“Pardon?” Snooze gasped, letting an embarrassing amount of breath escape from her lungs.

Riff gave a throaty chuckle again, and stretched her long arms out in a shrug.

“I’m a god,” the shadow creature clarified, “as in, a great being of creative and destructive power, the Alpha and Omega, the peanut butter and jelly, if you will, but there’s no need to be frightened of me.”

“Frightened?” Snooze asked, “why would I be frightened?”

“Well, I suppose that's a valiant start,” Riff said, “but, to answer your question: because gods are powerful. But don’t you worry, I will not use my gifts against you.”

Snooze was at a loss. Perhaps it was because of the befuddling nature of the situation, but she was starting to get the wild idea that perhaps Riff did not know that she was also a god.

“I see,” Snooze said, “well, you don’t have to fuss, I am not the type to scare easily.”

At that moment, there was a rumble beneath her feet, and Snooze jumped in surprise.

Riff cracked a wide smile.

“Is that so?” she asked.

Snooze smiled sheepishly back.

“So,” Snooze said, adopting a casual manner, “what brings you down to… uh… here?”

“I just wanted to get a look-see at this beautiful world here.” Riff explained. “ You know… vast oceans, tons of wildlife, sentient inhabitants. All the frills, really. It's quite impressive, don't you think?”

Snooze almost blushed.

“Yeah, it seems mighty nice!” she said, “so… you’re just here for a walkabout?”

“Something like that,” Riff said mysteriously.

“Well, is there something that I could potentially help you with?” Snooze asked, leaning forward, “I’m kind of an expert.”

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The shadowy self-proclaimed god’s eyes grew wide.

“You don’t say? Well, perhaps you could help me then.”

Everything Riff said seemed to be wrapped in an enigmatic phrasing. Snooze began to feel a bit of anxiety drip into her thoughts. Living bodies sure were inconvenient. They had all sorts of issues that someone like her hadn’t had to think about in a relative forever.

“Sure,” Snooze said, cautiously. She wanted to get to the bottom of Riff’s arrival, but didn’t know what she should reveal just yet.

“What did you have in mind?”

Riff chuckled, something that was apparently very common for her to do, and raised a hand in the air toward the sky.

“Do you know how I could go about contacting the god of this world?”

Snooze had to pause at that. Riff wanted to meet her? Granted, she didn’t know that the creator of this realm was standing right in front of her in a flimsy frock of knotted grass. Now, for many folks of various backgrounds, natures and creeds, the idea of a mysterious stranger approaching their home turf and asking to know who the property owner was, would be problematic. However, it is important to note that it had been a long time since Snooze had encountered anyone other than the Book of Leaf and her Archangel. They were great friends, but Snooze often lamented the fact that she had no one who understood exactly what it was like to be a god.

So, she did what any rational, reasonable creature starved for kinship does. She revealed her hand.

“You’re lookin’ at her!” she announced, beaming like the sun back at her shadowy conversation partner.

“Excuse me? I’m not sure I understand,” Riff said, taking a step back, “do you mean to tell me that you are the god of this world?”

Snooze nodded several times in a row.

“Yes indeed!” she confirmed, “and I’ve got to say, it feels good to finally tell you the truth. Honestly, it was eating me up inside, as I’ve always been bad at subterfuge. One time, in the sixth grade, I accidentally knocked my art teacher’s wig off the mannequin head he kept it on when it wasn’t in use. Well, it fell out the second-story window and landed in the mud. When I went to go retrieve it, I discovered it wasn’t his wig at all, and was actually his Maine Coon...”

Snooze paused, seeing that Riff was giving her a strange look--a remarkable detection considering she didn’t have a very expressive visage-- and sought to correct herself.

“Oh, don’t worry, the cat was fine. Well... mostly. It had a few sprained paws, but nothing major. Anyway, it turned out that Mr. Shelton didn’t wear a wig at all! Nope, he just had really bad, fake-looking hair. In any case, I tried to pretend I didn’t know how the cat got injured, but Hotdog--that was the cat’s name-- saw me and got scared and ran, and I felt so terrible I had to spill the beans.”

Riff hadn’t reacted at all, she just stayed frozen in place as the wild story unfolded, tumbling forth from Snooze’s lips like a badly stoppered dam. Finally, after absorbing the details of her ravings, she nodded.

“Right,” she stated, “first, why was there a cat in the classroom in the first place? That seems like a bad idea just waiting to happen.”

“Right?!” Snooze exclaimed, “that’s what I always thought!”

“Secondly,” Riff continued, “I believe that you are indeed a god. I was able to scope out some of the sapient life here on this planet, and the highest form of intelligence are those Ngak. There’s no way that they could concoct a story half as interesting as yours.”

“Thank you,” Snooze said, then paused, “I think.”

Riff suddenly pointed at her, causing Snooze to be the one to take a step back this time.

“So!” she said, “you’re the guy in charge around here.”

“I am!” Snooze said, “but, if I can ask, why were you looking for me?”

“Oh, Snooze, you can ask me whatever you want. I am a guest here, and it would be rude of me to impose on you. To answer your question, I wanted to know your secret.”

“What do you mean?” Snooze asked. She didn’t have any secrets that she knew about. Unless, perhaps, they were so secret that even she hadn’t learned about them yet. After running that idea over in her mind, Snooze decided that it had indeed been a silly thing to think.

Riff paused, and for the first time, didn’t look amused, but instead, something akin to sadness washed over her expression, and she hung her head.

When she next spoke, her voice sounded hollow and barren, bereft of any joy. In fact, Snooze wasn’t quite sure, but she could almost swear that Riff’s voice had a hint of break to it, as if she was going to cry.

“Tell me, Snooze. How did you manage to save your Archangel?”