Arianna was starting to think that she was developing a bad habit of fainting. At least, that was her first thought as she came back to consciousness within her now familiar cave home. Vilkas' white fur was behind her head, and she could just make out Varnas perched on a boulder near the pool of water. Arianna was quite sure that he was missing his old perch now that he was too large to fit on it.

  Slowly doing an internal inspection, she determined that her fever was gone. Clearly Vilkas' plan of finding another creature for her to name had been exactly what she needed. Not that she really understood how giving something a name could be of any help. Clearly she was still woefully lacking in information about this world.

  Still, with she and the others trapped within this dome-like barrier, Arianna didn't think that she would be finding people she could actually have a conversation with any time soon. She remembered the giant woman from her last trip to the edges of her newly defined world and debated whether any people she could find would even be willing to talk to her at all...

  A croak broke Arianna out of her musings and drew her attention back to the bird. Varnas' red eyes were trained on her, and he extended his two large wings, flapping them a few times as if to shake them off. At her back, Vilkas stirred, prompting Arianna to lift herself to a seated position.

  "Hello." She said to her worried companions. She flexed her fingers and pressed a hand to her forehead. "I think I am better now..."

   huffed Varnas, flapping his wings in agitation once again.

   Vilkas observed with a yawn. He watched as Arianna—oblivious to their conversation—continued to test out her joints. He would not let his master die again.

   asked a soft voice. The newly named Voras cautiously stepped out of the shadows that she had been resting in. She hadn't wanted to startle the master when she awoke, so Voras had taken a position a little ways away.

  Varnas clacked his beak together, drawing Arianna's gaze.

  Voras hissed, and Vilkas sighed. He supposed that fighting was just going to be a normal part of his daily routine now. The arachnid snapped, her mandibles flexing in her dark face.

  "Is that you, Voras?" Arianna's voice echoed, cutting off the argument before it could gain traction. Voras turned to their master, eager but anxious to greet the great being that had saved her from a final death. "You are so small..." the girl said, silver eyes looking the spider over, clearly not repulsed by the smaller being, as Voras had feared she may be.

  Arianna stared at the spider. True, she had been deep in a fever when she'd first set her eyes on Voras, but she could have sworn that she was around the same size as Varnas. And though Voras looked far healthier than before her transformation—just as Vilkas and Varnas had—she was also, clearly, half the size Arianna remembered her being.

  Roughly the size of a diner plate—long legs included—the black and grey spider inched towards Arianna; its eyes were a very unnatural but captivating blue color. She felt no fear for this creature, though a there-and-gone-again memory told her that Arianna had once feared spiders, probably before her previous death that had her coming to this strange swamp. Now she merely felt familiar with Voras, the same as she did with Vilkas and Varnas.

  There must have been some sort of magic and meaning in naming these creatures, and Arianna was a little worried about what that might mean for her, the one carelessly naming them all, without much hesitation. Still, it was clear that—at least in the short term—this 'naming' business was beneficial for both her and the creatures. If there were drawbacks, then Arianna would just have to deal with them when the time came to do so.

  As the spider—still rather huge for what she thought a normal spider should be—inched closer, Arianna reached out a hand toward her. "Did I do something incorrectly?" she muttered, worried that maybe she had chosen a bad name and it made the spider shrink.

  Voras reached out two of her legs, and the fuzzy appendages brushed Arianna's fingertips. They were slightly thinner than her own fingers and were as soft as Vilkas' fur. Not exactly something she would call 'plush,' but definitely less bristly than she would've thought the hair on a spider should be.

  She wanted to pick her up, but remembering Varnas' aversion to being touched, Arianna resisted. These creatures had every bit the personality and intelligence of people, and she shouldn't force her contact upon them. Not all beings were as open to touch as Vilkas. Arianna herself was one of them, though she did note that that aversion seemed to vanish when it came to these strange, otherworldly creatures.

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  "It's nice to meet you, Voras." She said softly, not wanting to startle the seemingly skittish spider.

   Vilkas told the spider, the newest sister to their quickly growing family. As eclectic as that family was shaping up to be. he informed the hesitant spider.

  Varnas clacked his beak. he criticized, irritating the wolf.

   He growled lightly, not wanting to disturb the master and Voras' first interaction.

  The spider had climbed into Arianna's open palm, and the girl gently brought her closer to her own body, unfazed at holding a creature that most humans had a natural repulsion towards.

   Vilkas chided. Vilkas thought the raven was being rather hypocritical at the moment. He was the embodiment of saying one thing yet meaning another. He portrayed an outward appearance of irritation and disgust, but he had been just as worried over Arianna's state as he had been, even if he didn't say as much.

  Varnas wanted to rebut by saying that naming the silly spider was done simply because Arianna needed to do so to survive as well. But he held himself back. The annoyingly obsessive wolf would have only pulled up some other excuse to argue the point.

  "It seems that you all and I have a strange relationship going on," Arianna observed, holding the spider closer to her face so that she could get a better look at her jewel-like blue eyes. "I don't know what you all are, nor do I know what I seem to have become since landing here... but after thinking, I have come to some conclusions."

  Arianna gently held the spider closer to her collar and waited. Voras hesitated only a moment before stepping onto the girl's shoulder.

  "I don't know why, but we are all trapped in this poisonous swamp." Arianna stated, voicing her thoughts out loud, even if the creatures couldn't answer her. "I don't know how we can possibly leave that strange barrier we saw, so all we can do for now is make the best of living here as we can. It seems like I am not particularly suited to life here; I get sick often, especially when the mist rolls in."

   The raven croaked, ruffling his wings.

   Admonished Vilkas. If Varnas could have rolled his eyes, he would have.

  "However, it seems like there is some kind of... magic? Whatever you might want to call it, I'm naming you all. It looks to be mutually beneficial, right?" she asked Vilkas. Varnas was a little annoyed that she kept directing her questions to the wolf when Varnas himself was clearly more intelligent. The wolf nodded. "Right. Then I think it might be best to find as many of your friends as possible."

   Varnas stated, dumbfounded.

   Voras observed, concerned for her newly found master.

  

   Vilkas pointed out as he watched Arianna gaze towards the cave's exit, perhaps wondering where to find more companions.

   Voras asked. Mana balance was crucial for a god; upsetting it could be deadly. It was what was causing Arianna's current predicament with having too much for her body to process at the time.

   Mused Varnas, his mind now thinking at high speed.

  Vilkas nodded.

  That was always the use for spirit beasts: they were a way for the gods to redistribute mana back to the world without having to enter it themselves. The gods created mana and used their spirit beasts to redistribute it. However, Arianna had a secondary ability that the other gods did not: as well as producing mana naturally, Arianna was also absorbing the dense and poisonous mana from around her.

  If you thought of the gods as boats floating in a sea, gently filtering mana through their spirit beasts to clean the ocean... Then Arianna's boat was actively sucking up the ocean faster than she could return the water. At this point Vilkas and the others were acting as bailing buckets for the boat that was taking on too much water. In the long run, he really wasn't sure how sustainable this all was.

  As the little goddess grew into her powers, she would probably need more buckets to combat the constantly growing ability to absorb. Maybe finding as many of the spirit beasts as possible was exactly what the girl needed.

  Thinking along the same lines as Varnas, Voras spoke. Indeed, Arianna was an ark in this flooded mana swamp. They needed one another.

  Vilkas was glad that they could all agree on something at least. Arianna was the last hope for them, the drowning spirit beasts of this dying world, and they should do all they could to make sure she lived as best a life as they could offer. If only they could get her out of this accursed swamp.