A Goddess' Wish

“Tsk. You’re lucky I’m in a good mood after seeing my little princess in one piece.”

“I’M NOT A LITTLE PRINCESS! I’M A POWERFUL MALE DOG–Nom Nom Nom!”

“So, I’ve always wondered,” Nona said after quickly giving the dog another cookie to put him at ease, “why am I the only Wish Bearer who had to wait seventeen years for her Wish to be revealed? As far as I know, most of the Bearers witnessed their Revelation soon after being marked–”

“Yeah, well, this case wouldn’t have been different if I hadn’t marked the wrong person.”

The Goddess’ careless admission made silence fall within the group.

“Oi, what do you mean with the wrong person?” Thorny snapped eventually, after seeing Nona too frozen to ask herself.

“It wasn’t my fault though.” The Goddess pointed at Nona with a brusque gesture. “Your house was too full of noisy children. So yeah, maybe I had a few too many the previous day, and maybe I was seeing double right before performing the marking. But if your sister hadn’t held you at the most inconvenient time, everything would have been according to the plan, jeez.”

Nona felt her heart racing in her chest when she thought of the words the Holy Voice pronounced that day.

The day after she turns seventeen, when the sun is in the highest position of the village closest hill, the destiny of this new Wish Bearer would be revealed.

“My sister Helga was sixteen when I was born.” Nona gulped and stared at the Goddess. “Does that mean that she was supposed to…”

“...be the chosen Wish Bearer that day, yeah,” The Goddess completed with an annoyed tone. “Honestly, it was such a bummer. Your sister was already a really talented couturier by then and I really wanted her to create a super beautiful dress for me, but instead, I got a chubby, useless baby marked–”

“That baby you call useless devoted her entire life to you.” Aecor interrupted the Goddess with an uncharacteristic icy tone. “For seventeen years she prepared herself to fulfill your wish. The least she deserves is your gratitude, not your insults.”

“...OK, Sardine boy: you have my blessing to marry the leader someday.”

Nona barely registered Thorny’s remark. She was still stuck at the revelation of her sister almost receiving the mark.

And when thinking about Helga, her peaceful, slightly nervous and good natured sister, she found herself gritting her teeth at the prospect of her having to deal with the Goddess in front of her.

“My gratitude?” The Goddess exhaled an offended huff. “Know your place, you sexy merman. Being chosen as a Wish Bearer is the biggest privilege you earthy creatures can expect. She should be the one showing gratitude, not me.”

“Oh gosh, I can’t stand Her.” Adish exhaled an incredulous, humorless laugh. “After listening to all this, I’m definitely remaining an atheist.”

“At this rate I’m going to become one too,” Vesper added, looking at the Goddess with disappointment.

“But I do not understand,” Lorian started with a confused frown, “if you made a mistake marking the wrong person, why didn’t you amend it? You are the Goddess after all. You should hold the power to repair the harm, instead of affecting a person’s fate so carelessly.”

The Goddess laughed boisterously.

“Oh my, it’s evident you are not yet a proper leader of your clan, little elf, or for sure you’d know how extremely annoying it is to stand your subordinates whenever you make a tiny mistake. So I wisely considered that it was best to leave things as they were.”

“The best for you, you mean?” Thorny hissed, crossing his arms tightly while glaring at the Goddess. “You couldn’t care less about how Nona’s life would be affected.”

“Oh, come on, look at her!” The Goddess pointed at Nona with a dismissive gesture. “She has grown into a half-decent lady, so there’s nothing to complain about–”

“FINALLY!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE MY OLD EYESIGHT!!!!”

The entire group and the Goddess jumped startled when a sudden shout came from down the hill.

Nona looked in that direction, and saw a group of old - very old - people limping their way towards them.

“See guys?! I told you we’d see Her again!” an old warrior with a rusty uniform shouted towards his companions: a mage who was using his wizard staff to be able to walk, a bard whose trembling hands could barely play a really out-of-tune lute, and a thief who was trying his best to go unnoticed with an invisible cloak, but whose knees were creaking so much that his presence was unavoidably revealed. “My Dear Goddess, we have spent years in this Rift to fulfill your Wish, but finally we made it!”

“Uhm…” The Goddess blinked several times, “sorry, who are you?”

The warrior stopped in the middle of opening his bag.

“W-What? My Holy Lady, I’m Richard! Your devoted Wish Bearer!!” The old man placed a hand on his forehead to reveal a mark that his wrinkles almost concealed. “You ordered me to find a purple pearl in The Dawn Rift to complete your favorite collar, and finally after several years, we found it–!”

“Aaaah, yes, now I remember!” The Goddess hummed and tapped her chin with her index. “But did I say purple? Really? I’m pretty sure I said beige.”

Richard, who had carefully extracted a perfect, small, purple pearl from his worn-out bag, froze.

“B-Beige? B-But you said purple. I-I’m sure of it.”

“Mm really? Well, I still meant to say beige. I didn’t even know that purple pearls exist. If they do, they must be practically impossible to find–”

“THEY ARE! IF YOU HAD SAID BEIGE FROM THE START, WE WOULDN’T HAVE SPENT DECADES SEARCHING FOR A PURPLE ONE BECAUSE WE HAVE OUR INVENTORY FULL OF BEIGE PEARLS–Arrgh!

Nona’s eyes widened when the old man got pale, suddenly gasped and brought a hand to his heart.

“Oh shit, he’s suffering a heart attack!” Thorny snapped.

While her group rushed to attend the old warrior, Nona slowly turned to look at the Goddess.

She clenched her jaw, and looked up straight at her.

“Your Holiness. Regarding your pet…”

“Oh, finally!” The Goddess focused on Nona again, and smiled widely, extending her arms. “Yeah, let’s ignore that old man. Bring my baby to me–”

“...I’m not giving your pet back to you.”

By then Aecor had already used his healing magic to help the warrior, so everyone - both Nona’s group and Richard’s group - stared at Nona during the tense silence that fell.

“...Huh?” The Goddess blinked once, slowly. “What did you just say, Wish Bearer?”

Nona sustained the Goddess’ stare while firmly keeping the also shocked - and hopeful - chihuahua against her.

“I’m not giving your pet back to you. Or in other words,” Nona’s voice gained defiance, “I refuse to fulfill your Wish, Your Holiness.”

A loud ‘WHAAAAAAT?!’ resonated in The Dawn Rift, shouted by both The Goddess and Thorny.

“T-T-This is unbelievable!” The Goddess shouted in an enraged, high-pitched tone. “This is the second time that you refuse to fulfill MY Wish! A GODDESS’ WISH! Are you completely OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND, Wish Bearer?!”

“Nona, listen to me, as much as I hate this Reincarnation, she is still THE Goddess, remember?” Thorny hurriedly told Nona with a worried tone. “If you don’t return her pet, not only will you be punished, but all your group, and your family and–”

“And also,” Nona carefully left the chihuahua on the grass, wielded her improved dwarf axe, and pointed at the stunned, angry Goddess with it. “I, Nona, challenge Your Holiness, The Goddess, to an Ultimate Battle.”

A second, even louder ‘WHAAAAAAT?!’ resonated in The Dawn Rift, this time shouted by The Goddess, Thorny and Richard’s group.

“U-Ultimate Battle?!” Richard muttered, managing to straighten his position with Adish and Vesper’s help.

“Young lady, you don’t know what you are saying!” the old mage said with a trembling voice.

“There was only one human who dared to challenge the God of that time, centuries ago,” the old bard said, playing his lute way too stridently, “and his defeat caused the end of the world as they knew it!”

“I know it’s a risk, gentlemen,” Nona said with a gentle tone, but kept pointing her weapon at the Goddess with a grip as firm as the next words she pronounced. “But it is even riskier to keep having such a selfish Goddess who takes so lightly the hard work and devotion of the Bearers that aim to fulfill Her Wishes, as well as the lives of the people who live in the world She is supposed to look after.”

The Goddess started shaking with anger.

“I am not going to tolerate this insolence for another second.” The Goddess stood up from her throne and raised both of her hands. “You crazy, ungrateful, ugly child and your pathetic friends are going to pay right now–”

“I’m afraid that you can’t do that, boss.”

An unknown voice suddenly resounded in the sky, causing the Goddess to whimper and stomp her heeled foot on the cloud where she was standing.

“Damn you all and your Rules!” she snapped, crossing her arms. “I am THE GODDESS. I should be able to bend them just a bit to punish these offenders!”

At that moment, someone else manifested right next to the Goddess: a tanned, quite handsome man with long, blonde hair dressed in a fitted robe made entirely by four-leaf clovers.

“Of course you are, boss,” the newcomer said with a detached voice, but his emerald eyes were definitive. “But I remind you that your predecessors agreed to obey those Rules. And therefore, if an earthly creature dares to challenge You, it is strictly forbidden to act against the challenger before the proper terms and conditions are stipulated for the Ultimate Battle.”

“Hehe, good to see you, Enut!” Thorny said with a teasing tone, waving his hand. “Congratulations on your promotion. Last time we talked, our boss at the time often forgot who you were.”

Enutrof exhaled a resigned sigh before looking at Thorny.

“Long time no see, Yti.” He smirked at him. “That body suits your annoying personality quite well, I must say.”

“So that’s Enutrof?” Vesper cleared her throat and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Maybe I should consider giving him more offerings.”

“Enutrof, why did you call him like that? I thought that the insufferable creature was called Thorny,” the Goddess snapped with confusion.

“Wait, so the Goddess doesn't know who you really are?” Nona whispered.

“Well, it seems like the minor gods decided to omit that information to the new Reincarnation.” Thorny snorted, but there was the hint of a smile on his face while looking at Enutrof efficiently diverting the topic of Thorny’s name with the Goddess. “Maybe they didn’t hate me as much as I thought.”

A few minutes later, Enutrof had managed to convince the sulking Goddess that she couldn’t eradicate the offenders. They agreed to meet a few days later, once the two parts established the criteria and winning conditions of the impending fight.

Once the gods vanished in the sky - with the chihuahua showing an offensive gesture to the Goddess - Nona activated the Anomaly Detector again to find the way back to their dimension, leading the way.

“Are you sure I am not too heavy?” Aecor asked, awkward, but Nona simply smiled happily while carrying the merman princess style.

“Not at all. I could carry you all day,” she said. Aecor returned the smile and nudged his nose against her cheek.

“OK, could someone tell me why the HELL aren’t you all more hysterical about this madness?!” Thorny snapped at Nona’s group, whose impassive faces made Thorny’s jaw hang slack. “Wait a minute–did you all know that our crazy leader planned to do this?!”

“Well, we knew that this outcome was a possibility,” Vesper said.

“A high possibility,” Lorian pointed out.

“And before you get angry with Nona, we all convinced her that it was safer if she didn’t let you know,” Adish completed.

“Oh, I see.” Thorny crossed his arms, slitting his eyes. “So after all this time, you still didn’t trust me enough to share this plan with me?”

“Of course we didn’t trust you, imp.” Adish smiled at him. “Because you care about the leader so much that we knew you’d try to do everything to stop her. Even at the cost of her wishes, or even your own life.”

Thorny gulped and looked at Nona, who was biting her lip with an apologetic, affectionate expression that made him exhale a long, defeated sigh.

“I should be used to being betrayed by women, but jeez, I don’t learn.” He barked a resigned laugh and took a seat on the top of Nona’s head. “So, our next mission is to defeat a Goddess, huh. I should have known that capturing that rat with paws was a too easy way to finish this adventure–”

“HEY, I have a name too, you know?”

“Bah, I bet that Goddess put you the corniest possible name–”

“You can call me Satan.”

“Satan? Like hell: that name is too cool for you!”

Thorny and Satan were still yapping at each other even after they found another rift that took them back to their dimension, eager to get prepared for the most epic battle of their lives.