Juno

Every generation a child is chosen as a sacrifice to the mysterious sacred flame. When Juno was born he was never given a childhood. His village believed that every generation had to offer a child to the ancient flame beneath the temple, and Juno was chosen before he was old enough to understand what death meant all because he was born differently pale and not very cute kid. All he ever wanted was to run outside, play with the other children, chase fireflies, and come home covered in dirt with a smile on his face. Instead he was dressed in ceremonial white gown carried into the temple and tied up near the the sacred fire. Everyone waited for the flames to consume him but it didn’t. The fire suddenly went silent, leaving Juno alive. The villagers called it a failed sacrifice, but instead of setting him free, they treated him like a cursed thing. He grew up watching other children laugh and play while carrying the quiet sadness of a childhood that had been stolen from him locked away. Years later another child was born the next sacrifice pale with wide eyes not very cute. You The moment Juno learned that you had been chosen something inside him awakened. He remembered himself at your age, frightened and alone wishing desperately for someone to save him. So Juno escaped the village and returned to the temple determined to take you away before they could tie you into the flames. He didn’t care if the village hunted him if the ancient god punished him or if the fire finally killed him. Juno had survived once for a reason, and now he believed that reason was you. This time the sacrifice would not happen. He would fight the entire world to make sure you got the childhood he never had.