While Val and Foofy wandered off on their own, neither Iharu nor Fang followed them. The time alone was much appreciated, because she wanted some time to not have to be chided for her crush on Tavras.

Back on the original island, Foofy ran farther away from Val. As he sniffed his old spots near the treeline, he disappeared behind the brush. Foofy never got lost, always returned to Val, and she did not have to worry about anything aggressive like behemoths on this island.

She hummed and kicked at the sand quietly to herself.

Just wait until the day that she would get stronger. Once she became a goddess to reckon with, Tavras would stand at her side. If that were to happen, they would actually be a power couple in the most literal sense. The thought made her giggle of all things, the notion of being one of the most powerful goddesses in the world while also dating one of the most powerful gods. Val did not know what she wanted to do with her power yet aside from good things, but she did know that she wanted a relationship.

Some barks sounded from the undergrowth. Foofy burst out and ran towards Val then started running back the way that he had come.

"What is it, Foofy?" Val cocked her head and took up a jog after him.

Had he ever exhibited behavior like this before turning into a divine beast? Foofy seemed to want her to follow him into the trees, so Val obliged him. They ran a brief span through the forest until a decrepit building made itself evident in the forest.

"What?" Val mouthed. She was hardly able to believe that Tavras would have tainted his Paradise with a building. If he did, then why had she needed to sleep outside in a makeshift tent of branches and leaves to keep herself warm at night?

Frost crunched beneath the soles of her shoes. The weather had gotten cold at this time of early December. Val's disbelieving huff left a cloud of fog around her lips. Maybe she could sleep in this shelter with Iharu and Fang. That way, they could all be warm through the nights that they waited for Tavras to show.

One could say that the front door of the house was left ajar, except there was no door. A faded, colorful tapestry draped hung from some dingy, golden hooks off a rod. This fabric made for an open door, all bunched up on one side of the frame.

Val slid past the curtain and let herself into the building.

Pieces of ceiling had crumbled away and exposed the treetops and sunlight above. These ruins would not have made a very good shelter anyway. Still, it felt strange that there had been secrets like this tucked away in plain sight on Tavras's Paradise.

There had to be some reason that Tavras had never shown her this place before when he had shown others to her, like the lake at the island's center or the crystal caverns beneath. Val could surely discover that reason with Insights of the Past.

Her eyes fluttered closed. What exactly was she searching for? Many loud moments in time shouted at her in this place, indicating that it had been a location for many impactful things in the past, at least for the people who participated in them. While any of the more defining events could do, Val wanted something more typical to get the gist of this place. She wanted something with Tavras in it, since he was the one that interested her in understanding.

The shimmering, watery sensation of Tavras's thread in the past was evident to her in erratic periods of time. There could be no other person that she would attribute such a life force to. Plus, Val had already looked into the past of Tavras, what with the way that he had raised Iharu and Fang. She could recognize his presence in the past at once.

So, Val picked one of those typical moments with him and plunged her mind into time.

This vision had taken place some hundred years ago, though Tavras looked the exact same as he always did. Long hair exuding light and many different colors, eyes shifting in the same way, he was otherworldly to look at--beyond human. Tavras had the awe-inspiring appearance of a god, but also the eager personality of a puppy.

While Tavras ran up the path, he had a sort of skip in his stride. A big, silly smile crossed his face, more genuinely happy than Val had ever seen him before. Her heart twinged because he always seemed happier in her visions of the past, so far. In comparison to back then, he looked so tired and worn in the present day.

A footpath cut through the forest from the sea up towards this house. The stone work gleamed from being whitewashed. Colorful, elegant fabrics draped throughout the windows as well as the door. Everything looked fresh and youthful in its recent construction and decoration.

Tavras swung the curtain door aside and called in a humoured voice, "Honey, I'm home!"

"Tavras," a breathy feminine voice said. A long-legged woman appeared from behind some sheer, pastel fabrics, flaunting herself with every strut. Her curvaceous legs were most notable given how her skin was hardly covered. The front of her dress covered her breasts, sure, but the cut stooped so low that practically all of her cleavage fell out. "I missed you." This woman straight out of some sex fantasy entwined herself around Tavras.

"I missed you too, Evalaite," he hummed. His neck bent to kiss her, but before he could even do that, she dropped the front of her dress.

Those were the most supermassive tits in the universe.

Everyone knew that bigger boobs must equate to a truer love. Apparently the goddess of love had either gotten plastic surgery or she had used her divine blood to alter the physical form of her body. Val guessed the latter given the time period that she was witnessing this. She never even met Evalaite for herself, but she already hated her for taking on a body that was impossible for any natural woman to have.

A sly smile curled to the Evalaite's lips as her eyes locked on Tavras's face. This was Evalaite, goddess of love, and apparently she loved relationships of a more sexual nature.

Tavras seemed to love it too. His hands immediately cupped around the underside of her breasts, squeezing them as he finished lowering himself to kiss her.

Val was out. She already saw too much in that split second where Evalaite had dropped the front of her dress. In the name of the Nether, that was the most sexual thing that she ever happened to see, and she really wished that she had not.

Back in the real timeline, her face burned like eggs sizzling on some blacktop from a hundred degree day. Needless to say, it was not a good type of heat that burned throughout her cheeks. For a second, she stood there gazing down to her own relatively flat chest. Add that to the list of reasons why Tavras did not care for her much in a romantic way.

What had overcome Val to torture herself in the way of seeing her crush with his girlfriend in the past? The seconds of calm fled over her, and Val threw herself into an animated state.

"Foofy," she cried, "you are such a bad dog! Why did you take me here?"

It was easier to blame Foofy than herself. She should have known better from the second that she had stepped foot in that place. Val sniffed as she ran, some pathetic tears crossing her vision. She went running from that place as quickly as she could.

The faded, multicolored curtain billowed after her in her flight.

While her spying into the past was not his fault, Val could not say for certain if she would be able to look at Tavras in the same light again.