NEVER ENDING WHIRLPOOLS SWIRLED AND SWIRLED IN THE AQUAMARINE WATERS OF THE RIVER CYANE.

“I told you to watch over her while I attended the council, did I not?”

“We had to attend it as well, daughter of Kronos,” Artemis answered, voice dripping with a tone of warning. “Have you forgotten that we have our duties too? The entire universe does not revolve around you and your daughter.”

The sleek grey hellhound at her heels sensed her growing annoyance, baring its teeth and letting out a low growl of its own. The voice ripped through the air like thunder across rain, raw and brutal in nature.

“You had one duty,” I let out a low hiss. “To look after her in my absence.”

“How many times do we have to explain, Demeter? Do you forget that we too are part of Zeus’s council of twelve? Only when we returned did we see that the river was split open… and she was gone.” Athena’s grey eyes grew dark as weathered rock as she regarded me with irritation while sharpening an arrow with a carved whetstone.

Gone. My sweet daughter… gone.

Three days and three nights had gone by as I searched high and low for her. And yet, even after asking all those people… the merry dryads, the cheerfully serene water spirits, the nymphs drunk on summer wine; the search yielded no answer. Securely had I locked the cave, a small star in a sea of vastness, and yet she had slipped out.

My poor daughter. My poor, sweet daughter. Gone and lost and gone.

“So where is she then? How do I know she isn’t dead, huntress?”

“Careful there, Demeter. Are you calling me a liar?” The lunar crescent atop the brow of goddess flashed a brilliant silver, alight with luminescence. Her sturdy fingers lingered threateningly on the shaft of her bronzed spear.

“Maybe I am. Where is my daughter, Artemis?”

“Enough, daughter of Kronos. I will stand here and let my ears bear witness to your insults no longer,” she shook with anger, cheeks flushed at the agitated accusation. “Come,” she flexed her knuckles and looked at Athena with hard eyes, walking to the handsome grey stallion waiting for her in the shade of a nearby cypress.

“I wish we could have been of some help,” Athena sighed, relenting. “We have no reason to lie to you, goddess. But Zeus is her parent too, and Poseidon and Hades are her uncles. I’m sure they will find her soon, and ensure her safety. Her father loves her more than his own life.”

“Ensure? My foot. That man hardly has time to satiate my needs, a hell lot of good he’ll do for her!

Artemis’s nimble fingers grew taut around the reins of the stallion, her jaw hardening.

“You can go and talk to him yourself instead of venting your anger out on us,” she snapped harshly, tone as bristled as honey poured over shards of broken glass. “You may have lost your daughter, but even my patience has a limit.”

“I’m sure she’ll be safe,” Athena comfortingly rested a light hand on my heavy shoulders. She sauntered over to her gilded chariot, settling the quiver of sharpened arrows and slung her ornate bow over her shoulder. “I bid you a good day, Demeter.”

And just like that, the two goddesses rode of into the dust, leaving me desolate amongst the ruins.