The Goddess & The Flower
The maiden Persephone walked the Earth, radiating within the light of the golden Sun, with life sprouting where her soft hands and bare feet touched. Her russet brown hair that fell in gentle waves to her waist would be decorated with fragrant and beautiful flowers of her creation, bringing out the vibrancy of her bright eyes that was the color of rich green grass and full of wonder.
She spent her days playing and roaming the rich and healthy lands of her mother, Demeter, the Goddess of Harvest. In the world that she grew up in under her loving mother's care, Persephone grew to be the most beautiful and precious of Earth's treasures, with her magnificence easily rivalling that of even Aphrodite's.
Usually, she was always in the company of her retinue of nymphs while she played in the forests, who took care of her when her mother was unable to. With them, she would play, sing, dance and pick flowers to her heart's content, revelling in the beauty and bounty that her mother had blessed the lands with.
But now, she was alone.
It was evening now, and the golden Sun was starting to set. The nymphs had gone off to prepare for slumber within their trees, and Persephone was to head back to her sacred grove. In her hands was the bouquet of flowers that she had picked throughout the day - wild roses, amaranths, and lilies to name a few.
She had been inhaling the sweet fragrance of the bouquet and admiring its beauty when she saw it.
Narcissus.
It was her favorite flower, with its soft white petals in an elegant form around a small yellow bud in the middle, which looked like a miniature Sun in a small patch of pure white sky.
Her heart fluttered at the sight of beauty and she knew that she definitely wanted it in her collection. Narcissus do not necessarily grow much around these parts of the forest that she was in, and she thought for a short second that it seemed strange that she conveniently found one at the right place at the right time. But she paid not much thought, focusing more on her gentle fingers pinching the stalk of one narcissus and plucking it out from the ground.
She was about to bring the flower to her face, wanting to smell its sweet perfume and caress its soft petals against her cheek – all to embrace the beauty of her favourite flower.
But just as she plucked it from the Earth, she felt the ground shake.
And in a split second, where the narcissus flower had one stood, it cracked.
Persephone lost her balance and fell ungracefully to the ground, losing her grip on the flowers in her arms and everything scattered all around the grass. But she paid no attention to the flowers strewn, never taking her eyes off the crack that had turned into a gaping hole.
And from that hole, which seemed to emit a dire air, emerged an ebony chariot that was reined by two black horses that looked like they were born of an Abyss itself.
And upon that chariot, there was a God.