Spirits of the Earth

Continued from here (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=14416.0)!

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It was some time before Axieva went through the door. She opened it twice and promptly shut it, alarmed that an alley really was on the other side of it, but the third time she opened the door, she steeled herself. She was braver than this. Bolder than this. Her kind were proud and fierce! Feared by many tundra dwellers, mighty hunters, courageous and strong! She had the blood of many fearsome ancestors running through her veins and had spilled the blood of several powerful warriors!

She would not be defeated by a door.

And so, picking up her bag, she gave an irritated growl (directed at herself), closed her eyes, set her ears back, and rushed through the door full tilt, feeling like she needed to move fast before she lost the nerve--

And found herself crashing headlong into Rit.

True to his word, Rit was on the other side and as she grabbed onto him to steady herself, she found herself in Zantaric, nose full of familiar smells and ears full of the din of humanity. Blinking up at him, her cheeks reddened--a rare occurrence--and she pushed off of him and righted herself, brushing off her skirt in a display that was meant to be cool and casual, much like a cat that had missed its prey and took to licking its paw like it meant to do that.

"You are here," she remarked with a flick of her ear as she slung the bag over her shoulder. "Good. Come, then! I want to be rid of this."

And, turning on her hoof, she started through the alleyway and put her back to him, because she was still a little embarrassed and didn't like showing it.

Rit didn't really notice that Axieva didn't come through immediately. Time flowed differently for him while he was immortal. And as her cheeks reddened and she displayed common humanoid female behavior that could indicate any number of emotions, from shame or embarrassment to attraction and a desire to mate, he found himself reading her aura and wishing he weren't so polite. He could just pluck her thoughts from her mind, and then reading body language and the changes in aura wouldn't be necessary in discerning what his response should be. Since he didn't know, he simply smiled at her and fell into step.

He didn't like the energy of this place, and decided to not walk on the ground, instead having his foot falls stop half an inch above the street. As they walked along, he caught a glimpse of himself stalking through the streets in his mortal form. An immortal Rit would be invisible if he were stalking. It was best he not interfere with his future self though, so he ignored him and stuck to following Axieva.

He silently wondered where they were headed and hoped that no pickpockets or rogues tried anything. He preferred to avoid confrontation when possible. Unless of course it was part of an experience he was going for.

The embarrassment faded fast and Axieva easily lead the way through the town, mostly sticking to side streets and avoiding the busy main roads. She wasn't fond of crowds and tight spaces, though few people had ever given her trouble. She didn't move like prey, always striding with purpose, confidence, and alertness, and so she wasn't perceived as prey. Her strange appearance helped.

Every now and then, she glanced back at Rit to be sure he was still there, since she couldn't hear his footfalls. Not that she was worried about getting ditched or anything! Of course not. But realizing that's how it might come across, she flicked her tail, held her head high, and made a point of not looking back until they reached the home of her contractor.

It was a sturdy building located in the heart of Zantaric, near a homely inn. Striding up to the door, Axieva banged her fist loudly on the wood.

"Alec! Open up!" she barked, cutting straight to the heart of the matter. When there was no response, she banged louder, and didn't stop. She knew he was there. She could hear him, and others, beyond the door. "Alec! ALEC! ALEC!"

Beyond the door, the sounds of cursing, several thumps, and muffled laughter fiitered through the wood. Seconds later, the door opened a crack and an eye peered through, and then it opened wider to reveal a tall man in his 30s with mussed brown hair, a jagged scar crossing over his face and nose, and a scruffy attempt at a beard. He was shirtless, and his pants looked hastily thrown on as the laces were untied. He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, and gave her a tired, agitated look. Beyond the door, Axieva could hear feminine giggles.

"Gods fucking dammit, Eva! Whatcha want? It better be fucking important."

Axieva curled her lip, baring sharp teeth, and flattened her ears. "I hate that." With an irritated grunt, she slung the bag over her shoulder and let it hit the doorstep with a thud. "I have your head."

Alec snorted. "Pretty sure it's still attached."

"Stupid. I have the head. Call me 'Eva' again and it will be yours." Rolling her eyes, Axieva reached into the bag and pulled the woman's head out by her blond hair. She thrust it at the man, who grimaced at the sight. "Pay me."

Alec let out a sigh and rubbed his temples. "Can it wait? I'm a little occupied."

"No. Your females can wait. I did the job, you pay. Now."

Another sigh. "Such a fucking mood killer," he grumbled, and shot Rit a look. A look that was somewhat pitying. "Who's your friend?"

Rit bowed politely to the vulgar man, and in that moment looked back through time to discover the names of his companions without having to resort to mind reading. "It's your pleasure to meet me I'm sure. I am Ritousaey, All Powerful Guardian of the Multiverse," he performed his usual flourish at announcing his name, "If pay 'Eva'," he said the name with clear derision, "promptly and in full, we can let you get back to Honey and Scarlet. Such unoriginal prostitute names." Rit delivered the last words with a complete deadpan expression. People like this Alec were always a bother. Thought themselves much greater than they were. If the man was such a gift from god to women, then why did he so often have to pay for companionship? There were plenty of women who would go home with you for an evening, and all you had to pay was compliments. But a vulgar fool like this wouldn't have the tact for such encounters.

"Axieva, do you deal with this man often?" He hoped for less vulgar encounters. Evil didn't bother Rit, but sleaze sure did. After countless millenia, sleaze was one of a few things that could get under his skin.

"Too often," Axieva replied with a disgusted snarl, irritated with Alec's stalling. It was always like this with the man, but he paid well and the work was steady, so she kept coming back to him.

Alec, on the other hand, had gone from scowling to absolutely neutral when Rit introduced himself--and mentioned his whores by name. How did he...? His eyes narrowed a little like he could find the answer if he just squinted hard enough, but when no explanations presented themselves, he shrugged.

"Ah, so you've enjoyed their services too, have you?" he said with a knowing smile, and raked a hand through his hair. That seemed the logical conclusion, because his first instinct wasn't to believe Rit when he'd introduced himself as Guardian of the Multiverse; it was to assume it was a lame joke, and that maybe he'd recognized the voices within. He snorted. "Bet you weren't harping on their names when you had them in your bed."

Axieva growled, and Alec arched an eyebrow. "What? You're not jealous, are you?" he asked her, and when she stared back deadpan and unamused, he gave another shrug. "Right, right. Whatever. You want your money. You interrupted a good time for this, you can be a little patient. Wait here."

Alec closed the door, and Axieva shot Rit a look. "I will have his liver one day." It was said so calmly, it wasn't even a threat, but a promise.

But something Ritousaey said caught her curiosity. She glanced back at the door. "What is a prostitute?"

Rit was shocked for a moment, and then as the question fully sunk in, the grin on his face slowly crawled across his face. He nearly laughed, but that would not be polite. "What is a prostitute?" He repeated it allowed.

"Well simply put, it is a person, most commonly a female, that takes payment for giving sexual pleasure." He could understand that it might not be something that occurred in her culture, but surely in her dealings with the greater populace she would have come across ladies of the night. I suppose if there was no understanding of such a thing, then a person may not understand that the person they were seeing or meeting was a prostitute.

From inside, Honey and Scarlet could be heard giggling at something that Alec was doing. Probably something lewd by the sound of it. But they were being paid to find this man desirable, so really it could have been anything. If he expected them to laugh, they'd laugh.

"The more outrageous the request, or the more time desired by the customer, the more the prostitute charges. The more skilled the prostitute the more they charge. It's like any other service in that way. I personally have never been fond of the skin trade, but it is common over countless worlds."

Axieva stared at Rit. She stared at him like he'd sprouted a third eye, or perhaps built another tower from nothing.

"...And you humans pay for that?" she finally said with obvious disdain, nose wrinkled. She glanced at the door and shook her head. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Pathetic. Disgusting. That explains much. That is not a service. That is not a job. Are humans so pitiful they must buy affection?"

She let out a disgusted sound, something between a scoff and a growl. "It is no wonder we eat you. You're so sad you fail at the most basic..." She made a face as she groped for the right word, and failing that, huffed and made due with five more. "...Most basic part of life!"

Rit smiled at her outburst. "It disgusts me as well. And I thought it might interest you to know that I am not human." He smiled even wider at that. I simply appear human. I can change my form freely. I could just as easily look like an orc, or a dragon, or even a peryton." He demonstrated by shifting his features only slightly so that he took on the look of an elf. "The face I wear is dictated by what I'll most easily go unnoticed as."

Just then Alec came out with Axieva's payment. "Oy! Was you a elf last time I was out here?"

Rit turned to face the buffoon, "Of course I was. I think perhaps you've been indulging in too much," Rit sniffed the air to catch scent of the drugs from inside, "cannabis and wormwood. Be cautious in your use of wormwood, it has driven some mad." He whispered the next sentence so only Axieva could hear, "and we can see that the cannabis has already made him stupid."

So he wasn't a human. A shapeshifter, then? Axieva watched in fascination as his features changed, and Rit earned a few respect points in the process. Her people tended to view all non-perytons as inferior without even thinking it, much the same way humans just knew they were superior to cattle, but at least he wasn't human. Humans broke her brain. It seemed that everyday she learned something new and reality-breaking.

But before she could comment on the matter, Alec returned, and he finally had her payment!

Axieva snorted at Rit's comment, lips twitching into a grin. "Has it?" she whispered back. "I can't tell the difference."

Stepping forward, she snatched the money bag from Alec's hand and shoved the head at him again, as though it were an exchange, but Alec held up his hands and took a step backwards to avoid touching it. "Naw, you keep it. Or eat it. Or toss it. Or whatever freaky things you do with it. Seeing it's enough. Anyway, there's your money, now get. Come back in a few days if you want more work."

"Fine." Axieva shrugged and, before he could close the door, she rolled the head through the opening, then turned to rejoin Rit as Alec cursed and the females inside shrieked. She ignored it all, though there was a satisfied smirk on her lips as she grabbed Rit's arm and tugged him along.

Rit was happy to go. Axieva was an interesting creature. Killing didn't bother her, it was natural, like predators and prey. But prostitution offended her in a way she apparently couldn't seem to explain. That amused him and pleased him as well. The skin trade was not something he was fond of.

Following behind Axieva, he walked silently, wondering where they were headed. He saw his future self creep by again, still shadowing the same target it seemed. This place was filled with all kinds of vile sorts. Addicts, arsonists, bookies, burglars, con artists, crooks, drug dealers, extortionists, fences, forgers, gamblers, grave robbers, hooligans, impersonators, insurgents, johns, larcenists, loan sharks, kidnappers, muggers, murderers, necrophiliacs, oglers, pickpockets, pimps, pirates, profiteers, prostitutes, rapists, seditionists, smugglers, thieves, thugs, usurers, utterers, vandals, and so many more. The number of small children running through the street worried him. Growing up in this sort of environment would only perpetuate the cycle of waste. Perhaps he could be a force for change. More likely he'd start a war of, them versus him. He's have to kill many, and reign over them like a conqueror. That wasn't his way, and most of the criminals would simply flee to take their illicit activities elsewhere.

One particular little boy caught his eye. The child was watching a prostitute not far away. Rit doubted anyone else noticed the boy there, crouched down, filthy, clutching a sharp stone in his hand as protection. The prostitute was likely his mother. Why else would the child watch her so intently? It was a sad and not uncommon story. Prostitutes got pregnant, and then didn't care for the child when it was born. Rit nudged Axieva and nodded at the sex peddlers, lined up, displaying themselves as wares.

"Those poor souls are prostitutes."

When Rit pointed the females out to her, Axieva came to a stop and stared. She didn't care if they noticed her staring at them as they flirted with passing men in a way that, to Axieva, reeked of desperation. It was sad. It was pathetic. It was disgusting. And it was a spectacle that Axieva realized, very uncomfortably, that she'd seen many times before in the human cities.

She had always assumed that was just how they did things, odd as it was. It would have never crossed her mind that they were selling their bodies to be used like objects.

She felt no love toward humans, but watching the little one pine for its mother was...unpleasant. It would surely die, perhaps of neglect, maybe picked off by others. It would be easy prey for her, were she hungry, and from the way the mother was behaving, it wouldn't be missed. But she wasn't hungry and it would just be a wasted life, and for all that she killed, she did not kill needlessly. Waste was not tolerated on the tundra, where resources were scarce. And when they could, they avoided killing young, and females with young, to give them a chance to grow fatter and breed.

After a moment, she tore her eyes from the scene and glanced up at Rit.

"'Poor souls' says you. How are they 'poor'? They are selling themselves, yes?" She sneered back at the scene and tossed her head, arms crossing over her bare chest. "The fawn is the 'poor soul'. It will die."

The prostitute, obviously the mother, noticed the boy watching her then as she began to walk away with a customer, and she barked something rude at the child--telling him to piss off, more or less.

Axieva hissed out a breath through her teeth. "Stupid doe," she growled, and without another word, she marched toward the prostitute, unable to stand the sight any longer. Grabbing the young "fawn" roughly by the arm before he could yelp and flee, and slapping the rock from his hands before he could use it on her, she tossed him over her shoulder and stalked toward the female and her...customer?

"You," she barked, jabbing a finger at her. "Close your legs and feed your damned young!"

Rit couldn't say he was surprised by Axieva's reaction, but he hadn't expected it to become so extreme. Before the seen could go any further Rit stepped in touching Axieva on the shoulder and freezing time around them. The boy, on her shoulder was brought into their free flow as a result.

"Lovely Axieva, you are so kind, in your way. You wish to see this child cared for, whatever your reasons." He took the boy from her gently and set him on his feet beside her, "What's your name child?"

"I don't have a name johnny," the boy trembled with obvious fear, calling Rit what he heard his mother call all men, "they call me lots of things. Mostly rat or flea."

"Well we'll change that, I'll give you a name," he smiled at the boy, "You stand here by my friend, boy, and I'll make sure you never go hungry again. Let us adults talk first."

He stood straight and talked again with Axieva, "I call them poor because they know no other life. Many of them were born into this life. Others were stolen from their parents at a young age and sold into this life as slaves. Some are addicts, so dependent on the drugs yet so addled by them, that this is the only way they can make money to feed that addiction." Rit looked at them sadly. "If this boy had been born a girl, the child would probably already be giving sex for coin," he looked back at the boy then, "I will save this one, but I cannot save them all. I am not exclusively a savior, more like a judge. There are many reasons these women sell themselves, and few decide on this when they're journey starts."

Rit leaned down to the childs level, "who is your favorite hero in the adventure stories you've heard?"

"I ain't never heard no adventure stories johnny," the boy replied.

Rit thought for a moment, "perhaps Dave. No. Dirk. Dirk is an amazing swordsman in a story I know, and it's also the name of a blade. I think the name will serve you well. Though your tale probably won't be Strider worthy," he straightened again, "what do you think Axieva, is Dirk a good name for the boy? Or do you know a name that will serve him better?"

Axieva's expression went from angry to horrified, so much so that she hardly noticed the frozen world around them. It seemed this story just kept getting worse, that it never ended. Rit had initially led her to believe that these "prostitutes" sold themselves willingly. To learn now that many were slaves and made to work through force, that even young ones would be made to sell themselves...?

She cleared her throat and spat off to the side, then passed a hand over her face. "I may be ill," she stated flatly as she thought of her sister, little Jia, and shuddered. Jia would be of mating age now, if she wasn't dead, and she doubted humans would have any interest in their kind, but the idea was still horrific.

"That is vile." But with another shudder, she pushed the thought from the forefront of her mind and focused on what Rit was saying. A name? Dirk, like a knife? She had no idea what Rit was playing at or how he planned on "saving" the fawn, but she shrugged just the same.

"It is a strong name," she agreed, and managed a toothy smile, though it didn't reach her eyes; she was still bothered by her new knowledge, and didn't like that it bothered her. "Dangerous. Let him be named for a weapon. Perhaps one day I'll hunt him, and perhaps then he'll be a challenge."

Rit smiled at her response. The purity of the statement was not lost on him. It may sound violent or callous to humans, but it was just her nature. And no hostility was intended. "Well lets see what I can make of the boy. To you, dear Xieva, no time will pass. But Dirk here will be a man in just a moment."

He pressed two fingers to the boys forehead, and took him through time and space. Rit took Dirk many amazing places, he educated the boy far better than the best tutors of his world could, on every subject anyone could ever be expected to know, and more. Rit trained him in many styles of fighting, with many weapons. Morals and ethics were not left out, and Rit even put Dirk into situations in which he would need to decide for himself where he stood on the moral spectrum. Fifty years of experiences and training, and traveling passed for Dirk. But after it all he was only twenty years old, such were the powers Rit possessed.

Axieva blinked her eyes and the boy was gone. In his place stood a man. He was clad in black armor, much like that which Ritousaey wore, wrapped in a deep black cloak, hood pulled up, and a black cloth mask that covered his nose, mouth, and chin. His grey eyes were locked on Axieva, and his gold locks peeked out a bit from beneath his hood. An observant hunter like Axieva would notice that he had a short curved blade under his cloak across the small of his back, and many throwing daggers tucked all over his person. Anyone could see the dirk hanging on his hip, and the grappling hook that hung next to it. The boy was now a man, a warrior. He bowed to Axieva, never taking his eyes from her.

"Thank you for interceding in my life. Rit showed me some of the possibilities of what my life would have been like if you had not. Even the best were not pleasant. I am forever in your debt." He then bowed to Rit and turned to walk away. As he blended into a group of shoppers, frozen in time, he too froze, as he exceeded the safe range from Rit's protection.

"He was spared a terrible fate because you stepped into his life," Rit let time flow again, and Dirk was lost from sight. The prostitute Axieva had been yelling at looked even more confused than before. "Shall we go," Rit asked.

True to Rit's word, one second there was a boy, and the next second a man. Axieva jumped in surprise, even though she was warned, and bared her teeth in warning, for he was armed to his teeth and covered by too much clothing, which made him look shady to her. Yet more unsettling was the fact that he smelled just as the boy had--cleaner, yes, but the scent unique to him still remained. And those eyes were the eyes of the boy, but wiser.

He bowed to her, and she blinked in confusion and looked back and forth from him to Rit. Why was he bowing? And to her? You didn't expose the back of your neck to a predator like that, the little fool! And thanking her? For saving him?

Her ears laid back and she shot Rit a truly bewildered look, eyebrows raised and eyes wide. She spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness, because she hadn't the faintest idea of how to even respond to that.

No one had ever thanked her for sparing their life, much less bettering it.

Turning back to him, she scowled and raised a finger. "I...you...no! You are not indebted, you little fool, I only--"

But then he was gone, stepping out of their bubble and into the crowd, which soon began to flow as normal.

She fixed her eyes on Rit, shoulders slouching. "He treated me as a hero. That was not heroism."

"For him it was," Rit gave Axieva a caring smile. "You're in a human world, with human limits and expectations. What you did, though minor, was to do something. Inaction is the enemy of us all. Throughout the many possibilities that his life could have been, this one moment was the singular moment in an infinite number that anyone did anything for him. Had a mortal, and one I consider a friend, not stepped in and shown concern for young Dirk, I would have left him to the results of this mortal world." Rit looked a bit sad at that admission. "It is not my place to openly intercede on a single life. Though I do it from time to time, I try to avoid it, as it can tip the balance. I mostly observe, and only act when necessary for the integrity of the weave of all."

Rit smiled at her again. "And the boy your actions saved has become a good man. A just and righteous soul. He will make a difference in this world."

"Hm," was all Axieva said to that. All she could say. She didn't understand what Rit meant about balances and weaves, but it must be more of that crazy, weird stuff he talked about now and then.

Still, it felt a little weird, knowing some young fawn had grown to adulthood in the blink of an eye--the literal blink of an eye--and now felt indebted to her. Uncomfortable. And it was uncomfortable to think she had a hand in his growing up, that in a sense she had fostered that, similar to raising him but not.

She flicked an ear. "This is a strange world," she finally said, rubbing her face and pushing her hair out of her eyes. "And you are a strange person. I only did what anyone should--ah!" She made a frustrated sound. What she had done wasn't even what anyone should do! It was what was expected among her own people. A mother would never neglect her fawn, unless they were sick, or ignorant from inexperience, and even in those cases they were not alone in the rearing. There were others. There was help.

What humans did was none of her business. It was simply baffling. That was it.

She looked up at Rit. The human noise and smell was starting to get to her, press in on her. "I am done here," she said. "I will find a bounty later."

And then she turned and started to lead the way out, toward the road that lead out of the village and to open spaces.

Rit understood that frustration. Humans and other similar races could be very confusing. There were so many shades of grey. It was a bit easier with cultures that were stark black and white, the lines of morality and duty separated by clearly defined lines. The ant like Formian's with their hive mentality, all blindly following the Queen's commands, existing in total rigid Order, that was an easily understood race. But the chaotic races like humans and elves gave the multiverse, art, and great feats of beauty that even an eternal being like Rit could be amazed by. They were bloodthirsty and vengeful and petty, but they were his favorite. They were the race of his once mother, when he was Aeytrious.

He drifted along behind Axieva, forgetting to actually take steps, he drew a few odd looks as he glided across the ground. Her perspective was interesting, and somewhat refreshing. If more humans were like her the world might be a bit different. Maybe bloodier, maybe kinder. He couldn't help wondering if she were similar enough to a human, anatomically, that she could bread with them. An interesting thought. Axieva the mother of a half human child. It could have her strengths, with the directionless potential of humanity.

Accompanying her was going to prove quite educational, and entertaining as well.

Oblivious to his pondering (and his gliding), Axieva lead them out of the village and into open space, relieved to get away from the press of humanity. Free again, she let out a breath of relief and stretched out her back, arms over her head and spine bending with a catlike flexibility.

"Eugh. I smell like human now," she grumbled, and then eyed Rit curiously.

"You have been quiet," she remarked, eyebrow arching, and folded her arms over her flat chest. "Strange. You are not talking my ear off for once."

Body language. There were races in the multiverse that used a lot more, and some that used none. Axieva's was easily read but not easily understood. It was unlikely that she would really want to know what Rit was thinking, but perhaps a deflection would be best instead of honesty.

"Humans don't have as keen a sense of smell as you. The stink of Zantaric is commonly known though," Rit lifted his legs to sit cross legged in the air as he drifted toward and then around Axieva. He gave a bit of a sniff at the air, and scrunched his nose at her. "Yeah, you do stink. Perhaps you'd like me to freshen your scent? Or I could bring down a nice warm rain on us."

Axieva twitched, leveling a scowl at him when he agreed that she stank.

"Just because I said that does not mean that you must agree," she growled, but there was the hint of a smirk there, as though she were teasing him. Tossing her braid over her shoulder, she glanced skyward, noting that it was cloudless. "How would you 'freshen' it if not with water?"

"With the wind."

Rit smiled at her and with a little twitch of a finger, fragrant flowers sprouted and bloomed all around Axieva. A gentle breeze came in and swept through her clothes, her hair, sweeping the stink of the human city away from her. It picked up the scent of the flowers and bathed her in it. If flowers weren't to her liking, he could give her ocean breeze and sunshine, or perhaps summer rain and clover. Rit gave Axieva a smug half-grin, and a wink.

That was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. Axieva didn't mind water, but she hadn't particularly felt like getting rained on, either. Drying off was always a chore, especially when it came to her thick hair.

But having a sweet-smelling breeze sweep over her, overwhelming the stink of human? Axieva closed her eyes and breathed the flower-scent in deeply, and when it was over, it was over too soon. Eyes opening again, she took another deep breath and was pleased to find that she did, indeed, smell cleaner, and that the floral scent still lingered in her hair.

"Mm, well, that answered my question satisfactorily," she said with a grin, running her fingers through the ends of her braid. She looked up at him then, eyes squinted as though studying him, and then she nodded to herself.

"Yes. I have decided I am glad I kept you," she concluded. "You are very useful."

Rit couldn't help laughing at her remark. Keep him? Such a notion was delightful even if it was absurd. It was pleasant to be liked. Over millenia he had been liked, and loved, by many. He had even landed a few worshipers, though he tried to avoid that. The numbers of those that hated him, and spat at the mention of his name like a curse were also innumerable. But each fresh relationship was just as warm, each new rivalry bitter. Axieva was a pleasant diversion from the usual drawn out assessment of a civilization that he did. Eventually he'd get around to it even here, but not yet.

"I'm glad you kept me as well," he smiled and leaned back as if there was a cushion there that he was lounging against. "And this relationship started with you eating me," he smiled wider at that. "I'm at your whim lovely Xieva. What do you have planned for us next?"

"Perhaps that is why I am keeping you," Axieva said with a cool grin that bore many sharp teeth. "That you cannot die, and can come back from being eaten...that is convenient for me. Prey can be hard to find."

But judging from her expression, that was just more Axieva-brand teasing. Truth be told, the idea of eating something living disturbed her, and she still couldn't quite wrap her head around what had happened with Rit.

Watching him lounge back at his leisure, Axieva rubbed her chin in thought. "I plan little," she finally said, "but we will need shelter for tonight, and a meal. And I will need to find a new bounty soon. For a human, one that does not need to be alive or whole."

Tapping her chin, she looked up at Rit curiously. "You are not bothered by my need to kill?"

"Nah," Rit said simply. He smirked at Axieva's teasing, her teeth would have off put most mortals, but Rit was timeless. He stretched out his legs and floated down to lay in the air just above the flowers. No use crushing them after he had just made them. "You kill to eat, not for the pleasure of the kill." He turned his head to better look at Axieva. "You enjoy the hunt, and you enjoy catching your prey, but the kill itself does not give you pleasure. Just the success of executing your skills expertly. There is a great difference between killing purely for sport, and out of necessity."

Rit rolled onto his side and rotated out of Axieva's way. No use getting kicked if she decided to get moving. "Anything we need I can create. Or we can do it the old fashioned way if you prefer. I have no preference and all the time in the world. If you get really hungry, I can always let you eat me again." Rit gave her a wink, hoping that joke would elicit a decent reply.

Axieva wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue at that joke, a little shudder going through her. "No. Once was enough," she said and, with a grimace, she pat her belly. It still felt odd to think that she had had his flesh inside her even with him sitting right there, talking to her, alive...

That did messed up things to her mind!

His assessment of her, however, had surprised her, and she found herself eying him in a different light. He understood. He actually got it, thinking like one of her kind, even. Slowly, gradually, he was moving from being a strange but interesting and sometimes frightening creature to keep around to being an actual individual that she could, and did, respect. He wasn't afraid of her, and he understood how she operated, and that was...

Surprisingly refreshing. As much as she was loath to admit it, she missed her clan and her people--and in all her travels, Rit was the closest she had found to them.

But that was embarrassing, so she kept it to herself and, instead, focused on more immediate needs.

"So since I will not be eating you, you said you can provide food? Shelter?"

"Of course," Rit smiled gently at Axieva, "I can move you across the world with ease. Food and shelter are just as simple a thing. Much easier than the black tower I created or the meal I shared with you by the hot spring I created." He considered constructing a building there, out of nothing at all. It was a bit close to town though, and it was a bit too open for his taste.

"How about you find a place you would normally find suitable for shelter and I will modify it," he tilted, floating up into a standing position then. Once we're settled I can provide us with any meal you desire. Unless of course you'd prefer the hunt." He didn't mind hunting, but with a wave of his hand he could create a feast for all of Zantaric.

Axieva pondered that for a moment. She didn't much like the idea of eating his strange, magic food--the green stuff had been terrible and she was not likely to forget that experience! But the day was growing late and, truth be told, she was tired. It had been a long day of hunting, encountering Rit (and nearly having a breakdown when he'd made that tower), stalking her bounty, and then bringing it back here--even if they had taken a shortcut.

She enjoyed the hunt and enjoyed fresh, bloody meat, but now that she'd stopped moving for ten seconds, the weariness of the day had caught up to her.

She hated laziness, but...

Looking up at Rit, who was still being a show-off, floating in the air like that, she turned and started walking, waving at him to follow. "Shelter first, yes? If I see something on the way that is edible, I'll kill it then," she said, starting into the withering, dingy forest that lay near Zantaric. She had slept in that wood many times, and long ago had found an old cave that had been some large animal's burrow at some point.

It would be their sleeping spot tonight, whether or not something else had already claimed it.

Rit followed Axieva closely, walking normally for once. He looked around at the land they were passing through. The fields and forest around Zantaric were bleak. The foliage was sparse and dingy, the bark falling from the trees. It was as if the vile hue of the city bled into the surrounding landscape. It was unlikely that anything could be grown in the putrid soil of this land. The orange zinnia flowers he had brought to life were a rare splash of color.

This Universe threatened the existence of the Multiverse. The solution would normally be to destroy it. The Creator however had told Ritousaey that he could not, that he must find a way to balance this Universe without destruction. Rit followed the lines of cause to this world. Blurred from his vision by the presence of his own future, Rit knew that he would spend thousands upon thousands of years on this planet. Zantaric was a great source of darkness within this world. It held caustic energies that would cause evil to spread across the land someday. Destroying it outright was not the answer though. He needed to direct some of the evil to eliminate each other and bring a touch of hope to the land. Nothing worked to bring hope like beauty and life. So he made his first move toward stopping the horrible future this land would have as they walked.

From his footsteps spread new life. The grass and brush began to grow thick and green. The sickly animals and insects that were there grew strong and multiplied. The soil became fertile the land bountiful. The few struggling farmers would find that their crops would produce better this harvest than in any other. Rit's presence here changed the land from desolate to nearly a paradise. The changes spread out from him like ripples from each of his footfalls, in all directions. Axieva would not only see the changes, but feel them as well. She would feel younger, stronger, and be filled with energy. Anyone else caught in the flow of energy would receive the same. The energy would be temporary, only lasting an hour or two. The youth, and the strength, were real however, just as the animals of the forest grew stronger. Rit could here the buzz of bees spreading the pollen of the plants, and was pleased. He wondered how long it would be until they reached the shelter that Axieva sought, and how she would respond to his revitalization of this land.

The cave was not far from the village; just far enough to be a comfortable distance from people, but not far enough away as to be inconvenient for work purposes. They had almost made it there when...everything begun to change.

Everything grew greener, more vibrant.

But the change went deeper, too, for she no longer felt so tired, and...

She turned, throwing Rit a look over her shoulder, because she just knew he was the culprit. Whenever strange things happened, it was him. And after that debacle in the tower, she was coming to accept that more and more. This? This she could handle, more than anything else he had done. She didn't get this magic, or really magic in general; her people weren't mages. But this was something more within her range of understanding, because she had seen mages manipulate nature before.

...Just perhaps not to this extent.

"You just cannot help but meddle, no?" she asked as they walked, a wry smile on her lips. "Not that I complain."

Because not only was the forest now beautiful, but the fresh vegetation had brought game with it, hungry-but-energized animals venturing from their burrows to nibble at the fragrant plants. Unable to help herself, she plucked a zinnia flower and breathed its scent in deeply, then grinned and began to pick some more.

"We do not have these where I come from. Not these ones," she said, gathering a small armful of the blossoms and leaving the stems attached.

"Flowers bloom very..." She paused, trying to find the word. Failing, she shrugged. "They bloom very shortly there. Come!" And when she was satisfied that she had enough, she lead the rest of the way to the tiny cave, which was nestled in a mound by the stream's bank.

Axieva seemed pleased with the changes Rit had made. It was a much better response than her panicking and sicking up, much better by far. Her enjoyment of the flowers he had brought to life, made him happy as well.

"I am here precisely to meddle," he said with a smile, "and the flowers are not from this world. There are some that are very similar, but these are not native. This particular flower comes from the world I first called home."

He followed her to the cave, noting the stream nearby. Perhaps their next meal could be caught rather than be materialized from universal energy. Just because he was more powerful than any being to ever come to this world didn't mean he couldn't make more of an attempt to live like the locals.

"Not of this world...?" Axieva said, staring down at the flowers. That would explain why she'd never seen any in Zantaric! Though the other acceptable explanation would be flowers didn't really bloom in this area.

Taking another deep whiff of the blossoms, Axieva lead the way into the cave, where she deposited the flowers. She would deal with them later. Then she headed back outside and looked up at Rit.

"I will find food. Come if you want, or stay. Your choice." And then, brisk as ever, she headed for the stream.

Her intent had been to drink from it before looking for prey, but as she went to the water's edge, she noticed something she hadn't noticed before: fish. And not measly little guppies, but a much larger kind, enough to make a meal of. Drawing her dagger, she crouched at the water's edge, watching intently, short tail twitching with anticipation, and darted like a viper when one swam too close.

Her knife flashed like a spear, stabbing the creature, and with a little more patience and waiting, she soon had two.

She carried both back to the cave. While she knew Rit didn't need her food, because he could just magic up his own, she had started to accept him as hers and not Other, which at least meant that she ought to feed him. It was habit. You fed what was yours.

"Found fish," she announced, dropping both to the cave floor.

Rit had not been idle in the time Axieva was out looking for food. Instead of his usual conjuring up of food, he had stepped out of time to find supplies nearby that he could make use of. He found a bush of some sort of peppers that were like jalapeño's, some wild onions, wild russet potatoes, and a few large bird eggs. He had an idea for a great snack, but he would have to magic up some of the necessary items. When Axieva returned he was deep frying hush puppies in peanut oil. She had brought her fresh catch of fish. Looked like bowfin, only a bit brighter. Maybe they'd taste less muddy, closer to catfish. They looked perfect for cajun fried fish cakes. Rit somehow doubted that Xieva would be up for that. She preferred her food raw. He was hoping she'd like the hush puppies though. They weren't too spicy, and didn't have any ingredients that would bite at her sensitive nose, but they had no meat in them.

"Sounds awesome," he turned as she dropped the fish on the cave floor. He had been tempted to spruce the place up, make it more like a fancy suite. It was Axieva's space though, and he didn't want to take too many liberties. He handed her a plate with some russet fries and two hush puppies along with a thousand island dipping sauce. Then he reached for one of the fish and began preparing it for the fish cakes. He'd let Axieva try it before he made the other one into the same thing, and he'd be sure to keep all the spare parts of the fish. Rit had a feeling she was a big fan of fish heads.

Of course he hadn't been idle. Axieva should have expected no less! As she'd said, he was a meddler.

But this meddling smelled rather interesting, and she sniffed the air, trying to pick out all the different smells and crinkling her nose at the spicier notes. Her attention was only drawn form her investigation when he handed her a plate of strange food.

She brought it to her nose and sniffed at it. It was...not meat, clearly, but though a large part of her diet was meat, she wasn't an obligate carnivore. Curious, she took a seat and lifted one of the hush puppies, turning it in her fingers to examine it. Then she took a tentative bite, chewed it with her face scrunched as though trying to decide what she thought about it, and swallowed it down. "Hmm..."

Setting that aside, she nibbled at a fry, expression just as thoughtful. It was different. Very different than what she was used to, but not bad. The sauce, however, she gave a wary look and didn't touch. Instead, she pointed at it and lifted an eyebrow.

"Will this burn?" After her experience with the green stuff, she no longer trusted Rit's sauces.

Rit laughed at the question. After Axieva's run in with wasabi he should have know that that would be her main concern. He decided then that his fish cakes would be very mild. Almost no spicy at all, and he'd turn the fish guts into a raw purée sauce that she could spread on hers.

"No no, not at all. Its a little sweet and a little savory, best served chilled. It has sweet pickles in it." He dipped a fry into some of the sauce and popped it into his mouth. "I promise to avoid spices that will hurt your sensitive nose."

He started to make the first bowfin like fish into cakes.

Axieva gave Rit a skeptical look, but she dipped a finger into the sauce anyway and tasted in, nose wrinkling. Not spicy at all, but indeed a strange mix of sweet, savory, and a little sour. She stuck out her tongue and scrunched her nose; while she enjoyed sweet things (a guilty pleasure!) it was the mixture of sweet and not sweet that confused her.

"Not terrible," she concluded, and, sitting down, she took up the untouched fish and took a large bite from it, right from the belly. Entrails dangled from the fish to her mouth, but after a bit of chewing she managed to bite through them. Licking her lips, she started to pick at the fatty skin and eat that first; it was full of oil and where all the best flavors were, as far as she was concerned.

"What are you doing to your fish?" she asked between bites. "It is perfectly good fish."

"I have a feeling your culture lacks in the delights of culinary art," Rit said to Axieva as he removed the skin with a thin flexible knife. He didn't want to lose any of the fatty meat, just remove the tough scaly skin. He had already set the guts and head aside. The majority of the bones were  "I am crafting it into amazingly delicious cakes, with potatoes and other veggies, seasoned with an assortment of spices to enhance and compliment the flavor of the fish."

He smiled at her, knowing she could care less about that sort of thing. He'd do his best to find things that she liked and broaden her horizons with his multidimensional culinary experiences. He would get to experience her lifestyle first hand and share great food with her along the way.

"I'll share a bit with you since I don't actually need to eat. I'mma make a sauce out of the raw fish guts for you to dip it in too. I figured you'd like that."

"Ah. Now this fish gut sauce. This sounds interesting," Axieva said as she chewed on her fish, spitting out bone now and then. When she had satisfied herself with the prime meat of its belly and consumed its oily liver, she moved on to her second favorite part--which was, indeed, the head. She ate the eyes first, enjoying the nutty texture, as she watched Rit work.

"Food in my culture is easy," she said, licking her lips. "We do not like burned meat like your people. Fire ruins the flavor. Fire ruins most things." But then she pursed her lips and tilted her head, licking some blood off her fingers.

"Most things," she repeated. "Fruit pie is good."

On the fish cakes Rit had used a blend of spices that were cajun in style, but very mild, as not to offend Axieva's nose. Mixed with grated potatoes, carrots, and daikon radishes, Rit dipped the cakes in an egg batter before coating them in his spice mix and dropping them in his deep fryer. In the usual Rit fashion, when he needed something not of this world or era, he magicked it into being. A food processor that worked at the molecular level popped into existence and all the discarded fish parts, excluding the head, went in. They were quickly broken down to a smooth paste and dispensed into a mixing bowl. Done with the tool, Rit magicked it away again. To the paste he added achiote powder, powdered garlic and onion, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and thyme. A dollop of sour cream added just the right amount of tang, and cut the herbs enough that the earthy and woodsy notes would be present and not overpower the metallic and brine flavors that naturally occurred in the fish cast offs. The fish cakes were done frying at this point, so Rit plated most of them alongside the fish head, and the bloody sauce he'd made. He handed the plate to Axieva and began eating his own cakes, hush puppies, and fries, all with the thousand island sauce.

"Fruit pies? That sounds like a great idea." So many kinds of fruit in the universe, Rit got excited at the thought of making pies. First he'd start with Axieva's favorite, then he'd show her so many more options once he knew her taste. "What is the best fruit pie you've ever had?"

Though Axieva had adjusted to some of Rit's strangeness, there were moments that brought her back to that time in the tower. Watching him prepare food? Was one of them. Like that thing he magicked into existence that...that turned everything into a paste? She watched him, forgetting that she had been chewing the same chunk of meat for the last few minutes as the cave filled with interesting and alluring smells.

"Being around you, sometimes, is like...is like eating mushrooms," she said as she accepted the plate and sniffed at the fish cakes and the sauce--which she wholly approved of. She dipped one in the sauce and took a cautious nibble, prepared to reject it--but a moment later and she was double-dipping, and it wasn't long before she had finished the cake.

Picking up the second cake and soaking it with the sauce, she glanced at Rit hopefully. "Apple is good," she said, remembering the sweetness and the cinnamon. Now that was a spice she quite enjoyed! She eyed Rit, taking another bite. "Can you make apple." It wasn't so much a question, because she didn't want to sound desperate and wasn't used to making requests, but if that was something he could do, she wasn't so sure she'd be able to contain her joy.

One of the pleasures of an immortal life had always been the food. Rit had the opportunities to try cuisine from a multitude of cultures across the Multiverse. He was sure he could make something that would meet Axieva's approval. Apple sounded splendid. He had a feeling she'd greatly enjoy his favorite recipe. Sweet and tart using equal parts green and red apples, he'd get to work on it right away. With a little help from his power of creation, Rit had a brick oven right there in the cave wall. A chimney let the smoke escape, but the heat immediately began to fill the cave. If he was gonna bake, he wanted a clean workspace.

As Rit stood the ground of the cave leveled out and smoothed into a slate floor. The obvious fire pit, that showed much use, was replaced by a bricked in fire ring, covered with a grill, and topped with a spit. Stationary stone benches grew up from the ground around the fireplace, topped with soft cushions. The bench that rose under Axieva, came in very slowly, so as not to cause her to lose her balance. A chimney hood soon extended down over the fire pit to keep the cave from filling with smoke during its use. It was not much of a cave any longer though. The walls smoothed and were covered in rich cocobolo wood, the ceiling raised and formed into a dome. The opening of the cave grew much smaller, allowing only a single person to pass at a time. The vines that grew on the mound outside, fell to cover the passage so that only those familiar with it's location could easily find it. The chimney's were needlessly tall, disguised as trees, so that the smoke could only be seen from a distance. The hidden dwelling extended further back, going deeper into the ground with steps that led to a now furnished sleeping area. Rit believed Axieva preferred sleeping in a more rugged style, but that did not stop him from making the large beds, or the piles of cushions and pillows. A smaller room extended off the sleeping area, where the water from the nearby spring found its way through. A small fire pit could be found in the corner for heating water. Having a place to bathe and wash garments, was something Rit was sure that even a peryton could appreciate.

Rit had contained his desire to spruce the place up as long as he could, and now, it was a proper dwelling. As all the greater changes had happened, a small kitchen had also come into being. He now stood at a stone island mixing the dough for the pie he was making. He made changes to the traditional pie crust dough, adding sugar and cinnamon so the crust wouldn't be so bland. He used magic to skip the chilling stage, and went straight to the rolling. With the pie tin soon lined, Rit cut the remainder of the dough into long strips to make a lattice top for the pies. Six apples, three green, and three red, popped into existence. He cored and peeled them with ease, and sliced them into nearly wafer thin pieces. He tossed them in lemon juice, white sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. He stacked them neatly inside the pie crust, alternating the green and red apples, and then affixed the lattice top to the pie. Rit brushed the top of the pie with a mixture of egg yolk and milk before he slid the pie into the oven. He could have just magicked the pie, and skipped the whole process, but cooking and baking were things Rit enjoyed doing. The pie would take nearly an hour to bake, and the oven would adjust it's own temperature accordingly, so Rit went to one of the benches around the cold fire pit, and sat down before bringing it to life.

No sooner had Axieva made her comment that being around Rit was like living in a fungus-induced hallucination when he went and proved her point.

Everything within her cozy, musty dwelling changed, just like that, and Axieva clung to the bench the rose from the ground beneath her, sharp nails digging into the cushion and tearing a small hole in it. Even though it rose slowly, Axieva was a creature of habit. She loved routine! She loved normalcy! Routine was security, and even her dangerous, adventurous life had lots or routine! New things were to be regarded with caution before curiosity, and so as she watched Rit alter her space, it was with wide eyes, parted lips, and a heart beating far too fast.

At least it wasn't like that time in the tower. If this had been her first introduction to Rit, she may have had another panicked meltdown, but this time she was more prepared for his hijinks--and at least aware that they weren't threatening. Still, she looked rather similar like a hunted doe as she waited it out, ears flattened and body still.

It was only when he was done and she began to smell the scent of apple and cinnamon that she let out a slow, shaky breath and forced her muscles to unwind. Her heart was still racing, though, and when she spoke she sounded a little quieter than normal.

"Warn me," she said, and drew a deep breath. "Warn me when you must meddle."

Realizing that she was still clinging to the cushion with her nails sunk deep into it, she pulled her claws free, the sound not unlike a cat that had been kneading cloth, and lowered her hooves back down to the smooth, slate floor. She looked around at her new dwelling, blinking. She didn't really know what most of the new gadgets were or what they did--and she was also too interested in the smells coming from Rit's work space to feel like investigating quite yet. Standing up, her hooves clicked along the ground as she walked over to the oven and tried to peer inside, and then she headed back to where Rit was sitting and watched him start the fire.

"You changed my home," she stated. "What is all this?"

"What is this? Comfort."

Rit pulled a block of hazel wood from the air and a widdling knife to work on it. Rit found enjoyment in using his hands to work tools. He could create anything with a thought, but this gave him a tactile connection to the world around him.

"I've disguised your hovel, so its no longer easily found from the outside, and made the interior much more comfortable. You can easily enjoy the wilderness outside, but escape into luxury with ease."

He began to cut and chip away at the wood in his hand. He wondered what it would become.

"It is comfortable. That is not complaint..." Axieva said, looking musingly around her new home. "Just surprise. You will have to teach me how to work these...these..."

She pointed at the new contraptions he'd equipped her home with. "These," she finished, not certain of the words. "Unless you plan on staying long to cook for me. That is...viable."

Indeed, she was finding Rit very useful! Especially since he could make sweets!

Leaning over his shoulder, she peered at the wood he carved. "What are you making now?"

"I'm not sure what I'm making honestly. I let the wood speak to me as I carve, I uncover the figure that is already there beneath the surface." Rit's strokes with the blade seemed almost like a loving caress as it slowly revealed the shape the wood wanted to take.

"And don't you worry Xieva, I'll show you how everything works."

"Good," Axieva said with a nod, and after watching him a moment longer, she moved away from him and went to gather up the flowers she'd picked. Carrying them over to the bench, she sat down near Rit and put the flowers on the bench between them, and set to work, because she needed to do it while they were still fresh and supple.

"I see now is crafting time," she remarked, and began weaving the flower stems together. "I almost felt left out."

It didn't take her long to finish, because she had done it many times before. But soon enough, she had finished her work, and with a wide grin she reached over and plopped a completed flower crown onto Rit's head. "There."

As Axieva placed the flowers on his head Rit finished his carving. His hands had moved with supernatural speed and precision and the block had taken shape quickly. He held it in his hands turning it, viewing it and inspecting the detail. It was fine indeed. The detail was something no mortal could match. He handed the carved deer to Axieva. The White Tail Doe was lounging with her legs curled under her, and she looked almost alive, though she fit easily in hand.

"She's beautiful is she not? And the hazel wood is the perfect color for her."

Axieva took the carving and looked it over in wonder, turning it this way and that to study the detail. It was absolutely stunning, a beautiful, lifelike rendition the likes of which she'd never seen. No, that was a lie; the statue Rit had made of her in the jungle was just as impressive, if not more.

"How...? She is gorgeous..."

Eyes still wide with wonder, Axieva suddenly scowled and cut her eyes back to Rit. "It defeats my craft," she said with a snort, nodding at his flower crown. But then she grinned toothily after, to show that was just her way of teasing. "You win. I have not the talent. Weaving flowers is as difficult as I get."

"I hardly think it fair to compare the talents of a mortal, such as yourself, to the immeasurable abilities of an all powerful immortal being such as myself. Gods can create wondrous things, but it is the beauty of your effort that makes your crown so delightful," Rit smiled at his friend genuinely.

"You asked for warning? Observe." Rit pointed at the figurine, and with a thought, he brought the carving to life. The little deer nuzzled it's wooden nose against Axieva's hand as she held it.

Even with the warning, Axieva gasped and nearly dropped the carving when it sprang to life.

Thankfully, she didn't, because it was alive, this little deer...and she was nuzzling her hand...and...

Axieva gaped down at her, her lips parted in breathless wonder and her heart racing in her chest. Oh gods and goddesses! This was so...so...oh gods, she didn't think she could handle it, and she felt it, felt that she was about to do something very embarrassing, but by gods she couldn't help it! It was too much, even for her!

Surprising even herself, Axieva let out a sudden squeal and hugged the doe to her chest, her body practically curling around the little deer. "She. Is. So. Precious!"

Rit grinned at the unexpected response from Axieva. Her smile would probably be intimidating if he were mortal, all those sharp teeth. From his immortal perspective though, it was quite pleasant. She was a beautiful creature. He longed to restore her eye and her wings, but he knew that she carried the scars like badges of honor. It would not do to rob her of that. What a sight it must have been to see her fly.

"If you wish for her to 'sleep', all you have to do is tell her that, and she will hibernate until you tell her it's time to wake up. Since she's made of wood, she needs no sustenance, but you can feed her anyway if you like, without the worry of a mess. She is yours now Axieva, I think you should name her."

Still beaming, Axieva looked up at Rit and thought for a moment, ears perked forward.

"Names, names...I think..." She stroked the little deer between the ears with her fingertip and grinned when the doe leaned into her as she scratched the base of an ear.

"She will be 'Uxia'," she said at last, and looked at Rit again as though wanting his opinion.

"Beautiful," Rit said with a smile, "the much more pleasant form of Eugenia. I love it." He thought it best he make his gift to Axieva indestructible. Uxia getting broken would not be a good day to see. He did nothing visible, but it was so. The tiny wooden dear could now never be harmed.

Axieva's toothy grin grew at Rit's compliment, and though the doe was wooden, she cradled her like a fawn. Despite her usual coldness, she was not known for coldness among her own people. She had cared for the children of her clan, even wanted fawns of her own. While this doe was no child to her, for deer and perytons were not the same even if they were kin, she still regarded it the same way a human might regard a puppy. As something adorable that tickled her gentler side.

The doe curled up in her arms, and Axieva finally looked up from her to regard Rit. "Thank you," she said, and though she'd never said that to Rit before--and scarce said it to anyone outside her clan, if at all--she delivered the words the same way as anything else: blunt and matter of fact. "This is the best gift."

"Well I'm glad my effort is appreciated so much," Rit said to Axieva, "but I feel the experiences you're giving me by letting me accompany you are the best gift." A magical chime sounded that the pie was just about ready. Only a few more minutes and he'd be able to see the joy on Axieva's face as she tasted the pie he had crafted by hand.

Axieva jumped at the chime, growling involuntarily, and then relaxed again when she saw that Rit didn't look concerned at all. "What was that?" she asked, head swiveling as she looked for the sound's source.

"You have put so many new...things here. You will have to inform me which ones make noise."

"That was just a chime the magic oven makes to inform you that your food is nearly ready, in this case, our pie. It will 'ding' when its done cooking." Rit turned his head to look at the open brick oven. "We'll still have to wait for it to cool off though."

The smells wafting from that oven were positively tantalizing, and even more so to someone who has as sensitive a nose as Axieva. She had been too distracted by the doe to focus overmuch on that, but now that Rit drew her attention to it, she found her mouth watering.

"It smells good," she said, and though she had eaten her fill already, it was amazing how she always had room for sweets, no matter what. With a wistful sigh, she turned and stretched her long legs out on the bench and let the little doe curl up between her thighs. "Is it much longer?"

"Not much," Rit told Axieva, "the cooking part should be done any moment now." There was a 'ding' sound shortly there after, like a tiny high toned bell being struck. The pie slid forth from the oven and with a wave of his hand, Rit floated it through the air. It came to rest on a cooling rack, across from the oven.

"As soon as it's cool enough to eat, you can have as much as you like. But it's best you not burn your tongue."

Axieva had started to scowl when Rit told her she would have to wait, but at the mention of tongue-burning, she conceded and wiped the scowl from her face. That was another reason she hated cooked food, with the exception of sweets. It was always so hot! She liked her meat warm, sure, but she liked it body temperature.

She breathed in the sweet, cinnamon scents and her belly growled. She quickly looked away from it, because she needed something to distract herself before this became sweet torture.

She bent a leg and wrapped her arms around it, peering over at Rit. "You know much," she said at last, and decided to ask a question that had been on her mind for a bit now, but which she'd dared not ask. "Do you know...have you seen others of my people?"

Rit shook his head in negative to Axieva's question. "Other than the large creature I killed upon arriving here, you are the first being I met. You have seen all the people I came into contact with in your world." Rit reclined into open air, kicking his feet up onto an ottoman that wasn't there. "I could though, at some point. I may make a point of it now that I've met you."

Axieva's face fell with disappointment, ears drooping. She had been hoping that someone powerful as Rit would be able to give her some answers.

"I see," she said, and sighed. "There may be none for you to meet."

        "I may not be using my mind reading abilities on you since I find it rude," Rit told his companion, "but I can see as plain as day the fear and loneliness in your expression." He stood and crossed the few steps it took to reach Axieva. He kneeled before her and looked into her eyes. "There is nothing I cannot do. Whatever gods you worship, I am more powerful. Whatever miracles you can imagine, I can out do. I could take you anywhere, or anywhen. If you'd like to revisit your younger self, we could. I could take you to the future. I can heal any wound or scar. I can remold the world in any way I wish. Having me as your friiend is like having a genie that can grant an unlimited number of wishes without any rules or restrictions. Want to be younger, I can do it, want to be male, I can do that too. I could take away the scars of your battles, though I know you wear them like a badge of honor. Finding your people, taking you to them," Rit smiled softly, "those would be simple things for me to do. As easy as granting you any other wish you had. I will not kill for you though Xieva," he shortened her name, hoping she wouldn't mind the affectionate term, "or commit any unprovoked harmful acts."
        "So what would you like me to do first," the soft hum sounded from the direction of the pie, "after you have as much of that pie as you can eat of course?" He stood and moved to the pie. A knife appeared in his hand, and he sliced into into eight perfectly even wedges. He served one onto a plate he pulled from the air with a pie server that knife turned into. He handed the plate to Axieva, and as it entered her hand a fork materialized on the edge of the dish.
        "Enjoy!"

Axieva's mind reeled as she tried to absorb everything Rit just told her. He could heal her? Give her back her wings? Take her to her people? For a long moment, she didn't breathe as she stared back into his eyes with her remaining one, her heart racing in her chest. She could see her people again...

Goddess, how many years had it been now?

Far too many, and her heart ached at the thought. She had buried her loneliness deep down inside for a long time, but Rit brought it right back to the surface with those promises--and Axieva had seen enough of the wonders he'd accomplished to believe he could do it, and she had grown fond enough of him over their time together that she didn't even mind the shortening of her name.

The only ones who could get away with that were those she felt affectionate toward.

She was still gaping in awe when the timer went off, and she snapped out of her daze when Rit brought her a plate of pie.

Taking it from him, she set the fork aside (she wasn't sure what to do with it) and picked up a chunk with her fingers. "You could find my kind..." she said at last, still holding the piece of pie. "I could ask no more than that. That would be...that would be..." She struggled with finding the right words, but could find nothing--in Common, nor in her native tongue--that conveyed the sheer level of gratitude and awe she felt, and it was a little hard to speak through the sudden tightness in her chest.

"I could never repay that."

        "I don't need payment," Rit told his friend, "Xieva, I'm more powerful than the gods that created this world. I want for nothing. The limits The Creator put on me, make it so I have to learn about a world first hand before I decide if it should be saved or destroyed. Yours will be saved, but I must find ways to balance it. There is much darkness here on your earth. Healing you, or taking you to your people, are things that would bring light, bring balance. They are my duty. Besides, I will do these things for you because I like making you happy. You're my first Peryton, I'm inclined to show you a bit of favoritism."
        He floated his own pie, that he had served while he talked to her, in the air beside him as he walked over to her. He reached up and gently removed the eye patch from Axieva's head then leaned in and kissed her face, just below the damaged socket. The flesh around it healed as the eye grew strong within, the vibrant color returning. He stood straight and smiled at his little peryton. Then he sat across from her and began to eat his pie.
        "I thought we could start small," he said around a mouth full of apple and crust. "This needs ice cream," and with those words a scoop of ice cream appeared on his pie. Another appeared along with a bowl that now floated in front of Axieva. He didn't wanna ruin her pie if she didn't like the vanilla bean ice cream that he enjoyed.

It was a lot to take in, that Rit was so powerful. Of course Axieva had witnessed numerous miracles with him, everything from him coming back from the dead, to constructing that tower, to freezing time, so...goddess, so many things! But it had all been a lot to wrap her head around, and Axieva had blamed much of it on powerful magic, had hand-waved it and lived in stubborn denial. But there came a point where you could deny things no longer, and Axieva had finally reached that point.

She crested it when he removed her eye patch and kissed her. Before she could so much as give a surprised reaction or grab for her eye patch (for she was ugly without it, the eye gone and the flesh horrifically scarred), she felt the shift, felt everything...change. And then her vision blurred, and for a moment she was panicked before she realized her blind spot was gone, her vision wider.

Her breath caught in her throat and she reached up and felt at her eye and felt, beneath the eyelid, the fleshy roundness of an eye, and when she opened that eye and shut the other, she could still see! Her vision was blurred still, for it had been years since she'd had two eyes and her other eye had adjusted to compensate, but...

She had both eyes.

She had both eyes.

And the flesh around that eye was smooth.

She was still touching both eyes and opening one eye and shutting the other when Rit remarked that he'd start small.

Small!

She spun on him, the plate of pie she held forgotten. "Small? This is not small! I have an eye!"

And without thinking, she flung the plate aside and tackled Rit in a full-body hug, mindless of the pie and ice cream he held for himself.

        Axieva's pie and ice cream floated down gently to land out of the way. Rit's teleported to the nearby table as he spread his arms in preparation of the tackle. Off his stool they flew, and he wrapped his arms around her to return the hug. He laughed at the joy she communicated through the embrace, and laced his fingers into her hair. Mortals were so easily pleased, and it was something he enjoyed very much. Her happiness was his happiness. He slid his hands across her back and modified her clothing so that when he returned her wings to her they would easily fit through. He didn't give them to her yet though. It was best that he give her tie to adjust to a new eye before he added wings to the mix.
        "Actually, you have two eyes," Rit said, still laughing. "Now when you finish your pie, perhaps you'd like to go flying with me? Your body will need to exercise your wings to get used to their return."

"Wings? My wings, too? Oh, Daveshka, yes!" Even with her eye restored, it was difficult to wrap her mind around that. Losing her wings had been like losing her soul. She would gladly give her eye for them, or an arm--anything!--and the trauma of their loss (and everything else that had happened during that time, like the loss of her people) was something she had never been able to overcome, even though she acted like it didn't bother her.

She thanked the goddess that she'd never woken up sobbing around Rit.

With a delighted laugh, she hugged Rit tighter, squeezing him in an embrace hard enough to make ribs creak--well, on a mortal, at least.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said over and over, slipping into her native tongue on a few of those 'thank yous'. She grabbed his face so she could kiss both cheeks and his forehead, and then released him and rolled off of him, still beaming ear to ear--and baring all those sharp teeth in the process.

After all this, with her stomach doing flips of excitement, she wasn't so sure she could eat--but eating also meant wings, so she grabbed her pie from where it was floating and began to shovel it into her mouth, still seated on the ground. It was delicious, but nothing would ever taste so good as the promise Rit had made.

        "Slow down," Rit told her, "try the ice cream, it's cold and sweet." He pointed to the bowl that floated nearby, a spoon sticking up from the cold vanilla dessert. Released now from Axieva's embrace, Rit sat and ate his ice cream. He smoothed away all Axieva's old aches and pains, smoothing her skin of its scars. In such a rush to finish her pie, she would likely not even realize that she had been healed of all the evidence of her hunts and fights. Sure, she would likely have new scars in a day or two, but she would get to enjoy healthy young skin along with her new eye and wings. She would truly be whole again. While he was repairing the trail of scars that laced her body, he had a little fun, shifting the color of her hair and eyes. She couldn't see that it was happening, and she'd feel no change, and when he settled her back to her original hues, he decided he liked her best that way.
        "I can do more than just restore you. I can improve upon you as well." With the notion of a thought he changed her as she sat eating. The way her muscles were made changed ever so slightly, but with great results. She would now be twice as strong, but without the increase in mass, she would not lose her speed. In fact, it would likely be greater. To compensate for more powerful muscles he strengthened her bones, once again not changing the density or their weight. He changed the way the cells aligned, really the way the atoms bonded. They were stronger than steel now. Increased strength and speed would require better circulation, better oxygen distribution. So of course Rit strengthened her heart as he did her other muscles, and improved the way her lungs worked. All her biological processes were improved along with it. She would get more from the things she ate, and her body would produce less waste. In turn she'd need less food, drink, and sleep. She would never get sick, or contract any disease. She'd age at a slower rate living close to twice the age of her kind. Her already amazing hearing and sense smell he only improved slightly, but her eyes he made drastically better. A creature with wings should be able to see the details of things far below, and so he gave her eye sight that would rival an eagle. He was tempted to give her gills, but he thought that might be overstepping.
        Most of these changes, unlike the smoothing of her skin and playing with the color of her hair, she could feel happen. Especially since he improved her cognitive reflexes. Stronger of body, with a brain to match, she was now the strongest, fastest, and most intelligent of her kind. Soon he'd give her back her wings, and they'd fly together. Any of the changes he made to her he could take away if she did not want them. Any that she kept would breed true. All her children would be as powerful as she. The nearly extinct race of Perytons would be able to rebuild with the improvements he'd made to her. Perhaps with the added brain power some might choose a less tribal life. Civilized human eaters couldn't be the worst thing to ever happen, could it? No matter. Her kind were not evil, and that was reason enough for the improvements to Axieva to be allowed.
        "I can give you the ability to breathe under water too if you like. I just didn't wanna make that sort of decision without your consent." He really thought she could use some gils. Perytons that could breathe under water sounded like a great idea.

Axieva swallowed her bite of pie and reined herself in as best as she could, grabbing for the bowl as Rit suggested but forgoing the spoon. That she picked up and set aside before she took an experimental lick of the ice cream--and blinked in surprise, because it was good, and it wasn't long before both ice cream and pie began to disappear.

She wasn't aware of Rit's little adjustments and manipulations, so lost in her own thoughts and meal. But somewhere along the way, she realized she could see better when her blurred vision sharpened, and hear better when she started picking up sounds she hadn't noticed before. She paused in the process of taking a bite of pie and stared down at the chunk she held, head tilting, eyes narrowing, as though seeing it for the first time. Then she finished the bite and looked up at Rit, who looked clearer to her eyes than she'd ever seen him before; she could make out details she hadn't known were there, make out individual strands in his hair.

And then Rit spoke, saying something about making her breathe underwater, and it all clicked. He had been changing her.

"What did you do to me?" she asked, but there was no anger or accusation in her voice--only wonder. "What you did, I like it--but underwater, no, not necessary. I do not swim much."

        Rit grinned inwardly at the inflection in her voice. Axieva was apparently not fond of water she could not stand in. Her hooves likely a part of the cause. Without feet that could push her through the water, she had not experienced the joys and freedom of swimming. It was much like flying, only through water. She might be convinced if she could enjoy it, but changing her hooves would take away from the core of what she was. A deer. So Rit decided not to press the issue.
        "Your children will be better and stronger than the others of your kind. Just as I have made you. I believe that you will have no difficulty finding and keeping a mate. Once we return you to your people that is."

Axieva flashed Rit a grin then, teeth bared, and puffed up with pride. Stronger than the others, he said? And he would give her her wings back? And goddess, to find her people again, to pick up her life after all that happened, all she had lost--her mate, her family...

She hadn't ever thought that a family could be possible. Not after everything. She had given up on that dream long ago.

She still had her doubts.

With a light laugh, she shook her head. "On that matter, we shall see," she said, still grinning. "If any are left who can handle me."

        "Well, it doesn't really seem you're enjoying that treat much," Rit said, noting the speed at which Axieva ate. "Perhaps we should save treats for celebrating your new wings." He stood, and his own pie and ice cream vanished, as if it had never been there. All the cleaning that needed to be done, was just, done. Only Axieva's dishes remained, in her hands, since she had been eating. He didn't want to be rude.

"What?" Axieva's ears shot up and her eyes--eyes!--went wide. She glanced down at her dessert, then at Rit's as he magicked his away, and she pulled both bowl and plate closer and hunched over them, as though shielding them. "No! I am still eating!"

And, as though afraid he was going to take her treats away, too, she proceeded to shovel the rest of her pie into her mouth, practically stuffing her cheeks with it. Thankfully, there wasn't much left. That left the ice cream, which was mostly liquid at this point, and once she'd swallowed down the pie, she proceeded to drink her ice cream.

Or, well, as much as she could manage. She still left behind half of it--not for lack of liking it, but just because she was stuffed.

And because halfway through, she managed to give herself a brain freeze from drinking the cold liquid too fast.

Setting her dishes aside, she curled up and clutched her forehead. "Ohhh, that is good, but why does it hurt?!"

        "Rub your warm thumb against the roof of your mouth," Rit told her, "that should help. You put too much cold in your mouth at once and triggered an increase in blood flow to the brain resulting in pain from pressure. Heat will help the anterior cerebral artery constrict faster, stemming the flow of blood and reduce the pressure." He didn't even consider that Axieva wouldn't know what he was talking about, at least he had remembered to include the remedy in his explanation.
        Rit lifted his legs up and sat cross legged in the air. He drifted lazily toward his companion, then toward the exit. "Come on out when you're ready to fly."

"The...the what?" Axieva stared at Rit blankly. He had lost her shortly after the part about sticking her thumb in her mouth, and now it just sounded like he was speaking a different language. Which was entirely possible! She was fluent in the Common tongue nowadays, but some words and phrases still escaped her or didn't quite translate in her mind, and there were still plenty of words she didn't know.

She just didn't expect him to string so many together in a single sentence!

Rising to her feet, she pressed her thumb against the roof of her mouth and started after him. Already it was feeling better. "I did not understand most of that," she said, removing her thumb with a light pop. "But this helped."

        "I'm sorry," Rit said, floating out the exit, "I forget myself sometimes. Most of the things I mentioned have yet to be discovered here on this world." He stopped a few feet out and stood, planting his feet firmly on the ground. A ray of sunlight fell through the trees striking his face. He moved branches aside with a thought and the beam widened, taking him in entirely. The warmth of a sun always pleased him. He opened his eyes and face Axieva as she came out.
        "Would you like to feel them grow," he asked her, "it will not be painful, I assure you. Or would you prefer them to just be there as if they were never gone?"

Axieva didn't even have to think about that one.

"Like they were never gone," she said at once as she came up beside him, blinking in the light. It was still so...gods. She could see properly again! See better than before! She stared up at the trees above, marveling that she could count the leaves, make out birds hidden among the branches. It was...beautiful.

"Like they always were," she continued, still staring up into the trees, distracted as she followed the path of a squirrel. "Pain, I don't care about. I would take any pain for this."

        Axieva didn't seem to go in much for the theatrics, so Rit didn't bother. One moment Axieva had no wings, the next she did. Easy modifications to the furs she wore, made it so she wouldn't have to struggle to remove them. Her newly replaced appendages were just as tough as she was, and powerful. She'd be able to fly higher, faster, and for longer periods, than she could with her old wings. Rit took a moment to look her over, and felt warmth at the sight of her beautiful wings.
        "Would you like to try them out now?"

One moment she lacked wings, and the next they were there. Axieva felt their familiar weight settle along her back, and her heart stopped. For a moment, she was almost afraid to look, afraid of discovering that it was only a dream, but after a moment's hesitation she opened her wings and turned to look at them, heart beating faster as she caught sight of them as they arced over her head. It was as though they'd never been been hacked from her body; in fact, they felt even stronger.

They were the same brown color as her hair, though the primary and secondary flight feathers were turquoise, like the streaks running through her bangs. She stared at them, fanning the feathers out and giving them a small test flap, and reached out slowly with a hand to run her fingers along the tips, needing to touch them to confirm their realness.

They were real.

She had her wings back...

Something hot ran down her cheek, and Axieva realized, abruptly, that she was crying--something she hadn't done in years. She quickly wiped at her eyes, embarrassed, and took a deep breath before looking back at Rit. She didn't respond with words; she felt a bit too choked up to trust herself to speak. Instead, she nodded, snapped her wings open to their full span and launched herself into the air.

Even though it had been years, her body remembered what to do, and the new strength Rit had given her made it effortless. She rocketed up through a gap in the canopy above, ears flat against her head as the wind rushed through her hair and tore her hair free of its braid. In seconds, she was high above the trees, and she spread her wings wide to catch the wind and glide.

With the wind in her hair, sun on her skin, and land spreading out around her as far as the eye could see--and with her new vision, she could see for miles--it felt like something out of a dream, a dream she'd had for many nights but had never hoped would come true. And yet, here it was, and it was real. Staring out over the land, she let out a delighted laugh that came out half-sob, and she had no idea why she was crying, because she was happy--that happiest she'd been since she'd lost her people--but the tears wouldn't stop.

        It was like the pop of a soap bubble when Rit stepped through reality to arrive next to Axieva as she flew. He lounged in the air, lying on his side, with his head propped on a hand. He kept pace with her, though he made no visible effort at flying, smiling broadly at the happiness she displayed. This is what eternity had taught him to live for. Others happiness.
        "I see you're happy," Axieva heard the words though Rit's mouth didn't move, "I'm glad that I could bring you such joy. Perhaps I should join you in your flight." As she flew, he changed. His body morphed to match hers in species. His boots became guards on his shins, his pants shortening and shifting to fit the new shape his legs took. His armor opened in the back so that his wings could sprout forth, his cloak narrowed, so it wouldn't impede his flight. The straps on his pack and the pack itself changed so as to not interfere with his new wings. Antlers, larger, and more majestic than Axieva's, climbed from his head. His teeth grew to wicked points. His eyes stayed prismatic, but his hair became straight and black, with streaks of orange. His primary and secondary flight feathers matched the orange in his hair, but the rest of his feathers were black like a ravens. Once the changes were complete, he spun away from her, snapping open his wings, taking flight as she did, the wind whipping in his face.
        "No wonder you love this, it's thrilling."

Suddenly, Rit was there, and Axieva made a valiant effort at stoicism. She quickly stifled her laughing sobs and wiped the tears away. Not only did she just hate others seeing her when she cried, but also didn't want him to take it the wrong way, to think she was upset. Because she was the complete opposite of that!

When he spoke...or..."spoke" (his mouth didn't move!), however, it was clear he hadn't misinterpreted. She flashed him a toothy grin, and was about ready to remark that he already had joined her, but then...

He changed.

And Axieva was left truly breathless.

Because he'd changed, and become a peryton like her.

The first peryton she'd seen in years. And even if he wasn't a real one, even if he'd only made himself look the part, right then she didn't care. He looked like one of her people.

And worse, he made an attractive peryton.

Axieva reeled back from him in surprise, her eyes going wide and warmth creeping up her neck. For a moment, she didn't realize he'd spoken, so distracted was she by...well, by studying him, head to hoof.

"...Yes."

        He flew by his new friend feeling her watching him as easily as he felt the wind upon his face. He released his godly powers for the moment, as he'd learned to do long ago, and let the emotions of his new form flow over him. Flight truly was thrilling, and the world from this point of view was so beautiful. There was a different appreciation for beauty in this form. Everything was beautiful and to be treated with reverence. He could see humans far below, and he noticed a hunger inside him. Interesting. There was much hunger in this form, how did they control themselves. He craved to taste and to feel everything. Perhaps he felt the more primal needs because he was new to the form, perhaps they felt these things as dully as humans felt the need to breathe, that it was just part of life until it was taken away. But the hunger for the hunt, for the taste of flesh was secondary to some other hunger he didn't recognize at first. It took him a moment to realize that it was a need to create a legacy, to show he was a worthy mate, and procreate. Mortal creatures all had this instinct, but it felt different in this form. Rather than a gentle nudging to leave a genetic heir, it was like a deep hunger. With such a primitive race, where violence was the norm, it was likely very important that they breed.
        He felt Axieva's eyes on him again, and he looked over at her, seeing her for the first time in his new body. He had thought her beautiful before, like a flower is beautiful, like a sunset. Now he saw her as something different. There was a rising in his body that made him want to grab her and take her for himself, to make her his and fill her with children that would carry on his strengths. He suppressed it. Reaching for a touch of his godly powers, he pushed the primal instincts aside. As he did, he realized that in his new form, Axieva's looks, which he had thought before were confusion at his change, might be something more. She had the instincts inside her that he had just experienced. He had suppressed them with his overwhelming power, not out of his own need, but because to act on them would not be fair to this life-form he had befriended. Perhaps though, that was what she desired. It would not trouble him to give in to her wants and needs. He'd been catering to them as it was. If she desired this form, he would not deny her. It would be a very educational experience. He was not only here to save the world, but to learn.
        "When shall we break from our flight," he asked, using his new forms vocalization. He sounded nearly like himself, the tone was only off just a bit. It was likely related to the way his lips moved over his dangerous teeth. He let the peryton instincts back in a bit, so they could guide him in this body. "You'll find your new body needs little rest."

Axieva's heart was beating fast as she stared at the new Rit, her wings working automatically. The miracles he'd worked in her had been amazing, things she could never hope to repay and beyond her wildest dreams--but the sight of him like that, in the shape of one of her kind, was just as amazing, if not more so, and it tore her attention away from the wonders of the world around her until she was fixated on him. It had been...years since she'd seen another of her kind, and seeing him like that now made her realize, all in one overwhelming moment, how crushingly lonely she'd been.

And mixed with those emotions was yet another--for she was powerfully aware of just how many years it had been since she'd lain with another.

The wind carried his scent with it, a scent distinctly peryton and powerfully masculine to her sensitive nose, and her pulse quickened. Rit was saying words, but she was only half paying attention, because her mind was racing. She had already begun to feel deep affection for Rit, after all he'd done for her, and after spending so much time with him, and she had been struggling to find a way to show her gratitude.

Now, an impulse grabbed her, an impulse driven by loneliness and a primal, repressed lust--for she'd had no one to lust for for all those years! She hovered in place, staring at Rit longer than was appropriate, debating it over in her head, feeling all fluttery in her belly like she had wings there, too, and not just on her back.

And then, she caved.

Rit had barely finished speaking when she swooped in front of him, grabbed a handful of his hair, and kissed him on the lips with all the pent up passion of several long, agonizing years. Their tusks made it a little awkward, but she adapted, sliding her tongue along his lips and nipping at him with her dangerously sharp teeth, but not to the point of pain.

Axieva was not a timid lover, but deep down, she knew Rit was not truly peryton, and she wasn't sure how he felt--and so she tested him.

"Tell me to stop," she breathed, kissing him again and again, "if you do not like this."

        They were flying, and now they were kissing. He wasn't sure how that worked in the sky. If they would need to land before moving forward. He wasn't really concerned though, he could fly even without his wings. So he let the peryton instincts take over completely. He grabbed Axieva by her hair and pulled her head to the side. He dragged his tongue across her neck and cheek before releasing his grip on her and returning her kiss. He felt the peryton instinct to rip Axieva's clothing from her body, but he kept it back. Perhaps he should ask her how to proceed.
        "Should we land?"

Rit's response was all the answer she needed, and a low, pleased growl rumbled in her throat when he grabbed her hair and licked her neck, her cheek, and her kissing turned more hungry when their lips met again. Heat spread through her body and gathered in her loins, along with an excited thrill, and she grabbed at his pants, prepared to rip them off. She bit his lip and wanted to press her body against his, right then and there, but his question dragged her out of the moment--and pointed out a logistics issue she hadn't been thinking of just then, with her mind fuzzy with lust.

With a frustrated sound, she pulled away from him and grabbed his wrist, giving it an urgent tug. "Yes, come!" she ordered, before letting go of him, right before she folded her wings and plummeted to the earth in a controlled dive.

She snapped her wings open as she neared the ground, and landed softly on her hooves. There was soft grass on the ground, and a quick check showed there were no ant trails in the way, so it would have to do! Axieva was not picky, and had rutted in the grass or up against a rough tree plenty of times. As she waited for Rit to land, she impatiently shed her meager clothes--her fur skirt and chest wrap, which she only wore when among humans, due to their damned modesty--and spread them on the grass. Then she stood there, hands on her hips, and waited for him to land, ready to pounce him the moment his feet touched the earth--or before they did, even.

        Rit knew what was coming. He knew there would be tearing of clothing and mutual attempts at domination as they ravished each other. So before he even landed he magicked all his things away, and landed wearing only a simple leather jerkin and sturdy loincloth. He didn't want to rob her of the fun of destroying his garments, he could easily create more. She had taken off much faster than him, and he had not tried to keep pace. He watched her from above, with his keen eyes, as she disrobed and placed her garments on the ground. Unlike her though, he did not land gently. He folded his wings up as she did, plummeting down, then he opened them to pull himself to a stop mid flight. He displayed the new strength of the wings he had given her, as the force of his quick stop did not cause him the slightest damage. Still fairly high up, he closed his wings again, dropping hard and fast on his hooves.
        The force of his impact on the soft ground sent out a small shock wave, and left a crater that he was at the center of. The body he molded for her could withstand a lot of force, as he showed her in that landing. His eyes showed him that the short grass had been kept short by the teeth of grazing animals, and he caught their scent in his nose. The hunger for flesh was strong, but it was overwhelmed by the lust of his peryton form, and he let the instincts take over completely as he turned toward Axieva with a growl. She was already moving toward him, and he went to meet her. He was going to enjoy this form.

The dust had scarcely begun to clear from Rit's landing when Axieva full-body tackled him, and wrestled him down into the grass. Forcing him onto his back, she straddled his hips and kissed him hard on the mouth, even as her hands roamed his body, her claws finding his jerkin and tearing at it, annoyed with its presence! It was in the way, when she wanted nothing more than to touch him, to get a better look at his new, perfect body and feel his skin against hers, but it was leather and her claws weren't enough.

Her teeth, however, were.

"Hold still," she said with a wicked smile, right before she bit into it with her strong teeth. Jerking her head to the side, she ripped it right down the middle.

"I want to fuck you," she growled, even as she spread her legs wider and bore down onto him, rolling her hips and grinding her sex against his cock through his loincloth, through which he could no doubt feel her heat, and gauge how wet she was. After years and years of frustration, she was more than ready now, and only a loincloth separated them, but for now she worked on arousing him. She tangled a hand in his hair and pulled his head back, exposing his throat to her lips and teeth as she bit him there, and then on his shoulder, hard enough to leave red marks.

        Rit returned the fire in Axieva's with his own. The peryton mind was in complete control and as Axieva pulled his head back Rit growled with feigned anger. His growl turned to one of pleasure at her bites, and his hands went to her hips. He used his strong wings to push against the ground, lifting him up as he threw Axieva roughly to her back. He had felt the warm moisture of her exposed sex through his loincloth as she rubbed against him and he wanted nothing more than to taste that sweet nectar. He tore off the loincloth in a single motion as he stood above her, both his cock and his wings standing erect. He threw the loincloth at her face and with the distraction, he dropped to the ground, folding his wings back down as his dangerous mouth pressed against the folds of his lovers sex. After sucking at her for a moment he began to lap at her like an animal. He cared nothing for her pleasure, he wanted only to taste her, and his tongue sought as much of her sweet honey as it could find.
        Satisfied for the time in what he drank from her, he climbed atop her and shoved his hard cock inside her. He wrapped a hand roughly around her throat as he began pounding into her. He licked her lips, then her face, and as he quickly reached climax he bit her shoulder hard, drawing blood. His seed filling her, Axieva would likely think him spent, but he was still Rit, and Rit was more than peryton, more than god. He did not fall flacid inside her. Instead, after the change in his pace from orgasm, began his rough thrusting once more, growling as he fucked her. He released his grip on her throat and placed his hands beside her head, holding himself up as he drove home, leaning his head forward to kiss her. Axieva would soon find that he could continue as long as she desired, and with her newly strengthened body, she could handle a great deal of fucking before she tired.

Thrown off of Rit, Axieva let out a yelp of surprise as she landed hard on her back, her wings splayed out awkwardly beneath her--delicate, but much stronger than her original pair, and capable of taking the force without injury. She sat up, and got only the briefest glimpse of Rit naked before she took a loincloth to the face. With a frustrated hiss, she grabbed it and tossed it aside--just in time for Rit to press his mouth between her legs. Frustration quickly turned to pleasure and she gasped, flopping back down. She spread her legs wider and grabbed at his antlers as he tasted her, and she rolled her hips against his face to try to get him to lick where she wanted--which he didn't, instead lapping at her.

Before she could vocalize what she wanted, he stopped, drawing another frustrated sound from her, but it didn't last long, because that was when he climbed atop her--and she cried out as she felt his cock plunge inside her, her sex tight from years of forced abstinence, and him larger than many of the men she'd taken in the past. He grabbed her throat and she gasped and raked her claws roughly down his back until blood beaded from the scratches, and when he bit her, she bucked against him harder and dug her claws in deeper, snarling. The pain, mixed with the pleasure of their rough mating, only aroused her more, the tight grip on her throat introducing an element of danger and dizzy elation, and any doubts she'd had about Rit's "peryton-ness" quickly melted--

Until he came, that is.

Warmth from his seed flooded into her and, panting, she stared up at him, her eyebrows raising with a look that clearly said, are you kidding? She wasn't yet close to her own release, and he'd already finished?! Right when things were really starting to get good, too! And after all those years! She opened her mouth, about to comment, but instead of words, a yelp left her instead, because he began to thrust again.

Well, never mind then!

Crying out, her hooves digging into the grass to give her purchase as she moved her hips against him, she kissed him hard, her teeth finding his lip and nipping until she tasted blood. And then, testing her new body, she mimicked Rit and pushed with her wings, flipping them over without him leaving her, until he was on his back beneath her. She grabbed his antlers again by the base and forced his head back, and held onto them as she rode him, lifting until he'd almost left her before slamming her hips back down, again and again, some of his seed sliding down her thighs. She leaned down and bit his throat as she took him, her tusks pressed dangerously against his jugular, and growled her pleasure as she claimed him as her own.

        Axieva had Rit where she wanted him, and though he was stronger than her and could use his godly powers to win this fight, that would not be in peryton spirit. He growled in his feigned anger at the loss, keeping his posture submissive for the time, letting her take him without challenge. That didn't stop him from bucking his hips in earnest to drive his cock up into her. His cloven hooves dug into the grassy soil beneath him as he gripped Axieva's hips with his hands. He was hers, but that went both ways, and as soon as she gave him an opening, Rit would show her he was not easily tamed. He would take what he wanted from her, when he wanted it. For the moment he enjoyed the pleasure she gave him, he deserved it, she better show her gratitude. If she didn't, he'd just have to fuck her into submission. As he had shown her, he was more than a god, and he could literally fuck her for eternity. She'd give in before then. With all the pleasure he could give her, she would be a puddle of unintelligible whimpering.
        "You fuck good female," Rit said in an almost demeaning tone, "almost as good as me." He bucked harder then, heedless of the sharp tusks at his throat. His hands pulled hard on Axieva, speeding her movements to match his own. Just because she had him where she wanted him, didn't mean he couldn't take what he wanted from her.

When Rit began to buck up into her, Axieva's growls turned to gasps, then muffled moans against his neck, and soon she was crying out with pleasure--and releasing her hold on his throat as a result. She kept her grip on his antlers, though, keeping him pinned and his throat exposed in an obvious expression of dominance as she moved more urgently on him, more wildly, tossing her head back and arching her spine, her short tail raised and slightly curled with her enjoyment. She deliberately disrupted his rhythm, moving against his thrusts as she took to slamming down on him and taking him as deep as she could get him, then gyrating her hips in circular motions that pressed her clit to his pelvis and had her shuddering.

Soon she was trembling as she worked steadily toward her release, and she worked her muscles as she did to tease him further, squeezing him inside her as she ground against him. She bit his throat again as she moved on him, and chanced releasing one of his antlers so she could lick a finger and slide her hand down between their bodies, where she began to rub her clit.

His comment drew a rumbling growl from her throat, and she bit him harder, threatening to draw blood.

"Prove it," she hissed, and released him again so she could lick the spot she'd bitten and lap up the small beads of blood she'd drawn. She kissed up his neck and nipped sharply at his jaw, then finally claimed his mouth again in a fierce kiss even as she moaned against his mouth, because between his thrusting, her rocking, and the friction of her finger, she was drawing close, her body shaking and tensing as she neared it, and she let out a whimper as it built and worked all the harder for it, desperate to crest it.

        Rit was glad to prove that he was better at fucking than Axieva. She was just a female. Her body was designed to receive pleasure. His was designed to give it. He reached a hand to grip the top of Axieva's ass, his thumb wrapping around her tail, pulling it gently as his fingers dug into her supple rump. The other hand pressed around her throat, and he used it to leverage her up from him a bit. She may still have his head held back, but with his hand on her throat, and her sensitive tail, he was now in control. He used his grip on her ass to further speed her rocking as he thrust up into her. His earlier spent seed, mixed with her flowing juices, made for the most enjoyable friction.
        His actions did not disturb Axieva's own ministrations on her clit, but the grip on her throat was likely causing that dizzy euphoria that heightened the whole bodies sensitivity to pleasure. Rit bucked up into her harder and harder, the newly improved peryton muscles slamming together with an audible pounding, accompanied with a wet slap. He grunted and growled holding back the climax he was at the edge of, driving deeper and deeper.
        He was waiting for her shudders of release, or cry of pleasure, any sign of her peak. That was when he would let himself spill inside of her again. The perfect crescendo, timed perfectly for conception. She'd come for him she took in his seed, and she would be with child. It was that simple, and he knew it, and his primal instinct needed it, needed to lay claim to her womb.

Axieva let out a ragged cry when he grabbed her throat and her sensitive tail, his fingers digging into her ass, and soon it turned to a gasp as he applied pressure to her neck, her breathing a little labored but not enough to stifle her cries. Now upright, she let go of his antler to grab at his shoulder for purchase, and she dug her claws in and raked them down over his chest. Angry red welts bloomed in their wake, and some of them began to bleed, but she cared nothing for that as he forced her to move--and this time, she didn't resist.

Dizzy with euphoria, a little lightheaded from his grip on her throat, and filled with the escstasy of fucking as his cock hit her in just the right place, Axieva moved with him, slapping her hips down against his and crying out her pleasure. Her tiny breasts bounced with their movements, and as she arched her back and tilted her head, she brought a hand up to play with her own nipples, pinching the hard points between her fingers. Her fevered growls had long since ceased, replaced by feminine cries and moans as, caught in passion, she no longer cared who was calling the shots--because either way, she won, and now she just wanted to enjoy the ride.

"Harder," she gasped out, slamming her hips down on him again and again as she worked her finger feverishly, quickening her pace. "You say you fuck good, so fuck me!" She was so close, so painfully close, her breath coming out in fast bursts, her moans growing louder, her body tensing up--

And then, with a shuddering cry, she came, her entire body trembling and sex pulsing as she fell forward against Rit's chest.

        As Axieva rode the pleasure of her climax, her come running down Rit's hard cock, he moved both his hands to her hips. He rocked her quickly, as he too came, releasing his divine seed into her. She would soon find that she was with child, but at the moment she clearly only cared about the pleasure of her body. After she rode out her climax, the shivers slowly subsiding, Rit dumped her off of himself unceremoniously. Quickened reflexes and improved strength would keep her from harm, so Rit wasn't worried. Out from under Axieva, Rit grabbed her roughly positioning her on her hands and knees. He didn't stand for struggling or resistance and pushed her where he wanted her. Teeth to the back of her neck, and a hand on one of her little antlers, Rit showed her he was in charge as he thrust the entire length of his still hard cock inside her.
        He didn't begin thrusting right away, instead using his free hand to fondle her breasts. He then slid the hand down and rubbed hard on Axieva's clit. He took his teeth from the back of her neck, kissing her before he rose up off of her. One hand on her hip, one wrapped underneath to continue her clitoral stimulation, Rit began to slowly thrust into his peryton lover. Their mixing come, running down both Axieva's thighs, was also thick along Rit's shaft. The fluids made for easy sliding, his cock making soft squishing sounds with each thrust. As Rit picked up speed he used both hands to grip Axieva's hips. He quickly picked up even more speed, slamming into her harder and harder, faster and faster. Once again, the force created a quite audible slapping, the vibrations rippling the flesh of Axieva's ass. Rit was grunting with each contact, baring his teeth in a snarl of aggressive pleasure. He reached up and grabbed one of Axieva's antlers again, twisting her neck so she could see him in her newly replaced eye. He leaned in and licked her face, then nipped at her ear.
        "Beg me for my seed," he said to her in a snarling whisper, "beg me to give you the honor of carrying my child."

Axieva was still panting and sensitive from their rutting when Rit abruptly dumped her out of his lap. She toppled onto the ground with a yell, but before she could scramble back up again, he was on her. She struggled as he grabbed her, but it was a playful struggle--for if she were struggling in earnest, she would have mauled him. Instead, she snarled and wriggled and resisted as he turned her onto her hands and knees, but it was obvious she wanted it just as much as he did from the way she spread her legs and lifted her tail up and out of the way.

She hissed when he bit her neck and grabbed her antler, but pushed back against him when she felt his cock--and groaned when he slid home, deeper at this angle than before. It felt amazing as he played with her breasts, and he soon had her shuddering when he stroked her clit as he thrust into her, her growls of pleasure escalating to moans, then whimpering cries as he moved faster, harder, and by the time he was slamming into her, rocking her body with the animalistic force of it, she was screaming between ragged breaths.

"F-fuck! You--you do this well!"

Axieva collapsed down onto her elbows, her spine arched, knees under her, and rump still lifted, and raked at the grass, ripping out clumps of it as she clawed for purchase. Goddess, it felt wonderful, this raw, primal pleasure, and Rit, though not true peryton, somehow knew exactly how she liked it. Her voice was soon growing raw with her cries, each thrust driving her closer and closer to another orgasm on the tail of her last one, and when he yanked her head around to make her look at him, and said those words...

She did not consider the actual implications of it. Right then, she didn't care. She wanted him, and that was all that mattered.

"Fuck, Rit!" she snarled, and made as though to struggle, pushing up and squirming beneath him. Where was the fun without some resistance, and stubbornness? "I do not--nngh!--I do not beg! You will fuck me, and you will--ah!--you will fill me!"

        "You will beg," he growled as he slammed even harder and faster into her. He released her antler, and ran his fingers down through her feathers. He dragged his claws down between her wings, a small amount of blood rising from the trail. He then gripped both her hips again, slamming in as deep as he could go. Her old body would have broken with the force of his pounding, but her new one easily withstood the power of his thrusts. He slapped her ass fiercely, a red print rising almost immediately, then he squeezed it hard as he continued fucking her.
        "Beg!" he growled again, slapping her ass once more. "Beg for it, or I will not cease in my fucking," he punctuated the words with another slap. The first red print was already fading due to her improved body, but the second two were overlaid and still bright. "Beg for my cock to explode inside you Xieva," another slap, harder than the others, "beg me to put my seed inside you, or I will spray it across your bright red ass instead."

"N-no!" Axieva snarled out between her cries of pleasure, shuddering beneath his claws and his relentless pounding. His hips slapped her thighs and ass with every thrust, bruising them, and his hard smacks made her squeal and jerk, skin stinging from the subsequent blows. It was almost too much, and she clenched her eyes shut and buried her face into her arms, biting down on her knuckles to try to hold in her cries. She could take a lot, even before her new body; she had always enjoyed pain with her pleasure, and had been known in the past to get carried away--to encourage her partner to keep going, even when she should have been telling them to stop, because she was stubborn and because she liked it.

She didn't have the best judgment when caught up in the throes of passion.

Rit was working her hard enough that she was just about to that point--the point where she knew she should be giving into his commands, and yet pride only made her bite down on her finger harder, until she was tasting her own blood. She did not beg! Never!

She demanded.

"No! I will not!" she gasped out. "Y-you will give it to me!" The pleasure and pain of his rough fucking so intense she was clawing at the ground, squirming as though trying to get away even as she kept her ass lifted to receive him. She sobbed, her moans and screams growing ragged, her sex clenching around him as she felt herself spiraling toward release. "Now!"

She came again, her breath seizing and as she buried her face into her arms again, her entire body shaking.

        Axieva's strength of will was as much a part of what made her a good mate as her strength of body. Refusing to give in to Rit's demand that she beg for his seed only made him want to give it to her more. He thrust into her harder and faster and he noted her biting her own hand to stifle her cries. Then she was clawing at the ground and squirming, as she refused to beg. Instead she demanded that he give it to her even as she moaned and cried out in pleasure.
        As Axieva reached her climax, her sex squeezing at his thrusting cock, Rit let himself peak as well. He drove in hard gripping Axieva's ass tightly, pulling her in hard as he slammed home, filling her again. Even as his warm seed splashed inside of her, her body drinking it in, he let himself fall forward. He clutched at Axieva's hair, twisting her head around for an awkwardly angled kiss, his tongue meeting her cheek and lips more than Axieva's tongue. When his cock finishing spurting, Rit straightened, gently running his hands down Axieva's wings. He pulled out of her, his godly cock still erect, and much of his seed spilled from her overly full sex. Careful of her wings, Rit turned Axieva over and brought her close to him. He kissed her roughly on the mouth then stood with his cock close to her face, gripped her antlers and tipped back her head so that she opened her mouth.
        "Clean me," he told her, and brought his cock to her mouth.

Flipped over again, Axieva spread her wings out for balance as she landed on her ass, which was a bit sore, and moaned into Rit's rough kiss, which ended too soon.  When Rit grabbed her antlers and forced her head back, she gasped--but it soon turned into a low growl at his demand, as he pressed his cock to her mouth.

Axieva looked up at Rit and grinned a wicked grin, flashing all those dangerous teeth. He might believe this was an act of dominance, but for a peryton, having someone's mouth around their genitals was an act of trust--for obvious reasons. One wrong move, and it could go very bad, very fast, and one certainly did not want to piss off the person that was going down on them! No, as far as Axieva was concerned, she was in control here--because she was the one putting her teeth near his most sensitive body part.

Just to remind Rit of that, she flicked her tongue over her sharp teeth and then grabbed him by the base of his cock. Still holding his eyes with her own, she licked him like an animal, not taking him into her mouth but rather dragging her tongue over him and lapping at him as he had lapped at her. She tasted his seed on him, and her own moisture, and growled softly as the flavor aroused her, shifting onto her knees to get comfortable, thighs spread and slick with their combined fluids.

        Trusting completely in Axieva, Rit released his grip on her antler and let her be in complete control of her movements. He ran his hands through her hair instead, and down her face and neck. Just because she was on her knees before him, didn't mean he couldn't show her affection while she tended to him. She was a beautiful creature, he was glad he hadn't been allowed to simply destroy her world to restore balance. If he had, he would not have had the chance to meet her. That would have been a real tragedy. He did not take his eyes from her face as he played with her hair. When she looked up at him, his eyes met hers. Even when she broke the gaze, he kept his eyes on her face, watching her work. Years of solitude had not dulled her skill as a lover, and she was a pleasure to watch.

Finally, Axieva slid him into her mouth, slowly and carefully, letting the tips of her teeth graze lightly over him as she did. Her hand slid down his shaft as she did, taking care of whatever her mouth didn't take, and with her other hand she reached down and caressed his balls. She was surprisingly soft and gentle now, juxtaposed with their previous, almost violent fucking, and as he stroked her hair while she stroked him, she growled her appreciation, a deep vibration he could likely feel.

Her tongue swirled around him as she worked, pressing beneath the glans as she slid back until he was almost out of her mouth, and then she took him back in again, deeper, before moving to more shallow motions that focused on the sensitive head. She even took him out all the way before pressing her lips to him in a wet kiss before slowly sliding him back inside. Her tongue lapped at his slit, tasting his precum, as she alternated between gentle suction and stroking movements. She experimented with him, all the while reading his body language and vocal cues, trying to pick up on what he liked best so she could do more of that.

        Rit let the peryton persona take over more as Axieva went to work on him. Her ministrations sent waves of pleasure through his immortal body. Her lips and tongue were magic. Even the occasional gentle graze of her sharp teeth heightened his delight. When she took him deep into her throat, he shuddered, and nearly gripped her hair with force. Her attention to the swollen head of his cock, her tongue swirling around it, as she massaged his balls, sent strong shivers through him. He had to move his hands to his own antlers, gripping tightly, so that he wouldn't pull on hers.
        Axieva's licking and sucking did clean away much of their mingled fluids from Rit's cock, but her saliva was thick on him. It ran down his shaft and scrotum, and it was likely running down her forearm too. Being cleaned was arousing him further, and though he had planned on slowing all the fucking, he had now changed his mind. Rit gave in to the pleasure of Axieva's lips and tongue on his throbbing prick and, without any warning beyond a few grunts and the tightening of his muscles, released his god spunk into Axieava's mouth. He extricated himself from her mouth rather quickly, and with godly insight prevented the damage her teeth would have done to his tool.
        A good amount of his come was running down his shaft, and though she had likely tried to swallow it down hastily, some trickled from the corner of Axieva's mouth. He bent to her, wiped the semen from her face, kissed her lips, tasting himself there, placed his hands into her under arms and lifted her off the ground. He raised his wings and maneuvered them to give balance as he adroitly wrapped his lovers legs around his waist, thrusting his still slick manhood into her. One hand up Axieva's back between her wings, the other gripping her ass, Rit supported and lifted his lover along his cock, as he pumped his hips. His cloven feet dug into the soft earth, but his godly insight prevented any danger of tumbling.
        Rit fucked her, standing on that grassy field, his wings twitching this way and that for balance. Axieva's new, stronger body slapped hard into him with his efforts. Soon he was peaking again, the shudder of his body and wings, as his warm jism spurted forth, was almost enough to make him lose his footing. As the climax subsided he kissed Axieva hard on the mouth and took delight in the feeling of her small breasts against his bare chest. Soon he was pumping her up and down again as he stood there fucking her, some of his come escaping her to drip down his leg. He had no plan to stop any time soon. He'd likely fuck his lover raw if she didn't make him stop first. Even then, he might just take away her fatigue so that they could continue their passion. It was well within his power to fuck her forever.

"R-Rit!" Axieva cried out against his mouth, her hands clawing at his shoulders and leaving behind raised, bloody welts. It felt good, amazing, like nothing she had ever felt before--because, of course, she'd always had mortal lovers with mortal endurance and mortal knowledge. They didn't just intuitively know what she liked or how to please her; she had to teach them. But Rit just knew, and clearly had no need to stop, and it was overwhelming and indescribable and...

A bit chafing.

She clung hard to him as he pounded into her, again and again, and bit the side of his neck hard as she felt another orgasm swiftly approaching as that angle had him hitting just the right spot. She had long since given up trying to fight him for dominance; fatigue had begun to set in, and now she was just content to enjoy the ride, to have him do with her as he would.

"Right there," she gasped out, claws digging into him as she felt that familiar, wonderful pressure building. "Keep going, I'm almost--I--!" Her legs tightened around him, thighs clamping against his sides, and soon she wasn't speaking Common at all; she couldn't. Her climax washed over her, making her tremble and tense and sob with pleasure, and words escaped her in a foreign tongue--her native language. She squirmed on his cock, raking her claws over him as she whimpered and panted for breath, and she bit at his ear.

"Oh goddess, Rit, I can't, I--too much!" she managed to gasp out in peryton, her body starting to feel the effects of their wild rutting. Fatigue had begun to set in, and an aching in her thighs and sex, even though part of her desperately wanted more.

        As Axieva climaxed, her orgasm shuddering through her body, Rit let himself fill her once more with his come. There was no way that she would not come away from this wild rutting without a child growing inside of her. He knew this, and wondered how she would feel about that. Her words reached him shortly after. Too much.
        As improved as she was, Axieva still had a mortal body. Rit ceased in his hefting and thrusting and gently lifted his lover from his still erect cock. Much of his seed spilled from her as he did so, running down her legs and into the cleft of her ass. He laid her gently on the grassy hillock, and with a thought took away her chaffing wounds and pain. He did not take away her exhaustion though, nor did he clean the sexual fluids and perspiration from their bodies. He knew that it could be pleasant to bask in the aftermath of such lovemaking, and he laid with his lover. He moved in close, stroking her body, and it shuddered with spasms of pleasure. He kissed her mouth gently, and nipped at her with his sharp tusks, while he watched her bare chest heave, steadily catching her breath.
        "I imagine that this will not be something you soon forget," Rit said, a smile spreading across his face. Apparently, even the divine could be smug.

"No," Axieva agreed between breaths, curling against Rit while being careful not to poke him with her antlers. She was too tired to even argue with that, and too tired to even poke at him for being insufferably smug. Besides, it was the truth. It had been a long time since she'd mated, and goddess, what a wild return! She could suffer his smugness because she was too busy basking in the pleasant aftermath--and because she was quite pleased with herself for stoking the fire in Rit.

"I will not forget," she continued, and lifted her head so she could give Rit a look, eyes slightly narrowed with mock severity, "because this will not be the last time." She gave a playful growl and nipped his neck, hard enough to leave a red mark, and then curled in closer, draping an arm over him and entwining her long legs with his.

Eventually, she would have to move. Without other things to distract her, she was starting to feel the itchiness of the grass, which she was quite covered in, and her body felt sticky all over, but for now, she was content to just bask in the afterglow.

        Rit enjoyed this creature. Axieva was beautiful and pure, in ways that most mortals were not. The fae folk had many similar views to Axieva, but they were so arrogant and self-important. Humans enjoyed passions and living as much as Axieva, but they were wasteful, greedy, and most disturbed the balance of nature rather than harmonize with it. This peryton woman, was special. Rit was more and more pleased that he was with her. He found himself considering staying with her through her life. He could do that. It would be but a blink for him. He could let himself age at the rate she aged, and when she finally passed from the world, he could move on. That likely meant children, and with the passion Axieva had, it would likely be more than a few. He could pull her out of time with him, bring her on endless adventures, but she seemed the type to want to create a life, rather than run from one to the next. If she wanted him to stay, he would. He'd be with her for her forever. A period of time that would be for him, like taking a single breath.
        "I know it's been naught but a day since we first met, but a lot has happened for you in this time. Do you want me to stay with you? I mean for the rest of your days."

"For the rest of my days?" Axieva repeated, blinking up at Rit.

That was certainly a question she hadn't even begun to entertain!

She thought it over for a moment, flicking an ear as Rit's breath tickled the fur along it, and finally gave a small shrug.

"Stay with me for now," she said with a nod, "and we will see what happens."

A mortal lifetime may be but a blink to Rit, but to Axieva it was a long, long time, and she had no way of guessing or planning what the future might hold. She lived in the moment and always had, and didn't know how to live differently.

        "I find that acceptable," Rit told Axieva. He pulled her in closer, and nestled himself tighter into her, heedless of her antlers poking at his chest. There were many perks that came with near omnipotence. Being impervious and without a sense of pain, when it was desirable, was easy. As they lay together Rit brought in clouds to drizzle a light rain on them. The water was warm, and the rain clouds were sparse enough that sunshine still fell on them, so the experience was very pleasant. Light, caught through the rain, created tiny rainbows that danced all about them as the liquid prisms fell to the earth. The tiniest of breezes swept in, tugging at the moisture on their skin, cooling them gently without making them cold. It was a rare thing to happen naturally, but being divine made anything possible.

Axieva curled closer as the rain fell. It was pleasantly warm, but the combination of rain and breeze helped cool her body, which felt warm after everything they'd done. It also helped soothe away some of the itchiness, and the sound of rain, and the smell, soon had her feeling pleasantly lazy.

She wasn't normally one to sleep out in the open like this, especially not naked and vulnerable; she was a predator, but even predators had predators, especially ones that made enemies like Axieva did. Came with the territory of collecting bounties, after all. But this time, she wasn't alone, and now her body was improved.

And, well, when you were laying with a being that could literally call the rain, what did you have to fear?

Happy and content, she nodded briefly at his words, but was already drifting to sleep.

        Rit put a bubble of energy around them. Any creature that was headed toward them would find themselves inexplicably drawn to move away from their location. If they for some reason needed to cross the space, they would be led around the area instead. With that protection up, he let Axieva sleep, and closed his own eyes, drifting into a stasis that allowed him to look through time. He'd stay that way until his lover awoke. He didn't want to disturb her peace.

It had been a fun few days, for Axieva had spent several of them with Rit, enjoying his presence and his strange magic--and enjoying his body. She had jumped him more than just that once, because she found his new form irresistible, and it really had been too long since she'd shared such intimacy and pleasure with another person, and she delighted in her improved body. She didn't give a care as to the risks, because it hardly even occurred to her, or even mattered.

There had been a time in her life, back with her old mate, when she had wanted children, but even though they had tried, she had never conceived. With his loss, she had given up on the idea--and also concluded what she had been too upset to conclude with him: that maybe she just couldn't have children.

Because it had never occurred to her that the issue wasn't on her end.

After days of fun with Rit, who was definitely her friend and lover, but she wasn't sure whether he was her mate, however, it was eventually time to get back to work. Likely, there were contracts that needed fulfilling, and though Rit could provide her with all the meat she wanted, there was nothing that compared to the thrill of the hunt--

And human livers.

That morning, she roused from sleep, uncurling from Rit and stretching languidly, her wings spreading out behind her as she pushed back the blankets. She folded her wings again and yawned, rubbing at her eyes, then leaned over Rit and kissed his forehead.

"I am going to Zantaric today," she announced as she rose to her cloven hooves, naked, and went about grabbing her clothing. She grabbed her fur skirt and wrapped it around her hips, frowning a little. It had also been nice not having to deal with clothes for a few days, but humans were strange and always reacted badly.

So, with a sigh, she took up the loose shirt she sometimes wore and threw that on as well. Though that always felt even more unnecessary. Human men went shirtless all the time, after all!

Dressed for the trip, she reached back and pulled her hair into a messy braid. "There are more heads to collect, and I need the hunt. You may come, yes, or stay. Whatever you choose."

        Zantaric wasn't far. They had made their way back to the cave that Axieva had shown Rit, and that he had turned into a deluxe sweet. For a creature that preferred the wilderness, Axieva was adapting well to the conveniences that Rit's power brought. Here she was sleeping on a bed with blankets. Of course she had made him adjust the firmness and texture to exactly what she liked. It was like lying on peat moss and covering yourself with animal skins. It made no difference to Rit though, he didn't even sleep. He just lay with his lover while she slept, and he watched other times through the celestial interface that was his mind. He had made sure to texture all the ground surfaces. He didn't want any more incidents of her hooves slipping. He had opted for thick, plush, carpets.
        He rose from his place on the bed when she offered him the choice to come or stay. What would he do while she was gone, visit eternity? If he left and got caught up in things, it could be hundreds of years before he thought to come back to this point in time, and then he wouldn't be who he was now. He decided to go with, observe her more, learn more about her. She still hadn't given him permission to read her mind, and so that was the only way to get to know her. With a thought, he went from nude, to fully clad. In his peryton form, he looked even more imposing with his black, dragon-leather armor. The weapons at his hips were a welcome, and familiar weight, while his boots were transformed into shin guards to compensate for his cloven feet.
        "I will accompany you."

As Rit rose and insta-dressed, Axieva let out a sad sigh, looking him over. "Already I miss you without the clothes," she said, as she took up her dagger and sheathed it in a special pocket in her skirt. But then she grinned at him, flashing all those sharp teeth, and moved closer to him. Leaning into him, she stood on the tips of her hooves and gave his ear a light nip. "It will be fun tearing them off you tonight."

And then she turned on her hoof, glad for the carpeted surface, and headed for the door. "Come, come! We visit Alec."

        Rit barely used his new hooves. He glided above the floor as he followed after Axieva. "Are you sure you'll have time for sex when you'll be hunting a bounty? We've lost entire days to marathons of fucking." He could feel the warmth of new life radiating from her. He didn't tell his lover what he sensed though. He thought that she'd want to discover it in her own way. When he'd improved her, he didn't nix on fertility. She would have many child baring years, and it appeared they would start soon.
        "Not that I object, time has no meaning to me."

Axieva snorted loudly at that one and looked at Rit from over her shoulder, grinning toothily.

"Of course I'll have time. I am very good at what I do," she said, all confidence. "And it is not all hunting. There must be time for sleeping and eating. And, with a lover, fucking."

Stepping out the door and into the sun, she fanned her wings to soak up the warmth. "Besides, it is good for you. Makes you sleep better."

        Rit didn't sleep, but he didn't mention that, he just smiled and followed along. As Axieva fanned her wings, he reached out to tickle her tail, and pat her butt. He slipped his hand under, between her legs. Only briefly, just to give her a tease.
        "I'm sure the exercise will be beneficial to you for more than just making you sleep well." Rit smirked at her as he moved past. He hovered just in front of her, with his back toward the path. He could navigate backward just as well as forward, and this way he could look at her as they moved.

Axieva wasn't expecting the groping, and it was lucky Rit moved when he did or he may have gotten an accidental wing to the face! She jolted, letting out a gasp that turned into a pleased growl, and thought that at least they'd actually made it outdoors before getting frisky again! She grabbed for Rit, ready to return the favor, but he'd already moved away and she let her hand drop with a little huff.

"Bastard!" she said with a laugh, and readjusted her skirt before she started heading on down the path that lead to Zantaric. "Don't start something you do not plan to finish!"

        "Who says I don't plan on finishing?" Rit gave Axieva a wink as he continued to glide backward in front of her. He wondered if she was aware of how skimpy her outfit must seem to the humans. He wasn't going to complain, but the humans tended to prefer that their women were covered from chin to toe when they were out in public. Perhaps they cared less because she was not human herself. With those horns, hooves, and wicked teeth, it was likely some of them thought she was a demon of some kind. Rit also couldn't help wonder about something else.
        "How is Alec going to react to you having a new eye, and new wings?"

Axieva scoffed at the question and rolled her eyes skyward. She clearly cared little about what Alec thought.

"Our relationship is such that we do not ask questions," she said simply. "I do not question his choices nor all the females he keeps in his home. I do not question the bounties or the reasons for them. He does not question what I do with the bodies. What I do with my own body is also not his concern."

She looked at Rit and added, "He will be surprised. He only knew me wingless and one-eyed. But he knows little about me, or what I am. He just calls me 'monster'."

        "Monster?"
        The annoyance was noticeably present in Rit's voice. He hated prejudice of any kind. Gods divine spark created all things. There should be more love in the multiverse. Of course though, the balance had to be maintained. Darkness and light in equal measure.
        "You are a gorgeous creature," Rit said to his lover, "not a monster at all. This is a monster."
        As he floated along Rit transformed into a slimy black creature that looked to be a cross between Cthulhu and a glabrezu. Ooze dripped from him , melting the foliage beneath him. When he spoke, it sounded like a screech inside of a gurgle, and was completely unintelligible. In a moment he was back to the handsome peryton form that Axieva liked so much, and the damage done to the terrain, repaired.
        "Even monsters have their place in the grand tapestry."

Axieva was a fierce creature.

But even that was a bit much for her!

When Rit transformed suddenly into that hideous, oozing abomination, her heart dropped. She let out a snarling hiss of fear and leaped back away from him, her wings snapping open and feathers fluffing. They beat wildly at the air, every powerful instinct screaming at her to RUN AWAY even though she knew it was Rit--but fight or flight instincts were often stronger than knowledge and so she was several feet off the ground before Rit shifted back to his peryton form.

She hovered in the air, wings flapping powerfully to keep her there, and stared at Rit with wide eyes that soon narrowed to slits. With an exasperated growl, she threw her hands into the air.

"Don't DO that!"

        Rit's chuckle was completely internal. He knew better than to show his amusement at Axieva's dismay, and it was best not to get her too worked up in her condition. He still wasn't sure how she was going to react to that bit of information. He was almost tempted to step into the future to watch the scene unfold.
        "I apologize for alarming you," he said sincerely, "I suppose I'm lucky your reaction was not to K.O.S." He drifted up to her, taking her hand and drawing her back to the ground. "I will not assume the form of hideous creatures in your presence, without warning you first. Satisfied?"

Axieva folded her wings and dropped back to the earth, landing gracefully on her hooves. She shot Rit a broody look, still a little unsettled. It was one thing to come across a hulking beast in the jungle, having it revealed to her slowly, than to have someone she knew quite intimately abruptly transform into the hulking beast!

"Satisfied," she confirmed with a nod. "Next time, I will kill you." And she shot him a sly look. "Since you can recover. But I think, still, it would hurt."

There was a pause then, before she added, "What is...K-O-S?"

        "Kill on sight," Rit told Axieva with a dismissive wave. "It's a term used in the future. There are a lot of similar acronyms used when people get lazy and don't want to say full words." Rit longed, lying an his back as he floated along next to Axieva. Just because he assumed a new form didn't mean he wouldn't take advantage of his power.
        "To kill me, you'd first need to catch me," Rit said teasingly to his mortal lover. To tease her further, Rit reached through a small portal he manifested with a thought, and slapped her roughly on her bottom.

"UWAH!" Axieva yelped, and nearly jumped out of her skin when something slapped her rear. She spun around on her hooves but found nothing but air, and she swiftly turned back to Rit soon after and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Was that you?"

"And what if it was?" Rit asked playfully. "What are you gonna do about it? Eat my liver? Oh wait, you already did that." A mischievous grin spread across his face, as he floated around Axieva. She was the most fun he'd had in a long time, and he greatly enjoyed getting a rise out of her. The sex was always most fun when she instigated it through her aggression.
        "I know you'd never withhold my physical pleasure. You'd not subject yourself to such punishment. So really, what can you do about it?" Rit reached through another little portal, grabbing Axieva's ass and then swatted it again.

With another snarl, Axieva whipped around and grabbed his hand before he could withdraw it, squeezing his wrist tightly in her powerful grip. Looking over her shoulder at him, she flashed him a sweet smile that bared too many sharp teeth.

"I could just kill you again," she said, and fluttered her eyelashes. "You would come back, yes, but it would be unpleasant."

Rit held up both hands to show Axieva that it was not his hand she held. Before she could be surprised, the small portal that had let the hand through, spread wider. Another Rit stepped through, and he grinned.
        This second Rit twisted his hand about, reversing Axieva's hold, then grabbing her other arm and pinning them both up behind her. The first Rit stepped up to her and kissed her hard on the mouth. Stepping back, he grinned the same grin of the second Rit, as she was released.
        As the second Rit popped out of existence, the remaining Rit asked of Axieva, "who says I'll fight fairly?"

W...WHAT?

TWO RITS?

Axieva's eyes just about popped out of her skull, but before she could so much as yelp in alarm, the new Rit had both of her arms pinned behind her. She growled, sharp teeth bared as she struggled in his grip--at least, until the original Rit silenced her with a hard kiss that had her blood running hot, and had her growl turning into a purr.

When he pulled away, though, and the other Rit vanished, she screwed her face back up into a snarl and snapped her wings out, fluffing her feathers and puffing out her chest to make herself look bigger. But even though her teeth were bared, her lips were curled in a hint of a smile, and her eyes danced. "Who says I wanted fair in the first place?" she asked. "I like a challenge."

        Rit laughed at Axieva's response to his actions. She was wonderful. So different from the other mortal races of this realm. He decided right then that he would stay with her for the rest of her life. He may leave for a thousand years, but he would step back in time to arrive at the moment he'd left.
        "I guess we should get to where we're going," Rit said. "The faster we get your next contract, the faster we can get back to fucking."

Axieva snorted a laugh. "Godlike or not, you males are all the same," she teased, though his words made her want to hurry up and get this over with. Her libido had always been healthy, but as of late, it was through the roof. Perhaps because she finally had another "peryton" to indulge with, and she was keen to make up for lost time.

She couldn't seem to get enough of him, and even now, she wondered if they couldn't just sneak in a quickie.

But a quickie would turn into her demanding more and more, and before she knew it, time would pass and she'd be late. Randy or not, she still craved human liver, and it had been far too long since she had gotten a taste.

With a low sigh, she turned on her hoof beforr she could be further tempted, tucked her wings, and marched toward the village. "Best hurry, then," she said. "Behave yourself. It is not fair to tease me."

        "I think I can do that," Rit said, floating along beside Axieva. "I enjoy the taste of your mouth quite a bit though, and your other parts as well. We really should hurry."

He was not behaving himself, putting those images in her head like that! With a huff, Axieva shot him a dirty look before she continued her swift march. As painful as it was, if there was one thing she had, it was good self control and self discipline. When she wanted to have it.

Work now, playtime later. She would manage.

They made it to the village shortly, and Axieva lead the way back to Alec's home. As before, she wasted no time stepping up to the door and loudly banging on it. Repeatedly and without pause. Again came the sounds of movement, a few low groans that weren't his, a loud bang and an even louder series of pained swears, and finally the door opened to reveal Alec, massaging one knee. His eyes were bloodshot and dilated and the sweet, pungent smell wafting out told Axieva he'd switched it up to opium. She made a face, waving it away with a hand, and stepped back so the smell wasn't quiiiite so concentrated.

"Whadya want?" He seemed less annoyed today. More tired, relaxed.

"A contract. You said a few days. It has been a few days."

"Has it? Uh...yeah. Right. Alright. Yeah, one sec."

The door shut again, and Axieva released a held breath. "Ugh. His home always reeks."

        "You know, I knew an Alec once," Rit said, to nobody in particular, though he knew Axieva was listening, "well I suppose I've known and will know lots of Alec's lots of times," he waved a hand to dismiss the line of thinking. "One Alec in particular was very special though." Rit sat cross legged, floating in the air. He got a few stares, some more related to his peryton appearance. A low grumbled comment of monster, and another about bloody mages showing off. Always there was prejudice. Even in the uncountable Utopias he'd seen.
        "This Alec was something not far from what I once was," Rit leaned back as if he were in a recliner. Were recliners invented yet on this Earth? "There was this time, in another story, where I was The Vessel of Three Souls. It was a pretty big deal. Such a big deal that someone tried to recreate me." Rit did air quotes when saying recreate, though that wasn't a thing in this here and now. He also found it interesting that his author made so many references to his modern era through him. I guess when you're a god like being, you're allowed to break the fourth wall sometimes.
        "These very powerful magic users that were in a cult lead by a demigod collected slivers, teeny tiny pieces," Rit held his index finger and thumb very close together in front of his eye, "of souls. Every sliver from a different creature, until they had collected them from all the creatures in their perception of reality, save for gods and demigods. They even got them from the demons, devils, and celestial beings."
        "Well," Rit sat up leaning forward, as this was the important part of the story, "then they forged all those eency-weency, teeny-weeny slivers into a single soul. And grafted it to an embryo they had just killed but that was still in utero. So Alec was born in a human body, and had very strange powers. His life was quite interesting."
        His story done, Rit stood. He stood next to Axieva and got a distant glassy eyed look. When Alec returned a moment later, Rit interrupted before he could speak.
        "I'm sorry Alec, but she declines that contract. Do not expect her to return for another." Then he grabbed Axieva by the hand and towed her up into the air, bidding her to fly.
        "The contract is a trap. A bounty was placed on 'monsters' of any kind," Rit shook his head in disgust, "the fool doesn't even know it's a trap. He thinks it's a real offering. He's going to be dead by the end of the month. Stabbed and robbed while high on poppy nectar."

Axieva stared at Rit as he told his story, hardly blinking. She didn't understand half of what he was saying, or why he was even telling that to her. Was there some significance to any of this? Were the two Alecs related?

She was about to ask what had happened to him when her Alec appeared, but before she could so much as breathe, Rit had her by the hand and they were both launching up into the sky, her wings snapping open out of reflex as she kept up with him, rising into the air.

WHAT THE--?!

"What--what--what are you doing?" she blurted, utterly confused, as she snatched her hand free. "What do you mean? How do you--" She stopped. She was about to ask how he knew, but realized that was a stupid question.

She huffed. "What do you mean it is a trap? Do you mean..." She scrunched up her brow. "Someone will take it to mean he is a monster?"

And then, another blink of realization. "And...that I am a monster, yes?"

        "They don't think Alec is a monster," Rit said as he and Axieva flew away, "but he is a loose end that they want to clean up. They think you're a monster, and that I am a monster. I try not to kill mortals, so it's best we not associate with the bounty hunters in Zantaric for a while. Unless you want to be forced into an arena and made to fight to survive."

"I would kill the fools that tried to force me," Axieva said with a deep, rumbling growl. "Who are the ones who put out the contract? Perhaps I'll have their livers instead."

        "The fools greatly outnumber you," Rit said as he continued to fly. "I have no doubt you can handle yourself," he continued, "but they would overwhelm you with their numbers, Xieva. If I assisted you, I would lose my powers."

Axieva blinked, turning to look at him with a raised brow. "I believed your powers limitless?"

        "Not quite," Rit said, "I am quite powerful. The one true God, creator of all things, created me with some, boundaries. To maintain the balance of all existence, I destroy and I preserve. This Earth is very important to the future balance of the multiverse. If it weren't, I'd likely have destroyed it by now, with how unbalanced it is."
        The scenery below was changing quickly, the powerful wings on Axieva's back propelling her more quickly than her previous pair. Rit glanced down at a road he had walked, would walk, that didn't exist yet, seeing a sprawling city that didn't yet exist here. Not existing within the confines of time was a complicated thing, yet for him, it was normal.
        "When I destroy or kill, my immortality, invulnerability, and near omnipotence are stripped from me. I am still very powerful, but only as mortals are measured, for I am mortal then. I age, I die. Upon my death my power is restored, I heal, I return to life."

"One true god." Axieva snorted at that and rolled her eyes. Rit was powerful, but she was a far cry from buying everything he talked about. A lot of it was just crazy, or downright false. But different people had different spiritual beliefs and Axieva didn't have the time to argue about it--nor did she particularly care enough about their ignorance to correct them. She was rather secure in her superiority.

So she didn't particularly care when Rit spouted off that nonsense, though she was intrigued about the bit where he couldn't kill. She cocked her head. "Does that mean you cannot hunt?"

        "In this form I require no sustenance. I can read time like you read a preys tracks and travel through time with ease. As a mortal, I have hunted countless times, through countless lives," Rit drifted onto his back as he floated beside Axieva, keeping pace with her powerful wings. "Once, when the god of the hunt of this slice of existence was still young, I joined her-him-it, on a hunt for the world eater Sem'hic-Ugnk. It was very entertaining to watch a fledgling divinity battle an interdimensional super being."

Axieva stared at Rit blankly. Once again, he was prattling on about things she couldn't begin to understand, and as always, he was talking about those things as though they should be readily apparent and obvious to anyone.

Was it just because her kind had always been so isolated? Was that why she didn't know these things? Her people had always viewed their isolation as a strength, because they didn't need those filthy, ignorant outsiders except as cattle. They were simply better than everyone else, and that was a fact. The more time she spent out in the world, however, the more silly she felt.

Though she supposed she shouldn't. It wasn't like it was all that important. Right?

She shook her head. "I don't understand," she said at last, voice flat. "What is...enter...demon...? That word you said."

        "Interdimensional," Rit said the word slow and clear, so Axieva could pick up on the pronunciation. "It's fairly complicated, but in simple terms, it means a different world." They hadn't been flying for long, but with Axieva's new powerful wings, they had come far, quickly. Rit signaled for her to land, and then dropped from the sky like a stone. He turned over in the air, his feet now aiming down at the ground far below. He transformed as he fell, reverting completely to the form Axieva had first met him in. Just as he was about to impact the earth, he came nearly to a halt, slowing to land feather soft.

More confused than ever, Axieva frowned at Rit's back as she tucked her wings and dove after him. She followed close on his heels, as effortlessly as though she had never lost her wings at all, and snapped them open at the last moment to slow her fall. She landed a bit rougher than intended, knees bent, a cloud of dust rising around her.

Straightening up, she folded her wings and placed her hands on her hips as she turned to Rit with a confused frown. "Other worlds? What are you speaking of? Do you mean other lands? Countries?" she asked with a cock of her head.

        A crooked grin lifted on Rit's face. He drew Axieva's eyes to a tear he opened in space. The window he created was a view of the world from space. The bright blue earth turned, stars shimmering beyond.
        "This is the world we are on now. That is our moon there," Rit pointed to the grey orb coming out behind the earth. "This is a view from space. I'll show you." The view began to move in closer, zooming in until the window showed the landscape around them. Eventually it showed the two of them standing there talking, the window beside them visible as well.
        "There are other planets, worlds, like this one all throughout a larger space called a solar system." The view changed again, zooming out to show the earth then the other planets and the sun. Moving out further the entire galaxy came into view. "There are many worlds out even further beyond. Each shining star in the sky is another sun, many with more worlds around them. Some of those many worlds have creatures living on them. Some of those creatures are intelligent beings like the ones found here, on this Earth." Rit then moved his hands and a spiral of earths showed in the window.
        "Our world is the one in the front," Rit told Axieva. "All the ones behind are other dimensions, other versions of this Earth." The window zoomed in on another scene similar to theirs. Axieva and Rit standing, talking. Only the weather wasn't temperate. The pair stood in snow, their clothes lined with fur to protect against the cold. "The world you look at now is very like this one, but as you can see, the other us's are in a different place on that world."

Aaand once again Rit did that thing where he broke Axieva's brain.

Axieva stared out the little window into the universe, hearing Rit's words without really listening to them, and just...stared. And stared some more. It didn't make sense. None of this did. It had to be more of his strange magic, and the other thems had to be his magic, too! Just like when he made another Rit! More fake magic stuff. Except...it did make sense...sort of. In the sense that the sky was so big and vast and far away and stretched forever. Maybe there could be other worlds, if there could be other countries...

Still, she couldn't help but bare her teeth and hiss and the imposters, then huff and turn away. "That makes no sense," she snorted. "We are not standing on...on balls. If we were, we would fall off."

        Rit stepped back from Axieva, and let the window that showed the other them close. A sphere of light, an illusion if you will, began to grow around them. It got quite large, big enough to make a detailed representation of the terrain of the world with tiny little models of them standing on it. They were inside the illusion, and the vastness of it was apparent. They were so very small, the models, completely accurate in scale.
        "This is the world we are on," Rit swept his arms wide at the illusion around them, then he began to sink it into the ground, bringing their model representations to be between them. The entire illusion was done in real time, the actual weather moving across the world, the movements of Rit and Axieva mimicked perfectly in tandem. "It is extremely vast, and we are tiny upon it's surface. This is part of why we do not fall off. Another, is a very powerful magic, called gravity, holds us to the world. That same magic is what causes things to fall when they are dropped instead of floating in the air."

Axieva gave Rit a very strange look, her eyes narrowing slightly. As far as she was concerned, this was a lot of trickery and fancy magic, and though she knew Rit was capable of much, she felt like he must be teasing her here, as he sometimes did. His magic was very fancy and very impressive, there was no doubt about that, and it still awed her every time...but there was just no way what he was saying could be true! How could they be standing on a ball? Wouldn't that mean they were upside down sometimes? Wouldn't they feel that? How could there be another her when she was right here? Rit could make other hims, yes, but she just figured that was more magic and trickery and illusion.

And speaking of magic...

She snorted sharply as he described gravity. "That is not magic," she said. "We don't fall because we are not upside down. Why would we float?" She waved her hand dismissively, shaking her head. "And there are some humans who can make magic stop. I have killed one. Why did I not float if he stopped the magic around me?"

        Axieva was obviously referring to mordecai and adhara. They had the ability to stop magic and psionics. Rit had and would meet many of them. They could not stop his magic though. He was much too powerful for them, and this is what he told Axieva.
        "Those people that stop magic," Rit began, "are not strong enough to stop my magic. The magic of the being who created me is the magic that holds us on to this round world."

Axieva wrinkled her nose, her brow furrowing. This was all very, very confusing to her, all subjects she had never given thought to before. Magic that couldn't be stopped, that held them all to the world?

"So we would all fly away if not for this god?" she said, the wrinkles in her brow deepening as she rolled her eyes skyward. A shudder went through her at the thought, her feathers ruffling and tail fluffing. "Remind me to stay in its good graces."

        Rit knew that gravity wasn't magic, but rather science. Trying to get Axieva to understand that would be a lot more difficult than using God, and magic. It wasn't directly God that made gravity as so much that that was more the way the Universe wanted to work, and God had no desire to change it from being that way. God didn't really get involved in everything anyway. She made the rules of the Universe, and then let the little g gods play in it. She made sure they behaved for the most part, and Rit was an extension of the one here to keep the balance from falling out of harmony and into Discord. Axieva was a personal journey, a project for his own amusement. He loved her of course. It was impossible for him not to love her when he knew her so completely. Even better than she would know herself, for he knew every possible her, and would live out an infinite number of her lives alongside her. It was all such a minor scope for him, a tiny blip in his infinite existence, but he enjoyed it, he enjoyed her.
        "I don't think that will be a problem," Rit told Axieva. "God doesn't get involved in the lives of the individuals much, but I do think you're one of her favorites. There are hundreds of other little g gods that need her constant attention too. Plus, she has a job and a boyfriend that take up a lot of her time. We're just a bit of fun for her. I hear sometimes she likes to make her favorites suffer, but I don't see that being a problem for you, as long as I'm around."

Axieva's wrinkled her nose at Rit, lip curling just enough to show a flash of sharp teeth. "Why would any god make their favorites suffer?" she asked, and fought back a small pang of anxiety at the notion--even as she did her best to dismiss it as stupid. Did that mean if Rit wasn't around that she would suffer? Did that explain everything that had happened to her before Rit came into her life?

Or was it all coincidence?

        "I don't know? Is it all coincidence?"
        Rit's question was obviously not directed at Axieva, as it was spoken in English, a language that originated in a country not of this Earth, in a far away dimension. Well a dimension that was actually quite close. After his moment of breaking the Fourth Wall, Rit returned his attention to his companion.
        "Really, it's not anything you need worry about," he told Axieva. "I'll always be available if you need me. Just call my name, and I'll come to any thread you're in." Rit gave her a wink, knowing that she'd understand well enough, and so would the Goddess.

"Thread...?" Axieva's face scrunched up. "Thread of...fate?"

She cocked her head, frowning. She had heard the "threads of fate" idiom in the past and scoffed at it, but she saw now how it fit her own life. There were too many coincidences. Too much crazy. Maybe that's what he meant? Or maybe it was some new phrase she just hadn't learned yet.

Common was such a confusing mongrel language.

        "It's not important really." Rit said to Axieva. He stepped in close to her, all his magic and illusions fading away. He morphed into her favorite peryton mate and gave her a small kiss on the mouth. "Let's fly someplace that you can get work and eat."

Ah yes, that was definitely Axieva's favorite shape. The one where he looked normal, like a proper peryton--and an attractive one, at that. She followed up his kiss with a playful nip on the chin before she snapped open her wings and gave them a good stretch.

"Do you have any ideas? Zantaric has plenty of prey. But something tells me you would disapprove."

        “Well,” Rit began, “we’ve already been flying quite far north of Zantaric. Adela is not far, and I’m sure you can get work as a bounty hunter there. Shall I lead?” He leaped into the air without spreading his wings, zooming straight up like an arrow from a bow. At a great height he opened his wings with a snap, casting a shadow across the world. He waited there for Axieva, before together, they flew further north.

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Continued Here (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=25102.0)