Miya stood watching as her goddess stomped away into the distance, her great footsteps shaking the very earth. Such an awe inspiring presence the great goddess was, not only in terms of her size and strength but also in her kindness and wisdom. After the tremors started to fade she looked at her own hands and trembled with anticipation. Now she too had great power. The strength in her hands was only a sliver of the goddess's own, but it was so great that she wondered if she truly deserved it.
"I'm truly the high priestess of a goddess!" She exclaimed.
It was true what the goddess had said of course: she would need to practice a great deal before she could control her newfound power. The meme thought of hurting someone she cared about by accident filled her with great dread and she'd rather not even entertain the idea. At this current point she probably just shouldn't touch anyone at all. She thought it would probably be ok for them to touch her however, so she wouldn't be completely devoid of human contact.
"I'll practice for a couple hours before heading home."
Miya walked over to a great boulder that sat in the forest at the edge of the small clearing. It was so huge that it dwarfed even her house, surely it was some great stone thrown here by the goddesses of old and left forgotten. The stone was movable by humans of course, though it would take a hundred men and teams of horses to even roll it onto its side. The goddess Jenna would easily be able to pick this boulder up and throw it like a child throws an apple. Just looking at it made her wonder what the goddesses of old were like.
"You can do this."
To help prepare she gave herself a few quick slaps on the cheeks. Even though the goddess told her to take it easy it was necessary for her to attempt to lift something as daunting as this, it was proof to herself that she deserved this great power bestowed upon her. After taking a deep breath she bent over and stuck her hands under the edge of the great stone.
"Huuurggh!"
Straining with great effort Miya lifted with all her newfound might. Such a laughable sight it must have been, a young village woman attempting to lift a house sized boulder in the middle of the forest. But yet as she strained the boulder gave way, lifting slowly into the air as she straightened out her legs and hefted.
With grunts and groans the boulder was lifted into the air and with final cry of exertion she pushed it over. The ground shook with the great thud as the stone fell on another of its sides, the old bottom now exposed to the air for the first time in possibly centuries. The now exposed resting place was dark earth devoid of greenery and filled with crawling things of all shapes and sizes.
"Eeek!"
Miya let out a shriek and jump backwards, the sight of such a vast array of creepy crawlies filling her with terror. They crawled out of the light seeking darkness wherever they could as their home was now moved away. There were so many of them and just the sight of them sent a shiver down her spine. She stepped back several more times and tried not to look at them anymore. Instead she looked up at the great boulder again and let out a sigh.
There it was: a great boulder of immense size, unmovable by human hands without a massive amount of people and animals working together, and yet she had moved it by her own two hands alone. She let out a squeal of delight while jumping in celebration, shouting to the sky in victory. Was this what it felt like to be a goddess she wondered? She felt closer to her goddess now than ever before and she wondered if it was wrong to feel more like her goddess. Surely a goddess as kind as Jenna wouldn't take offense at such a thing.
"Oh great goddess Jenna" she said kneeling in prayer. "Thank you for allowing your servant to experience such amazing power. I swear I won't abuse this gift and use it only to further bring glory to your name."
After her prayer she stood back up again. The excitement of showing this gift to her family and friends was almost overflowing from her heart, but she really needed to practice with it before heading back home. She figured spending a couple hours here in this clearing with big and small objects would be best. So with her goals set she focused on the task at hand.
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The great light in the sky soon had passed well past midday, its brilliant light beating down on the world below not quite warming it the same way it had done in the summertime. Below in the forest at the foot of the mountains Miya was still practicing with her power. It had been a couple hours and she had learned a great deal about her new self.
"I should be heading home now." She said looking up at the sky.
The twigs in her hand had been bent and tied with small plant fibers into a little basket of sorts. The finer aspects of small object manipulation were one of the most import things for her to practice, as without the ability to interact with small things how could she ever live a normal life with such strength? She had been practicing with large objects as well of course and could now lift a small boulder or log with relative ease. Carrying around such large items was something that she still had a great deal of practice yet to fully manage of course, as when you carried something huge it became very easy to smash it into other things around you.
"I'll make goddess Jenna proud."
Miya brushed herself off and turned towards Doovlin. The journey home would take much less time than it normally would from such a distance, for though it would normally take a day to travel between villages her strength allowed her to travel faster than a normal human. What she had discovered in her training was because of her new power she didn't grow weary very easily. In fact she could probably walk for an entire day and never feel tired. This allowed her to run for long lengths of time, greatly reducing a trip that would otherwise had taken the entire day.
So here she was: a young woman sprinting through the forest without stopping, leaping over small boulders and fallen logs with the ease of a deer. She let out cries of joy as she ran and leapt, a profound feeling of unadulterated freedom overwhelming her being. This is what it felt like to be bereft of the shackles civilization demanded of a person. Like a wild animal she was truly free to run throughout the world without the fear of exhaustion. Where would her duties as the goddess's aid take her in the world?
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Suddenly a huge shape emerged from the treeline on the path ahead of Miya, its huge lurching form a deep brown and imposing on the backdrop of the forest.
"Woah!" She cried as she came to a halt.
It took all she had not to tumble over on her face, the forest floor covered with tripping hazards as she came down from such incredible speed. Thankfully her quick thinking allowed her to use the trees to stop herself, grabbing onto outstretched branches to come to a halt. She was only a dozen steps away from the creature now and it was clear what it was.
Standing before her in the forest was a bear, and not just any bear, it was a fully grown grizzly that looked hungry. Perhaps it mistook her for a jumping deer or perhaps it was simply hungry and desperate this close to hibernation, either way it seemed like she was its next meal.
"Oh no! Oh no..." Miya stammered.
The panicked response of her instincts had frozen her in place as the grizzly let out a low growl and advanced upon her. It only took a moment however for her mind to clear and rational thinking to return. What was she doing? She had goddess strength! One punch could probably send the bear flying across the forest. Although as she thought about it the goddess probably wouldn't want her to kill the bear.
The bear roared and lunged for her. With a quick dodge Miya rolled to the side and over a log. Then as the bear turned around to face her and strike again she stood up and bent to pick up the log.
"You want to attack me? How about you have a taste of the goddess!"
With a swift movement she lifted the log up from the ground and tossed it at the bear, though the bear wasn't there to be hit by the log when it was thrown. The instant the log had been lifted into the air it had let out a roar of surprise and turned in a panic, fleeing into the forest once again. The huge log thudded to the ground as the lumbering and crashing of the bear faded into the distance.
Miya stood there huffing and puffing, not from exertion but from the panic she had just experienced. The adrenaline high was fading as she came down from her fight or flight.
"I did it." She panted.
With such power she could protect herself even from the biggest and most dangerous animals in the mountains, how much more could she protect herself from humans? If soldiers came once again to her home she could fend them off herself now. The goddess wouldn't even have to bother herself with invaders now, for the high priestess was all the village needed. Was this what goddess Jenna meant when she said with power came responsibility?
"Thank you goddess once again for this gift."
After her small prayer she continued her homeward journey. Even at this pace she would still arrive in the evening. However now as she leapt and dashed through the woods she was even more elated in the knowledge that even the greatest beasts of the forest couldn't harm her.
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The sun was well into the evening time as Miya finally made it back to her home of Doovlin. The fall winds blew through the trees and made the brilliantly colored leaves rustle in an all encompassing sound. She stopped at the edge of the treeline and bent over to catch her breath.
"I made it!" She said to herself.
Her family were the first people she wanted to break the news to and she dashed through the village at a full sprint towards her family's house. She was still riding the high of dashing all the way here, the several mile journey only leaving her winded. The various people she ran past jumped out of the way or called out in shock as she ran so quickly through their midst.
Was that really Miya they asked? Dashing through the village like a fleeing deer with the wind on her heels?
Miya dashed up to her family's house and nearly tripped over the fence and she leapt over it, landing with a thud on the ground on the other side. The chickens squawked and scattered in all directions as she hit the ground. Her mother was standing at the side of the house taking down the laundry and turned in surprise at the commotion.
"Mother!" Miya cried.
She dashed over to her mother and reached out to embrace her momentarily forgetting her gift. Thankfully she remembered just in time and dropped her arms, awkwardly holding her hands in front of her and stepping backwards a couple steps while looking downwards in embarrassment.
"I mean. Hello mother."
Elentra for her part had come to accept somewhat out of character behavior from her daughter in recent months. Ever since she had become the high priestess of a goddess her personality had been more free to flourish without the shyness that had so crippled her social behavior.
"What is it dear?" Elentra asked. "Are you afraid to embrace your own mother now?"
Miya kept her gaze to the ground. "Well yes mother. That's actually the news I had for you."
"What ever could cause you to fear hugging your mother? Also where is the goddess? I was sure you left with her riding in the palm of her hand just this morning. She probably is off dealing with the other village isn't she."
"Well that's just the reason I can't touch you mother. The goddess gave me a gift!"
Miya quickly ran over to the end of the fence and grabbed one of the large poles with both hands.
"Watch this mother!"
With one tug she ripped the wooden pole out of the group completely like one would pull a weed from the garden. The connected planks that made up the bars of the fence snapped into pieces and scattered about as she stumbled backwards with the pole held above her head.
"Woah!"
She had obviously used too much strength and held the pole down in front of her torso, her face flushing red with embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry mother! I still can't control my strength as well as I wish."
For her part Elentra just stood there in awe, her jaw hanging lose in shock as she watched her daughter shyly apologize to her for ripping a fence pole from the ground. Her mind trying to understand seeing a large section of tree that took two men to pound into the ground with hammers so easily thrown into the air by a woman as petite as her daughter.
"I- I-"
Miya continued blushing as she tried to stick the fence pole back into the hole in the ground. It sort of fit back in there though it wobbled about quite a bit. She then put her hands on the front of her thighs and walked back over to her mother with her head hung low. She hoped her mother wouldn't be too angry with her.
"Well that's the news mother. Goddess Jenna gifted me a tiny portion of her strength. She said its to help the village and those I care about. I can't embrace you left I hurt you. I'm pretty sure you could hug me safely though."
Elentra let out a long sigh and walked forward to meet her daughter halfway, reaching out her arms and wrapping them around Miya in a warm hug. As she held her daughter tightly she could feel her relax in her arms.
"Oh daughter, you know I wouldn't fear being embraced by you even if you were as large as the goddess herself!"
She then released her hug and leaned back to look Miya in the face.
"This is the most wonderful news I could imagine! The goddess has finally recognized you and given you power that befits your status as high priestess. I can only imagine what great things you'll do with this newfound power."
Miya sighed and smiled, the joy returning to her face after seeing her mother's reaction. She looked around and then back to her mother.
"Is father or Tromly around? I want to show them as well!"
"Not at the moment. They're both out in the field still finalizing preparations for the harvest. It will be harvest time very soon. You'll be able to help out so much more now dear."
"Yes I will! In the meantime while we wait for their return I want to try helping around the house."
Elentra smiled and took her daughter by the arm, leading her into the house.
"I actually have something you might be able to help with while your father's away. Normally I'd ask a man to do this, but now that my daughter has the strength of a bear I'm not sure I need too."
They both laughed a little as they went inside. The possibilities were endless when it came to the application of this newfound strength, and none were more excited to find them out than Miya herself. Perhaps she would be able to help with the logging, finish the stone wall around the village, or even build a tower of stone like a castle. She was sure that no matter what she did it would be easy to use her gift to benefit her people.