There are certainly times in one’s life that are considered formative experiences. For some, it is witnessing a beautiful symphony and deciding that they’d like to become a musician, or learning what true strength means after suffering a dramatic illness, or deciding you’ve had just about enough of that shoelace nonsense and switching to velcro after one too many unscheduled vacations down the bottom of a stairwell. It was wholly unique and different for everyone. For gods, it was taken one degree further.

For those of the celestial persuasion, those formative experiences took the shape of Paths--defining scenarios that would better hone their true purpose toward an ultimate alignment and understanding. As Snooze stood, clutching the shuddering forms of crying sentient lifeforms, she had no way of knowing that she was butting up against one such time of great decision.

Her breathing slowed and her muscles relaxed and she tightened her embrace around the two youths who had run away after almost losing their lives. Snooze herself did not even fully understand why, but she released the two Stonies from her arms and instead, raised her hands high in the air.

She felt magic of some force or nature begin to slip out of her. Like waves, she emitted magic toward the two frightened beings before her. The magic radiated from her body like a high frequency signal, washing over them and spilling to the ground. She wasn't sure how it worked, but she knew that this was her Aura Ability activating.

Instantly, Anik and Pili stopped their weeping, their formerly stormy visages began to calm, becoming more placid. They stopped quivering, suddenly relaxing their tired and adrenaline-addled bodies.

However, Snooze was not done. From her hands she summoned more magic, a Godspell. She’d almost absent-mindedly chosen it as a fifth Ritual Command, but now she found that it would be quite an apt selection indeed.

“Life,” she whispered, and though she had never before done something of that magnitude, through her focus, the Godspell erupted from both of her hands, wrapping both Anik and Pili in a soothing silvery light. The bruises faded from their bodies, and their cuts and wounds began to heal over. They formed fresh scars, and would likely need to be taken care of more properly, but she was only Level 3. However, she’d discovered a new aspect of the Element she’d not yet been privy to, and wondered vaguely if there were other Elements that would respond in a similar way.

As the light faded, the Travel Edition of the Book of Leaf chirped at her, and she saw two notifications.

[ GAINED ELEMENT SUBSPELL: HEALING ]

[ GAINED ABILITY: DUAL CASTING ]

Well, isn’t that something?

Snooze waited for Anik and Pili to get their bearings. Finally, Anik spoke.

“Are you one of the Blessed?” he said, emphasizing the ‘ed’ of the word as a separate syllable.

“I am not sure what you mean,” Snooze admitted, “what is a Blessed?”

“One of the chosen,” he explained, “those born touched by the love of our creator. Only Blessed can use the healing art. You healed us.” It hadn’t been a question.

“Oh, well, I suppose I could be… yes.” Snooze said. She didn’t have the time to get technical with them.

“What are you called, Blessed?” Pili asked, her eyes filled with wonder.

“I am called Snooze,” said Snooze.

“We meet well, Se Nu Sa,” Anik said, breaking her name into three pronounceable syllables. Incidentally, in Pebbletongue, se nu sa, meant “silly hunger green,” and was completely meaningless, but still somehow described the god perfectly.

“We meet well,” Snooze returned the formal Stonies greeting, almost exploding from cuteness aggression from finally getting to interact one-on-one with her favorite little creatures.

“Let us hurry, Blessed Se Nu Sa,” Pili said, now more bold than she had been a moment ago, “we must use your arts for the village.”

Snooze nodded, suddenly remembering the little wisps of smoke she had seen when she’d looked over the village on the shore earlier in the day and felt a pang of regret. That must have been the ‘razing’ that Anik and Pili had alluded to.

Had Riff done that?

She’d seemed so congenial and friendly, but she could have been fooling her the whole time. She’d seemingly forgotten about an entire God Path, one that seemed too important to leave out, in fact. Or perhaps she’d failed to mention it intentionally? Snooze would need to get to the bottom of this business as soon as possible, however, Riff was currently retrieving a candy bar, and the village required immediate attention. She’d have to deal with the more urgent matter first, and then she could figure out what would be done with Riff. Snooze was holding out hope that this was all coincidental.

However, despite her best efforts to the contrary, she could not stop connecting the dots. She shook her head to free her mind of the thoughts for the moment. They wouldn’t help her in this pressing scenario.

Snooze sighed, and thrust her hand up, pointing into the sky. A column of wind burst into existence and all three of them were thrust into the air, and went sailing over the tree line toward the Village of Dela.

“I hope you two aren’t afraid of heights,” she said.

They very much were.