The story of the unexpected love of Proserpina

This is the story how I found the love I was never looking for. I am the daughter of Ceres the goddess of the harvest. I am also the daughter of Jupiter the king of the gods and god of the sky and lightning. I live in the great empire of Rome during the year 30 B.C.. I had a good life and was happy all the time. Being the daughter of the king of the gods and goddess of the harvest and all things that grow had its perks. I got to travel the earth watching my mother make all the plants grow; my favorite is all the flowers. Also having your father being the king of the gods keeps away any unwanted attention from the more, let's say, improper male gods.

The only problem was that I was truly not happy. Even though I had everything I could ever want I felt empty. I wanted to have an adventure, go see whatever I could see. Maybe even fall in love, but mostly I craved the adventure part. The only reason I could not do that is because of my mother. She watched over me like a mother hen. I could barely do anything by myself and it drove me mad. I wanted some freedom and liberty, but mostly just time to myself. I had asked my mother times beyond measure if I could go out and explore on my own. The answers to that were always the same: "You are too young", "It's a dangerous world and you could get hurt or worst kidnapped" and my personal favorite "I need you here to help me". Like really, the goddess of the harvest needs my help for anything.

It was the same every day, the same worshipful maidens waking me, bathing me, dressing me….. and believe me when I say they were as exciting as a sack of potatoes. I had tried to get them to lighten up but it just did not work. I am not saying that watching them run away from a frog in their soup wasn't any fun. It was hilarious. Or even watching them trying to get the color pink out of their hair from flowers I mashed up for a "deep hair masque!" I was dying on the inside and even those closest to me seemed not to notice or care. So I started down a path that changed everything.

Sometimes when no one was looking, due to some crazy antics on my part, I would sneak away. I tried to keep things low key at first, just a trip to the kitchens for a fresh pastry. A long stroll by myself through the bountiful gardens just to see how long it would take before my mom would find me. These were small rebellions that could be written off as thoughtless on my part. Nobody knew I was building up to something much bigger. It was only a matter of time, when their guards were down, that I would take my future into my own hands.

Then one fateful day, when I had once again snuck away, my whole life changed. I was at the beach where I had made friends with a few Oceanids. I was playing with them in the shallow water for an hour or so, when I went back the beach to dry off before I went home. I was sitting there drying when I saw this figure walking down the beach towards me. I asked the Oceanids to hide in the water and to help me if they could by going to get my mother if something bad happened. They agreed, and went to hide under the water. They were far away enough to not be seen and close enough to hear and see everything said and done. The reason I asked this is because I felt this familiar feeling of cold and warmth coming from him. The same feeling I had felt when out on recent excursions. So I sat there waiting for the figure to approach, when he got near enough that I could make him out clearly he took my breath away. To call him handsome would be an understatement: he was six foot tall with the darkest black hair there ever was and had dark red eyes that looked into your soul. Strangely, his gaze also had a look of caring. His face and skin had a pale color to it, like he had not had much sun. This seemed to make him even more alluring. He stopped five feet away from me, smiled and just stood there and looked at me. Everything about him was just breathtaking. He stood there for a couple minutes not saying anything and just looking at me with a thoughtful face.

I got tired of sitting there and felt self-conscious about all the staring, so I blurted out, "Do you need something?"

He stood there for a couple seconds and then the look on his face turned into a determined one. Just as I was going to say something again, he spoke.

He said "Would you like to become my wife."

I stood up, surprised at what this man I had never met before in my whole life, just said.

"Excuse me, what did you say?"

He said, "I said, would you like to become my wife? Marry me."

I asked, "But how can I marry you when I have never met you before in my whole life? You may be handsome and all but I know nothing about you and you know nothing about me?"

This line of questioning led to many long talks in private locations. It wasn't long before Pluto had convinced me to run away with him. He knew my mother and that she would react badly to his suit for my hand. We had to take desperate measures. Sure, much of the world would think he was an awful beast; especially when my mother let the harvests wither on the vine and people were starving. We knew our one chance at happiness was worth the short term pain and suffering of many. Okay, we were rather full of ourselves and selfish too. But with a few debts called in, the Myth of the Pomegranate Seeds was born. So you see, it really was just a myth;).