"Can you not heal yourself?" Altair asked, looking at the wound on my arm, a frown coming on his face.
"Oh, you need not worry about that. I am not bleeding." I said casually holding my hands up with a bright smile on my face, not that he could see it. "The wound should be fine on its own."
He did not appear to be convinced but I was not trying to convince him and I did not care if he was convinced or not. I turned back to the paper with a list of things I should be doing over the next couple of hours.
The number of people has greatly increased since I last checked. It is … impossibly larger in number.
I am going to need more than twenty priests to help me here.
"Are you not in pain?"
"I am alright." I patted his cheek, walking away. "Come on now. They have gone off to do their work and we need to go do ours."
"But your arm-"
I paused, unable to help myself from teasing this man in front of me as I turned to him, hiding the list behind me, smiling as I took careful steps to him.
"Then … are you going to kiss it better for me?"
"K-kiss?" He asked, startled, stepping away from me.
I just burst into chuckles, smiling at him kindly. "Please do not fret. I merely meant it as a joke."
And I began walking again, past the other busy group of Priests, staring at the man beside me. He certainly is not someone you would see every day so I can see why they are interested.
It did not help that he is following me like a lost puppy, while having the proud dignity of a high ranking Alpha. Anyone here would like to sleep with him. Thank goodness the seventeen below are not here.
They stay in a separate part of this place, this little 'kingdom', as I like to call it, of ours. We are separated by age groups and they have their own works to take care of, while we have ours.
"I-if." His voice pulled me out of my thoughts, grabbing my attention almost instantly.
"If?"
"If kissing your hand will make it better." He mumbled, looking anywhere but at me. "Then … I can do that."
Observing his slightly uncomfortable demure, I could not help but want to completely crush his spirit and tell him that it would do nothing.
But the nicer side of me would not allow me to be cruel to him, no matter how much I wished to tease him. Too bad.
"Sure. You can kiss me better." I ended up saying, unable to help myself from a little bit of teasing. Just a little bit, I promise. "But not now yet. Ok?"
"When then?" He asked, seemingly a little impatient.
"Well, we will have to see that for ourselves, do we not?" I asked, amusement dancing in my eyes. "Come on, the first order of things is the distribution of blessings."
Stopping in front of a large building that had people lined up for as far as the eyes could see in the distance, I took in a deep breath and turned to Altair.
"I need to remain quiet for three hours. Do you think you will be able to do that?" I asked, as we stood right in front of a large oak door with engravings of the moon and the goddess on the doorway.
"You make it sound like I talk a lot and am always causing some kind of disturbance. You don't even know me." He said, looking positively insulted as he pouted at me. Is he really a scary Enchanted? I can't really tell to be very honest.
"Right. Right." I said, standing on my tiptoes as I patted him on the head, a very, very faint smile coming on his face. "You are a good boy, are you not?"
"Why are you talking to me like that?" He asked, not pulling away from my touch.
"Should I not?"
"I didn't say that I minded it." He looked away from my face, almost as though he was trying to hide the blush that came over him.
"Then I will do as I wish?"
"Do as you wish. I could care less."
"Alright." I chuckled, pulling my hand away from him as I got back down on the entire surface of my feet. "Come then."
Obediently, he followed me into the large white building that seems to have more pillars than it has seats or space for the people inside.
All the glass windows are painted as the sunlight broke into the halls, bathing them in colourful hues. I have always found this place very comforting and warm.
Perhaps because I hate the cold or, perhaps, because I like anything colourful, who knows.
Now, I do not merely like Altair because he is colourful too. He just … interested me, for some reason. I really cannot forget this feeling that he knows me from somewhere and it is really bothering me.
Well, never mind about that. There are many more important things to worry about at the moment.
The moment we entered the cheers came from the people, almost sounding like rain against tin roofs. I take it they know my appearance from the people that came before them.
We walked to the very front, passing murmuring people and curious eyes all trained on us before stopping just in front of the altar at the very front of the room and turned to face the people.
The Head Priest Elio was there as he was the day before, to help me and the five priests pour out the blessings on the people that came for it.
I will obviously have the longest line but the longest I can stay there is for three hours. Then the hectic work will come when I have to go and heal the people that came from different parts of the kingdom.
That one will take the rest of the day. I am also needed quicker in the healing division because it is more likely that the Priests will grow tired quicker there.
As for here, it is easier to bless someone than it is to heal them. But there is still quite a few of them so I will have to help where I can.
It really is a task but I am fortunate that I do not see many Alphas. Most of them are at the very front and leave the moment they get their blessings, the privilege of being an Alpha.
While others just did not come or they are with the king in those chambers. They are not allowed to come out under any circumstance.
It has to do with their pheromones and just their health in general. Consuming even a little bit of my blood will render them weaker than a Beta for a while before becoming ten times as strong.
'But the Luna came out several times.'
The Luna may be an Alpha but he is not necessarily bound by the same rules as the others are. That is why there exists only one Luna.
Lunas are the embodiment of the goddess herself so they have, in some sense, more power than even the King Alpha. Maybe not physically but I have seen the previous Luna command a pack of wild Bandit wolves once, it was incredible.
"Are you with us, Orion?" Head Priest Elio asked, gently grabbing me by my arm while patiently smiling at me.
"I apologise," I said again, realizing that I had drifted off.
"It is no matter. The other Deities sometimes require your attention." He said nodding slowly. "But, now that you are back, shall we get started?"
"Of course," I said, turning to face the people in front of me as the other Perigees began to help the people form six lines, the one to me being the longest one immediately. Not that I was not expecting this.
It just overwhelmed me that there are this many people in front of me and I know that, give me an entire day and I will still not be done with them all.
It is fortunate that I did not have to do all these things on my own. Otherwise … I would be in some deep waters. Truly.
"Your grace." One old man said, smiling sweetly up at me. "I pray I am not disturbing you."
"Do not worry, I am listening to you," I said, trying to force myself to concentrate as I watched Altair stand with the Head Priest Elio, talking to him like they were old friends.
Hm? They seem quite friendly.
"We have been having poor crops for the past couple of months." The man said as I took in his tattered clothes, and his sad attempt at looking smart.
This is annoying. I thought, staring at him closely before I sighed and placed my hand on his head, "May you get what you deserve soon."
"Thank you, your grace. Thank you." The man said, about to take my hand and kiss it but I just tucked them in my robes and put on the most innocent looking face I could as I nodded at him.
"Thank you for coming."
"Thank you again." He said, bowing to me and then walking away.
I did a quick look behind me and saw Altair watching me closely with amusement dancing in his eyes.
Annoying indeed.