It was midwinter, Olympus was painted in white and bright lights.

It had been a total of one year or so since the defeat of Gaia and there was an Olympian meeting today. Hermes and Apollo discussed about the upcoming new year and what awaited them. Artemis and Athena were discussing the latest version of the new dagger Hephaestus had created. Hephaestus and Ares were fighting over Aphrodite of course. It was an unusual meeting.

However, Dionysus of all the gods, felt something was wrong. He scanned the the room but he found nothing out of place until he landed on Hera's throne. It was empty.

How strange, she was usually the first one here.

Dionysus' train of thought was disrupted by a flash of lightning. Zeus had entered the throne room and everyone ceased talk and went to their respective thrones.

The meeting has begun,"Is everyone here?"

Zeusdidn't seem to notice the empty throne beside his own, Demeter decided to point that out,"My lord, Hera is not present."

Zeus was taken aback. He turned to the throne questioningly as if Hera was merely playing a joke and was just invisible, he turned to the gods before him,"Does anyone know where she is?"

Theyall shook their head. At that point, there was a shriek.

It echoed through out all of Olympus and it was filled with sheer terror that hearth dimmed ominously attached the sound.

Poseidon turned to Zeus, his eyes filled with concern,"It sounded like Hera."

Zeus jumped at the thought,"Search for her! Check the mortal world if you must! We must find her!"

The gods exchanged looks and set off to search for Hera.

~oOo~

Herawas on her way to the meeting, she had had a long day. It was a long, dull day of work. And aside with her fight with Zeus and Athena and her being sick, it was not a good day. She had fallen asleep for some rest and woke up later than she expected. She'd gotten ready hastily, and as she ran to the throne room she was slipping on her shoes.

But as she put on her left shoe, she slipped on a mound of wet stone where some snow had melted and fell scraping her knee.

She looked down on it, in pain, a small trickle of ichor ran down it. Great, just what I wanted, she thought.

Instinctively, she looked to her left. There was a small alley between her office temple and Demeter's own home. Office temple because she had her own temple where she lived in with Zeus, she used this one to work in. Hera looked back to her knee, it stung more than it should've, but then, she saw the tiniest dot of red mixed in with the golden blood.

Thenthere was more, and suddenly she had streams of red and golden blood leaking out. Maybe it was just her imagination but the cut on her leg seemed to be getting bigger. The larger it got, the more her knee burned, until the cut reached her calf. Now it was on fire.

Her eyes filled with tears but she didn't allow any to fall. She looked towards the grand temple where it's light seemed to offer some sort of sanctuary. She then heard a voice,"Hello, Hera."

She looked up and was filled with instant fear,"N-no."

She crawled backwards trying to get away but it followed her, now she was sweating her chocolate hair sticking to her face and with all her effort she stood and limped away. But wherever she went it blocked her path. When she'd open the door to her office out had swiped at her leaving a claw mark across her cheek.

In a desperate attempt to get away she ran towards the alley until she found a dead-end. She jumped and scratched at the wall until her fingers bled blood and ichor. A dark shadow blocked what little light she had. She turned around, her brown eyes filled with terror. She backed into a corner abs tried making herself as small as possible. It advanced on her and she kept repeating the same words, "No. No. Please! No!"

Finally the darkness overtook herand she let out a terrified and pained scream.

Andthat's where Apollo found her. In the corner of the alley, her leg in a horrid cut and her fair skin covered in sweat, blood, and grime. She hugged herself, trembling violently her eyes wide with fear. Apollo called out saying he found her and Dionysus had gotten there first.

When she looked at him with those big, brown eyes, he realized she wasn't only terrified, but the fright she had gotten was enough to have her lose sanity.