Are
Her ways where as foreign as Are felt to Caido, lacking any and all of the solemn poise the stories had told him about. Cracks of lightning and her appearance aside, it could've been any old trickster standing before him. Yet there was that calm assurance in her voice. A tempting tone that made him feel like there was no use questioning the words.
Another shiver.
His gut knew better than his mind. A cold sting of rushing blood urge the body to respond. Fight or flight. He stood frozen in place by her gaze. Unmoving, like a hare before the fox, just waiting for the call to action. A single errant twitch enough to unleash the tension, a lockbow on a hair trigger.
"Bright? Ascend?" he finally said with a voice weak and confused, sounding far smaller than the man and a quarter he was. He couldn't understand their meaning, but felt the weight behind the words. Tantalizing as it was to just throw oneself off the cliff into the raging seas it was not the way of the worrying cobbler.
"Forgive my slowness but I d-" it was obvious, it had been just in front of him all this time. It had just taken his mind the better part of a few minutes to catch up. He swallowed hard as he realized what the being he stood for was.
"I- I- heh..." stammering and stuttering he started to slowly back away, stepping softly as if each step would spur the god to attack. That would at least been what he would've done had he not been locked in place by fear. Not the small man challenging the divine trickster as the tall tales had told of. "You're the one locked in. The reason the wall is. God risen from mortals." Are babbled, pale faced and barely able to breathe.
Finally he managed to compose himself enough to speak clearly again. "Your gifts are venom, like the blood and gold of the serpent." his face turned a defiant grimace, as defiant as one could be before power itself. "Now a lonely little man is poisoned by its fang, gold the bane of mankind." he recited, mustering up what little courage remained in his chest. "I know your tricks, Loke!"
Another shiver.
His gut knew better than his mind. A cold sting of rushing blood urge the body to respond. Fight or flight. He stood frozen in place by her gaze. Unmoving, like a hare before the fox, just waiting for the call to action. A single errant twitch enough to unleash the tension, a lockbow on a hair trigger.
"Bright? Ascend?" he finally said with a voice weak and confused, sounding far smaller than the man and a quarter he was. He couldn't understand their meaning, but felt the weight behind the words. Tantalizing as it was to just throw oneself off the cliff into the raging seas it was not the way of the worrying cobbler.
"Forgive my slowness but I d-" it was obvious, it had been just in front of him all this time. It had just taken his mind the better part of a few minutes to catch up. He swallowed hard as he realized what the being he stood for was.
"I- I- heh..." stammering and stuttering he started to slowly back away, stepping softly as if each step would spur the god to attack. That would at least been what he would've done had he not been locked in place by fear. Not the small man challenging the divine trickster as the tall tales had told of. "You're the one locked in. The reason the wall is. God risen from mortals." Are babbled, pale faced and barely able to breathe.
Finally he managed to compose himself enough to speak clearly again. "Your gifts are venom, like the blood and gold of the serpent." his face turned a defiant grimace, as defiant as one could be before power itself. "Now a lonely little man is poisoned by its fang, gold the bane of mankind." he recited, mustering up what little courage remained in his chest. "I know your tricks, Loke!"
