Loving a deity was one wild thing.

Many would say Seungwan of the High Mountains was a hysterical woman. She lived by herself on top of the hills, in a small cottage amidst the purple hues of her grapevine plantation. Since she was little, she was portrayed as the village fool, drunk on sweet reveries by day and claiming of dreams that brought her messages by night. And, albeit the local children would tell others of her as lovely woman, no parent wanted their offspring near her.

So, most of the days, Seungwan was left alone. For her, that was a marvelous scenario – all the peace and quiet, except for the fundamental sounds of life that breathed around her. Not a chirp bothered her when she was creating. The young woman was an artist. A poet, a writer of many fables and, primarily, a painter – which explained why the walls of her house were filled with sceneries and painted ladies enjoying the juiciness of youth between clasped fingers, bitten fruit, and movements that turned into vivid dances by the flickering light of a candle during the night.

Like every artist, the madwoman of the High Mountains had a muse to call her own, her genie, how the people would call gods that inspired humans. When people talked about artists being possessed by genies when their ideas would bubble in molten gold from the tips of their fingers, one would imagine some literalness to it. As in divine possession of body, mind and heart, lent to the gods for them to make use of human ways and bring their art among mortals.

Seungwan knew it wasn’t quite like that.

The presence of her muse was physical, palpable, kissable even; but she was the madwoman of the High Mountains. Therefore, no one believed her whenever she said that the goddess of spring and hunt showed herself to her every two moons, glorious on all her twenty-six feet of height.

The deity would always come at night. At first, she was a sweet-scented zephyr, as luscious as a Queen of The Night flower would be when the sun gave in for the moon to shine its cold gleam over the lives of common people and bring its magic within their homes without most of them ever noticing it. Seungwan knew it when the kind smell seemed to envelop her nostrils with the gentlest of embraces, and when the bells that hanged over her window danced in the most magical sounds.

The young woman would lean over the window’s parapet as always, batting her eyelashes as she put a silky lock of hair behind her ear, which was pierced all over in god-made gold. A smile curled up her reddish, pulp-coated lips, and she bit them before calling out to the vast woods that below her home:

“Come, my love. Not only the windows are wide open to your presence but, as per usual, so is my heart. Come fill me with all this good and all this bad and I shall translate it into the simple slopes of the written language.”

Joohyun always showed herself from a hurricane of shiny golden leaves that took the shape of a jaw-dropping woman - not only jaw-drpping because of her immense height with the sculpted body of a goddess, but for her features were gentle yet strong, an awe-inducing face that would make most sappy male poets of their generation write one hundred thousand sonnets by hand. Although Joohyun had showed herself to many men in the past, none of them captivated her, none of them made her stay. Seungwan was different – for she was no man. And the words of Sappho had never made more sense.

From the window, only the center of the deity’s face could be seen; from the soft point of her nose, to lips so honey-glazed-like, and eyes that shone as the vastness of the night sky, sprinkled in glittering stars.

The human’s smile couldn’t grow any bigger.

“The owner of this heart has arrived!”

“Must you always make such a fuss of my arrival, silly goose?” Joohyun shook her head in disapproval for her lover’s actions, but her heart was a treacherous little thing, and she could not conceal her small smile.

“I absolutely must.” She crossed her arms, adamant and playfully defiant. “If only you could look at yourself like I can, instead of the distortions of the river’s stream, you would understand my antics.”

“Don’t you ever get tired?”

“Of you? I could never.” Seungwan chuckled lightly, feeling as if spring had taken control of her heart, blooming in a thousand flowers. “How could I, when you are as radiant as the first time I laid my eyes on you?”

“Enough of this for now. You know what your charm does to me, love. At least wait for me to be able to kiss you!” The deity pursed her lips into a pout. People would never guess that even gods have their childish manners at times – sometimes they were chaos bringers, of course; and most of all, true celebrators. But pouting? No one would expect such a cute act from a twenty-six feet tall being.

“I, for one, can still kiss you!” She reached for the goddess’ nose outside the window and brought it closer to her, gave it a dozen pecks before laughing at her own merriment. “Now, get in here luv, do your precious little twist.”

Closing her star-filled eyes with eyelids that seemed tinted in golden veils, she twirled in elegant spins of a dance the young woman knew all too well, a performance made to their eyes only, every two days and nights. She spun and spun until her body shrunk to the size of a common human, not much taller than Seungwan herself. Seungwan, too, closed her eyes as she could no longer spot the deity between the shadowed green of trees. Arms that materialized out of thin air hugged her from behind, and the woman’s smile grew wider once again as she felt those honey lips kiss her exposed shoulder.

Seungwan turned around with her eyes open to meet the ones she wrote about in every piece, eyes that, even human-sized, seemed to hold entire worlds of their own within them.

“That’s a greeting I will never grow tired of.”

“Then I shall do it once more, but this time, on the lips, as it was meant to be.” Joohyun caught the human’s lips in a kiss, warm and inviting with the most savory hints of honey. No one ever told the madwoman of the High Mountains how addicting a mouth could be, how it would haunt her dreams in whispers of “I miss you”.

As they broke the exchange apart after a few minutes of catching up from the days separated, Seungwan and Joohyun curled up together in the softest of embraces over the woman’s mattress, looking at each other with dumbstruck semblances of lovers as amazed as if they had just met. Seungwan caressed the deity’s cheek with her thumb in gentle circles, cherishing the coziness of warm skin against her fingertips as she cooed:

“Gift me your all. How have you been, luv?”

Joohyun averted her eyes for a moment, hoping that her lover wouldn’t notice the abrupt stop of soothing over her thigh, which she soon continued mechanically.

“I shall not spoil your work any further,” Her voice came as low as a whisper, too low for a god, “for I have been living these past days and nights as a rotten peach would.”

“My love,” Seungwan stared at those life-giving eyes of her lover with no fear to give in return, only love, “there is nothing that you give me that I cannot grasp. I do not choose the parts of you I like best for my works, for eternal happiness is nothing but a folktale. All of you is what I wish, always and forever. The good parts and the bad parts, for all that fills me is you and that is what makes me the happiest. So, pour it all over me.”

The deity gave her a curt nod, murmuring with uncertainty.

“Shall other gods not listen, for I have been feeling the most insufficient of them all. When it comes to hunt, it is easy, but what’s there for the goddess of spring to do during autumn?”

“That’s silly, luv!” Her answer came in a light chuckle, “It does not matter what season reigns sovereign for the time being. You were important then, you are important now; for no one, not even the divine, can be useful all the time. You should cherish this moment as a bigger part of everything.”

“I worry I might not inspire you well like this.”

“Oh luv, but all you give me is art I shall mold into the simplicity of humanity. Whatever you pour on me, it is a delight, for good and bad shall be equivalent to make a whole.”

Joohyun never knew what to say when her lover soothed her in that cooing manner, for she could read her as a writ and always knew what to say as to hush her best.

“There are so many things that you overlook for being what you are. I, for one, no matter how many times I spin, I can never change my size. Not even a centimeter higher!” Seungwan giggled, and the deity hid her smile on the crook of her neck. Her breathing and the beating of her heart, like the human felt at that moment, were the pace to all her compositions. And when she twirled alone, thinking of the love of her life, she felt her heart expand and expand until it felt like it was poured over all that surrounded her in that golden shade so characteristic of her lover. “You are the most beautiful and inspiring existence I’ve had the pleasure to encounter, my love.”

“Do you not feel burdened by the roughness some of the art will take, with all those tears of mine?”

Seungwan cupped the deity’s face with her palms and brought it closer in a gentle movement, putting her lips over Joohyun's in a kiss that told of acceptance, understanding and, most of all, love.

“Home holds no burdens. With you, I am home.”