Shay’s life had just begun. He finally had a job, a way to stop relying on the charity of the Sun God's temple. But unfortunately, he relied on the generosity just a little too long and he found himself sitting atop a stage, adorned with jewels and gold, about to die.
The priest told him to be grateful, a useless member of society like Shay would get a free ticket to heaven and his name would go down in history as the one who brought back the sun and stopped the endless rain.
And so there was Shay, kneeling on an altar on the edge of a cliff as the rain pelted his back. All he wore was a thin white cloth around his waist that truly hid nothing when it was soaked through as it was now. He shivered in the freezing rain, the gold chains around his neck, hanging off his ears, from his wrists and ankles, jingled, covering up the sound of his teeth chattering in when the wind blew. His black hair was plastered to the sides of his head and only that hair on his head was left, they had shaved every other inch of his body, bathed him with perfumed oils, fed him an elegant meal. Well at least I’ll die full and clean now if only I was warm and dry.
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Behind Shay, the shaman raised his ritual knife over his head. The people listened with bated breath as he raised his prayer's to the Sun God Shisu. When his prayer petered out, Shay raised his chin in depressed resignation.
But before the knife was pressed to his throat, the rain clouds parted and the sun shone onto the stage and blinded the onlookers. When Shay opened his eyes he saw a figure descending from the sky. A man with long, gold hair and golden robes. His bare feet alighted on the stage, his ankles wrapped with gold chains with dangling orange jewels, and his golden eyes looked at Shay with a soft, warm gaze.
Then he looked up, took two large strides towards the altar, stopped right in front of it, and reached for the shaman behind Shay. He took the ritual knife and with a big wind-up, chucked it into the deep lake the stage overlooked. As the shaman attempted to stammer respect to his god, The Sun God scooped Shay up in his arms and started to float back up to the sky, without a single word.
Feeling the Sun God's warmth against his rain soaked skin, only one thought entered Shay’s mind, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!