The High Priests had told him they had prepared a gift for him.
What could it be?
Raniel wondered about it the entire way to the library.
A snake?
That had been his gift last time.
They had told him snakes made excellent companions and were easy to raise. However, once the creature had grown large enough, it had begun biting Raniel while he slept.
The animal had been thrown away shortly afterward by High Priest I.
The elderly man's voice had trembled with worry when he noticed the bite marks covering Raniel's arms.
Raniel had never understood that reaction.
If he truly cared, shouldn't he have been more careful when choosing a gift in the first place? Still, the young man never voiced such thoughts aloud.
Not when doing so could anger the High Priests.
Once he stepped through the large white doors, engraved with symbols written in a language he couldn't read, he glanced left and right.
There was no box, no cage, nothing that resembled a gift.
