With a soft thud, Snooze and her two little Stonies touched down in the ruins of the Village of Dela. Smoke still lingered here, curling from invisible fires that still burned beneath the heated ash, and the unwholesome stench of death hit Snooze’s nostrils with a horrible intensity. Everywhere she looked, she saw destruction, and it made her so very, very sad. She was instantly reminded of the grassfire from all those millenia ago, and she sunk down to her knees, absorbing the bleak scene surrounding her.

Anik and Pili dropped to the ground as well, their faces even more green from the lurching stomachs they likely kept battling. If there was one thing that was for sure, those creatures had discovered an element of life that they did not soon want to repeat. Being so high in the air and moving so quickly did not feel natural to them, and they both wretched and burped as their guts betrayed them.

Snooze shook herself to center her mind and stood, allowing the two Stonies to continue their uncomfortable noises in the dirt. She strode forward, trying to assess the damage to the village.

“How did I not notice any of this happening?” she wondered aloud, scanning for any signs of life. Truly, she thought she would have gotten wind of any sort of disturbance in her world. But, nothing stirred here, save for the two gagging creatures on the ground behind her.

The Book of Leaf hadn’t needed to be held, or carried, it just floated along with her, perfectly in pace about a foot to her left. Its glittering emerald flashed at her, and Snooze turned.

YOUR POWERS OF OBSERVATION ARE NOT AS ASTOUNDING HERE, SNOOZE.

It must have said this in response to Snooze’s absent question.

“So, I’m weaker in my Avatar form?” She asked.

YES, CONSIDERABLY SO, OLE CHUM! YOUR ELEMENTAL GODSPELLS WILL NOT BE AFFECTED, BUT THERE WILL BE MANY THINGS THAT GO BEYOND YOUR NOTICE WHILE YOU’RE GOOFING OFF IN THE DAUGHTERLAND. THE LONGER YOU STAY IN YOUR AVATAR FORM, THE WEAKER YOU WILL BECOME. IT WASN’T MEANT FOR EXTENDED JOURNEYS, OR THOSE SLEEPOVERS THAT START OUT AS ONE NIGHT, BUT THEN GO ON ALL WEEK BECAUSE IT’S SUMMER AND EVERYONE’S PARENTS STILL HAVE TO GO TO WORK.

“That seems like quite the design flaw,” she said, reaching one of the destroyed huts and kicking ash aside with her foot.

I’D AGREE WITH YOU! BUT, YOU GOTTA UNDERSTAND THAT THE MAIN BULK OF YOUR ABILITIES COME FROM THE CELESTIAL PLANE WHERE YOU RESIDE.

The jocular nature of this edition of the Book of Leaf was an uncomfortable juxtaposition to the somber nature of the literal evisceration of an entire village of living beings. It had not learned, as some might say, to read the room.

Snooze frowned. She was overwhelmed by the awful imagery before her. Her heart was filled with an unending sadness and she was sure that at any moment it would break. A few tears slid down her cheeks until eventually, hot rivulets of anger and pain streamed down her face, falling to the smoldering earth.

“How could Riff do something like this?” she asked, choosing a corner of her frock to wipe the tears, “She lied to me, clearly. This is a vile act indeed!”

She stood there for a time, until such a point that the two Stonies had finished their purge, and together, the three of them began to sift through the rubble and collect what they could of the fallen villagers’ remains. Over a dozen dead were gathered, and Snooze used Air to carry their limp forms from the scene, to the forest, where Anik and Pili had dug graves for them near the roots of several trees.

Once they were placed and the dirt spaded back over them, the three stood there in quiet reverence. A god and her two creations.

“Blessed, will you say words for them?” Anik asked.

“I, uh, don’t know what to say,” she admitted. It was true. She was a god, and still, she didn’t know what would happen to them now that they were gone. Nor did she know if there were any words that would deliver them to some fate over another.

“Isn’t that your job, though? You’re a member of the Sengak.” She continued.

“I do not deserve the Temple,” Anik said quietly, “My faith in the creator has been shaken on this night. Any words spoken would not be truth.”

Snooze felt a stab of realization. He was talking about her. She wasn’t sure what the rules were in telling her little Meatling descendents about who she really was, but she felt she owed it to them.

“Listen you two--” she began, but suddenly there was a rush of static and a loud snap.

Oh, no!

Snooze wheeled around. Standing twenty feet behind them was a tall, shadowy form holding several bright colored chocolate bars.

Riff.

“Hey Snooze, I didn’t know if you liked dark or milk choc--”

Riff froze, her featureless eyes wide in horror as the candy bars tumbled from her grasp and onto the ground.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” She suddenly screamed.

Snooze tensed up. Everything was happening so quickly, and now, she wasn’t sure what was going on. The mood had suddenly shifted, and there was something else. Riff had already arrived, but the prickly electric feeling in the air had remained. In fact, it had somehow gotten stronger.

“What are you--” Snooze began, but Riff’s shout interrupted her again, her eyes focused right behind the god. At Anik and Pili.

“SNOOZE! GET AWAY FROM HER!”

“Whaa?”

Snooze turned to look at the two Stonies. They two were staring at Riff, but they were smiling. Something was off. Their grins were stretched almost impossibly wide, their eyes vacant seeming with a nefarious glint to them.

“Hello Riff!” Anik and Pili said in unison, but their voices were different. They were deep and distorted and had a faint resonance to them, as if they weren’t coming from their lips at all, but from all around the four figures assembled there in the wood.

“I FOUND YOU!”

Snooze took a few cautious steps back as Anik and Pili’s bodies began to shift and contort like some sort of vapor. Like some sort of… shadow.

“SNOOZE!” Riff yelled, and grabbed the god by the arm, tugging her back and away as the two Stonies began to morph. They twisted, their limbs stretching out like tendrils and began to entwine, until finally they coalesced, forming a single mass.

A massive, ten foot tall beast stood in their place, its body wrapped in the same fuzzy shadow as Riff’s. The edges of its silhouette-like shape moved like tongues of black fire, writhing and dissolving as if it were living smoke. It slowly stalked forward on six monstrous legs as a deep, guttural laugh bubbled up from within its depths. Then it spoke again.

“YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HIDE FROM ME, RIFF?! I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR YOUR TREACHERY. ANOTHER MILLENIA IN THE VOID, PERHAPS? OR MAYBE I’LL JUST SNUFF OUT YOUR LITTLE FRIEND, HERE?”

“Riff!” Snooze declared, unable to process what she was seeing, “what’s going on? What is this thing?”

She could feel Riff pulling, trying desperately to move her back further as the giant creature advanced on them. Wherever its feet touched, the grass blackened and died, sizzling.

“She found me,” Riff said, never taking her eyes off of the monstrosity, “I thought I had bought myself some time. I thought I’d been careful…”

“Riff!” Snooze exclaimed again, trying to snap the other god out of her trance, “who is this?”

The shadowy god shook her head sadly, and Snooze could hear her voice breaking again, though this time it was from pure fear.

“I’m so sorry, Snooze. I’m so, so sorry. It’s my Archangel,” she said, her tone quaking, “Perth the Devourer…”

“...and she’s come to feed.”