Prologue: Poseidon married Demeter who gave birth to Persephone, who when she was old enough took her down to the underworld. That is according to some of the OLDER versions of who Persephone was. (If you want a good summary, see Overly Sarcastic Productions on YouTube. They're awesome.) This little one shot mixes in another tale. Not sure if this will be part of a larger tale or not.

When Poseidon Came Home Laughing

A mother and daughter stood on the shore waiting for their husband/father to come home. His ship was slightly delayed, and they blended in with the other families coming to greet the other ships that were pulling in. No one around could tell they were more than human, and no one could sense the auras coming off the two as they had cloaked them as much as they could. They talked and scanned the horizon.

"Mom, is that his flag?" asked the girl, Persephone, pulling on her mother's hand.

"Yes, yes, it is," replied her mother, Demeter, who had put her other hand up to her eyes to scan the horizon more effectively without the glare of the sun in her eyes. She was distracted by navigating into a location less beset by the crowd coming back from the shore. She was reminded of her daughter by the sharp tug on her hand.

"He's got TWO ships, Mom, two ships."

The mother looked up from her daughter and saw as the ship drew nearer that the ship she was watching was in fact towing another ship behind her. That wasn't normal. She knew for a fact that the oceanic politics could be volatile, but she hoped that her husband wasn't coming in crippled. Well, since his ship was towing, that looked less likely, and he healed quickly after all, but something had happened and she was afraid to learn what it was.

Slowly, so slowly, the two ships pulled into port. The fore anchor of the lead ship were thrown down, and the towed one was guided to a spot beside the other one. The rest of the anchors were thrown down as well. Sails were bundled and tied, goods were taken off, and for several minutes everyone aboard were in a mass of movement as the final stages of getting a ship into port were concluded.

Poseidon walked up to his waiting family, with a grin on his face.

"Hello, my wife, and my daughter. How are you?"

"We're glad to see you're alive."

"Have you been good for your mother while I've been away?"

"I've been good."

"I'm glad to see you as well, and I'm glad you've been good."

"Why do you have two ships today, Dad?"

Poseidon burst out laughing.

"What's going on, Dad?"

Demeter looked at Poseidon quizzically.

"Not here, okay? Let's get away from the crowd."

"All right."

Persephone sighed. She might be young, but she had already learned that there were things that you did not talk about in front of the worshippers if you were trying to go about your own business. She did not know all the nuances yet, but she was impatiently waiting for there to be enough distance between her family and everyone else. Several minutes of walking, and they were close to home. Apparently it was a good story, for her dad kept looking at her and grinning.

Once at home, she looked at her dad and said, "Dad, can you tell the story now?"

"All right. Do you know about Dionysus? Well, he's the god of wine and getting drunk. He was on another ship that ran into the ship I brought it. It was full of pirates. Well, the pirates tried to take Dionysus prisoner, but it didn't go well. He made them go insane and turned them into dolphins."

Poseidon was laughing once again, and had to stop talking for a bit. He caught his breath and kept on.

"Then, he had to get a ride on my ship. I got some sane dolphins who were willing to work on the ship to turn human shaped for a short time to bring it back in."

"Dad, are they going to stay human?"

"No, darling, they're going to turn back into dolphins once the sun goes down. They wanted to talk to humans, so they're chattering away right now I would guess."

"Dolphins love to talk?"

"Dolphins love to talk."

In fact, they were how that story got told among humans, before they headed back to the boats to turn into dolphins once again out of sight. The humans did get to see a pod of dolphins swim off in the darkening waves.