80: Squirrels

Klein sighed as the young man Zagreus approached once again the Hidden Gardens of Persephone, which he must say, was getting even more beautiful as he made some statues out of stone and white marble, these statues were some of the creatures he met in the previous world, including the Leviathans. He also made some sculptures of Persephone and some other Gods and Goddesses based on Persephone's description of them. He made one of Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Athena, Artemis, Apollo, and Hera too just to decorate the place, they all had vines and flowers growing In them...

Except for Dionysus's which had a small vine with a grape-growing there, Klein made it grow himself because he was experimenting with Divine Energy and Lifeforce to see if he could extend Zagreus's time further beyond and use Divine Energy together with Lifeforce to at least give both son and mother an hour or two. As Zagreus noticed the man sitting next to his mother, both talking and smiling, Klein had a small squirrel in his hand and an expressionless face looking at it... If both Persephone and Zagreus could hear what he was thinking, they would hear: 'OH MY GOD YOU'RE SO CUTE SO ADORABLE I WANT TO SQUEEZE YOUR BODY TILL IT EXPLODES IN BLOOD AND GORE' Well, Klein likes cute stuff, but his thoughts were not exaggerated.

The squirrel was small, almost the size of his pinky finger, it also had chubby cheeks full of nuts and small fruits that Klein and Persephone have been feeding him, his tail was bushy and long too, and his fur was fluffy. His eyes were big and reflected the sun, making his eyes shine and even creating the illusion of stars in his eyes. Persephone giggled as the squirrel danced around and made small noises, she couldn't understand them but Klein could because of his [Meta Powers: Animal Communication (B)] that gave him the ability to understand and communicate with animals and monsters. Zagreus watched curiously, he had never seen a squirrel but it looked harmless... In the Underworld, everything wants to kill you, even the smallest thing is poisonous, so Zagreus was ready to kill the squirrel if it showed to be a danger.

Persephone moved her head towards Zagreus and called him: "Zagreus, my son, come come, sit down with us, and have some tea." Zagreus smiled and approached his mother, he started to feel his body getting weaker, but when he felt a hand touching his shoulder that feeling went away quickly as he felt warm in his whole body. Klein, who was touching Zagreus's body smiled back at him when he smiled at him, giving his attention back to the squirrel who was jealous that his feeder was looking at another person that looked to be starving. And Zagreus did look like he was starving, his body was frail as he coughed a little bit, he got lost and couldn't find Persephone's garden, and the curse was absorbing his Lifeforce, which made him look like he was starving.

"Tell me, my son, tell me how you came to the surface this time." Persephone smiled and listened to her son's story of how he climbed out of the Underworld this time, Klein just listened as well used his second hand to play with the squirrel in the small table they were sitting around. Zagreus lost his focus of the story and began to watch as Klein gave attention to the squirrel, his fingers didn't look like they were whitering but Zagreus still felt full of vigor and stamina, so he thought he could go on for at least hours before getting tired...

Persephone was the same, she could speak with Zagreus for days before getting even a little bit tired! But now she looked at Zagreus who looked to be focusing on Klein... "Are you curious?" Persephone suddenly asked, making Zagreus jerk up with surprise as he forgot she was there, h was so focused on the "squirrel" that he didn't think about his mother. "What is that?" He finally asked, pointing at the squirrel with his right hand, Klein looked at Zagreus and smiled while saying: "This is a squirrel. Cute, isn't it?" The squirrel proudly puffed his chest fur and chubby cheeks to show how great he was. Zagreus chuckled at the tiny thing and said: "It's cute, but Cerberus is cuter." Klein's ears twitched at the mention I something cuter, however, his face did not change at all.

Klein, who could not feel any emotion for 15 years kinda got used to having a cold expressionless face, so it stuck to him and he doesn't know how to express his feelings through his face. Although this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage because he could conceal his feelings with a cold expressionless face! Like a few minutes ago when he wanted to squeeze the squirrel till it popped in an explosion of blood and gore. "Cerberus?" Klein had heard from Cerberus, Persephone told him about the three-headed doy that guarded the Underworld and prevented any soul from leaving the Underworld at will... Except for him obviously.

Not even his father, Hades, was cruel enough to have him fight Cerberus and potentially kill him.

"Yeah, it's the family dog," Zagreus said while his finger approached to touch the squirrel, he hesitated for a second before his finger touched it. He expected to lose his finger, but no, the creature just positioned himself on his finger and walked up to his hand, where sat and looked at him for a good few seconds before opening his little mouth and dropping a small fruit from his mouth, full of saliva. Zagreus was confused, he didn't know what that meant, Persephone was laughing loudly and Klein was chuckling with his expressionless face... It was a cold and short laugh, he soon shook his head and said: "You look to be starving, Mistís even decided to share his food with you... It means he likes you." Mistís? Is this the name of the squirrel-thingy? It's cute...

Persephone got up fro. the table and said: "I'll bring you something to eat, son." Leaving right after saying this, when she left Zagreus felt awkward to stay there alone and holding hands with Klein, he just knew the name of the man he was holding hands with because his mother told him. "So... Can you tell me about... squirrels?" Zagreus cringed when he felt his voice was going to crack, but it didn't so he just slowed down and asked Klein to speak about the first thing that came to mind, squirrels. Klein looked at Zagreus and back at Mistís, he smiled when Mistís nodded to Zagreus as if to say: "I will speak about my greatness to you."

-Scene Ends-

Author Notes:

Mistís is short to Polemistís, which means Warrior in Greek.

Cool right?