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We acted like we were masters of our own respective worlds without addressing who has power over whom for so long, maybe out of civility, maybe out of a desire for peace, and when we met we did not need to wonder which one of us is God. To argue the point further was a waste of time, to fight for an impossible transfer of rank would have been a waste of energy, and we are too valuable for such waste. When I first delved down into your realm and graced you with my presence, it was not to remind you that I could destroy you and rain glowing, burning annihilation down onto your subjects. You thought as much the first time, simple beast that you are, and you bared your fangs at me and growled from deep within your chest as you stared me down with your wide, slate-gray eyes. You’re really very entertaining. What did you think your little display would achieve? What could a beast hope to accomplish against a God? But that foolish belief that you could hold any power to me, over me, is part of why I kept coming back.
By the time I first descended to meet you, our former hatred and violence towards each other had already melted down to annoyance and a burning curiosity. By some absurd reasoning, you saw fit to try to intimidate me, even threaten me, when we met again. And by some absurd twist of fate, when I realized what you were still attempting to do, after I nearly ended you, after I proved definitively that you were an insect compared to me, when I saw that you still dared to defy me, and with full confidence that you stood a chance, my mouth did not begin to burn with familiar rage. Instead, it watered. Regardless of this new reaction, the result was the same as it had been in the past when you provoked me: I pounced on you, and sent us both tumbling down. You don’t know how lucky you are, you simple beast, that at that point, I hadn’t wanted you dead in years.
We exchanged swipes and blows and bellows and roars, but it was a mere spar compared to our previous assaults. Where before we would have tried to leave scars, we left only scrapes. Your crushing grip from before was absent as we grappled and rolled over each other, instead you only used your massive hands to hold, where before you might have tried to tear. I held back my own destruction, where before I wouldn’t have hesitated to scorch and maim you. Some spell had overtaken me, maybe the both of us, and made me forget to try to kill you, and vice versa, as we tumbled together down your valley, shaking the earth as we fell. My jaws ached, and the desire to bite was not to draw blood or to stop breath, but to feel a strong pulse under my teeth and hot flesh over my tongue. I became dizzy with a desire so strong that it even contaminated you. As you were overtaken by my influence once again, you seized my impulse and your mouth claimed my throat first. I howled out as you gained the upper hand and pinned me down with straining fists against your damp soil. The points of your teeth merely dragged across my skin where they could have pierced and you brought your tongue out to taste, even though there was no blood to lap up. I knew, then, that you were feeling the same ache to be closer than we had ever been during battle, tasting and breathing and feeling each other, with the same desire for dominance, and a burning want for something else that was never a part of our previous brawls.
Although in the past, it had taken us quite a while to gain an understanding of each other’s intent, this time, we needed only to exchange a single glance, and a few heavy huffs of breath to realize what would come next. At that point, there was no shame or hesitation, but pride pulsed in the air between us. You brought your great, calloused paws to my hips, to guide me into position — to guide me! Your staggering insolence was nearly enough to bring back my bloodlust tenfold, but I had a different hunger to address first. I snapped my jaws at you and startled you. You are incredibly dramatic in your reactions, and your wide variety of striking expressions only serve to make you look that much more foolish. Your eyes grew wide as you tripped back and left yourself open. It was then that I pounced on you again and guided you into my desired position. As with anything concerning the two of us, this would be done on my terms.
Soon I had you sitting on your grassy foothill with your back held up against the side of your mountain. Even with my powerful legs straddled on either side of you and my claws digging into the meat of your shoulders, you scowled at me defiantly and made pathetic attempts to free yourself from my hold. You could not have done it, but to my surprise, you did not earnestly try to throw me off. What kind of simple beast plays at disobedience while giving himself up to his God? But when you stayed beneath me with only impatience in your fierce eyes, I realized that you were learning your place. I’d known it all along, but to have you concede to me so blatantly, now of all times, made my ache that much more urgent as it throbbed against yours. There was no need to hold off any longer, I was ready, and I watched you realize it, smell it, only seconds before I rose further above you, opened myself up for you, and descended. Twin howls echoed across your land for all your subjects to hear as their simple King lay at the mercy of his God. Imagine what they would think if they could lay their bright, curious eyes onto their ruler, reduced to labored grunts and pants under the weight of his former enemy and current master.
As I took my pleasure from you, I became lost in my own haze before you insolently placed your rough hands against my sides. To my indignation, you gripped my flesh and began to move me with your own power rather than lay back and accept what you were given. Simple, ungrateful beast! You would need to be taught your place again and again. But your powerful ministrations took from me some of my fire and some of my fight, and so you saved yourself from being taught again so soon. Your grip moved lower. My claws sunk deeper. Our pace grew quicker. Our cries answered each other’s. Our rocking shook your valley, and with a final bite down against your bulging neck, I brought us both to our precipice.
Together, we slumped against your mountain as we caught our breath. I was enjoying myself and basking in our warmth when you began rubbing one hand up and down my back while you brought your other arm behind you to recline against. Simple, arrogant beast! Stroking me as if I were your pet, and gloating for the whole valley to see! Even beneath me, you acted as if you had all the power. I pulled back from you in retaliation, and despite the sudden, jarring emptiness I felt, I relished in the sharp hiss you breathed in once you were deprived of my heat and exposed to the cool air. Once again, you left yourself open, and I pounced on you for the last time that day. You wheezed out a harsh breath when I collapsed fully onto you and slammed you against your soil. As further punishment, I continued to crush you under my weight for several hours while I dozed off on your pliant body. You grumbled and huffed your annoyance under me, but you did not attempt to free yourself from your place in all the time that I slept. After I awoke properly I bit you, you shouted, I was entertained, I rolled off of you, and after several moments of heavy silence hanging in heavier air, I made the ascent back to my realm. Our parting was silent. I did not need to turn back to see that you watched me the entire time.
No matter how often we would repeat this ritual, with so few changes each time, you would still stand at your full height and bare your teeth at the sight of me every time I descended, as if you couldn't be sure why I kept coming back to you. But I would remind you again and again that I kept returning to give you what you needed, what I relished, what we could only take from each other. Simple beast that you are, you always had to be reminded of your place and mine every time. As your relentless God, your burning mountain, your aching star, I would never grow weary of teaching you the same lesson time and time again by repeatedly crashing into you and making us both ignite. I understood early on, and I suspect you did as well, that a simple beast like you needed to be taught very often. With claws and teeth and fists and tongues and heats out and ready every time, we would continue for ages to rise, fall, and erupt together.