Gods of Malcea ✔️

T H I R T Y - T W O

"A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop words when speech becomes superfluous."

-Xamdú

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"You smell of a dragon."

Oraanu kept his head lowered as his soft words echoed into his ears. 

"No matter the number of times you bathe, the scent of them lingers on every inch of your body for days, weeks." 

He heard his footsteps drawing near, but he continued to bow his head.

"You did not know this, did you? If you had, you would have never whored yourself out quite so openly." Despite his words, his voice was gentle and warm like a soft caress.

He grabbed his chin forcing Oraanu's head up until he was gazing into a pair of fiery amber eyes. The deep color of his auburn hair fell down onto his naked chest. Oraanu wanted to look away, not wanting his gaze to meet his. His hot touch only grew and soon warm lips covered his. 

"Was his touches leaving you wanting, like this? Was his lips so soft and hot, like this? Had you thought it as love instead? Tell me, my little bird." 

Oraanu closed his eyes at the questions. 

For thousands of years, he had been with him.  He was not always this way. He watched as he had fallen in love and watched that love, that warmth, turn into bitterness and hatred. His voice gave him reason to believe so. It was laced in the regret of unsaid words, broken hearts, and longing. He had never, truly, loved him. Not how he loved her. He never could. 

He flung his head away from him and walked away causing Oraanu's breath to return.

 "Oraanu, I do not care."

"I had done as you asked," Oraanu stated.

"As you always will." Oraanu watched as his eyes cut away from him as if he were some insignificant thing.

"Ake is a favorite of yours, so why? Why are you doing this to him? He loves and reveres you." 

He laughed and combed his hair through his locks continuing his walk towards his bed. Oraanu knew he paid no mind to his words. They were like pebbles of sand. As he heard him lay down, Oraanu rose and walked close to him. 

"Yet, you are steadfast in your stubborn ways of turning him against you. I do not understand." 

"If Ake had done as I wished, during their first encounter, he would not have felt the burn of my rejection of his most purest of prayers. He would not have had to feel that wretched ache in his heart, broken by one and pieced together by another," he mumbled into one of his many pillows. 

"Since his birth, you had made me take an oath to guard and protect him with my life. You had said those words. Are you so willing to take them back now? You are—"

"Do not question me," he heard the bite in his voice but he carried on. 

"Are you, perhaps, envious of what he has that you, as great as you are, cannot?" 

The sting of a slap swelled across his face. It caused tears to prick at his eyes from the sheer amount of pain it inflicted. All he did was press his hand against it and turned his eyes away. 

"You dare to defy me? You dare to mock me?" He rose from the bed and hovered over Oraanu like a scolding father. "Still you do not apologize." 

Oraanu sighed.

"There had been many gods before me, but I am one of the greatest!" he roared. 

"Then show it. Show me this greatness you speak of. He is a child of your creation, yet you are so willing to abandon him for him losing his way?"