Chapter Text
The lamb left The One Who Waits... waiting.
After the awful woolly creature had done him the most intense insult of sparing his life following their battle, Narinder had felt the power of the crown, his power, lift his new small, weak, partially mortal form into the air while the lamb’s eyes glowed red in front of him. Then came the horribly unpleasant sensation of being wrapped in ichor as he was dragged quickly and unwillingly into a pocket dimension.
As the pocket dimension cradled him in the clingy black substance which swirled around him in dizzying patterns, Narider felt a sensation he had not experienced in a very long time, not since he became a god. The ex-god of death felt physically ill. He squeezed all three of his eyes shut tightly and tried to ignore his other senses to stop himself from emptying the contents of his freshly mortal stomach, which would only be acid since he hadn’t consumed any food in over a thousand years.
He realised at once how being trapped in his own domain, as bright and sterile as it was, was at least better than being stuck here, and as his mind swirled with disorientation he almost found himself wishing in the moment to turn back the clock. What had that damned lamb done to him now? Tricked him into thinking they had spared his life, only to thrust him into a fresh new hellish prison?
Of course, logically behind his brief panic, Narinder knew what was actually happening. He knew the powers of his crown, he knew that he was simply being transported back to the lamb’s cult. But it felt like it was taking an awfully long time, perhaps because of all the unpleasant sensations of both the environment itself and him suddenly being thrust into a mortal form.
Eventually, mercifully, he was abruptly ejected from the pocket dimension, which spit him straight up into the air a few feet, before he came crashing back down onto hard stone. This first contact with the physical world literally knocked all of the air out of his lungs. He lay on the hard surface for a while in a daze, with his eyes still firmly squeezed shut, and panting fresh air into his lungs for the first time in millennia. Breathing hurt at first, perhaps he had bruised something in the fall, though the pain seemed to ease after a while.
Reluctantly, Narinder slowly cracked open his eyes to survey his surroundings, only to find that the world was not a lot brighter than the blackness behind his eyelids. He realised it was night time, and the space around him was only illuminated by the gentle glow of a few candles and lanterns, along with the wheeling stars in the cosmos above. After the bright whiteness of his own domain for so long, this was very dark for Narinder, and so it took quite a while for his eyes to start to adjust and his cat night vision to kick in. While they were doing just that, he decided to haul his body up into a sitting position.
Normal people may have described the world as quiet, as given the late hour there was no activity of followers in the cult. But for a god who had been trapped in an almost silent realm for thousands of years, the night was unbelievably loud. The chirps and buzzes of frogs and insects filled the night air. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance. The cat’s sensitive hearing could even pick up the sounds of followers moving around in their shelters, which were situated not very far from the indoctrination circle.
The transportation had rattled Narinder around so much that he had momentarily forgotten about the great injustice that had just occurred. But after sitting quietly in the cool night air for a few moments, it all started flooding back into him. The indignation he had felt at his vessel’s refusal to give up the crown’s power and return it to their god who they had so faithfully served right up until the final hour. The resentment quickly building up in him at what he had been reduced to now. Small, weak, helpless. Just like they had been before he had so graciously lent them his power.
They wanted him to follow them ? It was a completely preposterous notion! He was their god, they his loyal servant up until their betrayal. Narinder would never bow to the lamb’s authority! He would take back what was rightfully his, and crush the fluff ball into the dirt in the process. They should have killed him when they had the chance, and now it was going to cost them dearly.
Feeling reinvigorated from his loathing, Narinder quickly got to his feet, eyes darting around as he stepped towards the edge of the stone circle. He wasn’t expecting the invisible barrier, and crashing straight into it sent him falling backwards onto his ass on the cold hard stones. Narinder blinked in bewilderment before reaching up and rubbing his nose which had taken the brunt of the force of his long stride straight into the barrier, his whiskers and ears twitching in irritation as he did so.
Eventually Narinder shook his head quickly to clear it, and then scowled up at the barrier in front of him that he couldn’t even see. Slowly and carefully, he got to his feet again and approached it, reaching out one clawed finger of his paw to touch it. He felt the hardness of its surface under his paw pad, and it didn’t hurt him or anything, just impeded any movement forward. It was right on the edge of the stone circle, so keeping one hand against it, Narinder started walking around the circumference of the circle.
Sure enough, as Narinder suspected, the invisible wall encircled the entirety of the indoctrination platform. He stopped and pulled his paw away for a moment, feeling his posture deflate a little. Then he scowled, and brought his paw up to pinch the bridge of his nose just below his third eye in irritation. Of course, he was trapped once again. From prison to prison to prison. Things simply couldn’t get any better.
After a while he sighed and let his paw drop back down by his side, his ears twitching in annoyance again. Then, since he had nothing better to do there alone in the dead of night, he reached out to the barrier once more and began exploring it more thoroughly, looking for any sort of gap or weak point, even if he was fairly sure he would find none. He even tried pressing both paws up against it and attempted to summon any of his powers, but nothing came of it.
Narinder then pressed his face up against the barrier and felt a strange wetness forming in his eyes. It felt different than ichor, and as soon as he realised what it was he quickly pulled his face away from the barrier and desperately rubbed the water out of his eyes. He was not going to cry here, not even out of frustration. Not even because he had lost everything that he had waited so long for. Gods didn’t cry.
The demi-deity quickly pulled himself together, before leaning back against the barrier and slowly sinking down into a sitting position on the stone circle, drawing his knees up to his chest. Once his vision was completely cleared he started scanning the area around him. At least it was something new to look at, after staring at the same view of bright whiteness and chains for so long.
Narinder’s eyes eventually fully adjusted to the darkness, and that’s when he noticed something out there in the dark. A puff of white wool peering out from behind a tree. All three of Narinder’s eyes narrowed at this, glaring at the spying lamb with searing hatred. The lamb seemed to realise they had been caught, and so emerged from their hiding place, giving Narinder a nervous smile as they approached the circle.
“Have you been watching me this whole time?” Narinder snapped with agitation, glaring up at the lamb from where he sat. He felt too exhausted to get to his feet, even though he hated the feeling of his vessel looking down at him. Though they seemed so oddly tall now that even if he were on his feet they would probably still stand over him. Since when had the little lamb grown so much?
“I… well… maybe…” the lamb said avoidantly, trying to appear innocent. Though they were no longer as cute as they had once been so many years ago, and no matter the expression they were wearing, those horizontal pupils were always slightly unsettling.
“Why?” Narinder quickly spat out the question in a vitriolic tone.
“I wanted to see how you were taking everything that just happened…” the lamb said with uncertainty, shifting their weight from one hoof to the other and fiddling with their paws in front of them.
“Oh, I’m just great!” Narinder exclaimed in a burst of sarcasm. “There is nothing I love more than getting usurped and stripped of my god hood by an insignificant, traitorous little vessel,” he continued to glare daggers at the lamb while he spoke. “In fact, we should do it again sometime! Except this time I’ll be the usurper, taking back the power that is rightfully mine!”
The lamb looked uneasy. “I think… maybe you should stay in there for a while until you cool down a bit…” they said in probably what was supposed to be a soothing tone, but it only made fury shoot through Narinder’s veins while his fur stood on end and his tail whipped back and forth across the stone. “Plus… we don’t have any spare shelters at the moment…”
The last statement made Narinder snarl a little bit. “You presume that I am going to stay here, with you, once I get out of this circle?” he snapped spitefully. “Why did you spare me? Why do you want me to join your now redundant cult? What is the purpose of my continued existence?”
The lamb at least had the good graces to look a bit sheepish at that tirade. But then they seemed to rally themselves enough to reply. “I wanted a friend…” they said softly, glancing away.
The answer hit Narinder like a stone thrown to the face. He stared at them in silence for a moment, slack jawed, before pulling himself together and speaking again. “You think that after you betrayed me, and stole everything that was mine, that I would want to be your friend? You are more delusional than I thought!” his tone was on the edge of manic now. “Besides, you already have friends! You are surrounded by them!”
The lamb’s soft face contorted into an expression that told Narinder that they disagreed with his assessment in some way. “But they all die so quickly… do you know what it’s like being surrounded by people all the time but to feel so utterly alone?” they explained softly, their expression falling. “And I hoped that you…” they trailed off and went silent, looking at the ex-deity intently.
Narinder suddenly felt a horrible sensation in his head. It felt almost indescribable, but something like tentacles slick with ichor touching his mind, his thoughts. He recoiled in disgust, and then looked up to see the lamb was smiling.
“Yes! You are immortal, just like I had hoped!” they cheered softly in celebration.
“Don’t you ever touch my thoughts again you disgusting creature!” Narinder hissed at them, trying to scramble away from them but being held in place by the invisible barrier at his back.
“Oh, sorry,” the lamb said quietly, looking at Narinder with a sense of concern that only served to sicken him even further. “Look I’ll… I’ll leave you to calm down for a while… and look into building a new shelter for you…”
“You still really think I’m going to stick around?” Narinder stared at them in clear dismay.
“Well, where else will you go? Just because you are immortal does not mean you are indestructible. The forests are still teeming with heretics that will destroy anyone in their paths, including you,” the lamb explained calmly.
“I’ll destroy them first!” Narinder snarled, a low growl escaping his throat and his ears pinning back against his head.
The lamb gave him a bemused look, which made him want to tear them limb from limb. “You seem very weak at the moment. I don’t think you will get very far.”
“Just watch me, insolent fool!” Narinder snapped again, baring his teeth at his adversary.
The lamb sighed, then gave an over exaggerated shrug. “We will talk more later when you have cooled off,” they said plainly, before they turned on their heels and started walking away, fleece billowing behind them like a cape.
“Wait, you can’t just leave me here!” Narinder yelled out after them as they disappeared into the darkness. The moment they were gone, the cat was suddenly yanked into the air again, and only had a moment to let out a cry of dismay before he was plunged back into the horrible pocket dimension.