EXHAUSTION, SHOCK, AND FEAR THREATEN to drown me as I continue to lay in the snow, wanting to get up but so dreadfully tired.
I fight to keep my eyes open, but it's a losing battle. Thankfully, someone carefully scoops me up and begins to walk.
I force my eyes open to see that my carrier is Bailan, but before I can thank him, drowsiness takes over and I fall deep into the darkness of sleep.
I wake what feels a short time later, alone in a small room with a fire going, a rocking chair, and a stool with a cup of tea on it. It takes me a few minutes, but I come to recognize the room as my uncle's living quarters at the Greenery.
I'm rolled up in blankets, which I quickly fight my way out of, and stand. I'm not as shaky as I was before, strength having come back into my limbs. I walk to the rocking chair, and sit down to stop and think for a moment.
I'm still stunned. That a God other than Order would want me for his Champion. That a God would want me for a Champion period . That apparently I'm supposed to take down the most powerful and evil God in existence.
And of course it happens after the most painful and traumatic event in my life.
The door to the back room slides open, and I jump.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, kid," High Priestess Shana says softly. "May I come in?"
"Of course," I say, lowering my head respectfully.
Dressed in a flowing blue cloak with a high collar, High Priestess Shana seems to float in, and she takes the cup of tea off the stool and perches upon it. The stool, not the cup of tea. That would be weird.
Four feet and with short grey and black hair, Shana is a sharp, feisty old woman, and our only priestess. She isn't very old, maybe in her mid-sixties, but she looks quite young. I've known her since birth, as she used to work as the apothecary until Gaian was old enough to take over, having always had an odd knack for herbs. She's also a Sagewood, my great aunt, younger sister to Grandfather Arayek Sagewood, who long ago led some men to fight a battle against the Wild's creatures, and never returned.
"I would imagine you have some questions regarding our visitor today," Shana begins, "And of course, we do, too."
"Do you anything about Fate, Priestess?" I ask, curious about this mysterious God.
"Call me Aunt Shana, please," she replies, waving a hand dismissively. "We're still family."
"Aunt Shana, then," I agree. "Now, my question."
She grins for a moment, and then sighs. "We don't know much about Fate, however he was once a God worshipped by humans. As far as we know, the Gods don't get along so well, and things came to blows between Fate and Order. All that we've surmised is that Order must have won, and Fate served some sort of sentence as a prisoner in the Otherworld."
"And he finished serving it?" It seems plausible, and this is his way to get back into the swing of things.
"It would appear so. Either way, it's a good omen. Fate has taken us into his favor, and we will be saved yet. Order is barely able to hold his own against the Wild by himself, but with Fate and Fate's Champion? Surely the Wild won't stand a chance."
"But I can't kill the Wild!" I protest, leaning forward. "If Order can't subdue him, what makes you think I can?"
Shana shakes her head. "Believe me, I don't, kid. But if Fate says you must, you must." I open my mouth to protest, but she raises her hand to stop me. "It's possible he has some plan that it isn't apparent to us, but that's between you and him."
YOU ARE READING
Of Gods & Champions: Book I: Fate
FantasiIn a fierce ice age where the only humans are a small society that have been pushed to the brink of extinction by a sinister God called the Wild and his wicked creatures, adventure and danger wait. He's spread famine and frost across the world, and...