Prompt XVII: Ritual
Yugi looked the sculpture over. The shed pine needles were bound in certain spots with string to be able to make the most of the God Dragon's physical shape. There were a few problems, of course, and Yugi wanted so badly to overlook them, but it seemed impossible. After spending so much time searching for Atem as it was, to see the village create the straw figure in his shape and have it be…almost totally wrong, made Yugi want to scream. Had he not been human, he would have even hissed and flicked his tongue and growled at it with annoyance.
He tilted his head and tried to find something that looked akin the God Dragon in question. They'd done a good job of at least picking darker straw for the majority of his scales, reddened along the top and black along the bottom…
"You seem underwhelmed."
Yugi blinked and looked over, flustered. "It…doesn't look much like A—him." He'd almost forgotten they weren't supposed to say his name. The first few times he had, they'd all looked at him as if he'd declared a curse on them somehow. The village seemed to believe that saying Atem's name might summon his wrath if used without purpose. It was likely the only rule they followed so strictly but for no one being allowed to touch the gold they kept in the cavern for ceremonial purposes.
"Oh?" the man next to him asked, tilting his head. His beard was black with dashes of white and gray. In a few more winters Yugi was sure it'd be solid, colored like soot. He was barely any taller than Yugi himself in this weird human form, and his eyes were like the flesh of plums from deep in the valley. "Well, you are a dragon. So you must know what he most looks like, yes?"
He glanced at the mountain for a split second before turning back.
"Please, Yugi, speak your mind," he laughed, rolling his eyes. He smirked at him and winked, which was so peculiar a movement Yugi still found himself almost gaping every time they did it. Both of them in succession made him want to learn, but Atem wouldn't care for human interactions. He knew that already. Even the village mentioned Atem hid as far as possible, occasionally looking toward them but always gone before they could make note. None of them had even been closer to him than a few miles and they only ever saw him in his Origin Form due to the size difference between it and his Battle. "What is there to improve? We'd rather the offering look like him than not."
Yugi faltered a moment, then glanced at it. "I… It's… He's…" He opened and closed his mouth. "His belly is a lot more tucked in because he's part Water Dragon, his tail is a ton longer than that and doesn't taper away but has this little…cluster of scales that almost look like a flower bud. He doesn't have such a huge mouth. He has two."
The human stared at him as if he'd just hissed, so startled his mouth opened and closed twice before he muttered, "Two?" so quietly Yugi was sure he wasn't meant to hear it.
"There are two tusks on either side that make his bottom jaw a lot wider. His eyes are golden, his scales are red like…rose petals, his underbelly has white stripes, his paws are significantly smaller but his claws are huge, his wings are a lot bigger, all of the scales along his back are in rows of two and backward-facing not straight, and he has a gem in the center of his forehead that's so blue it's like someone plucked a piece of the sky."
Yugi felt his entire body heat with embarrassment when the man turned to stare at him in shock. He ducked his head and glanced back at him sideways in his peripheral. So much for being stealthy. They'd likely exile him for knowing so much about the deity, if only to prevent him further harassing him. So many of them made disgusted faces or scoffed when they heard mating cries, though many of them had snickered upon seeing him bristle with annoyance.
The village leader arched a brow—that was something Yugi loved to do because the difference in muscle control between humans and dragons was so strange—and hummed. "The God Dragon of the East sounds far stranger than I'd assumed."
Yugi found himself bristling with indignation. "What? No," he snapped. "He's not strange. He's Atem, and he's amazing."
The man grimaced when he said the name, but shook his head after a moment. "You know all these things about him, because you plan to court him then?"
He fought a huff. "Well, eventually, yes," he admitted, flustered but defiant. If they exiled him, then so be it. He'd still find a way to win that challenge, with or without their help. He already knew he could withstand the weather patterns, and that was more than half the battle. "But not too soon. I still have to…come up with a plan."
"A plan?"
"He's a lot stronger and faster and smarter than me. I have to find a way to trick him," Yugi finally whispered, looking away and toward the mountain. Atem wasn't anywhere to be seen, and he didn't know if he preferred that at the moment or if he felt hurt by his absence. It was stupid, but somehow he'd always seemed to be able to spot Atem nearby when he felt at his lowest. "But that's going to be a miracle in and of itself. So I…"
"Do you doubt yourself?"
He laughed and looked over, incredulous. "Of course I do. It's A—him. It's him. He's smart, strong, fast, and he'd gut me in a breath if we fought. I have to figure out a way to…pin him without laying a paw on him. I have an idea, but I don't know what the best way to implement it is yet."
"Ah, so that's why you've been following us to the river to watch the fishers use their nets."
Yugi opened and closed his mouth, then huffed. "I wouldn't be following if you'd just teach me," he sulked.
"You're a dragon. You have no need for nets beyond this one task." He was laughing when Yugi looked over again. "But if you fix our offering to his shape by sunset, I'll teach you myself."
He blinked, eyes widening drastically. Sunset? It was a few hours off. He was sure he could manage that.
"Okay!"
