For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?
By Asso
Chapter Ten
There.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The wind no longer raged.
Suddenly Persephone realized it.
And she realized there was calm now.
Her stomach was no longer twisting, was no longer trying to climb into her throat, in the precipitous descent.
The horses...
Their mad race had stopped.
They were still.
And the iron-clad hands that had held her tight did not encircle her anymore.
She... was free.
Free even... even to open her eyes.
And she did it.
Slowly.
Fearful to see.
But she had to see.
And she saw.
There was light.
Yes.
There was light.
A strange light.
Wan.
Ashen.
Stirless.
Everything, there, was…. was…
Was stirless.
She sensed it.
She felt it.
She perceived it.
There, where she was now...
There...
Everything was stirless.
Like... - her eyes looked forwards, before the chariot where she stood upright - ... like those black, huge steeds that had towed that chariot, into which she had been lugged, in a mad rush and that now stood quiet and motionless, only shaking from time to time the proud and thick manes, only emitting from time to time some slight and proud snorts.
Everything was stirless.
Like... like the air around.
Still and stirless.
Not hot.
Not cold.
And yet... gelid.
Not on the skin.
Gelid... inside.
Devoid of effluvia.
Of smells.
Simply still.
Stirless.
Her gaze rose in that light.
Which light was not.
It watched far away.
Through the nothing that surrounded her.
Looked at the horizon.
Which did not exist.
There... there was nothing.
Nothing.
NOTHING!
Everything was... everything was as if hanging in nothingness!
The chariot, the horses... were hanging in nothingness.
Into nothingness the hooves of the steeds sank.
On nothingness the big wheels of the chariot rested.
The chariot… the chariot where she stood…
The steeds…
They were the only real and solid thing.
They and…
And…
Her eyes turned.
Slowly.
Slowly.
He was true.
Solid.
Real.
He was there.
On the chariot.
Black and silent and still.
A step away from her.
Towering over her.
In front of her.
And the storm died down.
The wind no longer roared.
The calm was back.
No creepy rumble was heard anymore. The earth was quiet again. Composed.
And there was the clear sky again.
And the limpid and transparent light of the sweetly sunny forenoon.
Hera looked at her husband.
He nodded.
With graveness, he nodded.
The beasts ceased to howl.
They returned quiet.
In the quiet that now reigned again.
The children ceased to cry.
And the birds sang again.
Again, their singing was heard in the quiet and lukewarmly air.
The clouds - fluffy and snow-white - chased themselves again in the blue sky, against the sun, which glowed gloriously.
People, peoples raised their heads, looked around.
They looked up at the sky, blue and serene again.
They filled their ears of the soft singing of the birds, of the harmonious hum of the insects.
The ears...
No longer offended by that ear-splitting, chilling rumble.
It was gone.
The eyes looked at each other.
It was over.
Whatever it had been, it was over.
And with graveness, Zeus spoke.
In a dim voice.
Staring gravely and sombrely at his wife.
"It's over, Hera."
Tremulous was Hera's voice.
"It's…?"
"Yes, wife."
Zeus bowed his chin on his chest, his arms crossed on it, his eyes lowered down.
"She…" His voice went down up to a barely audible murmur. "…Persephone is there."
Zeus' voice lowered further.
"Down there."
Hera almost had to imagine his last words.
"With him."
End of Chapter Ten
TBC
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
There.
Down there.
With him.