My first instinct is to stop her from licking the weird substance because yes she was fine after that tiny bit of ichor, but what if it was just fresh ichor that's safe, what if it got dangerous as the trail went on, what if maybe it actually did cause her suffering and the oven thrives off of–

Point is, she has had 7 drops by the time I manage to wrangle her, because she's zooming at the speed of light. I do not wrangle her successfully. She slips out like water, but she does not go back to drinking the ichor. She sits, dignified, and stares at my face.

"She seems fine," Camellia says as I blink slowly at Loaf.

"Look at the eyes, though." Loaf's eyes have widened to a size that makes no sense. Big black voids, which is normal, but now there are golden flecks forming within.

"I've seen that before in–" Camellia says before Loaf starts meowing and hops over the stones dividing the regular land and the Eldest Brother God's flesh.

She bites out a chunk. Then another. Claws dug in too.

So I assume we're all about to die, because the Brother's arm (the hill itself) twitches. In the direction where the rest of the ichor trail goes, there's a huge mass that just looks like flesh and dirt and rock, with a fence around it. That is the Eldest Brother God's head.

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He rotates towards us slowly, slowly, and then opens his eyes.

The Eldest do not generally wake up, or move around much. With their age they've had to expand their bodies, spread them thinner so their vital organs (from when they were human) can be secured away in their god-sprouts. Brain and heart and such, just the bare essentials, since the rest of the organs are god-tissue.

The Eldest only speak through temporary sprouts, through messengers. But right now, the Eldest Brother is using his own face.

Mouth open for the melody, sung softly (meaning it's just causing tremours instead of massive earthquakes), and the vibrations on his arm… I suppose that's supposed to be the rhythm? There's a word or two resembling "you" and "think" and maybe "situation", but it's not the regular versions of the words.

"Camellia?" I look at him, and he's… I can't read faces, but he's probably shocked. Hopefully not too shocked. "Camellia, how old do you think this version of the gods’ tongue is?"

"200? 300 years? Eldest gods don't talk much at all, he's definitely not speaking the modern languages, but also, is he talking to the cat?"

The god's gaze certainly seems fixed on Ms Loaf. She's a tiny kitten, being stared down by the hill she's standing on. She has stopped eating the guy's flesh though, thank goodness.

"I didn't pay enough attention to catch what he was saying," I say, "did you?"

"No, distracted by the… all that. He seems to be questioning her, maybe."

Our talking is cut short when the Eldest goes silent, and turns his gaze from Loaf to the two of us.