The winter snow had started to fall from the gray overcast sky once again, blanketing the land below in a light layer of white. All the normal traffic on the high road leading to the capital was nowhere to be seen in the dead of winter, instead the bare minimum of travelers and traders being the only ones willing to brave the harsh elements. The transporting of goods must go on regardless of the seasons, and the profits for transporting during such times did see an increase of profits.

My thundering steps echoed across the relatively wide open landscape, the so called road pummeled into nothingness whenever I accidentally stepped on it. That's why I was trying so hard to walk next to the high road, as any significant damage to it would be pretty bad when spring came. After another hour or two of walking along it the capital itself was finally within sight. Finally I would meet the king!

Before reaching the tall stone walls however there was an incident taking place on the road before me. Up ahead about a mile away was a wagon with several people around it. There was a team of two horses hooked up to it and it seemed to be stuck in the mud on the roadside. The people were looking around confused about the earthquakes, not able to really see me clearly from this distance due to the swirling snow. As I got closer however that changed.

"Holy gibbery!" one man shouted. "Look at that!"

He pointed up at the sky and through the falling snow at me. Immediately there was panic and the men all fled in a blind panic, stumbling on the slick ground to escape me. The horses reared and neighed but didn't seem all to disturbed by me themselves. Something weird I noticed about animals around me.

I let out a sigh and summoned grasping vines at each of the fleeing men's feet. The plants instantly burst from the ground and wrapped around the lower legs of the fleeing humans and caused them to fall over onto the ground as they were pulled tight.

"Ok I get it" I said exasperated. "Big scary goddess. Yeah yeah."

The men were still panicking and were going to hurt themselves if they flailed around like that.

"Can ya'll knock that shit out?" I half asked half demanded. "There's no need to panic."

Having said that I continued walking, stepped down carefully next to the wagon and horses. The creatures did freak out a little with my massive boot slammed down nearby but as they were tied to the wagon they couldn't run themselves.

I bent down over them. "Shh... Everything's ok."

Very slowly and gently I reached down and used one finger to pet the horses on the top of their heads. They flinched back at first but as my gentle touch ran down their necks they relaxed. Once they were comfortable with my touch I moved my hand and freed the wagon from the mud. Then after standing back up I released all the vines on the humans.

The men had all stopped panicking enough to watch what I was doing with the horses. Once they were free of the vines they still lay there in shock, not really sure what to do with this information and probably not believing their eyes fully.

Not my problem right now. I decided to just ignore them now and stood back up to full height. Then with a glance down to ensure I didn't step on anyone I continued my walk to the walls of the city.

The capital city of Celuduun: Norlov. It was a pretty massive city for medieval standards. From the size alone I would estimate at least two-hundred thousand people lived inside its walls. It looked well defended too. There were tall stone walls at least fifty feet tall, towers dotted along the wall, and ramparts that were clearly patrolled at all hours. Inside the city there were huge districts I can only assume were dedicated to your usual city fare. On the outskirts were the housing districts, near the middle was the home of industry and trade, and elevated on higher ground was the rich district.

It was in this rich district that the castle stood. Castle Korchock I believe it had been called when I asked my friends about it. All in all it was a pretty impressive castle too. Its towers reached at least to my waist, which one might think isn't impressive until you remembered how big I was. There were beautiful flags and banners hanging from all sorts of places on it. The structure had a somewhat square shape with extra angles here and there, a small courtyard in front of the castle proper inside its outer walls. There also seemed to be a rooftop garden of some kind, obviously not very green in the dead of winter. As for the coloration it seemed to be a dark gray with some of the stone having a red tint. All the materials would have been gathered from the nearby mountains.

As I approached the city there of course was already public confusion and fear. There were however many people inside the city that were already my worshipers and who were currently praying to me to thank me for visiting them. I thought down to Miya that she should watch this. I'd be taking a celebrity approach to my introduction.

"Hello everyone!" I said with a cheery smile on my face. "Its me! Your local grandiose goddess of great generosity!"

My hair beamed out shining light and I flashed double peace signs with my hands held up next to my shoulders. Hopefully I looked the least threatening as reasonably possible, however that was for the people to decide ultimately.

Once I was at the wall I bent down and got my face right up close and personal with the few city guards standing on the wall. They had obviously been too terrified to move much and remained rooted in place as I approached. When my face was all up in their business only a dozen feet away from them they flinched back.

"You guys don't mind if I come inside do you?" I asked in a happy manner.

Immediately the guards broke out of the spell they were under and began freaking out. They shouted and scrambled away from me. There were a few of them that actually shot arrows up at my face. The sharp projectiles that would grievously injure a human simply bounced off my skin like raindrops. This brought a smug grin to my face which didn't sooth their fear at all of course.

It can't be helped!

"I'll take that as a no." I said with the shit eating grin still plastered on my face.

Another arrow or two flew up and bounced off my cheeks as I stood up to full height again. To be fair it was very hard to get this smug expression off my face as the next few arrows barely reached my waist, and this was from the starting height of my knees. As I prepared to step over the wall something unexpected happened.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I went blind! That is to say more accurately it went dark. Everything went pitch black and I couldn't even see the hand in front of my face. That's how I knew nothing happened to my eyes as I was still seeing things, it was just all I saw was darkness. My hand even came up to my face and moved around in front of my eyes and I couldn't see my fingers at all.

"What the hell?"

This was a magical attack. Of course I had more than just my sight. Closing my eyes I scanned the immediate area with my goddess vision. The environment showed up in its grayscale and the humans on the wall continued to panic, their tiny bodies showing up as the glowing figures. There was however a strange figure running along the wall towards me clearly intent on attack.

Whoever this was had an incredible aura: their body simply bursting forth vitality. This caused them to glow white hot in goddess vision, their stamina and speed clearly augmented by magic in some way. Then to my great surprise once they reached me they leapt off the wall and onto my skirt! Unlucky for them I could still see them.

"Nice try asshole!" I said as I reached for them.

They clearly saw my giant hand coming and tried to leap off me again but it was too late. Even though my hand was clearly going to miss them my book wasn't. With a flash I had summoned my book and moved it behind them, their leap trajectory causing them to land right in the middle of its open pages. Then as gently as possible the book closed around them, trapping them firmly between the pages.

As for the magical darkness I decided to counter with some of my own magic.

"How about some flashlight eyeballs!"

Brilliant light burst forth from my eyes and scattered the darkness instantly. It had appeared to be some kind of cloud of magic darkness and thus my light simply scattered it into oblivion. Now with a smug smile returning to my face I lifted the book up and see who dared to attack me.

"Let's see what kind of asshole we're dealing with here shall we?"

The people below had fallen into despair and now made no more attempts to flee, whoever this was clearly carrying much of their hope for victory. They now simply stood there and watched to see what would happen next. Clearly this was some kind of powerful mage.

My book lifted up closer to my face and I lifted my left hand up to prepare any attack that might come my way. The pages slowly opened up to reveal a figure laying there on the white paper. Using my goddess vision I did a quick scan of them, their vitality still off the charts. They were taller than a normal person, probably about seven feet tall. They had pale skin, long curly blonde hair, and grayish blue eyes. The most striking feature however were their pointed ears.

"An elf?" I said stunned.

This was an elf, an actual fantasy elf just sitting on my book. I guess at this point such a thing should be expected. They seemed very angry at me and were glaring up with pure hatred in their eyes.

"Don't think you've won goddess" he said bitterly. "I'm just beginning."

Suddenly their entire body was cloaked in darkness as a small cloud of it burst out and filled in the area around them. They were clearly attempting to escape and I'd have none of it. With another eyeball burst my light blasted away the entire cloud of night and revealed them once again.

"Hold the phone Charley" I said quickly.

I lifted my open left hand up in a gesture of both surrender and to signal him stop. He was still tensed up and ready to leap off somewhere, his vitality magic or whatever giving him super human ability for sure. When I spoke he hesitated.

I took this chance to continue speaking.

"You want to explain to me why there's an elf attacking me out of the blue? Who the frick are you and why do you think you have a chance to take me?"

He stood up proudly and adjusted himself, then lowered his pose to take on an attacking form.

"I have no need to explain myself to the likes of you. You should be explaining yourself to me."

This was going to get nowhere fast and I was already pissed off he attacked me in the first place. The longer it takes to get to the castle the more of a chance they have to setup a defense against me. While I have no idea what that defense could actually be or if they even had one time was of the essence here. This guy was clearly just using delay tactics on me. If I gave him what he wanted maybe it would make him more agreeable.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "My name is Jenna, Goddess of Knowledge and Light. I've come in peace to meet the king." I then looked down at him. "You can't stop me. So don't try."

As expected this did throw him off guard and he stood up in surprise. He hadn't expected a real answer from me and his demeanor changed quite significantly. After adjusting himself he answered back.

"Very well. My name is Illiad Westbow. I'm the head mage of his majesties court. I'll assume you know what that means."

This made me roll my eyes again and I let my book float down to the city wall, its flowing blue ribbon already getting covered in snow. Once it was level with the ramparts it flattened out to allow him to walk off the pages and onto the stone structure.

"Yeah yeah" I said with a sarcastic hint. "It means you've got the biggest dick in all the kingdom. Spare me."

To my surprise this Illiad didn't walk off my book onto the wall. He clearly understood what I was presenting him with but for whatever reason wasn't taking me up on the offer. The guards on the wall were staring over at him in confusion and fear.

One of the men spoke up. "L-Lord Westbow. W-What should we do?"

Illiad was deep in thought and didn't reply at first. I didn't give him the chance and spoke first.

I glared down at him. "Well? You gunna get off my book asshole elf?"

With a quick scan of his body I could see his vitality levels were dropping down to quote-un-quote normal levels. It seemed if nothing else he was leaving an offensive posture. Perhaps he no longer saw me as an immediate threat, or he was just plotting something else. Then after thinking a few more moments he walked closer to the middle of the giant book.

"Return to your posts soldier" he instructed the guards.

Then he looked up at my face far above him. "As for you Jenna, so called goddess of knowledge and light. I'll be escorting you to the king myself. You'll see no objections to this."

What an asshole! Its self righteous dickheads like him that really get on my nerves fast. I suppose the stereotypes of elves hold true in this world. Its pretty clear what a pain this guy is going to be, but if I take him with me at least he'll be in eyesight.

With another exasperated sigh I lift the book to float up near chest height and in front of me. There were no attempts made to make it a smooth accent and I smiled smugly as the sudden movement caused him to fall on his back.

"Fine asshole elf" I replied. "I'm not waiting any longer. Clear the way everyone! Goddess coming through!"

After making my announcement to the city population I lifted one of my legs up over the wall and took my first step into the city proper. The walls reached my knees so its not like it was difficult to step over, all I had to do was be careful not to clip the battlements with my foot as I moved my foot. Of course I kept one eye on this Illiad on my book as I began moving. The snow on my book was annoying but I don't think water damage was an issue at all.

The reactions from the citizens was also predicable. They were terrified of the big scary goddess, though having this asshole elf with me seemed to prevent mass panic. Thankfully there wasn't anyone stupid enough to be in the streets as my massive feet boomed down. The damage to the cobblestone was inevitable but at this point I considered the collateral damage I called unavoidable. It can't be helped.

Once I was over the wall I set my sights on the castle to the middle of the city. It was only going to take a couple dozen steps to reach, but the dense cityscape between me and it would cause problems. Here goes nothing I suppose.

Illiad spoke up. "Jenna watch your step. Take the main street."

I glared at him again and huffed. "Goddess Jenna to you pal. I'll not have you disrespect me." I then took my first careful step between townhouses. "Also do you think I'm some kind of idiot? Like I of all people don't know how to walk in a city?"

"Of course not goddess" he said back. There was clear hostility in his voice still.

"Good" I replied. "Now shut up!"

With my passenger silenced for now I concentrated on the task at hand. This was the biggest city I've had to walk through yet and it wasn't going to be easy. As long as I focus it should go fine though. Also now that I'm inside the city proper attacks would hopefully be less likely, as causing me to enter combat would cause untold damage and loss of life.