The city of Avalon was one of the few places in the kingdom of Sailos that as a rule was active twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Early in the morning of the godling's second day of life, the marketplace of that city was as active as usual.

The marketplace of the capital city of the kingdom of Sailos was bursting with activity. This colossal part of the city was arguably as important as the gigantic palace that dominated the city's heart. Gregory's senses were aflame with activity as he quietly and peacefully tried to travel from one part of the marketplace to another. Being in Avalon's marketplace was an experience unlike any other in the kingdom, and possibly even beyond.

He could hear housewives and their children haggling with shopkeepers and traveling salespeople in a multitude of languages, all for the sake of acquiring better deals on a variety of wares. He could smell the odors of uncorked potions mixing with the pleasant scents of fresh fruit and even absorbing the dry scents of meat being roasted on a spit. which created a distinct cocktail of a smell that he knew he'd never be able to find anywhere else.

He could see dense crowds gathering around street performers and so-called "stage magicians". As he walked by a variety of stores he realized that if he felt like he could reach out and touch an assortment of wares more than a few of which he had never seen before. He could feel the long perfected cobblestone roads and sidewalks underneath his feet.

He loved Avalon's marketplace. It was truly a magical place that never failed to disappoint travelers like himself.

Now if only he could find some recently hunted meat for his wife. Vampires who got by on animal blood could only survive on fresh kills, after all. And being a considerate husband would help him help her with the move out of their cave home.

Gregory walked for a few minutes, thankful for the day's fairly overcast nature. If the human had been doing all of this walking while the sun beat down on him it would have made his mood miserable. Instead, he was in a fairly positive mood and was able to endure the rudeness of other people searching through the marketplace for deals on a variety of goods.

Within a few minutes, he was finally nearing a butcher shop that he could see hadn't sold out of its morning stock of fresh kills, when he saw and heard a child a bit in front of him ask her mother a curious question.

"Mommy, what's that?"

The little girl was being carried in her mother's arms and carrying a small stuffed animal in one hand. Her face was tilted upwards and a finger of hers was pointed to the sky. Her mother looked up, right as the shade on top of the two of them darkened. Her mother's eyes opened wide, and even from a distance, Gregory could see the confusion and fear that filled them.

He looked up himself, curious as to what could evoke such a reaction from her.

What he saw was a dense cloud of green smog beginning to descend upon the town. And then he felt and heard others begin to notice it too.

A cloud of death, the color of dark grass was descending upon the city of Avalon. And as it began to get closer and closer to the city, the city's unlucky inhabitants began to smell the scent of rotting carrion. The last scent that'd ever fill their nostrils.

Moments before the poison descended on the city of Avalon:

High in the skies above the human city of Avalon, an unbelievably powerful creature sliced through the air on massive wings. Its wings were as large as buildings, and each flap of them used energy comparable to that of earthquakes and other natural disasters. The distance between the creature and the ground was measured in kilometers, and to inhabitants of the city below the only evidence that the creature was directly above them were the bursts of wind the humans felt come from directly overhead whenever the dragon flapped its mighty wings.

The creature that sailed through the air was a massive beast, who when measured from the tip of its snout to the end of its tail came in at an astounding 90 meters long. Every part of its body was covered in dense gray scales, scales that protected it from all but the most powerful possible attacks. Its scales could deflect cannonballs and absorbed magic as readily as they absorbed physical blows from arrows, axes, or spears.

Its wingspan dwarfed its body, coming in at about a total of 120 meters, and the wings themselves were powerful features of its body that it used offensively as much as it used its dreadful poisonous breath or its claws and fangs.

The creature was a gigantic beast that sailed through the air undetected by the people down below. The people it was preparing to kill. Not only to kill but to slaughter wholesale.

The creature took the powerful winds buffeting its body into account and then swiftly moved to where it predicted it could release its genocidal poisonous breath for the maximum potential death and destruction.

As it flew through the air the creature took a second to mentally prepare its potent poison, by activating the organ located in its body that governed the chemicals responsible for the production of its attack. Seconds later it was sailing directly above the city of Avalon's slum when it opened its mouth and began to expel its fatal weapon.

Noxious green smoke began to escape from its lungs and maw. The smoke gently floated down, pulled by gravity and pushed by the wind towards its final destination. And then the dragon began to lazily fly back towards its lair and waited to inevitably receive the smorgasbord of notifications that would carry with them millions of experience points.

Perhaps the scariest part of the dragon's casual mass genocide was that it had so successfully dehumanized its prey that it viewed them as little more than walking masses of experience that it was entitled too by virtue of its overwhelming power. And the humans who were about to die could only guess as to what was responsible for their deaths because clouds obscured their vision of the flying nightmare that was ending their lives.

Before Gregory noticed the cloud of death begin to fall upon the city of Avalon, some of the lucky few to survive this incident would also notice it.

Some of the first people to notice the green cloud slowly descending on the city of Avalon were farmers who worked the fields right outside of the city and produced much of the produce the city went through in a year. They had been working in the fields, sweating in the heat of the sun, a heat that was only barely dulled by thin clouds when suddenly they felt a shadow fall over them. A shadow that carried with it the scent of rotting carrion.

They looked up and saw a dense blanket of green smoke softly and slowly descending over the city they lived in. They were unsure of what it was but knew better than to stand by and do nothing. So some of them made a smart decision: they took what vegetables they could hold or stuff in their bags and ran away.

They scattered in various directions, swiftly planning to retreat to the small towns of their birth or the distant cities they immigrated from, carrying with them vague knowledge of a dense green cloud of smoke that was minutes away from enveloping the city of Avalon.

At the time of the genocide inflicted by the grey dragon known as Xinathor, the city of Avalon had a population of about 600,000 people. Only 45 farmers fled the city in the minutes before Xinathor's breath blanketed the city.

The godling's declaration that he could understand them did provoke a reaction from the wolves. Their faces lit up and were more expressive after they learned the godling might be able to understand them. But they weren't convinced yet.

The she-wolf got up and began to move a bit, hopping around as she spoke. She was clearly excited by this development and interested in confirming it.

"Really? What am I saying? Say it back to me!"

Commanded the she-wolf, evidently the more talkative of the two.

"'Really? What am I saying? Say it back to me!'"

Repeated the godling, without hesitation.

The male wolf watched this with the canine version of an amused expression. He was less active than his mate, but he was also more powerfully built. The two wolves had similar measurements, measuring about 1.4 meters long and 75 centimeters tall, but the male wolf had thicker muscles than his companion and also cleaner fur.

Both wolves had silver fur and mahogany-colored eyes. They were both surprised to hear the godling actually repeat what the she-wolf had said to him.

Both wolves thought in silence for a moment before the male wolf began to speak to the godling.

"So it's true... Well, in that case, well-met druid!"

The godling returned the greeting with equal ease and casualness.

"Well-met Mr. wolf!"

Both wolves chuckled at this and then studied the godling in silence. The godling allowed the silence and knew that they were assessing him. After a minute of silence, the she-wolf spoke.

"Say, druid, do you want to help us with a problem we're having? If you want we could reward you for it."

The godling, ever the curious sort, wondered what sort of a problem a wolf might be having. That was when he heard M.A.'s voice explode in his mind, by virtue of her usual intense volume and amplified by what he recognized as legitimate excitement.

[ALTHOS! YOU ARE BEING GIVEN A QUEST. IF YOU ACCEPT AND YOU COMPLETE IT YOU'LL BE REWARDED. THIS IS SIMILAR TO FULFILLING A PRAYER.]

The godling made a mental note to ask about "prayer" later because he had never heard that word before. But he was intrigued by the possibility of receiving a reward for helping the wolves.

[QUEST: HELP THE WOLVES.

OBJECTIVES: EXTERMINATE THE MOST AGGRESSIVE OF THE BEARS WHO ARE ENROACHING UPON THE WOLVES TERRITORY WITH EVER INCREASING REGULARITY.

SECONDARY/OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: DISCOVER WHAT IS BEHIND THE RECENT CHANGES TO THE BEARS BEHAVIOR.

REWARD: EXPERIENCE TOWARDS YOUR "FRIEND OF NATURE" POWER, AND PROGRESS TOWARDS BEING ABLE TO INFLUENCE THE "ANIMAL" SUB-DOMAIN.

PROGRESS: 0/12 BEARS.

SECONDARY PROGRESS: 0/1 CAUSES DISCOVERED.]

Samyaza heard the details of the quest from M.A., as Althos heard and subsequently accepted the quest from the wolves themselves, and the angel had to ask a question.

[How does exterminating bears improve the "friend of nature" power? Please tell me I'm not the only person mystified by this...]

M.A. responded quickly, annoyed but not disagreeing with the angel.

[I DON'T KNOW BUT IF I HAD TO GUESS I'D SAY THAT I SUSPECT THAT THE "FRIEND OF NATURE" POWER IS EITHER INFLUENCED BY ACTUAL FRIENDSHIP WITH ANIMALS, OR THERE IS AN ELDRITCH INFLUENCE AT PLAY THAT DRIVES THE BEARS INTO THE TERRITORY OF THE WOLVES. OR PERHAPS THE EXPLANATION IS A COMBINATION OF THOSE TWO POSSIBILITIES.]

Samyaza mentally nodded at the Mental Assistant and realized that Althos was already trotting back to the orcs who had been watching him, confused as hell, as he spoke to the wolves.

The explanation that Althos had been given by the wolves was simple. Bears, who'd long been a nuisance in this area, had recently gotten considerably more aggressive. They were beginning to regularly explore this side of the forest, which broke an informal agreement between wolves and bears who had long ago divided the forest into two halves so as to avoid unnecessary clashes.

Althos had been asked by the wolves to exterminate the most aggressive of the bears, and if possible see what was causing this dangerous change in bear behavior.

After Althos asked what a bear was the wolves educated him about bears, or at least gave him their perspective on the large creatures. The godling was curious as to if he knew enough and decided to operate to assume that he didn't. But he knew all that the wolves knew. They had truthfully informed him of that being the limit of their knowledge.

The wolves didn't want to trap anyone or trick anyone, they just wanting to be left alone by the bears.

The godling had readily accepted the quest and was walking back towards the orcs so as to explain what he had been asked to do.

[Might as well get started right now, right?]

He asked his mental companions. Both of them agreed with his rationale, and all three of the powerful creatures were interested in seeing what this reward would be.

Something nagged at Althos though. After seeing what an awakening did for Silander, he believed in the "sapience" and "non-sapience" of creatures. After pondering this while in motion, the godling readily accepted a quest of its own making: talk to a bear and learn as much as it could about wild animals before deciding how to tackle this conflict.

The godling was quietly and privately wondering who determined what was "sapient" and what was "non-sapient". Because he couldn't bring himself to think of the wolves he had just spoken to as being "non-sapient".

The voice's in the god's mind were abuzz with thoughts and observations. Only one of their thoughts was particularly useful. Samyaza had come up with a neat scheme to explain away how it was that the deity had transformed into a wolflike creature and then back into his normal, human-like form.

The godling noted that that was what the wolf had called it as well.

[What is a Druid? One of the wolves called me that as well.]

In response to this question, M.A. responded with a cheerful and loud voice.

[THE TERM "DRUID" REFERS TO A CLASS, A TYPE OF MAGIC-USER. THE HUMAN MAGIC-USER YOUR DEMON FOUGHT AND KILLED HAD A CLASS AS WELL AND HE WAS A MAGIC USER. HE WAS A "BARD" AND HIS MAGIC CAME FROM SINGING AND MUSIC. AS A DRUID PEOPLE WOULD THINK YOUR MAGIC CAME FROM NATURE AND GAVE YOU POWER OVER NATURE.]

Althos accepted this explanation and realized that it was a sound explanation for his powers to someone who didn't know the truth. He bet Ranthor would readily accept it as well, since he had been buried the archer underground.

After hearing of Samyaza's little plot, and accepting it, the godling resumed moving towards his next objective: reunifying his forces and giving them their first task as a cohesive unit.

Within a few minutes, all of the orcs had gathered together again, and they were joined by Silander, a mud-covered Raverangos, and Althos. The diverse group of creatures was sitting right inside of the edge of where trees grew by the river, and a small fire was burning close to Gallow, who patiently watched over the fishes they were cooking.

The orcs and Althos's odd pets waited to hear what the god had to say. The orcish siblings paid extra close attention, curious as to if the god would address the wolflike shape in the room.

"Well as some of you saw, I shapeshifted earlier. And not like I did last night, where I assumed a new basic form. I transformed into a wolflike creature. Before anyone asks, I'll go ahead and confirm what some of you,"

As soon as Althos said "you" his eyes turned to the siblings, just for a moment but long enough for them to notice and be stunned for a second. He had noticed them staring at him earlier and he didn't like it.

He glared at them and the inky black pools of his eyes seemed to expand and call out to the orcs. Then after a second had passed, he stopped glaring and immediately went back to idly scanning the crew before him as he spoke. His speech wasn't interrupted by his glaring at all.

"may already be thinking. I'm a druid. I'm actually a fairly powerful one at that. I can easily shapeshift into a variety of forms, I can commune with nature, and my magic is capable of awakening things as small as Silander, or as large as a bear, without any real problems."

None of the creatures who traveled with and served Althos doubted him. He struck them as a druid, in particular after he came back with Silander. For them, for him to be a druid was easily believable. But one of the orcs, Ragnor, had a question for the god. He rose his hand, like a child, and waited to be called upon.

Within a few moments, the godling noticed his servant waiting for him to acknowledge him. The godling did so with a nod, and the conservative brawler began to speak.

"So some of us, my brothers and I, noticed you talking to the wolves not far from us. Do you mind sharing what they said to you?"

The godling nodded at the orc and responded quickly, before Silander, Raverangos, or the two orcs who provided their breakfast could add any extra questions.

"They informed me about a problem they've been having. It seems that as of late at least a few of the bears in this forest have been... getting aggressive."

After the godling said this, Silander quietly turned and looked behind her to watch a bear on the other side of the river. This act coupled with the look of mild concern on the creature's face made the godling acutely aware of the fact that the frog-girl didn't know how to fight and most likely had never fought in her life before.

The orcs were also suddenly keenly aware of this after examining her body language, and surprisingly the person to speak up in an attempt to boost the confidence of the newest member of their group was Gallow.

"Hey... kid. We're with you. Bears sound scary to a creature of the forest, but we've dealt with worse monsters than a damn bear. Plus we have Althos and his demon. Bears? They don't stand a chance!"

Gallow's attempt at improving her confidence started off a bit weak, but his voice grew in emotion and conviction as he spoke. By the time he told her that bears didn't stand a chance before their combined might he was actually pretty compelling.

If anything, Silander felt more convinced by the fact that the orc didn't start off full of bravado but actually got more and more motivated as he spoke. She turned to him and smiled meekly, a bit more confidence in her body language than there had been previously.

"You're right. We can do this! It's just that in my old life... bears were one of the scariest things that I'd sometimes run into. But now... with you, and the Awakener, I can overcome my old life's trauma!"

Bazur, the oldest of the orcish siblings, heard this and grinned at the girl. With a master like Althos and allies like Gallow and Silander, the orc was suddenly distinctly aware that life would never be boring again.

After Silander's bold declaration idle conversation broke out amongst the group until Gallow finished cooking the last fish.

Right when Gallow was about to call over the group of adventurers over for breakfast, Althos, the only person facing the river, watched as the bear on the other side of the small river seemed to begin to sniff the air in front of it.

The creature looked around as if searching for some sign of a faint yet tempting aroma and then looked directly in their direction. Even the power of the flowing water between the bear and the adventurers wasn't strong enough to prevent their cooked meat from being noticed by a bear more than a few dozen meters away.

Althos quietly began to walk towards the bear, right when the bear began the process of crossing the shallow water. The creature was most likely alerted to them having food somehow, probably through its nose given its initial actions.

He sent a mental message to his companions, wondering if this was normal for a bear.

[Is it normal for a bear to be able to pick up a scent across a flowing river? Because that appears to be what the bear did.]

Samyaza was the one to tackle this question, and its answer was more or less what Althos himself suspected.

[I'm inclined to say that it isn't... flowing water masks scents pretty darn effectively.]

The bear that was slowly crossing the river was a thick creature but not a tall one. If it allowed someone to approach it and measure it they would have determined it to be about 2.7 meters across, and just 70 centimeters tall. Towards the upper end of the normal lengths of a wild brown bear, but on the bottom end of normal height for such an animal.

The creature was only barely tall enough to walk through the small and slowly flowing river unobstructed by the water. Each of the steps it took moved it closer and closer to the godling who was himself striding towards it.

Its fur was a light brown and it possessed powerful limbs that would probably enable it to win a one on one fight with many different humanoids. The creature's mind was a mess and it felt an overwhelming urge to consume their fish. An urge that wasn't powered by something as simple as hunger.

Within a few seconds of solid striding and directly moving towards the bear, Althos stood right on the edge of the river, and directly between the creature and the rest of his companions. The bear identified the god as an obstacle in its path and moved to intimidate him.

The creature looked at the deity, even as it waded through the water it was still in and began roaring.

The sounds it made were breathy and filled with rage. It roared at the deity with such volume and intensity that the rest of the god's adventuring party felt nervous and wondered if they should back up their boss. And one of them decided to do so.

Raverangos pushed itself out of the mud it had been wallowing in for the past hour and began to move towards the deity it served. Because only the possibility of violence motivated the massive creature more than filth did.

The bear kept roaring at the godling and the godling stared impassively at the bear that was slowly moving towards him. After nearly half a minute of the bear exerting itself in the river and roaring, the deity finally reacted to the creature. In annoyance.

"Are you done? Because it's really annoying to hear you roar and roar again. If you want to talk, we can. If not get over here already."

This outburst made the bear stop roaring. It began to open its mouth and move its lips within seconds of the outburst, but this time it wasn't trying to roar at the creature.

After what felt like an out-of-place delay, at least in comparison to what happened with the wolves, Althos suddenly heard words. Words that may have come from the bear.

"Am... Not... Roaring... Am... Very... Tired... And... very ANGRY."

Althos stared at the creature, as he tried to make sense of what it was saying. The creature continued getting closer and closer to the deity, and he was aware of its growing proximity, but he also didn't feel threatened by it.

The voice that "spoke" the words was odd. It felt faint, tired, and alien. Althos wondered what to do, when at last the creature got close enough to rear back on its hind-legs and try to display dominance over Althos.

The godling nonchalantly pushed the creature away with a single hand and a minimal level of force. He wasn't meaning to hurt the creature, all he wanted to do was push it back. He succeeded in doing that, and in doing so sent the creature flying. It flew more than a few meters, before landing on the floor not far from where it had originally begun its trip across the river in an unmoving pile.

Althos wasn't sure if the creature was conscious or not. That was when he got a notification, one that for the first time ever he himself heard without M.A.'s assistance or facilitation.

[QUEST UPDATE: FOR BEST POSSIBLE QUEST REWARDS REFRAIN FROM KILLING RANDOM BEARS. THE WOLVES WANT THEIR OLD PEACE BACK, AND KILLING RANDOM BEARS MAKES THAT OLD PEACE LESS LIKELY. THE BEAR YOU JUST ATTACKED IS NOT ONE OF THE BEARS YOU NEED TO KILL. THIS IS STRIKE ONE. ON THE THIRD STRIKE YOU FORFEIT THE BEST POSSIBLE QUEST REWARD. ON THE 4TH STRIKE YOU FAIL THE QUEST.]

This notification was as loud as M.A. and was as annoying. The godling responded to this setback as well as one might expect a two-day-old creature to respond to a setback.

"Oh damn it! I wasn't even trying to hurt it."

The godling needed to learn to hold back. One of his two mental companions responded to the godling's outburst.

[You can exert influence over the "hand to hand combat" subdomain. Your increased strength is a consequence of that. Learn to control your strength or risk failing this quest and possibly even others.]

In response to this Althos sighed in annoyance and began to walk back towards his companions, determined to have them do the majority of the fighting for the rest of the quest.

"Gregory... come home soon." Cynthia whispered, to herself.

The lady vampire was alone in her log-cabin home. Her husband had departed a day ago to the capital city of the kingdom of Sailos, Avalon. The capital city was actually visible at the very edge of the horizon from the cave's mouth and Cynthia sometimes passed time by staring at it, especially at night when the city's guards lit up an array of lights to illuminate the city.

Cynthia spent her time waiting for her husband in the safety and gentle darkness of her cave-dwelling. During her husband's other trips she passed time by scribbling various things on the floor and on the walls of the cave or by visiting the nearby areas under the cover of night.

When she scribbled doodles or created cave-art she used her own nails as her paintbrush. Her sharpened, vampiric nails easily etched markings onto the vast majority of the surfaces she had available to her. The one exception to this tradition of various surfaces giving way to her powerful nails was her log cabin.

The wood of the log cabin didn't budge to her assault, no matter how relentlessly she struck the wooden walls and floors of the home she shared with Gregory. After a while, she got used to this but never failed to find it odd.

While her husband was away yesterday and today, she had passed time by visiting and then revisiting the tiny traps her husband had painstakingly constructed to capture small prey for her to feed upon. These traps were akin to non-fatal mouse traps, traps that captured animals without killing them.

They were very simple to set up: Gregory drew a magical sigil on the ground and they either used Cynthia's blood or a mouse's blood to power the trap. The trap operated by emitting pleasant fragrances that only animals could smell, and when the animals walked over the traps they would become paralyzed. Cynthia would then go over to them and dine on their blood.

The animals they had captured using the traps varied greatly, though most of the time they captured mice, cave-dwelling birds, or other such animals who are inclined to live in caves. Only rarely did something like a deer or an ox happen across the trap and get stuck there.

Cynthia wondered if Gregory's siblings were having fun. Avalon was always such a fun place to be.

"Maybe next time I'll convince Gregory to take me with him." She quietly whispered to herself. She was sure she'd see her husband return home fairly soon.