Dark Crow Rising

"What's taking Undies so long?" Kyarverin calls out to no one in particular whilst I am fiddling with these new overalls. I watched Thurnmourer and Clohniq change and remake them, but I can't figure out what they did specifically. It seems like nothing has happened, but, that makes no sense, the greatest craftsman to ever exist worked on them!

"Gathering his seven hounds." a god hidden from view answers his father and a blatantly eye-rolling accompanied tone groans out.

"Nin, can you come with me for a moment?" Motrtha asks, smiling as she finishes tying her hair up into a small, round bun. It's a shame she's done it up like that, but with how she and everyone else is changing their clothes, it is a necessary evil. Boots and cargo shorts with harnesses and a firmly fitted top.

I rub the back of my head as I try to keep my eyes off her shapely body...

Shaking my head slightly, I follow after the surprisingly eager goddess to see what this is all about. With rapid loud steps, I go back into the ship and look around as the Goddess of Mothers vanishes. Her giggling comes from behind a stack of tightly packed crates and I huff a smile of my own. Following the noise, I am suddenly grabbed and thrust against the hull.

I panic initially, only to freeze to a calm as the softest lips I have ever felt before come against mine. My eyes can't help but widen as the goddess presses herself up against my clothed chest. This isn't the first time this has happened, a goddess latching onto me, but for Motrtha to be the one doing it...

Regrettably, before I fall to the demands in my head to return the favour, she pulls away. Smiling deviously at me, her cheeks light up as my head otherwise empties itself of sense. I only have Rose as my point of reference with kissing, but. Wow.

"Uh..." is all I manage to get out as she giggles, a hand linking up with mine as she presses up further. Something cold slips onto my wrist and I frown slightly at the beady sensation rolling along my left arm now. Motrtha moves away while holding my still bandaged right hand and I glance at the bracelet properly.

"Make sure to keep this on your person -at all times- and you will always carry my blessing." she tells me with sweet quietness and firm authority at the same time. An index finger taps my nose as I continue to stare at the goddess' gift.

"And the kiss was because...?" I ask her and I am really tempted to add on 'Not that I minded it!'

"Well... The cutest human I have ever met certainly deserves it." she explains, swerving on one set of tippy toes as her eyelids flutter. Coming up closer, she then sticks out her tongue as my face brightens up. I try to hide my features but she is a persistent hunter.

"Thank you..." I can't help but say.

"Aw, look at you, all flushed! But, do you want to hear a secret?" she asks as a familiar grin takes over.

"Uh... Sure." I tell her as she places the tip of her nose up against mine.

"You are also the only human I have ever met." she enlightens, laughing to herself as she walks off. The previous embarrassment that left me feeling happy vanishes and bitterness fills the void.

"Yay..." I sarcastically go as I follow the goddess up and out of the ship's first internal deck. The view makes me mellow out, however, and when I arrive back on top with her, I look at my new accessory.

Stroking my chin, I start to ponder as this is a bit strange, what good is a blessing from the Goddess of Mothers? Everything she is, is related to family, but, my family might as well not exist anymore. As, well... I'm dead.

Maybe I am thinking about it wrong and this is simply a protective item? Thurnmourer and Clohniq also worked on my clothes so this must be some combination of various defences. But, to protect me from what, exactly? A little worrisome to think about, admittedly given where I am!

"What the-" I go as I am thrown to the floor by a sudden, violent jolt. Stone cracking and metal being sent aside drums my ears numb and I wait until I stop shaking. Slowly pushing myself up, I frown at the unaffected gods as they act as if nothing happened. Many of them start to disembark and the sounds of trucks and other motorised vehicles start to honk.

My vision narrows with no focus.

"What in the...?" I go as my jaw loosens at how we have run aground right in the middle of a concrete city with open skies and no shoreline. Immense towers of grey and polished glass dominate the distant view as do green mountains which seem to surround the city. I blink miserably as I am somewhat reminded of home.

None of it actually looks like home, but all these little things are adding up. Tobaballe is a city near the mountains, it's a tall place with grand towers. The hustle and bustle of a mechanically-gifted metropolis. This literal dead man walking appreciates the slight memory joggers as much as he resents them.

"Alright you maggots, fooooooor-mmmm up!" Kyarverian orders with a strange beat to his words as he paces about in a stiff, upright position. Oddly enough, I am reminded of Vapooliar as he does so, somehow. It is also easier to focus on him, rather than the overwhelming amount of gods and goddesses responding to his request... By their names, there is a lot of them!

Tuning them out, I turn back towards the city and look down at it. Signs, vehicles and endless people on their way to work, school or whatever it is that they are up to this day. Oddly enough, none of them seem to care about the ship which has just run straight through the roads and buildings in its way. Wreckage and ruin are everywhere but no one cares, they do not give one single drop of a damn.

Is this all real or is it fake? Or are these people simply and tremendously used to ships appearing like this? How does that even happen? I guess I don't have a right to speak given my current circumstances.

"Oh, the lightning ball things are gone." I end up commentating as I notice the lack of blue light coming from the side of the ship. The exterior is completely redone and while I could ponder the whys, I do not want to. There's daylight again here, I want to lose myself in it and wander around the towers. Glancing up at the giant birds...

No, these are winged people flying from them. There's a fair few, clearly heading off towards something in the distance. A place which for some reason leaves me full of dread. Anger is in one direction, somehow, I know that is what is that way.

I shake my head clear of the strange feeling as I try to think of the bird people more precisely. Is this Rohlandantyr figure meant to be one of them, with the one wing being a species' unique scar? That makes sense to me, but, his one wing also glowed a bright, luminescent white with a bluish tint to it. The ones in the distance are as black as the shadows they cast with their span.

"H-Hey!" I go as something suddenly picks me up by the scruff of my neck with its mouth.

"Alright, come along now, Nin." Undwote goes as one of his hounds barks down my neck with a mostly closed mouth. The wind suddenly rushes in my face and new ground is quickly found for my feet. I groan in annoyance as the shadowy animal drops me onto the tarmac-pebble-covered ruins. Groaning some more, the hound starts to nudge me away from the ship as everyone comes marching off in a way I have never seen them before.

Undwote lands on the ground, a grown, elderly man with a gun in hand. Waionr and Thurnmourer and so many others come down with armour and weapons equipped. An endless line of assorted, all-powerful soldiers. The ship suddenly starts to be enveloped by tendrils and a massive plant beast emerges from its deck.

It slams its two colossal fists against its chest as towers of snapping, flat-headed plants and thorny brambles appear. Looking around some more at everyone's expressions and what they have, it is clear to me that a dangerous fight is about to take place. My eyes go back to Thurnmourer as the sky starts to cloud over, but, even then, his golden armour still shines. The kind that the stories spoke of when he saved the world again and again.

Jaadagoren has a shiny, slithering worm following her and it quickly grows into a noodle-bearded serpent that roars fire into the darkened sky. The goddess who worked on my clothes, Clohniq, practices with her thin, narrow-tipped blade and a strap tightens next to me. Looking back to Undwote, all of his hounds step forward with equal size and shape, each in a set of almost smoking blackness.

No more happy panting, only the constant sight and noise of teeth-baring growls...

"Make sure to stick close to one of us, ok, Nin?" Motrtha makes sure I understand as her heavy-laden bag jingles and clutters as it bulkily swings with her steps.

"I... I don't think I really have much of a choice." I remark as I look towards the strange-skinned people in this place. Vapooliar and the others are, were, quite different to what I am used to, but, the similarities are there. These people, however, there's a strange roundness to them, eyes that almost seem narrow and a tone of skin that isn't quite a tan or it is ghastly pale.

As none of them seem to care about anything that is going on, I move close to one and wave in their face. Only to instantly regret it as they shout a strange language at me aggressively. Motrtha hastens my retreat and I assume apologises in their tongue as we walk away. I move along with the goddess as one of the strange men grumbles what is likely to be an insult.

At least now I know they can see me.

"We probably have some time before we reach the school. So, would you like to look around with me?" Motrtha asks, somewhat confusing me as to why a school is now relevant. Of all the things.

I stare awkwardly towards the towering god now behind Motrtha, the God of Law. Motrtha notices my gaze and turns to meet her rule-obsessed brother. She tries to be playful but he is having none of it and her hand is cast aside. Motrtha crosses her arms, unamused as Enorcoustice seems to try and stop her from moving.

"His Lordship gave us a strict path to follow." the God of Law complains as he points in the direction everyone else is mostly heading. Many linger near the ship, however, even with Pluuit's growing garden of chlorophyll-tinted violence. Motrtha jumps back slightly, a bemused hand touching her chest as she gently laughs at her younger sibling.

"No, he gave that order specifically to those lot. Now, if you want to keep wrongly insisting I do things as you want them to be done... How about I don't let you in on the surprise I have planned later?" Motrtha clarifies, then threatens as a finger points towards her father as he walks up and down the vehicles. Each one bounces and shakes under the stampede of divine, uncaring feet.

The God of Law stares his sister down from behind his gavel-mask and the threat is set aside, "Those who are also to form the mid-guard are meant to follow and support him."

"I'm not in the mid-guard, I am in the Nin-guard." she asserts as I am suddenly pulled down onto her closest breast. One that is all the more prominent because of her courage as she says the me-centric pun.

"Battle is soon to arrive, Motrtha." Enorcoustice warns as he checks over the stone tablet he is carrying.

"Then you best come with me and make sure your poor, poor, lovely sister doesn't get hurt." she tells him as she leans in close with me still stuck on the front. I assume she is giving him baby eyes, but all I can think about is the eyes of a hungry baby.

"Very well." Enorcoustice relents as Motrtha releases me, only to take my hand as she drags me away from the main column of gods. The God of Law follows us despite Motrtha's hasty and slippy tactics and we come to a stop at a... Sweet shop?

"What are these?" I ask her as I move as close as I can to a set of brightly coloured... Towers? Whatever they are, they are filled with equally brilliantly coloured balls, often with one half being mostly see-through. A silverish dial dominates the centre of the top-heavy machine, with some kind of slot being just about the knob.

"It's a gacha machine, do you want to have a go?" Motrtha asks as she pulls out a small purse before she hands me a circular coin with a square hole in the middle. I bounce the copper, doughnut money in my hand as I smile at the memory it gives.

Doughnuts are nice, maybe this shop sells them?

"So, into the slot?" I ask and she starts to nod with a joyful smile.

"Yep, simply pop it in and then turn the dial clockwise." she explains and so I do as told, keeping it up until a solid thunk sounds out from the machine. A distinct, heavy, lock-like movement that leaves me open-mouthed and 'ah'-ing. I move aside as she pulls up a little flap and I take the half-blue ball she brings out.

Trying to look into it, I gently shake the thing.

"Well, go on then, open it!" she encourages as I notice the threading on the plastic. I twist it until I find the right way to loosen it up and the lid is set aside.

"What... Is this, exactly...?" I question as she roars with laughter as I am left looking at a statue of a heavily muscular man doing a tight-knitted posture. A man dressed in pink and otherwise blatantly girly clothing.