Poisoned Rationality

The first year of my new life passed by extremely quickly. As a newborn, I was weak and could barely do anything, but I absorbed information like a sponge.

I learned about the world, the Gods, the races, and also lots of general information.

For example, my race. I was a Dokukyoku wendigo, which translates to Poisonous Thorn wendigo from the old language.

All my family, and in fact almost everyone in the village, spoke only Common. However, there were a few older people who could speak the old wendigo language.

Wendigo as a whole were an odd race, at least from the point of view of the humans and elves.

We looked elven at first, with our long ears and odd-colored hair, but several things stood out. The most iconic being our backward-curving antlers.

A wendigo’s antlers represented their status. Someone with long antlers with many branches was powerful and prestigious, while someone with shorter antlers with only one or two branches was looked down upon.

The worst case ever was having a broken antler. If you had a broken antler, you were worthless to any other wendigo.

My antlers had just started growing in, two little nubs sticking out of my head.

Another thing that set us apart from elves was our tails. Most wendigo had a long tail coated with fur the color of their hair, a mane of bright white fur down the back, and a puff of fur at the tip.

Dokukyoku wendigo had a stinger concealed in that puff, something unique to us.

I was a twintail, so I had two tails, and each one would have a stinger once I got them.

The last two unique things were our ears and our diet. Unlike elves, which had longer, pointed ears, wendigo had more animalistic ears that were covered with downy feathers.

Elves were also a race that consumed mostly plant matter. Wendigo had evolved into a carnivorous species. We got all of the nutrients we needed from the bodies of other creatures.

To supplement our unique diet, instead of flat teeth, we had sharp canines filling our mouths. That had caused a few problems when I started teething.

…

I was bored. Mother was busy talking with a friend of hers, and there wasn’t anything for me to do.

I reached up absentmindedly and batted a piece of Mother’s hair with my hand. She stopped me with a hand, and I gripped her finger instead.

Instincts popped into my head, and I pulled her finger down to my mouth and started biting gently.

“Ah!” Mother said, pulling her hand back. “No, Nyx, don’t do that.” I looked up at her, confused about why she was upset.

“Hmm, has she started teething?” Mother’s friend asked.

“It appears she has,” Mother replied with a soft chuckle. “Ahh, she has sharp teeth.” She shook her finger, which had several red dots on it.

Oh. Whoops. I didn’t mean to do that.

Hmm. Now I was sleepy.

…

Something else that I figured out was the world.

Across the whole planet were large areas called sectors. Each sector had its own set of gods that had power in that sector. If a god left their sector, they would become almost powerless.

Thankfully, Stella was in the sector I was currently living in.

All that is to say that this world is large.

There are so many other races, too, with humans being the most prevalent nearby, but especially on other continents, you’d likely never see one.

But moving on from all the learning I’ve done.

It’s almost my birthday! Yep, that’s right. It’s been almost a full year since I was born in this world!

Status (Lvl 0):

Name: Nyxandria Arilis

Race: Dokukyoku Wendigo (Twintailed)

Age: 1/0/0

Level: 0 (0% EXP)

Statistics:

Str: F Vit: E

Int: A Dex: F

Agi: F Def: C

HP: 100% F

MP: 0% F

Turns out that there are 40 days a month and 10 months a year. An interesting and neat system.

Mother seemed all excited, too; she was bustling around a lot. I had a feeling that she was planning a party of some kind.

On the day of, she came in quietly while she thought I was still asleep. I pretended to be, breathing softly with my eyes shut. I wanted to sleep in.

“Hey, sunshine,” Mother said, gently stroking my head to wake me up. I slowly blinked my eyes open, looking up at her. “Happy birthday!” She smiled and picked me up, resting me over her shoulder.

I mumbled tired babbles as I leaned against her. I didn’t want to get up yet. If it was my birthday, I should be allowed to sleep in.

“Come on, baby, wake up,” Mother chided, gently bouncing me. “You need to be awake for the ceremony.”

Ceremony? What ceremony? I perked up a bit, and Mother smiled.

“Come on, let’s get you fed,” She said, leaving the room. As she brought me to the kitchen, I contemplated what the ceremony would be about.

Breakfast was delicious. A few weeks ago, Mother started feeding me solid food, which was amazing. Tearing into a piece of meat with my sharp teeth was an amazing feeling.

Then Ryla ran into the room.

“Happy birthday, Nyx!” She said loudly, dashing up to me at my seat at the table. I babbled at her, reaching out with my arms. She smiled and hugged me, her tail waving back and forth happily.

The morning passed by quickly, and then Mother dressed me in a little dress that was frankly adorable. Father joined us soon after.

Then we left the house for the first time.

I looked around, my head turning back and forth at insane speeds, trying to absorb all the sights I could see. Ryla giggled at my antics as our family walked through our town.

The buildings had no real pattern to where they were laid out, and the style was very pretty, with curved roofs and sliding wooden doors.

We arrived at a large and imposing building. It had a tall red gate rising several meters high. We passed through it and through the doors, which were at the base of a large tower.

The interior was large and very nicely decorated, with rows of seats. Standing nearby was a female wendigo wearing robes.

“Good morning, Priestess Lyrice,” Father said.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Arilis,” She said. “How’s the little girl?”

“She’s doing great,” Mother said, adjusting me in her arms to show me to the woman. She smiled and reached out, patting me on the head. I smiled and looked up at her.

“Alright, then let’s start the ceremony,” The woman said. She led us into a side room with a few seats and a low table with a bowl of water and a tiny dish with red powder.

Mother sat down on one of the chairs and set me on her lap. Father was in the other with Ryla on his lap.

“What is her name?” Priestess Lyrice asked.

“Nyxandria,” Mother answered.

Priestess Lyrice nodded and gestured to Mother, who lifted me and set me on the table. I looked back at her, but she smiled and pointed to the Priestess.

I turned to face the woman, and she got a pinch of the red powder and sprinkled it into the water. A small wooden spoon appeared from somewhere, and she stirred the liquid before setting it aside.

Then she dipped her thumb into the now-red liquid and pressed it against my forehead. It was cold, and I wiggled in place.

Priestess Lyrice repeated the process two more times, doing it on my cheeks.

Then she held out her hands and began to chant. I felt a rush of energy enter the room and flow toward her hands.

Then the chant finished, and the energy flowed into me. A ding sounded, and my status popped into my vision, although it had changed.

Status (Lvl 1):

Name: Nyxandria Arilis

Race: Dokukyoku Wendigo (Twintailed)

Age: 1/0/0

Level: 0 (0% EXP)

Statistics:

Str: F Vit: E

Int: A Dex: F

Agi: F Def: C

HP: 100% F

MP: 100% F

Titles: N/A

Skills: N/A

The system was now level one and had two new parts, although both were empty.

Then, more dings filled my ears, and several windows appeared in my vision.

New Title - Divine Blessing of Estelle

New Title - Fated One

Notice: God Status detected

[Error] - God Status Incomplete

[Error] - V̴̞̾Ó̴̟I̴͇̕Ď̷̹ Presence Detected

[Error] - U̵̪̾ṅ̵̨k̴͜͠n̴͈̽o̷̧̿w̶͖̄ñ̸̟ ̵̥̕P̶͍̆r̵̜͌e̵̛͖s̶̟̾ẹ̸̑n̸̡͂ć̶̹e̶̠͌ ̴̦̉D̴͕̅e̷͉̋t̷̪͋e̷̻͑c̸̮̔ṫ̴͚è̶͍d̵̺̃

[Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error] [Error]

[Error] [Error][E̴̦͊r̵͇͌r̷̠̍o̴͔̓r̸͚̾] [È̴̻r̴̉ͅr̵͚̔o̸̘̓r̵̖͠] [E̴̦͊r̵͇͌r̷̠̍o̴͔̓r̸͚̾] [É̴̖r̵̰̕r̸̫͒o̴̙̍r̵̥͌] [E̴̦͊r̵͇͌r̷̠̍o̴͔̓r̸͚̾] [È̴̻r̴̉ͅr̵͚̔o̸̘̓r̵̖͠] [E̴̦͊r̵͇͌r̷̠̍o̴͔̓r̸͚̾] [É̴̖r̵̰̕r̸̫͒o̴̙̍r̵̥͌]

Then everything went black.