A Barnyard in the Celestial Realm
Ghondish looked down on his friends using the water trough in the yard as his looking pool. What was I thinking? This could have been handled any number of ways, but I just haaad to lose my poo over it, he thought. Now I have paperwork to fill out, a solution to put forth, and the threat of That Guy coming back… GAH!
He watched them walk in a mostly westerly direction, and stop for the night in a thicket. Why haven’t you borrowed some tents? Or blankets at least? You’re still wearing what Pendleton made for you! Come on guys, get with it!
He saw the bear before they did. Saw it sniffing out their trail. Saw it charge into the camp. Then he watched as Maximilian did what he did best.
--
A thicket on the western continent
Mil looked up at the sound of something large charging into the thicket they had just bedded down in. “Stupid creatures.” He growled, and stabbed thrice in the direction of the sound, then stood up. “Time to butcher some meat!”
--
A Barnyard in the Celestial Realm
Ghondish snorted at the display of combat prowess as, in the blink of an eye, Mil struck the bear three times in the heart. “I keep forgetting he is the god of War.” He mumbled.
A rooster fluttered up to the edge of the trough, “What you watchin boss?”
“Mil and company surviving on the world without their powers.” Ghondish replied, eyes still on the scene. “You would think more gods would be watching this travesty play out.”
“Yeah, it is pretty funny. I think not many watch because no one knows how it happened. Probably worried about it happening to them.” Rooster said.
Ghondish frowned, “I don’t think even Tranquility could screw up enough for that to happen. Trust me on this one.”
Rooster hopped down and began scratching in the muddy soil, “If you say so.”
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Ghondish passed a hoof over the trough, “That’s enough of that for now. Time to go back to work.”
--
Back in the thicket
Mil, Sarah, and Pendleton sat around a small fire cooking bear meat and talked.
“Aside from west, what do we know?” Pendleton asked.
“Still nothing so far.” Mil replied.
“Sarah?” Pendleton asked.
“Nothing for me either.” Sarah said, “You would think my brother would have done something by now. A dream; a chance encounter with a strange wizard who spells the wizard on his hat with two Z’s; a pile of rocks pointing somewhere; maybe a stone tablet with better directions written on it?”
The other two nodded as the filled themselves with more meat. Finally, the meal, if you could call it one, was over and the three bedded down for the night. As they lay there watching the fire die, Pendleton spoke up again, “Sarah? What is your brother, really?”
“Um… I’m not really allowed to say exactly, but I can say that he’s more powerful than all the rest of us put together.”
Mil snorted, “That’s obvious, since he did this to us.”
“No. I mean ALL of us gods.” Sarah replied in a quiet sleepy voice, then rolled over in her spot and started to lightly snore.
Pendleton and Mil stared at each other; eyes wide for several hours before sleep overtook them both.
--
The Celestial Barn
Ghondish sat behind the moving type machine as his hooves hit the keys, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.” He glanced up and to his right at the crystal displaying the Heretic doing something or other in a destroyed port town. “Well at least that idiot is having an interesting time.”
Sometime later he looked at what the machine had “Printed” out. “Paperwork filled out and a solution put forth, now I just need to send it off.” He folded the papers and placed them in an envelope, then looked around the barn for a way to send them “in”. Finding nothing, he sat back at the machine and sighed. “How in the hells am I supposed to send these to Him?” he asked the rafters.
A moment later he heard a soft pop, and the envelope was gone.
--
Elsewhere
A young blond man in a cheap business suit looked at the envelope in his IN box. “Ah, finally done, is it?” He opened it and read the documents, smiled and said “That works. No sense bugging the boss, I’ll send the go-ahead.”
--
The thicket, again…Morning
Mil yawned and stretched, then widened his eyes before blurting out, “I DON’T HURT!!!”
Pendleton rolled over, “mrr, huh? Wha?”
For her part, Sarah kept snoring.
“I’m not in pain from sleeping on the ground!” Mil yelled, then kicked a rock he had been sleeping on, “Take that you stupid rock!” The rock flew, and stuck in a nearby tree.
Pendleton, eyebrows raised and eyes wide, stared at Mil, then looked down at himself. “I…I slept well too…” Then he shook his head. “Something must have changed.” He muttered.
It was at this point that Sarah grumbled something that sounded like “five more minutes”, and pulled a cloak of darkness around herself.
--
The Celestial Barn
Ghondish was again at the water trough, looking down at his friends and smiled. “Good to know that my idea of returning some of their power was accepted. Now I should never have to see That Guy again.”