I got back down in time to see the race finished, and the top two finishers were the hummingbird and wasp carvations. Iris and Moon came over to the finish line where I was waiting, and looked at me quizzingly. 

“Where were you?” Iris asked.

“I was handling something.”

“I’m sure you were,” Moon said. “But I’m not letting Iris referee a fight tomorrow, so you’d better be there for it.”

“I will, I will,” I said, waving my hand. “I’ve got a story for you two though.”

*   *   *   *   *

“Alright,” I said, walking onto the stone tablet that served as the arena. I took out a piece of paper and read out my pre-written speech. “It was about seven million score or so ago that our ancestors hosted these games for the first time, and-” I groaned and threw the paper away. “Screw it. You guys wanna see these two fight, and they’re gonna fight to see who wins these stupid games and gets their statue.”

Somehow that was enough for the crowd to go wild. Two carvations walked onto the arena and shook hands. One was the hummingbird man with red hair and nice wings, and the other was the wasp woman who had stingers on her arms in some places. I know my bet was on the guy, but the woman was looking just a bit more likely at this point.

As soon as I gave the go-ahead, the two lept into fighting while I stood on the sidelines with Moon. Iris apparently had too much back pain and opted to stay at home and watch from there. Laughable that I look aged, but she’s the real elder between us.

“You remember those carvation games that you were in a long time ago?” Moon asked. “The one where we fought in the final event?”

“Yeah, I remember,” I laughed. “You threw me by the tail. I almost forgot about that.”

“Wanna rematch sometime?” she offered with a smug smile, making us both chuckle.

“Yeah, I’ll fight again sometime. Both arms behind your back though.”

“I’ll still take you down.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

We both laughed and drew our attention to the fight. The wasp carvation was being held in place by a tangle of roots and vines, struggling but not being able to break out. At last she yielded, and the crowd cheered as I had to announce the winner. Even I had to admit, it was a pretty sweet moment to see the starstruck look on the young man’s face as the crowd chanted his name. 

*   *   *   *   *

In the dead of night, I walked into The Temple. For the first time, I wasn’t there because it had summoned me. I didn’t know if I was allowed to be there without being summoned and without an offering or something, but I figured that being a servant of the thing could let me walk in any time. It felt oddly… empty. Like the presence inside The Temple was just gone.

“Hey, I need you!” I shouted, my voice echoing throughout the building. Almost immediately, I felt a presence again.

“Gryft, what is your query?”

“How did humans get to The Village?” I asked. “You seem to see a lot, so tell me what that was about.” The Temple was silent for a minute.

“We do not know.”

“The hell you mean you don’t know?! Don’t you see it all?”

“We are not everywhere at once. We are also searching for how the humans came here from the Living.”

“I think we both know how,” I said. “We know only another carvation could’ve let them in. You’re just pissed you don’t know who.”

“Would you like to give forth information to us?” I leaned up against a pillar.

“Female, bird variant, green eyes.” There was a pause.

“Is that all?”

“Yeah, that’s all I got.” I kicked around some stone human dust that was still on the floor. “Why did you kill that human?” I asked. “Aren’t you into not killing and all that shit?”

“You have made the assumption that he is dead,” The Temple said ominously. “Now go. We have much debating to do.”

“Have fun arguing with yourself, marble slab,” I said, raising a goodbye hand to nothing in particular. “I’m getting something to eat.”

As I spread my wings and flew off into the night, I couldn’t help but look down over the carvation homes. I knew that inside one of them was the one I was looking for. One of them had that green-eyed bird woman who brought humans to The Village for… whatever reason. And even if I had to search for months, or years, I’d find them eventually. And when I did, I was going to give them hell.