Crushing Hugs

Dharen had not for any better words, been given a hug in a long long time. Even back on Earth due to where he lived, he rarely was able to see any of his remaining family, so this kind of touch. The kind where someone truly cares had not happened in so long, that now he found himself barely able to remember the feeling.

But, it was definitely not tackled to the floor.

"Renna…." He managed to get out while wheezing, "What are you doing?" This he only managed to say fully as she had begun to loosen her grip on him allowing him to breathe far more normally alongside that of being able to stand upright without the threat of suddenly falling over.

"Dharen, where did you disappear to?! You have been gone for hours?!" Her questions stunned Dharen, although that could also have been due to her yelling straight into his ears. But still, he did not think that he had been gone that long. It should have been impossible for him to have been gone for that long, it had been a few hours at best. 

"How long exactly have I been gone Renna?" His words filled with confusion, as he looked down at her, his eyes wide. 

She looking uo into his eyes for a moment, as if looking for an unseen joke then let out a worried sigh. "It has been over five hours now, you are lucky that are no more exams today or else this would have gone very badly for you today."

Hearing her words, he once more fell into more of a shocked silence. He did not feel that much time had passed at all, there was no way so much had passed. It should have been a couple of hours at most, from the walk up here to entering the temple and speaking with Athena. The moment Athena came into his mind however, his face became troubled. 

The conversation, however much one-sided, had given him very little information but more worry, he had been warned of his future by the Deity and yet he did not see how it would be so bleak. All that he expected for his future would be a few peaceful years at the academy and then making his way to the plateau where he would be able to find a place to live quietly and avoid most of the conflict that the region was filled with.

"Dharen…Why did you come out from the Olympain's temple too?" Renna's voice now soft slowly reached his ears, and as he heard her he looked back to her, slightly downwards due to her size compared to him. 

He looked at her for a moment unsure of what it was that he should say. As he thought that if he mentioned that he had been talking to a Goddess, or that he had pledged himself to her, it would cause problems.

Deciding quickly on what to say however, he soon spoke, "I was walking around here for a while, and then I thought I saw a light inside, so I got curious and went in, but there was nothing there, so I guess I was imagining things."

Renna looked at him suspiciously but did not say anything more to him.

"Come on for now, as we are here we might as well leave an offering." She then effectively dragged him off and forced him into the temple for the Dragon Cult.

"It is one of the oldest temples you know? This place was one of the first built after the crusade and unlike the later temples dedicated to the Imperial Cult, being a more twisted version of the Dragon Cult, which includes that worship of the Imperial Dynasty as well, this place is truly for the Dragon Cult."

She then stopped speaking as she marvelled at the walls, and Dharen would have been lying if he had said that he was not intrigued by the walls as well, they contained murals of the past events, some of them by the looks of it going back thousands of years. Nearest to the entrance was a man leading what looked like an army onto ships and leaving an island. This Renna pointed out was the crusader, and that was the start of his crusade.

The images showed battles at sea, then the fall of the first Imperium, with a figure appearing to have blown him or herself up. After that point far more was shown, from Dragons and entire armies, then even further back were people riding on dragons themselves. 

To that Renna giggled, "It is amazing you know Dharen, that people who first made this really did have some insane and crazy ideas about what it must have been like in the past." 

Looking at the mural, Dharen could not help but wonder if it was an idealised version of the truth or if something like this was the norm, a long time ago.

The two then finally made their way into the main chamber of the temple, which had a mural painted and carved all over the ceiling depicting the origin of the Dragons, alongside the Dragon Gods long before they had fallen.

It was an amazing site for sure, but looking up at the scene, Dharen knew inside that he could never worship so beings wholeheartedly, if he were to worship a God or well deity, it would be a humanoid one and secondly and most importantly, and this may be selfish to most people, he would worship a deity who could support him and give him blessings.

For too long he had been on Earth where no prayers were answered. It was different here, he had already received a blessing just for accepting Athena and he felt that as he progressed on this near impossible task that he had been given that there would be more blessings that would come for him over time. 

"Well Dharen, which do you worship? Io, the first Dragon? Or Sardior, Lord of the Stars? Faluzure, the celestial? Or Bahamut, Lord of the Abyss?" 

Dharen though did not reply to her, he did not feel at all that this was his place to worship any of these Dragon Gods, but he did feel more drawn to Io and Bahamut than the rest, but in his image Bahamut seemed to be cruel and malevolent, so looking at Io, Dharen groaned inside, and walked over to the first Dragons shrine. 

Renna said nothing, as she walked over to Bahamut's shrine instead. Then she lit some incense and took a position as if she was meditating and waited silently. Dharen simply copied her actions, and he just waited looking up at the shrine for this long fallen Deity.