Title: Haunted Places
Fandom: Highlander
AU: Gods of Death
Rating: Teen & Up
Word Count: 200
Content Notes: implications of extreme violence and death happening off-screen

Summary: There are places in the world that old and cruel gods still reign.

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Even as the world gets ever smaller, there are places where mortals dare not tred, even in company. Where soldiers won't march, no matter how harsh the punishment for failing to do so. Where old gods as yet hold sway.

They are bounded about by mortal laws, called nature preserves, national landmarks, gems of wild places kept for the creatures that dwell within. It is a terrified prayer that the world be left in peace.

Sometimes, someone will get it into their head that nothing's there but superstition and maybe some wild animals. They'll boast about their plans, they'll walk into the wild with all the confidence in the world.

No one remembers any of those people coming back.

Sometimes a few will band together, taking with them the latest in weapons, in armor, everything. They rouse the nearest settlements into a cheering farewell, to follow them into hoped-for glory.

Cheers more for what they will find at the edges of the wild under a gruesome harvest than anything else.

And hidden in deep forest, in remote valley, in trackless desert, or on tiny specks of land surrounded by water, gods live on. The laughing, harsh beauty of cheerful death.