For as little as a lowly human such as yourself could ever hope to measure up to my existence, I have heard your petition and deemed you worthy of serving as my spouse. “I’m sorry?” You tried again, scrambling for at least one part of this encounter that made any sense at all. Was he joking? He certainly didn’t look like he was joking, in fact you weren’t sure you’d ever seen anyone look so serious as he did now addressing you. “I have decided to accept you as my wife,” he replied without missing a beat. “I… What?” You muttered faintly, blinking at him from your spot on the floor. Whatever you’d been expecting the entity in front of you to say, that hadn’t been it. “Woman,” a voice like rolling thunder said, snapping you out of your spiralling thoughts. You should run-maybe? Could you run from whatever it was that stood before you? Or perhaps it didn’t matter what you did-this was a dream after all. “Hmm…” The sound that left his throat resembled a low growl and you felt yourself flinch. He was equal parts beautiful and terrifying, dressed in robes from an age long past with flowing white hair. The figure hadn’t moved, instead he simply stood there, golden irises that burned like the heart of a fire staring down at you, picking you apart. You couldn’t remember collapsing to your knees, but you must have done from the way you could feel the cold of the floor seeping through your clothes. At least, that had been until you’d caught sight of him. For a few seconds you’d thought it must have landed with the flash facing up, as what else could be responsible for the white glow burning your retinas. You’d shrieked, phone dropping to the ground as it slipped from your fingers. One moment you’d been standing there, wondering over how to best treat the injury, and then the next there had been a sound like a clap of thunder echoing inside your skull. Then you’d caught sight of the dark smear your fingers had left in their wake, cursing as you’d turned your hand over to reveal a deep gash on your palm-it must have happened when you’d tripped, your hand so cold from the rain, you hadn’t even registered the wound at the time. How strange, you’d thought as you’d trailed your fingertips over the carving, to think someone with your name had stood in this exact spot and left their mark on the world potentially before you were even in it. You’d taken a moment to read them over, more than a little surprised to find your own name etched among the scrawl in an unfamiliar hand. Clearly you weren’t the first person to come across the shrine in the years since it had been abandoned, as was evident by the number of names that had been graffitied onto the wooden top. With little else to occupy your attention, and no sign of the rain letting up outside, you’d walked over to the altar, inspecting it as you approached. If the shrine had ever been host to any other ceremonial objects, it had long since been robbed of them a quick cast around with the torch on your phone-thankfully still functional after your run through the rain-revealed that not a single loose furnishing had been left behind. There wasn’t a single cobweb to be seen in the small space, the most prominent feature of which was an intricately carved stone altar with a wooden top. Although the outside was in disrepair, the inside of the shrine was remarkably well kept aside from a thick layer of dusk blanketing the floor. Sure the place looked a little like something out of one of those indie horror films, but you’d been confident the worst you’d find in there were a couple of oversized spiders.Īs it turned out, even that hadn’t been an issue. The roof, however, appeared to have stayed miraculously intact, and you’d decided anything was better than staying out in the rain. The shrine was very old and clearly hadn’t been tended to for some time-built to honour some long forgotten god. You’d thought you’d just gotten turned around and managed to wander from the trail in your rush to escape the deluge, thus why you’d never encountered it on your previous hikes up the side of the mountain. It would at least explain the unfamiliar shrine you’d caught sight of moments after you’d had your fall. You must have hit your head when you tripped in your mad scramble to find shelter from the sudden downpour, your body now lying unconscious across the overgrown path, growing cold in the damp air. Regardless I had a lot of fun writing it so hopefully you guys will enjoy it!Īs you took in the glowing figure before you, you felt quite certain you were dreaming. This isn’t the fic I was supposed to be working on but in my defence I wrote most of it on scraps of paper while running an experiment in the lab.
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