Hestia scrambled backwards but was quickly halted when she tripped over a leg bone, she fell down and cracked her head on the hard stone ground. She lay there stunned and unable to move as the hellhound stalked towards her, licking it's lips at the prospect of eating a goddess.
So there she was, in the middle of a cave far beneath the surface of the earth, with the only way of escape being blocked by a ravenous hellhound. The hound lunged towards her, seemingly moving in slow motion as it glided through the air with it's mouth agap, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth. Hestia closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable feeling of the teeth sinking into her throat, she thought of the pain she would feel before she died and faded into nothingness.
But the feeling never came. Instead when she opened her eyes the hellhound was still snarling and frothing at the mouth, but now instead of at her it was directed at something else that had entered the cave. A large white wolf was now circling with the hellhound, it's bright blue eyes were alight with anger as it snarled and snapped at the hellhound.
They circled around each other a few times before the hellhound snarled and lunged forward, slashing at the wolf with it's paw. The wolf jumped backwards to avoid the attack, the hellhound tried to take advantage of the wolf's retreat. Clamping its teeth down on the wolf's front left leg, the wolf howled in pain and swatted the hellhound off with its other paw. Sending the hound flying through the air until it landed a few feet away.
The wolf tried to take advantage of the hounds dazed state, but as soon as it put weight on it's left foot it collapsed underneath it. While it was distracted the hound got up and lunged at the wolf's neck, but with amazing quickness the wolf rolled underneath the hound who flew right over it's head and right into a pile of bones.
The wolf got up and started limping over to where the hound had landed and stood over it's impaled body. Unfortunately for the hound it had landed in a pile of stag bones and had been impaled by one of the remaining horns. Despite it's hopeless situation the hound still tried to reach the wolf with its paw, the wolf easily avoided the strike and sank it's teeth into the hound's throat. Almost instantly the hound burst into golden dust, covering the wolf with its essence.
With that threat gone the wolf now turned towards Hestia and growled at her menacingly.
Her head no longer spinning and with limbs back under control, Hestia began to scoot backwards away from the approaching wolf. She stopped when her hands hit solid stone, turning around she found that she was now pressed up against a wall, yet again with no visible way out.
The wolf was still coming towards her, she focused and her hands burst into flames. The wolf showed no fear even when she waved her now flaming hands threateningly towards it. As a last resort she sent forth twin balls of searing hot flames at the beast, slamming into the it's face and chest, but to her surprise the beast kept coming. Even as it's fur started to catch fire at the location that the fireballs had hit, which soon fizzled out.
Suddenly an old memory surface in her mind, she remembered back before her father had eaten her and her siblings.
Flashback
Little Hestia ran through her father's throne room atop mount othrys, chasing after her was a small wolf or Loyale as her father had called it. The Loyale was only about a week old but already it had mastered the ability to run, which it showed as it chased her and quickly caught her. Tackling her from behind and sending them tumbling to the ground.
Hestia laughed as they wrestled each other on the ground, her laughter increased tenfold when the young Loyale started to lick her face, it's rough tongue tickled her skin. It continued licking her face until another presence entered the room, filling the room with smell of the earth and fresh rain.
"Having fun daughter?" laughed Rhea, goddess of childbirth.
Hestia picked herself off the ground "MOTHER" she screeched as she ran towards her, the young Loyale close behind. Upon reaching her mother Hestia promptly jumped into her arms, burying her face into her neck crying as she did so, "you came back" she sobbed.
"Yes little one, I have returned." cooed Rhea rubbing her daughters back reassuringly "I see you've made a new friend in my absence."
The young goddess unburied her face, revealing cheeks stained with tears of joy and nodded her head with excitement. Rhea walked over over to her throne where together they watched as two more Loyale's walked into the throne room, both were bigger than the one Hestia had been playing with.
They both ganged up on the smaller one, batting it around like it was a toy, Hestia tried to get to help out the little monster but her mother stopped her "no daughter, it must learn how to survive in this harsh world."
Hestia tried to protest but stopped when she saw the look her mother was giving her, they watched as the small Loyale was mercilessly attacked until suddenly a much larger Loyale burst into the throne room, the two attackers immediately started to back away from their target.
The large Loyale bared it's teeth at the two attackers who were backing away slowly, fear showing in their blue eyes, and with a quick lunge towards them the Larger Loyale drove them away. Satisfied that they would not return, the large Loyale picked the small Loyale off the ground by the scruff of it's neck and disappeared out the doors of the throne room.
Rhea turned her daughter around so that they were face to face "you see Hestia, you have to be strong, strong enough to have the respect of those who would try to harm you, like what you just saw."
End of flashback
A loud cracking sound woke Hestia from her flashback, the Loyale's leg had cracked back into place and looked as good as new. Suddenly the Loyale stopped it's approach, sitting down as if it were waiting for something. That's when Hestia noticed some unknown object flying through the air and landing in front of the Loyale. She had just enough time to see the furry ears of a rabbit before the loyale pounced on it, devouring the it with vicious enthusiasm.
"Well i'll be," said a voice from the entrance of the cave "I never thought that I'd see the day, that an Olympian god come down from their throne on mount Olympus."
Hestia got up, careful to not disturb the Loyale in front of her and moved slowly around it, her back still pressed into the wall.
The mysterious voice started to laugh "do not worry goddess of the hearth, my friend will do nothing to harm you." a dark figure stepped out of the darkness revealing a short young man, with brown hair and eyes.
Hestia blinked to clear her eyes "who are you?" she asked tiredly, the weight of the day starting to take its toll. The young man smiled brilliantly at her, his pure white teeth were clearly visible in the almost total darkness of the cave.
"Who am I?" the man asked, gesturing both hands towards himself "why, I am Pan, Satyr and resident god of this forest."
This news coupled with the events of the day was too much for Hestia to handle and with one last wobbly step, she toppled to the ground, accepting the warm embrace of sleep.
Back on mount olympus
Mount Olympus was quite, the sounds of builders were gone, the builders themselves had gone back to their hovels at the bottom of mount Olympus. In fact the entirety of Mount Olympus was empty, the minor gods and other residents had left as well, leaving only the Major gods alone in their half finished palace.
Apollo sat in the throne room alone, his feet lazily hanging off the side of Zeus's throne as he picked his teeth with an arrow. Suddenly a bright white light exploded in the middle of the throne room, in a panic Apollo scrambled off his father's throne but in his haste he ended up flat on his face on the throne room floor.
The light subsided as quickly as it appeared revealing the stern face of the most powerful woman in the world, Hera Queen of the gods and the second last person Apollo wanted to see at the moment, his mother.
Hera looked at her son as he picked himself up off the ground "so this is what my son is doing in his spare time." she said, the disappointment evident in her voice. In response Apollo scrambled to his feet and straightened out his golden armour and tried his best to look regal, but as he did so the quiver full of arrows on his back, tilted over and spilled its contents on marble floor.
"Why mother, you caught me by surprise" he said trying to hide his embarrassment, Hera sighed and turned away from her son "you my son, are an idiot. An idiot just like your father." Apollo tried making a placating gesture.
"Come now mother, I think you're being too harsh with father." he gestured around them "I mean look around you, do you think an idiot could own a palace as magnificent as this?"
Hera turned around, her face livid with anger " any idiot can have a palace built for him, but your father is getting close to losing all of which we have all worked so hard for."
Apollo looked at his mother with confusion "what do you mean mother?"
"I mean that Zeus and his stupid stubbornness is starting to affect all of us, people are starting to stop sacrificing in our honor. Instead they are starting to create their own gods and goddess and I fear that sooner or later they will completely forget about us."
"But why would they do that?" Apollo asked a slight stutter in his voice "have they forgotten all of what we have done for them?"
"That's the problem Apollo, they haven't forgotten what we've done. We led a great deal of them to their deaths in our war against the Titans, and what do we give them in return for their sacrifice? We make them build an entire palace in only our honor."
"But why are they doing this now all of the sudden?" Apollo asked.
Hera stared sadly at the dead coals of the fire "Hestia was the only thing keeping the humans happy and content under our rule, but now that Zeus has sent her away they are starting to turn on us."
Apollo started towards the door, intent on leaving the throne room "well come on." he called back to his mother "lets go and get Hestia back on Mount Olympus as quick as possible."
"Get back here Apollo." Hera commanded using her godly powers over the wind to pick up Apollo by the scruff of his neck and place him back beside her.
Apollo was furious "why do you stop me mother?" he demanded. Hera looked at her son sadly "I stopped you because I have already lost one member of my family to day, and I don't wish to lose another."
Apollo looked at his mother confused "what do you mean by, another one?" in response Hera place both hands on his shoulder. Looking him dead in the eyes as she spoke "I sent your sister Artemis out on a mission to get Hestia back." this got Apollo's attention "what happened to my sister?" he demanded.
"I lost contact with her a few days ago and I haven't heard from her since." Hera explained.
Somewhere deep in the forest
Artemis awoke from unconsciousness her head throbbing in pain, she tried to run her temple to help soothe the pain but found that she couldn't. Looking down she saw that her entire body from the neck down was covered in a strange green and grey pulsating substance. She tried to struggle free from its grasp but found that it was impossible to do in her weakened state, in fact the more she struggled the more weak she felt.
Artemis started to panic, she looked around hastily at the dark, empty clearing she was in. suddenly her cocoon was thrust forward at a fast pace towards the center of the clearing. She came to a stop at the dead center of the clearing.
"Yessssss." hissed a voice "you will do very nicely." sounded like the voice came from all around her. Suddenly the ground beneath Artemis broke away and she was swallowed up by the earth.
A/N: alright that took longer than expected, I hope it was worth the wait. The next chapter will possibly have some action in it, some of it will involve the new characters I have introduced to the story. Anyways I hope you enjoyed, be sure to review and tell me what you think.
Ps: Loyale is danish for loyal ones just in case you were confused.