Varkman was deep in thought. A few wrinkles threatening to appear on his brow.

Even if he was a god, and a powerful one at that, he could not create new sentient races out of thin air.

He could create a member of an existing species or influence the growth of a newborn and design the resulting living being. But he had no way to give life to a sentient race without something to work with. A canvas, a blank piece of parchment that could contain his creation.

Varkman was troubled as his contract, inspired by the feelings he had towards his new creations, stipulated that he would give Alex a life in that form. He would have to create a new race, something he usually didn't meddle with.

'At least I didn't place a timeframe as things tend to take time when you create living being the old fashion way' Varkman gave a small laugh at his thoughts and got up to do something he usually didn't do.

Get out of his office.

To give Alex his promised life and a cute sister, Varkman made his way towards a god specialized in life. That is to say, Varkman, who buried himself in projects and work, was going to leave his divine domain for a 'leisure' trip for the first time in decades.

The god of creations leaving his own office was something that happened in extreme occasions such as a new continent being built, a disaster being corrected or the meetings regarding threats to the realm.

Such occasions were so far between that when Sinimara, the goddess of life, childbirth and fertility, saw Varkman knocking on the door of her divine domain she started sweating bullets thinking she forgot a meeting or something as life-threatening as that.

"My apologies Sinimara, I don't mean to intrude on your domain, but I require a favour from you and could use some of your time."

The sigh of relief from the goddess could not pass unnoticed by Varkman as he raised his eyebrow and asked "Is it a bad time? Should I come at another moment?"

"No, no, no, no, no, I just thought I forgot that we had a meeting or something like that and you were coming here to get me. The last time I was late for one of those treat assessment discussions, Zuna was kind enough to only give me a warning and a stern sermon on how serious it could be if I missed one of those meetings.

You know how she is, justice this, rightful that, and in the end, I had to listen to a sermon for what felt like an eternity. "

She paused and shuddered just remembering with vacant eyes.

"Don't wanna go through that again..."

Varkman could empathise in that point. Zuna, the goddess of Light, stars and justice, as justice is always brought uppon light, had her way with words. 'I'm grateful that my methodical way of dealing with important things first is in my nature. Don't want to spend more time than I have to listen to them talking about issues. I have enough issues on my own already...'

"Well, don't worry about it. Next time we have a meeting I'll be sure to remind you so that doesn't happen again" Varkman said with his good-mannered smile. "Do you mind if I come in?"

Sinimara opened the door that connected to the 'corridor' between divine realms. It was more like a vortex of energies that connected all: present everywhere, inaccessible to mortals, invisible to most. Varkman named it 'The Corridor' and Sinimara first thoughts on it, long ago, was something like 'Truly a convenient thing Varkman created. Not a creative name, but reeeally convenient~ Almost as good as that massage chair that removed stress from my shoulders'

Sinimara was the representation of life, like a young mother, full of energy and always moving around doing her best at 'cleaning up' the mess left by the mortals. She saw them as her children and would always answer prayers. Not directly, but she did her all to help those in labour and once in a blue moon she would bless a child she thought was cute.

This habit became known to the sentients in the surface and they started calling her 'goddess of beauty and life' as all children blessed by her ended up beauties in their own unique ways. Which almost made her look bad with the actual goddess of beauty until she started removing her blessings from the kids after they grew up a bit.

"What can I help you with Varkman? If you need help from me then it must be related to giving life to one of your creations?"

Mellow eyes with a hint of joy were always present when she talked. She would not give life to abominations, though. That was a domain she could not reach as the goddess of monsters reigned over it. 'But Varkman knows that, which means...'

"I promised a God from another dimension to reincarnate a soul for him. The benefits are quite good, I must say. His memories gave me new ideas and a fresh perspective.

Talking to this soul was quite fun as well. He has a creative mind and requested me to create a race for him, or at least he agreed to one that I came up with.

The problem is that I need to give birth to that species and that is not in my repertoire..."

Varkman trailed off as Sinimara took a pensive look. She knew what he was asking and she was not keen on forcing births on living and sapient beings. If he could not give birth to them in the first place, it meant that it was something that didn't happen naturally, so she had to make sure "What is the race you created for this soul?"

Varkman took a piece of paper he had drawn upon the figures of Alex and his sister. He quickly sketched how they would look like as babies knowing she had a weak spot for cute ones and gave both of them to Sinimara so she could appraise his work.

A single drawing was all it took to make Sinimara eyes shine. They were cute. Incredibly cute, both as babies and, she could only imagine, as toddlers. Her motherly instincts were screaming for her to give life to those two, but she had to make sure.

"What are the races you used as base come up with such cute children?" Her thoughts escaped through the spoken words and Varkman gave her a knowing smile.

"I used Gnolls, a barely sentient race, and fox-kin demi-humans as the base. I know you usually don't deal with barely sapient races like Gnolls, but I must ask you if it is possible."

Varkman wasn't keen on bringing the subject of his contract if he didn't have to. It could be used as leverage if someone found out he NEEDED to make this race, and not just wanted. Even if Sinimara and Varkman were as goodnatured as gods could get, they were not perfect beings as they were separated in their domains and personalities at birth. Each one of them was as human as Greek gods.

Sinimara didn't even think too much, on the other hand. She was pleased enough with the idea of bringing such a race to the world. She was even beginning to wonder if the god of wisdom, responsible for sapience, could lift the Gnoll race as a whole if it meant she could see more cute babies such as those two. 'Maybe Varkman can work on those as well so they don't end up as the demi-humans were at first, ostracized from society until they proved themselves'

'Need to ask him later, maybe call for a favour just as Varkman, but for now, I think it's safe to accept... Maybe even ask for a few more drawings on other cute Gnoll-demi-human kids'

"Sure," she said "let's do this. I will look on how to give birth to those children and you, in exchange, will try to elevate the Gnoll race from something barely sapient to a proper intelligent race. I will talk to Satis so they are not as dumb as the goblin next door. Might need to call for a favour or two on that one. But you will be the one dealing with him. All his wisdom and he ended up as self-centred as the god of wealth...

Also, make a few drawings of other cute children such as these. I need some inspiration sometimes and your creations can be quite pretty as well. How about fifty- "

"Done," Varkman said with a smile. Fifty drawings could take a while, but not long enough to be a problem "will take a few years to elevate them, but the boy and the girl deserve to live a worthy life at least. Don't want them making enemies just for being different."

He got up and shook Sinimara hands. Both of them had fire in their eyes. He left the sketches so she could work with them and said to let him know when the first couple of twins were made. He would have a hand at those, to fulfil his promise, but something about this race uplifting just sounded right to him.

He liked the idea of a race awesomely good at creating things. The dwarves stuck to smithing, elves to enchanting, and humans were pretty generalized. A race that had a knack for creating anything would be pretty good. Maybe he could even give divine protection to the whole species and shape them as the creators of the land, who worshipped him. He sure knew that the more people that prostrated and prayed to him, the more power to create things he would have.

'Well, that will take a while. Let's focus on those drawings then'

Alex didn't know any of that happened. He was asleep in his soul state waiting for reincarnation, oblivious to the passage of time.

His coming to this world, on the other hand, had deep repercussions that might not change the future too much, but would probably make his life peculiar. A new race, after all, was not something that popped up every day.