I found myself outside the atmosphere of an unknown world. I had no idea how I got there, but that was the least of my problems. As I looked at my surroundings I saw several other beings slowly be born into existence. I was unsure where they were coming from, but they seemed to be appearing quicker and quicker.

  After who knows how long I finally saw something other than the figures snd the planet. A gigantic figure larger than all of the others combined. They appeared to be shrouded in mist and began to speak as they approached. They informed us of our situation with a cacophony of voices.

  “My, there seem to be many of you, they must have wanted fierce competition for resources. It doesn’t matter, nothing changes for me anyway.”

  At this, a creature with many legs and a chitinous appearance spoke out.

  “Who are you? Where are we? Why are we here? When did I get here? What am I?”

  The smoky figure gave a chuckle and asked the chitinous creature to calm themself.

  “Everything will be explained shortly. There is no need to worry.”

  The voices of the giant ranged from a cruel demon chastising the creature to a caring mother comforting her child. It was incredibly unsettling, but the chitinous person did stop speaking.

  “Now that there aren’t anymore questions, let me explain. You all have been created to take over this world in any way you see fit. You are lesser gods created by higher beings than even I, and are allowed to do basically whatever you want. Do note that you will only be allowed a small portion of faith, and that you will die if you don’t have any. You gain faith via the praise or fear of mortals, and can use it to cause miracles within your domain. You can figure those out yourself.”

  The fog spilled away for a moment and showed a large grin plastered on the giant’s face.

  “That’s all I have to say, good luck children.”

  He disappeared as quickly as he came, and the people erupted into chaos. Everyone began either screaming, crying, or running. I was part of the latter.

  I ran towards the planet as I shifted into a sleeker form. I was unaware that I could do that before this, but if it got me away from the chaos I wouldn’t complain. I ran towards the world as fast as I could, and made it there surprisingly quick. I didn’t have a plan when I first entered the world, so I decided to look around.

  I ended up in a forested area with trees as far as the eyes could see. I don’t know how I knew what a tree is, but I pushed that question to the back of my mind and kept moving. I walked for about sixteen cycles before I finally found something different. There was smoke in the distance, and it wasn’t big enough to be a forest fire. There had to be people there, and I needed people in order to survive.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  I turned into a bird and followed the smoke as quickly as I could. I had felt the faith slowly draining from me over the past few days, and I didn’t want to run out before I even had the chance of obtaining more. When I finally found the source of the smoke I was excited beyond belief. It had rough walls around it and a camp within. It was bound to have people that I could get to worship me. Sadly, the people inside were awful.

  At first I thought this place was perfect. A slightly struggling group of people that I could help and gain their praise, but looking closer led me to a gruesome discovery. There was a cage within the camp, and that cage held a teenage girl. There were several people with sticks poking her through the bars and treating her like a wild animal. They taunted her and called her beast while eating just outside the cage. The girl looked just like the others besides being extremely malnourished and weak, so I don’t know why they were calling her a beast. She didn’t look anguished however, instead she looked livid. She could barely walk around, but she had the rage of every god that cursed the misty giant when he abandoned them without remorse. I could feel the resolve to get revenge oozing from her. She would make a great first follower.

  I came here to make the entire camp my worshipers, but now I would do no such thing. I don’t know why, but the actions of these people disgust me. Instead of gaining a group of horrible monsters as my followers, I would gain a better one that I saved from an awful situation. If nothing else, she would be more loyal than these horrific people.

  I waited for the mortals to fall asleep before I made my move. They had a man guarding the girl’s cage, but he fell asleep shortly after everyone else. The girl was the only one awake, and she was pacing around her cage slowly. I could hear her mumbling curses and prayers under her breath too. Now was the perfect time to help her escape.

  I had a slightly smaller amount of faith than when I first started, but I could still get her out of here with my remaining faith. I somehow knew what my domain was, and understood why the misty giant didn’t talk about it. I intrinsically knew that my domain was change, and change is needed in almost every situation. This one isn’t any different.

  I had already changed my own form twice, what if I tried to change something else? Something like the wood of the cage. Changing it into sand shouldn’t be too hard, right?

  I began turning wood into sand, only for me to stop immediately. It cost a lot more faith than I thought it would. Changing my own shape cost practically nothing, why was this any different? If I tried to turn the cage to sand like I did before I wouldn’t even destroy a single bar. I needed a new plan.

  After a few minutes of thinking I realized how dumb I was acting. If I couldn’t turn a full bar into sand, why not just cut the top and bottom? The bar would fall and she could slip out by herself. Now all I needed is for her to grab the bar so it doesn’t fall and make noise.

  How do I make her grab the bar? I can’t carve out a message because it will take too much energy. Maybe I can change the light? I don’t know how much faith it takes to change light, but I can give it a try.

  With a little bit of concentration I manage to create a small glowing ball that circles around the girl. I then make it circle the bar I want to destroy. Just a moment later she follows and grabs it.

  I waited a little longer to build up my courage, and began to cut the ends of the bar. It did break, but she did fall backwards and yell because of it. She muffled it quickly, but I don’t think that’s gonna stop her guard from waking up.