Miss Goddess, you

Part 6, The Squirrel

(Ryan's P.O.V.)

Ryan felt the loop in his belt where his gun would've been, if a certain goddess weren't holding it hostage. She claimed that he might attempt to use it against her, despite the fact she's a literal goddess. A powerful, immortal goddess at that! 

Cosmodia was shooting at every squirrel in sight. She wasn't a good shooter, but was able to graze a couple of tails. He expected worse. "Whatcha got against squirrels?" Ryan asked nonchalantly, picking at a thorn stuck on his thumb.

"Shut up and lead the way." Cosmodia said as she shot at another squirrel, hitting a tree instead. Suddenly she stopped, and fox ears grew in place of normal ears. "Hear that?" She whispered. Ryan shook his head as Cosmodia grew a tail at the bottom of her spine. Her eyes darted around, until they settled on a hollow in a tree. 

"Are you-" Before Ryan could finish his sentence Cosmodia turned into a small, red fox. She darted into the hollow, hind legs kicking up dirt. 

"No wonder your name is Rebel! I swear to Zeus!" She yowled. A squirrel squeaked inside of the hollow. "Where is it, you punk!?" Cosmodia yowled again. The squirrel squeaked again, as if in answer. 

"I'm gonna eat you alive!" Cosmodia's hind legs slipped through into the hollow of the tree. Her tail disappearing in the tangled roots. Ryan sat down on a patch of grass. This was what he got for accidentally killing that horse, wasn't it? 

He always thought gods were divine beings. He was taught gods were divine beings. Yet here he was, waiting for a tempermental goddess to finish yapping at a squirrel. 

Cosmodia, still in her fox form, came out of the hollow, a squirrel's head popped out of her mouth. She turned back into a...well what Ryan assumed to be her normal form, and started cussing out the squirrel, even saying some colorful words that must've been used among the gods.

"Well? Ya done with the squirrel?" Ryan asked when Cosmodia was almost breathless. "Not until he freaking tells me where he put my freaking crown!" She yelled, eyes glowing an off white. 

Thunder sounded above and the sun was hidden behind a blanket of raining storm clouds. "I swear I don't know where it is!" The squirrel yapped. Ryan looked at Cosmodia, then to the squirrel, then back to Cosmodia again. "Did...did you feed me drugs when I wasn't looking? What...why is it talking?" Ryan cocked his head. 

Cosmodia looked over at him. "Ya get used to talking to animals after a while." She turned back to the squirrel and pointed the gun at his head. "Now tell me where it is!" She snarled.

"Ok, ok! I sold it to a raccoon for ten nuts!" The squirrel squeaked. "Heh. That's what she said." Ryan whispered, and Cosmodia turned her head slowly to look at him. "Ok, ok. Sorry." He held up his hands.

Cosmodia turned back to the squirrel, and shot him with the gun, clipping his tail. "Where is this freaking raccoon?" She whispered, barely audible among the rattle of the trees. 

"I don't know! He said he had to get back to a...sootoy or something!" The squirrel licked his tail, flinching as blood stained his muzzle.

"Translate, human." Cosmodia turned to Ryan. "The raccoon lives in a city. Probably in a trash bin in an alley." Ryan was playing tic tac toe with himself using a stick and the bare dirt of the forest. "Which city was it?" Cosmodia turned back to the squirrel.

"Most likely Santa Fe. Only about an hour away from here." Ryan picked at a hangnail. Cosmodia nodded, and shot the squirrel in its head. "Now tell me what it looked like!" She yelled.

"Hey uh...Cos?" Ryan looked over at her, leaning from his root. "Yeah?" She said, staring at the dead squirrel's bleeding neck. "Ya killed it." He picked up the head that had fallen off of the squirrel, looking into its small, black eyes permanently tainted in fear. "Oh." She dropped the body, watching it shrivel up as soon as it touched the ground. 

"So uh...where's Santa Fe?" Cosmodia looked over at Ryan. "Well, we're in Albuquerque...so like...60 miles?" Ryan guessed. Cosmodia flapped out her—in Ryan's words glorious—wings. "Let's fly." She said.