Garden of little gifts (reliuskaiser & tigra9)

[tigra9]

(It’s a card regardless, their purpose is to show as writing the holders gifts along with storing things)

Rudina blinked recieving the card, hers was a shiny obsidian colored one and she blinked as her gift name was listed on it... wait no she had three things listed?
[Mark of Genome Tree]
[Devour]
[Fangs of Slaying]
She blinked and looked it over three times and then looked at shiro usagi “umm little rabbit? When you mentioned about gifts, you said they appear in ones soul and can be items like that tree right?”

Shiro usagi blinked and nodded “yes they can also call me shiro usagi or at least one of those”

“I am, usagi means rabbit so that makes you rabbit” rudina turned her card “but according to this card... I have three gifts” she said perplexed, this was not normal, people no matter what only had one gift in their soul, any beyond that was something they won from someone else or were given by a higher authority like the gods

Shiro-usagi heading that got up rushing over “wait let me see!” She said snatching the card and reading them ‘could the Laplace demons made a mistake? No that should be utterly impossible.. what’s more this third gift, if I recall that’s the gift of fenrir... and the genome tree? Is it referring to that thing?’ she mumbled rapidly under her breath shiroyasha knew who the Laplace demons were, the gift cards were their creation and they held the ability to share information and also could read through anything with perfect accuracy, a race that knew everything so long as one of them looked at it once, the gift cards held a hint of this connection hence the ability to write the name of the user’s gifts automatically

Noctua frowned seeing that one move broke the right end of her formation ignoring the fuss next to her as best she could as she tried to plot how to move from there while not sacrificing more pieces then she needed to

[reliuskaiser]

(I know.)

Shiroyasha looked away from her game, making sure to move again, sacrificing some of her defensive line in order to make her offense look more threatening. Nothing has happened all game, but when it does start, it will be fast and rather devastating to one of them. "Wait, three? How could that be? You're only supposed to have one." She says coming over to look at Rudina's card with Shiro-Usagi. She was very surprised to see that. "No way, I don't believe the Laplace Demons would slip up on something like this. but given that's the case, where do these other two come from?" She asks while Petra looks at her card seeing two things written down.

[Unlimited] and..
[Dream of Maxwell]..

"Huh...I have two as well?" Petra says to herself before looking back at the other two who were fawning over Rudina's gift stone...card...thing. Petra overheard the speaking about how she somehow had multiple gifts, and then something hit Petra. She turns. "Wait, didn't Rudina say she ate someone from Little Garden before? Could she have gotten their gift somehow?" She asks.

[tigra9]

Rudina frowned listening to them and then looked at Petra hearing the girl mention how she devoured someone from little garden “no they didn’t have a gift, I’m not sure about this genome tree, but the devour and fangs of slayer are definitely things I was born with, my entire clan was descended from Fenrir and the passed down story is that we inherited his fangs that tear apart even the gods”

Noctua sighed “fenrir was a monster wolf of Norse mythology, son of Loki, his fangs could tear through anything regardless of what it was made of, only special enchanted chains held the power to bind this wolf, and even those were not meant to last, for when ragnarok occurs his sons would devour the moon and the sun. And he would devour Odin before being killed by one of odin’s sons vidarr” she said reciting a bit of fenrir’s legend before making her move “also genome tree... wouldn’t that be related to the tree tattooed onto your back you normally keep hidden lady rudina?”

Shiro-usagi looked at petra’s card “hmm that is odd too... shiroyasha-sama, perhaps we should contact the Laplace demons about this? It’s quite strange...” at the mention of markings on rudina’s back her gaze went to that spot

Rudina blinked confused by noctua for a second before letting out an ah “oh yeah that thing, that has been passed down to the next would be alpha... that would count as a gift?” She said returning to her normal form and removing her top before pulling her hair aside to reveal a large circle tattoo on upper center of her back with markings that seemed strange, to anyone unfamiliar with the physical gift item owned by a former comrade of shiro-usagi’s anyway, rudina didn’t know it but shiro-usagi and shiroyasha could quickly point at this as being the reason rudina could shift her body like she could, it wasn’t from her devour gift like she originally believed, though the two probably worked together in some weird way as it didn’t allow a user to retain the memory or soul of someone the genome tree gift was used on

[reliuskaiser]

That just brings up more questions then. Petra shrugs and nods as Rudina explained herself. The human seemed entranced by the wolf's story, imagining it as Noctua also chimed in and explained even more about Rudina's heritage. "Oh wow, so in a sense, you're a demigod, Rudina." Petra says, suddenly getting rather bummed out as she realized something, but shook it off as it wasn't important at this time.

Shiroyasha looks at Shiro-Usagi and nods. "Yeah, I think a visit might be in order.." She says looking back at Petra's card as Rudina shifted back to normal. She looks back to get a good view of Rudina's back, nodding at the sight before noticing the mark on her body. "So that's how you're able to do that. Interesting." She says pulling out Noctua's gift card and tossing it over to the woman.

[tigra9]

Shiro-usagi frowned “hopefully we can get them to actually give us answers over the riddles their fond of without their leader” she commented with a sigh

Noctua looked at Petra “she isn’t quite a demigod though, her fangs are the only remnants of that ancestry, it’s not like she has any divinity from a divine monster like fenrir being her ancestor or anything actually take away what she has from the other two gifts and she would be no different from the average werewolf you can read stories about” she caught her own card it like rudina and petra’s had a shiny effect to it but hers was blue “oh? Surrendering shiroyasha-sama? I don’t think I’m in a position to really win this game” she then looked at it and smiled “ah... really, even that gift was seen through? I’m impressed”

Noctua’s card bore three gifts on it aswell
[Wisdom of Athena]
[Divinity]
[Voice of Command]

Rudina blinked and hmmed “well this is nice that we have names for them and all... but these cards don’t even tell us what the gifts actual powers are?” She asked with a pout, though to be honest that was the point, just like with the gift games the card itself was a game, giving a hint but leaving it to the owner to solve the mysteries behind the name on their own, after all if it described the power of the gift, wouldn’t that bind the owner into not finding ways to extend their own gift and power in a way totally unique to them?

[reliuskaiser]

"That probably won't happen, at least not just from asking..." Shiroyasha says, straightening her dress as she gets ready to go somewhere. She turns to Noctua. "Yes, sadly. I'll be departing to take care of business. Seems I've found something interesting today, and need to do a bit of research to say the least." She scratches her head.

Petra nods at Rudina's sentiment. "That is kinda true. Though I feel as though knowing what they did wouldn't do much more than limit how we interact with them. Best to experiment and find out what you can and can't do, am I right?" Petra says, taking her card and placing it in her hand with her dumbbell. She looks over to the hole she made and suddenly materializes a piece of wood to cover the hole.

[tigra9]

Rudina frowned “but I would like to know which part is which gift... and no I don’t mean specifically the genome tree is my shapeshifting, devour is my ability to eat others and revive them, and fangs of the slayer refers to my teeth”

Noctua stands “alright then, well perhaps sometime we can play again shiroyasha, I would like to actually win” she said with a cute smile before shifting back to her owl form the cardbeing dropped though she grabbed it with her mouth and flew over to shiro-usagi landing on her shoulder and slipping the card into her cleavage

Shiro-usagi looked at shiroyasha “I would like to go with you immediately, but I need to take them to my community to rest... and why are you putting your card in my cleavage!?” kwie kwie “it’s not like rudina or Petra are gonna seperate from you tomorrow or anything... the game is in three days!” hoot! “.....” shiro-usagi narrowed her gaze at the owl her hair turning silver grabbing noctua’s card and passing it to petra “you hold onto it” she said calmly not even turning her gaze from noctua who puffed up her feathers to appear bigger

Rudina couldn’t help but laugh at the scene between noctua and shiro-usagi forming a kangaroo pouch on her stomach and putting her card and her top in there then standing and removing her bottoms and slipping them into the pouch, with that done she shifted into her feral wolf form though now she was small, the size of a puppy that could easily be carried and she ran over to Petra getting up onto her shoulder though in a way that rudina was holding on with her front paws over petra’s shoulder tail wagging

[reliuskaiser]

"Fair enough, most of this stuff has kinda just been backlogged in my mind while I fous on what's happening. I'm kinda forgetting why we needed these in the first place, but that's not too important, right now. I just want to rest somewhere so i can actually find out the extent of what i can do." Petra says, getting a little annoyed at this point. Well, more like antsy.

Shiroyasha looked over to Noctua. "Yeah..I don't intend on letting that happen again. Losing and me have had a good relationship." She says, watching the girl shift into an owl and flew oveer to Shiro-Usagi. Shiroyasha took this time to set her box away on one of her dressers befre going and collecting up the shogi board and pieces.

Petra looked at Noctua and Shiro-Usagi and couldn't help but smile at the two. She turns away and heads for the door, looking onto her shoulder when she felt a small Rudina hop onto her. "Oh hey. i guess it's my turn to give you a lift now?" She says, looking down at the card in hand.

[tigra9]

Rudina just smiled her tail wagging full speed as she made herself comfortable “for a bit yes”

Shiro usagi just sighed facing her card towards the water tree and after a short shine the water tree seemed to just get sucked into the card “well thank you for everything shiroyasha-sama, come along Petra, rudina” she said sounding exasperated already as she walked outside before Petra did leading the way out and frowning at the store clerk who waved in a half hearted way as they left

Rudina blinked seeing that happen to the tree “ah right! Hey rabbit that sapling goes in my card not yours!”

Shiro usagi glared at the puppy her eyes still silver “and I will put it there later rudina, so shut your mouth” she turned away once rudina did as commanded, the little puppy had felt a severe killing intent that Petra probably would have missed sensing for the most part

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After walking back to the gate and teleporting they would arrive at an area that looked like it was weathered down and completely ruined, it had a large area but the ground was all dirt and what buildings could be seen lay in ruins, at the far end they could see an archway set in a wall and it looked like that area while not by much was at least in better shape just from what could be seen at such a large distance though shiro-usagi just had a sad look on her face looking at this landscape

Rudina who spent the whole time riding on petra’s shoulder got off seeing this landscape and frowned shifting to a two legged anthro version of her full wolf form, though she looked like a thin bodybuilder in build and she stood easily over 6, no perhaps 7 foot tall “hey shiro usagi... how long ago, did your community fall on hard times?” She asked as she knelt down touching a piece of wooden railing, that immediately disintegrated

“3 years ago” shiro usagi responded solemnly, but that was impossible, the damage they were looking at, nature couldn’t have done this much damage in less then at least a thousand years

[reliuskaiser]

"It was no problem, sweet thing. Always fun to play with you.." Shiroyasha said, making sure to remember to gather her doll after the others left and she locked up.

Petra follows Shiro-Usagi out of the guest house, kinda zoning out as Rudina happily rode on her shoulders. They head through some gates and somehow managed to find themselves in the midst of some ruins. Once she started paying attention again, Petra looked around her. "Wait, whoa, what happened around here?" She asks before looking at Rudina and Shiro-Usagi.

This place looked worse than her neighborhood. She could imagine that it wasn't comfortable to live in a place like this.

[tigra9]

Rudina sighed standing “was this caused by a gift game battle?” She asked looking at shiro usagi “and of so, why didn’t your community just refuse it? Surely something that can do this would be easily known!”

Shiro usagi turned her head away “it was a demon lord, and we couldn’t refuse... nobody can refuse a demon lords game... because they all have a power called ‘master of host authority’ and this... this is the result of such a fight, we lost so many people... and now...” she looked ready to break down in tears again

Rudina grumbled “I see... well this will take a lot of work to fix” she said in a calm tone that certainly didn’t fit her menacing bipedal wolf form as she leaned down grabbing some dirt that broke apart “the land has lost all its nutrition... guess that’s a problem we will need to think on, noctua try to come up with some ideas” hoot hoot! the owl responded using a wing as if to salute

Shiro usagi though was surprised hearing this and looked up “Eh? Your planning... to fix this?”

Rudina gave a wry smile to the rabbit looking at Petra “I think our little rabbit forgot didn’t she?” She asked Petra, meaning the reason they had been summoned to this world. Shiro usagi though just tilted her head sideways her ears tilting with her as the rabbit racked her brain

[reliuskaiser]

"Yeah, we did come here to fix all this mess. And while I'm kinda surprised at the current state of the this domain, I still believe it can be done. In fact..." Petra smiled before spinning around and striking a pose similar to the one Shiroyasha made when introducing herself. Her hair was glowing bright and her hands formed in front of her a large bag that plopped on the ground.

Petra nods and lifts the bag up over her shoulders. "I think this will be a nice first step in getting this place properly organized." She says, summoning a small knife into one of her hands. "So, are we going to meet the rest of the gang?"

[tigra9]

Rudina blinked seeing Petra summon the bag and tilted her head “well we would first need to concern ourselves with giving the soil nutrition I think, plants can’t grow in this place very well if at all” she commented with a shrug

Shiro usagi was silent for a moment before smiling “alright... yes let’s go meet them, supper should likely be fixed soon if it’s not already done, though I will apologize as it’s probably soup and bread” she said before happily leading them down the pathway

Rudina hmmed “well I can deal with that, if it’s not enough I’ll go off and play a small gift game to get myself more food, no need to starve children for my appetite” she said that but it’s not like rudina wasn’t above adding some of those children to her meal.... no no she needed to play nice, even if she could revive them that would definitely get solid black marks on any potential future relationship she might have with this community. That said she shifted back to her feral form going back to the size comparable to Petra that she had taken on before

Shiro usagi lead them on, quickly noting rudina transformed though she was unaware of rudina’s internal dialogue about eating the children and how that would affect rudina’s future relationship, it took almost ten minutes of walking at the casual pace shiro usagi set before they reached the archway leading into a thankfully smaller area with a... well as expected it wasn’t a sight that would make anyone think of a thriving community, but there was plant life! A garden, some trees, grass, and last but most importantly buildings, there was four three story buildings though two looked a little under kept compared to the other two, perhaps a sign of limiting how much they actually used for who knows what reason, though another sign that might be surprising to Petra and rudina was a mass of people, specifically all young children, standing in front of one of the two actively used buildings and in the front was Arthur, and a small girl that had fox ears and tail of a blonde tipped with dark brown colored endings, she looked to be the same age as Arthur “rudina, Petra, this is Lilly, she is a senior member of everyone gathered here along with Arthur, though she doesn’t have anything to be considered a gift she has an innate talent with crops and such, she is in charge of maintaining the garden where we grow the limited plants we can grow for ourselves” shiro usagi introduces the girl as she lead the pair over to the children

Lilly for her part bowed “it’s nice to meet you lady Petra and... umm Arthur? There isn’t anyone else but animals...” she said looking to Arthur though she jumped as rudina spoke up

“Ah I’m here, I’m rudina, the other person summoned to little garden, in a werewolf with a gift to change my form into animals as I please” she said walking over, several kids recoiling in a mix of shock and fear of the large wolf that could unmistakably snatch any of them up as a meal but rudina ignored that and simply laid down pressing her nose to lilly’s hand “my normal form is similar to yours in terms that I keep my animal ears and tail, though I think if I transformed as I am now a certain rabbit might get mad about me baring everything in front of all you children and use that dangerous electrical spear she has in her right hand with my tailbone as the target”

As if to answer rudina’s light hearted comment shiro usagi has already drawn her spear but Lilly just blinked and then nodded hesitantly “o.. ok then... nice to meet you lady rudina” she said then hesitantly ran her hand along rudina’s snout petting the werewolf, as if reacting to this several of the younger kids approached rudina to pet her too though for the most part not many did, that fear of the seemingly nice wolf snapping at them for becoming crowded caused the kids that were older and realized such thoughts to instinctively hold back enough of the younger ones

[reliuskaiser]

Petra says nothing, not even intending to plant the seed of all the fruit...and vegetables she had. Shiro-Usagi sought to lead them to the others. Petra was quite surprised to see the four large buildings though two seemed a little worse for wear. She looks down to see a large gathering of children with Arthur and another beastkin girl beside him.

Petra looks at all the others as Shiro-Usagi proceeds to introduce them to the beastkin girl. Petra nods. "Nice to meet you, Lilly." She says, waving while looking for a place to set down all this food she made.

Petra looks back at the kids crowding around and smiles, thinking about whether or not she should make more food for the others. This bag alone definitely wasn't going to be enough to feed all of them, but if she used this power too much, she might fall unconscious due.to.fatigue. Petra's hair slowly brightens up as she thinks to herself.

[tigra9]

(Shiro usagi introduced Lilly, though Lilly then spoke to Arthur in her confusion about rudina, anyhow though mind taking over for her? She is the responsible sort but as she is still only 11 her childishness isn’t gone yet)

Rudina didn’t mind the petting to much though as if sensing petra’s shifting mood she spoke “Petra... just give them what you have, it’s not enough sure, but it’s better then wasting it, and there isn’t a need to exhaust yourself right now” she commented closing her eyes and yawning, Lilly and the kids that saw how wide rudina’s mouth opened took a step back but rudina quickly shut her mouth “ah sorry about that, I’m not going to bite, it’s been an... interesting day so far” she nuzzled the end of her snout to lilly’s cheek before laying her head down “let me know when we are going to eat, I could use some food and sleep... I was up an entire day before I got summoned”

Arthur blinked hearing that “oh, then Lilly can you show rudina to her room? I’ll bring food for her to eat and the rest of us can eat together..” He then looked at Petra “or would you rather also go to your room to rest and have supper brought to you Petra?”

Shiro usagi sighed putting her spear away as noctua flew from her shoulder to land on rudina, the owl bouncing on rudina’s back to annoy her

Rudina frowned at noctua “noctua stop playing around... a spot of owl mixed with whatever they made sounds absolutely appealing right now”

“Well it’s so rare for you to be this docile I couldn’t help but wake you up a bit” said noctua as she shifted to her human form sitting sideways on rudina’s back though she quickly got off “oh well it’s just how you are I suppose, at least your controlling that hunger, don’t go letting it have its way in private” she said then walked over to Petra ignoring the children that had stared or tried to approach her curious about her taking noctua’s gift card from Petra along with the sack and gave a knowing smile “Petra, what lady Rudina said is right, it won’t be good to waste, but don’t worry about trying to produce enough, lady rudina, you, me? We are the guests, though it’s not amiss to help... we should at least try to pace ourselves lest we fall apart at the starting line and become unable to help them properly” she looked around at the kids “we abandoned our own worlds to come here after all” she then spoke to the children done giving her advice “Ok! Can someone show me to the kitchen? I’m gonna see if I can make something out of what’s in this bag, younger children get first servings, since I can probably only thin it out so much” the kids got excited and a couple offered then lead noctua inside

Shiro usagi couldn’t help but give a complex smile seeing all this and looked at Petra “do you... already regret it?” She asked meaning the fact that shiro usagi brought Petra here to little garden in the first place

~~~~~~

Petra and rudina’s rooms had already been prepared in one of the main buildings that served as the gathering place and also residence for shiro usagi, Arthur, and now the three summoned from another world, there wasn’t much need for using all the building for so few people therefore the rooms were all on the second floor and grouped close together, the other building on the other hand is where Lilly and the other children who were without gifts stayed at

[reliuskaiser]

Petra looks over at Rudina, her instincts are awkwardly on point, but at least it helped he girl to make a decision. She sighs and nods. "Sure thing, Rudina.." She watched the kids acting cautious around Rudina only for the wolf to reassure them that she was harmless. It was cute.to say the least and Noctua comes in to give ber two cents on the matter as well.

Lilly looked over at the owl as it shifted into a person. Her eyes went wide as did a few others as Noctua fooled off of Rudina and headed over to Petra.

Petra looks at Noctua as she approaches, not saying anything as she repeats what Rudina told her. Petra let's Noctua take the bag and her gift card, but can't help like she forgot something.

When Noctua asks to be shown to a kitchen, Lilly's ears perked up. "Ah..I can show you Ms. Noctua!" She offered along with some other kids, moving to help Noctua inside.

Before they headed inside, Petra would hear Shiro-Usagi ask her if she regretted coming here. Petra had many things to say about that question, but chose to say none of them, opting to say something else entirely. "If this made me regret leaving my world, I would just leave. After all, it is my choice to be here...isn't it?" She pauses, closing her eyes and walking along so that Noctua could get to cooking. Shiro-Usagi could notice a small hint of black on Petra's hair as she said that.

Later, Petra heads into the other building that was purposed for her and the others. "Huh, this..looks pretty nice." She says, walking around.

Lilly heads in front of Petra and Rudina. "Um, your rooms are this way, Ms. Rudina and Ms. Petra." She says, waving to the two.

Petra looks over at Lilly and nods. "Ok then, thanks for leading us."

"It's no problem, your rooms were prepared ahead of time so you could rest should you need to." Lilly says, smiling at the two of them.

[tigra9]

Noctua carries the bag with absolute ease to the kitchen and got to work on the stuff in the bag

Shiro usagi frowned at that question at the end and watched them leave into the building, unable to say the words in her heart, that leaving this world... wasn’t as easy as getting here

Rudina would walk with Petra and Lilly having waited for the girl to show them to their rooms, the hallway had a wooden design, rather the entire interior did have a wooden theme to it but it was still nice rudina though asked “if I feel uncomfortable with how my room is arranged, will it be a problem if I arrange it myself to better suit me?” She asked as they stopped at petra’s room first, though rudina’s was right next door to it and rudina after getting the answer looked at Petra “we’ll have a good rest then Petra” with that done she headed into her room though stopped Lilly “Lilly was it? Please return to my room after you get your food... I would like to talk to you alone while miss rabbit isn’t in earshot” she said it in a gentle voice as she finally shifted to her normal form, naked as can be and everything not doing anything to hide any of her body, after all she wasn’t really ashamed of her body, she had and wore clothes yes but that was more so as not to appear as just a savage beast all the time. Rudina was still a wolf over a human

[reliuskaiser]

"Ah..yeah, see you." Petra says, heading into her room, without much else to say. Well, she did have more to say, but wouldn't.

Lilly tilted her head at the question before saying "Uh, I believe so long as you don't break anything, Usagi-onee sama should probably be okay with it. She looked surprised when after Petra left, Rudina approached her and asked for her to come to her room after getting her food. She didn't really have a reason to, but before she could say much, Rudina morphed back into.her human form. " ooh, wow, you're pretty, Ms. Rudina...and exposed.." She says, looking away. Even if Rudina wasn't ashamed of her body, it was still odd to just have a naked woman in front of her. "Uhh, I think I should go.. Your room is next door, ma'am. I'll return when I have my food." She says.

[tigra9]

Rudina could tell something was weighing on petra’s mind but said nothing about it, it’s not like they were close enough for her to meddle so much on the first day of their meeting when Lilly complimented rudina she nodded “thank you, and I have clothes I’m just not wearing them because they get uncomfortable in my bigger forms, and fall off when I’m in a smaller one, it’s usually more comfortable for me to just stay as I am” she said it with a hint of playfulness nodding when the little girl agreed to return and heading into her room, seeing that it had a mattress setting on a small bed frame, a dresser, there was a closet aswell but no apparent bathroom to this room, she walked over to the window and opened it letting in fresh air, the floor was simple wood that had been coated to make it feel solid enough and the walls were bare except for being painted white, there was also a mirror that looked freshly cleaned, no doubt part of their preparing the room for rudina’s arrival no doubt. Truly a room of only the basics but given the communities condition this worked fine enough

When Lilly returned she would find the bed had been moved and was currently leaned against the wall the frame had also been leaned to rest against the mattress and rudina was sitting there on the floor dressed in her lions fur outfit eating the soup calmly as she stared at her gift card that had been set on the floor in front of her her ears twitching and tail swaying back and forth practically sweeping the floor itself as she turned her attention to Lilly “welcome back, sorry I’m not the type for sleeping on a bed, too comfortable” she commented with a faint smile

[reliuskaiser]

Petra was just going to sleep it off, maybe then she could calm down a little, but for now, best leave her be. Lilly looks back at Rudina as she explains her lack of clothing. She nods. "Ah ok then, Ms. Rudina. I'll keep that in mind, then." She says as she heads out.of the hall, only to return at a later time.

Once the girl returns, Lilly looks at Rudina to find her room arranged in a rather odd fashion. She listens to the larger woman and nods. "Ok then, well, it is your room, after all, so it's fine." She walks up and sits down in front of Rudina, setting her food down. "Sooo, what did you want to see me about that you didn't want Usagi-onee sama to hear about?" She asks.