At the center of the continent stood a huge mountain that was a few miles wide and surrounded by a thick forest many miles longer. It was on this mountain that two lights were descending. The lights eventually crashed halfway up the mountain created two deep craters on the mountain’s side. After the lights dissipated it reveal that at the center of the two craters were two bodies. 

In one crater was a slim girl who possessed bright blonde hair, Amber eyes, and was around 4 and a half feet tall. She wore normal clothes under leather armor and had a silver spear in her hand that looked to be a combination of a spear and poleax.

In the other was a fit boy with black hair, violet eyes, and was near 5 feet in height. He wore loose-fitting clothes and also wore leather armor over them. He held a one-sided, slightly curved, long dark blade at his waist.

“So this is how Lycia is to the people. Not bad.” Said the boy.

“This truly is a beautiful sight.” Said the girl looking at the horizon. After a while, she then faced the boy who just kept staring at her “What is it Arah?”

“Nothing. It’s just that when we first created these bodies I knew that yours didn’t look half bad, but now with you inside it, damn, you look hot.”

She glared at him. “Stop messing around. We got a job to do.”

“Yea. Yea. I got it. But before we start, anything wrong with your body Thiera?” He asked while he stretched.

“Let me check.” She started to do all sorts of movements: jumping, kick, punching, running, etc. But when she tried to use her powers, something unusual happened. Being the Goddess of Light, you would expect that Thiera would be able to summon a beam of light or shine like the sun. But instead, the most she currently can do is produce a light as bright as a light bulb.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with me physically, but in terms of magical abilities, this is the best I can do.”

“What?” He sounded surprised. “Hold up. Let me try,” he said as he tried to conjure up some magic. However, the most he found that he could do was manipulate his shadow a bit, sense the shadows in his surroundings, and gather up a smaller sphere of darkness compared to Thiera’s.

“It’s the same for me too. Strange. What could be the cause?” Arah questioned.

“I guess we’ll need to ask Sefiria when we get to a church,” she stated.

“But first we got to find a church right? Then let's go to the nearest village. We’ll also be able to scout out how the world is progressing.” He said before remembering some information Libra gave him. “I think that he said that there was a town southwest of here.”

“Then let’s go,” she responded.

As they were going down the mountain, it did not take much time for them to encounter some wild monsters. It was a flock of 10 or so vultures, bird type monsters who feast on the corpses of their prey.

“I guess we would need to fight monsters sooner or later if we're supposed to blend in.” Theria said after seeing the creatures charging towards them. She then pointed her spear at them and assumed a battle stance.

“It seems like this will be our first fight with monsters.” Arah said as he drew his blade. “C'mon. Let's see how we'll fare against them with Asaya's training.”

Flashing back to when they were preparing for their journey, they decided that they needed to learn how to wield weapons in case of any unforeseeable circumstances and since they could not use their godly powers whenever they wished. When they asked Asaya for help on this part, she excitedly introduced them to the numerous types of weapons she prided herself for possessing: axes, hatchets, poleaxes, spears, javelins, tridents, long swords, broadswords, katanas. She had an entire collection of weapons which she had her husband, Heracles, help make for her.

After Thiera chose to study the poleax spear and Arah the longer, broader katana, Asaya went on to enthusiastically teach them how to use their weapons and their weaknesses, while her husband went to create their own personal weapons. Libra also help in this area by giving them manuals on how to wield similar weapons and possible skills they could learn.

Returning to the present, the vultures were hovering around them before one started diving straight towards the two, readying its beak and talons to pierce and slash them. Due to the terrain, Thiera and Arah had limited room to move. This meant that the only thing they could do is wait for the vultures to come to them.

As the first bird came charging forward, Arah waited until it was only a few feet away before sidestepping and swinging his blade, killing it instantly.

“Huh. That went smoother than I thought.” He was slightly disappointed.

Seeing that one of them was killed so effortlessly, the other vultures were enraged and all of them started diving towards them.

Thiera started walking forward, saying “my turn” to Arah. Instead of just waiting there in a stance like how he did, she started to spin her lance and eventually threw it at an angle. It curved towards the vultures and successfully sliced through 5 of them before returning to her hands.

“Pff. Show off.” He snorted.

Seeing that there was even less of them now, the others vultures began to flee. And after considering where they are, they did not pursue.

“Let’s drain their blood, but I don’t think what Quen said would apply here since they’re basically cut in half.”

During their year of preparation, Quen, the Goddess of the Hunt, taught them the basics of surviving in any environment: how to hunt, how to build a fire, how to skin, etc. When your prey is a bird, she said that the best way to empty the carcass of its blood was by slitting its throat and letting it hang upside down.

After waiting a while, blood was no longer coming out of the birds and they covered it under the earth.

“C’mon. It looks like it will take at least a couple of hours to get the village, so I want to get there before nightfall.” She said as she wrapped and tied her spear around her back.

As they eventually went down the gigantic mountain, they entered the forest. 

Thinking that it was just too quiet, Arah decided to break the ice. “You know now that I think about it you, never told me how I look.”

“What do you mean?” She questioned.

“I mean when I told you that you looked hot, you never told me how I looked. I think I deserve a proper response.”

“Oh that.” She sounded uninterested. “Do you really need an answer?”

“I would like one. Plus its a common courtesy, you know? I overheard some humans talk about a saying when we were studying them: ‘I’ll scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine’.” He tried to sound intelligent.

“What in the Goddesses’ is that?” She tilted her head and looked confused. “Anyways. Can I not tell you? I don’t think I can find the word to describe you right now.”

“What? Really? I spent more time than necessary making this guy and you say you’re speechless. Is that a compliment or an insult?” 

She did not respond and just kept walking.

After walking for what felt like hours Arah spoke up again. “Still can’t come up with a word? I mean it’s really simple. All you need to do is just say the first word that comes to your mind.”

“Are you unable to just enjoy the quiet and peaceful environment?” Thiera glared at him. “You know that if we fail our mission, everything around us could be gone in the future.”

“Yea, but like I said before, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. We still got hundreds of years to solve this, so just like what Apel and Svarti said, we should have some fun during this journey.” He said as he was remembering what the Gods of the Arts said before their descent.

“I got that, but can we get out of this forest first? We’re being followed. I already know you noticed them.” She said vigilantly. 

Ever since they came down the mountain and entered the forest, there had been something following them. At first, it did not seem like a big deal since there was only a few of them, but over time that number just kept growing and growing until there was currently around 100 of them.

“Yea, I knew they were there. I just wanted to lighten the mood since I thought you were nervous.” Arah said, revealing his true intentions. “I think that the vultures we killed were a part of this group.”

She nodded. “So, do you want to run or fight because I think that they are ready to attack?”

“Run. While both our group and theirs can’t go at 100% in this forest, their numbers are just too much for us.” He explained.

After staying silent for a while, Thiera spoke up: “Alright, we’ll run when they start charging. Although our endurance might be better than the average person, I don’t think we can continuously run straight through this forest.”

Arah sighed and nodded. “What a crappy first day we’re having.”