|5×𝑭𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑬𝑫|
"C'est la vie" (French) - "That's life" or "Such is life." It's often used to express resignation or acceptance in the face of life's ups and downs, similar to sayings like "That's how the cookie crumbles" in English.
previously...
Inspired by the ONC 23 prompt: "You are a long-forgotten god. A small kid leaves candy at your shrine, and you awaken. Now, you must do everything to protect your High Priest/Priestess, the kid, and their entire kindergarten class, your worshippers."
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It started with a tingling sensation.
Next, a small flame ignited in the back of my mind as my consciousness slowly began to function again, the flame spreading slowly through my entire being, drawing me farther out of the dark murkiness.
On cue, a humming sound filled my ears as if I was free-falling from the summit of Piduruthalagala mountain. The rush of wind thundered in my ears making me aware of something going on.
I was being Awakened.
And by Awakened, I mean technically woken up from the deep slumber I was in as I gave into the Eternity's Sleep.
It's a normal thing for us deities, at least to those less significant and forgotten ones like me to give into Eternity's Sleep when we were no longer needed in this world.
Well the reason why no deity was looking forward to it cause we wouldn't be notified our next Awakening beforehand. Not to mention how stale and almost depressing the whole long sleep thing when we don't get Awakened even in centuries. Because, unlike normal human sleep, us, forgotten gods in sleep couldn't anticipate sweet, hot, wet, or any kind of a dream. It was just darkness, silence, and a sense of loneliness, which sucks because there's no telling how long the slumber was.
Why a god would sleep in the first place you might ask. That's because I had nothing more useful that I could be doing with my godhood or the eternity of life.
I no longer got devotees who offered baskets of fruits and boutiques of flowers or burned woods of incense for me on my altar. Neither had I any sculptures or temples devoted to my name nor had people recited scriptures or prayers to me. My temples had long been forgotten. So was I.
As pathetic as it might sound it's just how godhood worked. You pray. We rock. You forget us. Well, that's when we have to go and sleep under a rock.
As far as I couldn't get a single incense stick lit to my name, I couldn't be awake. And that sure had some explanation for me being suddenly Awakened.
Light danced before my eyes now, growing brighter by the second. I could feel the roar in my ears fading out which meant I was regaining a more physical, solid form. I filled my lungs for the first time in who knew how long and stretched, satisfaction thrilling through me as I observed my restored body: head, arms, front, back, heck yeah. All accounted for.
I was still in the same old temple, inside the same old forest:Kanneliya, where I last closed my eyes, a little over a few centuries from now. But the place sure wasn't this much of a wreck back then.
The silages had replaced the flagstones of the old temple courtyard and the buildings were in ruins; the things that hadn't been looted by unscrupulous hands had been destroyed by nature and time.
The forest had reclaimed the temple as its own, and trees pushed up even through the altar. The clay tiles from the roofs had been stripped away, and replaced by ferns, crawling vines, and cushions of moss.
Only a few items remained, reminded that people had once inhabited this place. Broken pottery, shattered clay lamps, rusted incense holders, and some un-recognizable bronze ware, were scattered everywhere on the moss-covered stone tiles.
One, significant yet torn by either time or bandits, was a tapestry hung in a form of an old rug on an alcove behind the altar.
And hey, talking of the altar. There's something weird on mine here.
