Atop the Mountain

Chapter 14: Home

Aspen and Basil aren't sure where the origins of Galar's Gods lay. Many Gods are said to have resided among their forests and mountains, not that there any recently recorded sightings of any of them. Raihan's fathers teach of their existence as neutrally as they can, but Raihan knows that neither of them has ever believed in any of them.

There's one God- Arceus- who's supposed to be the God of the other Gods. Raihan had always wondered what the point of worshipping the others was, if Arceus really did rule the rest of them. Sure, Xerneas, for example, was the God of Life, but was Arceus not, in being Xerneas' God, also the God of life?

These were questions that Raihan had long since accepted that he would never get answers to.

The other thing with Arceus is that, unlike the other Gods- Xerneas, Zacian and Zamazenta, Lunala, where people knew at least somewhat what they looked like, Arceus had no known physical form. They were like an idea, that could take any form one needed at the time, or maybe they only had one form, and no human had ever seen it.

Once, when he was younger, he and Leon had tried to design what they imagined Arceus might look like. Raihan drew a beast- humanoid in form, with six massive, feathered wings, stark white against the being's warm gray-brown skin. If one looked only at its torso, it looked almost like a man, but long, stretched out, uncanny. It had dozens of eyes covering its face, tailing down its neck to its chest, watchful and judging.

Leon's meanwhile, was more equine, with long, pointed white legs and bright golden accents. It hovered, eyes swamped in shadow, quiet and judgemental, but not as overtly horrifying as Raihan's interpretation.

"I think," Leon said, "that if Arceus is real, they'd be kind. A God has to care about the people it rules over, right?"

Raihan hadn't said anything, at the time, but he'd hoped that Leon was right.

Leon is gone, and so is Eternatus. Raihan stares at the empty space in front of him for a long, long time. He doesn't understand what's just happened. He feels Flicker and his newly-evolved Flygon nudging his sides, letting out whining cries and shuffling around nervously. Artie is doing desperate circles around the perimeter, trilling anxiously in that bizarre way the Doublade does.

Raihan sits there, staring ahead of himself, ears ringing painfully, and all he can think is: is that it ? After all this time, is Leon simply gone, without a goodbye, without anything? He wouldn't do that, would he? Then again, maybe he didn't even have a choice.

"We'll wait here," Raihan says, holding his knees close to his chest. His Flygon lets out a low whine, resting his head on one of Raihan's knees. His eyes meet Raihan's, wide and concerned, but Raihan has nothing to say. Not yet. "He'll come back," he rasps, "he has to."

The mountain is cold and unforgiving. It seeps into his bones, and after a while, he stops shivering. He thinks that maybe he should worry about hypothermia, that maybe he should worry about food, but a part of him also fears that if he looks away, even for a moment, he may lose any chance of Leon coming home. Which doesn't make much sense, but neither does anything anymore.

He lets Flicker and Flygon nudge him back towards the chamber, letting out only a few weak protests, knowing that his freezing to death isn't in anyone's best interest, but he refuses to go further than the entrance, where they left their things. He huddles in a blanket and eats some rations, but they're tasteless against his tongue. Flicker curls around him, his fire warming Raihan's body despite the chill still coming through the broken door. "Leon will be back," he repeats, staring out the door. "He'll be back soon."