The Avatars -- Chapter 3: The Mundane and the Unusual
Kassia had gone about two steps down the hall when Ares summoned her. With a sigh, she glanced into a silver-edged mirror hanging on the wall, making sure that her makeup hadn't smeared. Her hair was perfect, as usual, raven-dark and of an unusual thickness and silkiness. She adjusted her robes and closed her eyes, feeling the power she had been gifted with welling up inside of her. In an impressive burst of reddish-gold light, she left the halls of Olympus to reappear, within seconds, at Ares's feet.
"Good morning, my pretty." It seemed that he was in a good mood, as he raised her up fairly quickly and smiled his usual cajoling smile. Where others saw handsomeness, Kassia saw only unscrupulous violence and amorality in his dark features.
"It's afternoon," she corrected before she could stop herself. She ducked her head, letting her hair fall over her shoulders, expecting a harsh reprimand or a slap. Even on his good days, Ares was rough. "My apologies, my lord."
Luck seemed to be with her for once. The god laughed, drawing up a delicate wicker chair and conveying , with the pressure he placed on her shoulders, his wish that she be seated. "So it is, so it is. It seems like morning to me; I've just awoken."
Kassia sat in a graceful sweep of cloud-like material. "Perhaps a little less indulgence?" she suggested carefully.
Ares rolled his eyes. "You women. You're all alike, immortal or not. This is Olympus, my dear Kassia. Have you not adjusted yet? There is nothing here but wine, free and flowing."
"And the nectar, my lord?" Kassia shuddered to think of the wine the Olympians drink. It was ten times as potent as what was drunk on earth, so she could take a sip and feel the effects of an entire bottle. It was best for humans to avoid the drink if they wanted to avoid a very serious hangover the next morning.
"Ugh. That stuff comes from flowers," he informed her. She merely nodded, awaiting his next words. "Where have you been, then? I missed you."
Kassia glanced up warily. "With the other avatars, on Olympus. Do you object, my lord?"
Ares shook his head. "I should have known...yes, fine, do what you like with the girls. I certainly have no objections to spending time with four lovely young ladies.
But I used to have such high hopes of you, Kassia. I thought you would take much longer to break. Now, in the past...in the past, you wouldn't have bothered to be so polite. And the ‘my lord!' You would have been sarcastic. You would have been angry with me. You would have thrown more temper tantrums–and broken more of my vases."
Her face went tight as he scrutinized a nearby vase. "Another thing about women," he said carelessly, tossing the delicate vase from one hand to another, "is that you gossip all the time. Really, women are such busybodies. What do you possibly have to talk about so much?"
Kassia shrugged, knowing that he wasn't really expecting an answer. "When I was in Olympus this morning, Queen Hera was...not in good humor."
"My mother has never been in a good humor. What is it this time?" he sighed. "Must I placate her again? I'm supposed to be the spoiled child, not her."
Her flawless features were expressionless as she answered, "Lehana suggests that King Zeus may have been involved with another mortal woman."
He snorted. "That's nothing new. You would think that she would be accustomed to such things by now." He sighed a dramatic, long-suffering sigh. "But if I'm to remain in her good graces, I'll have to endure the weeping and the raging and be the loving, sympathetic son that I am."
She rolled her eyes discreetly as he continued, "Then, of course, I'll visit Father and tell him that Mother should be more understanding, more tolerant, more forgiving." Ares laughed mockingly. "They'll make up eventually, and he'll promise not to break her tender little heart anymore–not that she has one–but the minute some fetching girl catches his eye..."
Kassia hid her disgust. Like father, like son.
"Mortal women are always more interesting than immortal ones. There are so many pluses–they have more life in them, metaphorically speaking, and they don't live as long...what more could a man want?"
Kassia narrowed her eyes. Ares and Aphrodite's perpetually unstable relationship was off-again and had been for quite some time. That was the reason he had been in an unusually foul mood recently.
Ares turned to smile at her, and she felt the chills crawl up her spine. "Speaking of mortal woman...come to me, my darling avatar..."
Obeying him and hating herself to it, Kassia let him enfold her tightly in his muscular arms, cradling her against his chest. She closed her eyes, despair and agony at her surrender surfacing. "Tell me you love me, sweetheart."
"I love you," she whispered, sinking lower and lower into self-hate.
He smiled and kissed her cheek. "Louder, Kassia. I couldn't quite hear you that time."
"I love you," Kassia repeated clearly, and his lips descended upon hers.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Whispers in dark hallways between conspirators, in bedrooms between lovers, and in the open air between friends spread rumors quickly. By eventide of that very day, everyone knew who Aphrodite's latest love interest–usually spoken of as her next victim–was.
Rhoswen was the last to hear of the news; one of the others would have told her sooner, treating it as idle gossip, but they hadn't been alone together since earlier that afternoon. Everyone always told Rhoswen everything, how could they not? Even those who were jealous of her beauty could not bring themselves to hate her, and others were easily won over by the effect of her unconscious smile, her angelic spirit.
However, when things of this matter were discussed...the speakers could not help but feel slightly embarrassed at Rhoswen's wide-eyed innocence. She was sitting with Demeter, goddess of the grain, her daughter Persephone, who was married to Hades, wise, gray-eyed Artemis, Mehalia, and Ayla.
Persephone was beautiful and well-loved but always had a melancholy smile upon her face. It was said she had come to love her lord, but Hades was a hard man to live with. In a few short months, she would have to return to her lonely palace in the Land of the Dead, and she dreaded leaving the world of the living.
Turning to Mehalia with a determinedly cheerful smile, she asked, "Have you heard about Aphrodite's troubles, Melia? It is said that she has been having no success in seducing Lord Boreas. But it is a near-certainty that he will submit, in the end."
Popping a plump strawberry in her mouth, Rhoswen chewed slowly, savoring the burst of aromatic juice that oozed out of the plump flesh of the fruit. When her mouth was no longer full, she asked, "Who is Lord Boreas?"
They all looked expectantly at Ayla, who seemed to know the name of every god and goddess in existence and what they patronized. With a slight flush in her cheeks at the attention, Ayla answered, "He is one of the more important wind gods, Rhoswen. Although all of them are less powerful and more youthful than the majority of the deities, the four more minor gods among them are Lord Auster, the Southeast Wind, Lord Africus, the Southwest Wind, Lord Calcias, the Northeast Wind, and Lord Corus, the Northwest Wind.
They are subordinate to Lord Boreas of the North, Lord Eurus of the East, Lord Notus of the South, and Lord Zephyrus of the West, who in turn serve the King of the Winds, Aeolus. They are brothers of a sort, born of the Titans Eos and Astraeus. And yet..." Ayla paused, casting a glance under demure lashes at Demeter.
Demeter, as the eldest goddess present (and in truth one of the oldest goddesses alive), was treated with the most respect. All fell silent to listen to her words when they would have interrupted each other. "It is true that fraternity is not as strongly expressed among the gods as it is among the mortals, Ayla. I myself know the truth of this; there is no need to fear offending me."
Mehalia smiled at the lovely, fair-haired woman to her right. Demeter was kind; she was a maternal goddess who cherished all growing things. She was one of the only deities Mehalia knew who did not harbor ill will towards her. Even prickly Kassia liked Demeter.
"But it is heard that the Wind Gods are uncommonly close. They have strong bonds as friends rather than as brothers," Persephone said, her glossy black hair shining in the bright afternoon sun. "They were not raised together as young children; they came together in their adolescent years."
She turned to Mehalia, who was her especial friend. It was a strange friendship they had: sad, dark-haired Persephone seemed to be the opposite of vibrant, blond-haired Mehalia, but they were almost as close as Mehalia was to her fellow avatars. "I know Rhoswen has not met any of the Wind Gods, but what about you, Melia?"
She shook her head, and magnificent golden waves of hair cascaded everywhere. "No, and I don't intend to meet this Lord Boreas anytime soon. I would not respect any man who loves Aphrodite, for he would be a fool."
Rhoswen turned pale at her bold words while Ayla cast her a sharp, admonishing glance but remained silent. A sudden shadow was cast over their company, and a warm, sunny laugh resounded as Apollo appeared in their midst. "Good afternoon, ladies," he greeted in his mellifluous voice. "I hope you don't mind the intrusion."
Apollo, who was generally beloved among the divinities of Mount Olympus, was quickly reassured that they were delighted to have his company. It was Mehalia's turn to dart a sharp look at Ayla, who now become as cool and implacable as a glacier, as he seated himself beside Rhoswen.
"I shall have to disagree with you on that count, Mehalia," Apollo said. "You are a woman; you don't understand how men view Aphrodite."
"And I believe I would prefer not to know," Mehalia said with a playful smile. Apollo was a good man and her friend; he had defended her several times within and without her immediate earshot.
Silver-haired Rhoswen had gone quite pink now, and in an attempt to put her at ease, Ayla spoke up, surprising Apollo. "Lord Apollo, we were just discussing the gods of the winds. Are you well-acquainted with them?"
His blond eyebrows rose into fine crescents. "Oh, yes. They're a jolly sort, very good all around and fun to be around. Zephyr cuts such capers, and Eurus is astonishingly scintillating in his views of the world."
"What we want to know is, what are they like?" Mehalia asked, sipping her tall, frosty glass of ice water.
"Well...Aeolus, the king, is a responsible sort when it concerns his castle and his domain. Once that's taken care of, he spends his time with his roses and charming women. Boreas is his right hand man; he's very capable. He isn't the talkative type, but he's trustworthy and dependable.
His protégé is Zephyr, who's always getting into the most impossible scrapes. You didn't hear it from me, but Father Zeus and Uncle Poseidon have their heads together. Zephyr's last prank was a little too extreme for their tastes. They think that matched up with a lovely Nereid princess, he'll settle down and stop cutting capers. In my opinion, it's a supreme impossibility, but I'll sit back and enjoy the ruckus when his engagement is announced."
"I wasn't aware that gods were allowed to arrange marriages for other gods," Mehalia said slowly.
Persephone shrugged as if to ward off a chill. "It's not a common thing, no, but it's been known to happen in certain circumstances."
"Oh, Persephone, I'm so–forgive me," she apologized as Rhoswen took her hand comfortingly.
Watching awkwardly, Apollo cleared his throat. "But, um, there are still two other gods. All the women throw themselves at Eurus; they think he's the epitome of godly beauty. He's handsome, I suppose, but he's remarkably sarcastic. His tongue cuts like a sword blade.
Then there's Notus. No one knows much about Notus, I guess, but he's the most agreeable man alive. He's also a remarkably good listener, has excellent advice. He's gotten me out of more scrapes then I'd like to say," he finished with a nervous glance at Demeter, who merely smiled indulgently.
Relieved that the feminine crisis was over, he kissed his cousin Persephone's hand and his aunt Demeter's cheek and wished the three avatars a good afternoon before disappearing as quickly as he had come. The conversation resumed, full of frequent laughter and lighthearted jibes taken in good humor.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Lehana surfaced with a sharp gasp from the cool water, smiling blissfully as she waded near the shallows. She laughed merrily as the mud squelched between her feet and then returned to deeper water. As she walked further downstream, she smoothed her sopping hair back and washed it under the gentle waterfall with a palmful of liquified essence of flowers, drizzled liberally into her hand from a bottle she had set on a convenient rock a few yards back.
Once she had rinsed the foamy white lather from her hair with a contented sigh, Lehana floated peacefully on her back. Glistening strands of thick, glossy brown hair fanned out in the water, gleaming with reddish lights in the hot sun's rays. She closed eyes that were the same color as the emerald grass around her and verdant green leaves above her.
It was times like these that Lehana felt free–truly, magnificently free.
She was, for the most part, a social creature. Lehana loved roaming the forests and conversing with the dryads and hamadryads, wood nymphs of Mount Ida, who always had interesting things to say. Most importantly, they were all female.
But for this precious moment, she was all alone, floating in the middle of a lazily undulating river. Lehana felt like a tiny part of the huge expanse of rich earth and dazzling azure sky that surrounded her, and she was completely at peace with herself.
As usual, the moment did not last for long. An impudent gust of wind chilled her exposed body, and she dove under the water again to resume long, tidy strokes and the occasional lighthearted splashes and dives.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Notus blended in well with the trees because of his unruly mane of mahogany brown hair, and he, unlike Zephyr, dressed incongruously in a hunter's tan breeches and brown tunic. He suspected that Africus, the Southwest Wind, had sent him on yet another wild goose chase.
Thinking to himself that Zephyrus was spending too much time with the young, impressionable wind who had a clear case of hero-worship, Notus gently pushed aside a flowered vine that had dropped down from the sheltering tree branches. A delicate pink flower landed on his shoulder, and he plucked it off and rubbed the soft petals absentmindedly as he approached the riverbank.
Now, he was almost certain that Africus had been pulling a prank on him. There was absolutely no one else in the woods around him, besides a few curious deer, let alone a beautiful woman with chestnut curls and emerald eyes who hauntingly resembled his former lover... And Notus sucked in a much-needed breath as his eyes lit upon the gorgeous (and unquestionably naked) woman-who-surely-did-not exist.
Said imaginary woman had broken the diamond-patterned surface of the lake with ease, her eyes closed and her face full of indescribable joy as a shower of crystal-clear water droplets that rained down on her.
Lehana, in the process of wringing out a glorious abundance of hair that reached quite a bit past her shoulder blades, turned her head sharply towards the sounds of rustling in the surrounding forest. When the source of the unnatural noise fell flat on his face a few feet from the river's edge, her face filled with an unimaginable fury.
~~~~~*~~~~~
AN: And this is the question of "do we love cliffhangers?" I don't know about you, but I do ^.~ The remainder of Lita and Nephrite's encounter will continue in the next chapter, and the other Shittenou and senshi start running into each other (although with substantially more clothing).
I apologize for the lack of LAFS updates...I've been itching to write Avatars, and I figure that I need to churn out as much as possible before the vim and vigor fades. LAFS soon, I promise. Hope you enjoyed this chapter ^^ No more flames for this story, please; they take up valuable space (it's remarkable how this story has received more than any other of mine). Please leave any constructive questions, comments, concerns, etc. :) That would be great. ^^
~Ice
The Avatars
