[RL: Apollo's sacrifice.]
[[The god Apollo is more than welcome to show up if he likes, otherwise, it's just Maes entertaining himself with the winter butchering.]]
The thing about being in seclusion, pretending to be dead for three years is the fact that Maes really didn't have an outlet for his happy demeanor. He thrived on people around him and he could feel bits and pieces of him die day after day. So when Apollo mentioned something about a sacrifice, he jumped at the chance for entertainment.
He was never really a religious man, but for the sake of sanity (or insanity), he would go ahead with it. He chose the garden farthest away from the manor to slaughter the cow, having a huge fillet knife and an axe. Rocks lined a fire pit and Maes whistled a tune he had heard on this internet computer box thing while he stripped to his civvies and donned the old sheet. Damn, it was nippy out, but he didn't need what good clothes he had to be ruined by the blood and gore of slaughter.
"Aw, don't look at me like that, Bessie. You knew your days were numbered." The cow's baleful eyes continued looking at Maes as she chewed her cud. "Well...not a steer, but you'll have to do. I have to survive the winter, you know. Once he was ready, he lead the cow to the block and hefted the axe. "Thanks, Bessie, you're the best."
One sickening blow later the spine was severed and the cow slumped to the ground with a choked bleat. As Maes worked, he heaped the parts of the cow he wouldn't be using in the fire pit and lit it with the torch he'd brought. The humming grew into the song he learned by heart and used it as his prayer. A little prayer didn't hurt anyone, Maes, as his wife used to say. So he kept his thoughts to his family and friends, praying for their health and safety and that they weren't so sad about his 'death.' After all, Roy had a country to save, Gracia had a daughter to raise, and Ed had a brother to protect. All Maes had here was survival.
Sail on silver wings
Through this storm
What fortune love may bring
Back to my arms again
The love of a former golden age.
I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.
For, now that wheels are turning,
I find my faith deserting me...
This night is filled with cries of
Dispossesed children in search of paradise.
A sign of unresolve that,
Envisioned, drives the pinwheel on-and-on.
I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.
When memory bears witness to
The innocence, consumed in dying rage!
The way lies through our love;
There can be no other means to the end,
Or keys to my heart...
You will never find.
You will never find!
[[This is why we have cow sacrifice]]
The thing about being in seclusion, pretending to be dead for three years is the fact that Maes really didn't have an outlet for his happy demeanor. He thrived on people around him and he could feel bits and pieces of him die day after day. So when Apollo mentioned something about a sacrifice, he jumped at the chance for entertainment.
He was never really a religious man, but for the sake of sanity (or insanity), he would go ahead with it. He chose the garden farthest away from the manor to slaughter the cow, having a huge fillet knife and an axe. Rocks lined a fire pit and Maes whistled a tune he had heard on this internet computer box thing while he stripped to his civvies and donned the old sheet. Damn, it was nippy out, but he didn't need what good clothes he had to be ruined by the blood and gore of slaughter.
"Aw, don't look at me like that, Bessie. You knew your days were numbered." The cow's baleful eyes continued looking at Maes as she chewed her cud. "Well...not a steer, but you'll have to do. I have to survive the winter, you know. Once he was ready, he lead the cow to the block and hefted the axe. "Thanks, Bessie, you're the best."
One sickening blow later the spine was severed and the cow slumped to the ground with a choked bleat. As Maes worked, he heaped the parts of the cow he wouldn't be using in the fire pit and lit it with the torch he'd brought. The humming grew into the song he learned by heart and used it as his prayer. A little prayer didn't hurt anyone, Maes, as his wife used to say. So he kept his thoughts to his family and friends, praying for their health and safety and that they weren't so sad about his 'death.' After all, Roy had a country to save, Gracia had a daughter to raise, and Ed had a brother to protect. All Maes had here was survival.
Click to viewSail on silver wings
Through this storm
What fortune love may bring
Back to my arms again
The love of a former golden age.
I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.
For, now that wheels are turning,
I find my faith deserting me...
This night is filled with cries of
Dispossesed children in search of paradise.
A sign of unresolve that,
Envisioned, drives the pinwheel on-and-on.
I am disabled by fears concerning which course to take.
When memory bears witness to
The innocence, consumed in dying rage!
The way lies through our love;
There can be no other means to the end,
Or keys to my heart...
You will never find.
You will never find!
[[This is why we have cow sacrifice]]