The last, aged priest of a God is searching for an apprentice to take on the scriptures and learn the proper rites before it becomes nothing but a curiosity for scholars rather than a living, breathing practice linking people over millennia. -- Deathshead419
Karkaul, High Priest of the Volcano God, was looking for an orphan, an unwanted child, or one in bad circumstances to take under her wing. The greys of age were already showing on her temples. She needed the time to teach, and one who had no other options than to learn. Mostly because she was the last priest of the Volcano God.
It didn't help that the Volcano God was quiet, and had been for hundreds of years. Karkaul had been taught that the Volcano God was sleeping, and keeping them asleep was a good idea. The last time the Volcano God was in full power and full rage, entire cities had died.
Lives were in the balance, and Karkaul could not find a prentice.
She didn't want to think of what would happen if the Volcano God wasn't sung to any more. The absence of song and praise might make them angry. And when the Volcano God got angry... the entire island could die. The entire island chain may become a whole new island at the cost of all those living there.
With no unwanted or otherwise available children, there was only one thing she could do.
Karkaul went to the cauldera at the top of the sacred mountain, bearing a large jar of the strongest alcohol she could get and a cage of chickens. It was time to talk to the Volcano God directly.
She built a small altar of convenient stones. Sacrificed the chickens in the prescribed ways, and poured the alcohol over the entire set-up before setting it aflame. Kneeling with her arms wide, she sang the song of an open heart. If her god was there at all... the Volcano God would take Karkaul's body and lead her to where she needed to be.
She learned, that night, that the Volcano God had more than one way to take her body.
Karkaul woke the next morning with her body tingling all over and her clothes neatly folded some paces away from where she lay. Her body felt better than it had in decades. The familiar creaks and aches were gone. And so was a certain sagginess that came with age, as well as the greys in her hair.
The Volcano God had answered her prayers for a child, all right. And for the time to teach it.
Karkaul was in her prime, and gifted the prime of health. And also now pregnant to the Volcano God.
On the other hand, she now had proof to show her flock that the miracles of her god were possible.
[Photo by Soliman Cifuentes on Unsplash]
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