Between Cartography classes, playing hide and seek with Gregory and taking care of his baby sister, Christopher Thomas McGinty the 4th struggled to find a time to connect with a god like his mom kept asking him to. 

But eventually, he found the right time. The little gnome sat at the oldest willow tree of his village and followed his mothers instructions. Closed his eyes. Listened - with his heart, not his ears - for the voice of a god that might find him interesting. 

He wasn’t supposed to, but Chrissie crossed his fingers, hoping it would be someone fun. 

At first, he found his owl Aiko distracting. After a few minutes of letting the bird fly around, he caught it and held it in his arms, giggling. “Now we wait quietly, Aiko, ok?”

It was difficult for Chrissie to sit still. He kept wondering how many hours passed, if it was dinner time soon, if fireflies were actually made of fire. After too much time, he heard a little voice call him cute and useful. Somehow, Chrissie knew this was the voice of Hermes, the messenger god. 

Chrissies eyes flew open and he scampered away from the willow tree to find his mom standing there, waiting. 

“Christopher, that was quick! It only took you six minutes to be chosen?”

“What?! No your watch must be wrong”

His mother chuckled. “It must be. So darling, who was it?” 

“It was Hermes! He called me cute and gave me some new prank ideas! I need to go tell them to Greg!” 

As he ran off to find his friend, he heard his mother call in the distance. “Don’t forget to go to the clergy!” 

Chrissie took a sharp right turn to make his way to the clergy. They asked him for a sacrifice.

Woah… okay. 

He thought about it, and promised to never harm anyone or anything. He gave up eating meat and swore to use Hermes’s magic only for good. He was surprised when that seemed to be enough for the clerics. 

Getting the tattoos marked on his skin tickled. 

He needed to go show Greg how awesome he looked.

Art by @melangeeru on instagram, I adore this so much it's still my tablet background, 2 years later!