Hayato had never met a god. Hayato could neither confirm nor deny whether or not he had met a seer or not. But here he was, now, face to face with a flesh and blood (did gods have blood? was it truly flesh? was that too strange of a question to ask a god?) immortal (they were immortal, right? or no- he had heard they could be killed- but was that just by other gods or by mortals as well? could they die after old age? if there was no one left who believed in them) ... well regardless, whatever the case may be, Hayato was looking a god in the face. It was not the mightiest of gods who existed in the African pantheon, but he was nothing to sneeze at (but yet he was- ashes were wont to bother one's nose an awful lot and provoke fits of sneezes).
Fleance just... stared... This black and blue mortal seemed to be having a hundred different conflicting conversations going on in his head at the same time and honestly? The adolescent was getting a bit bored by it. True, he had far more time on his paws than this mortal did, but this was really eating into it, he felt. He sighed, and a few puffs of ashes were blown into the air. He shifted his great weight from one paw to another, the paw he lifted left some more traces of ashes on the ground, though they were quickly blown away on the breeze.
"Can I..." he gulped, "uhh... help you with something, uh... or something?" He looked down at the black and blue male with his dull, red eyes. He did not want to, nor was he interested in helping this lion, but if asking the question was the least he could do to try and speed this process along at all, then so be it. The least he could do was ask.
Hayato shrugged, his mouth still agape.
"I, uhm." He finally closed his mouth before any flies managed to get in.
"It's just that I haven't ever met a god before, and, well... I guess I'm kind of just at a loss for words, haha." He chuckled a bit, and offered a weak smile, but he was very nervous. Did he need to make an offering? Should he make a sacrifice? What did gods like? Did it depend on their specific domains? What was this one's domain? Did it offend them to try to guess? The only reason Hayato had even known that this imposing figure standing before him was a god was because, well... the wings were a dead giveaway. He was also impressively large, but what Hayato did not know is that Fleance was cursed to be stuck permanently as an adolescent and would never reach his full growth potential and could have been much larger.
It was all a matter of chance (or bad luck, if you ask the usually grumpy Fleance) that they two rouge males had crossed paths. Hayato had been trying to wait out the hottest part of the sweltering African afternoon in the sparse shade of an acacia tree with a small pool next too its roots. A few small prey animals braved his company, klippspringers, birds and a few small monkeys alike weighed the threat of the lion against severe dehydration and decided the risk was worth the reward and snuck a few sips now and then while he laid on his side, just spending all his effort just on regulating his body temperature. Having a black coat and mane was certainly a disadvantage in this climate. He should have been more aware there was some great and sudden change when the sounds of all the birds chirping and moneys chattering went silent- even the bugs went quiet and next he heard the sound of a pair of great wings beating against the air and paws landing heavily on the ground near him. He scrambled to his feet and by the time he was standing, he was across the water from a god who was mid-drink, whose forelock of a mane was obscuring his eyes, but certainly had to be aware of the mortal across from him.
Truth be told, Fleance had not noticed the black and blue male lion until he had noisily scrambled to his feet. The way that the branches and leaves of the tree scattered the sunlight and made his coat dappled broke up the bulky black form but more truthfully, Fleance was not always the most observant of all of the deities around. Even after he had been murdered, one might think that he would have learned by now but they would also have been wrong.
Fleance wanted to get on with his day and more importantly, get this guy to stop staring at him, and almost said, 'what do you want me to grant you a wish or something' but luckily caught himself because he did not want to have to grant this guy any favors (or have to pretend that he was going to) and also suspected it would take this lions probably days on end to think of what his wish was going to be. If only he was the god of swift ends to conversations, but alas... ashes...
Hayato noticed that the god was getting a little bit antsy (Fleance was more than a little bit antsy but Hayato was also not the most observant of fellows), and realized this opportunity to interact with a god was drawing to a close.
"What are you the god of?" He blurted out.
Well, this was an improvement, Fleance felt and shrugged a little to himself. He couldn't stand awkward silences. Silences were one things and perfectly alright, but this was not one of those.
"Ashes. My name is Fleance."
"Ah, thanks. Sorry, I don't know if that's impolite to ask- I don't know anything of god etiquette at all, actually, but I'm sure that shows," he apologized, sheepishly. "I'm Hayato," he offered, though he was fairly sure that it didn't mean anything to the god, he was stuck in his mortal conventions of polite conversation.
"Well. Hayato..." Fleance bobbed his head and turned to leave. "It was nice meeting you, but I've got to be going." He was relieved that the lion nodded but didn't say anything else. He made a few powerful downstrokes with his wings and took off without looking behind him.
Hayato kept his eyes on the god as he shrank on the horizon and became a small speck in the sky and disappeared. The animals who had been in hiding reappeared and watched, too, all fairly certain they'd never experience anything like that ever again.
[the end
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1,128 words]