I keep walking east and around the base of the mountain until I know I'm far enough away from the village to be unseen by them. When I close my eyes I notice I can still sense all the villagers and a somewhat simple map of the village in my mind. Perhaps I can do this no matter how far away from them I am? Because they worship me I'm certain. I even can see some villagers out in the mountain forest doing things, most likely gathering or hunting. This makes it so much easier to keep track of things.

Finally I stop in a big clearing in the middle of the forest. Nearby is a huge cliff face made of solid gray stone. Such a cliff would be insurmountable to a human but to me its simply a large wall. I can see other colors like brown and black mixed within its layers, the jagged rocks sticking out from it making a zigzag of outcrops and dangerous spines. The forest floor itself in this clearing has only sparse bushes and is open enough I can take a few steps across it without entering the trees. Plenty of room for maneuvering. Its time to practice magic!

"Please father let me figure this out" I pray to myself.

I lift my hands up and look down at them. I look intently as my left hand and curl the fingers and focus on my palm, trying to imagine a light there again. With the sun approaching dusk its dark enough that I can clearly see a small mote of light forming in the middle of my hand.

Yes!

There it is again. A small light of pure white, floating in my palm like a heavenly lantern. With but a thought I can make it grow or shrink, eventually I simply close my hand and feel the light entering my body again. I then notice a slight golden glow on my arm and look around in confusion.

My hair! My hair is glowing! I take a handful of my hair and pull it in front of me, letting it drape across my palm and over my hand. Its somewhat faint it seems but indeed it is glowing with a golden light. Has it always done this and I haven't noticed? I lift up my right hand and create another light within it and watch as my hair glows a little brighter. When I release the light my hair returns to a dull glow that's barely noticeable. Perhaps when I use magic it causes this. Neat I suppose.

I only have a couple hours of light left from the sun so I move on to other magic. There is so much to try I can't figure out what to do first. As a goddess I'm sure I can do anything I want.

"Maybe fire and ice! That's always a good fantasy starter!"

I let my hair fall behind me again and lower my hands to my sides, then lift them up in the air to shoulder height. Turning to my left hand I look at it and imagine fire, I bring up the image of a roaring flame and the intense heat of a burning fire. Then in the blink of an eye a flame appears in my palm!

"YES!" I shout in excitement.

The fire is nestled in my palm, lapping at my fingers as its orange tips flicker about. Its base touches my skin and leaves a strange warmth that's not quite painful but very intense. I turn my hand around and watch as the fire moves along with it as if attached to my hand. There seems to be no smoke, perhaps because its burning mana? I release the fire worried I'm burning through my reserves too quickly.

"Now for ice."

Dropping my left hand to my side I turn my attention to my right hand. Ice, the cool sensation of it touching of my skin is pulled up from my memory. I try to imagine what it would look like in my hand. Slowly I begin to see the air around my fingers become clouded by what appears to be fog, a cool sensation on my palm as a pillar of air begins freezing.

I'm doing it!

The ice crystals begin to coalesce and form a taller mound, a pillar growing up past my fingers as the ice snakes about my hand like the chilled roots of a tree. Its cold, but again not painful to my skin. This is just so cool literally and figuratively. I close my eyes and wonder if I can see magic flowing through me. Indeed I do sense a flow of mana through my skin and into the air around the ice. After a few moments longer I release the flow of mana and watch as the ice begins to melt in the air. I open my eyes again as the water drips off onto the ground below.

"Fire and ice down" I say proudly to myself. "Now I just need water, wind, and earth for the whole collection. Well I mean there's way more elements than that but this is a good starter pack."

I close my eyes and try again to sense the flow of magic inside my body. Its strange you know, like trying to see the flow of blood around your body. I can see the flow of something around my body though, a golden light of some kind that I can feel more than think as it permeates my body. Perhaps I can send it into the ground?

With great concentration I focus my eyes on the ground at my feet, imagining energy flowing out of the soles of my feet and into the ground. To my great surprise I begin to see little flowers begin to sprout in the dirt around my toes! I'm actually growing plants with magic! I focus on a single flower and try to push more mana into it, imagining the angles it might grow at and watching in amazement as it bends and twists according to my thoughts.

"I can control plants. Is there anything I can't do?"

Its dusk now and the light is fading. I look to the sky and see the clouds floating by by the wind in the sky. If only I could control the weather, I could bring down lightning to make electricity for the people here. I remember you can create magnets with electricity too. Perhaps this is the next thing I should learn.

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"Well you only live once..."

I drop my right hand to my side and lift my left above my head in a reach for the sky. I can remember stories about gods of the sky that could call down lightning bolts on their enemies and wonder if I look as silly as they did. I know my father as I remember him can call down fire and lighting as well, but he controls everything so that's a bit of a cheat.

"I call down lighting bolts!" I shout to the sky.

Nothing happens. I blush even though no one is around to witness me being so stupid. I shake my head and psyche myself up. No, I can do this! I lower my head and close my eyes, imagining clouds forming and a bolt of electricity forming and streaking down.

"I call down lightning!" I shout again.

At first I think nothings happened again, but I feel something different. I open my eyes and look up above me. A small dark cloud has formed a couple hundred feet above my head and I can see blue light within it. My eyes go wide.

Shit.

In an instant a wicked looking bolt of lighting streaks down from the cloud and directly into my outstretched fingers.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

I've never been hit straight on by a truck before, but I learned what it must feel like just now. A white hot pain ignites my fingers as I feel the electricity rip through my body on its directed path to the ground. In all of an instant the full force of the lighting flows through me and into the ground leaving me in shock.

Every hair on my body is standing on end and I feel the hair of my head crackling with static as it frizzes out. It was as if time had slowed down to a crawl in that moment of the lightning strike and now I was free. My muscles had all tensed up the instant the power went through them but now they were starting to release. I felt myself tipping over.

"Ooooooohhh...."

I groaned in pain as I fell over backwards, the pain of impacting the ground lesser compared to the aching in every limb of my body. I felt dizzy and my vision was just not coming into focus from the blurry mess it was a moment before. I closed my eyes and held my hand to my forehead, I had a headache.

"Note to self. Practice with lighting with metal nearby. Ugh..."

Surprisingly I didn't feel so bad after only a few moments laying on the ground. I know any normal human would be in bad shape right now, but perhaps I had some kind of magic healing factor that helped me recover. It would make sense. I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position and looked up at the sky.

"You win this round sky."

The light was almost gone and night was upon me. I could see the stars all around me in the heavens, a display of light and color beyond what one could imagine. Truly creation was a wondrous thing. I should head back to the village.

I stand up and shake my arms and legs around a bit to loosen them up. I wanted to make sure I was good to walk after the jolt I received. Everything seemed fine and I let out a sigh. It was then that I noticed light in the distance. It was the orange light of fire. Was there another settlement nearby?

A quick peek couldn't hurt right? I brushed myself off and started walking in the direction of the lights, sure that whoever it was could already feel my approach through my footsteps even if they couldn't see me in the darkness of night.

"Oof!"

I let out a grunt as I slammed into something. It was like I had just walked into a brick wall and slammed my whole body into it full stride. I stumble back and clutch my head again, clearing my mind as I look up at what I ran into.

Nothing!

There was nothing there! I reach my hands out in disbelief and gasp in shock as I feel them touch something. I lay my hands out flat and feel a smooth flat surface. Its perfectly smooth like a pane of glass, but as I try to push my hands against it the strength was like that of solid steel. It had no sensation of cold or hot, no groves or creases as if it was constructed.

Was this a magic barrier? Am I in a prison or something?

I follow the wall to the left and can feel it continue without interruption. None of the plants or animals seem to be affected by it, just me. I walk back the other direction and feel it continue that way as well. Closing my eyes might reveal something with my goddess vision so I do so.

Yes I can see it now. Well I can see a line on the ground in front of me, a golden line like chalk that runs along the ground in both directions. The ground where I stand almost has a golden hue to it and on the other side of the line no such thing exists. Is this...

I open my eyes and my jaw drops. "Damn..."

This is a territorial line. As a goddess I must have authority over only a certain local or radius. Is there a way for me to leave it? It seems not. Is there a way to expand my influence?

Of course!

The radius of my influence must be tied directly to the volume of worship I receive! If I can get more worshipers in an area my territory will expand to encompass more area. That's the only thing that makes sense. I giggle a little to myself in anticipation. This means I could become a goddess of the entire kingdom, nay world!

I slap myself on the cheeks and shake my head. "Come on Jenna. Snap out of it."

Imagining myself as some all powerful deity of the world is just stupid. My father would never approve of it, heck my heart just knows its wrong. I need to be able to take care of a village before I can even think about a city or kingdom.

I need to get back to the village.

Suddenly I feel dizzy again, a powerful yawn escaping my mouth as I lift my hand to cover it. For some reason I'm very exhausted. Perhaps I used too much mana with my magic practice. I need to lay down on the edge of the village and rest.

Damn it! I'm so far away from the village right now!

Without even thinking I begin running back in the direction of the village, praying I can make it there before I collapse. I'm only vaguely watching where I step with the hope that anything or anyone around would be smart enough to stay out of my way in the fist place. With my judgment clouded by my panic I don't even register the amount of earth shattering seismic events my running steps are creating. I can feel my consciousness fading as I struggle to keep my eyes open while I run.

"Gotta make it..."

I'm panting as I feel the village getting closer, the compass of goddess vision allowing me to see it coming into view as I make my way towards it. With strides as long as mine I'm sure a two hundred foot tall person can run more than a few miles in a minute, who knows how much distance I've covered. I just keep running.

"Uuuuuhh..."

I let out a groan as my eyes close for the last time tonight. I'm unable to force them open again no matter how much I try. I'm still half a mile at least from the village and the glowing lights of the torches against the night sky are the last thing I see. I feel my body falling, I'm going down. The sensation of the impact fills my mind as I can feel the dirt and bushes rub against my skin. The snapping of a few trees cause sharp pokes on my skin as they slow my body down and cause it to stop like poles blocking a mud slide.

The last thought I think is that I hope the villagers aren't worried for me.