Yay, time off.

"..actually on second thought, I think you deserve a vacation.. Setsuna."

Those were the last words I heard before my face split into a wide grin. Oh my goodness. A vacation.

I ended up choosing a semi peaceful world (at least to my standards) and just told my coworker system to go ahead and take a vacation of their own. After all everyone should take a break once in a while.

My job is one that doesn't provide the luxury of a life insurance policy or anything like a formal contract. I'm employed by the God-head as a moderator soul which is just a fancy way of saying "The-fill-in-soul-that-keeps-the-world-from-collapsing".

One of my main responsibilities as a mod soul is to ensure that one of many world incident facilitating souls, otherwise termed "Main Characters" don't die before their time or mess up too badly.

To illustrate this let me tell you about one of my lives. In one world a President of the Conjoined States located in the center of the world's largest continent was supposed to be assassinated before signing a crucial peace treaty. Before that happened, I Messino Lottie an armed enforcer in the presidential guard redirected the attack and made sure that MC lived through this ordeal...

Then I died of a heart attack many years later.

I'm not a workaholic by any means, on the contrary- one of my main goals in life is to retire and drift around the soul system while sleeping peacefully. This last job that involved me reincarnating as a feathered serpent and ending up getting revered as a deity was especially tiring.

So I just dropped the metaphorical mic and, told the God-head administration to choose an exciting or semi peaceful world for me to wake up in.

••••••••••

The air is fresh like a cold winter breeze, and warming up steadily as the sun peeks through the horizon filled with cotton candy clouds. It's just magnificent.

I want to cry because it is wonderful.

It's also wonderful knowing that in this entire lifespan of mine, I have no obligations to fulfill concerning system issued missions from higher ups.

I'M FREE!!!

I quiver in happiness but stop when I hear a precarious creak in the branch I'm perched upon. Yes I've been reborn as some sort of titan sized barn owl-cat hybrid. As a major plus, having a notorious reputation for being a vicious hunter as well as bloody territorial, I am left alone by the other abnormally sized creatures in the forest grasslands.

From what I've seen from my skyscraper-sized vantage point that I call home, the other creatures here have their own clans that they've formed but other than that, I have not sensed the regular presence of humans lurking about.

On some occasions, however, I can sense abnormal chakra signatures popping up every bow and then. When I do catch sight of the miniscule sized owners of the chakra, I am always surprised to note that they are indeed humans training with their summons.

In my hunting sprees, I can recall specific groups of people who pop up in response to their most compatible summons or the already contracted clans. The Bear summons are popular amongst the black haired, burly people who frequent this forest. On the other hand, the tenacious Rams are frequently visited by blonde and white haired people who seem to be muscled runner types.

There are so many different clans residing in this ecosystem but as far as I can tell, I am the last and only clansmember of whatever the heck I am. When I had been birthed into this world, it was a real struggle getting out of the rock solid eggshell. It was even more frightening to stumble around in the skillfully woven nest and emerge into the stark white moonlight in a solitary world of the skies.

As I grew, my egg tooth chipped away as my beak elongated and sharpened. Slightly drooping ears stiffened and stood up in rapt attention, hearing everything for miles away.

I grew from a grey feathered chick-kit, into a sleek four taloned, broad winged, golden eyed predator of both day and night. That grey camouflage plumage was eventually shed, revealing midnight indigo dappled with russet red streaks.

Everything I did, I did alone but satisfied to discover things in my own. Sometimes I would stalk other clan's children and learn from them as they played and practiced. I could never get too close however, because if I did their guardians would threaten me with death. It made sense sometimes.. I guess.

The aquisition and upkeep of the boundaries of one's territory is not only maintaining your seat in the hierarchy, but also a big powerplay. So the presence of an unknown member of another clan standing in your own territory is a direct threat- especially if they are learning your skills.

Even through all of this, I only grew not just physically but in knowledge and prowess. The larger I got, the hungrier I grew. I would eat entire scurries of squirrels in a night just for a pre-meal snack then attack the Tree Lizard Clan. Soon I became known as the Demonic Menace of the Sabejitochi Forests and my shadow eclipsed the clans from the skies.

It wasn't super intentional.. but it happened as a result of my hunger pangs being fueled by my incessant growing pains. The territory my very extinct clan sat on had been encroached upon I'm their absence. I unwittingly fixed that by trying to survive my own body.