I wake up from darkness into my Goddess Zone. That's the name I've decided on for this whole "seeing the world while asleep" power. In this mode of wakefulness its like I'm floating below my body, or above it depending on how you want to look at it. I can basically see myself walking around in room like you sometimes do in dreams. Sometimes its a first person perspective too.

This room always seems to have a map of the areas I've mapped with my waking life, or areas that my worshipers occupy. Its a sort of third dimensional map of the world as I have power over. All areas of my territory are visible on it. It seems I can move my vision around on the map freely but I haven't had much time to practice with it. These things I seem to know and understand innately.

I wonder how long I've been asleep. Whatever I did with magic practice must have drained my MP bar or something to the point of collapse. This mana drain is what causes the deep sleep of darkness versus the wakeful sleep with the Goddess Zone like right now. Its clear I do have a reserve of mana and draining it completely is very bad. I'll have to figure out a way to track it.

As I speak a bar appears above the map and to the side, a colored bar of blue and green. This must be my mana reserves. Its at eighty percent right now. There are other kinds of heads up displays appearing now, almost as if this is a video game of some kind. Things like a display of my body, current conditions of the outside world, and systems like bloodflow or nervous system. I have quite the plethora of information at my fingertips.

I should check on whats going on around me now. I move my hand inside my mind and see the display map on the floor change. I see my body laying down in the forest. Its early morning and there is rain beginning to fade away. The trees and bushes are wet with droplets as I can see my body and dress soaked. Its not strange at this point that I'm unaffected by the cold and damp conditions. Normal humans would be in danger exposed to the elements like me, but I'm a goddess after all.

There is a small shrine built in front of my head and a post of two villagers keeping watch over me. I probably worried them with my collapsing stunt. I should wake myself up and tell them its all ok. I wonder how I do that with all this heads up display stuff? Oh here it is. An elevator shaft of some kind. I simply float in my mind up into it and soon...

I feel my body laying on the cold wet ground, my arms and legs with sensation coming into focus. I feel my breathing once again. Turning my head I take a deep breath, the villagers nearby jumping back with a shock. I open my eyes and look at them, my eyes focusing as they take hurried steps towards me.

"Goddess you're awake!" said a man who was quite muscled and hairy.

The other man, much younger and thin ran up towards my face. "You've been asleep for several days goddess. We were afraid you would never wake up."

My eyes lazily moved to focus in on the younger man, a unsettling sight I'm sure for someone so small. "Why so? I've slept for longer before haven't I?"

The older hairier man looked down and they both seemed very concerned. "Well goddess. You weren't breathing. We've never seen that before."

I wasn't breathing? What? I mean I know I don't need to eat or drink. But breathing is optional too?

I roll myself onto my side facing away from the villagers slowly as to not cause too many ground tremors. Closing my eyes I focus on my breathing, in and out. It feels so necessary, like I need to do it. My body does it automatically just as it would for anyone. Was I in a death like state or something worse? Whatever it was I'm fine now and woke up. Maybe the deep sleep in darkness is a mode my body enters where I don't breathe. I'll want to be careful so I can avoid that in the future.

"Goddess?" the older man asked.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about something." I reply. "I'm getting up now."

With that I push myself up into a sitting position and slowly turn my body around just enough so that I can look down on them by turning my head. The rain has stopped completely now and the air is filled with the scent of earth. I take another deep breath and look down at the two men standing below on the ground with the corner of my eye.

"I hope I didn't worry anyone with my collapse." I said. "I had practiced too much magic and didn't make it back to the village before falling asleep."

The two men looked at each other and then back at the ground as they replied. The younger man was the one to speak.

"We thought you were dead..."

The older man then gave his shoulder a shove. "Nonsense goddess! We just were worried because you ran up and fell over is all. Everyone in the village can see you're alive and well from here!"

"Did anything important happen while I was asleep?" I asked. That's probably a good thing to ask.

"Well not much goddess" the older man answered. "There was a group of visitors from the nearby village of Yuvoghen who came to bear witness and offer tribute to you."

I looked away and crossed my arms. "Like they came to see if I was real I assume?"

That village I saw in the distance most likely sent people to check out what was going on here. I mean this proves they saw me when I ran into that invisible wall. What a fool I was to get so close to another settlement! Unless it doesn't matter. How fast would news of me spread anyway? Am I going to have the king show up demanding answers? I gulped. Would other gods show up to take me out?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Of course goddess" the older man replied. "There hasn't been a goddess in the entire kingdom or world at large for an eternity. There are only rumors of one in another kingdom but the very existence of goddesses is questioned. They wanted to observe you."

"You let them watch me sleep?!" I exclaimed in shock.

The two of them looked down at the ground and seemed to be both extremely nervous and confused with my reaction. I'm sure they're used to watching me sleep themselves and it being strange isn't strange. I'm a big loud goddess its normal to watch me sleep they think. Its whatever.

"Its whatever" I said waving my hand. "I'll just have to get used to it I guess."

"Yes goddess" they both replied.

I stood up and brushed myself off, which didn't really work since I was covered in mud and foliage. The greenery came off but the mud was sadly there to stay. What a mess I was. A goddess with a filthy and torn dress, mud on her face, and sticks in her hair. For some reason my dress did look a bit more put together. Its hard to explain.

"I'm going to go wash my face in the river" I announced.

The yes goddess reply came immediately. I'll have to get used to that too. The younger man did pipe up though, running over to my left foot and looking up at my face in the sky above.

"The village is having a feast in your honor goddess. We'll let them know to finish preparations."

"Fine" I replied.

I didn't mean to be rude or short with him. A big gathering in my honor and whatnot, just something I feel a bit uncomfortable with. Big social events weren't really my thing before. I'm kinda the reason this village is still around so I can see how they want to do a feast or whatever.

Before I leave for the river I take a look at where I was laying. There was a massive indent in the muddy ground where I was laying with all vegetation flattened. All around were felled trees, some knocked over and some snapped clear in half. Then looking beyond there was a huge gash dug in the ground leading up to my resting place. The trees were shattered and toppled all around on the ground leaving a huge scar on the landscape. What a mess. It looked like the site of a airplane crash, though I suppose that's exactly what it was. I'm as big as one.

I then walk off to the river, my bare feet smushing into the ground more than usual with the wetness after rain. I really need to figure out some way to get shoes of some kind. The amount of materials needed for that would be more than this village could manage, but maybe once I visited a city. As I walked I looked over at the village itself. Everything seemed fine there, just people going about their lives as normal. I saw many people looking over at me as I walked and waving or bowing to me. A quick look at my goddess vision revealed basically everyone in the village must be a worshiper of me at this point. There was even a few people far away that showed up on my map. The villagers from that other village no doubt. I wonder if my territory has expanded too? I'm sure it has.

Once at the river I kneel down by its bank. It was more of a stream for someone of my size, but I could see its raging waters as something a human wouldn't take lightly. Its banks were swollen from the recent rain and the mud on the shore made my knees sink it and get dirty as well. Oh well I can clean them off too.

What will I do with myself? Am I doing the right thing?

I reached down into the river and scooped up water in my hands. It was cold, very cold. The temperature didn't bother me or anything, I could just feel how cold it was. I used it to splash onto my face, wiping it around and scooping up another few handfuls until I felt my face was clean enough. I looked down into the water and saw my face again, a young girl who would be the goddess of a nation.

At this point there's no away around it. I can't hide from the world forever. My actions no matter how simple I think they are cause butterfly effect consequences I can't know the far reaching implications of.

I then begin scooping water up from the river onto my arms and legs, washing away the mud and leaving my skin as clean as it can be. Standing up and crouching I begin to clean the rest of my legs and knees, the dirt soon floating down the river off to places unknown. My feet were going to be dirty no matter what I do due to my lack of shoes. I'm sure the villagers won't be judging me on that.

The sound of the river rushing by fills my ears. I look down at my left hand and open it. With focus I create a small pillar of ice in my palm again, its cold sensation on my skin more intense than the river water. The sensation vanishes as I clench my hand into a fist. I need to master magic sooner rather than later. I'll need to practice everyday including later today. Not too much though. Now that I have a mana bar of sorts I can keep track of how much I have. Closing my eyes I imagine that heads up display from before. It slowly fades into view, a translucent version I can barely see in my minds eye. There was my mana bar, with not much of a change from what I just did. That's good at least.

I turn back to the village and walk over to it. I'm careful to avoid the fields as I didn't want to crush their crops. There were things like wheat, pumpkins, and many tufts of green that were surely root vegetables. Berries were also something they were growing, with huge bushes of berries that were surely native to the forest. They would have transplanted them here to grow their crop. Their system was far from the one I remember in my world, but it worked for this population. Mass production wouldn't be started here.

"Hello everyone" I say as I stop at the edge of the village proper. "I'm sorry to worry you. Don't worry I'm completely fine. I just fell asleep faster than I thought I would alright?"

A woman and her boy walk up to my feet and wave up at me happily.

"I'm so happy you're safe goddess Jenna" the woman said.

"Yeah I knew nothing could kill you!" the boy said jumping.

There was a small group of villagers gathering around me now as people came to pay their respects and show thankfulness that I was feeling healthy. I really did make them worry needlessly. Miya's mother was here and bowed to me as well. What was her name again? Elentra?

"Miya will be so happy to see you awake goddess Jenna" Elentra said. "I would invite you into my home to see her but..."

I let out a small sigh. "Its fine Elentra" I said wistfully. "I'm kinda too big to go into buildings aren't I? Otherwise I'd love to go into people's homes for dinner or such."

Being so huge really has consequences that you don't really think about. Yeah being so big and powerful is fun, but not being able to go into houses or buildings to socialize with people is kinda devastating. If I'm a goddess its just something I have to deal with though. Without my massive size I wouldn't be able to help the villagers as much as I do or in the ways I can.

"I'll go tell Miya you're awake" Elentra said with a bow. "Though I'm sure she's already on the way to you."

"Of course" I said with a smile. "Now I heard there's some kind of celebration?"

I turn my attention to the other villagers gathered to hear about this event they have planned. Many excited voices rise up to my ears from the various people gathered, some talking to me and some to each other. All these people who I must protect and teach.

I'm going to become the goddess they need somehow.