Hippolyta has never been speechless. Not once in her reign as queen has she not known what to do. But now, she didn't know what to do with the child that was sleeping soundly in Metrodora's arms. Her motherly instinct was kicking in and she knew what the right thing to do was, but wasn't sure if she should do it.
Having just given birth to her own precious child a mere 4 hours ago, she couldn't even bear the thought of sending this one to its death. But as queen, she knows she should. It was the most important and fundamental law of the Themyscira. No men are allowed on the island.
But this wasn't a man, it was a boy, just an innocent child.
But that boy will grow up to be a man. Hippolyta thought to herself. She observed the way that Metrodora stroked the male child's hair with a tenderness that reminded her of herself with her own daughter.
"So, the child fell out of the sky?" Phillipus asked the couple standing before her.
"Yes, out of nowhere this ship-like object came down in a fiery streak and crashed onto the shore." Elpis answered her.
That was the other thing that was causing Hippolyta to hesitate. She had thought that the prophecy was about Diana, but maybe… it was about this child instead.
"You know our laws. We can't possibly allow this child to stay here." Phillipus' voice cut into her thoughts.
"We will raise him. We can make sure that he grows up into a young man that will aid the Amazons instead of harming us." Metrodora desperately begged.
Before Phillipus could open her mouth to answer, Hippolyta stepped in.
"You will raise this child?"
"Yes." Elpis answered.
Hippolyta looked down at the child in thought.
"Perhaps this is his fate. Or a message from the gods. Either way, I will allow you to keep the child and raise him." the Amazon queen said.
Metrodora let out a breath of relief and Elpis gave a small smile. But Hippolyta wasn't done speaking yet.
"But he will not be taught combat. He will be raised as a farmer's son and nothing more."
The women nodded their heads and bowed to the queen. After they were dismissed by Hippolyta, they left. Phillipus faced her queen with a crease between her brows.
"Why did you let the child stay?"
Hippolyta exhales a sigh.
"It is possible that the child is the one in the prophecy." She answered her General.
"It could also be the new princess. She is also technically a child from the sky…" Phillipus said.
Hippolyta quickly turned her head to look at Phillipus and then looked around the throne room to make sure that no one else was around.
"As far as everyone else knows, Diana has no father. Do not speak of this again. Do I make myself clear?"
Phillipus bows her head. Hippolyta stands up and begins to walk out of the room.
"I would like to spend more time with my daughter now, I don't want any more interruptions for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will introduce Diana to the rest of our sisters." Hippolyta says.
"And what of the male?" Phillipus calls after her.
"I suppose I will also have to explain that as well." Hippolyta then exits the room, leaving Phillipus rubbing her head to soothe her headache.
12 years later
Diana loved the feeling of wind in her hair. If she had to list her most favorite feelings in the world this would be in the top five. Also beating Claes in arm wrestling was up there too. Her mother has always told her to be careful when coming into contact with others because her strength could easily hurt them. The last thing she wants to do is hurt the people she cares about.
But lately it has been harder to beat him. She still does, of course, but he's begun to start actually putting up a resistance. She loves the challenge.
She has just finished training and was riding her horse to the beach where Claes was waiting for her. Being the only two children on the island, they were the best of friends. They were constantly getting in trouble, mostly because of the crazy schemes that Diana would come up with and convince Claes to follow along using her favorite line.
"I'm the princess."
Claes would roll his eyes, but he always ended up following her anyways. She couldn't wait to show him what Anitope taught her today.
When she got to the beach Claes was already there sitting in the sand with his eyes closed and head tilted towards the sun. This is usually how she found him. When she asked him why he did that he shrugged his shoulders and said that it just made him feel good.
Bringing her horse to a stop Diana got an amazing idea. She quietly got off and started to sneakily creep up on Claes to scare him. She takes her sandals off to lessen the noise that her feet make as they touch the sand.
She gets right behind him, but before she can even prepare an attack, he surprises her.
"Hi Diana." He says in a calm voice.
Diana deflates and goes around to stand in front of him blocking the sun. She puts her hands on her hips.
"How did you know?"
Claes smiles and gives her a shrug.
"I don't know, I just heard you." He answers.
"I'll just have to learn to be quieter then." Diana says and sits down next to him.
"Did you have fun at training today?"
Diana nods her head vigorously and sits on her knees to face him bouncing up and down giddily.
"I learned this really cool move, let me show you!" Diana stood up while grabbing Claes' arm bringing him up with her.
Diana gets into a fighting stance with her fists raised, the sun shining off of her silver bracers.
"Try to hit me." She tells Claes.
"What?" Claes raises a confused eyebrow at her.
"Come on Claes just try to hit me, throw a punch like I showed you the other day."
Claes sighs and raises a fist. He swings his arm towards her head, but Diana blocks his hand and grabs it, turns him around and twists the arm behind his back. Claes lets out a small grunt of pain. Diana smiles triumphantly and lets go.
Claes rubs his shoulder and turns to face Diana again.
"Okay that was pretty cool." He says.
Being the son of farmers, Claes didn't get to learn any battle techniques. He didn't understand why, all Amazons learned at least something, even his mothers. Why wasn't he allowed to learn alongside Diana.
That's one of the reasons why he was grateful for Diana. She would show him all of the stuff she learned in training that day. She wasn't as good of a teacher as Antiope, but Claes thought she might do that on purpose so she can still beat him in a fight.
He also wished that he got those cool bracers too. Diana just got hers recently and she always shows him how good she is at blocking the rocks and shells that he throws at her.
"Claes lets go explore that cave that we saw the other day." Diana interrupts his thoughts.
"I don't know Diana, my mom always told me to be careful and not go into any dangerous areas."
Diana rolls her eyes and grabs his hand pulling him along.
"Come on Claes, it'll be fine. I'm here to protect you, nothing will happen I promise."
Now Claes found himself exploring a dark cave with only a couple of torches for light.
Diana is leading the way deeper into the cave. Claes looks around at the walls. Truthfully, he can see pretty well in the dark, but for Diana's sake he uses a torch too.
Diana halts and motions for him to do the same.
"What is it?" Claes asks in a loud voice, and Diana shushes him.
"Would you whisper please?" she says in a whispered response.
Claes listens closely to try and hear what made Diana stop. Then he hears it before he sees it.
"Diana, I think we should turn around…" Claes whispers but before he can finish his sentence a group of bats comes flying out of the darkness towards them.
Claes screams and starts to thrash around at the bats with his torch. He vaguely hears Diana say his name but feels her grab his hand and the two of them run back to the opening of the cave. The bats fly away.
The two kids are hunched over and breathing heavy, and Diana lost her torch somewhere along the way. Diana stands up straight and hits Claes on his shoulder with a smile.
"Are you afraid of bats?" she teases him.
Claes stands up straight with a slight scowl on his face.
"No, I'm not afraid of bats! I just think that anything that hangs around in a dark cave all the time is weird that's all."
Diana laughs and takes his torch from him. Claes turns around to begin leaving.
"Wait where are you going? I was only kidding, I'm sorry!" Diana says.
Claes ignores her and he hears her huff and stamp her foot.
"Fine, but I'm not done exploring the cave, I'm going back in."
All of a sudden Claes hears a cracking noise and then hears the sound of rocks falling. When he turns around, he sees that the opening of the cave has begun to crumble, and Diana doesn't move out of the way fast enough.
Claes runs over to the cave faster than he's ever moved before, but he's still too late. Diana is trapped inside the cave.
"Diana! Diana, can you hear me!"
When he doesn't hear a response Claes immediately starts to grab the smaller rocks and throws them out of the way. When he gets to the heavier rocks he hesitates. He thinks about running back and telling an adult, but he needs to make sure that Diana is okay.
He decides to grab a big rock and tries to move it. It doesn't budge. He continues to pull and pull with all his might. The skin of his hands split open and begin to bleed but he still doesn't stop.
Suddenly the rock budges. Claes pulls the big rock free and continues to throw the heavy rocks away. This is incredible, he thinks. He's never been able to move rocks this big before.
Soon he clears out enough rocks to get inside the cave and he sees Diana lying on the floor out cold. He looks over her body for any injuries but sees none. He gently shakes her awake and their eyes meet.
Diana looks over at the cave opening and then back at Claes.
"You were able to move all of those rocks by yourself?" she asks in awe. She didn't know that it was possible for anybody else to do the same things as her.
Claes smiles and helps her stand up.
"I guess I'm pretty strong now too."