Dwarves. Agreed by almost everyone to be a staple of the fantasy genre. Their concept is simple. You take humans, you make them smaller and stouter, and maybe give them a higher chance of growing a beard. Culturally, they are typically adept at mining, or crafting, possibly greedy, possibly drunkards.

Since their mythological inception, humans have written hundreds of variations of these small people, across thousands of fictional worlds. To one immersed in high fantasy, they are likely as familiar as your home, your friends, humanity itself. If you were, say, making a fantasy world, creating dwarves would be the next, simple step up from making humanity. Or at least, Aomy had thought so. Which made the current crisis all the more shocking to her.

She hadn’t even taken any huge risks when making them. As tempted as she’d been to go wild on the dwarves design, giving them prehensile beards or alcoholic blood, she had refrained, making the dwarves essentially half-sized humans with a unisex ability to grow beards much faster than a human would.

She hadn’t even given them a biological advantage when it came to mining or crafting, as that would be unfair on the other races who wanted to fulfil those roles. Although she was pretty sure that Excelsian dwarves would most likely still develop a cultural affinity for mining given they lived in mountains. And she did ensure dwarven bodies magically produced vitamin D. She didn’t want her people being forced through the health problems being kept from sunlight would cause.

Blearily, Aomy registered a hellish blaring alarm in her head, and her heart began to increase in speed once more, her throat began to constrict, and she hastily teleported to the scene of the emergency. Moments prior she has been waiting, tired and anxious in one of the many tunnels beneath the mountain country of Excelsior but she still felt caught off guard, still let the terror completely take hold.

It had been non-stop stress and fear since the dwarves had been made. Aomy had installed an alarm in her mind, similar to the one she had made when the humans had been attacked by monsters, just in case the same happened again, although this alarm reacted to all danger not just monster proximity.

To her shock, the volume of distress calls exceeded even then. Some dwarves had even died, she knew. She hadn’t watched it happen, thank god, that might have broken her, but some alarms in her mind had quietened without her intervention, and while that may just mean some dwarves had simply escaped danger, she felt certain that some had died under her watch.

She arrived at the scene of the disaster and scanned her surroundings. Everything seemed peaceful. A circle of giant blue petaled flowers ran around a tranquil pool, water gently trickling out of the flowers centre. The floor to ceiling was covered in thick, pleasant, light green vines that even stretched into the lake and settled next to some vibrant, brightly coloured coral.

Scattered throughout the room were various flowers with golden petals, each emitting an ethereal white light out their centre. A group of dwarves had paused mid hunt to stare at her, makeshift spears pointed at an adorably rotund spotted red hamster. The view was beautiful. A scene that if painted, wouldn’t look amiss in a fantasy art gallery.

Unfortunately, Aomy wasn’t in the position to admire it right now. “Where’s the danger?” she cried out.

The dwarves looked between each other confused. “Danger? I think yer in the wrong place, goddess” called back one of them.

He did indeed have the thick, probably somewhat exaggerated Scottish accent that fantasy dwarves were associated with. Aomy hadn’t actually meant for them to have an accent but like at the start of creation when The Seven had subconsciously willed into existence gravity and light, Aomy had subconsciously given her dwarves Scottish accents.

Another dwarf nodded in agreement. “Unless this plump beastie is actually a vicious monster.” She licked her lips. “Better kill it quick just in case!”

With mounting horror, memories of Earth’s poison dart frogs began to float through Aomy’s mind as she began to realise what the danger was.

Before she could cry out, the spear of the hungry dwarf had already pierced the rizzelian snikpopkaputiorthanks’ side.

With a darkly comical “Squeak!” the snikpop burst.

The dwarves stared in shock and their own mounting horror as a dark purple cloud began to rise from the poisonous hamsters deflated body and into the face of the dwarf who stabbed it. Immediately, the unprepared huntress began to choke, her face bloating and turning red, doing a rather good impression of the hamster she’d just stabbed.

Experienced enough with crisis at this point to shake off her shock relatively quickly, Aomy channelled her divinity to download information into her mind. More specifically, she asked her omniscience if there was an antidote.

Blessedly, Naturum had left some vines which when ingested would cure the snikpopkaputiorthanks’ poison, identifiable by its slightly bluer tint. Aomy ran to it, mentally cursed herself for not teleporting or just conjuring some of the plant in her hand and then wrenched a clump of the vines from the wall.With the accuracy only attainable by those on a level so far beyond mortals that they may as well be omnipotent, Aomy hurled antidote into the open mouth of the dwarf who had been gasping for air.

“Quick! Eat!” she screamed. Eyes wide, the poor poisoned dwarf began to chew and as she did, her face began to de-bloat and un-redden.

Aomy released a dramatic sigh of relief. “Okay, don’t eat any more of those hamsters.” She paused to download more information. “Eat the green ones instead. They’re good to eat. I’m, uh, gonna update your minds as well. All the dwarves minds that is. So they all know. Um, yeah.”

That had been one part of the crisis. Unlike the hufolk, who she could gift knowledge appropriate for their surroundings, as their surroundings were essentially England, the dwarves lived in an environment alien to her, and thus she didn’t know what information to give them.

She cursed herself again for not researching the new country beforehand, or asking Naturum, Loma, or Scientia what would be in it. Still, this wasn’t the main cause of emergencies, not by a long shot. The main cause of emergencies was-

Another alarm blared in the civilisation goddess’s head. Relief from sorting one problem immediately faded into a fresh terror as she warped herself to the next calamity. She was in a tunnel now, one lit by the orange, glowing rocks that Loma had made when designing this countries caverns. A group of dwarves huddled around them, staring apprehensively into the darkness that appeared once the thirty-foot area of light faded.

These people had nothing but the clothes they were born in. Plants, especially trees were somewhat scarce, meaning if you were unlucky and were created far from an oasis it might be a while until you found the materials necessary to make tools.

Aomy looked down the corridor in the direction the dwarves were facing. At the very edge of her vision, at the back of the corridor, was a faint pale blue outline. Aomy was familiar with them. A monster introduced in this new country, they were disconcerting humanoid shapes that floated inches from the ground, were featureless and glowed an unearthly glow. Despite their spectral appearance, sticking your hand in one would reveal it was actually a slime and you would start to get sucked into its acidic body.

She winced as more outlines flickered into existence at the end of the corridor. She enhanced her vision and saw hordes of them, turning a corner at the end of the tunnel, slowly drifting towards their target of sapient life, picking up speed little by little. Aomy gulped and glanced back at the defenceless group she must protect.

There was only so much power she could grant someone before it counted as meddling and her contract wouldn’t allow her to bestow any more. Would it be enough to save this group? It had been enough last night, but those humans had at least some makeshift weapons even if they were mostly armed with torches, pitchforks and particularly large sticks. Would these people die while she failed to save them?! She steeled herself and took deep breaths. These monsters probably weren’t even the real threat. The real threat was probably-

A loud rumble could be heard echoing down the cavern. Within seconds, the whole world seemed to be shaking and dust started to fall from the tunnels roof. Dwarves screamed and clung to each other, and a colossal crash could be heard next to the slime geists.

With her enhanced vision, Aomy saw an incredible force of nature in the form of a huge spiked wurm burst through the wall, devouring the whole swarm of slimes in one bite, before burrowing into the wall opposite and continuing its tunnelling in search of new prey.

The ceiling above the dwarves shook and mighty boulders began to dislodge themselves from the roof. This was the main cause of emergencies, that plagued the dwarven race. At least Aomy was prepared now.

Holding a hand out, a purely ceremonial gesture to reassure the dwarves (and herself) she held the boulders and the cavern roof in place. With the other hand she pulled chunks of glowstone out of the wall and started passing them to the grateful dwarves.

“Um, take these. Find an oasis. It, er probably won’t be completely safe there but there’s life. I’m, uh, working on it.”

Once she’d given each dwarf a chunk, a process which took far too long due to each dwarf giving her their own personalised thanks for saving their life, Aomy dulled her pain and slumped onto the floor as boulders collapsed around her.

For five glorious minutes no alarms blared and Aomy tensely not-quite-relaxed amidst a cocoon of rocks. Once those precious seconds were up, she grew restless and decided to teleport to other dwarf groups to see how they were faring. Unlike when first meeting Clive and Zach, she made herself incorporeal so she could assess her dwarves condition while they weren’t in holy reverence of a deity that had appeared before them.

What she saw, didn’t please her. A group of dwarves who were lucky enough to have proper wooden torches were hesitantly crawling down a dark corridor, eyes darting back and forth. When an excelsian bat flitted past half the dwarves practically shit themselves with terror.

Another group were camped around a different chunk of glowstone. The cave walls here where so close together here and each dwarf was almost close to stuck. They all looked cramped and unhappy. Aomy’s heart broke as she sympathised with the plight of each troubled dwarf she saw, but her moment of pity was cut short as a fresh new alarm rang in her mind.

Wearily she willed herself to her next source of worry. Another beautiful oasis greeted her, filled with the happiest dwarves she’d seen so far, merrily splashing about at the pool in the centre of the cavern. She briefly felt bad that their joy would soon be cut off, before a colossal rumble could be heard once more.

Instincts honed, the various animals of the underground burst from hiding, skittering, flying or in one case, propelling via explosions away. Another massive wurm smashed through the ceiling of the oasis sending a fresh truckload of debris raining down upon the dwarves as its vast body turned to charge down the tunnel towards what Aomy vaguely recognized as some generic giant spider monsters.

Aomy held her hands up once more and held the rocks in place so the dwarves here could follow the animals out this particularly cavern until a new oasis sprung into existence to preserve the ecosystem. The civilisation goddess eyed the animals jealously. The constant rock falls barely seemed to affect them.

And then a thought hit her. Of course these animals seemed unaffected by their environment! They were designed with the environment in mind. A downside of dwarven simplicity is that, well, people who are essentially humans but short, aren’t actually particularly suited to living in caves. They’ll be blind when separated from tools or other light sources and their squishy, slow bodies puts them at risk of cave ins even in worlds where huge wurms aren’t constantly shaking the landscape up.

But what could she do about it? Gift each dwarf thicker skulls and the ability to see in the dark? A flagrant violation of her contract to not fuck with mortals. Drop a hard hat and torch next to each dwarf? Her contract might allow it, but she still felt there was a better solution. Her dwarves didn’t like living underground, they probably had a human aversion to claustrophobic spaces. Berate herself endlessly about not making the dwarves properly in the first place? Tempting, but unhelpful.

She needed to get the dwarves out the underground and to the current hufolk country. Teleporting them all out wouldn’t work thanks to the contract, but could she lead them out? What if she made a guardian? A protector? Someone who could keep the dwarves safe while they lead them to better lands. What if she made…an angel?

Yes, yes, that was it! Immediately she teleported back to her stage and began sculpting a body out of the nothingness. The skin was dark blue, and it glowed a radiant light. Eyes, when opened glowed a resplendent gold, and the dove-like wings were the same champion’s colour.

Unlike angels from popular media, this particularly body was that of a dwarves, angelified. The face was handsome, yet not unparalleled, and the body was muscular but not unattainably so. It was the body of the people’s champion. A hero they could strive to be, exempting the holy colours of civilisation the body was coloured and the being’s wings. They were even dressed somewhat plainly, sporting little but some simple black trousers.

Aomy stepped back from her creation, but the stress, fear and tiredness she felt kept her from properly examining it. Deciding it was good enough, she gave the form life, gifting it with a far more comprehensive understanding of the universe than the mortals got, including knowledge of her world, and the being’s purpose.

As the figure began to blink, becoming aware in its first few moments of existence, Aomy fell backwards onto the stage, desperate for some rest at last.

The figure eyed her curiously. “My goddess?”

Aomy sat back up. “You know your purpose. You know the crisis. Please. Please help the dwarves.”

The angel nodded. “I shall, but no alarms blare yet. Will you give me a name? It is customary for a mother to give one to her son.”

Aomy blinked. That wasn’t how this worked right? Yeah, she’d created them, but she wasn’t the mother of all the sapient beings of Excelsior, was she? That would just feel weird. Still, she replied “I name you Drumserra, angel to the dwarves. Um. Please go help them now? They’re not happy in the underground, they need the light.”

“Then my purpose is more than to protect? I must keep the dwarves happy?” quired Drumserra.

“I guess?” was Aomy’s unfulfilling answer.

Unfulfilling to most anyway. Drumserra seemed quite satisfied. “I will enact my task.” His wings unfurled before winking out of sight.

Aomy sighed and lay back down. But before she could rest, she realised that she couldn’t leave the new country empty. Something new had to be created in the place of the dwarves. Switching from relieved sigh to agonised groan, she got up and began planning a new creation.

They needed to survive in the underground. The main problem with the dwarves was their lack of durability and speed, so these new people needed those. Maybe a carapace? That’s basically armour for bugs. Yes, and like bugs they can swiftly scuttle from place to place!

In no time, the goddess had come up with the design of a new race. They were humanoid, half the size of an average human, just like the dwarves. The carapace was an incredibly dark grey and covered their back, while their skin was a lighter variant of the same colour and could be seen from the front. Sticking out of the fleshy skin, all along their front where hundreds of much smaller, more insectile legs.

When rocks would begin to fall, they would flip onto their fronts, their sturdy backs protecting them from a certain degree of rock damage and their legs would speed them away from danger at a comparable speed to the fauna that lived in the oases. Their faces were mostly comparable to a humans, except for a large set of mandibles which were intended as a large ditch effort to break apart rock if trapped in a rockslide and as a substitute for many of the tools which are harder to find materials for in the underground.

They had additional features beyond what was visible. Their eyes could see in darkness, a feature she really should have given her dwarves in the first place and their brains were slightly different due to the fact they were actually quite comfortable in cramped conditions.

A thought crossed her mind. These new beings would have a leg up over humans and dwarves, wouldn’t they? Was this something she should be doing? She quickly cleared her mind of doubts, too tired to want to really dive deep into the ethics of what she was doing. Yes, they had advantages but those are made up for by armour and horses. These people would only have an advantage in sports competitions, which there were already categories for, like weight categories in wrestling.

With a wave of her hand, these people, whom she christened sapiapods, began to appear wherever dwarves had already been evacuated, born with the complete set of knowledge that the dwarves had unintentionally risked their lives to get her.

Wearily, she went to her room. It was large, yet surprisingly sparse and undecorated, with the noticeable exception of a huge, beautifully designed bed. Truly, it was a bed fit for a goddess, or even several assuming they were all of similar size to Aomy. She leapt into it and finally let herself truly rest.

And the unexpected happened. A smile appeared on Aomy’s now human face. It was a slight smile, a weary smile, maybe even a worried smile, but it was a smile. Oh, she knew that soon the doubts would come, assaulting her mind with accusations of being responsible for the deaths of all those dwarves, claims she wasn’t fit to be a creator goddess, and possibly darker thoughts than that. But that was for later. She smiled because she had saved the dwarves.

A flicker of doubt passed through her mind early, before she quickly ignored it. She was assuming she’d saved the dwarves. It was of course possible, that Drumserra would run into difficulty. But she was sure he’d do fine.