I

~First Contact~

My half-slumber probably lasted a century and a half, I had severely underestimated the amount of energy that it would take to operate a massive hivemind. I hadn’t been defenceless though; I had always been ready to concentrate all my energy on one single tree in case of an attack although that wouldn't have been optimal as I would probably have lost some of the progress on the diffusal of my soul.

To be honest, I had expected my parents to come and find me by now. It seemed like that last fight hadn’t ended in a favourable way…

Spending more than a century completely catatonic, I expected some changes when I woke up but not as much as I saw. Using my owl-drone, I noticed that a massive forest had grown around my grove.

I had been a little stumped at first until I remembered the sap and the storm…

It seemed like my sap had been more powerful than expected and it had affected the growth of trees for hundreds of kilometres. The storm had probably also spread some of my acorns around because my autumnal oaks seemed to be everywhere around the gigantic forest… My plan of getting worshippers had slightly been derailed. Not by a lot as I would get energy from prayers every single day, but those prayers were going to the forest and not to me directly and as such I wasn’t as powerful as I should have been after more than a century. That was a huge miscalculation.

I needed to indoctrinate some people and have them settle my lands and I needed to do it fast.

Perhaps the first step was to find where were my current worshippers as they would probably be… wait, where were my crows?

I hadn’t seen them as I woke up, they clearly had forgotten their creator… fuck. Ungrateful children!

(Disembodied) Sigh.

I sent my owls to scout once again.

~*~

It took about three hours before I saw any signs of sapient life, it wasn’t in the autumnal forest but in some woods close to its southern border. The settlement I stumbled upon was made of a few dozen dwellings inside of a palisade wall, most of the village was surrounded by farms and forest, except for one side, the eastern one where there was a river. Looking at the inhabitants of the place I had I found a group of elves… I think. I wasn’t that familiar with mortals, even long-lived ones. The imberb ones with long ears, those were elves, right? It seemed like the variant of this world was very tall and also had some kind of gem incrusted in the middle of forehead. The colours would vary but red and blue seemed to be highly dominant… Interesting. What seemed to be less interesting was their technology level, metal seemed to be quite scarce, their huts had been built using hardened mud and thatch and their clothes, long tunics made of wool, lacked intricacies. By the fact that some of there were dressed in cotton instead of wool I could guess that there were some commercial exchanges. Regardless, my best guess was that they were in the Bronze age, maybe? And that didn’t make me very happy. It wasn’t exactly optimal. While convincing them of my status as a deity would probably be relatively easy, having them spread my cult over long distances would be difficult… very difficult, especially if even nearby groups spoke different languages. What was even less optimal was the fact that my powers diminished the further I was from the forest so showing my powers to all kinds of different groups further and further away would be difficult. Peaceful proselytizing clearly wasn’t going to happen, conquest would probably be needed. I could influence their technological advancement a little, but without the right materials nor the required base knowledge and technical skill, advancement wouldn’t be fast. I would also probably attract the attention of other spirits if I went too far, I would have to take my time.

I stealthily flew further away; it wasn’t my owl-drone that had discovered the village but one of those that was psychically linked to me.

I made the owl-drone turn invisible and landed on what seemed to be the chief’s house and I started listening.

…

…

…

I didn’t understand anything…

Different language… right.

~*~

It took me 20 days of observation before having a basic understanding of the language and the culture of the group of elves. They called themselves the Algal and they were quite the rambunctious bunch. They were agrarian but would supplement a large part of their dietary needs by pillaging the forest and extorting merchants that went through the river.

I had to be honest, as they weren’t the ones to worship me, I had no clue on how to introduce myself. I had seen them come to the village with the corpse of a giant bear. My owl-self would probably be cooking in their firepit if I showed myself.

One evening as the night draped its black mantle over the sky and as the full moon started shining on the river. A loud cry was heard.

“The Moon Chosen are coming back!” A young watchwoman sitting on a tree screamed at the top of her lungs while watching the dirt road that lead to the village.

Excited cries soon filled the hamlet, young ones and not so young ones started lining the road from the palisade to the firepit. A gentle murmur as soft as the wind could be heard through the village, as the warriors came closer and closer the murmur got louder and transforming into a joyous song, When the first warrior crossed the palisade wall drums and hand claps were added to the song, the song only got louder as well as if they were daring for someone to dare attack them right now. I took a look at some of the warriors. Some of them had antlers and were incredibly large while also retaining the elven features like the gem and long ears. it seemed like the Algal were some kind of mixed tribe and the warriors were especially bred to be killed machines.

My hypothesis was soon proved true, a bunch of smaller elves (about 3/4 the size of a normal Algal and 3/5 the size of the warriors) was following the procession of warriors while having their arms tied with rope. Their gems seemed to be larger than the ones from the Algal. Even further in the parade I could see a few human captives (maybe? No gem, no long ears, no fur, regular stature? Those are humans, right?). The parade stopped at the firepit, were the 3-dozen warriors made several concentric half-circles in the direction of the Chief’s house while kneeling. An antlerless Algal, that was among the smallest members of the adventuring party and that was coifed with the head of an oversized bear approached the chief’s house.

“Father, mother, guided by the light of the Mother Moon, I bring your raiders back.”

The chief, an old man, came out of the of his dwelling wearing bronze armour and many furs, he was accompanied by a slightly younger looking woman wearing an elaborate outfit made of silk.

The old man started talking.

“What do you bring this time Katro?”

The old chieftain approached his son.

“Kneel.”

The warrior obeyed and his father approached slowly. The chieftain put his hands on the warrior’s shoulder and then made the gems on their foreheads touch, causing a dim flash.

“Interesting memories and… loot. Tomorrow send the two human slaves to the farms, as for the three elven ones… hmmm, you didn’t find their village after scouring their memories, right?”

“No, father they wouldn’t share anything.”

“Kill one, gather information by looking through their stone  and send the other two to the farms afterwards. It doesn’t seem like they had a very important role in their tribe, so I doubt killing them for memories would yield any results.”

“Why not break them father? They might share willingly then.”

The old chieftain was quick to answer. “It’s almost harvest season, we need the farm hands,” he had clearly said those words with annoyance on his face.

The warrior nodded.

“Where is the haul?”

Katro stood up.

“Bergil! Bring them.”

The biggest warrior brought two chests to the chief, the old man opened them and seemed quite satisfied.

“The hardwool will be most useful, if you see the bronze skinned man with the Jötunn wife again, treat them well. A commercial relationship will be more beneficial to us that one based on coercion. Spread the directive among the defence force as well.”

The warrior nodded once more.

“Good, let the feast begin!”

Two elves with red gems approached the firepit and put their hands on the hay and wood that was in the middle of it. Seconds later a massive fire was going in the firepit. All the village started mingling with the warriors while bringing offerings of beer, bread, meat and fruit.

The feast seemed to have lit aflame the heart of most of the Algal. Katro had dozens of women at his feet but he seemed quite bored with all of them.

I quickly zoned out.

Basically, nothing that I learned in the past 21 days had been useful to formulate a plan to make them venerate me. Simply put the Algal, were just too successful! As the apex predators of this area disembodied help from a foreign sounding deity wasn’t something they would be into. Mythology was the foundation of religion, the more impressive the story, the more it would be told and the more people it would convert. The problem was that these fuckers were so proudful that awing them would be difficult. They clearly needed to be taken down a peg or two before I could make them mine.

The problem was the threat, how do you scare gigantic elves with the power to share memories?

A perfect exchange of information meant that years later if I showed any inconsistencies, I would probably become some kind of evil entity in their heads…

~*~

The first contact between Deity and mortal is always the most important one, after all depending on the impression you gave, down the line you could end up extremely powerful or pathetically weak. Legend says that my father gained the trusting trait after forgiving a kid that had tried to trick him, something that was clearly seen as stupid in the culture of the first tribe he ever contacted. My mother on the other hand had possessed the body of commander before a desperate battle and led them to a flawless victory before appearing before all at the end, that had made her extremely cunning thousands of years later. First impressions mattered the most and as such it took quite a while to prepare the spectacle that was soon to come.

The conditions were perfect, it was harvest season, perhaps the most important time of the year for any early agrarian society especially in a temperate climate. The Algal were relaxed and everything was going well.

I still had to chose who would take the lead role though, choosing the way you made the first contact mattered as much as the content of the first contact itself. I would have copied my mother if it wasn’t for the fact that I was too weak at this distance to possess anything with any kind of brains, especially considering that I was also need to lead an army. I could have also chosen to appear before the Algal instead of choosing a prophet but I had decided against it for one simple reason, I didn’t fully understand their language yet… Appearing before all and speaking might get me branded as a trickster spirit trying to stray good people down a bad path. Giving visions to an intermediary was way simpler and it would ensure that I could probably play with the Algal for a while. I had way more toys available to me in the New Celestial Gardens and if I wanted to shape my future, I needed them to be there.

For a moment, I had thought of using Katro as a prophet, it was a warrior culture, they would totally believe the word of the son of their chieftain, especially him being a “mighty” warrior at that. The problem is that I doubted that the young warrior would believe in the visions. He simply didn’t seem like the right type. The other problem was the chieftain, the question Katro had asked about breaking the prisoner’s minds may have shown the grizzled leader that his son lacked forethought and that he wasn’t ready yet to lead the village. I was preparing my prophet to lead the people in a dangerous journey that would take several days through the woods, any doubt at all from anyone could set me up for disaster and that wasn’t something I wanted to even think about.

I had opted instead to use his mother, she seemed to be the shaman of the tribe, she would probably be more trusted in a perilous journey through what would soon be my forest.

~*~

Katro

It had been what 23? maybe 24 days and I still couldn’t get that damn woman out of my head, the hair of fire, the height of a warrior, eyes so blue that even the sky couldn’t even compete with, that damn half human, why did I lay my eyes upon her? I had a harem of women at my disposal and yet none of them could even compare.

My gourd had been filled with wine ever since I had made it home from the expedition, I had been trying to drown the image of that woman and yet it had barely worked at all. I took a long sip, today was going to be long day…

I exited my cabin, took another sip.

Walked to the fields, took another sip.

Started ordering the slaves around, took another sip.

The sips were getting longer and the content shallower, I took another sip.

Nothing. I frowned.

I was about to scream and smash the gourd but someone else shouted before I had the opportunity to do so.

“What’s going on!”

A farmer that had his farm a few hundred meters away the ones of my father came running.

He was panic stricken. An attack, this late in autumn? Who was so suicidal to try that!

I ran towards the villager almost stumbling in the process and before I could anything the peasant opened his mouth.

“My lord! Rabbits!”

What the… All of that for rabbits!

“So? Kill them, since when are the Algal scared of simple rabbits, has your brain rotted!”

I was about top punch the farmer but he forcefully headbutted me with his mindstone.

Visions of what seemed to be an uncountable amount of rabbits ravaging through several fields entered my mind.

“What in Heaven! Run to my father right now, we need to assemble the Moon Chosen as soon as possible.”

I went back to my hut and took my axe, before running towards the fields, I fell several times along the way, partially due to my inebriated state and partially as well due to rain that suddenly started as soon as I stepped outside.

I struggled for quite a long time before I could witness the spectacle with my own eyes...

...

...the rabbits were real.

I started my wanton slaughter, slowly replacing the drunkenness of the alcohol by the intoxication of combat. My war-brothers didn’t take long to join me in combat accompanied by my father and several farmers. We would kill rabbits by the hundreds, but they kept reappearing as if they were being summoned by an evil entity.

When my arms started feeling like they were about to fall. I took quite a lot of the rabbits with me to prepare as a meal. I butchered them fast and I tried cooking them fast as well, I wanted to be back in the fields as soon as I could.

I took a large bite of the vermin and I quickly spitted it out. Salt. The rabbit was salty! I tried parts of all the animals, and it was the same result. I took a sip of the blood I had drained from them and the result wasn't that different, salt. I was disappointed and soon my disappointment was turned into horror… our fields, our effort to clear the rabbits was salting them!

What in heavens had we done to deserve such a punishment!

~*~

It took days to clear the rabbits, but it was already too late by then… most of the harvest had been eaten and there were no fields that hadn’t been salted by the time we had obtained our “victory”.

We investigated the area for a source of the rabbits, and we ended up finding a quite large salty pond that seemed filled with magical energy. No one was too sure of how it had appeared there and honestly, I had trouble thinking about it. I had been having the shakes. As soon as the disaster was over, a strict rationing system was implemented, and wine had been part of the restricted products… Even if we survived the winter, the Algal clearly wouldn’t survive much past that. We had been defeated by fucking rabbits!

In the long house where I had grown up silence was reigning, my father, my youngest sister Kemari and I were sullenly and silently eating the meagre amounts of food we were still allowed to have for ourselves. Mother had been praying to the moon and the ancestors for guidance, but nothing had been happening. Things had been calm but we knew that as soon as it started getting any amount of cold, panic would probably ensue and us the leaders would probably be the first to get the blame.

I needed a drink.

I needed a drink.

I really needed a drink, the images of her started filling my mind.

Suddenly mother started convulsing on the floor!

“Call the healer now!” My father shouted as he rushed to my mother’s side.

As I was getting ready to sprint my mother spoke. “It’s no sickness! It’s a vision! A vision of a land where we would be saved, a holy land!”

We all looked at her with surprise, but before any of us could vocalize our worry. She touched stones with my father and I quickly saw his face signal hope and then as quickly fear or maybe disappointment.

He looked at me with worry in his eyes.

“Call an assembly, we could potentially be saved but it will require us to enter the cursed forest…”

~*~