Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, the constellations, or the stars, although it might be nice…

Chapter 1: Pleione's Lament

It's hard growing up, when your father is a mountain. He's never there to give any guidance, or support, and most especially to administer any discipline. Even so, Pleione felt that was no real excuse for the way her daughters had turned out. She was going to have to face the facts. She'd raised a pack of hell-hounds.

It had started small, when they were young. She'd thought it harmless at the time – even encouraged it, buying them toy bows and arrows, taking them to meet their first-cousin-once-removed Artemis. She'd thought they would grow out of it – settle down into some proper maidenly pursuits. She'd been wrong.

It just wasn't right, this unhealthy obsession with the hunt. They spent all their time out in the forest, away from any potential suitors, and only came home to drop off their latest trophy, blood-stained and reeking, requesting it plucked, or cleaned, or skinned, or roasted. Why, they spent more time with their hounds than with their own dear mother. And their hair was always knotted, and grubby, and Electra insisted on cutting hers short, no matter what Pleione said, and their skin was beyond redemption, all weathered and tanned and scratched…

It was all very well for Artemis – she was a goddess. Or those nymphs – well, everyone knew what nymphs were like. But she'd been trying so hard to raise a set of ladies… Surely one or two wouldn't have been too much to ask for? One or two, out of seven? All she wanted was a daughter she could take to respectable occasions…