Persephone's Curse

by Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

Persephone, living with Hades in the Underworld, tends to her garden full of things like Underworld flowers, and Pomegranates. When eaten in the Underworld, they trap the unlucky person in the Underworld forever. But what happens when she accidentally plants one in the mortal world? What happens when someone we all know eats one? Set after the war with Kronos. On hold.

1. Persephone's view

It was Persephone's favorite time of year- Spring. The time she was allowed to walk above the ground instead of underneath it, where she was trapped until this wonderful time of year. She sat quietly on top of a hill and made some bright blue and red flowers spring out of the ground around her. She sighed, thinking of how great it was to make flowers grow that had color, instead of wilted ones that were black and grey. Silently, she basked in the morning sun while watching camp Half-Blood on a nearby hill.

She was hidden by a small patch of thick trees, so that she could observe their morning routine without letting knowledge of her hiding place escape. Most of the demigods were already up, training and trying to hit each other with spears, or pressing attacks with their celestial bronze swords. Some were shooting targets at the archery range. Apollo's kids, Persephone thought to herself. Hopefully I Never have to listen to one of his 'haikus' again.

She watched them for awhile before turning to the lake. Only two figures were there, probably Athena's daughter Annabeth and Percy, Poseidon's son. He had accomplished a lot recently. Defeating Kronos is no small task. However, he also returned Zeus' lightning bolt, turned down godhood, and got himself a girlfriend. A daughter of Athena, no less. Said girlfriend was currently being doused with water by Percy, who began running when she drew her dagger.

Persephone chuckled to herself while she watched. Percy ran across the water, laughing as Annabeth tried to run across the water and ended up wading through it. When they aren't being chased by monsters or struggling to save the world, they have a pretty good time. She sighed, wishing she could say the same for herself for the year round, and pulled out something to eat. It was a pomegranate from the Underworld. Oh, well. She sighed again. It's better than starving. Even though they had ultimately led to her enslavement for half of the year, pomegranates still tasted good. And with that thought, she started eating it. She watched every once in awhile to see what the demigods were doing, but there wasn't much of a change.

As she finished the snack, she didn't notice the one seed that she had overlooked drop lightly onto the ground. She stood up and brushed herself off, before using the gods' method of teleportation to transport in blinding white light to another location, probably a garden that needed to be taken care of. If anyone had been watching, they would have easily overlooked the small red seed that had dropped alone onto the dirt.

This seed was not just a regular seed, though. It had come from the Underworld. If anyone had watched the small fruit very closely, if they had seen it at all, they would have known that the seed had already started to sprout. It was growing much faster than any plant should be able to. Before long, the seed had taken a firm grip of the ground with its roots. The tree started to grow. It only slowed down a little, and that night it had grown to be a foot high. Still, even through the night, it continued to grow. The next morning, it was three feet high and still growing strong. Nobody would guess the trouble that this small tree could cause.