For some reason, I awoke from my sleep while the sky was still dark. I was confused as to why I would do that, until I remembered that I had to bring the moon down so that Apollo can bring forth the sun.

I sat up in bed, my back resting against many pillows and my body covered by the delicious silkiness of my white blanket. I ran a hand through my long hair, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness before I slid off and headed into the bathroom.

I took a quick bath and dressed in a simply cream-coloured knee-length chiton; my usual attire. I tied my hair into a simple ponytail and put on my sandals before I finally head out of my room.

Just as I exited, I saw Apollo just coming out of his room as well, all dressed and prepared.

Because of our duties, it is usual for me and Apollo to be the first ones awake, unless there was some poor soul in the palace who did not get even a wink of sleep. It will only be after Apollo raises the sun then do the other gods awaken from their slumber.

We walked silently to the stables and readied our horses and chariots. Heracles wasn't there to open the gates for us as he was asleep. So instead, we both used our powers to open the gates, which turn out to be working though we used up a lot of our energy.

We took off into the air, feeling the wind rushing on our faces. I fly up into the sky, watching as Apollo reached the down-casted sun.

The moon immediately felt the chariot and begins to move towards it. I steer the horses to bring it down. As the moon followed my chariot, I looked behind, up at Apollo. The sky was orange now but was getting brighter and brighter as the sun took the moon's former position.

Finally, the moon sets and I fly off back home. Apollo was still guiding the sun to the centre of the sky. His celestial body was so bright compared to mine that I looked away from it, not wanting to risk getting blind. It amazes me about he could stand it.

I returned to the palace grounds and my horses trot over to the stables. As the sky kept getting brighter, I finally caught sight of someone standing there.

"Persephone? What are you doing up so early?" I ask her as I got off.

She walks over to my side as I untied the reins of my horses. "I always wake up quite early to pick flowers in the garden," she says. Then she lifts something in her hand to me. "I made this for you."

The item she had in her hand was a small bouquet consisting of flowers with quite dark shades; dark purple lavender and aconitum, dark blue periwinkle and dark pink begonias. There was some light purple heather, white oleander and white baby's breath that gave the bouquet some brightness. It was tied together with twine and it was arranged so perfectly.

"Oh, thank you, Persephone! This is so beautiful! I must find a vase to put it in my room!" I exclaimed as I carefully took the bouquet from her. She smiled happily at me, but just then both of us turned to look at Apollo, who had just landed.

"We have a visitor!" he exclaims, his chariot riding towards us.

On cue, another chariot suddenly lands at the opened gates and was now riding towards us. This chariot was made of black ebony that looked so bottomless and fathomless. It was pulled by two black winged horses that were plated in cold silver armour. The horses' eyes were a bright yellow that made it looked so demonic.

The charioteer himself was a dark figure. Dressed from head to toe in black, he looked like a dark shadow. His skin was pale, and he had short unruly pitch black hair and onyx eyes.

At the sight of him, Persephone suddenly became excited.

"My love!" she cried out and ran towards him.

Hades' eyes shockingly lights up when he sees her and he commands his horses to stop so that he can jump out of the chariot. Both he and Persephone ran to each other, and when they were mere inches away, he lifts her from her waist and spins her around in the air.

Apollo and I watched as Hades and Persephone hugged and whispered things into each other's ears. And then, they kissed. It was a tender kiss that could only be shared by a husband and wife.

"It's as if I'm watching night and day loving each other," Apollo whispers, and I nod silently.

Suddenly, they both let go and stared at each other's eyes. I felt kind of awkward watching them so I turned to my horses.

Sometimes, I really wondered how marriage was like. Was it really that great? There were so many different versions to it. I've seen Aphrodite and her husband, Hephaestus. Aphrodite hated him so much and that is what fuelled her to have so many lovers. On the other hand, Hades and Persephone act as if their marriage was the best thing in the world and they loved each other to bits.

And one more thing; how could Persephone fall for a man who had abducted her? If I were her, I would have maimed him there and then. But of course, Persephone was strange in a way.

Ah! Marriage was so confusing. It's no wonder I remained a virgin. Besides, I don't need all that. I have my family.

Suddenly, I hear Hades say, "Good morning. Apollo. Artemis."

I turn back to them and saw that Persephone was still in his arms.

"Good morning, Uncle Hades," Apollo says cheerily.

I nod my head as a form of greeting. I will admit that I felt uncomfortable around him. He was the God of the Dead after all.

"Artemis has just returned from a long trip! It certainly is good to see her again!" she says to him happily.

"It certainly must be," Hades says dreamily and leans in to press his lips to her.

"Kore!" a fierce womanly voice shouts from the palace steps. All of us turned to see Demeter marching towards us.

"Have you forgotten our deal, Hades? Right now, she belongs to me!" Demeter shouts at her brother. She then reaches for Persephone, but Hades moves her so that she was out of reach.

Persephone fights back. "Stop it, mother! He is my husband! I have every right to treat him like one!"

Hades adds in, "Besides, I am here for summer solstice. And if you remembered clearly, she will have to be with me throughout."

"What is going on here?" a manly voice booms. Zeus suddenly appears with his brother, Poseidon.

"Zeus! Please tell our dear brother here that my daughter is to be with me now!" Demeter shouts erratically.

Apollo and I both looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We both agreed that Demeter was too over-the-top. We get annoyed by her protective ways very easily and we were both thankful that our mother isn't like that.

Zeus sighs. "Demeter, you do know that the rule only counts for normal days. But this is summer solstice week. And they are to stay together to prepare for the ceremonial procession. How many years will it take to get it through?" he says exasperatedly.

Demeter glares at Zeus, then Hades, then Persephone, and then for some reason to me and Apollo. We both looked away from her, not wanting to have anything to do with it. I directed my eyes to the bouquet Persephone gave me, touching the petal of a begonia.

"Fine," she huffs. "But I still want Persephone to accompany me at the garden. Only then can she return to him."

Zeus sighs again and says to Hades, "You better do as she says, Hades."

Persephone yelps a protest, but Hades shushes her. Being the one near them, I could manage to hear him whisper to her, "When you are done, come to my chambers."

Okay. I did not have to hear that.

Persephone sighs and pecks her husband's lips before hesitantly moving to her mother. Demeter grabs her daughter's hand quickly and pulls her back into the palace.

Apollo then proceeds to tie off the reins of his horses and I just stand there for a while, watching the Big Three,

"Ah, Hades! My dear older brother! How are you?" Poseidon greets. Like his brothers, he was a king, and he managed to pull of that look with long white-smoky hair and a short beard. True to his title, his eyes were a sea-green.

It seems weird to me that Hades was in fact the older brother of Zeus and Poseidon. Both the King of the Heavens and the King of the Seas looked somewhat middle-aged, maybe mid-thirties, but still had muscular stature and facial hair. The King of the Underworld, though, looked more into his late-twenties. He was not bulky muscular like his brothers, but lean. He had a smooth face that showed his supposed youthfulness. The only similarity between them was that they all had the same height.

I always wondered why Zeus and Poseidon would choose to look older even though I knew they had the power to make themselves look a lot more like how Hades did. Athena had told me once that they did so because they wanted to look powerful.

"It's been fairly normal down in the Underworld. Nothing new," Hades says.

Poseidon then hits him on his back, and says, "No fret! We will take you out for some fun. For tomorrow, we are going hunting!"

Hunting? This, I got to hear.

Poseidon then looks at me and he immediately smiles. "Ah, my niece. I assume that you will be joining us tomorrow? I mean, you are the Lady of the Hunt."

Zeus then adds in, "Oh yes. I had forgotten to mention it to her. So Artemis, will you be interested to join us?"

One thing you should know about me, I never turn down an invitation to a hunt.

"Of course. I would be honoured."

Zeus nods his head knowingly. And then Poseidon says, "Come, Hades. Let us catch up on our lives."

"Alright," Hades say, "But let me just do my chariot."

Apollo then comes back out of the stables and say, "It's alright, Uncle Hades. Allow me to do it."

Hades looks at him with a smile on his face. "Thank you, nephew."

The three of them then bid us farewell. I resume my job and brought my horses back to their stalls. When I came out, I see Apollo struggling with Hades' black horses.

"Come on now! I just want to bring you back in!" Apollo complains, but the horses neigh in protest.

I held back a laugh and calmly moved towards him. Wordlessly, I take the reins from his hand and use the hand that wasn't holding the bouquet to run it through the horses' manes.

"There, there. I mean you no harm," I say to them gently. And like magic, they immediately calmed down and even nuzzled their noses in my face. I untied their reins from the ebony chariot and lead them to an empty stall in the stables.

All the while, Apollo watches me as I did my work.

"You do have a way with animals, don't you?" he comments.

"They don't call me the Goddess of The Wild for nothing."

Author's Note:

Okay, so the story may be a bit slow. In my head, this story is kind of like a book. We need to know about what happened before it gets to the main plot. And to Shadow Huntress' comment, don't worry. You'll be seeing more about Hera being a total b-yotch. Just bear with me.

Muse of Fanfiction