Long ago, when the gods still ruled the earth, lived three Titan siblings, Helios, Selene, and Eos; who effectively ruled the changing of the hours. Helios changed the dawn into day. His sister Eos turned the night into dawn.
Selene was the Goddess of the Moon and charged with the duty to change the day into night. And where our story first starts.
While Selene was driving her milky horses across the sky one evening, her soft gaze fell on the shepherd Endymion. He was taking a nap among all his sheep. As she gazed upon him she fell for his looks. His dark black hair reminded her of the night she held so dearly. And if he opened his eyes to gaze back, she was sure they'd be the color of the moon itself.
That night Selene went to Zeus and asked if Endymion could be granted eternal youth and eternal life. She remembered her sister Eos' bad luck with mortals and eternal life, and had no wish to be left with a grasshopper.
Zeus granted Selene's wish, and Endymion slept on for eternity, smiling in his sleep. And no wonder. He dreamed that he held the moon in his arms, but it was more than a dream, because Selene bore fifty daughters to Endymion - all beautiful, pale, and sleepy. Save for one; Parvati.
Parvati was easily one of the most beautiful daughters. She had long hair the color of her father's, except for one spot that framed the left side of her face where the moon had kissed her head as an infant. Her eyes were the silvery blue of her mother's.
She grew to be lithe, but the shortest of her sisters. Parvati loved her mother dearly and was always at her side as a child. Because of this she became known as the Daughter of the Moon.
As she aged into adulthood, she became quite busy. Being the Goddess of Fate and Keeper of Destiny entitles one to be so.
She found herself often in the presence of the Olympians as they asked for her help to alter certain people's fates.
Once she was summoned by Zeus, who had never before met her, meaning, by default, he'd never seen the beauty of the daughter of the Moon. But he had heard of it.
When she reached him, he couldn't help but stare at the stunning woman. No, she wasn't near as close to the physical beauty Aphrodite, but it still caused Aphrodite to become jealous. She was innocent to the ways of men and the cruelties of the mortal world. And in that moment, Zeus knew he had to make her his own. He began courting her, and she in turn fell in love with him. Their affair lasted ten years, in which Parvati gave birth to three children, Atropos, Lachesis, and Clotho.
By this time Hera had learned of the affair, from a jealous Aphrodite, and had threatened to turn Parvati into a mortal if she didn't leave Olympus forever.
Broken-hearted, she returned to her mother and cared for her children. Soon, the task of being the Goddess of Fate took its toll on the grief-stricken woman. She placed her duties upon her daughters and ex-lover.
Clotho was given a spindle by her mother and was the burden of spinning the thread of life. Lachesis was given the burden to measure the thread of life with the measuring rod she was given. Being the oldest, Atropos was burdened with the hardest job, and Parvati's least favorite part. She was to cut the thread of life with her mother's abhorred shears. To Zeus she gave a simple part; to guide mortals to their destiny.
But her trouble wasn't over, for Aphrodite was still jealous of her beauty.
It was a calm evening when the Goddess of Love took action, the moon shone bright in its spot high in the sky alighting the snow-blanketed world with all its might. Parvati walked the river bank of a far off land alone with nothing but her thoughts. But she wasn't as alone as she thought.
As she came to a fork in the swift waterway she spotted a man. He'd fallen asleep beneath a willow tree, wrapped in a goat skin blanket. Like her mother, she was captured instantly by his beauty. But instead of rushing to Zeus to ask for his immortality, she simply watched as he slept.
When he awoke, his deep chocolate eyes found her silvery ones. Entranced he walked to the edge of the river.
"Don't!" Parvati called as he went to take a step through the rapid waters.
He paused and stared at her, unable to speak in fear that she would disappear at his rough cant. She seemed to float across the water as she came to him.
"What's your name?" Parvati asked, her angelic voice picking up his language easily.
"Andrei," the man answered. "And you are Sati-Sara."
Parvati blinked at the unfamiliar name.
"The Goddess of Fate," Andrei continued.
She nodded, understanding the strange name for her.
Andrei brought her to his village where Parvati was worshiped by the Romany tribe. She was asked to pick whom she wanted as her guardian. There were many brave men to choose from, but of course she chose Andrei. He quickly became her consort. When Andrei's wife, Cosmina found out about this, she was infuriated. She stormed out of the village. As she cried she was approached by Aphrodite, who told her of a way to punish Parvati.
That night, as she returned to the village, she stomped right to her cheating husband and his mistress. As Aphrodite told her to, she slit the throat of her husband and pressed her blood stained hands to Parvati's bare chest.
"With the crimson blood of my love, I bind thee into mortal form, Parvati."
Parvati was frozen in fear as a ball of silver light flew from her chest and to her attacker. The goddess knew at once what had happened and fled.
Ashamed, she stumbled through the forest until she ran into Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt, moon and young girls. The young huntress looked worriedly upon Parvati as she swiftly tried to explain her predicament.
Taking pity in the mortal, Artemis tried to return her to immortality, without much success.
"I cannot return to you what has been taken by another," Artemis explained. "But…" she began at Parvati's downtrodden expression.
"There is a way to return to immortality," Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom and War, states as she steps out of the shadows and into the pure moonlight.
"How?" Parvati wondered.
"You must first break the curse over you," Athena places her hand on Parvati's shoulder. "Then you must return to Olympus and claim what it rightfully yours. It will not be easy and the means will not justify the ends but you will return to immortality if you wish it."
"How do I break the curse?"
"That is something neither my sister nor I can answer for you," Artemis says. "The answer comes from inside you. You will know."
The two immortals vanished leaving Parvati alone.
In nine months time, she will have a daughter. When she glances at the darling baby's face, her answer comes to her in the form of a lullaby.
A faithful woman wronged by her gentle lover.
A man forever doomed to chase another.
From daylights first awakening breath
To the transitioning night of the next,
He'll be waiting for you, eternally yours,
The Daughter of the Moon that travels the shores.
From dusk until dawn, an unfaithful man,
Until she faces her death in the sand.
Beauty untouched by any mortals
Is found upon an island of turtles.
There she meets her one true love
With a kiss as gentle as a dove.
But if his thoughts are then untrue,
There is nothing a gypsy's magic can do.
The curse will remain unbroken as so,
As it was placed so forever ago.
Romani words spoken so rash
To a woman thought of merely as trash.
She will sing the song to the child every night. When she is old enough, she will tell the young girl of the curse and that the lullaby is the only way to break it. It's not until she's on her death bed many years later does she figure out that the curse has been placed on her daughter and that it will pass through to each daughter until it its broken. Through the years, the tune to the lullaby will be forgotten and the poem will remain. And every cursed daughter will try to break the curse, but as Athena said, only Parvati can break the cure. So with Parvati dead, can the curse be broken?
A/n: Okay, props to everyone who read this and all the awards will got to whoever can give me an obstacle(s) that can be found in a labyrinth, preferably in a PM but they don't have to be. I have a few ideas, but not enough to fill a story.
Oh! And virtual brownies to whoever guesses at the point of all of this, correct or not.
Thanks a lot you guys!
Lyra Raine Sparrow