Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

Day 1 (Echidna):

It was a full day before Echidna managed to get the newly produced humans to stop having near-heart attacks whenever one of the elders, or non-newborns, spoke to them directly. They were fine in group conversations, but anytime she directed her speech at them directly, they seemed to freeze up and have a fit. After Rimi went in and made a series of very uncomfortable beds for them to lie in, they knocked out for the night.

Hephaestus had been nice enough to create a form of a water trough in record time, with Virgil filling it to the brim as well as adding some chemicals she'd never seen before. He stated that it was to keep the water purified, but she had no idea what that meant. Tinted water had always been fine for her and hers, but it appeared these humans were going to be coddled. Tough love always went further than accepted privilege in her mind.

While they slept, Sonata went through a makeover. With the help of Hephaestus, Minos, and Athena, they managed to make some quick structures on the moon to support the new sapients in their training. Rather than individual houses, Rimi created a basic communal hall from the item system, which the god of blacksmiths then went in and modified to be liveable, complaining all along about the shoddy workmanship the system provided. Minos planted a garden for food rather than the flowers he seemed to enjoy so much, with Demeter providing valuable input into seed spacing and cross-pollination. Apollo and Artemis worked with Hermes to create a few ranges using wood given to them by Virgil, who rather than bringing forth the basic kind from the item system, just popped a series of underappreciated trees directly from Sonata using Walker's new space gates. Nobody asked the scary new version of Virgil about how he did so without Walker's input.

By the time the sapients were waking up from their slumber, Sonata was no longer the barren grass planet it had always been. The humans, with their lack of memories and experiences, couldn't appreciate the value of what had occurred overnight, as they took it in like it was normal for huge amounts of buildings to spring up in such a short amount of time.

Zeus took great pleasure in waking up the ones who tried to continue to sleep in, shaking their beds hard enough that small cracks could be heard as the cheap wood splintered from its rough treatment. Once they were all awake and complaining about the strange pain they were finding in their stomachs, Minos had them line up in an orderly fashion. It took him much longer than he expected.

Day 2 (A Woman):

The great bronze-covered man, as that is what he said his armor was, stalked across the line of her fellow siblings as he continued to speak, "You will receive numbers for now instead of names. Our Creator believes names are important, and shouldn't be taken lightly or freely." He spun as he reached the end of the line. After getting halfway across them again, he turned to face them, "When I stand in front of you and say your number, remember it, for that is what you will be called for the time being. One!" He said as he quickly walked over and stopped at the first in line. The woman looked at him with a confused expression on her face, so he leaned in real close and whispered something she couldn't hear.

A moment later her voice rang out, "One!"

He nodded and moved on to the next person, a tall man with broad shoulders looking at the elder blankly.

"Two!" Another uncomfortable wait happened while everyone kept quiet, Minos leaned in again and the man's panicked voice yelled back, "Two!"

"Three!"

Three understood right away and yelled it back. This continued down the line until every number was called out in response. When her turn had come up, she'd said her name with no hesitancy, and maybe it was just in her mind, but she thought she caught a gleam in Minos's eyes at the way she carried herself.

"Excellent!" He said after going through the numbers. He had a piece of paper in his hand, which he quickly wrote a few things down on before saying, "It was a slow start, but you've all completed your first task as a unit. Now, your reward is sustenance, that's food for you who don't know the word."

"Food?" a man two people down from her said in a questioning tone of voice.

"Gods be damned." A muscular female elder said as she watched beside a man who looked like a copy of her, "You poor fools have no idea what you're getting yourself into. You won't even make it..."

"Quiet." An old bearded man yelled at them. They both gave him an ugly face before turning and stalking away with rigid steps.

Noone said anything about it, but it left some curious thoughts in her....in Seven's mind.

After they'd eaten, which was a novel experience as many of the...humans...had choked on their food initially, they were taught what running was, and at that moment, Seven had found her calling. If they hadn't stopped her, she'd have run from one corner of Sonata to another without stopping. The feel of her muscles contracting, bunching and then unwinding themselves. The thrill of the ground flying from underneath her feet as she moved so fast her eyes teared up a little and her lungs screamed for help. Even the sweat dripping down her face, seemed to make her happy.

Although she had only been alive for a few days, she understood that this feeling, this...experience..is why she would continue to do so. To live in order to travel to a new place on her own two feet.

While the other numbers had taken to various activities with differing levels of excitement and inherent ability, her whole world became a focus on athletics. Running, jumping, anything that had to do with the feeling of growth and gaining strength. Her instructor, who said his name was Hermes, told her that she was a natural. Whatever that meant. He gave her a few tips for how to run just a little faster. He said it was called efficiency. She grew excited when she realized there was more to this...running. To moving faster than she had before.

When the athletics training had ended, with Seven far and away doing the best in the group of fifty, she'd gone straight to her life classes with a naturally calming woman named Athena.

"Who are you?" Athena asked as she looked from one number to another. Three raised their hand, something she'd taught them to do the moment they sat down with her.

"I...I'm three?"

"Good three. But what does it mean? How do you fit into the world?"

"I....I don't know!" He said in a higher pitched voice, "I....I..."

Athena patted her hands in the air, "It's okay three, don't worry. This isn't me testing you. I just needed you to consider who you are in relation to where we are right now. There is no right answer for that question, at least not at the beginning. It takes a very long time to begin to understand yourself. To understand life. Which brings me to the next question." She paused for dramatic effect.

"What is the meaning of life?" She looked from one blank face to another. "You understand life to be this thing you're doing right now. To move from one experience to the next, learning and feeling everything that makes it up." Athena gave another brief pause as she continued to look at them. "Many ask and wonder about what life truly is, so, I'll tell you..." She waited for everyone to lean in, "It's what you give it." She said in a loud voice, startling multiple numbers.

Athena's eyes scanned over to Seven, "Do you want to be a great warrior? Do it! Make that your focus." Her eyes found Two, "Do you want to design a perfect city, do that instead!" The goddess of wisdom spread her arms wide, "You have a unique moment in the history of mankind right now. Not only will you get the chance to meet your Creator." Covering her mouth, she coughed while whispering "...when he wakes up from his stupidity." Before smiling and saying, " But he also plans on doing anything he can to help you achieve whatever goal you set your mind to. You literally have Symphony in the palm of your hands, right at the start. Your limits are an illusion. A choice."

"What if I just want to be by myself?" A pale-skinned man yelled out. He looked around at everyone nervously, as if he feared that someone would come after him for having said that. She thought his name rhymed with super late.... forty-eight!.

Athena looked over at him, "That will be between you and your Creator, Walker. If you didn't know, Walker is his name."

Walker, Seven thought to herself.

"I'd like you all to spend the rest of the day thinking about what we've done so far, what thoughts have gone through your mind, and who you want to end up being. We're not taking anything off of the table, it is purely up to you." She said, then walked away, leaving them without a senior for the first time since they'd come to be.

What I want to end up being

Day 3 (Hephaestus and Athena):

The third day of the arrival of Walker's sapients was the worst. Crafting training.

Hephaestus was over three thousand years old if you counted their time in the tree, but in his whole life, he never thought he'd have to show young humans not only how to use a forge, but what it was. They didn't even have a true concept of fire! One tried to burn their hand off because they thought the forge fire was pretty! Blasted fools.

"No, do not hold it like that, you're going to smash your fingers to bits!"

"No, you cannot just say it is good enough. That's bad craftsmanship. I'll not have shoddy work done in my smithy"

"Stop you damned fool, it's so hot the metal is dripping into the forge!" He yelled at thirty-one for the second time. They'd already ruined a heap of metal, and basic metal or not, it still burned his soul to see crafting resources abused like this.

Based just upon the last four hours, three of the humans would pass his standards for being basic smiths, with one of them going a step further. The rest had no talent for it, and he said as much to Athena when she inquired about how it was going near the end of the lessons.

"Why did you give them to me for more time than the rest of them!" He yelled at her. "Sister, they're....they're so bad. Only a few of them even have the potential to be decent."

Athena laughed, "Brother, you know better than that. First, Virgil assigned the schedules."

"Ah, the giant scary one."

Athena nodded, "Yes. Also, your standards are impossibly high for humans, not to mention that these amount to hardly more than babies. Give them time, dear one, and I'm sure they'll surprise you. Walker did."

Hephaustus grumbled at that, "Boy didn't know what he had. This Ethereal ore is incredible." He said, snatching up a piece of white glowing metal. "Just a one percent alloy derived from it lightens the weight of a weapon by half. Half! I can make swords the size of buildings weigh no more than a basic hammer. Incredible barely touches on it. Revolutionary even! And he gave me a boatload of it!" He threw it into the ground, then thought better of it and quickly picked it back up. "What am I supposed to do with it all? I can't let these dull-fingered numbskulls touch it." He finished with a quick glance around to make sure nobody heard him.

While Hepaustus always put on a brunt and no-nonsense act, Athena knew his other side. He dearly loved his family, Aphrodite included, and hated the idea of insulting a person to their face. Awkwardness made him incredibly uncomfortable, so he preferred to stay in his shop. Half of the reason his work was so amazing was simply because he wanted to make sure, from the very bottom of his heart, that whatever he made for them would always work exactly the way they needed it to. She patted him on the shoulder, "you'll find a way brother. You among all other Primigenials are exceptional."

"Don't let dad hear you say that now that his golden boys are out." He said under his breath.

"Apollo and Ares are amazing fighters and did well on Earth. But, we're not on Earth anymore brothermine. I have a feeling that Walker will place more value on you and your creations than he will on two fighters."

That seemed to mollify him, and as he went back to the smithy, she thought his voice sounded less strained.

Day 3 (Artemis and Cupid):

"Consistency is the key to not dying you stupid braindead idiots!" She railed at the sapients who chose Archery as a focus. The giant demon had said that each human had to go through a series of different trainings each day on a rotating schedule. Something about maximizing their potential gains. What he didn't say was that so many of them would choose her class. She'd expected maybe five or six, but once they realized that this training kept them at a distance from their foes, more than half had signed up.

"I keep cutting my fingers!" One man yelled out.

"Good! That means you're developing a callus. It'll protect you moving forward. Keep going until the blood gets to be too much."

"Blood?" The man whispered. He had the number fourteen written on his shirt, an idea that Ares of all people had come up with to tell them apart.

"That red shit that comes spilling out of you when you die for being fucking terrible at archery! Keep firing and work on your form!" She yelled at him after moving only inches away from his face. He nodded quickly and went back to firing.

"Does anybody else's fingers have an owie!" She said as she looked around. Nobody took her up on it. "I didn't think so. Hey pink thing, I need more shitty arrows!" She yelled at the massive squirrel sitting her in fancy chair. She was a god and yet she didn't get a chair.

The creature disappeared for a moment and came back right after. A hundred arrows fell at Artemis's feet. She grumbled as she bent over to pick them up, handing over half to Cupid.

Artemis leaned on the railing of the firing range as she looked at her cousin. "Can you believe this shit? Do you know what I was doing before our fucking Creator grabbed me and threw me in that shitty prison? I was hunting a golden stag. A GOLDEN STAG. Those fuckers are unbelievably powerful. I'd already loaded it up with ten arrows and it was still going.I swear it was laughing at me as I was taken."

Cupid laughed, "You think that's bad? I changed into this form to escape an angry human. It's not my fault his wife found me to be so so so much more attractive than him." Artemis raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay, so he was the King of Sparta and was mobilizing his army to fight some other country...something with a P. But still! If he hadn't done that, I'd not be trapped as a weird half-teenager. It's his fault I slept with her...multiple times...and it's his fault I look like this." He said, pushing his hands down his body. He sighed, "At least we're not in the tree anymore."

"You said it cousin." She spotted a woman not following through with her shots, "Hey, tw-twenty two! Stop that shit. Let me show you how it's done you little fuck." Artemis stomped over to continue her duty.

Day 4 (Cagna):

"What are milestones?" thirty-three asked. It was only the fourth day, but already they'd grown to be much better at speaking and understanding others.

"They're....like points in a road." Cagna said, struggling to elucidate on milestones as well as her Creator did. "When you reach them, they'll help you later on in picking the right...skills."

"Skills?" Seven asked. In Cagna's notes provided by Virgil, who was watching everything simultaneously while they continued to work, it said that Seven was a top prospect for survival. Very bright was a note written next to her name.

"Skills are kind of what you're doing right now. In your..." She said, looking at the notes for which humans chose what martial skills. She found it in the third column, "...Spear class, you learned how to um...hold a spear...right?"

"Yeees?" She asked with a questioning tone.

"That's a skill. Proper spear h-holding. Stan....stances! Yes. You learned proper stances in spearholding. That's a skill, yes." She said, extremely muddling up any authority she'd built with them so far.

"I..understand." She said with a confused expression on her face.

Why am I having to do this Cagna thought to herself while a morose expression stamped itself on her face.

Day 4 (Hades):

"Yes! That's exactly what you do!" Hades said, pointing his finger at number forty-eight, "you runnnnn." He said, using his fingers to simulate running on his palm, "away. If a creature is much much more powerful than you, DO NOT BE A HERO. Heroes are all fools, and they mess up your marriages. They also get people killed. No, just run away."

"Marriage?" one of them asked with a hand raised. Athena had taught them that today.

"Ask Echidna, I'm not doing it." He said with a stomp of his foot. "Now, survival is about staying calm and prioritizing what needs to happen in a series of actions. For instance.." Hades got up and punched seven across the face without warning, "I'm much bigger, MUCH stronger, and much smarter than you. What do you do?" He asked the woman with a split lip on the ground.

She spit the blood welling in her mouth into his eyes.

"Yes! Innovative thinking!" He said as a pulse of black erupted out of his body, pushing the blood off his face all at once, "But I'm still much more powerful than you. I can do things you cannot even imagine, weak human." Saying so, he kicked her in the ribs and followed after quickly as she rolled away from the force. Number one jumped in front of him, throwing a punch at his stomach and receiving only a laugh in reply, "You fool, that will never work on me. I'm a big scary monster who has lived for thousands of years!"

Hades kicked her in the chest, flinging her away. Five of them ran away from him, receiving a mental nod for their intelligence, but Seven looked up from the ground, finally having stopped and caught her breath. She spit more blood on the ground and stood up, glaring at him. "Ah, a hero already. You and one are doomed to die little human." He said with a grin. He took two steps forward before a white pulse crashed into his chest and knocked him down.

"Hades, that is enough!" Zeus thundered at him. "You are meant to teach survival, not beat them until they're so cowed that they can't even stand the sight of a battle."

"You always take the human's side." He yelled back, spittle flying out of his mouth.

Zeus yelled right back at him, "Because they are always filled with the potential for more, while we are set in our ways!" He looked around at the humans, some laying on the ground and curled up in fear, while others were being shepherded back by Primigenials and Assistants who had found them. Seven and one in particular just glared at Hades. "This isn't going to work." He said with a sigh and shake of his head. "I'm going to speak to Virgil and..."

"No need." The giant black squirrel said as he came bounding up in his long steps, "I heard and saw it all."

"Hades isn't.."

"Hades is doing exactly what I asked him to do." Virgil cut him off, "The humans need to learn how to fight, as well as how and when to run. There will be things on Symphony that they have no hope of defeating in the beginning." He looked down at the cowering humans, then scanned over to one and seven, "There are times to fight, and there are times to not. You need to learn the difference if you want any hope of surviving."

Virgil reached down and took Hades by his arm, helping him stand up, "Thank you for your proper instruction. Please carry on, although be sure not to injure anyone too greatly."

Hades nodded without saying anything, before glaring at Zeus until his older brother walked away with a mystified expression on his face.

"Now, where were we? Ah yes, running away." He turned to look at the girl he figured had the greatest instinct to fight, "You should be good at that Seven."

Hades cracked his knuckles.

Day 5: Rest day

All fifty of the humans had gathered around a burning fire in the center of a large seated area in the early morning. Standing just beside the fire was the great monster Virgil himself. His black fur seemed to suck in any light that escaped the clutches of the fire, bathing them in his shadow.

"Today is a rest day. We have pushed you hard, right at the beginning, but I believe Walker would want you to relax now. To remember why life is worth living. Do as you please." He waved a hand at a large table of food, "I am told the food is not outstanding, but it will be filling." He waved his hand at an area just beyond the seated area, "We have also created a few....games...that we were able to pull from our Creator's memories. If you would like to learn any of them, and....play, some seniors are standing by to teach you. Please, enjoy your day, as we will be starting up bright and early tomorrow with more instruction. Do not act romantically with each other. Thank you."

Saying so, he began to walk away, but not before two spoke out, "Where is the Creator? Where is...Walker?"

The great shadow turned back around slowly, "He is recovering from his ordeals. He went through quite a lot to get you all started on this path, to make you, to prepare you for what lies in the future. That has taken a toll on his body and soul. He needs....time." He seemed to laugh at a hidden joke after saying that.

"Isn't he like.....super special or something?" Another number called out. "Why would he need to umm....recover?"

Virgil shook his large head, "No, he is not. Maybe he is now, but he wasn't before. Once, not too long ago, he was just like you, although even more flawed if you can believe it. In fact, if you would like, you can get to know him right now."

"How?" Seven asked.

"Swear to be one of his followers. Take a knee, and say you will follow the religion of Dante. I promise no hidden attacks, and no extra attachments. But if you do this, you will learn about him."

They all looked at each other, curious about what he was talking about, but it was Seven who took the knee first, saying loudly, "I swear to follow the religion of Dante." As she finished speaking, a camo-covered book appeared out of the air, landing beside her. She picked it up and opened the cover before asking, "What is this?"

"It is a book." Athena said as she came closer from the darkness beyond, "and that one is written by your Creator. He wanted to give you a head start on knowledge and understanding from his world." She nodded at Virgil, who nodded back before leaving. "Joining the ranks of his followers allowed you to gain some insight into who he is as a person. As a man, rather than a Creator. That is how he wanted things to be."

"Why?" One asked.

"Because he is not like the others who amass great power. Walker chose to spread that power to you and yours, so that you could make your own lives. Forge your own fates. It is...important to him, and me. In fact" Athena took a knee, "I swear to follow the religion of Dante." She waited a moment after saying so, but as she opened her eyes and looked around, her face took on a disappointed cast as no book had fallen beside her. "Pity."

"Why can't you be one of his followers?" Seven asked, figuring out what had happened.

"Because it appears I am not like you after all, which is a true shame. You do not know the gifts that are going to be bestowed upon you or the trials that lie ahead." She noticed only a few other numbers had sworn to follow Walker's religion, and of those who didn't, they looked at her with something like fear in their eyes, "I will not force you to follow his religion, nor make you take an oath to follow his teachings. That is not what he would want." She smiled, "He is a unique man in that way."

Athena turned and began to walk away, but not before saying, "For those of you who would like to play, I have heard that my brother has created a...ping pong table....and I am in dire need of challengers if I am to face Walker in the future. No pressure though." She waved a hand as she walked away.

A few minutes later, Seven joined her at the green netted table.