Naturum stared out her window, and up at the beautiful silver of a full moon.

Holly stared up at the moon, the heat of the campfire filling her with warmth. She smiled a smile so full of innocence and peace that it could only be recreated through the naivety of being not yet nine. What was that? A flicker! Some strange shape flitted around the campsite before disappearing into the woods behind her. With a yelp Holly leapt of her chair and dove into the arms of her dad sitting in the chair next to her.

“There there poppet” He spoke softly, soothingly and he stroked her hair while he talked. “It was only a bat, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“Yes there is!” she cried, indignant.

“I thought you loved animals?”

“Not that one! That ones mean!” she pouted.

“Now now poppet” came the gentle voice. “Bats are very important animals.”

She sat up, curious. “They are?”

“They eat pests and other bugs. Keep their numbers down”

“They eat bugs! They are mean!”

He shook his head and smiled warmly at her. “Would you like to live in a world where bugs are everywhere?”

“Yes!” she cried in a tone that implied her answer was obvious. “I wanna live in a world where there are tons of bugs and animals and plants.”

“Well poppet, you can’t live in a world with bugs and plants and animals without animals that eat bugs. Natures kept in a very delicate balance you see. If there were no animals that ate bugs, there would be too many bugs and too many bugs would eat too many plants and with not enough plants all the animals would get hungry. That’s why bats are very important.”

Holly didn’t respond but did get out her dads arms and clamber onto his lap. She stared back up at the moon and its light, the stars and wonder all reflected in her eyes.

Her lip trembled.

“Holly, Holly, look it’s a slug!”

She was thirteen now and she had been playing in the garden with her brother. “Ooh. That’s because it’s been raining and slugs come out in the rain.”

“I’m gonna poke it!” he cried.

“Nooonononono, don’t hurt it! Its alive!”

“Awwww, Hoolllyy pleeaassse!”

She considered scolding him but relented. He was younger after all. “We can do other stuff with the slug while its alive. Natures full of things you can appreciate about it.”

He considered this for a moment. “Let’s worship it! Slug religion, slug religion, slug religion!”

She put her hand on her hips. “Actually, if you chant it’s called a cult.” She said, proudly and wrongly.

Her brothers eyes lit up. “Slug cult, slug cult!” he chanted.

Her dad watched from the door. He didn’t call them in when he usually did and simply smiled as they danced around this nonplussed slug as the moon rose and shone down upon their childish ritual.

Her whole body shook with barely repressed emotion, and she just narrowly avoided crying. But still, she looked up at the moon.

She stared out her window to the silvery moon, face a picture of agony as tears streamed down her face, her body adorned in the dark edgier clothes she wore while 16 after her girlfriend complimented her on them. She wanted to tear them up and burn them but anytime she thought about it, her body weakened, and a fresh wave of tears rolled down her face. She turned her head. There had been a quiet knocking at the door, and she watched as it slowly creaked open.

It was her dad standing there. He looked as he did before she’d been brought to this hellish world of gods, his appearance no longer hidden by the non-specificity of distant memory. He was smallish, roundish, with very round and large glasses and unkempt hair just barely starting to grey.

“You can’t stay locked up here forever you know” he said.

“Yes I can” retorted Holly, before turning to face the window to hide a fresh wave of tears.

“I suppose you can” he responded “but I wouldn’t recommend it. Break-ups hurt, yes, but you shouldn’t be bringing unneeded misery upon yourself.”

“Yeah, and what would you know.”

There was a pause, painfully long before his quiet reply. “I think you know as well as I do, that I know a thing or two about break-ups.”

Holly froze and tensed before her head loosened to hang in guilt and shame.

“Now, I know you need your space, so I’ll be leaving you soon but before I go, let me tell you that your dinners waiting for you downstairs. Nate’s been told to stay in the lounge, and I’ll be in my room, so you’ll have the place to yourself.”

Holly’s guilt increased tenfold as she remembered ignoring the calls for dinner.

“Now I’m going to go now” her dad said. “I know it might not mean much to you now, but please remember. Things will get better. They really will.”

She heard the sound of her door creaking shut. “Wait!” she cried out. “I’d like you to stay a while.”

The door fell silent. After a moment Holly turned around to see her dad standing behind her looking up at the same moon. They stood in silence for a while, enjoying the comfort of each other’s presence.

“D’you think we’ll see a bat again? Like all those times camping?” Holly’s voice broke the silence, still choked up and hurt, but calmer, even a little happier.

Without looking she could feel his smile. “I have no idea.”

She turned around shocked. “What? I don’t believe you, you know everything about bats and nature and shit. How can you not, I don’t know, know the probability of one turning up?”

He turned to her. “Seriously. I don’t even know much about bats.”

She gasped, betrayed. “But every camping trip, you’d tell me loads about whatever nature we saw. You had a new bat fact every time we saw a bat!”

“Yes, well I didn’t actually know much about them then either. You were just so interested in all the nature you saw, that all those facts, I-“

The vision blurred and grew unfocused with Naturum’s vision.

“I lear-“

Tears were streaming down her face.

“I learnt them for you”

With a wail Naturum threw herself onto her bed, tears now flowing freely down her face, each breath produced strangled chokes of pain. With a violent thrust of her hand, she desperately willed a portal home into existence, strained her mind to teleport herself home, hoped against all hope to do something, anything to bring herself home. But nothing worked. Nothing had worked all day.

Since the meeting of the gods she’d been trying to either distract herself or get home. Damon, with a dramatic wave of his hand had formed a huge castle in the sky, supported by a huge floating landmass, an island ignoring the gravity she’d made at the start of existence. She moved to her window to see it again, and sure enough it looked as garish as when she first remembered it.

It was a palace, or perhaps a European castle but decidedly not an English one as it was all fairy-tale spires and silvery white bricks. She’d scolded herself for her rude thoughts, perhaps a little less after the shit Damon had been pulling all day but when night fell, she loathed the castle and had no shame in doing so. It shone. Brighter than the moon. That was an offense that could never be forgiven.

Granted, she could make the moon brighter. She had made the moon in the first place, once she noticed its absence. She couldn’t be bothered to make a sunset as that was far too complicated. The sun was actually just a ball of light she’d thrown into the sky at the start of creation as opposed to something this world could revolve around and as they would be expanding this world it was tricky to make the sun revolve around it. Instead, at 9 each night, the sun would dim and become a ball of pale silver, as the light in the sky went out. The people in this world would just have to live without sunsets.

Besides, making the moon more garish wouldn’t fix the problem of Damon’s palace. On top of each spire, he’d placed an eye, that swivelled and surveyed its landscape. He’d placed a golden halo atop each of them, like that did anything to offset its freakish nature. Once his palace had been made, the other gods had made their homes. Loma went first, creating a huge mountain in the sky with a mighty cave entrance along the side of it. As Damon had already placed his home in the centre of creation, Loma had placed his at one of the edges and, as a unique touch had created a huge chain that tethered his island to the ground.

Naturum smiled despite herself. She’d been hearing sounds of laughter and playful anger echoing out of that cave since Loma, Rizzlerich and the other god, had gone inside to play videogames. Loma’s laughter and Rizzlerich’s outbursts had been the loudest of course. But to her great happiness, she’d occasionally heard the civilisation goddess giggling or taunting the others as the day went on.

The civilisation goddess hadn’t made her home yet, but Rizzlerich had. Before retreating into Loma’s gaming cave he too had struck a great chain in the ground but to what it connected to, Naturum had no idea. The whole island, if there even was an island, was surrounded by a huge maelstrom of bizarre purple energy, occasionally accented by a gout of fire swirling through the chaos, or a spark of lightning escaping out onto the metal chain.

Scientia had also made his home, a huge structure made of pre-faded and aged Pentelic marble. Its roof held up by towering pillars, its inside clearly displaying rows upon rows of as of yet unfilled bookshelves and written upon its roof was the word librarium in a crude, yet legible and presentable hand. Naturum had seen Scientia all day, speaking with the immortals down below and scribbling in his notebook.

And that just left Naturum’s home, a forest of redwoods built upon a lush, floating island paradise, with beautiful lakes she would fill with fish, soft dirt and decayed logs she’d fill with bugs and the aforementioned trees she would one day fill with birds. She was too tired to make an ecosystem for it today. Her own home was a tree, whose trunk was thicker than the widest tree and whose boughs stretched higher than the tallest. Carved into it was a little door and some windows, which, if you peered inside you would see scarcely more than a bed and a crying woman. She hadn’t had time for furnishing.

Reminiscence and appraisal of the god’s homes finished, Naturum turned to once more look up at her moon, trying to focus her thoughts on the quiet peacefulness of the night.

Knock knock. It wasn’t a loud jarring sound but instead a hesitant and uncertain one. The goddess who would soon be known as Aomy stuck her hands in the thick blue coat she’d made and shivered as she glanced around this eerie lifeless forest. Her body was tensed, she was biting her lip and just as she was considering knocking again or turning and fleeing into the night, the door opened and its reassuring, homely light spilled out.

The goddess in the forest stifled her surprise with ease, but surprised she was. Naturum had undergone a transformation. Her skin was green now, the light green of the greenest grass and her hair had become dark green vines that spilled down her head, past her body even and only stopping at the back of her knees. Her face had barely changed, maybe just touched up slightly, although unbeknownst to the as of yet unnamed god, she had mere moments ago magically vanished her tears away. Her clothes too were different, no longer so casual looking, she wore an elegant green dress of stitched together leaves

“Heyyyy, come on in!” Her tone was as enthusiastic as ever, her smile just as radiant. She gestured theatrically and the goddess who would be known as Aomy shuffled into the tree house.

“Yeah. Hey” was her short response as she took in the sparse room.

With a flourish Naturum conjured a plush sofa for the two of them to sit on. “So, how’d the gaming go?” she asked, sitting down.

The still unnamed goddess after a moment’s hesitation, sat down next to her. “Good. Yeah, it was fun.” Another slightly awkward pause. “And, uh, how was your day?”

“Ah, y’know, pretty chill, pretty relaxing” she lied. “Did you kick their asses?”

“Mmmm, not initially when they were playing Nimbus, I’m no good at FPS’s. But when they busted out Antonio Car, hell yeah I kicked their arses!” She smiled, ice and its associated tensions somehow broken, although not broken enough to directly correct the nature gods americanisation of arse.

“Glad to hear it, glad to hear it. What do you think by the way?” Naturum asked, flicking her new hair out behind her.

“Mmm, could do with some furnishing” responded the other goddess looking around the room.

Naturum sighed. “The appearance, silly.”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, errr, yeah, looks nice.”

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” She grinned before clapping her hands and, with a flash, transforming back to her original human form. “But just for formal, godly occasions. If we’re gonna be casual, I’m gonna be myself.”

Aomy nodded. “Fair enough.”

“Talking of god forms, you came here looking for help on god forms and names, yeah? You got any ideas for that?”

The civilisation goddess felt the ice that had previously been broken re-freeze above her. “I, er, no, I don’t think so, I think.”

Naturum raised an eyebrow. “None at all?”

Oh god. “Err, no, probably not, maybe. Although…” A long pause. “I, er, thought, maybe Aomy sounded kinda nice? For a name.”

“Ooh, yeah, I like that. I’m just happy you didn’t go with Civilisationum. That woulda just been silly, and probably where my mind woulda gone.”

“Heh.” It wasn’t a laugh, that came from the newly named Aomy’s mouth, merely the word heh.

“Cool, well that was easy. Any ideas for god form?”

Was that the ice re-breaking? Aomy found it strangely easy to warm up to Naturum and replied, “No. Actually no this time, I’ve got nothing.”

“Hmmm, well lets brainstorm then. My forms just a rip-off of mother nature, but I dunno if there’s a civilisation equivalent. D’you wanna go ask Scientia? He seems smart, he probably knows.”

“Mmmm, nahhhh, I think we can probably think up something.”

Naturum thought for a moment. “Well, your gonna be the goddess of civilisations, right? Why not just put on a fancy cloak and stay looking human? Considering your gonna be dealing with humans and all.”

Aomy frowned slightly. “I, er. I don’t think I…look good…enough to look godlike?”

“Just beautify yourself up a bit! Shouldn’t be too hard.”

Aomy frowned harder. “I don’t think I know how.”

“Sure you do.” Came Naturum’s enthusiastic response.

“What?” Aomy’s face was blank.

“I said sure you do. Imagine a person, right now, the most beautiful person you can imagine.”

“Okay”

“Now become them.”

Aomy stared incredulously. “Okay, but like, that hasn’t helped me figure out how to make myself look good.”

Naturum stared back, playfully. “Hasn’t it?” she replied. “You know what looks good to you right? What would make you feel good?”

Aomy’s frown got ever deeper. “But that’s not what other people would think looks good necessarily. What if my interpretation’s wrong?”

“Aomy.” Naturum expression was deadpan

“Yeah?”

“You know beauty standards are bullshit, right?”

“Obviously.” Aomy still looked uncomprehending.

“You know they’re made up too? Changing throughout history at the whims of those with power like advertisers and shit?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re the goddess of civilisation.”

“Oh. Ooohhhhhhh.”

Naturum grinned, her mock seriousness dissolving with delight. “Yeah. No history of oppressive expectations here girl. You can look how you want!”

Aomy grinned back. “Huh. Might just stay how I am now then. I think I’ve kinda gotten used to it.”

“I mean, yeah, its your old body, right? Makes sense you’d be used to it” replied Naturum.

Aomy’s grin faded. “I, er, ah. No, actually its um. Not.”

“Huh” said Naturum, but other than that she didn’t inquire further leaving them in a slightly awkward silence for a moment.

“There’s, uh, another problem” mumbled Aomy, once the silence had gotten to her enough to really want to break it.

“There is?”

“Yeah, er, this is gonna be a fantasy world, right? With like, minimum elves and dwarves in it? Looking like a human might not be the best choice after all.”

Naturum looked thoughtfully out across the sparse room. “Ah”

“I think I might have an idea though” Aomy continued, hesitantly.

Naturum brightened again. “Oh, nice! What is it?”

“Well, I’m probably going to be representing all the sapient races of this world, right? And they’re all gonna be humanoid, or at least tauric- “

“Tauric?” interrupted Naturum.

“Like a centaur. That kinda shape. Anyway, point is, if I like, make myself look like a sorta representation of like, humanoid creatures in general then I’ll kinda, I don’t know, look good for all of them.”

Naturum nodded sagely. “Mmmm, good idea.”

“I was thinking, maybe I like, make myself look like a silhouette? Like a kinda glow-y, indistinct, civilisation coloured outline that you can fill with the specifics of your own race.”

“What colour is civilisation?” asked Naturum.

“I don’t know. Blue?” replied Aomy.

“Huh. I was thinking gold or some shit.” This comment caused Aomy to frown slightly. “You disagree?”

“Yeahhhhh” responded Aomy, hesitantly at first, before gaining a little confidence in her opinion’s validity. “I don’t think all my cities are gonna be El Dorado. Plus, Damon’s already got some gold highlights on his robes.”

Naturum wrinkled her nose at mention of Damon. “Don’t wanna step on our glorious leaders’ toes?”

Aomy wrinkled her nose back. “More like don’t wanna be associated with him. He’s such a bitch.”

Naturum laughed. “Yeah, god- I mean, me, he’s a dick. Do you wanna get involved in a little conspiracy?”

Aomy grinned. “Hell yeah I do.”

There was a pause as Naturum didn’t speak, and Aomy practically leaned in in anticipation. Complete silence. And then, Naturum at last spoke, “Well, your gonna have to wait. You still need a god form!”

Aomy groaned as Naturum triumphantly grinned. “Fiiiiine. Okay, lets compromise. Silhouette gold. Clothes blue.”

“Deal” replied Naturum. “Why do think blue’s a civilisation colour anyway?”

“I don’t know, it just is. Look at a city, what colour do you think of?”

“Gold.”

“You’re supposed to say blue!”

Naturum laughed again. “Yeah, well I didn’t. Make yourself a god form already, I wanna see how it looks!”

Aomy rolled her eyes, but still stepped up out the sofa and willed herself to transform. In moments, gone was the generic young woman who she’d been and in her place was a tall, striking figure of translucent gold.

Her head was smooth and featureless, no hair, eyes, mouth or nose to speak of. More of note however, was how slightly see through, it and all other visible skin was. Like the appearance of a ghost, her body was slightly see-through, less a physical, absolute form and instead, perhaps the representation of what civilised life could be.

She was wrapped in a simple, yet aesthetically pleasing dark-ish blue robe, her trousers the same dark-ish shade and her navy boots were practical and built for walks. She didn’t smile because of her lack of mouth but did glow a little brighter for a moment.

“So. How do I look?”

Naturum grinned. “Looking good, girl. Although it is weird to hear your voice when you got no mouth.”

The glow glowed again. “Heh, yeah, I can imagine. Still. Looks godly?”

“Yeah, you look godly as hell.”

There was one last glow before there was a pop and gone was the golden figure and back was Aomy’s human hoodied form. “Neat. Now, I believe we were talking about conspiracy?”

Naturum laughed a laugh that glowed just as much as Aomy’s god form did. “Yeah. Lemme tell you all about it.”

Across the world (an unimpressive feat as of now), Damon sat in his palace, completely unaware that his schemes were being challenged by another. This was a secret part of his castle, hidden from the gods, so Damon could scheme and perhaps, just a little bit, fulfil those revenge fantasies he still so deeply desired. As of right now this dungeon was furnished with little more than pools of lava which he’d installed to make himself feel more like an Antonio siblings villain, as he was too deep in thought to do much else.

Something was bugging him. Something to do with what “God” said, something they’d said was..wrong.

“Create a world for me, one of your “fantasy genre” worlds and if you please me, you may be rewarded and if you fail I shall with heavy heart enact your punishment!” echoed God’s words in Damon’s mind. “Do not disappoint now-“

“Pardon me, oh mighty one, but I have a complaint to lodge. You castle is most mighty, but your eyes… are a bit creepy…” echoed a new voice in his head.

“God dammit.” Thought Damon as he willed prayers to no longer reach him. “Whatever. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon.”

And thus, with gods sleeping, chatting and scheming, with the immortals anxiously awaiting new lands to explore and with a chair still hurtling through the infinite void, ended the first day on this new world. And thus, the beginning of the rest of history began.