Star shrines

In the city of the bear Häppchen, the trickster goddess was walking through the streets though she was very troubled at every turn she would run into both shrines and temples to various gods. From the rich streets and their temple to Intia, the god of guiding lights, to the docks on the grand river where many ships docked all with small shrines to Ambelle the goddess known for her beauty and ability charm the grand river itself, turning it from a bear that would smash ships on it shores into a calm mule for the men to travel with. Even the lover gods of Resta and Hydar, these two were best known for being the two stars that would rise in the morning, dance through out the day, and set together at night had managed a small shrine in the centre of town, even if it was mostly farmers who mostly gave them sacrifice.

Once the forgotten goddess was done with her business in town, she set out north along one of the minor roads, which seemed fitting to her in her sardonic way. These people treated her like a minor god, so she belonged on their minor roads. As the city shrank behind her she came to a fork in the road where some farmer had left field stones to bake in the suns. As she stood there deciding what road her future should be on, a thought occurred to her. If the men and women of this land would not erect a shrine to her she would do the work for them.

Whispering to the spirits that lived inside of these field stones. She told them how sad it was that their homes had been taken from where they had lived so long and forced them to bake under the hot suns. Maybe though, just maybe there was a shape they could change their home into that would keep these little spirits cool in the hot summer and dry in the wet winters.

Over joyed at this the spirits wanted to know what shape Häppchen thought they should change their stones into. So she told the spirits and as she did the stones moved and changed becoming for an instant like water before hardening again in a new shape. She watched with glee as the spirits changed their field stone homes into a shrine for her.

Once they were done she clasped her hands together with joy. While it wasn’t the covered in the delicate paints or fine woven gold and silver of other shrines, this was for her a grand monument to her and her being.

Delighted with how this shrine had turned out she placed a small morsel she had picked up in the town’s market down in the little shrine to herself. Without so much as an explanation to the confused stone spirits as to why she was leaving an offering in their home she was off, headed down the road to where her feet would take her next.

A week later Häppchen found herself once again wondering down that path while Resta and Hydar played in the sky above her, showing off the new beads Resta had been given by Hydar.

When finally she came to the crossroad she had a grand gift for these little spirits, a mirror of pure gallium. Perfect for the cool hands of any spirit, though in the warmth of a human or god’s hand it would surely melt to nothing. She found there not the little shrine the stone spirits had shifted their home into, but rather rubble laying by the road as that place had a new shrine placed where her sole shrine had been, destroyed by some farmer who erected yet another set of twined shrines to Resta and Hydar.

Looking up at the sky Häppchen glared at the two even as she already knew what the other gods and goddesses would say, with all their shrines, that shrines come and go, and it doesn’t matter if you loose a single one. It was something those with shrines to spare would never understand.

That night once the sky only contained the Milky Way, Häppchen made her way to the Mindont spring, where knowledge first flowed out from the underworld into the living world. Once there Häppchen spoke with many of the minor gods all of whom she was certain couldn’t count the number of shrines they had dedicated to them on one hand, though for some of them she doubted that it was for lack of fingers.

As the night went on and on Häppchen busied herself going from each of those who had decided to come that night and drink of the mystic waters at this spring. It wasn’t until the sky became a light grey that the two she had come seeking deigned to show their faces to those still gathered.

As Resta spoke with the goddess of numbers Edend, Häppchen spotted Hydar who while enjoying the atmosphere of those gathered at Mondont, she would catch the sad glint of loneliness in his eyes, and watch as a quick glance over to Resta would wipe it away, at least for a time.

“Ah she really is a treasure.” Häppchen said to Hydar just as he was starting to get that sad look in his eyes. For this comment all that Hydar gave back to Häppchen was an unamused scoff. “I suppose that could be said of her.” He eventually agreed as she continued to sit there, her eyes bearing down into his being. “But if only you could show her, oh but that wouldn’t be fair to all the other goddesses who wish for your smile.” She says more musing to herself than talking to Hydar.

This comment got Hydar’s attention to fix on Häppchen. “Show her what?” Hydar asked with a tone and force to his voice that made it clear to all, that were unfortunate enough to be listening in on what the two were speaking about, that this was in no way a question. “Oh, well you see I came across some mermaids who were in trouble.” Häppchen started to say. “I have no time for the ramblings of a fool.” Hydar cut her off just as her story was starting.

“Oh well yes.” Häppchen said, before continuing a truncated version of her story. “Well in short these mermaids gave me one of their excellent mirrors, but to those like you or myself, with fiery hearts the mirror would simply melt away and not be able to show us anything.”

As Häppchen spoke it was clear that Hydar wanted to interrupt her, but what she was saying had captured him enough to hold his tongue so far. “Now you see, one with a calm heart, and cool temperament.” She explained. “You mean like Resta?” Hydar chose to interject at that moment. “Yes, exactly like Resta.” Häppchen confirmed before continuing. “She could take this mirror and finally see just how lovely she is to you.”

With her story told Häppchen took out a small birch wood box and opened up the lid to show Hydar. The god out of a lifetime of habit reached out a hand to take the mirror but Häppchen snapped the box closed. “No!” She scolded him, doing her best to keep her voice low enough to not alarm any of the others here. “You, like I, are simply too hot headed to be blessed with this mirror.” She reminded Hydar. “You must take this box in it’s whole state to Resta. Then before she takes up the mirror you must tell her the story of this mirror as I have told you, only then can she be allowed to pick up the mirror. Do you understand?” She asked him.

With out so much as a nod, much less any word, Hydar snatched the box from Häppchen’s hand and walked over to his loved Resta. For Häppchen she was barely able to make it to the edge of the clearing where the spring lay that she heard a scream from Resta. On the ground where she had been standing was a birch box and a half melted gallium mirror.

Hydar didn’t know if he wanted to follow Resta and assure her that there must have been something wrong about the story, or if he wanted to find the trickster Häppchen and break her neck. He became hot with rage and would when his anger got to high burn the skin of all those he saw working upon the land, in particular he wished to burn the skin of Häppchen should she ever be found under his sight during the day.

While Resta became pale and dull in complexion compared to how she had been before she’d tried to view herself in that mirror. She ran as fast as she could, and was often out of reach for Hydar to catch up with, her beads becoming hard to see, except for the rare times she would meet and dance with Hydar in the sky. Her beads once again shining as they had when she was first given them.

Though even as they danced it would only last for a short time before she found herself running away from Hydar once again.

And so the twinned star gods of Hydar and Resta became the estranged gods, Hydar the Sun god, and Resta the Moon goddess.

Making camp

Sitting as she watched Taty busy herself Zelda stoked the little fire. The warm light felt good on her skin. Once the fire was going Zelda went to pick up the steel cooking tripod. As she lifted it she felt a shiver of pain shooting out from her shoulder. She bit down on her lower lip as she moved the thing onto her good shoulder as a sweat formed on her brow.

As she carefully took one step after another the tripod suddenly became light. When Zelda looked around she was nose to nose with Taty who had lifted the metal away from Zelda as if it was nothing more than a few bits of doweling.  “I can do it.” Zelda protested even as her body flushed with relief of having the weight of the metal off her.

Taty looked back over her shoulder. “It’s okay I’ve got this, why don’t you collect some snow?” She gives Zelda a smile before turning her attention to the fire and setting up the tripod.

Zelda comes to the sleigh and finds the tin pot. She empties the pillows that were shoved into it to be left with the rest of their gear, and also takes two small balls of prepackaged pemmican that each proudly proclaim their robust 400 calories, along with a small pick.

Taty has made quick work of the tripod getting it set up and moved some of the pieces of wood to keep them from pouring out of the cooking area. She turned to look at Zelda, pausing for a moment as she watched the other woman waddle with the tin pot bouncing off her thighs.  She gave a weak smile and a shake of her head as she let the other woman work. Going back to the tripod to make certain that it wouldn’t shift and spill everything onto the fire below.

With the pick in hand Zelda had gone to a snow drift and filled the pot with broken shards of ice and the clean white powder that had been under it. She pressed it down with the back of her gloved hand until she couldn’t any more and the snow and ice came to the brim of the tin.

Coming back to the fire Zelda has to squint, the sun was low on the horizon despite when she looked at her watch, seeing that it was nearly midnight. As she came the last few steps to the fire a deep part of her missed the regular diming of the lights when it was night, not the seemingly endless summer days that the surface had.

“That looks great.” Taty says to Zelda as she hooks the pot to the centre of the tripod. As Zelda turns back to Taty she notices the other woman holding up a pair of bowls. “So what’s for dinner?” Taty asks, holding out one of the dented bowls as Zelda fumbles in her pockets for the two pemmican balls. Taking the bowl she places the pair of balls in in. “Uh we’ve got, reindeer and cranberries or mackerel and candied peach.” She says offering Taty her choice even if her eyes betray her true wish as she watches the reindeer ball.  

Zelda watched as a treacherous hand went and plucked up the reindeer pemmican. “Oh I think you’re really going to like that one.” She manages to say as she takes a seat beside Taty in the pair of old nylon camping chair that had been patched at least a dozen times she could spot and probably more times that she couldn’t.

As the water got hot Zelda ladled out enough of the hot water to turn her pemmican into a stew. The two ate talking about nothing, Zelda with her pemmican stew and Taty enjoying hers dry. Taty then gave out a small gasp of surprise. Zelda looked up startled at what could cause Taty to make that sound when Taty pressed in close against Zelda’s good shoulder. “Do you see it?” She whispered into Zelda’s ear, her arm pointing to something off to their side. Zelda looked her eyes following Taty’s arm to a mount not far from where she’d been gathering snow before.  A part of her fearful that there’d be a raider standing there with a couple of his friends coming up over it. But all that her eyes could find was a few puffs of white cloud in a dimming side. “What?” She asks, lost as to what she’d missed.

“There was a fox!” Taty whispered to her with the excitement Zelda thought should be reserved for finding a lost friend like in so many stories she’d read growing up.

“N-no…” She says, feeling like she’d somehow recked the moment as Taty pulls away from her.

“Oh that’s too bad.” Taty says, going back to what little was left of her pemmican. “I’m sure you’ll spot one first soon.” She teases Zelda.

Letting out a sigh at missing the chance to see another living creature beyond Taty, Zelda turned her attention back to her stew, she took a few more bites from her stew she noticed a chunk of pemmican she’d failed at breaking up into her stew. She had to wonder just how tired she was to make a mistake like that.

Zelda mixed in just a bit more water to help break down the pemmican and took a hungry bite of it and her eyes went wide. The mild lean taste and explosion of tart in her mouth, she knew this. Her gaze shot over to Taty who looking just far enough away from her that Zelda was certain she could be seen from the corner of Taty’s eye but far enough that she’d deny it no matter how much Zelda pestered the woman about it.

Grumbling to herself got Taty to look over to Zelda. “Is your shoulder bothering you?” Taty asked, causing Zelda to glance away. In truth it was bothering her, there hadn’t been a point since getting wounded that it wasn’t, even if it was better than it had been. “We should check it.” Taty pressed with, after not getting a quick enough answer.

“Okay.” Is all that Zelda can say surprised at the force of the insistence. She angles her body a bit away from Taty for a little bit of privacy. “Do we have enough water for the old bandages?” She asks Taty to give her something to focus on as Zelda peels off her coat and top to check her wound.

It stings a bit as she unties the bandage and pulls the fabric away that has started to fuse with the skin. She presses with her finger around it and whinces as she does, while trying like always and failing to see the wound with her own eyes, even though it has remained out sight.

“Taty?” Zelda says, hearing the woman jump a bit as she readjusted some half-burnt wood. “Do you mind?” She asks, stretching out her neck even as it makes the wound scream out so that Taty can get the best look. “Any colour change?” She asks once Taty is over to her.

With the most gentle touch Taty’s soldier fingers can manage. Zelda can’t help but jump a little at this touch, her stiches bulging but never tearing.

Taty smiles so that Zelda can see her expression before answering. “It’s still red, but it doesn’t look like you’re getting any infection or anything.” She says happily and truthfully before adding on. “It’s starting to close up to.” She says with a bit too much excitement in her voice even as the wound still looks to be as long as her index finger, the same as the day she got it.

Zelda gives out a relived sigh, it hadn’t felt like that, she’s glad to hear, that she isn’t screwing up everything.

Once Taty was done examining Zelda’s wound she went to check the perimeter of their makeshift camp for signs of other travelers while Zelda went and got the bedroll so they could get some sleep.

With the sun finally set the two were in a single large sleeping bag on top of some feather weight panels that insulated them better from the ground. The two were close, they couldn’t afford the lost energy by each having their own sleeping bag.

When they started out they’d agreed they’d take turns sleeping on the fireside but each night Taty would forget who had been fireside the night before and claim it was Zelda’s turn to be fire side, and when Zelda corrected the record on that Zelda would still wake up fireside.  After a point she just had to give up on this.

Every night went the same they would bed down and as soon as her head found the pillow she’d be out, only stirring to find Taty’s warmth when she got cold.

This night though Zelda woke up when it was still dark, the sun not making its quick march back to the sky. She could hear Taty saying something but couldn’t focus on it, her stirring causing Taty to stop saying what she had been. Once she was awake to understand what was being said all that she heard was. “Hush, you need your rest, go back to sleep.” She was tired and couldn’t deny it, so she followed the gentle charm that Taty’s words placed on her.

Tandy's tepid meeting.

Even as the words were out of her mouth Tandy had to glance around still, half expecting the arguing pair to jump at her while the others watched. But no mater what her imagination told her it didn’t happen.

The two that had been watching the red faced pair glanced up to look at Tandy. She catches the eye of a woman. To call her a church mouse in her ankle length skirt, cardigan, and neatly collected hair would, Tandy gathered, be about the same as calling her a wild child in this woman’s world view. Her gaze flashed over to the man. With his heavy work clothes and neon yellow panels crisscrossing his body, she half expected to see a reversible yield-stop sign laying on the ground somewhere near by.

Even as the two looked between Tandy and the pair that had been arguing she somehow found the force of will to walk on the dirt road so she was standing with them under the lone orange street lamp at seemingly forgotten dirt T-intersection.

“Where are we?” Was all that her brain could think to spit out as she stood there. For her trouble of asking the red faced pair turned their glares to her. One was a man who looked to be a couple years her junior. His outfit screamed euro trash who should be wasting his time working for a pittance at a hot dog stand just inside some rundown theme park, only to find that he didn’t earn enough to ever go in it himself for an afternoon of fun.

As for the one he was arguing with, it was a girl, and Tandy nearly choked when her eyes saw her. While the flesh coloured flip-flops and green headband with a ceramic or plastic rose were nothing to be made much out of. It was what she was wearing, a single sea foam-green towel that looked ready to flutter off of her slender frame with a single wrong move. On the bottom edge was a small badge that Tandy couldn’t make out. With the fact that she wore only a badge and a towel Tandy’s mind went wild with speculation on just what this, in her mind, child did.

“Oh you brought another girl here!” The red-faced girl accused the man, only using her presence as further ammunition in the argument that had started before Tandy’s arrival.

Without out missing a beat the man shot back at her. “I keep telling that I have no idea how I or any of you got here!”

Sensing that these two would never let the other take any ground in this empty argument, Tandy broke in, snatching the ball of the conversation from the two. “Where the hell are we?” She asked, exasperation clear in her voice. The two frowned at her, and she had to wonder if they’d been enjoying it. Were they flirting at a time like this?! The thought echoed in her mind as the girl pointed up. Tandy’s gaze followed the finger and saw a crossed pair of street signs sticking out of the side of the lamp post. “Servant King’s Parkway and Five hundred forty-three nanometre drive?” She asked having never seen such names for streets in her life. Both were almost normal, but failed spectacularly at the last step.

Tandy looked back to them. “No, really where are we?” She asked. “Is this some kind of joke?” The girl frowned. “That’s what I was asking him, he was here first, so he has to know how we got here.” The man gave out a over the top groan. “I’ve told you a dozen times already, when I got here, you were already here with your legs all-” He can’t get another word in before being cut off. “My legs are a national treasure!” She shouts at him. If Tandy had been closer to age of this girl maybe she would have agreed, but as it was she had a hard time seeing those any more than two years younger than her as anything but children. These two hot heads were most certainly in that category, unlike the two quiet ones who had chosen just to watch.

“Listen,” She says feeling like the smallest child as she speaks. “I’m Tandy, what are your names?” She asks them, pretending to feel like an adult and hoping that they some how agree to her act. The towel girl isn’t haven’t it, and she shuts her grey eyes and looks away from Tandy with a sour look on her face. If nothing else at least Tandy can be proud in knowning she got her to stop arguing for the moment.

“Uh, I’m-” The proper girl starts to speak in a quiet voice before stumbling to a stop.

“Folks! Friends!” Tandy can feel her skin crawl like someone has licked her as those words come from behind her. She jumps forward out of surprise and spins around, now standing between the pair that had been arguing, the light directly overhead as a man stands there, on a red and white picnic cooler. He’s dressed like a cowboy but it seems like he has stolen his shirt from one of the rodeo clowns.

“Why I’m so glad all my friends have met one another!” He says hopping off of the cooler. Tandy looks to the others as they look between them. Between each of them there is no sign of recognition of old acquaintances.

“Who in the hell are you?” The man shouts at him. “Are you the ass that brought us here?” The towel girl joins in.

Bending down to extract some content from the cooler. The way his body moved made it clear that what he was hunting for was of much more importance to him than some silly little questions. “Oh why I am your dearest friend here.” He finally answered standing up while holding a stake that was larger than any Tandy had ever seen before, one that she had trouble imagining the beast it had come from.

“And this.” He shook the stake in his hand. “Is my dear...” He let the words trail off, and for a moment Tandy wondered if she was being introduced to his dinner, only to then hear the sounds of heavy paws on wet dirt. She looked and saw the outline of a dog in the dark coming towards them, when it came into the light of the lamp it snatched the steak from the man’s hand, and one of its three heads started to eat. “Cerb-” Tandy started to say. “Spots!” The man cut her off and loudly proclaimed like a proud father of the large three headed dog who now that Tandy could see in the light was in fact black with a speckling of white spots over it’s entire body.

“I am Syl.” The man finally introduced himself. “Your dearest of friends, and as such I would make a suggestion.” He pointed down the Servant King’s Parkway. “That you travel this way, and not leave the road as my dear Spots has been trained to protect the fields from poachers, and only one of his heads has been fed tonight.” Syl looked at the group with a thin smile on his lips. “Or you can take your 60 percent chance and hope that he hasn’t picked up any tricks from the family cat.”

No sooner had he said that than the light above them gave a loud pop that made Tandy and the others jump, to look up to where it had been. Without it, the T intersection was dark now, when she looked back Syl, Spots, and the cooler were gone even as she squinted in the dark.

Tandy's Troubles

Sitting at a cafe’s patio Tandy just wanted to scream. On the table she’d thrown a folder full of resumes. It had been a complete waste of a day in her mind and most people weren’t even thinking of lunch yet. With a deep breath she buried her head into her arms. This day, the week, and even the month, she was just ready to have it all be done with, or even better to have a redo at it. She scratched the back of her leg and could hear what had been a small run in her stocking growing even larger, not that she cared at this point.

Taking a deep breath she finally pulled herself up, she had needed that just the moment to regroup. When she looked in front of her she was surprised to be greeted with a woman a couple of years her elder, a scar on her left ear that makes it look like during some childhood game she’d lost a fight with a pair of rusty hedge clippers. Climbing on this woman was a toddler who looked like she wasn’t quite ready to start kindergarten. While another who she ventured was her cousin or maybe brother thanks to the brilliant green eyes the children and the woman across from her all had behind a set of thick rimmed glasses.

On top of her folder was a leaking bottle of milk that she could be certain had already left a coffee ring. “Uh, excuse me.” She has to say a bit exasperated at this woman’s actions. If she’d just sat down there was no way should would have done anything more than felt annoyed, but she didn’t have time to run to a print shop and get new prints done, no matter how much they used the term ‘instant’ in their advertising.

She smiled a mother’s smile at her, one that would be given when a child lost a silly little game. “Oh dear.” She said. At first Tandy felt a bit of vindication with those words until she realized the dear referred to her rather than the ladies action. Tandy could feel her flushing red. She wasn’t going to land a job with those resumes but it should have been through either her own incompetence or the egos of the jackasses rejecting her, not some mother.

She opens her mouth to tell this woman off, she doesn’t care any more if it is bad form, bitchy, or boyish, nor any of the other things she’d been chided to avoid her entire life. As she could feel the first syllable forming in her throat the shrill screeching of a phone’s alarm set to its highest setting cut her off.

“Oh dear oh dear!” The green eyed woman says as she hunts around in her purse and finally pulls out a phone to shut off the ringer. She she does a broach with a large cat’s eye set in the centre. She watched as it fell in the air, seeming to hang here for an impossibly long time, only to clatter on a metal rib of the table, causing the gem to crack as it bounced towards her.

Once again the woman spoke the only two words that Tandy had ever heard her speak, while she with a skill that had come from the time as a mother managed to hold onto her child in a way that seemed to defy gravity. “Oh dear.” This time to Tandy’s ear though it was a very different thing, a delight that should have been saved for greeting an old friend was in it as her eyes remained locked on the brooch, that only as Tandy stood up to yell something at her, did they start to drift upwards.

She could hear the clattering of the chair behind her as she stood with enough force to knock it over when she felt a bite in the back of her leg where the chair of all things had gotten the last laugh and caused her knee to buckle. Out of instinct she grabbed frantically in front of her but her fingers could only find that dropped brooch as she fell, with a thud on her back.

Tandy didn’t want to get up, she felt stupid and embarrassed from her actions causing her to mess up her clothes. As she lay there she wondered when it had gotten so over cast, and where the sounds of the street had gone.

She pushed herself into a sitting position and didn’t find the table with all her papers in front of her, she looked around confused as she wondered what had just happened. Had she hit her head? She pressed the back and side with her palm and didn’t feel any pain, but couldn’t remember what any other signs of a concussion were, maybe that had been it.

She looked in her other hand, the brooch still in it, the only sign of where she had been just moments before. With the broken cat’s eye in the centre and the entire thing made of silver or maybe platinum in the shape of a calendar where the rings for months and days could be slid to align with an arrow made of gold.

Picking herself up and onto shaky lags she looked around only to spot a group that had been behind her, too wrapped up in their own argument to even notice her. “H-hello?” She said with a shaky voice trying to get their attention, just hoping to end her confusion on where she was.

Jenni the Neon Necromancer

Poking at the wilting flower the young girl frowned as one of the gentle violet petals drifted down to the dirt it had been planted in.  Looking around the light seemed right to her, and with a quick sticking of her finger into the dirt, it shouldn’t be a water problem.
Frustrated she slapped the makeshift pot she was using.  With a clatter the jawbone of the skull come pot bounced and made a racket before stopping a few metres away from her.  Standing up and sighing she dusted off her knees, before going over and stopping just short of some poison trap with the jawbone precariously sitting on the switch plate for.  If she was clumsy and set it off, without a doubt she would be killed by it.
On the positive side, Jenni could be certain that a death so near the flower would cause it to come back to full health in a few hours or less.  The downside was such a pain for her, loosing two days just working her way through some deathless void and then a month of feeling like she was hung over.  Not something that she wanted.
Even as she gingerly plucked up the jawbone she couldn’t help but wince and shut her eyes as some part of her expected to be enveloped by the deadly gas.  After standing there tensed up and eyes closed she dared to open her eyes.
When she did she was met not with the empty dungeon she had closed her eyes to, but one with a skunk of all things just sitting at the far end of the poison trap, on its hind legs while cleaning its face with its front paws.
With its well-known stench able to turn even the dead, something she knew only too well, plus with it’s V shaped face and warning strips.  It was safe to say that Jenni had fallen in love with the precious little critter.
Slowly and careful not to scare off the skunk Jenni started making her way past the many trap plates that would set off the deadly gas trap. With each step the skunk continued to clean its face.
Nearly there Jenni raised her hands ready to snatch up the darling when she heard a clatter.  She’d forgotten about the jaw bone she’d been holding.  Looking down she saw that it was laying on the trap plate, hitting just hard enough to cause a hiss to start somewhere behind her. 
The skunk, evermore clever than Jenni could hope to be on the best of her days had already started to scurry off to higher ground. With the pastel plum coloured gas now starting to fill the section of the dungeon Jenni was suddenly filled with remorse over her hair’s nuclear yellow and neon pink highlights was clashing with the gas.  This is what drove her most as she chased the skunk and ran from the deadly gas that was only too happy to, for the moment, release her from her mortal coils.
Now running after the skunk, she came down the joining hallway of the dungeon with the gas nipping at her heels, and more importantly biting at her nose.  She watched as the skunk looked back at her as it stepped on a new trap plate, this time for an arrow.  Instinctively Jenni covered her head from the incoming shower.  She could feel the wet thuds against her forearms as she continued to run.  Once they stopped thudding against her she brought her arms down to find that she’d become a porcupine.  Normally she’d be aghast and stopped to correct this fashion faux pas, but with the gas behind her and the adorable skunk in front, she had to continue on, quills and all. 
She watched the skunk run in front of her, slowly she was managing to gain on it, each step taking her a few millimetres closer. She just needed to keep this up, and have enough luck that it not spring any further traps.
With the skunk’s path around the various raised stones in the dungeon floor Jenni found herself suddenly making even greater gains on it.  She was so elated she’d forgotten to watch her step and hit a trap plate with the heel of her foot, causing the entire section of the floor to crumble away into the spiked pit some ways below.  Hitting the wall of the pit she by some chance found her fingers grasping onto a small rock that would have made a good hand hold for any elf or halfling that had come in to be a nuisance to her.  She made a mental note to come back and check her pits for hand holds to be removed, even as she used it to save herself, pulling up and then using it to stand on as she hopped up to grab edge of the pit.
As she pulled herself out of the pit she could breath a small sigh of relief as the gas would take some time to fill up the pit, but there was still the matter of the skunk. She looked for it, and was greeted with its face peaking out from the next corner in the dungeon.
Slowly she started towards it, trying her best not to startle it. Closer and closer she got until she could almost feel it’s fir in her hands. But just as she was about to plug it up to cuddle with, it took off once more.
Cutting across the hall to the far side its plump little body hit one of this section’s trap plates.  Jenni could hear the trap starting into motion even before she could be sure that the skunk had hit the plate. The grinding of stone followed by the sound of a two metre high bolder rolling from behind her caused her to pause and look back.  The impending doom was of little concern to the skunk who was waddling down the side of the wall and had the boulder pass it by without having so much as a hair put out of place by the massive weight of the boulder.
With no time to think Jenni dove for the same corner the skunk has so easily scampered through. Her arm still looking like a porcupine it caught on something. Before she had a chance to move there was a crunch from her side as the boulder went by her. Caughing on the dust thrown up by the boulder Jenni looked around and didn’t see anything out of place until she finally looked down at her arm. The boulder had done a number on her arm, likely breaking every bone in it.
Normally she’d be upset at such a turn of events but that skunk was just so cute she’d let it slide.
Picking herself up once more and going after the skunk she was now accompanied by the ‘flap flap flap’ sound of her crushed arm slaping against her own body.
Coming around a corner she slid on her heels and saw the skunk sitting once more cleaning its face. She wouldn’t let it get away from her again. She ran, throwing all caution to the wind. Once she was close enough she lept into the air and landed nearly ontop of the skunk, her good arm half wrapped around him.
As she relaxed certain in her victory her chin pressed down on one of this halways trap plates. As she lay there still relishing her victory a buzzing sound could be heard from somewhere below her. A saw blade then popped up infront of her and the skunk who looked at it and with a simple hop, jumped over the blade, even as the sound of a saw moving through flesh came from behind Jenni. She had a sinking feeling as the sound faded. Once the buzzing was gone she did her best to get back on her feet but quickly found she could only manage one foot, while the other layed like a precious little angel on the ground, waiting for it’s own Dr. Frankenstine to come along for it.
This was getting redicoulous even for such a lovely skunk. Jenni’s only saving grace is that she had no beliefs about sunk costs so she was free to continue on after her lovely skunk.
Hopping down the dungeon she came to the next section, a place thankfully with no traps but, and she realized this with some concern for the poor skunk, some of the best skeleton warriors a necromancer could make.
Despite her worry what she found was not a skunk in any kind of mortal danger but rather a skunk that was rather content with itself after stealing the fibula from one of Jenni’ s skeleton warriors. Hopping over to the happy skunk, Jenni stole the hand from a different one of her skeleton warriors and offered it to the skunk.
As the skunk went to take the hand from Jenni, she slowly pulled it back so that it would have to come closer, until finally the skunk was pawing at her remaining leg. Its little claws tickled her skin causing her to laugh and fall over. The skunk seeing it’s chance scampered over her body to take the hand, and curl up on her while it chewed on the bone hoping for a taste of sweet sweet marrow.

The story of the first mermaids.

Once there was a girl who was born the only child of a retainer of the Emperor.  He was a mighty warrior who it was said fought in a hundred battles while her mother was pregnant.  When she was born her father had become so desired by the Emperor that he took control of her life.  First by giving her two bottles elixir of life so that she would no longer age past the prime of her life.  The second way was to engage his second son, a man that would never find power, glory, nor nobility, to her, and demand that she present him with a dowry of the second elixir of life so that she would be bonded with him forever.

When she was young the Emperor had her sequestered away in a forgotten castle so that she may grow into a woman that his son may marry while allowing her father to continue fighting in the wars of the Emperor.

One day as she watched the bunny in the moon she heard a little scratching at her window. When she opened it she found herself with a noble little demon otter with a crown made of rice stocks.  Soon after she would leave her window open allowing the demon otter to come and visit her in her lonely home whenever he could.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into month. The two would talk and the princess was falling ever deeper in love with the otter’s whit that had sharpened over the time they spent together.

One day she heard news that her fiancé was returning to fetch her.  This was a man that had seldom written her, and when he had it seemed to her that those words had been only sent under orders from the Emperor.  She cried deeply when she realized what this would mean. Under the moon light her tears turned to pearls, but once they were out of the moon’s gentle glow they once again returned to water.

As she cried on the ground she heard the rapping at her window she had not heard since she had started leaving it open for the demon otter.  And despite that fact that she had left it open as she had for so long the otter was there in his little rice crown racking on the window with one of his claws.

He was about to sweep her away, but she stopped him, and ran to retrieve the wedding gift she had been given for the Emperor’s son.  She presented it to the Demon Otter King right then and there.  Not even a whisper of doubt in her heart.  He drank it then and became like her, freed from the bonds of life able to live together for as long as the sun and moon stayed in the sky.

When the Demon Otter King took her through her window she heard the distraction caused by the otters who had been so loyal for so long to their king.

The two ran off to a far away to live in a kingdom of rice fields. In time they had many children together.  These were the first mermaids.  So loved were they by their parents that the Princess and the Demon Otter King gave a part of their very essence to these creatures so that they may choose if they wish to be otters, mermaids, or humans.  Even though they knew that one day they would no longer have any essense to give to their children the two keep giving the gift of their forms.

Until one day the two called all their children before them as the princess held her newly born child and spoke to them. She told them that they would have to be saying good bye to all of her beloved children.

All of her children cried at this, and despite the moon not being out each of their tears turned to pearls as she smiled at them. With her gentle smile she told them that so long as she loved them their tears would become pearls no matter if the moon was in the sky or not. Smiling at all of his pride and joy standing before him the Demon Otter King told his children to value the youngest as they are the ones who will one day lead.

With that the two gave the gifts of their forms to the newly born child.

The Princess and the Demon Otter King passed away their own forms fading as they became water in the rice fields and mixed together.

The tale of the Mad Demon Otter King

Many years ago in a bog there lived a demon otter who fancied himself a king, and had even convinced the other otters to follow him under such a title.  From his home he could spy upon a castle of the Emperor.  In this castle lived the daughter of the Emperor’s mightiest retainer.

A girl who through her own acts had been elevated to the rank of princess of the empire, as well she had been given many other gifts by the.  The second greatest of the gifts was to allow her two drinks of the elixir of life so that with the first she may live forever, and with the second she may give to the man she would marry, the emperor's own child.

For many years she lived in the castle waiting for her fiancé to come and bring her to the Emperor’s most magnificent palace.  As she waited the evil otter would climb up from the bog and find his way to her window.  From there he would speak to her, telling her lies of his grand kingdom and all the treasures that were contained within it.  When in truth there was not a single spec of gold that he would speak so glowingly of.

The Otter proved himself to be a clever demon, with each word that he spoke to the princess confused her mind ever more.  Until she could no longer tell what was the kingdom of her benevolent Emperor and what was the rotten swamp that the demon otter called his kingdom.

One day on his way to poison the mind of the princess ever more the otter heard a pair of servants speaking of the Emperor’s second son coming to finally to take his bride back to the imperial capital and marry her.

This threw the otter into such a rage that he returned to his swamp that night and rallied the other otters to attack the castle and cause as much chaos at the castle as they could.  As they rioted on the far side of the castle the demon otter stole up to where the princess was asleep and kidnapped her.  In addition to the taking of the princess the otter tricked the princess into revealing that she was to present her fiancé with a gift of the elixir of life when he arrived.  The demon otter stole the elixir and drank it right then and there, freeing its very soul from the punishment of death that it so deserved.

The demon otter whisked the princess to a far away land and took her live among rice patties.  Without the staff of the castle to give her reprieve from the demon otter’s silver tongue she was tricked into believing she loved the vile Demon Otter King.

In time the two had children.  When their children were born each was hideous, having a tail that even though it was the tail of an otter many saw the tail of a fish.  Like their father these children were conniving and greedy stealing the forms of both their mother and father.  Each child took a little bit of its parents’ life, until finally one child was born so hungry for the life of its parents that it killed both. So thrilled by this act the other children declared this child their new king. The king of the mermaids.

The Princess of the Eternal June

Long ago before any you have ever known were born there was an Emperor.  He ruled his lands with a fair and just hand.  With his guidance he was able to lead his people into a prosperous age.  Silver was discarded by even the poorest of the people as too common a metal to be bothered with. 

In time though a dark cloud fell over the lands.  First noticed by the farmers and then the census takers, no child was born to any woman, nor any beast of the land, air, or sea.  Not so much as a single fruit in the trees grew.  Now food had to be taken from the great storehouses and given to the people.  Even with this aid the people could not work the fields as they once had and soon the gold and silver that had filled the lands flowed out to other parts of the world.

The Emperor called to him all of his vassals and retainers and sent them to the four corners of his lands to discover the source of this calamity.  With every passing day a different man would return to the Emperor with ill news that they had not been able to find the source of the blight until only one retainer had not returned.  A mighty warrior who had brought his young daughter with him to the western mountains.

Deep in those mountains the retainer and his daughter had set up camp in a tent she had woven of silver threads.  As the night wore on the daughter was awoken by sounds of music.  Venturing from her tent towards the sound and after she had passed the crest of seven more hills she came to a giant daylily.  Under it was Songzi Niangniang, the maiden goddess of fertility, along with a number of unborn spirits. 

As she watched the unborn spirits danced and drank of a stone cask filled to the brim with nectar that had dripped from the petals of the daylily.  Still unnoticed by the spirits the girl slipped away and fled back to her tent over the seven hills on the side of the mountain.

She returned to her father and told him of the spirits, the goddess, and the music they were singing.  Her father quieted her then and listened but the two could only hear the winds of the mountain against the sides of the silver tent.  In time he convinced her it must have been a dream and she acquiesced to him. 

The next night she was awoken once more by the sounds of music and she again ventured over the seven crests of the mountain to find the goddess Songzi sitting and drinking under the giant daylily that protected her and the spirits from any snow that may fall.

Without staying long, the girl made her way back to the camp. As she crossed the last hill she stopped and turned back to where she had come from and listened. When she did she could only hear the winds blowing through the mountains, the sounds of music and merriment was gone.  Knowing her father would once again insist it was just a dream the girl took the stakes out of the ground and took up the corner the silver tent in her hands.  Though she had to strain with all of her might she was able to slowly move the tent.  Throughout the night she  had to place the fine fabrics under great strains to move the silver tent.  After she had arrived to the place she could be allowed to rest the remainder of the night not a single thread had been torn, nor even stretched by her efforts.  Even when she ran it across a rock so sharp it would have made a fine blade for any warrior there was no mark on the silver tent.

Each night she did this for a week when she had finally brought the tent to the crest of the final hill she rushed to see the goddess and unborn spirits but the sun crested behind her and she only saw an empty tundra with a section where the snow had been melted away.

So tired was she from moving the tent every night while her father slept that when she returned to the tent she fell asleep until that night when like so many nights before she was taken from the land of dreams by the music of the spirits.

She came out and watched as the party continued as it had for so many nights with the unborn spirits dancing together and the goddess drinking deeply from her cup before refilling it from the cask that never seemed to run dry no matter how many drank from it.

She rushed back then to her silver tent and woke her father with a violent shaking, all the while telling him of the unborn spirits and the goddess, how they danced, how they sang, and how they drank.  He quieted her then and listened to the sounds around them.  All that they could hear was the flowing winds hitting the side of their tent.  He scolded her deeply then, telling her that if he could not find the source of blight that had befallen their lands in the coming day that the two would return to the Emperor and inform him that they had failed and hope that one of the other servants of the Emperor had fared better than they had. 

During that day the girl thought and worried knowing what she seen but not knowing how to convince him.  Worse that he would find nothing and that they would have to leave, him believing they had failed when they had succeeded.

That night she was unable to sleep and lay in the tent awake until the sounds of song drifted to her and she crawled out of her bed.  As she watched the goddess was just filling her cup for the first drink of the night.  The girl went back to her tent taking up the stakes and dragging the silver tent and her father who slept within to where the goddess and unborn spirits were merry and presented the tent and all its contents as a gift to the beautiful and mighty goddess.

Amused by the mortal’s gift the goddess opened the tent and was surprised to find the sleeping man.  Before she could question this the girl spoke up and told her it was the greatest gift she could present, a warrior with many tales to drink with.  At this the goddess laughed with amusement at what the girl said, her laugh waking the father.

He was swept up by the unborn spirits and brought to a seat by the stone cask, where he could drink as much of the nectar as he pleased, and the daughter made sure he drank as much as he could.  As the night progressed and the stories flowed as freely as the nectar the cask slowly emptied until the skies darkened to the deep black of the predawn night when the finally the last drop was taken up in the father’s cup.

The girl smiled to herself, proud in the knowledge that her father’s action had emptied the cask and now the goddess would return to her role and allow humans, beasts, and plants to bear children again.  Her father then slept the entire day away until deep in the night when the girl once again heard the music sung by the unborn spirits.  Her father this time stirring at the noise and going out to once again join the merriment with the goddess.

The girl sat high up on the crest of the hill and watched as nectar flowed out of the daylily and into the stone cask.  In time she stood and went down the hill and spoke with the spirits and shared in their drink.  Quickly though she started to steal drink from the spirits, smashing their cups on the ground, and commit in all manner of chaos.

At first her father and the goddess laughed with glee at her antics, though when she decided to use the cask as her own personal pool the cheer quickly turned to jeers from the unborn spirits.  After a quick discussion between her father and the goddess the man came over to the cask and plucked the girl out of it and carried her back to the silver tent.

After a short time in the tent the girl went to leave it but found a score of the unborn spirits blocking her way out of the tent.  So she slept, and dreamt of how to convince the goddess to return home.

When she woke she found her father had not returned to the tent, when she left the tent and passed over the crest of the hill where her father was sleeping at the foot of the stone cask even as the goddess and unborn spirits had left with the day's light.

The girl emptied the tent on the grounds in front of it and took the tent down. With a small knife from the inside of the tent she cut the tips of the threads at the seams. Carefully she pulled each thread out before she could lay the panels of the tent out before her. 

Through the day she worked and her father slept off the effects of the nectar. Her nimble fingers worked with the thread and a golden needle to change the form of the silver tent to that which she desired.

Only once Vega was peaking down on the girl did she sit back and rest her fingers from the sewing.  From over the crest of the hill she could hear the song of the spirits once again.  Taking up what she had done with the silver tent she brought it over the hill to the goddess and the unborn spirits.  When she approached she could feel the tone change around her, while many still danced and sung together, there were others that watched her, lest she take another swim.

The girl went before the goddess and presented her with the gift she had created.  An expertly created cover for the cask with a small hole in the middle to catch the nectar dripping from the daylily.  It would, she explained, keep any errant item from falling into their nectar and spoiling it.

So delighted with the quality of the sewing and lustre of the silver the goddess ordered it to be draped over the stone cask immediately.  With playful cries as they worked the unborn spirits gave great effort to fasten the cover.

Once it was done there was great cheer as they went back to their drink, safe in the knowledge that nothing from a fly, to a girl, to bird may fall into their drink again.

Not long after did the merriment end, when an unborn spirit ready for a new cup found it could not fit any cup no matter how small through the hole that so greedily drank every drip of nectar from the daylily.

All that were gathered there then cast their gaze to where the girl had sat only to find an empty rut in the snow.  While some went out to look for her others tried to remove the cover. But no matter how they tried the cover would not budge.  They begged her father and he took his sword and spear to it, stabbing and slashing the cover, but no matter how he attacked it, not a single thread could be cut or even show any sign of stretching.

As the night went on some of the unborn spirits continued their search for the girl but many more drifted away no longer enchanted by the nectar of the goddess’ daylily.

By morning the father despite all his efforts had only been able to chip the blade of his sword when he threw it down with the first rays of dawn.

Past the crests of seven hills the girl woke with the dawn from where she had slept in the trees. Through much of the night she had heard the unborn spirits wondering around, lamenting the loss of their nectar, and calling for her to let them drink once more of its intoxicating nature. But all throughout the night they never ventured so far as she had gone.

Through the day she made her way back across the seven crests where she found her father once again sleeping after spending the night drinking and then trying to restore the stone cask to all.
She watched as he slept choosing to let him rest even as the day turned into night and the first stars appeared, and even as Vega loomed over her head and her father awoke from his slumber the goddess and the unborn spirits didn’t return to make merry around the stone cask that still had the remnants of her tent tied tightly over it.

After two more nights of waiting and the goddess not returning to this place the father and the daughter made their way back to the Emperor’s palace.

Once they had returned the father spoke to the Emperor of the goddess Songzi and how she had stopped her duties to enjoy song, dance, and the heavenly nectar of her daylily, and of how his daughter was unswayed by the sweet elixir, and was able to seal away the cask that it flowed into.

At first the Emperor was unimpressed by this story and was certain that the lands blight was surely still amongst them.  Only that night did the Emperor believe the stories when his wife told him she had become pregnant with the Emperor’s child.

So moved by this he rewarded the girl with eight gifts: a jade cup that could purify any liquid placed within it, a comb made from moonstone that crashed into the Emperor’s garden many years before,  robes made from the down of a phoenix, a compass that points not north but at what her own heart most desires.  This were the first four gifts and each worth a ransom on their own, but they were not what was most important to the Emperors heart for the girl he also gave these. He elevated the girl to a princess of the empire and with her new status he bestowed the name of Princess of the Eternal June, next was to invite her into the family by offering to her his favourite nephew’s hand, to which she gladly accepted. The final gift was two vials of the elixir of life, one for her and one to present to her husband on their wedding night.