I had awoken early in the morning on the next day, having slept a total of three days again minus the time I had awoken in the middle of the night. The villagers had been overjoyed to be able to speak to me again and regaled the tale of how I had saved their village from the raiders that one night. It turns out they were from the neighboring kingdom called Pheoa. It was to the north and west of this kingdom of Celuduun. To me such an attack is pretty standard for fantasy settings like this one but I had to remind myself this is the "real world" or a real world anyway. If the raiders hadn't been scared off by me it would have gotten real ugly real fast. There was a celebration planned for sometime in the next few days but they had wanted to wait for me to wake up first.
With everything all sorted out with the village's immediate safety I had once again stressed the need for defenses to prevent such attacks in the future. No one in the village knew much about such things and as the goddess it was left to me to figure it out. Le sigh. Of course it was. I already had ideas bouncing around in my head and wanted to write them down somewhere.
The existence of actual real magic was also of course a pretty freakin important development on my end and I was keeping my limits from the villagers for now. If I could create light from my hands like that night then what else could I do? The existence of magic was common knowledge but it was very rare. Knowing what kind of magic system this world operated on was crucial, though as a goddess I'm sure I can do pretty much whatever I want. At least that's my hope. I vaguely remember being called a "nerd" in a previous life. It sure is helping me out now that's for sure!
In light of these developments I had traveled up into the mountains to create more clay tablets and fill them with information and plans. Miya had returned with that book filled with neat info on the kingdom and world and I was having her read it aloud to me so I could copy it down onto tablets. Its too small for me to read you see as even with like magic microscope vision turning the pages would be too frustrating for me.
So here I was sitting on the ground in the mountain forest, a big glacier fed river rushing next to me as I formed the nearby clay deposits into massive tablets to write on using a log. Miya was sitting nearby on a fallen tree with the book and her bag of supplies for lunch. Right now she was simply reading the book to me in a section about how the current king got into power. Apparently some old folks in the inn wrote most of this stuff down.
"And so the king Alphonse Ferenik took to the throne after his father's death in battle against the northern kingdom of Pheoa." Miya was saying.
I was busy writing this down on a new stone tablet I had titled "royalty." Due to how much I was writing my wrist was starting to get a cramp in it. I thought goddesses would be beyond such things but ho hum.
"The wife of this Alphonse was who again?" I asked.
"Sashui" Miya replied.
"Sas-hu-i" I said to myself as I wrote it down. "Man all this writing is making my wrist hurt. I need to take a break for a bit."
As I put my tree pen down I looked over the tablets I had so far. There were at least ten around me on the ground near the river. There was one for each town, village, or city the people of this village knew about. There was one for farming, the kingdoms, and one for the yearly seasons and wildlife. It seemed pretty much exactly the same as the Earth I came from in my previous life. As I looked what I had over I rubbed my left wrist to ease its soreness.
"Being left handed is supposed to be bad luck" Miya said up to me as she walked over. "But since you're a goddess it must mean superstition is false."
"Well obviously" I said with a huff, still looking at the tablet on the ground in front of me.
As Miya walked up I turned to look at her. She seemed very comfortable around someone as big as me. But since she was my high priestess or whatever she needs to be. Really the reason I invited her to come read the book to me is because she was the one I felt safest showing my lack of knowledge to. She was wearing her normal villager clothing but had been given a very nice looking cloak which she was wearing now. It was supposed to be her priestess cloak or whatever until she got something truly fancy. She was currently climbing onto a tall boulder to get a look at the tablet herself.
"So you really are writing down all the stuff I'm reading you goddess?" she asked looking over the tablet in front of us. "Why is it so important for you to do this?"
I let out a small sigh and sat up straight. "Well Miya" I started. "Knowledge is power you see. The more I can learn and know about this world and its people the better of a goddess I can be. This is really just the beginning. I'm going to have a whole library as soon as I get the chance!"
Miya let out a gasp as I waved my arms around in the air. "A l-library? Those are rooms filled with books! Surely a goddess full of knowledge like you deserves many of those!"
"Of course I do!" I say with a smug smile. "In fact I might just be a goddess of knowledge." I was being very self congratulating at the moment I can admit.
Miya had been looking down at the tablet for a while now and seemed to be confused. She knew how to read obviously so I didn't understand the puzzled look on her face.
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"Something wrong?" I asked.
Miya pointed down at the tablet. "What are all these strange symbols goddess? Is it the language of the gods?"
Now I was confused. I mean we were speaking the same language so why wouldn't we write the same one too. I looked down at the tablet and frowned.
"I mean its just writing. You really can't read it?"
Miya shook her head.
"Ok then" I said picking up a pretty large stick. "Why don't you write down dog on the tablet for me in big letters. Don't worry about leaving footprints or anything. Is it ok if I move you over there?"
"Of course goddess" Miya replied.
Carefully I lowered my right hand down to where Miya was standing and pinched her waist gently between my fingers. I then slowly lifted her up and moved her over to the tablet and set her down. She giggled as she was carried as it was probably like flying to her. Once she was on the tablet her feet sunk into the clay a bit and I handed her the big stick.
"Just write the word cat out as big as you can ok?" I instructed.
I sat back and watched as she did so. Her little feet leaving tiny marks on the soft clay as she walked around, dragging that huge stick as it left the letters in the brown ground. Once she was done she stepped aside and looked up at me.
"All done goddess!"
With a furrowed brow I leaned in and looked at the word she had written. "Huh..."
I could read the word cat plainly in front of me but something wasn't right. I could tell I didn't know these symbols. I picked up my own pencil and wrote out the word cat above the word Miya had written and then sat up again. For several moments I studied these two words and gasped when I realized it.
I sit there in dumb disbelief. "Its being translated. I'm being translated."
Miya looked up at me in confusion. "Goddess Jenna?"
I put down the pencil tree and point at the two words on the tablet. "Look Miya. I wrote cat right here in English and you wrote cat in your own language. The fact we're speaking to each other means there's some magic translating me for you and you for me. It must be because I'm a goddess."
Miya walked on the tablet around the cat I had written and looked down at it curiously. "So this language is called 'English?'"
"Yes it is" I replied crossing my arms. "Its the language I spoke in my previous-" I pause. "Before I came here. What language are you speaking Miya?"
"I don't really know goddess" Miya replied. "I'm sorry its just what I've always spoken growing up."
The language name was probably in the book she had I thought. I'd get that information eventually. For now it was important to understand some auto translation was going on with me. With such a power it would mean I could talk to anyone in this world without issue. That's going to be extremely helpful. This also means I'm probably going to have to learn to write their language the old fashioned way, that's going to be a pain in the ass. Unless I can get my translation power to work on my own writing of course. I hope I can as I remember being terrible at learning new languages.
I uncrossed my arms. "Well for now its just good information to have. Having such a power in the world before would have been a dream come true."
Miya walked to the edge of the tablet and I used my fingers to help her down onto the ground again. "What's it like remembering the world you lived in before this one goddess? Was it a wonderful place? It's strange you can't remember everything about it."
"Well its frustrating for sure" I replied with a sigh. "Its like- Well its like my mind has its memories off in a haze somewhere. I can remember some things very clearly, but other things just seem to float beyond my grasp as if lost in a mist." I scratch my arm and exhale through my nose. "My mind is like a pond with my memories like a vast lake in the distance. A river connects the two but my current mind can only hold so much and the river brings them over slowly." I drop my arms to the ground. "That's what its like I guess."
Miya walked over to my right hand and put her hands on one of my fingers to comfort me. "I don't really understand goddess Jenna, but it does sound very disheartening to not remember everything. I'm sure your memories will return soon, and even without them all of us at the village are deeply thankful you're here with us."
I smile down at her. "I know you are. That's why I want to be the best goddess I can be for you, and whoever else decides they want me around." I give a little stretch. "Alright get back I'm gunna stand up now."
After waiting for Miya to get a distance away I stood up off the ground and looked around. "Lets get some of these tablets back to the village. The ones that are dry anyway. The rest will stay here until they harden."
I walk around testing each tablet for hardness level and picked up any that are sufficiently stiff. There were several that I started stacking up in the trees. To me they were about the size of a pillow, but to humans they had to be the size of a couple houses together. The whole scale difference was still something I had to get used to. Something else I had to note is that while they weren't as heavy as I thought they would be, they were still heavy even for me. I decided to take five of them and make them all into a stack.
"Alright come over here Miya" I said. "You're gunna ride on my shoulder while I carry these things back to the village alright? I need my hands for this."
Miya walked over to my feet and looked up into the sky at me, a bit of nervousness in her voice. "Oh. Alright goddess."
Since I'm already kneeling down to arrange the tablets I simply reach over and gently take her between my fingers, more resting her on two of them than pinching her up. I then lift her up to my right shoulder and allow her to step onto it.
"Take large handfuls of my hair and wrap yourself up with them ok?" I tell her. "Then when you sit down you have a lifeline keeping you in place as I walk. If anything gets scary or you feel like you're going to fall tell me immediately alright?"
Miya begins wrapping herself up with my hair. Its hard to see that well even with my head turned to my shoulder but I can feel my hair being messed with. After a few moments she called up to me.
"I'm all set goddess!"
"Good" I replied. "Now hold on tight as I stand up."
With my passenger securely in place I reach down and pick up the stack of tablets, lifting one leg to push of my knee into a standing position. These tablets were super important if I'm to make progress in this world so holding them now gave me comfort. It seemed silly yes, but holding knowledge in my hands gave me hope that this world isn't that much different then Earth was.
"Alright you ready to go?" I ask my passenger on my shoulder.
I felt as Miya tugged my hair. "Yes goddess" she said.
With a nod I held the tablets close to my body and started walking back to the village. It would take several trips to get them all back once they were set but it would be worth it. I also had to talk more to the villagers about my plans for a wall. I had decided on a palisade wall using trees from the forest. These are the things I thought about as my mind wandered. It would be a short walk back to the village but soon I would have to live up to begin a goddess again.