell into thought.
'So if they have a new type of magic... their god has ascended to become a deity? Can that happen? If I had to guess, deities are very much an unknown to most mortals, it seems like they're known of and acknowledged, yet god's and spirits are what people turn to...'
[Why do people need god's if we already have Deities?]
Avaya looked at me with a look of absolute confusion before laughing as she realized what my misunderstanding was.
"No no no, god's and deities are in no way the same thing. God's can grant favors, speak to their followers, etc."
[...uh. Can deities... not?]
"A deity is not so much a thing itself and more like the primal source of that element, like the deity of fire is not a being who rules over fire, but rather IS fire itself."
[So Deities are more forces of the natural order while god's are actual beings who rose to rule concepts created under that natural order?]
Avaya nodded. "That's a good way to put it."
'So the elven god is trying to rise to become a deity, and basically succeeded already too. Does it still have consciousness, or did it give that up to become a deity?'
I thought back on the instability of the wood particle. 'Maybe that's because the new deity has yet to give up its ego?'[1]
But now this begs the question.
What the actual bloody hell should I do about this?
'Can I vote nothing?'
'No, we're already involved in this shit.'
'Awww...'
I swear I'm not going insane from talking to myself too much.
I guess I'm just super curious as to how a god managed to create a new element, and deify?
I mean, sure, their GODS, but why should that-
'Whoah what the fuck?!'
When did I start thinking along the lines that I should be capable of whatever a god can do?
Am I letting Kire and Bast get to me, or is this like... draconic arrogance?
I'm very unclear.
But that ego and arrogance...
Need to be squashed.
If I start thinking of myself as omnipotent, I'm going to fucking die... again.
I like being alive! So... I'd rather not die.
"Okay but why are you asking all this?"
[Just curious about the elves and why they hold themselves so highly.]
Avaya rolled her eyes. 'You expect me to believe that bullshit?'
"Fine, don't tell me."
[...Avaya how old are you?]
"Hmm... 124 years I think the two-legs would say? I don't keep count usually."
I stared at her speechlessly.
[O-oh...]
"Why, how old are you?"
[...about 7 months? 8 now? Not sure, didn't really count the days... it's spring now and I was born in Autumn.]
Avaya's eyes shrunk in shock while many of the magical beasts flying around froze and stared at me.
The fur on my neck stood on end as I felt waaaay too many people staring at me.
[What?]
"You're not even a year old?!] Halfway through the sentence Avaya shifted to her Hummingbird form, as if unable to hold the two-legged one from her shock.
The words followed and shifted to a mental message halfway through as well.
[I just said that, yeah.]
[How do you have so much magic?! How have you evolved so quickly? Am I fucking stupid?!]
Uh... that last bit didn't seem directed at me so much...
Korven let out a huff. [Finally someone else suffers from your unimaginable talent.]
...sorry? Wait what am I apologizing for exactly?!
~ ~ ~
Bast slowly woke up with a yawn as she looked around her.
She was laying on the soft, cool sand within the cave they'd hollowed out, her head resting against Junior's flank as she lay on his side.
She patted a hand against his side, "Come on boy, wake up."
He lazily lifted his head and snorted at her, the puff of breath disturbing her hair and sending it into a frizzy along her head.
Bast laughed as she pushed her hair back, getting up. "Yeah yeah, you're a cheeky one."
She stretched out a bit, turning to the outside with the cool air of dusk coming in from outside, and the light of twilight coming in the opening.
"Let's go find a Senju Cactus, get some water first. Okay?"
Junior nodded as an agreement, getting up and taking his first steps of many that night, just like every night.
~ ~ ~
3 weeks later...
"Are you sure about this Kire?"
"I've been practicing Sal, I'm pretty sure I can do it this time."
Sal snorted. "Last time you just got us all soaked in freezing cold water."
"I SAID I was sorry! I put too much water and didn't thin it enough! It was a first attempt!"
"Can you all shut up? Sal, stop bugging Kire. Kire, prove your practice hasn't gone to waste."
Kire and Sal both saluted their squad captain, shot a look at one another, and turned away from each other. "Hmph!"
Kire focused as his cheery and childish demeanor melted away, leaving an icy cold calm.
Kire cast his mind deep within.
He began to whisper, "Oh lord of Death and Rebirth, please grant my request."
A strange blue-green light began to flicker in the strands of hair with changed color, bioluminescence faintly glowing yet barely noticeable...
And then Kire breathed out mist.
But it didn't stop.
Just more and more, as if he'd held an unbelievably big breath, yet more and more mist came out, swirling along the forest floor, slithering around the ankles of the squad surrounding him, and slowly lifting as a slow-motion wave, moving forward.
More and more came, until the mist became a cloud, and that cloud was a fog moving through the night, filling the woods.
Finally after a full 10 minutes, the fog stopped streaming from Kire, and he took deep and desperate breaths.
"HU-cough! Cough!"
Kire almost fell over as he slowly stabilized his breathing, as Sal reached out and supported him.
Kire finally looked up with some tears in his eyes, and saw the look of... awe.
The widened eyes of everyone around him, staring into the fog he'd made.
"Damn. Sometimes you're a scary kid, you know that?" Sal muttered, but Kire wasn't sure whether or not that was a joke.
[1] Refers to the ego as the consciousness, the individuality of a being.