Mibbet swept into a low bow, when one was dealing with new deities that you were not responsible for creating it was usually for the best that you err on the side of politeness. This was not a place where casual behaviour would end well.

“Briony Deyp, we come bringing an offering.”

“Ohhh a present,” she coughed and quickly policed her tone to sound less like an excited child on solstice. “Honestly I’m surprised that you were the one to do the talking, you’re a priestess of my rival, why would you of all people bring an offering to me?”

At this moment Mibbet was really glad that while the gods were powerful they tended to avoid poking round in human minds, it was time to bluff her ass off.

“Well we found something interesting, it’s not exactly good for mortals, but is a definite, we saw this and we thought of you kind of deal. We even put it to the test against a big shark thing, and it won, so we brought it here.”

Briony was curious now, seeing the adorably cute, in a terrifying way abomination attempting to defy physics, by swimming towards the ship.

“Brave of you to assume that would be of interest to me, I’m going to assume that there’s reasoning behind your idea, so let’s hear it.”

“You control the sea right? This thing has been looking for a place for a while, and we figured the floating harbinger of destruction may be happier in a gods hands than hanging around holing ships, and fighting giant predators.”

It was a good thing for everybody, including Briony herself that she did not play poker because she really didn’t have a poker face. She was looking at the nightmarish rubber monstrosity like it was the last puppy in the shop, and had just wagged their tail, while putting on a begging expression and puppy eyes, she was hooked.

“I can see what you are saying, such a creature only the gods should command, so I’ll take it off your hands. But don’t think that I’ll stop competing for the rain gods position over something so small. That mantle will be mine.”

“No worries there, even if Wannashowa didn’t want to play fair I’d be having words, and as his high priestess that means something.”

“Does that mean if I got rid of you he’d be gone?” Briony asked, eyeing Mibbet in a way she really didn’t like, discussing issues of mortality with gods was not exactly a good idea.

“Not anymore, he’s got enough worshippers now to make it on his own, mostly farmers and gardeners, they like good clean rain. Oh and boatmen, they like the waterways. Plus not all his worshippers are human or humanoid.”

“I see, so wiping out humanity wouldn’t cut it either, I’d have to elevate whole new species.” Briony pondered, while Mibbet held her panic behind a polite smile, she REALLY did not like where this was going.

“Nope even an extinction level event for all land dwelling worshippers would work, some of us are amphibious or winged.”

“I see. That is good to know, saves me going to all that trouble for nothing. Now I believe that there’s another among you who needs to speak with me, but let’s deal with my little pet first hmm?”

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The Quacken was confused, one second it was swimming along, well on its way to sinking the annoying floaty thing that had become such an annoyance lately. The next it was floating in nothing, and no matter how hard it swam it was getting nowhere. Then with another flash of light it was in its natural habitat. A bathtub, no floaty nuisances shooting at it, no weird void place, no nasty swimmy things trying to eat it, just a nice pretty bathtub. The good kind with claw feet and everything. It looked around for prey, only to have the remains of the big swimmy thing from earlier appear. That was good eating. All else forgotten it dug in.

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Briony looked through the crew on deck, until at last she stopped by the figurehead, pondering for a moment. Then a lady appeared, she looked rather like the figure on the bow of the ship. A little older, battle-scarred, and a bit more worn. But the sculpture could easily have been her in her glory days. Or this could have been her glory days, because scarred and tired as she looked, she was absolutely beautiful. Causing the crew to catch their breath on seeing her.

“Take your time child.” Briony said with a reassuring smile, for this she had all the time in the world. “I know it’s going to take you a bit to adjust, but bear with it, once we get you all adjusted, and you get things all figured out we’ll get to your request.”

Hearing her speak it was hard to believe that this was the Goddess infamous the world over for her temper, right now she sounded more like a kindly old teacher, gently guiding their student. As if she hadn’t a mere few minutes before been considering the possibility of wiping out all land based life on the planet just to get rid of the competition for a job. (This, folks is why you do not mess with gods, they are capable of things you can’t even imagine, and will do them in a heartbeat if not doing so inconveniences them, sure it might mean a whole mess of paperwork. A measure Ordurlee created specifically to keep the gods from doing just that, and it works..... most of the time. But they are still capable, and sometimes in life, the multiverse throws that lesson your way, this was one of those moments.)

The lady walked about for a bit, carefully looking over each and every crew member like that aunt at family reunions. (You know who I mean, the huggy cheek pincher.)

“Now dearie” Briony said, “why don’t you introduce yourself.”

The lady gave a little curtsey and a smile. “Nice to finally meet you all, I am Wellerman.”