Udja raised his arms high. "-and on this most sacred of days, in this most sacred of years, we celebrate the anniversary of your blessed works, and await your glorious re-coming with awe and reverence."

The air around the temple's grounds slowly began to fill with smoke and fog. Some of the newer tribesmen, who had not been present at the last Ceremony of the Creators ten years ago, were surprised. Udja was not. He knew how big the creators were on flash and pomp.

"Great mother of life, blessed fox of knowledge; Great father of death, feared wolf of power; we your servants are ready for your inspection."

The smoke thickened, until the villagers could not see more than a foot from their faces. A distant rumble shook the ground, and those of weaker constitution began to whisper prayers and gasp.

With a blinding flash of light and a roar of thunder, the fog instantly vanished. There, sitting atop the massive stone thrones carved in the face of a giant mountain, was absolutely nothing.

This time, Udja was a little surprised. "Uh... Supreme creators?"

"Up here," a melodic voice giggled.

All eyes flew up, up, up, to the top of the mountain. Then, all jaws fell to the floor.

A tremendous human-like canine loomed above even the mountain, leaning down on it like some kind of pointed desk. Her body was covered in unblemished white fur, and her limbs were pure shadow. Her proportions were an impossible hourglass that seemed like it should have snapped under its own weight.

"So what's up?"

The tiny human leading the service glanced down at his sacred parchment which listed the order and proceedings of the event. There wasn't any mention of anything like this. "Uh..."

The canine's head shot down, hanging directly above the assembly.

The crowd was too terrified to do anything more than close their eyes and pray silently.

The creature's claw, larger than any house in the village, touched down on the parchment Udja was reading, directly above the line in which the creators were supposed to appear. "Oh, right. This script's outdated. Change of plans." She began to slide her claw on the paper. She easily scratched a new message in the guide in a print so tiny Udja had to squint to read it. "There ya go!"

Udja stared at the changes for a moment. Then he chuckled. He turned around to face his fellow tribesmen. "Honored brethren, we have been blessed with a rare gift on this Ceremony of the Creators. Although our great creators themselves will not be present, their equally-beloved daughter shall instead lead our proceedings!"

The crowd grew slightly less tense, but it was not until the unfathomably huge canine pulled her head away that they finally resumed breathing.

"Yep. Sorry about the short notice. Some stuff came up- giant hyper-advanced planet-eating space-faring cacti from another dimension started attacking some of our worlds, and they wanted to handle it personally. Since they didn't wanna screw you guys over here, and I needed some experien- I mean, since I [i]already had tons of experience[/i] doing this kinda thing, they thought it'd be okay to let me lead today's ceremony."

Nobody seemed to be particularly enlightened by the explanation.

The girl shrugged. "Anyway, my name's Okamitsune. You can call me Sunny. Like I said, I'll be serving as your creator today, so let's get this show on the road!"

Udja smiled and looked down at his script again. "Great parents of- Great [i]daughter[/i] of the parents of all, we come to you today..."


Sunny's grin began to waver as the service hit the hour-mark. She loved hearing about how awesome she was, but the ceremony was about how awesome her [i]parents[/i] were. She probably would have let herself fall asleep if not for the fact that, at her size, someone would be likely notice.

"-and then, the heavens parted, and the great wolf and fox stepped down and said-"

"Um, hey, Udja?"

Udja immediately halted and stared up.

"Look, I know this is kinda not on the script, but can we just skip to the part where I actually [i]do[/i] stuff?"

Although he didn't look like he was comfortable with the idea, Udja relented. "Today's proceedings are meant only as a service to honor you and your parents. Although it would be a violation of tradition-"

"I'm not all that big on tradition," Sunny interrupted.

"I hadn't noticed," he mumbled. In a more regular voice, he finished, "-but we shall defer to your judgment. Your will be done, great Okamitsune."

"Thanks!" Sunny placed her elbows on opposite sides of the mountain and rested her head in her hands. "So what's the next step that involves something interesting happening?"

"Er... Do you wish to perform the Offering of Tributes and Praises?"

Sunny's eyes went wide. "Offering of-?! Are you serious? Oooooh, this is so-" Her expression immediately fell again. "Uh, how much tribute and praising is involved?"

"Each able-bodied male head of a household is to come before the thrones- er, the mountain, and drop to their knees. They will then offer praises and thanksgiving for each blessing they have received since the previous ceremony, and offer a portion of the produce they have grown."

Okamitsune stared at him for a moment. Then she leaned down and whispered in his ear. "Uh, Udja- [i]why?[/i]"

After getting over the shock of having a gargantuan wolfox head inches away from his ear whispering in a faint breeze of near-silence, he whispered back. "Because it is what is written in the script."

"Yeah, but why is it in there? My parents aren't all that big on people wasting time praising them like I am, and they [i]definitely[/i] don't need any food from you guys, especially since it's because of them that you were even able to grow it."

"The praises are not for your parents. They are for the prayees. They are required so that each head of a household must constantly track and remember their accomplishments and blessings, and be appropriately thankful for them. The offerings of food are so they can feel like they're not just mooching off of you."

"Oooooooh. Right. Knew that."

Udja nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Of course, daughter of the creators. Do you wish to perform this part of the ceremony, then?"

She bit her lip. "I definitely [i]want[/i] to, but... Uh... Y'know..."

"You're worried about not being able to control yourself if the worship grows too intense?"

The girl's cheek fur turned red. Not her cheek, her cheek fur. "Yeeeeah."

"Surely a goddess such as yourself would have no problems finding some kind of solution? Perhaps making yourself temporarily deaf during the offering of praises?"

Clearly disappointed with the knowledge that she was about to miss out on a couple hours of straight worshipping, Sunny nodded her head. "I [i]guess[/i] I can do that, if I absolutely [i]need[/i] to..."


When the offering was completed, Udja turned back to his parchment. "And now, we begin the Airing of Grievances. At this time, we... We..." He sighed.

Okamitsune was still smiling vacantly and nodding down at the crowd assembled around the temple grounds.

Udja discretely tapped his ear.

Sunny mouthed, "oh, right," and stopped nodding.

After straightening his official robes, Udja turned back around to face his congregation. "At this time, we bring forth our most serious issues and trials and explain them to the crea- the daughter of our creators, and they- she will address each in turn. Through their- her [i]infinite wisdom and knowledge[/i]-"

Although Udja had completely hidden his eye-rolling at the mention of her wisdom and knowledge with a carefully-positioned wave of his arms, Sunny's powers allowed her to catch the derogatory gesture. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"-she will help our-" Noticing a slight giggle running through his congregation, Udja spun around and looked up. 

Sunny stared back down in rapt attention and gave a confused shrug.

Udja turned around, and her tongue came back out. "-help our people solve their-" As the giggle turned into laughter, he glanced back again.

Sunny gave him another innocent, uncertain shrug. "What?"

Udja turned again. This time, Okamitsune screwed up her face in a mimicry of his stern, irritated expression. "-solve their most crucial and-" He whirled around and thrust his arms into the air. "[i]WILL YOU STOP THAT?![/i]"

Okamitsune flinched as if she were a puppy being beaten without explanation. "Stop what?"

Udja mumbled under his breath. "Your parents would be very, [i]very[/i] upset if they heard you were misbehaving like this at such an important ceremony."

Okamitsune mumbled back, having easily heard his message. "Oh, fine. Spoilsport."

Udja turned around, and waited a moment. When the crowd did not start laughing again, he restarted his speech. "Through her infinite wisdom and knowledge, she will help our people solve their most crucial and pressing difficulties. Now, who among us shall be the first to present their woes?"

Two large men stood up. 

"Brother Traag and Brother Rindar. Step closer to the thrones- the mountain, and air your grievance."


Both men walked up to the base of the altar at the bottom of the mountain beneath Okamitsune. The one on the right spoke first. "Daughter of the Creators, brother Rindar and I are in a disagreement of absolute greatest import."

Sunny nodded. "I'm listening."

Rindar continued. "One year ago, brother Traag took his son hunting for deer. They wandered onto my property-"

"It was an accident," Traag insisted, "we had been searching all day and did not realize we were at the border of your land-"

"You did so! You weren't 'at the border,' you were in my property! And it was intentio-"

"It was not! We were simply lost and-"

"[i][b]CAN IT![/b][/i]" Both men ducked and covered their heads as the humongous canine deity towering over the mountain barked at them. "Okay, guys. Let's try this again. One of you start speaking, and the other one will keep quiet until it's their turn. Capiche?"

Udja frowned. "Capi-what?"

"Nevermind. Just get this started again, okay?"

Traag worked up the courage to speak first. "Er, m-my son and I went hunting, and we wandered too close to brother Rindar's land..." He glanced at Rindar, but the other man was clearly not interested in risking drawing Okamitsune's ire again enough to complain. "We saw a deer, and my son threw his spear and pierced its hide. It was a magnificent elk, and a wonderful prize."

When he was certain Traag was finished, Rindar gave his own side. "The deer was on my land, and therefore mine. It was my property, even if Traag's son was the one who killed it. The laws of our land are clear on this-"

"The spear was thrown from my land! Properly interpreted, the laws state that the origin of the killing blow is-"

"Absurd! They say no such thi-"

"[i][b]HEY![/b][/i]" This time, Okamitsune's bark was so loud that the earth itself shook and trembled. "Are you guys not listening or something? One at a time!"

Both men got on their knees. "Please forgive us!"

"Fine, fine. Anyway, let me see if I have this straight. All of you," she gestured towards the entire assembly, "seem to think that these two knuckleheads," she pointed at Traag and Rindar, "have the biggest problem in the entire village?"

Udja nodded. "The discussion over ownership of the deer escalated into a feud which rages to this day."

Okamitsune leaned down until her muzzle was directly over the crowd. The disgust in her voice was so thick as to nearly be a physical phenomenon. "[i]Seriously?[/i]"

"Yes."

She snorted, blowing away anything not tied down and smaller than a housecat. "What. The. Heck? The daughter of the deities who made your entire universe shows up and asks you if you need any help, and you complain about [i]property rights?[/i] I mean, come on!" She shoved her hands out emphatically. "Where're the sick people? Where're the grievers? Where're the couples looking to be married? You've got a freakin' Goddess here!"

Udja was the only villager who was able to retain even the slightest pretence of calm as the looming maw above growled. "Ill villagers are not allowed to disgrace your presence until-"

The tremendous canine stuck out her tongue. "Disgrace? Pssssstch! I'm a Goddess, duh! I can't get sick! Think, people!"

"Great Okamitsune, although your sacred presence is a wonderful gift, I think the other villagers are finding the [i]degree[/i] of it to be somewhat intimidating."

Sunny pulled back and jammed her hands back down on the mountaintop, fuming from on high. "Yeah, well, they deserve it! This is all over a deer? One stupid deer? You said it started a year ago, right? What the heck! You guys don't have refrigerators, do you?"

A large number of confused stares and blank expressions confirmed her suspicions.

"Then that deer's probably dead, rotting, and stinky as a... Well, a year-old deer carcass! Where is it now?"

"It has been thrown out. The smell was starting to make some villagers feel ill-"

"Then throw out the dispute! As of this moment, anybody who wants to continue this argument is welcome to do so at the complaint department, conveniently located on the underside of [i]my foot.[/i]" She held up a leg to demonstrate. "Any disagreements?"

Rindar raised his hands. "But-"

"[i][b]ANY DISAGREEMENTS?[/b][/i]"

Rindar lowered his hands [i]very[/i] quickly.

A radiant smile burst from Okamitsune's muzzle. "There we go! Problem solved. Am I awesome or what?"

Udja's expression was hard to read. "Does anyone else have any complaints?"

After about a minute of silence, Sunny's smile faltered. "Uh, seriously, guys. I'm not gonna freak out on [i]everyone[/i] with a problem. Just the selfish, stupid ones."

"Because we all know exactly what sort of problems a wild teenage goddess would consider selfish and stupid," Udja whispered quietly.

"Like, uh, is there anybody who's sick and needs healing? I can do that, easy."

Udja sighed and turned to face his script. "There's already a section for healing of the sick later on. The purpose of this segment [i]was[/i] to handle problems you'd consider 'selfish and stupid.'"

"Why do we have a section for that? That's just encouraging you guys to waste time on stupid stuff. I mean, seriously, you guys are mortals, right? You have a lifespan of, what, a century? Eighty years?"

"[i]*Thirty*[/i]," Udja coughed

Sunny's jaw dropped. "Thirty? And you've spent an entire [i]year[/i] worrying about a stupid [i]deer?[/i]"

Traag raised a hand. "It was a really big deer..." 

He quickly lowered his hand and sank down in a slump as the goddess glared at him. "Big? How big?"

"M-Maybe... Seven feet at the shoulder?"

Okamitsune stood up straight. For added effect, she mentally moved her shadow to completely blanket the mountain, the temple, the village, the surrounding forests, and pretty much everything else in sight. "So you think seven feet is a big deal?"

Traag slouched even lower, until he was pretty much crouching. "R-Relatively...?"

"No. [i]I[/i] am a big deal. A seven foot deer is [i]not[/i]. A seven foot deer is not a moderately-sized deal. It is not even a [i]tiny[/i] deal. Get. Over. The. Deer. Okay?"

Traag and Rindar nodded feebly. "Okay."

Satisfied that she'd gotten her point across, Okamitsune sat down again and moved her shadow back to its proper position and size. "Okay! So what's next?"

Udja sighed heavily.


That night, after the conclusion of the ceremony, Udja wearily trudged up the stairs into his bedroom office on the second floor of the temple. Okamitsune had probably been doing her best, but even then, today's display had been nothing short of absurd. As he rounded the curved stone steps and entered his bedroom-

"Good evening, Udja."

-he found a trio of anthropomorphic canines waiting for him. "C-Creators! Wh-What-"

Fenris raised a hand placatingly. "It's fine, Udja. Inari and I just wanted to check in and make sure that our daughter's first Ceremony of the Creators went well."

Sunny, down to a much more manageable height and shape, fidgeted and gave Udja a pleading smile. "No, really, dad, it went awesome, nothing wrong at all. Right, Udja? Everyone loved me, right?"

Udja shook his head. "The village is in a bit of disarray."

Her shoulders fell. "Hoooo boy."

"First, there was no warning about this change."

Inari nodded. "That was our fault, dear. Some unsavory plant-entities from a foreign reality figured out how to travel to other planes of existence, and decided to wage war on some of the worlds under our care."

Fenris nodded as well, showing just a few fangs too many for Udja to be comfortable. "Don't worry. You're in no danger. They've been shown the importance of playing nicely with others."

Udja bowed. "Thank you, great creators. As I was saying, however, there was no warning, and when Okamitsune [i]did[/i] appear, she was... Slightly... [i]Larger,[/i] than you two generally appear."

Sunny spun around to face her parents. "I didn't go overboard or anything, I swear! I mean, I know you guys are normally about a hundred feet tall around here-"

"Fifty," Fenris reminded her. "Since that's the size of the thrones they carved for us, that's what we assumed they would be most comfortable with."

"Right! Since we're deities, it's important that we be big and magnificent and glorious so they know to be properly awed and all that! And since there are normally two of you and there was only one of me I figured I should maybe grow just a [i]teeeeeeeensy[/i] bit bigger than normal so I could-"

Fenris placed a finger atop his daughter's muzzle to silence her. "How big?"

"Not all [i]that[/i] big, just a tiny bit-"

"How. Big."

"I swear, dad, I didn't-"

Fenris turned to Udja.

He sighed. "She was about four or five times taller than the mountain outside the temple."

All three canines turned to look out the window at the tremendous geological monument. Then the elder god and goddess turned to frown at the younger. "Really. Is that so, Okamitsune?"

She squirmed and shrank down a few feet. "...Maybe."

Udja continued. "I did not actually recognize her immediately. The last time I saw her, she was with the two of you, and much closer to her current size."

With a desperate grin, Sunny tried to play off her mischief. "Yeah, well, I've been growing like a weed. You know kids these days, right? Ten years is a really long time, y'know?"

He nodded. "Yes, it'd have been hard to forget, since you were so quick to remind the village that most of us will only live three times that long-"

Fenris whirled on his daughter. "[i]What?![/i] You mentioned [i]lifespans?[/i] What were you thinking? [i]Never[/i] specify lifespans as numbers to mortals, never! If you need to bring it up, just be vague and lofty about it! If you start attaching numbers to things, they start [i]expecting[/i] to die, and instead of being inspired, they end up despondent!"

"Um, oops?"

"You and I are having a long, long, [i]long[/i] talk about death later tonight, young deity."

"Gee, how peachy," she muttered.

Inari tapped them both on the shoulder. "Now, dears, let's not be rude to our host." She turned to face Udja again. "How about besides that? Did she remember her lines during the Recitation of the Hallowed Decrees?"

Okamitsune's eyes went wide. She quickly waved her handpaws at Udja in an attempt to get him to change the subject.

"We skipped that part."

Fenris frowned. "Why?"

"Sunny asked us to."

Although she didn't turn around, Okamitsune could easily feel her father breathing down her neck fur. "Uh. Well. Um. Service was getting a little long, and I figured maybe I should do the important stuff first just in case- like the Healing of the Sick! I mean, it'd be lame if we spent so much time on formalities that one of the people I was supposed to heal died first! I was gonna do the rest of it later, I just forgot! Honest!"

Udja watched the scene for a moment. Shaking his head, he changed his tone of voice and continued. "Although... She [i]did[/i] have the foresight to deafen herself before the Offering of Tributes and Praises."

"Yeah," she sighed, "[i]after[/i] he-"

"I didn't even need to remind her."

Sunny glanced up.

"She made the decision herself, because she didn't feel comfortable relying on her self-restraint."

Inari smiled and patted her daughter's head. "Why, that's wonderful, dear! I don't think you've [i]ever[/i] shown so much control over yourself before!"

Sunny tried to move away from the offending handpaw. "Geez, mom, you don't need to act all surprised and everything..."

"But we [i]are[/i] surprised!" Fenris' voice conveyed his message both in word and tone. "This is a very big deal, Okamitsune! We're very proud of you for being so mature."

"That reminds me," Udja noted. "During the Airing of Grievances, she quickly and efficiently solved a year-long dispute which had been threatening to split the village in half."

The pride of accomplishment on Okamitsune's face was mingled with humiliation at the sudden flurry of childish head-patting and shoulder-rubbing her parents dumped upon her. "Okay, okay, it wasn't [i]that[/i] amazing."

"My little apocalypse is finally growing up," Fenris whined happily. "She's finally learning how to behave like a big goddess!"

Udja smiled. "I think she has the 'big' part down. She just needs to work on the rest of her act."

The wolfox rolled her eyes. "Har, har, har."