@atlvntida , persephone & hades . *
kore , don’t go wandering alone ! don’t come back too late , kore , you might get lost ! oh but how did her mother expect her to learn the full complexity of her duties if she wasn’t allowed a moment’s peace and solitude ? of course , she never paid too much attention to her mother’s warnings . more often than not , the harvest goddess was driven by the imperative need to protect her daughter in ways that kore despised being protected . it ceased , easily so , to be protection : it was control . who was she to control the growth and bloom ? the mother of life and death cycles , a small voice in her mind would remind her . it sounded , worryingly , like her father’s .
for good measure , she looked around and up at the skies . there wasn’t a single other soul wandering the woods , she’d managed to lose hermes to his other duties and her sweettalking dotes hours ago . the sound of running water reached her , not too far away , and bare feet hurried through the soil ; grass , weeds and flowers sprouting with her every step infused with excitement . the goddess had only heard stories of the rivers that encircled the earth , never allowed to them on her own , always restrained or driven away by the nymphs and naiads that inhabited them ; like they had been told to keep her away , not allowed to play with her even , to talk more than hissing words of discourage . the woods finished abruptly and gave place to a river that ran , vivacious , and could be traced to its origin if one were to look with careful eye amidst the mountains far away in the horizon , but one could not determine where it led to . kore’s breath caught at her throat , feet moving slower as she made her way to the edge of the river and laid on her stomach , staring down at the water , making circles on it with her index finger , her long hair hanging as the continuation of her head , perched over the edge . “ where are you going to , oh - so hurriedly , mr . fish ? “ the young goddess questioned a small grayling that swam below her hand and didn’t stop to wait for its fellow fishes and , of course , didn’t stop to answer --- not that one was expected .