Hiseo paced the entrance to his shrine, the long skirts of his robe twisting around his ankles. The silver and onyx bands there rung with the sound of bells, but they fell dull to the landscape. Open countryside spread out for miles around his little mountain, showing trees to the south and a valley in the east. There, a small village nestled against a stream bed. No blue water glistened there though, only a dirty trickle. The yellow grass stalks waved in a faint breeze all the way to his home. Or perhaps he should say, originating from it. All around him was brown with thirst and this was all his fault.

Spinning away from the valley view, Hiseo returned to the cave that hid behind heavy doors. Such was the home of a god, no doubt as the humans below would say, and they would not be wrong. The dragon deity had ruled over them for long, but he’d grown weary of the life. The rain that he used to bring and the waterfalls that sang for him ran dry years ago and yet he couldn’t make the landscape ring with bells. This was all his fault.

The sun would set in hours and he knew that the usual routine would repeat. For the past several months, the village had sent him a human sacrifice on the first of the second week. The first one had been a child and he sent them away. The second was an old woman who he spent days talking with until the days blurred into nights, but her age proved too much for rituals or company. The grave just down the hill still had fresh dirt and roses placed on top. Come midnight though, he would have a new sacrifice. A new sacrifice and perhaps a new chance at renewal. Starting to pace again, he couldn’t stop the constant whirring of his mind and the questions there—the least of which was, would he accept what had been given?