The floating rock hummed a little, as if buzzing with electrical current.

It wasn't. The hum was just the magical stone inside of it, empowered and enchanted by one of the gods long ago. Eventually it, like many of the others, would run out of power and fall to the ground. This one though was unique, since it was not alone.

Hundreds of similar sized boulders were all around me. All of them were floating lifelessly in the air, hundreds if not thousands of feet above the ground. Some of them even had trees and grass on them, where little white birds seemed to flock to.

The one I stood on had no such life upon it. It was just a giant rock of stone and clay. But it didn't matter.

Beneath me, hundreds of feet below, was a massive forest. One that was damp, with a mild hazy mist covering it. The dark green trees went on for as far as the eye could see, with the occasional mountain here and there.

This place was far from the nations I had built. Thousands of miles from them, in fact. But I knew better than to think that mattered. If a god was here, and if this god had indeed been the one communicating and interfering with my nation… they had many methods to render that great distance away into not even a second thought.

A heavy wing-beat drew my eyes upward, away from the giant dense forest beneath me. I watched Miss Beak land next to me, causing the stone to wobble a little thanks to her weight.

"I can't see it, Vim… but yes. I feel it. There's some kind of rift, a fracture, all over this forest. Like a giant shield, or barrier, over the whole area," she said as she lowered and turned her huge beak to look at me.

I nodded slowly as I returned my gaze down to the forest below.

I too could feel it. Distantly. It was a similar feeling to what this rock gave off. As if I were to reach out with a finger and touch the forest, I'd be shocked by static.

But the problem I had was… I felt such a thing all over the place. All over the world. Although many of the gods spells and abilities have faded, enough still remained to make me feel their presence all over the place. Like these stones floating aimlessly in the sky.

Me feeling a little bit of divinity wasn't enough. Not enough to verify I hadn't been led astray. Not enough to pinpoint the god's exact location…

"Just how are they hiding themselves…?" I wondered. Gods have always tried to hide from me. They had plenty of methods, and have thought of some very unique techniques over the wars… but this? This wasn't just some ploy or illusion.

If they really were here, as I assumed they were, then they had figured out how to completely shield their divinity from me. Which meant if they could do it…

"There's a reason for this, Vim."

I turned my head to look up at my friend. "Of course there is. And it will be as stupid as all the rest. So there's no point in caring for it," I said.

The giant flamingo tilted her head at me. "Where's the wisdom in that?" she asked.

"I'll not hear this from you too, Miss Beak. I hear it enough from those idiots," I said.

"Idiots. People you've trained and raised. Taught and nurtured, to be better and smarter than any others alive today. Surely, they couldn't speak a word of promise even if forced to, I'm sure," she said with a huff.

I sighed as I shook my head at her. "For one who wanted nothing to do with the nation I built, you sure do have a lot to say about my leaving it," I said.

"Well why wouldn't I? Because of your foolish decision to cut ties with them, I now have to leave my home just to scout an area for you. You cut your tail off to spite your face," she said.

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My eye twitched as I crossed my arms. I didn't say anything, since even I knew she was speaking nothing but the truth.

Had I not abandoned my position, my people, I would not have needed to ask Miss Beak for help. I could have had thousands at my disposal, and would have been able to track down this god, this Blue One, with quickness and ease.

"And no rebuttal. Ah well, I suppose I can't berate you too much. I'm rather proud of you Vim, for sparing that family," Miss Beak said as she went to pecking at her feathers under her left wing.

"Hmph."

I was in no mood to speak of the snakes either. They better hope the god really is here, or I'll hunt them down again and make them all into boots.

"So…? What do you want me to do? I'd like to get this over with so I can go home, it's about to be the storm season. It's my favorite season," she said.

Right… I gestured at the forest below. "Where did you feel it the strongest?" I asked.

Miss Beak shifted and lifted a leg, using her webbed foot to point at a distant section of the forest. Near a huge mountain. "There, near a lake."

"Then that's where you'll drop me. If I disappear, we found it. If I fall into it and nothing happens you can pick me back up and we'll try elsewhere," I said.

"Such a boring method."

"How would you do it?" I asked, a little annoyed at her. One moment she was complaining we were taking too long, the next she had issues with how I was trying to finish it as fast as possible!

"Me…? Hm…" Miss Beak tilted her head as she pondered that for a moment. "Well, if I was alone I'd set the forest on fire. All at once. The spots that don't burn down or the fires going out without cause or reason would tell me all I needed to know," she decided.

Well… yes, that would work. Especially with her abilities, but I didn't want to outright destroy this whole forest. This place was lush and beautiful, and old. Some of the trees beneath us were likely hundreds of years old at the youngest.

Destroying natural life made me sick to my stomach. It was one thing for it to be destroyed during battle, as to remove a god or a god's creation, but to do so without first even verifying the god was here…?

Though I had to admit it'd be effective. If my method, and the few others I had in mind, didn't work out we might be forced to attempt it.

"Fine. If my ways don't work we'll try yours. So? Can we begin?" I asked.

Miss Beak ignored me for a moment as she stared out at the world below. I watched the way her huge eyes soaked up the world, and wondered what the world looked like from her eyes. Mother had said birds like her had superb eyesight, capable of seeing colors beyond what even I could. Possibly even able to see different wavelengths. And Miss Beak wasn't just a bird, a flamingo, she was a monarch. A very powerful one, empowered by hundreds of hearts. Odds are she had sight better than me by far.

Though maybe such sight would be too over stimulating for me.

"You'd think if a god so powerful that they could hide themselves from you, even when this close, they would have noticed your arrival by now. And attempted something to stop you from attacking," Miss Beak then said.

"They can't sense me. You know that," I said.

"Says who, Vim?"

"My parents. Now come on, let's get this over with. This Blue One has plagued me for hundreds of years, I'd like to get this over with already," I said as I stepped over to her.

Miss Beak lowered herself as to let me clamber up on top of her. I grabbed feathers as I climbed up, but did so in a way that I made sure I didn't break or dislodge any.

As I settled on her back, a bit behind her neck, Miss Beak shook a little as if to settle all the feathers I had bothered. "You're being prickly about it, so I'll just say this once here and now. You're acting rashly," she said.

"Rashly…? I'm charging forward to fight a god, just as I always do. What am I doing that is rash?" I asked. It wasn't as if I couldn't plan and scheme, laying traps and whatnot, but in this instance I couldn't do that. I didn't even know where the bloody god was for crying out loud.

Miss Beak turned her head around to look at me. "Your nation saw wisdom in her words. Enough so to risk your ire. For so many, so many good and honest people, to do such a thing even at the risk of your wrath… that has to mean something, Vim," Miss Beak said.

"Enough. Miss Beak you're my oldest friend, but if you don't shut up and drop me over there by that lake I will…!"

"You'll what? Kill me? Stop talking to me too? Go ahead. If that's what it takes for you to hear reason, so be it."

I grabbed one of her feathers, but not to threaten her. Instead I had done so as to make sure I didn't accidentally hurt her in other ways. "Miss Beak…!"

She glared at me for a moment, and then scoffed. "Fine. Endure your own hubris. Woe the world that must suffer it."

She then spread her wings and took off.

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