CHULANE
let's set the world on fire
He didn't know what to expect. He reflected on the advice given to him about the gods of this world. Patience, he recalled, and expect nothing.It was more difficult than he could ever have guessed to go there with no expectations. In a world of magic, where almost everyone had a story about the gods and gifts from the gods (and curses too), he would be lying if he said he succeeded in expecting nothing from this visit to the shrine.
Perhaps, on his home world, he would have expected nothing, because that was all those 'gods' ever did.
It got… bright. So bright, he wondered if he had died, and was being carried to the fabled heaven of light - but then, that was an Earth god, not a Caido god. As the beam shone down on him, he leaned back and opened his arms, to accept the light, shutting his eyes against it on instinct, wondering if this was some kind of test, or perhaps introduction to whichever deity deigned to appear for him.
But… no deity came. Only warmth. Which quickly became heat, scorchingly so. Folding back in on himself with a sharp grimace and a flinch, he went to move but found his body - his skin - aching in a hauntingly familiar way. The beam of light seemed to dissipate, to leave him scorched, fried, his skin blistering and varying shades of pink and maroon - and with no other discernible change.
Being from the sunburnt country meant he was grossly familiar with becoming sunburnt himself. "Ow," he muttered to himself, sighing, and wincing from it. It seemed that despite the layers of clothing, the burn ventured across most of his body.
And despite it all, he barked a soft laugh out.
After everything, he really still hadn't quite accepted that there were truly deities, or spirits or gods or other such things capable of enacting such big change on the world (and him), but this confirmation, painful as it was, helped to seal it in his mind for him.
Moving gingerly, he plucked up the knife he had offered - there was little use in leaving it behind - and tucked it away. Even more gingerly still, he moved to rise, to stand once more. "Sunburn huh? Neat trick. Feels like home." He quipped in the direction of the shrine, before testing how big a step he could take as he slowly turned around, and wandered away.
~Fin
we can burn brighter than the sun
