[You can’t control what's happening.]<1|(click: ?1)[ The world is shifting en masse. You can hear the shifting of stone around you, columns breaking out of the ground like dolphins from water. The trees part, the wind turns, and all water rises into the air. The only place you cannot see the world roil is beneath your feet. The safe haven from the shifting of land is you and the immediate area around you. At this point, you no longer know where you are; Lost in an ever-bright void of color and movement.
In the small section of land safe from the wave of earth, the one still space that lay under the soles of your shoes, you can see what looks like a road. Or was it a road? On the opposite side, you spot a rabbit, fur black as night with two white-tipped ears and golden eyes. It seems calm for one reason or another, despite the chaos. Your feet are heavy with the anxiety of leaving this haven or worse, damning the land beneath you to be consumed by the storm of change. You know if you leave, you cannot come back.
[[Go toward the rabbit]]
[[Follow the road]]]
You decided to follow the rabbit, curious about how such an innocent creature made its way and survived this cataclysm. You reach for it, hoping to maybe shield *something* beyond yourself from the chaos. [You look closer at the rabbit.]<2| (click:?2)[The black rabbit looks at you with big golden eyes like there is sunlight shimmering off them.] Then it jumps into the shifting storm.
“No!” You shout but just as the word leaves your mouth, you see the rabbit is fine. Just as serene as when you first saw it. It continues to run and you see the earth stop its churning, the air stops its roiling. You step to where the rabbit stopped the storm, touching the hard curled stone, arcs of smooth stone unable to move.
You look behind yourself and see the road is no longer there, trees twisted together in unholy union take its place. You can't go back. You look to the rabbit and know if you’re going to survive, you might need it. You give chase.
[[Chase]]Following this rabbit, you sprint as hard as you can to follow it. Your chest is tightening, the air stinging your lungs--but you won’t quit. The speed with which you’re both going makes the shifting seem like it never stops with the trees and stones and water and air all flinging themselves around and at each other begging for the embrace of something else.
You blink. In a moment, the rabbit was there, and then it wasn't. You turn frantically, lost and afraid as the concepts of "here" and "there" begin to blur. The adrenaline running through your body asks you to act but without the guiding force of the rabbit, you're unaware of what to do.
[[Stay put]]
[[Keep Running]]
"Oh! I dropped my.. uhm.. what do I call it." The rabbit ponders for several minutes on this. "Not a god of language, personally. I've always been a god of the land."
"So this is...your fault?" You interrogate. "This is your doing?"
"Well, yes and no. I dropped my..let's say spark? and You took it." They take your hand by force and you feel the world shake as what can only be described as divine energy halts the rolling storm of land and sea. You look at your hand.
"I-I....I don't remember that."
"Of course, you wouldn't. The moment of taking such vast amounts of energy, your brain would...reset? I think that's the word yes. You're no longer the person you were. Whoever you were."
"You're a god, you don't know?"
"Nope!" They lift their arms incredulously.
You can't help but lay yourself back down. You take in the land as it moved. The mountains crawled over a lake that spun in the air. The light refracted under drops of water, leaving rainbows shining in the sky and every color burning itself on the sea of trees. After several moments, You look back to the rabbit.
[["How do I give it back?"]]
[["How do I control it?"]]"Well.... you can't. Not as you anyway." They say holding your hand. "I can't be me either if that makes you feel better."
"What do you mean?"
"We.. how do I say this? The spark is now...your spark. It doesn't fit me anymore." The expression on their face tells you that there is a 'but'.
"Well? I don't know how to use this!" Annoyance laces your voice.
"A god's full essence *can* be broken down and placed into a .....changeable? state. I can impart myself into yourself with that knowledge to control the spark. But this is a whole god you would have to house, not just a part." You have a hard time understanding the nuance of what the rabbit is saying, though you know it's there. "You will lose...all you. As Will I. We will be something else, a new god of earth, and neither of us would have any control over that."
You still have the god's hand in your own. You look on as arcs of stone, and vines of wood, all of which were opalized with the sea, rivers running like veins. Birds drank from these veins and the clouds gently passed overhead. It was a nice day. You squeeze the god's hand.
[["I'm ready"]]
[["I'm sorry"]]The idea of "you" falls away, as you become part of something much larger than one "you". Self becomes infinite and with the solitude of vastness, peace.
It is over, and the world thanks you.
*Thank you for being part of me*The wind caresses your cheek as you turn away from the rabbit toward the road. You walk slowly, the fear of the world's shifting will find a way to shift you, making all your limbs feel heavy. As your approach, the road leads to the embrace of nothingness but brings you no harm. The shifting dances around your movement as you take more [steps into oblivion]<step|.
(click:?step)[Every motion pushes you further and deeper, and you learn to live in your solitude. The water and food come to you for days on end, but you have no way to know your situation. The rabbit looks at you from a distance, but you never find the mind to follow.
You live and you eventually [[die|"I'm ready"]], a heart of starlight leaving your body as you feel yourself return to the land.]Tired and confused, you sit on the still ground beneath you. It feels like it could have been concrete. You let your eyes close fully, your body catching up with itself from your chase for answers.
The rabbit returns to your mind, and how unlike any rabbit you've ever seen it is. "Where did you go?" You ask aloud to the realm.
"I never left" You hear a gentle voice, one that shifts, moving between masculine and feminine voices with a speed you can't even catch the difference -- your mind simply lands in the middle. "Why did you stop?" The voice asks. You open your eyes to see a child with rabbit ears, eyes golden, and hair black.
"What--You're the rabbit?" You can only muster to ask.
"I think? I was a rabbit before rabbits were rabbits, so I never made that connection until now. Being a god, you don't usually have time for that."
"woah woah woah--" You're taken aback by all they said. "Wait! Do you know what's happening?"
"I do." The god says matter of factly.
".... well"
"What?"
[["Answer my question!"]]You run. You're lost and afraid but you will keep running. There are turns with no landmarks and advances with no destination for what felt like miles. The stress and the wind bring the threat of tears to your eyes and eventually you trip. Your teeth vibrate as you taste grass and cement, your hands roughed by thorns and stone. You can feel a sob cradle itself in your chest, your body unable to work up the nerve to cry in this wasteland of energy. A stream runs above you, the sun's light snaking its way through it to you as you let yourself lay there on the ground. *Where did you go?*, you think. An owl stares at you, perched on a tree branch made of crystal. Like the rabbit, its eyes were shimmering gold to match feathers as black as ravens. The owl is much older than the rabbit, you feel. Its stare more diligent.
It flew off its perch in the distance and with a blink, appeared a person. They felt like a family, all in one, and spoke in a chorus of voices and tongues, [["You... are lost."]]"I'm not sure." The rabbit looks into the distance, thinking about it. "I'm not sure you can. Your mind. It has limits, and houses so much already. I'm not sure any human could." You wince at the idea that a god just called you dumb, but deflate when you know they're right.
"But there is something." The Rabbit says, having moved without sound or shadow, from on top of a pillar of rose petals. You feel hope again.
"What? Please, anything!" Your mind wanders to the idea of learning, maybe, to wield this power as your own. Your excitement only lasts moments, as the god speaks again.
"You can turn it off!"
"What?"
"Yes! We can turn it off, and I can take it back when you are gone. I don't mind waiting. A few decades to a century is nothing." The rabbit felt glee, grinning with their large cheeks. You clutch your chest before airing your next words.
["Do it."]<age|(click:?age)[ You live as the rabbit promised and when you are finished, you eventually [[die|"I'm ready"]]. A heart of starlight leaving your body as you feel yourself return to the land.]
You get up from your scenic moment as quickly as you can and run. The world begins to move like cogs to a great machine the more you run from the rabbit. You will figure this out, and you'll do it without losing yourself any more than you have. You run for an hour or three, you're unsure. The moon is high, it's pale light dancing on sleaves and rivers caught in the shifting.
You concentrate, your mind trying to remember the moment when the rabbit made your powers stop. You reach for that divine ascpect that lives within you and try to push your will onto the environment around you. The shifting responds with the crumble of stone and whistles of wind.
[Try Again.]<wolf|
(click:?wolf)[You try. And you try. And you try again until you get a result. Your mind feels full and your nose begins to bleed as the shifting stops. With a push of all your energy, divine and mortal, you made a path toward the moon's light. The weaving of the land lines this path and at its end stands a wolf as black as the night sky. Its golden eyes betray its nature as it watches you from an ominous distance bathing in the moonlight. The shadow it casts reaches your feet and you're unable to stand properly enough to start to run. You know why it's here. [[They would never let you keep it.|"I'm ready"]]]The owl's golden eyes looked through you, beyond your flesh and your instinct is to nod in response. Their eyes flick to the shifting distance then back to you.
"Do you understand what you're doing, child?" They eye your chest for a moment, analyzing something you couldn't even begin to comprehend.
"I'm running." You mutter, "I don't understand where I am, or what's happening."
"Shhhh, Child. It is alright." They place their thin hands on the side of your face, a touch you couldn't help but lean into.["Let me make it better."]<embrace|
(click:?embrace)[The owl moves slowly for a hug. With each movement, I can see black wings opening toward me, and their eyes get hungrier. The feeling of dread starts to pour into you as you can feel their need for something inside you, something they want. Their body opens slowly to swallow you whole, the tendrils of inescapable assimilation are snaring your wrists and burying your face. Your [[final moments|"I'm ready"]] are full of fear.]