Chapter Text
This isn't a story about revenge as it may seem,
our fair maiden found the sun, and now she's bursting from within!
– goodness to be granted endless warmth to burn clayware into ash, to will molten metal into its cache–?
with enough fire to turn a boy into a man, might as well set the maiden ablaze, let her bones speak truth of the jouster within, oh– what shall we do with a knight in our mists?
greet him with fervor, or a fist?
"That's an interesting choice," a young voice makes its way out of the cave in, and Kylo freezes unused to,–"gods answering?" The god asks, then a pair of shining eyes opens within the darkness, they are red, but not like blood is red, there's a hue of orange underneath this redness, the color of flames.
"They don't, not anymore. I am not the one you seek. I am no god– only a message that…" the glowing eyes look away from Kylo's visage, "… had long expired."
He has no idea what to say, so he keeps his mouth shut.
"Therefore I have no need for your sacrifice, nor your worship, but–" Kylo looks down at what he had brought– a slaughtered hound with a robin in its belly. He had killed the dog for nothing. He wipes the blood off his hands against the wet grass that he's kneeling in.
"Dear witch. It was not for nothing, and as I said I have no need for it, but I do appreciate the thought– it's quite… poetic."
Kylo remains silent.
"Are you being hunted?"
… He nods his head letting his overgrown hair cover his bruised face.
"I know how that feels."
Kylo doubts it, and then he panics because he definitely shouldn't; this creature can read his thoughts, and he doesn't know what it might do if it doesn't like them. He can feel his body begin to sweat.
The creature– the man– the thing, doesn't comment, not about this particular train of thought at least.
"What a young man as thee would be running from, I wonder?"
Kylo almost gets up at that sentence, first he's afraid that someone else entered the clearing, then he's confused, because why had it called him that–?
"I see soul, not flesh. You present as you are before my eyes, there's no need for human queries here. We're in a forest, not a chapel of this foreign religion that infested these lands many centuries ago–"
"–you see my soul?" Kylo asks at which the creature laughs dryly.
"He speaks! I was beginning to think that they might've cut off your tongue. If it's as putrid as your mind then I'm surprised they didn't."
Kylo's cheeks burn from embarrassment mixed with fear, and a strange giddy feeling of being referred to as a man – this is not what he was expecting, he knew this creature was no devil, but from what the other witches told him the older forgotten deities were often malevolent, terrifying even, and definitely not so talkative.
"I am not a deity," the creature corrects him yet again. He sounds a little annoyed.
"I don't know what else to call you," frustration takes seed within him, he was born quick to anger and no matter how many times he was beaten for it his proximity to the feeling never dwindled, only burned brighter. The creature doesn't respond, so Kylo sighs and gets up on shaky mud-stained legs.
"You said you are a messenger," the creature nods, bright eyes going up and down.
"What is the message?"
The Messenger tilts his head, he steps closer, close enough for Kylo to see the shape of his silhouette– he looks human, mostly. There's a tilt to his neck that goes a little too far, and his body is tall and slim in an unnatural sort of way, his legs look strange, and something like a– cape drapes from his shoulders. If not for his eyes Kylo would be already running away– they shine unnaturally, yes– but they feel strangely human, not harmless, not entirely, more… there's a willingness to listen within them, willingness for peace. Something Kylo himself struggles to obtain at times.
"That depends on who shall receive it."
"What about me?"
"You don't need one"
Sudden sadness burns his heart, as always; Kylo is not meant for anything at all, but before he can voice the displeasure the creature says;
"You already know what to do."
"Do I !–? " he yells in frustration, "I came here to ask for help–"
"–and did you?"
"I- what?"
"You haven't asked."
"But you aren't a god, you said so yourself!"
"That lays true, yet I don't seem to recall dismissing you, but perhaps it's because you have yet to ask."
"Will you… help me?"
"Yes I shall, and better so–" he steps into the light, "we will help each other."
The moment the light hits the creature's head Kylo gasps. The man's face is strange, with bones that are far too pointy, and a nose too large, it's pointed downwards, covered in thick shiny material like– scales?– no! no- it's a beak! a bird's beak.
He doesn't have time to get a good look at it because as more sunlight hits him the man's in-human qualities light on fire, and as they burn their ashes get taken by the wind leaving the creature's face changed into something more resembling a regular person. The same thing happens to the wings attached to the man's arms, wings that Kylo thought were just a simple coat.
He's mesmerized by the transformation, by the shifting of flames and the cloud of smoke they leave behind as the man's body shifts.
What was once a creature appears completely human before him. He looks like a man Kylo's age, and other than his beautiful almost androgynous appearance, slightly too light blue irises, and unnaturally bright ginger hair he could pass as a regular man if covered in appropriate attire, and given enough dirt to harden his features.
He's so focused on the man's naked form, especially at an arrow protruding from one of his thighs that he doesn't notice him coming closer, only a cough from the stranger makes him look up. They are the same height, he's eye to eye with the man right now.
It feels strangely intimate.
"I believe that our introductions are overdue," he extends his pale hand towards Kylo who grabs it without thinking just to jolt back from the sheer heat the man is emitting. He was on fire just a second ago, so he supposes it makes sense.
The creature doesn't voice his pleasures from Kylo's reaction, but a cruel smirk still appears on his flushed face.
"How do you wish to be called, witch?"