Fateful Encounter
Author's Notes: This is another thing written for a writing class. We were to describe a picture from the point of view of a character in said picture. I chose a gorgeous piece that I found on Deviantart, and I've put both title and author down below. Unfortunately, I am utterly incapable of putting in the link. If enough people ask, I will put it on my profile.
Kudos to Mercedes Lackey for her fascinating ideas on the Underworlds.
Picture: Hades and Persephone 2 by sandara on Deviantart
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Disclaimer: I do not own the gorgeous art for this story, nor do I own rights to the Greek pantheon.
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Snow crunching beneath his boots, the Lord of the Dead wandered through one of the Underworld's many regions. Truly, the imagination of mortals is astounding, Hades mused. Each time a new Land of the Dead became known to many people, a new, correlating area appeared in the Underworld. At this time, he was traveling through a Place of Punishment: cold, bleak, monotonous, and so very lonely.
A flash of colour caught his eyes, and he advanced towards the oddity. When he reached it, his breath hitched in his throat. There on the ground, dressed in filmy summer garments, lay the most stunning young woman he had ever seen in his long life. With skin pale as cream and hair a pooling mass of auburn, the beauty formed an ideal of harmony. White blossoms both twined through her flowing locks and littered the frozen ground around her. Wandering downwards, his gaze stalled on full breasts, which… rose and fell with each breath. The child is alive?! the world-weary god thought in startlement. Immediately, he read the girl's aura; she was a goddess. Kneeling on the ground, he bent over her and extended a worshipful hand.
Right before he touched her, she moaned and her lashes fluttered open. "Mama?" The young, so very young, woman's eyes refused to focus but nevertheless latched weakly onto his form.
"I know not where she is, little one, but you are safe here," Hades' rusty tenor reassured her. "May I ask your name?"
With a faint smile, she softly answered, "Persephone," before slipping back into sleep.
After a moment, the Lord gathered her in his arms and strode towards his personal abode. He had every intention of protecting the girl, discovering exactly how she had managed to appear in his realm, and perhaps learning more about his unexpected, if delightful, guest. Whatever the reason, he claimed responsibility for her until otherwise stated, and with any luck, this whole situation would be settled quickly, peacefully, and with only a small amount of disaster. And perhaps, he thought wistfully, she might even stay. Despite hopes to the contrary, such a lovely young thing would never wish to stay in the Land of the Dead. But it is only a fool's dream…