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Writ studied himself in the large windows of a empty storefront. He touched his face with a feeling of disbelief that was with him ever since he came back to the city.

He held a wooden mask in front of his face. It was something from Coyote. Carved by the god himself. Pointed ears on it's head golden eyes that shone like jewels, and a smile. A birthday gift. It could grow as large as the top half of his body and shrink small enough that he could fit it in his pocket. Writ peeked from the mask, half-expecting to see himself again. But no, it was this strange adult that had hijacked his reflection.

Ten years in one. He completely jumped over from the awkward times of adolescence to adulthood. Writ knew everything now- experiences and lessons learned slowly through his life packed into his mind. Rampant growth. Writ had stumbled on another world, one that no one had ever explored. The first kid in a new pool.

There was a Coyote sitting at his side obediently. It wasn't the biggest one Writ's seen, but he had a good feeling that it was smart enough to help him out.

Writ had no idea where he came from or why he kept following him- actually, the only thing that Writ knew about this fuzzy companion was that it was a he. The godling couldn't lose him if he tried. Writ had tried to ask Coyote whether or not this was a new power- Figure it out, the god had said, you're a big boy now, aren't you?

He gave the tan furred Coyote a scratch behind his ears absently.

"Hard to believe I'm twelve, isn't it?"

It was pretty dark. Writ hadn't noticed the blackout as fast as everyone else did. His eyes were different, they adjusted to the dark a lot more quickly than regular human eyes. He leaned against the storefront and got a good look at the kid coming up to him. He was a godling. Coyote didn't have to tell him, Writ just knew.

The godling's golden eyes seemed to glow in the darkness when he turned back and looked down at Keahi. The Coyote turned to the newcomer and growled, but Writ pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.

"Pretty obvious isn't it?" Writ looked up to the darkened skyline, "Power's out..." He tilted his head ground level and looked around, "Everywhere. Huh. That's new."

"Relax kid." Writ put a hand on the Coyote's head, and it backed off. "He's not going to attack anyone unless you do something to piss him off."

This was strange. But not terribly strange. A city-wide blackout had nothing on the sights he had seen. He took out a book of matches and a small wooden pipe from underneath his poncho. The godling lit the match, and stared at the flickering flame for a moment before lighting his pipe. A stream of sweet smelling smoke escaped from it.

Nervous about something? Coyote was still mad at Writ, but a week's worth of nothing but smoking some strong herbs had calmed him down. I got a bad feeling about this too.

"You're part of the game, huh?" Writ said suddenly, "Your god have any opinions on this? Mine thinks something's up."

"Kids grow up you know. I've just been playing for a loooong time." Writ took in some smoke, then sighed it out.

"'They' huh? What, there's more than one? I've got it rough with just one voice in my head." Writ grinned.

He looked around the city again for a clue."I think they're right though, something's up. The whole city doesn't shut down at once." Writ got up and started to walk, he beckoned Keahi to follow.

"Yeah, some of the kids are in their teens now." Writ took the pipe out of his mouth and looked at Keahi, "You see anyone else in the game? You'd know what I mean by now."

"Man, that is spooky." Writ said, not about the dark, but about Keahi's god, "And confusing I bet. All those voices talking to you at the same time with the same thing to say."

They walked through the darkened Middling. The gods had a bad feeling- and that only gave Writ a bad feeling. There was only one person in Middling that knew what was going on. He wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing Persy, not like this. She had flipped out the last time he jumped ages, and with the blackout happening, he figured she wasn't in the mood for anymore surprises.

The coyote was padding behind them, and Writ had just realized that he should give the wanderer a name.

Nuka. Coyote said.

Mm?

That's his name, tribe-tongue for "Younger sibling"

"Nuka, huh?" He looked back at the Coyote, who had took a few strides up to Writ's side at the sound of his name. Alright. One problem out of the way.

"Let's go to Persy's" He said to Keahi, putting the pipe back in his mouth, "She has to have have a clue what's going on."

The long weeks with little talks from Father had finally taken their toll. He was barely doing anything in the Game despite Hypnos' reassurances of patience and time.Steh had finally taken some initiative and left the sleepy little neighbourhood where he'd taken residence.

Seth wondered along, of course it was dark, but he was used to that. He'd already been awake for two days straight anyway, it being day or night was rather irrelevant to his biological clock, to him it might as well have been the middle of the afternoon. Too bad that didn't apply to his eyes, he squinted as he slowly went around corners, keeping one hand towards the wall just to make sure he was going along the pavement.

Stopped for a moment as a sudden wall of a strong scent hit him. He had no clue what it was, but someone was around, but he couldn't be sure in the dark.

Keahi gave a start as Nuka rushed off, apparently chasing down someone. The large boy tried to keep up, falling behind a bit until finally Writ stopped and he could catch up and catch his breath. He peered into the darkness, trying to see who this other person was. Panting, he wondered how Writ knew this new person.

"He plays the Game as well. Seems the godlings are getting active."

"Probably because if you're scared, the other gods are as well." Keahi muttered under his breath, finally breathing easily again.

It seems like he wasn't the only one who had been doing some growing.

"Gods it's been a while." Writ waited for Seth to realize who it was. Then he remembered that he had changed as well. The godling remembered that not everyone was gifted with his vision in the dark. So He decided to give the process of recgonition a little push.

"It's me, Writ, remember?" He wished there was some light to help Seth see what had happened to him, but he figured that his voice would make it evident.