GODDESS | RYEJI AU

(the trials.) #2.

Yeji was afraid.

Afraid of what lie ahead, and afraid of the dark, the cold. Leaving Ryujin behind.

Yeji paused, the wolves stopping as well on either side of her. She pulled her pack from her back and pulled out the cloak from Yuna, unfurling it. It was red, an orange and yellow sunburst starting at the shoulders and cascading down the length of the cloak. It felt warm in her hands, like touching a patch of summer sun. Yeji fastened the cloak around her shoulders, and immediately felt a delicious warmth seep into her bones, the chill of the night only felt on her face, and she sighed in relief. Yeji drew up the deep hood and patted each wolf on the head, and continued on.
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Ryujin was quiet through the feast, sipping at wine she wasn't tasting, and hardly touching the food in front of her. She stared forward, unseeing, slouching in her chair as her mind whirled a mile a minute, worry and fear eating at each other.

"Hey, Shin," Came a voice suddenly, and Ryujin looked to her left to find Dami and Jiu looking at her with soft eyes.

Ryujin sighed and sat up, running a hand through her hair, fingers stumbling over the braids. The formality of the occasion was beginning to gnaw at her, and she just wanted to change into her linen sleeping clothes and unwind all of her braids, except she didn't, at the same time, because Yeji had put her hair in those braids.

The scrap of linen stained with Yeji's blood was still clenched in her left hand.

"I don't need your pity, Huntress," Ryujin grit out, and drained her goblet, quickly refilling it.

Dami roller her eyes. "I'm not giving you pity," She said. "What I'm saying is, Yeji is strong. Incredibly strong for a mortal. She'll make it through."

"The Trials were grueling," Jiu said in her soft voice, her hand on Dami's forearm. Her wolf nuzzled her leg. "I won't deny it. The last trial is different for everyone, it will be her personal Hell, of sorts. Or at least, something very personal to her."

Ryujin rolled her eyes and drained her goblet for a second time. "If you're trying to make me feel better about my lover possibly returning home dead, then you're doing a terrible job. Mother wants to kill Yeji. She's still furious that Yeji exists, and that she freed me."

Dami sighed. "We know," She said, "but Rin is bound by rules. She can throw everything she has at Yeji, but if Yeji passes the Trials, she passes. Rin can't do anything against it. She can't kill Yeji out of spite. And Yeji can pass. We all know this."

Ryujin leaned back in her chair, her eyes briefly closing as she set down her goblet. They were right, she knew this, but the pit of dread was still ever present in her stomach.

"Weren't you afraid?" Ryujin asked weakly, her eyes still closed.

Dami glanced at Jiu, their fingers entwining tightly. "Of course," Dami said simply.

Eighty-five years ago, Dami had fallen in love with one of her huntresses, and after five years, Jiu made the decision to enter the Trials, both of them unwilling to eventually be parted. She had emerged from the Trials as the Goddess of Wolves, and she watched over the wolves of the world, particularly those who dwelt in the thick forests that surrounded her and Dami's temple. All hunting of wolves by Dami's people, whether it be out of necessity or ritual, had immediately ceased upon pain of death.

Upon waking, Ryujin's heart had ached at missing such an important time for her best friend. She hadn't even met Jiu before waking, having been turned to stone centuries before Jiu was even born, but over the last two years, she'd been determined to make up for lost time.