The corruption had swallowed more and more of the world and Tiria found herself in constant prayer. Otters and humans surrounded her within their main temple in Wavecrest.

Refugees from all of their villages, towns, and cities had relocated to the capital as it was the furthest away from the growing corruption, but even that wasn't enough.

Harlond, the capital of Veridia had fallen. Scouts had informed them that the entire eastern section of the main continent had been completely overrun and all of Veridia's people who still lived had retreated to the coast.

Only the Thousand Island Kingdoms remained relatively untouched and their aid was the only thing keeping all of the survivors fed, but no one had any hope.

If you walked to Wavecrest's eastern wall, you could see the corruption obscuring your line of sight like a fog. It inched further day after day, and it was only a matter of time before they would have to abandon Wavecrest itself, but there was nowhere left to run.

Samba was confident that Gi had failed. He hadn't given up, but he'd forced himself to focus on the day to day needs of their people, unwilling to look to the future. Tiria felt different.

If things looked this bleak, that meant Gi needed them more than ever - so she prayed. Morning to night, she only paused to sleep and to eat. Most of the refugees didn't have any sort of work to fill their day and her dedication became inspirational to them.

Their people spread out in rings from the temple, lining the streets and dotting the rooftops. Each of them heads bowed as they uplifted their hopes to Gi and Danna.

A dark grey morning promised another gloom, but Tiria refused to give up. Her back felt permanently crooked and her knees ached constantly, but she refused to stop offering prayers to-

Her eyes shot open in alarm. A few other otters looked to her.

"High Priestess, is everything all right?"

Tiria refused to cause a panic, but she looked up at the statue of the Divine Spouses and her heart sank.

I... I don't know who they are.

"I need to step out for a moment. Please, don't let me interrupt your prayer." Tiria's words were gentle and unbothered, but her heart leapt in her chest.

What happened?

She walked the streets, nodding politely at those who bowed to her as she fought to keep the terror from her face. It was a miracle that she managed it surrounded as she was by those still deep in their own prayer.

The hope that she'd clung to for so long shriveled up. Her gods were gone. There was no one to pray to and their failure would mean the destruction of all that they'd built.

Her steps took her towards the eastern wall. Her terror had settled during the walk into a resigned sorrow. She couldn't fault the Divine Spouses, whoever they were. Part of her knew that if they'd failed, it was because success was impossible.

So she took the steps up to the top of the eastern wall and sat down on its parapets determined to watch the object of their demise.

The fog rolling in off the ocean made it almost seem like the corruption wasn't there, but her experience knew it was just out of sight. For some reason, others saw her and sat along the wall too.

They talked quietly, none of them sure what was happening, but neither did they want to disrupt whatever it was that their High Priestess was doing.

Soon, dozens of people sat along the walls, looking to the east. The sun peeked up over the horizon and Tiria had to shield her eyes with her paw. That's brighter than...

Dawn broke.

The entire horizon stretched before them and the fog was pushed away by the burgeoning sunlight and...

"It's gone!"

"The corruption's not there!"

"Quick run and tell Samba and Alice!"

Tiria had never considered how beautiful the sight of the coastline was stretching off into the distance, but she wept at its sight. The Divine Spouses had sacrificed, but they hadn't failed.

Tears still falling into her fur, she lifted her hands high into the sky. "You've given us everything." Her voice choked up and a few people looked at her concerned. "Thank you for protecting us just like you promised."

***

Sunlight cast a warm glow on the sidewalk, but a nice breeze blew along the street and whistled through Arnie's hair. The child had one foot on the pedal of a bike and the other on the ground.

He took one deep breath after another. "Just like mom taught me. Just be calm and balance."

Arnie tightened the straps on his helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads then took several more deep breaths before finally hopping onto the bike.

He pushed one pedal then the other. It felt just like with the training wheels. He pushed again and again. Wind picked up with his speed and a smile split his face, revealing a missing tooth.

Riding the bicycle felt like pure freedom. His eyes looked up the rich, blue sky, and for a moment, he had the strangest feeling that he should just swim up there and float among the clouds.

His tire hit a rock. He screamed, trying to control the sudden precarious balance, but he failed and his bike rocketed into a bush in front of an old yellow house.

The bush had scraped up his arms and his mom would surely be angry about the state of his clothes. He tried to fight it, but he cried, wiping away tears on his shirt sleeve.

"You okay?"

Startled, Arnie's head whipped around at the voice to see a girl about his age crouching down on the sidewalk looking at him. She had long dark hair and her brows were downturned in concern.

Arnie forgot his pain. He forgot that his mom might be mad at him. Up until that very moment, he'd have told you that girls were yuck, but that had been before he met this girl. She seemed strong... and kind and...

The girl kept looking at him when he didn't answer. "Hey, you're kind of cute! Do you want to be my friend?"

Arnie fiddled with the strap of his elbow pad, still partly in the bush, but he struggled to care. Why did his heart feel so...? "Y-yes. I'd like that." She called me cute!

"I'm Nicole, but my mom calls me Nicky."

"Arnold, but my mom calls me Arnie."

A smile lit up Nicky's face. "Arnie. Nicky. We rhyme! That means were supposed to be friends."

Arnie was at a loss of how to speak to Nicky, but the thought of not speaking her caused his entire being to rebel. "I... I really like that."

The sounds of heavy boots against sidewalk turned their attention towards the old yellow house that Arnie had crashed in front of. An old man wearing a simple house coat stepped out from the old gate and his eyes widened when he saw them.

"A crash, huh?" He stepped over close to Arnie and inspected the cuts along his arms. "Not too bad, but we should get those cleaned up. My wife and I were just having cookies. Why don't you come in and we can get you all bandaged up?"

"Okay!" Nicky said excitedly.

"O-okay!" Arnie's agreement only came a second later. He wasn't supposed to go with strangers, but he seemed really nice and if Nicky was going... then Arnie had a bright idea. "Who are you, mister? I should tell my mom where I am."

The old man smiled a big smile and a lot of Arnie's hesitations faded away. "My name's Noah, but you can call me whatever you like as long as it's polite."

Arnie smiled back and the three of them went into the old yellow house. For some reason despite the crash moments before, Arnie thought this might be the best day of his entire life.