Vaeos (Zeno Lior) // God of Dawn, Hope, Healing // Mentions - None but open

“You don’t have to keep trying you know?” a man with short black hair and sky blue eyes spoke.

Vaeos chuckled and reached for another piece of wood, the remnants of a thick tree branch. He turned it round in his hand inspecting his chosen piece.

“What would you like to be?” Vaeos murmured as he carefully stripped the bark with the small knife in his hand.

Nakeem sighed, glancing over at the quite large pile of failed wood carvings. At this rate the god would have carved an entire trees worth of wood and still he couldn’t finish a single one. At least I wont have to chop firewood for a while.

How he ended up with a literal god sitting on the floor of his shop was a mystery. A few times a week for the past few months he would just show up. Suddenly he would just be there, sitting in the same spot, in the corner by the fire. Nakeem shook his head and turned to picked up an ax, heading for the door. He had to chop double the amount of wood just to have enough to fill his own orders.

Vaeos glanced up as the door closed, a smile pulling at the corner of his lips. This place was alway so warm. Taking a deep breath he inhaled the scent of fresh cut wood that hung in the air. Nakeem was indeed a master of his craft. Furniture, large intricate carvings, small cute figures, even the shop itself and the house attached to the back, he built with his own hands. Vaeos felt comfortable here, and the fact that Nakeem hasn’t kicked him out yet, keeps him wanting to come back.

Going back to the task at hand he replaced the knife in his hand with a pencil. He began sketching out the shape of what he wanted to carve. This piece of wood wants to be a bear he decided. Fire crackled and popped over his shoulder, warming his back. Only when he was working like this did his mind finally quite, focused solely on the work and nothing else.

Hours passed before Vaeos finally looked up again. His back and shoulders suddenly began to ache as he became aware of his body again. The sun has begun to set turning the sky a deep orange and blue. Standing from his seated position, Vaeos’s knees cracked.

“Man I’m getting old” He said stretching his arms over his head. Looking around the shop he began to notice how quiet it was.

“Nakeem?” He called out walking around to the back of the shop. He was no where to be found. Walking out the door to the back, the cool night air caressed his skin. There were no lights on in the house. Vaeos’s brows pulled together. He should have been back a while ago…

SNAP

~

Vaeos’s eyes quickly fluttered open looking for the source of the sound. Next to him a dry branch lay on the dry dirt. Ah thats right. The present was coming back to him now. He sat up from the tree he was leaning against. If you could even call it that anymore. Now it was nothing more that a dried up husk, along with the rest of the world.

Too much blood has been shed, too many lives lost. Now there is no one left. Vaeos sat with his legs crossed, head hanging in his hands. I’m so tired.

“We can start over creat a new world, a better world”

Those words rang in his head over and over, he doesn’t even remember who first suggested it. The mortals have all perished, the earth has consumed too much blood leaving it unable to grow. The birds don’t even fly anymore, if there are even any left. Its too late for this world. Soon nothing will be left.

“We can start over”

Would it even be possible. Could there be a world with no war.

Have hope, a voice whispered in the back of his mind like a gentle caress.

Vaeos removed his hands from his face, blood flecking his skin, his clothes. Some his own, most…

“Right…, hope..”

The voices pinpointed one memorie, from A time when he was truly happy, a time when he met a mortal. Many mortals had come and gone in his life. But this one, the one the voices where targeting. Ment the world to him.

"You could have saved him"

His hands moved up from being wrapped around his legs to the back of his neck.

"He would still be here, if it wasnt for you"

His heart rate increased, his breath becoming shallower as he grasped for air.

"The blood of the ones you love will spill by your hand"

Tears swelled in his eyes as his head raced through all the other gods, images of each one flashing in his mind.

"_Please"

His faint please cried out in a pathetic whisper.

"Your nothing without the others"

"^{Stop please. You don't mean that"}

His body reeked of pain, anger, solitude all mixed together to make the slumped over god in the corner of the dark room, as he shifted from his godlike state to his mortal one. As if the two where battling for dominance. And by the gods he knew, was it painful.

It felt like his skin was tearing apart each time it changed, his head like it was being ripped off, his inside like they where on fire.

Light gently illuminated the dark room, making the pain adorned on the floor and walls surrounding the young god in a deep crimson. “What are you doing here” his horse's voice as if strained from overuse. But no one answered, no one stood in that doorway. If you asked Caos to recall this moment, he would say, he would testify, plead. That someone was there. But no matter how hard he tried to defog the fiction, from reality. He couldn't. Four simple words, “I can't do this” were left empty in the lonesome room. So, he picked himself up. Staggering to the door, relying mostly on his upper body strength to hurl himself out of the ever engulfing darkness. He moved down the hall of the mortal-like house, he moved like a drunken mess of distorted shuffling. He weekly lifted his left hand , his fingernails adorned in torn bloodied nails with chipped blue nail polish. And as he snapped his fingers, he was consumed by a black inklike wave surrounding him, as it came crashing to the ground he was gone.

He collapsed to his knees, the soft haze of the gods realm hid the shriveled god. “To much” he whispered faintly “to far” he continued after various deep breaths “we need to fix this” he finished as his vision tunneled, leaving him there desperately trying to stay conscious