PHILTATOS // Foolish X Reader

9

You barely slept that night, the myths you had read prior turning over in your head. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to spend a few hours reading about people before you who had encountered the gods and met horrible ends, but you were grasping at straws for what to do. You were just lucky that you had been able to sneak a clutch of sweet berries away.

Now, those sweet berries sat buried in with your other offerings as you toted the plate towards Anoitos' temple. Your heart had never been beating this fast as you walked to the temple before, and you were sure you looked like a nervous wreck - but you couldn't help it.

You didn't know whether you wanted him to be there again or not.

You had been asking for a sign - and in one way or another Foolish had given back. Not exactly how you had imagined a sign from the gods to be, but a sign nonetheless. If he was there again today, you weren't sure how you were supposed to go about your prayers - or if you would need to at all.

If he was there again today, you weren't sure what to do at all. In some ways, it would be easier for it to have just been an accident - a one time thing that you could hold onto for a while until it faded from mind. You wouldn't have to worry about all the terrible things that usually happened to those who met the gods.

The usually warm and welcoming aura of the temple had changed - as you climbed the steps now, the rosy tone of the marble in the morning sun looked almost too cheery for how your hands were beginning to shake around the edges of the gilded offerings plate.

You paused before the golden doors, shifting the plate onto one hand. Your free hand came to rest on the handle of the door, clenching your fingers around the curved metal. He was either there, or he wasn't, and you wouldn't know until you opened the door. You took a deep breath, feeling the cool morning air swirl around your lungs. If this meeting Foolish was the beginning of the end for you, it was small things like this that you would miss.

Stepping forward, you pushed open the temple door, squinting as sunlight streamed into your face.

For a moment, it seemed the room was empty and your chest emptied with relief. You turned, closing the door behind you. It was when you turned back around that you saw him there, perched on the altar steps again, resting his head between his knees like a child. Startled, you almost dropped the offering plate.

"Did you bring sweet berries?" Foolish asked, rising from where he was sat on the altar and starting over to you.

"I did." You stuttered out, regaining yourself. You started towards the altar, meeting him in the middle of the room, the plate outstretched. "I could only sneak away a handful, but I took what I could-"

Foolish gasped happily, pulling the berries from the pile of the other offerings on the plate. He ate the whole clutch in one fell swoop, dropping the little stems back onto the plate. "Mmm!" He grinned, wiping the juice that had found it's way to his cheek on the back of his hand. "Thanks!"

"You're most welcome." You said, not quite sure what to do with the rest of the plate now. It didn't really matter though, because Foolish plucked the gilded metal right out of your hands, starting back over to the altar steps. You hovered in the middle of the room until he tilted his head, beckoning you over.

Like the yesterday, you found yourself sitting beside him on the altar steps, unsure of what to say. Foolish seemed content beside you, nibbling away at the gifts you had brought him. You thumbed the prayer beads that hung around your neck - was he still expecting you to pray?

"I have a question."

Your eyes slid over to Foolish to find him looking at you, glittering green eyes locked on yours. "Yes?" You prompted.

"When you came to pray yesterday, you were talking about the city and how people are dying and things... is it true?" Foolish asked, picking at the grapes that had been laying on the plate.

You blinked at him. "How- of course it's true. It's been going on for months now."

"Oh."

Looking at the god before you, you were suddenly confused in a different way than you had been before. Had he really not known what was happening in the city until you had said something directly about it? Was that the mistake that the worship had been making the whole time?

Foolish pursed his lips, one finger pushing a grape around the plate in a circle now. "I- uh... this is a little embarrassing..."

"I won't laugh." You said. "Promise."

Foolish glanced between you and the grape he was chasing around the plate. "Alright, um... I can't really see the city. Not all that many people bother praying to me, and the more people that pray to you the more you can see since if someone prays to you, you can kind of use their eyes? Sort of anyway, it's hard to explain. But um, since not a lot of people pray to me, I can really only see in here since it's my temple, and what you see since you do pray to me."

So he really hadn't known - you didn't make ventures into the city all too often, and when you did, you mostly stuck close to the acropolis. Even if he had been using your eyes, he hadn't seen much.

"So you really can't see much beyond your own temple?" You asked.

Foolish shook his head, shrugging. "I mean, I used to be able to more, when people prayed, but that was a long time ago...

"Would you like to?"