AN:
It's been a few years since I've visited this story. I'm in the process of slightly re-writing the chapters. The storyline will be the same, but there are some badly needed betaing that needs to happen. For those that have stuck through this, thanks! For those who are new, I hope you enjoy it.
"Yes!"
The sun kissed the earth and danced on the nearby glistening stream. Flowers adorned the sides and smiled, gleaming down at their reflections as if unaware of the nearby commotion or the possibility of being plucked or, at this time, smashed.
A soft, girlish giggle danced in the tall leaves. Hands intertwined. Whispers were uttered. The two small figures crouched in a circular patch with the tall bushes surrounding them. Their heads were close together as their soft voices gossiped about the handsome stranger that they had just seen.
"He was terribly handsome, wasn't he?" The young girl put her hand over her mouth and giggled again. She had never seen a man before. Being around her own nymph kind almost guaranteed it.
"Shush! He's coming back!" The man was tall and muscular and to the two virgin pair of eyes. Even in their wild-most fantasies could they never imagine a specimen such as this. His thick black locks glistened from the sun's rays. The material of his clothing clung to him, making him appear larger than anyone they had ever seen before. Or maybe it was just their innocence that made them think so. They had no idea who the man was or why he was even there. This was a pure and untouched land; no man was ever to set foot here. And yet this stranger walked about as if he had been there before.
He walked by them, about ten yards away. Even though they believed they were out of sight, they stayed quiet, not wanting to be caught. They had no idea if they would ever see another man again.
As if on cue, the man stopped and turned to the two girls. Staring straight at them, they both held their breaths as they stared back like deer caught in a hunter's view. The man smirked at them, raised an elite eyebrow and then continued on his way. A moment later, he was gone. The two friends looked at each other before breaking into fits of giggles.
"He looked right at me!"
"Who do you think he was?"
The eldest giggled again. "I haven't the faintest, but I know it won't be the last time I see him."
The younger nymph laughed and pushed her friend. "How do you know that? You're no oracle!"
"No. But just call it woman's intuition."
The girl laughed. "Yes, if you were a woman!"
Years had passed since that most memorable event of seeing the strange man. Although she had promised her friend that she would see him again, Persephone had not. And she had looked.
It was centuries later when she was able to convince her mother to leave the safety of the field they had called home, shielded from men, humans and gods alike. Since the day they left, they wandered the lands, gathering offerings and priestesses along the way. She met her fellow god-kin but was less than enthused about them. They acted differently from the goddesses and nymphs that she had known her entire life.
Her mother's fierce protection had dissuaded their advances, or so Demeter had said. They only wanted her body and would give her nothing but misery and betrayal and pain. At first she had feared the gods, the horrible stories her mother had told her made her think they were monsters who would eat her alive, much as her grandfather had done to her mother.
Yet, the man she had spied on in the forest was not a monster. He had not looked fearsome and stirred emotions in her she could not name. And while the gods in her family were not that strange man, she could not help but feel that hew was different. She knew deep down he was, but she didn't know exactly what. One day she would, though. She knew it.
Persephone held onto this belief up until the day she actually met the gods. And they were petty and annoying if nothing else. It was either their way or no way, and they made her feel like the innocent she was. The male sex of the gods were nothing more than grown children themselves. So, it must be the human men that were the monsters.
So she studied the humans that worshiped her mother. Although she was never actually allowed to interact with them without the ever-watchful eyes of her mother, she watched them from near distances. These beings, whom were supposed to be so much lower than the gods taught her about loyalty, humility, fear, love, and, most importantly, how to live.
Their lives were so different from the gods. Over the last five hundred years, she watched over the humans, delighting in how such a simple thing as growing flowers at night brought them so much happiness.
She especially loved births and weddings. If she heard about one, she made sure that her favorite flowers blossomed nearby for their celebrations. It gave her worth to see the humans so happy. She had never known what it was like to feel this way. Soon, the humans gave her offerings just as they did for her mother and the other gods and goddesses. She had never felt so happy.
This life, outside of the sheltered fields, gave her freedom. She loved wandering around the springs and forest alone, although that was not often. She loved watching people and what they did during their daily lives. Humans fascinated her. They were so different from the gods. There was something about them that she couldn't fathom. Something that her family of gods couldn't relate to.
It wasn't long before she realized that she had been around humans longer than she had the gods. She was disconnected from her own kind. A couple of centuries later, she even felt a disconnect from her nymph friends.
Of course, she never made this obvious to her mother. She amused her mother and let the nymphs follow her about and it got her mother off her back. With the nymphs she was allowed to roam freely. Without them, her mother was attached to her side. She would much rather choose to be with her equally-curious-of-human friends than with her mother.
She loved Demeter, but some times she was just too suffocating. She didn't know if she could believe her mother's stories of the evils of men. Especially once she had lain with one. And it was absolutely marvelous. She never let the men know who she really was. Her reputation as Kore, the maiden, the bringer-of-flowers was important. She had to keep up this façade for her mother's sake and even for the sake of the humans. Even though the pleasures of the self were all-too pleasurable, she was still a woman and women could not give into these pleasures and let it be known. If she did, she feared what would happen.
So she played the game. An innocent maiden by day and a wanton in night's cloak. It was a frustrating match. At first she only coupled with a man once every few decades, but now it grew more frequently. At first it had been fun, but no man had completely satisfied her. Perhaps it was because she needed more practice?
Years she had been playing with men, learning new techniques and teaching others, and yet she had still never been completely satisfied. The act itself was immensely pleasing, but there was something missing, something untouchable in the end. She never dared speak this aloud to anyone and would slip away in the dark before the men she was with realized she had gone.
Perhaps, as a woman, that was just the way things were. She was the weaker sex, so she supposed it made sense. But if there was one thing she did know it was that if she didn't like how something was, specifically in her life, it could be changed, albeit quietly. No one knew about her secret and she intended to keep it that way. Just as she always had, if she wanted to know something, she would find out the answer herself. It may take another eon, but she'd figure it out. Eventually. Even if she had no idea where to even begin to look or what exactly it was she was trying to find in the first place.