God, this isn't a dream?

When morning came, the sun peaked above the surface of the desert sands leaving wakes of orange sunlight in its wake. Signs of the previous rain from last night have already been swept away by the sands to be buried. Jayus woke for a start with the sunlight on his face, trying to pry open his eyes. The same scenery greeted him just like every day- he could see the vast sands out the balcony, he knew the exact number of books from the top to bottom that hugged the walls, and he knew which floorboards would creak under his foot. God's typically don't eat to live nor do they need sleep for energy but when you've beens tuck inside a tower with nothing to do then eating, sleeping and loafing around can become a pretty trained skill that Jayus has ever obtained. In fact, if eating, sleeping and loafing was a contest then Jayus was set for The Genesis world record breaker! The first time he'd make a habit of sleeping was during the second year of his seclusion after finishing all the books in his tower. The sun had been pretty warm and unlike most days when the heat would become unbearable, the air would feel suffocating, and the sand would blow against his balcony door leaving him only the sight of moving dust all week long, that time the breeze had brought along with it a gentle touch, clouds hung from the sky as it left a momentary shade in its wake. The quiet afternoon had lulled him to sleep. When he awoke, night had fallen and stars flickered briefly in the sky. He blinked. For him it seemed not a second had passed, however the sun had rose to the sky once more, telling him that the next day had finally arrived. Drowsiness and a hint of exhaustion clung to his eyes as he stared dazed at the sun. Going back to sleep would not let him out of this prison, but neither does waking up. Seeing as how there was no reason to remain awake, there was also no consequences to going back to sleep. Thus, the dark skinned man with vibrant red eyes, blinked restlessly as he lay limp on the messy bundles of a bed, finally closed them again and went back to sleep. The same process repeated for a few more days, arising with little energy, going back to bed, feeling tired as he awoke, laying down to sleep. With him came the rising and setting of the same until he finally awoke, finding a new sense of energy as he stretched out his arms. Long legs kicked off all the sheets and on to the floor as he made his way to the balcony. When he had first been damned in this tower, the lesser gods had gifted him an eternal plant which changed along with the seasons on the other side of the world where they resided. The blossom had bloomed a beautiful pink hue at that time, spreading it's petals proudly as it's leaves reached for the sun. Now that same flower had spent it's time- gorgeous, bright petals lay at the foot of it's pot, stems that had been a vibrant green had changed over the course of autumn and winter. What once had been a gorgeous petunia had gone through withering and now grew into a new plant- a potted magnolia.

Two seasons. Two seasons had gone by in the time he was asleep. Two seasons went by in a second. Not even when Jayus was in heaven did something like this ever happen. New things have been happening for the first time in his immortal life since coming here on earth.

Sending his sheets off the bed, the god strolled leisurely down the stairs and into his living room. The walls had been made with cobblestones, decorated barely with only dust and the occasional pages of books torn by his hands in a poor attempt at wall decor. He had given up midway from covering an entire wall with "How to Grow a Decent Person: A guide to Jobless Jerks" after he discovered the book had been written by the same god who had accused him. Now the wall held ten pages of the book stuck on top of each other with the words: "A decent person starts with being a decent human being. One must first turn to the god Peonie."

Jayus regretted it then and there as his hands itched to tear up the papers from the wall but couldn't come to tear it off when a scorpion began to crawl on the papers. So he left it alone that day and never came back to tear it down for fear the scorpion hid within those pile of papers.

The living room being just a carpeted floor littered with numerous items to help him pass time. The open books were strewn across the floors with pages of Jayus' favorite parts of each book, one of these strewn books being the one he had torn apart for some indoor decoration. On one corner of the room held accessories of all kind, a few blades and weapons that Jayus used to master before his eviction, and of course- A mask from Northern Kataroth. Jayus stared at it briefly, a bit puzzled at this blue, gold rimmed mask. This had been the first time he'd ever seen that mask, much less, it originated from Northern Kataroth that exists barely an entire continent from where Jayus resides. There had been no way he owned this important relic and lacked knowledge about it being here after all these years but here he was. The Northern Kataroth relic sitting on his floor like some child's discarded toy. I don't own that relic. There is no way he could have owned that relic.

"Oh hey, you're awake!" Called a voice from behind him. Aghast, Jayus' face turned pale, then blue, and eventually, slowly, as if he couldn't believe he had heard it right, turned towards the door that lead outside to the desert. In his daze and sleep, he failed to notice as soon as he got down, the door that had been closed all this time, was now left wide open to reveal the young man Jayus had let in the previous night. Jayus blinked, then he blinked twice, for good measure he rubbed his eyes roughly to make his he had woken up and this wasn't some a hundred-days-sleep-dream. He felt conflicted. The emotions of being ridiculously surprised and feeling a heavy dread fought gallantly within himself as it battled obviously on his face with his mouth bobbing open and close, much like a fish on land. The young man had been oblivious to this god's reactiong as he remained under the shed of his tiny tent that he had set up as soon as he awoke. He hovered over a hot grill as he fanned it gently. The sun flared from high above, to counter the heat, Hera unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up his sleeves, not bothering to have just taken it off, he had pulled his long, black hair into a high ponytail. Sweat glistened across his skin, slowly trecking down his neck and down his chest. When Jayus first met him last night, he could barely catch a glimpse of this man but now he could see him in full clarity. Jayus could easily, distinctly catch his pale, refined body. Although Hera didn't technically seem strong, he was well built. The countless travels and exercise being well imprinted into his figure. Jayus could easily make out the moles on his face and on the back of his neck. Meat took a lot of time to cook, and fire was something that needed to be tamed when cooking, so when Hera woke up along with the sun peaking from the horizon, he had diligently picked up a large sheet, built himself a fort for shade and set up his tiny grill that he carried for travelling. By the time Jayus had woken up, Hera was already setting down two slices of beef each on two. He crouched down, knee digging into sand as he reached for his backpack on the side and took out a tiny bottle. From where he crouched, Jayus couldn't quite see what had been inside that bottle but Hera turned to peek at him from his shoulder, anticipation written across his smile as he poured a generous drop on both plates before reaching one of them out to Jayus who remained feet planted by the door.

"What's that?" Jayus asked.

"A token of my appreciation," Arm stretched out, he waited for Jayus to take the plate but no matter how many seconds had passed Jayus still hadn't stepped closer to retrieve his share. "You already gave me a token last night or did that not count?" By now, Hera's arm had started to hurt but he still held on as they continued the conversation. "I thought you didn't accept it 'cause you didn't like it," Hera tilted his head, nudging the plate into Jayus direction, urging him to take the plate, "Does that mean you actually liked it all along? Regardless, you should take the food. I made it specially for you after all."

I made it specially for you. I made it. For you. Those words echoed in Jayus mind. Gods typically receive offerings and they would be specially for a specific god. For a small god such as Jayus, he had only received second hand offerings or what would be called consolation prizes for people who were afraid to offend a god. For the first time, Jayus received something that was specially made for him and him alone. He stared at the grilled meat on the plate, then his eyes lingered briefly at the young man grinning at him. Like some trance, Jayus raised his hand to reach over before he froze, his hand hovering in place.

"Come over here!" He called over. At the demand, Hera wasted no time padding over the sizzling sand and inside the comforting shade of the tower, the occasional oww and ahh leaving his lips as the sand burned his feet before he sighed in relief at the cold stone of the tower. As soon as Hera stepped inside, Jayus took the plate from his hands before he pushed the door closed. "Should we eat on the floor?" Hera suggested but Jayus raised a sharp brow at him and gave him a pensive look before walking pass him and sitting by a table in front of a window overlooking the desert of endless sand. Hera quickly followed, sitting across the god. The scenery outside was not all that exciting but compared to anything else, the occasional breeze carrying the sand was more than nothing. Over breakfast, Hera had done all the talking. For a man he had just met, Jayus found Hera to be too trusting. Hera talked about his countless travels all around the world, of his discoveries, his origins, and of how he ended up lost in the desert and in front of Jayus door. All the while Jayus chewed quietly at his grilled beef. The god didn't find anything odd or out of place in Hera's stories, none of them seemed to explain how Hera had gone pass the barrier and ending up in front of his doorstep. Hera didn't seem to be affected by divine element at all. If those gods up there were still monitoring him, then they'd fix this mishap as soon as possible. Jayus swallowed, he'd give it a day before they erase Hera's memories and kick him out.

A day had passed and soon came a third day of Hera's stay in this hidden tower. For the pass couple days, no gods from heaven had shown signs of any indication that they knew of the mortal man inside the supposed ward off tower. Thus, Jayus made no action to try and communicate with anyone from above. Why should he? Monitoring this tiny tower wasn't his responsibility after all, he is just living within it. Over the course of Hera's stay, he had cleaned the entire tower from top to bottom until it shone. The carpet which riddled with years worth of hidden sand now felt soft and clean under Jayus' feet with the use of a magic stone Hera acquired. The bundles of sheets Jayus had hoarded on his bed were now neat and clean, it smelled of a faint scent of flowers that Jayus facored. The scent wasn't all that strong for him to hate but distinct enough to be pleasant. Books were neatly organized back into the shelves with a corresponding category. Hera hesitated picking up the books on the floor when he asked why they'd been left open and Jayus had responded he'd favored those pages. He didn't have the heart to casually pick up the book closed and have Jayus loosing these parts of the pages, so he dug his hand into his bag, rummaging until he found a small rectangular box. Jayus languidly lied, on the floor, hand resting behind his head as he flipped through the book Hera brought along with him. Through the corner of phoenix eyes, Jayus curiously watched this young man pick up intricately designed, rectangular metal bookmarks from the wooden box. Hera placed one bookmark each on every book that Jayus had left on the floor before closing it and tucking the books respectively on their categorized shelf. The brown haired god did not mind whether if Hera had just shoved those books wherever he wanted however that mortal seemed to think otherwise.

"Won't you need those bookmarks for yourself? They seem rather....expensive," Jayus craned his neck to be able to stare at Hera from behind him. Hera only turned with a smile. Careless behavior seemed to run in this man's blood, ever since he arrived here the other day, Hera had done nothing but cater to Jayus' needs in the pretense that he simply wanted to repay the favor of letting him stay for a day. But a day had turned into a couple days and the repay Hera talked about had him leaving his valuables in Jayus' home. Just the day before, Hera refurnished every furniture in Jayus' Tower, using at least an entire bottle of refurnishing potion to do so. After that, he'd use a relic to reach the ceiling and brighten up the dark corners of the tower. By noon, after his little nap, Jayus would find Hera tending to the magnolia at the balcony. Things that Jayus could easily do with his own magic but haven't for some forsaken reason had been finished by Hera with the use of his hard-earned materials. To be completely honest, Jayus felt guilty about it but Hera had waved away his concern with a hand and said: "Don't be, I won't be using them anyways."

"Hm...not really. I travel a lot, that means I'll eventually find more stuff to hoard. It's come to the point where even my daneirit can't take in more stuff anymore. It's best I just give it all away," Hera placed another bookmark between pages before tucking the book in the shelf. Daneirits are bags that usually carry a limitless amount of items and materials for travellers and are enchanted by mages in rich cities. For adventurers, travellers and merchants, daneirits were considered a luxury only very few could acquire. It is also nearly impossible to for daneirits to reach a limit. Jayus pondered what kind of traveller Hera had to be to actually render a daneirit useless. "Whatever," Had been Jayus reply at that time before he flicked on to the next page of the book he held, "Speaking of, what work do you do anyways? The stuff you carry can't be cheap," Jayus mind quickly thought back to the mask relic and continent treasures, "I know my share of ancient artifacts that's for sure," He flipped a page once more. By now, Jayus had stopped paying attention to the book he was reading, yet crimson red eyes stuck between the lines of the book. Jayus acted like he didn't care but given how strange of a person Hera was, he couldn't help but be curious of what type of person would casually toss an ancient relic to the floor.

Blue eyes turned to the god, disbelief lacing within those ocean hues as Hera's hand hovered mid chore, then his eyes softened and his expression relaxed. Hera had already told Jayus of his work during breakfast the other day and it seemed like this lofty god didn't listen to him at all. Hera couldn't help but laugh. Jayus, unaware of the thoughts going through this young man's mind could only glare at him from where he lied on the floor.

"Very well, if that's what my lord wishes to know then I shall answer with utmost sincerity," Jokingly, Hera bowed his head with a aphand on his chest. Unknowingly, the action itself made Jayus cringe uncomfortably. It had been so long since someone treated him as royalty, even though Hera was unaware of Jayus' origins and had only done so as a joke, Jayus couldn't help turn away from him.

"I usually do commissions for monarchs I stumble across to. It's more like an adventurer's work commission but in this case- I'd be dealing with political disputes, sometimes actual adventurer work, and I even take small commissions from people where I do manual labor. It's not much but you'd be surprised with the amount of rewards they give you!" Hera gushed about fighting monsters, settling disputes, and doing random chores. That much was true, Jayus thought back to the continental treasure Hera had easily given him, and to the Northern Kataroth mask he casually discarded. Those were one of a kind, extremely precious to boot too. Jayus had heard a lot from his friend, another god, about adventurers and heroes working hard for such recognition, to be able to achieve something more.

"Well, it's not really that big of a deal," And yet, here stood Hera, saying that all that he'd done wasn't that big of a deal. If all guilds in the world could hear him now they'd have him burned at the stake or to be stoned to death. Then not a single god would be able to save him.

"You're so cocky about it," had been the response from Jayus as he turned back to his book. Taken by surprise, Hera stared at the man on the floor before bursting into fits of laughter. Numerous times Hera had told the story, had said the same line on everyone he had encountered and everyone had licked the sole of his shoe, praising his humble and courteous mannerisms. Jayus had been the very first to catch up with this backhanded condescending humor of his. When Jayus questioned him no further, he returned back to doing meek chores.