The islanders called her Atua.
No man could look upon her that would not desire her. Tall and powerful, yet soft and curving, with plump breasts and broad hips, the ideal that a woman should aspire to, motherly, yet strong.
No man could look upon her without fearing her. Her eyes that burned with all consuming flames, her wrath that woke only slowly yet destroyed all in it’s path should it be permitted to kindle in full.
Sometimes she would go unseen for years, vanishing into the wilderness, never present yet always close by. Other times she would shake and spit and demand tribute after tribute, a constant looming figure who threatened all they held deal with fire and ash. Sometimes those sent to her returned, other times they vanished, yet that was the way of things. The people loved her and feared her, swore by her and at her in the same breaths.
For a long time, she had been silent.
At first, the elders hoped that the shakes were idle. That the plumes of smoke and steam would pass in time, yet as the signs grew stronger it became clear that it was time once again. Atua demanded her due, and too many stories warned well of the consequences should they fail to sate her appetite.
Lots were drawn, a man selected, sent up the path to the mountain’s peak knowing that the goddess waited somewhere along the trail. A clearing of soft grass and tall palm trees she chose. A ring of flowers upon her hair the only covering she bothered with, geometric tattoos trailing from her left shoulder to her wrist and from her right hip down to her ankle, symbols that told her history from start to finish.
She awaited her offering.
No man could look upon her that would not desire her. Tall and powerful, yet soft and curving, with plump breasts and broad hips, the ideal that a woman should aspire to, motherly, yet strong.
No man could look upon her without fearing her. Her eyes that burned with all consuming flames, her wrath that woke only slowly yet destroyed all in it’s path should it be permitted to kindle in full.
Sometimes she would go unseen for years, vanishing into the wilderness, never present yet always close by. Other times she would shake and spit and demand tribute after tribute, a constant looming figure who threatened all they held deal with fire and ash. Sometimes those sent to her returned, other times they vanished, yet that was the way of things. The people loved her and feared her, swore by her and at her in the same breaths.
For a long time, she had been silent.
At first, the elders hoped that the shakes were idle. That the plumes of smoke and steam would pass in time, yet as the signs grew stronger it became clear that it was time once again. Atua demanded her due, and too many stories warned well of the consequences should they fail to sate her appetite.
Lots were drawn, a man selected, sent up the path to the mountain’s peak knowing that the goddess waited somewhere along the trail. A clearing of soft grass and tall palm trees she chose. A ring of flowers upon her hair the only covering she bothered with, geometric tattoos trailing from her left shoulder to her wrist and from her right hip down to her ankle, symbols that told her history from start to finish.
She awaited her offering.
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