World Walker Park [Magical Amusement Park Base-Building]

A week and a half passed faster than anyone cared to admit. For Luka, building the new additions to the park, meeting with the gods to discuss their plots of land, and keeping up with his own sanity filled most, if not all, of his time. He kept with it, though. Never complaining and never reverting to old habits.

Annie got some magical work in as well, terraforming the entire snaking river through the Bestial Grove, adding elevation around the area, and building up pathways to make the area feel like a jungle. She also got to work hiring dozens of new park employees, defining the park's mission statement, and creating a set of administrative guidelines. Next stop in her human resource train was actually creating the department.

Sadly, the "human" portion of human resources drew many irritated orcish eyes. "Why not orc resources?" they sarcastically asked at the end-of-day meeting. Annie tried, and failed, to explain her view. Orcs were proud people, sometimes to a fault. In the end, the department was simply titled "Resources."

Vlad brewed stuff. That was about it.

Eve and Franky spent time with their family, Princess Alex included, making up for lost time. It had been years since the mine collapse, and plenty of things had happened. Too many things.

Mayor Tram and Judge Ben prepared for the migrating pilgrims as well as oversaw reincarnations. Everyone who died and still had a family member in the village was now reincarnated. The next batch of potions were for everyone else, even if their families had moved on from the village. Those people were contacted, however, and told to get to the park post haste.

Jear and Ressen continued to work on the World Tree Inn, as well as spicing up the surrounding nature. Apparently, as Elven Consort, Jear had a responsibility to make sure everything around her was in harmony. How did she do that? Mostly by hitting people with a stick whenever they got snarky with her.

Beast King Orris and Soul Singer Mira continued to butt heads, grant wishes for menial tasks, and lick a massive chunk of salt.

Finally, there was Leo, Sebby, and Olive. With the sudden influx of animals, beasts, and monsters thanks to Ressen, the trio finally became official park employees! Their job was simple: make sure the beastly guests had some friends to play with.

It wasn't a glamorous job. But someone had to do it.

As this all happened, the faithful marched on.

***

Emberwood Forest! A haven for toads and birds, a sinister whisper for loggers and those who'd dare harvest the beautiful orange wood en masse. There was a rumor that emberwood trees could commune with each other, inspiring the young saplings and caring for the elders. The forest was here long before the Kingdom of Embers and it would be here long after. The individual trees might be different, but the heart would remain, the life, the story and song.

But this setting was nothing more than magical trees for a few—fifty-eight thousand—faithful. Sure, it homed their target destination. Sure, it was a wonder in and of itself. Sure, its name was known far and wide.

But the forest wasn't what they came for. What they marched to see. What they longed to bear witness to!

No, that honor went to an amusement park.

They couldn't believe it either.

No, seriously.

What even was an amusement park?

Sounded sketchy.

Did the gods really descend there twice?

Maybe it was one of those "oh yeah, school actually is fun" type of things.

Hopefully not.

They didn't have a clue.

But still, fifty-eight thousand marched on, come emberwood, come rain, come mosquitoes. Leading the charge were the high priests, the devout few who knew what they were walking into and smiled—rather than gape in awe, of course. Behind them were their families, orc, elf, human, dragon. Whatever the case, they clapped and cheered, singing the songs of their gods like a war cry.

Then came the faithful, those who heard grace's call and decided "yeah, now's a good time to take a vacation." They, of course, did not call it a vacation publicly, however. Tax purposes and stuff. But still! They marched. They sang. They found it strange that they didn't have to use the bathroom, nor did they grow hungry…

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"What's up with that?" one of the party leaders asked Nyssi, the High Priest to the one and only God Neb.

Nyssi stroked his long dwarven beard. He was a centaur, but won a dwarven beard look alike contest in his youth. The moniker stuck. His lower horse half twitched at a mosquito, his tail swatting it out of the air.

"It appears we have been blessed."

The party leader's eyes slowly went wide. "Of course! That makes so much sense! I'll inform the others!"

Nyssi watched her go before turning back to the other high priests. "We're almost done with our global walk, and they just realized this?"

High Priestess Sable chuckled. She was tied to the Goddess of Nomads and knew this blessing quite well. Countless times had she answered the question "why can't I poop any longer? Am I sick?" Such was the way of long-distance divine travel, especially in the deserts where she hailed from.

"If the gods wanted to," she said, "they could've just teleported all of us to this amusement park."

High Priest Thorn frowned. "Blasphemer—"

"Hold your tongue, beast!" snapped a hard voice.

All eyes turned to the Goddess of Nomads. Instantly, all the people nearby knelt. It was always special when a god graced the pilgrimage with their presence but wasn't quite so rare. Such was the way with harboring so many faithful on the same path—their footsteps left divine energy the gods simply loved to collect. What better way to collect them than in person?

High Priest Thorn coughed. He was beholden to the elegant beauty of the God of Foundation and Stable Homes, the antithesis of nomadic culture. Thorn kept his eyes low, not daring to look at His God's mortal nemesis. Luckily, his hesitance was felt through the divine prayer system.

"Come now, Nomad," said the God of Foundation. "He didn't mean anything by it."

Goddess Nomad scoffed. "He insulted one of my own!"

Thorn scratched his ear.

"See?" Nomad asked.

"See what?" Foundation sighed.

"His thoughts! He doubled down on his insults!"

"I did not!" Thorn yelled.

"He did not," Foundation said, not actually knowing. He wasn't paying attention to his high priest's thoughts because that wasn't very nice.

They shared a look—and Thorn looked away guiltily. He did double down!

"Never mind," Foundation muttered before disappearing.

Nomad preened like a parrot with a new feather. She turned to High Priest Sable. "And I very easily could have teleported everyone to the park. But as they say, the journey is the destination."

With that, the goddess disappeared. Everyone kneeling got up.

"Told you," Sable said with a smirk.

Thorn rolled his eyes. "I personally believe the destination is the destination. Because, you know, that makes sense!"

High Priest and Stargazer, Nyssi sighed and stomped his hoof. "Can we please stop these pointless arguments? Just yesterday the God of Mountains and God of Plains graced the pilgrimage with their presence, and we waited for them to settle an argument before departing again. We lost half a day!"

Sable opened her mouth, but Nyssi was prepared for her snark. He held up a pointy finger, silencing her. Then he said, "I'm as much for the journey than the destination as the next centaur, but we do have an estimated time of arrival. Do we really want to miss the divine event?"

Sable grew impish. "No…"

Nyssi glared at Thorn. "No," he said tightly.

The centaur bowed at his waist. "Thank you. Please, we're so close. No more arguments that will cause our gods to descend and levy their opinions."

High Priest Thorn frowned. "Do you not want their opinion?"

"I do—but not at this moment."

Thorn blinked. "Blasphemer—"

Suddenly, an old presence cascaded across the pilgrimage's leadership. Every high priest felt God Neb's divine aura, falling to their knees in awe. It wasn't rare for the gods to appear here, but it was for God Neb. He was a recluse! An elder among the heavens and a deciding vote for all divine tie breakers!

For him to appear here, well, only he truly knew why.

"I am here to tell all of you to shut up and walk faster!"

Now everyone knew why God Neb was here.

"Opening ceremonies start an hour after dawn and you will be late if you continue to have interruptions!" Neb's eyes found Thorn. "Think that again and I will have Foundation come spank you, you baby!"

Thorn sputtered.

Neb then disappeared. And rather quickly, the pilgrimage resumed.

Sable nudged Nyssi, "Talk about blasphemy, eh? What do you think ol' Thorn thought?"

Nyssi leveled an eye on Thorn. "I don't have a clue."

Thorn kept his mouth—and mind—closed for the rest of the journey. Soon they would be at the destination, the sweet, sweet destination, and not on some crass nomadic journey.

"Probably thought how wonderful it was to be scolded by God Neb—"

"I did not!" Thorn snapped. "And that's blasphemy as well!"

Four seconds. Thorn's self-proclaimed vow of silence lasted four seconds.