Titan, nymphs and apples

{Mount Tamalpais--San Francisco, 2nd of May 2005} 

"♪ Welcome, demigod, to our garden. ♪"

"♪ Still you must receive our pardon. ♪"

Voices echoed around me, womanly voices. Mist gathered where the words reached; someone was using charmspeak.

The voices seemed to be coming from everywhere, and every time they sang, I could always hear four voices overlapping with one another, creating an almost hypnotic harmony. The charm was strong, but I steeled myself against it, after all it was weaker than what Medusa or some Aphrodite kids used to throw at me back at camp, heck there voices were even worse than the children of Apollo.

"♪ Leave your quest and dance awhile. ♪"

"♪ Bask in the sun, feel our smile. ♪"

I ignored the beckoning words and focused on the Mist, tracing its flow through the dense forest. The voices tried to cloud my mind, reshape at the whims of another, lesser being. As I followed the Mist, it led me to a small clearing where the air shimmered with an unnatural glow.

"♪ Come closer, demigod, don't you see? ♪"

"♪ Here lies your path, your destiny. ♪"

I sunk into my shadow and reappeared in the clearing, and as soon as I did, the Mist thickened, revealing a nymph standing by a stream. She had a yellow aura, a color I had never seen before, I wondered what it meant. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me, and she quickly tried to retreat into the stream.

"Got you," I muttered, diving forward and grabbing her by her neck. She struggled, her charmspeak growing stronger, but I just clenched my hand around her throat, which closed under my grasp though three more continued to sing .

"♪ Release her now, let her go free. ♪"

"♪ Harm her not, or you will see. ♪"

"I don't think so," I replied, summoning my spear into my hand. The nymph's eyes widened further, and the yellow aura around the one I was holding flared brightly, a signal to the others.

"Come out, or she gets it," I called into the forest. Moments later, three more nymphs emerged from their hiding places, each with a similar yellow aura. They looked anxious, their eyes darting between me and their captured sister.

"♪ We'll guide you, demigod, to what you seek. ♪"

"♪ Just don't harm her, we implore, we speak. ♪"

"Good," I said, releasing the nymph but keeping my spear at the ready. "Take me to the golden apple tree. It would have been a waste to kill Ladon and just leave with one souvenir don't you think so?"

The nymphs exchanged worried glances but nodded, leading me through the dense forest. As we climbed higher up the mountain, the air grew colder, and the Mist thicker, if a mortal could even make it up here I wonder what they would be seeing right about now. The trees became fewer and farther between until we finally reached a rocky peak.

There, standing weakly, was the golden apple tree, colored in shades of black, just like everything else which appeared in my vision. And yet this tree which looked like nothing special in my eyes, was the most prized possession of the goddess of marriage. What did catch my attention was the figure kneeling in front of it, he had his hands raised up to the sky but his neck was looking downwards as if something was putting pressure on it, looking closer I could see his shoulders trembling, his knees buckling and steadying every few microseconds. He was..

Atlas.

Like every other major god or titans I had seen, Atlas had no discernible aura. He was just... there, his hair cascading through his back, after all he probably hadn't been able to cut since being locked in place for all space and time. His head looked up at me, his eyes locked onto mine sightly invigorated, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Well, well, what do we have here? A little demigod come to get that bitches apples?" Atlas's voice boomed, dripping with venom when he said the word for female dog.

"Yeah, thought they would make a good souvenir" I replied, trying to sound nonchalant as I approached the tree.

Atlas's smirk grew wider. "You know, there's a spot open here, if you're brave enough to take it. How about you hold the sky for a while? Or are you just a scared little boy?"

I grinned at his remarks, unfazed. "Sorry, not interested. Besides it looks like you got it." With that, I reached out and grabbed a few apples, I quickly tossed them into my shadow for safekeeping.

"I thought you demigods wanted to prove yourselves, guess that shows how wimpy you half-breeds have become " Atlas taunted.

"Says the guy holding the sky for all eternity."

I sat myself against the tree, the bark right now feeling comfier than the beds at camp half-blood, I phased my hand through my shadow and pulled a can of pringles, starting to snack on them as I stared at the titan of endurance.

The nymphs stood at the edge of the peak, staring at me with some resentment, but hey they were the ones that attacked first, so first come first serve is what I never say.

"♪ You have what you need, now let us be. ♪"

"♪ Our bargain is met, you're free, you see. ♪"

"Wow and here I thought you girls would make good conversation, and I'll leave when I want to right now I'm eating don't you see." I argued pointing at my pringles, "Besides this bark is hitting just the right spot I think I'll take a little nap here, while staring at the big guy."

The nymphs looked puzzled but didn't argue. They retreated a little, whispering among themselves in their rhythmic verses. 

"So." I started trying to start conversation to the back of the titan.

"I'm wondering, how come you haven't gotten a mortal to come up here and take your place. With your daughters using charmspeak I think it could be done pretty easily you just need to keep on changing the mortals every time someone is close to death, after all isn't the whole sky thig more a test of will than anything else, I'm sure most mortals could stand a day or two."

"YOU THINK I HA-"

"Look at me when you're talking, it's rude to have your back to the listener." I interrupted.

{Hera's Chambers--Mount Olympus, 2nd of May 2005}

"THAT HALF-BREED, BASTARD MORTAL KEEPS ON RUINING MY PROPHECY! AND HE ISN'T EVEN DOING SO ON PURPOSE! I CURSE HIM AT BIRTH AND THAT FAILS, I SEND HERCALES AFTER HIM, THAT DISAPPOINTMENT FAILS, I CURSE HIS POWER AND LADON FAILS!"

I paced around my room, sending flying anything that stood in my way. I inhaled trying to relax myself.

"Okay I can still kill him before the deadline, I can send Echidna and her children after him. I just need to tell her and she'll get her children and before long that teenage bastard will be monster meat."

I extended my will through space, a small privilege for being the goddess of space, soon I found the sickening aura I wanted, Echidna.

"Echidna, Ladon, my protector, your precious child has been killed by a demigod I want you to take revenge for both of us. He's still in Mount Tamalpais." I spoke directly into Echidna's mind.

"Thank you Hera, I will do so that little runt will learn what happens when he messes with a child from the Mother of Monsters."

With that reply I cut off our psychic connection, it had been some bumpy rides but I truly believed that monster could get the job done, she may be a repulsive creature but she was a powerful and a good mother just like myself.

-Knock,knock,kncok-

"Honey are you okay?"

My husband's voice came from outside my chambers, I looked around my room seeing the disaster I had caused in it while in my little ruffling, still I couldn't let him see me like this after all I was supposed to be the perfect wife, so I simply replied the only way I knew to keep that man entertained and without pondering.

"Yes sweetie I'm fine, just go to our room I'll be there with you shortly, and we can snuggle."

I heard him swiftly run to our love chambers without a second thought, I swept my hand fixing everything in it as I left to perform my duties.

[Greek Myth Fact: Hera is the wife of Zeus, the Queen of Olympus, and the Olympian goddess of marriage. Zeus tricked Hera into marriage. Knowing full well that the goddess loved animals, he transformed himself into a distressed cuckoo and reverted to his original form only when Hera took the poor creature to her breast to warm it. Ashamed for being taken advantage of, Hera agreed to a marriage. However, it didn't turn out to be a happy one. Zeus was brutish and cruel to everybody. Incapable of bearing this, Hera plotted a revenge plan with Poseidon, Athena and possibly few other gods. She drugged Zeus, and they bound him on his bed, while stealing his thunderbolt. Thetis, however, summoned Briareus and he managed to quickly untie Zeus, who was, subsequently, merciless to the main schemer: he hung Hera from the sky with golden chains. To grant herself a release, Hera swore to never rebel again against her husband. So, she directed her anger toward Zeus's lovers and their offspring(the most famous being when she drove Heracles to insanity and made him kill his children), becoming a jealous and vindictive wife.]