Children of Apollo
A collection of short stories about Apollo, his lovers, and his children-----------------------------------
Stealing the Moon
Long, long ago, in a time when the adventures in our oldest of stories were current events; before the raise of the Roman Empire; before the Byzantine Empire; before the Saxons; before the revolutions; Greece was the center of Western Civilization. It was a world where gods lived in the sky, high on the mountaintops, and they would come down for mere moments in their immortal existence and attend to the people. One of these people that warranted the gods' special attention, be it good or evil, was a talented, but humble hunter named Orion, who was the only man the maiden goddess, Artemis, ever showed favor upon. Artemis' brother, Apollo, however became jealous of Orion and had him killed. Artemis grieved for the loss of her hunting companion and, with her brother's aid, fixed Orion's image in the sky, along with the scorpion that had stung his heel.
Now, souls can be reborn. No matter what faith one believes in, they all allow room for a soul to return to Earth. Orion was reborn, or, at least a man that reminded Artemis very much of Orion.
Many years after the times of our oldest stories, past the fall of empires and well into the triumphant rise of democracy, another such man was born, one that Artemis showed favor on. He was from an ancient family that neither he, nor his parents, nor their parents before them had any knowledge of. He was raised in the middle of nowhere, among the trees, on a small farm with his small family. His mother had come from a line of 'kitchen witches' and had an extensive knowledge of flora, fauna, and homegrown remedies, and his father was a born and raised redneck hunter (and proud of it) and a god-fearing man. They brought him and his sister up right. His sister was a delicate angel, wise and brave, and strong. It was because of her that this man and Artemis were able to meet.
Artemis was considering recruiting Lucille, the man, Matthew's, dear younger sister. Artemis and her huntresses had found her deep in the wilds of the forest and had approved of her, but Lucille turned her down, for she could never live without the company of men if that meant she would have to leave her brother.
Matthew was the greatest of hunters, as great as the huntresses and with the same respect for nature. Had he been female, Artemis would've asked him to join the hunt as well. He was humble and well mannered. When he found his younger sister talking with a small girl in the middle of the woods, he was confused, but polite as possible under the circumstances. He was very hospitable as well, along with his parents, and Artemis stayed close to them and examined them and their self-sufficient way of life, a way that seemed to be mostly lost to that country (except for, perhaps, the Amish and small organic farmers). She grew very fond of the siblings. They reminded her of something.
Artemis' huntresses returned for her several nights later and the goddess left with them, but she returned often to visit the siblings, and eventually she returned just to visit Matthew for he was the hunter. She took different forms and tested his reaction, but each time he spoke to her casually, but respectfully. Artemis would not take her huntresses into the company of men so she eventually chose a form closer to his age and they hunted alone. Matthew held is own as well as any of her huntresses, if not better. They would go out for weeks on hunting trips and chase all manner of prey. Some were wild and some were terrible beasts the likes of nothing Matthew had ever seen before, but he hunted along side the silver girl from the woods and thought nothing off about it, as if he was hunting with his sister. Lucille was young and much preferred her garden and her herbs with her mother, but Matthew often told Artemis of how he missed her during their longer hunter trips and how he wished to show her those deeper paths of the woods.
It was a very pleasant time. For well over a year Artemis frequently returned to Matthew's neck of the woods to visit with his family and hunt with him. Each time Artemis returned the trips grew a little long and a little further from home, to the point where the goddess was considering simply turning Matthew into a female and inviting both him and his sister to the hunt. Perhaps she would've done it, too, if it wasn't then that Apollo discovered them.
Apollo cared for his twin very much, and perhaps he thought he was protecting her virtue that she thought so highly of. Apollo was visiting his then out of commission oracle when he ran in with his sister's huntresses all staying at Camp Half Blood. When he enquired about his sister, he was told that Artemis was looking into a family out in northern Idaho that she had taken particular interest in. Apollo, being the protective brother that he is and having nothing better to do, thanked the huntresses and immediately investigated.
There were a lot of woods in northern Idaho and much of it was federal land, but Apollo didn't worry. He had driven over this part of the country many times and he always had a bit of a sixth sense about where to find his twin.
He was terribly surprised to find his usually cold and pitiless twin, in the form of a young woman, acting content and talking casually and amiably with a young man. They carried a trophy buck between them and were decked out in skins of wolves and coons. Artemis had something that appeared to be a bear coat wrapped around her in the brisk fall weather. They were transporting their latest kill back to their miniature campsite where they skinned it and gutted it, cured, cooked, and dried it together.
Apollo was instantly outraged. Rarely ever had his sister conversed with him like that. Apollo cared for his twin very much and knew that the very first thing she had asked from her father was to be able to be a wild maiden of the hunt forever. He was not going to allow some boy to bring his beloved twin to forget her vow, not for an instant.
Apollo didn't want to kill the vile human there. No, not with Artemis around. He didn't want to cause his dear sister any more pain. So Apollo tracked them, not being void of hunting skills himself, until he discovered that they were heading toward a small house in the middle of nowhere. Apollo was originally planning on waiting until Artemis returned to her huntresses to take his revenge on the boy, but when he saw the young girl in the herb garden behind the house, he had a different idea.
While Artemis and Matthew were still far enough away, music began float out of the woods, into young Lucille's ear. It was beautiful music, a gentle chorus humming a medley that so fit the feeling of the woods that Lucille didn't notice it at first. It called to her, moved her feet for her, and she followed the gentle, enchanting sound away from the house and into the woods. Lucille followed the music to a clearing where she found herself in the presence of a glowing choir all lead by a shining figure with a golden smile and a glowing halo of light about his head. Lucille felt tears in her eyes as the figure of Apollo, in a form somewhat closer to his true form, extended a hand to her. She took it, gladly, completely entranced by his song.
Artemis left Matthew before they returned to the house. She would rejoin with her huntresses, move to warmer climates, and return next spring with her newest proposition if she was still fond of the idea and if they accepted. She was a far distance off when Matthew returned home, unloaded his trophies, and couldn't find his sister.
"Oh, she only went into the back wood," his mother had told him, having seen her wander off herself. "She's off dancing with the fairies. She'll be back by supper." Matthew had enough to put away and reorganize that he did not panic, but when supper came and went and night began to fall, Matthew became awfully worried.
"I'm going to go look for her," he said as he pulled on a coat that had animal skins as patches.
"Be quick about it," his father yawned, sifting through his chewing tobacco. "It's getting hell'a cold at night now."
"Hell isn't cold," was Matthew's reply as he slipped outside and ran into the twilight.
He couldn't find her, not a trace. He followed her tracks to a clearing and then they stopped, vanished, nothing. She had disappeared into thin air. There were scorch marks and strange other tracks of sorts in the clearing that he knew nothing of, but he had seen some strange sights hunting along side Artemis, although she had explained almost none of them. He reasoned that she and those creatures must be connected to this, as he often noticed that when Artemis left him, her tracks, too, would suggest that she vanished into thin air.
Matthew stopped back at his house only once. He slept, ate hearty, and then packed for another hunting mission; this time to find his sister, or possibly his hunting companion who might be able to help.
-
It was months, and during the bitter cold of winter, before Artemis was made aware of her brother's scheme. He didn't reveal it very subtly either. It was after a council gathering of the main Greek pantheon on Mount Olympus as they have from time to time. Artemis was restocking before returning to the hunt when Apollo appeared before her, grinning smugly. She did not return his grin.
"Where were you?" the sun god asked, peering around her temple like a sibling walking into another sibling's room and having to look at, examine, and touch everything. Artemis didn't look up as she inspected the fletching on each and every arrow. "The same place you were."
"Really?" Apollo asked, his hands tracing constellations on the wall. "I was at our Delos." Delos was the name of the island where Artemis and Apollo were born. Their Delos was also their term for their own personal paradise outside of Mount Olympus that traveled with them with Western Civilization.
"Mmhmm," was all Artemis replied. She knew her brother wanted her to ask him about it, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.
"I'm keeping a mortal girl there. Hope you don't mind. Whisked her away from her family."
Artemis didn't care in the least bit, but continued looking over her equipment before carefully folding it away in skins and packing it in a most efficient manner. Apollo leaned back against one of the columns in her temple and watched her work for another minute before she got annoyed with feeling his stare. "Why are you still here?"
Apollo merely smiled back at her, his head tilted to the side and his golden hair falling from his brow. "How's your boy?"
That caught Artemis' attention. "What?"
"Your boy," Apollo explained, getting up from leaning against the column, picking up her bow and stringing it. "The one who was hunting with you earlier." Artemis watched him as he dry fired her bow. "Young fellow. Good hunter. Nice teeth. Big hat."
Realization hit. Artemis snatched the bow from her brother's hands. "What'd you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything to him, for once." Apollo grinned. This had not been the first boy the god had been the ruin of.
Shock swept over Artemis' features as she pieced together little bits of what she had been ignoring. "You stole his sister."
"She came of her own free will," Apollo corrected. "So, technically I didn't steal her."
Artemis had an arrow poised at him the next moment and in her very cold and merciless tone demanded, "Where is he?"
Apollo laughed, but one could tell he was hurt by the threat. "There's no point threatening me, sis. We can't die."
She moved closer with her arrow poised at his throat and enunciated her question again, very slowly. "Where. Is. My boy?"
Apollo sighed and scratched his head. "He's been searching for the girl since the day after you left him."
"Searching." She glanced out the doorway of her temple on Mount Olympus to the see the thick, swirling snow falling on the city below. "In this?" Her incredulous scowl could not taint her ivory face. She stashed her equipment, whipped on her quiver and bow and charged out of the temple.
"Sis! Wait!" Apollo called after her as she ran through the celestial city. "Don't go hunting angry!"
"Damn you, Apollo!" the goddess spat back over her shoulder. "Damn you to the depths of Tartarus!"
Artemis dived into the countryside and did not stop. Her huntresses were soon by her side even though she did not summon them. Apollo had called them for her.
Even if the traveler was walking, given months of time Matthew could've been anywhere. Unfortunately the wild goose chase that Apollo had sent him on had led Matthew north, into the deeper cold of the Canadian forests. Matthew was a great hunter, but even Artemis didn't often bother hunting that far north in the cold.
Artemis did find him and when she found him he was still alive, but not by enough. She was too late. He had been caught in a rockslide just a few hours earlier. His legs were crushed, one arm pinned and he was so numb with the cold, he could barely tilt his head to see her when she arrived. He was half buried alive.
"I found you." His voice came out as a withered wheeze as he forced his diaphragm to move. Artemis went to work. She wrapped him in a skin and promptly ordered her huntresses to move the bounders and rocks off him.
"I'm looking for Lucille," he continued to wheeze.
"Yes, Matthew. We'll find her," was Artemis' quick reply as she rummaged through her bag.
"Take care of her," Matthew wheezed again.
"Yes, Matthew. We'll take care of her." And as she tried to feed him, he died. His soul left him and everything about him that Artemis admired left with him. Starring at the frozen empty shell, she could feel her huntresses fading away on one side of her and her brother appearing on the other.
"He was innocent," the goddess whispered, carefully shutting the boy's eyes. "As innocent as any of my maidens." The icy winter winds played with her hair, taunting her with the fact that she couldn't feel the cold and she had just watched a man die from it. She stood and turned her head slightly as her brother continued to approach. "Why didn't you send a scorpion? I could've handled a scorpion. He could've handled a scorpion. He could've gone down fighting instead of like this: withered away in the cold." Her frown deepened. "What a dismal way to leave the world." She looked upward into the winter night sky. The constellation of Orion was in full view, tall and proud. "Why don't I ever learn?" she asked the sky, her voice filled with bitterness. She then went rigid and swung around to her brother in a glowing rage. "Why don't YOU learn?" She growled, menace growing in the back of her throat. "You could've left him alone for half a century, a few decades." She swung her arms in exasperation. "A few years more in our infinite existence and he would've gotten old. He would've withered away and there wouldn't have been all this- this- this-" She was overcome with emotions. They were normal everyday emotions, but she simply was so not use to feeling them that she wasn't sure what to call them. "This!" She finally declared. "Another dead boy. This anger."
"But," Apollo retorted. "I would've still been angry." He pointed at himself innocently, but with the most sincere of puppy-dog faces.
She waved an angry, delicate, strong hand at him. "Damn you, Apollo. No one cares what you think." She almost started pacing; her human form antsy with emotional chaos and agitation, but Apollo walked in front of her and wrapped his arms around her. "Damn you, Apollo." She struggled against him in vain. Apollo held strong, and she had little left in her to fight off her twin. "Damn you, brother. Damn you."
He could feel them, warm against his chest.
Tears.
Gods did not feel ashamed to cry when they grieved, but Artemis never grieved. The only times Apollo ever saw his sister cry was when he killed her companions. It was a small sacrifice he wasn't going to tell her he was willing to make to be able to comfort her every once in a long while.
Apollo held his sleek, beautiful older sister is his strong, tanned arms. "Do you still damn me to the depths of Tartarus?" He asked her with a humbled face, but he could never disguise the laugh he always had in his voice.
"No, I don't damn you." Artemis' response held a sigh, like Apollo was a simple child and she should've seen this coming. She could never stay mad at her twin for long.
"Shall we add him to the sky, then?" Apollo asked, looking the frozen body over.
"Let's."
"What shall we add this time?"
Artemis broke off from her brother, now fully recovered, and looked up at Orion's constellation. She had already given him a sword, a shield, and a belt for her last fallen companions. "How about a hat. He always wore the most amusing hats when we went hunting."
The huntresses returned, a pyre was built and when the smoke from Matthew's ashes thinned and the sky could be seen again, Orion was wearing a hat. The constellation is vague enough that it could really be whatever hat one pleases, but if there wasn't so much light pollution, and if mortal's eyes and crude machinery were capable of proper sight, the people on Earth would be able to see a fuzzy cap with large flaps that went over the ears atop Orion's head.
Artemis and Apollo stood and watched the flames flicker and die down till there was little more than warm glowing embers.
"What shall we do about the girl?" Apollo asked.
"You still have her on Delos?" Artemis didn't look up, but kept her eyes on the embers.
"Yes."
"Keep her there," was the goddess' advise. "She can't come back. She can't know this has happened." She glared up at him, which had the same effect of her glaring down on him. "You better take damn good care of her." She put an emphasis on 'damn' and then left with her huntresses with nothing to mark their passing but a pile of ashes.
Apollo did take care of her. Apollo took care of Lucille in her own, special dreamland. She lived in a daze, waited on by nymphs, forever enchanted by their music. She loved him dearly and he paid her many special attentions. She bore him seven children: three of which never left the island, three more died in the battle against the resurrected titans and one, who had been wandering, had been claimed as Apollo had promised and sent to Camp Half Blood after the chaos had ended.
Lucille aged gracefully, lived a long full life with her children, and her opinion of Apollo never dimmed.