Chapter 5: Nysa
Same day, in Nysa
Nysa had really changed once it became Dionysus' home.
To outsiders, the exterior of the region appeared as a vast forest. However, once you stepped within the first lines of trees, you'd discover that the interior of Nysa had evolved into a far vaster jungle. Plants moved to catch trespassers. Rocks rolled to block paths. The native nymphs frequently poisoned potential poachers with their venoms.
Dionysus always knew he was a fertility god… who happened to be the demigod son of Zeus. The former didn't bug him. Silenus, the one person he really viewed as his father, didn't hold back the info. He said that Dionysus was free to experiment with his powers but also had to learn from experienced fertility deities. Traveling around the world with the retinue exposed Dionysus to various cultures, flora, and pantheons. As he was the only one in Greece to discover wine, it always excited him to learn more about the other culture's alcohol.
Nysa was his home. Silenus allowed him to have his own private meadow within the region to be his experimental garden. The meadow was already avoided in the first place. Due to the rocky formation and its peculiar humanoid waterfall, mortals and spirits believed that the meadow held the corpse of Gaia. Thick olive trees shielded Gaia's meadow from the rest of Nysa. In his own garden, Dionysus grew a variety of trees. Rope-thick grapevines. The grass was covered by a rainbow of flowers he picked up from other cultures. The retinue experienced a lot of baby nymph arrivals with Dionysus' gardening.
In his own space, he had his own tutoring sessions.
"Try again."
Since it was Friday, he had a visit from Uncle Freyr, one of the very few deities… who tolerated Dionysus' creativity.
Dionysus pointed his thyrsus at the sprout on the ground. He pointed it and tried to lift his wand while keeping his arm straight. The sprout struggled to grow upright.
"Loosen your grip a bit." Freyr gently loosened Dionysus' fingers. "You do that and your tree gets rigid."
"Auntie Tawaret said I needed to be firm to make a tree grow strong and tall," Dionysus said.
"Yggdrasil didn't grow into a firm stick when it connected the Nine Realms, did it?" Freyr said. "All I asked you is to make the sprout grow into a tree. I never said you needed to grow a straight tree."
Dionysus nodded, inhaled, and pointed the thyrsus at the sprout. The small sapling quickly grew into a thick trunk. The tree grew, bent downward, and had five thick branches grow upward. The outer bark developed a skin-like pattern. On the tip of each branch, green pine needles grew in perfect ovals.
Dionysus clenched his spare palm. The pine tree clutched its own branches, as if it were the demigod's hands.
"And that is what I call a tree." Freyr smiled. "Although points to you for the creativity. A pine tree that looks like a perfectly manicured hand."
"Thanks, Uncle Freyr… Hi, Pops!" Dionysus waved his hand when he noticed Silenus approaching them. The pine tree also waved at the satyr.
"A tree waving hello. You just love making Nysa looking crazy." Silenus chuckled. "Was your lesson with Freyr good?"
Dionysus eagerly nodded.
"Sunset already?" Freyr noticed the colorful rays coming through the foliage. "I'd better get going as well. Remember to practice your tree growth skills during the weekend."
"Yes, Uncle Freyr." Dionysus handed his thyrsus to Silenus.
"And don't forget your test with Epona on Monday!"
"Man, I was trying to forget! Are you and Auntie Epona in a league?"
"Alright, my little conspiracy theorist!" Silenus ruffled the demigod's hair. "Off you go. You got the rest of the day to yourself."
"Can I go to Ganymede's place?" Dionysus did his best to give Silenus the bright eyes. Silenus used his hand to cover the demigod's eyes.
"NO ragers before bedtime, mister. And your brother's cooking. Don't pick up a fight."
"Yes, Pops!" Dionysus gave Silenus a quick hug and a less tight one to Freyr. "Bye, Uncle Freyr! See you next Friday!"
The next thing the satyr and the Nordic god knew, they were watching a purple stag with green horns run off through the meadow.
"So!" Silenus clasped his hands together. "How'd my son do?"
"He still has a good understanding of the basics. He's still quite creative with his plants, as you can tell. In the subject matter of medicinal plants, I'm impressed by his discovery," Freyr said. "Along with being the demigod of wine, he's also the inventor of grape seed extract."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Thor will be impressed to know that his goats can now lose 10% of their cholesterol." Freyr chuckled. "Dionysus is very versatile. His creations can either madden partygoers or heal soldiers."
Silenus smiled. Bless Achlys, he thought.
Freyr took on a serious expression. "Silenus, I've been meaning to ask since she doesn't talk about it. What exactly does Tawaret cover with Dionysus?"
"Crop growth. Plant hydration. Baby delivery. Why?"
"Dionysus was struggling to hold his thyrsus. If I hadn't said anything, he would have struggled and failed to grow a tree… because Tawaret told him to keep it straight."
Silenus grimaced. "Is it bad?"
"Well… Silenus, I might sound like a prick, but… was Tawaret your first pick for, you know, fertility deities within the Egyptian pantheon? To tutor your son?"
"She was the only one who could do it."
"You're joking. What about Bastet?"
"Busy with all the cat lovers."
"Hathor?"
"Busy making Egyptian mortals horny."
"What Isis and Osiris? Their kids play with your boys."
"Freyr, please. IO have a busy schedule."
"OK. And Sobek…"
"DON'T. Sobek doesn't like Dionysus ever since the whole 'told Moses to turn the Nile river into blood rather than wine, it'd be a waste.' Now Dionysus' can't go swimming in the Nile." Silenus sighed and the two started walking. "Why the questions?"
"I'm just… slightly worried that Dionysus might be struggling, that's all. You have a REALLY creative child! But… is he, you know, having issues thinking INSIDE the box? Perhaps that's why he can't exactly grow straight plants the way he's instructed."
Silenus lowered his head. "That's what's worrying ME."
"The straight plants?"
"Tartarus, no! Dionysus ain't straight, that's for sure! But…" Silenus motioned at the great meadow that surrounded them. "His idea of 'thinking outside the box' is to literally break the box apart into oblivion so he can make his own box. Had anyone seen this meadow, it would either be the wasteland it was or drastically converted into a farmland. Dionysus?"
"He brings his art. Morphs his own garden to imitate his great-grandmother." Freyr smiled. "Gaia would have loved him."
"But that's also what worries me, Freyr. For 10 years. For all his creativity, Dionysus still doesn't get the concept of boundaries. He doesn't understand that there are limits to his capacities. He just gets the part that when he goes past the limits, he gets in trouble. And he craves trouble."
"Dionysus is just a kid, Silenus. Come the time when he's ready to ascend, he'll have to properly use boundaries. Right now, he's in his phase of exploration."
"Freyr. I did tell you about the pirates incident, right?"
Freyr hissed in awkwardness. "Yeah, let's just say my father's glad this didn't happen in HIS oceans."
"Exactly. And Dionysus still doesn't get how much trouble it could cause him. I just worry about him."
Same time
While Silenus and Freyr were exchanging goodbyes, Dionysus ran his way through Nysa.
The whole region was his kingdom. The mountains and rocky hills were the sky he could scale with his bare hands. The tall trees were mountains for him to climb upward like a leopard and to jump off like a bird taking flight. Each branch and root were his pathways. The rivers, lakes, and mud pits were his oceans. The vast meadows of wildflowers were his fields. The caverns and canopies were his homes. All the living things bowed to him.
After jumping down a branch and landing feet first on a mud puddle, Dionysus ran on the grass. Dianthus bloomed where his feet once touched the ground. Sometimes, he made a stop or two to pick up some acorns. Good ones, he kept to himself. Bad ones, he tossed behind him. Small oak trees would grow where he'd tossed the nuts. Often, he'd quickly wave hello to the nearest napping snake.
He finally reached Ganymede's Booze Garden, the biggest drinking spot in the tribe.
Keep in mind: in the Mortal Realm, wine hadn't been permitted yet by the Greek Gods. Other pantheons already had their own beverage and booze deities. Olympus had their own alcohol among gods, but they were behind when it came to their mortals. Unknown to them, the demigod son of Zeus had invented wine.
Of course, the practice was with precaution. Giving wine to mortals was like Prometheus giving fire. Besides bringing his invention, Dionysus had a whole contraband business. Satyrs assisted him in his recipes. Ganymede served his recipes in what was basically the Ancient Greek version of the Aslin Beer Garden. Very few outsiders were permitted within Nysa; Silenus always ensured that any witness of his son's business would be dealt with if they happened to be snitches. The loyal ones, however, made good customers.
Mortals picked up on the advantages of wine: drinking, cooking, heck, even drinking the truth out of a prisoner. The only ones bold enough to do business with the Nysa tribe were generally black-market merchants or nomadic traders. They came, they bought or traded, and then they sold the wine elsewhere in Greece. They'd come back if customers desired more from the supplier.
Regular members of the tribe were having dinner at the tables of Ganymede's Booze Garden. Whenever they weren't traveling on their trails and using rations, Silenus had all the members of the retinue take turns in meal preparations. And if somebody REALLY hated somebody else's cooking, they'd drown off the foul taste with Ganymede's beverages.
And just when he got to the place, Dionysus picked up the strong smell.
"Hey, bro!" Pan called out. Dionysus found him stirring a stew in a large pot. Some satyrs were already looking green while waiting in line with their bowls.
"Friday night's your turn to cook, huh?" Dionysus forced a smile.
"Yep! Frog stew with walnuts!"
Dionysus stared at the satyrs waiting in line. They all gave him a begging look.
"Come on!" Pan whined. "My cooking's not THAT bad."
Dionysus then looked at his left-hand side. Just behind two large trees, a well of double-layered bricks stood. A couple tribe members were vomiting into it. The nymph residing within the well threw the sludge back at them. Unfortunately for the nymph, it was the one well closest to Ganymede's Booze Garden.
"Well… Your frog stew's the one thing you've cooked that hasn't sent anyone in a coma." Dionysus sniffed over the cooking pot. "You…"
"I ain't adding anything!" Pan pointed his cooking ladle at him. Dionysus tapped the wooden ladle with his middle finger, transforming the wooden cooking tool into a bunch of kale leaves. Pan groaned and shredded the vegetable leaves over the pot. The change in food coloring also changed the aroma into a more pleasant one. The satyrs eagerly licked their tongues.
Pan groaned and grabbed another ladle. "I should just stick to salads…"
"Hey. Everyone's got their bad dishes, OK?" Dionysus slammed his hand against Pan's back. "My rice cakes are just as bad as your frog stew."
Pan snorted.
"He's not wrong," somebody among the satyrs chuckled.
"Shut up, Marsyas!" Dionysus snapped. The satyrs quickly silenced themselves. The purple-haired demigod turned to Pan. "You drank anything yet?"
"I had some water before I started cooking. Ya know Pops said to not drink while serving food…"
"Yeah, yeah!" Dionysus rolled his eyes. "Food poisoning, whatever. I'll go check on Ganymede. Have him fix us some grape juice. Non-alcoholic for you with stirred in pomegranate seeds and two mint leaves on top?"
"You're gonna drink wine, aren't you?" Pan handed a satyr a filled-up bowl of frog stew.
"Demigod of wine. Duh!"
"Hold off the wine until ya get my drink, alright? We'll drink once I'm done!"
Dionysus clicked his tongue while giving a thumbs-up to Pan. He ran to the bar where Ganymede would usually stand and mix up beverages based on the bottles available.
Dionysus was a bit surprised that Ganymede wasn't at the bar.
"A bit more to the right…"
Dionysus checked behind the bar.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"
Ganymede yelped and quickly readjusted his boyfriend's tunic. The young men quickly got back on their feet.
"Yo, Hyacinthus." Dionysus pointed at the obvious hickey on his neck. "Put on some fucking makeup. And Ganymede, give me my usual. Otherwise, Hyacinthus' mommy might not like to hear what you two were doing on your work hours."
Hyacinthus quickly crawled and made a run for it before the others noticed. Ganymede scowled at Dionysus.
"That wasn't quite nice, my Lord." Ganymede uncorked a bottle of Borovicka, a juniper berry-based liquor exposed by the Gauls from Bohemia. He poured the white liquid into a cup."
"I ain't calling the Muse of History a phobic, Ganymede." Dionysus put the acorns he'd collected on the counter. "Ya got to be more cautious on how ya flirt with Hyacinthus in public."
"Why the concern?" Ganymede minced the acorns.
Dionysus saw Ganymede quickly glanced at his sapphire blue-haired paramour.
"One thing, my pal. My half-sister."
Ganymede hissed in awkwardness.
"Remember when we stopped at Sparta during the trip, just before we left for the Peloponnese? Hyacinthus is my half-sister's mortal cousin. Her dad and Hyacinthus' really got on each other's nerves. Pan and I had to make a run for it before they could ask me."
"Ask you what?"
"Which of them should succeed in the Spartan empire. How was I supposed to do that? Obviously, she's wily. EVERYONE wants her, and her dad doesn't like Hyacinthus' preferences. She said I came up with the genius suggestion of the kings marrying her off to Menelaus."
"Her childhood sweetheart? How convenient." Ganymede stirred the minced nuts into the liquid.
"I know, right? I can't believe we share the same purple blood! And Hyacinthus, her suggestion? Well, you know who his mom arranged him to."
Ganymede forced a smile as he gave the demigod his drink. "Zephyrus is an asshole. You know how often I see Hyacinthus with bruises? Just today, he came crying!"
"I see where you're coming from, but Zephyrus is like my godmother. A primordial being who doesn't have to listen to Olympian bullshit. If Zephyrus finds out because you two aren't fucking properly, he'll blow his shit at Sparta. Then there's a civil war. Hyacinthus' mom will get mad at anyone. Then Helen will say it was all MY IDEA and then the Spartan army will come here!"
Ganymede lowered his head.
"I'm just telling ya to keep it private. OK?" Dionysus sipped his drink. "You two are cute together."
Ganymede switched his expression to a smiling one.
"Hey! I told ya to wait for me!" Pan whined.
Dionysus showed off his Borovicka. "I said I'd hold off the wine until you were done. Not Borovicka."
"Ugh! I hate it when you find loopholes."
"Wait. How come you're done early?" Ganymede pulled out a canteen of non-alcoholic grape juice. "You still had enough frog stew to feed twenty more people."
Pan pointed at the pot's direction. The large cooking pot, which was big enough to cook three people in it, had been toppled over. A couple dogs and snakes went after the frog flesh. The real culprit, however, was the donkey chewing on the kale leaves. Somebody had brought over challah, so the tribe members were relieved to switch to another dish for dinner. The donkey chewed the vegetables and looked up.
"Dodo." Dionysus squinted viciously.
The one creature in the entire retinue he couldn't stand, and it had to be Silenus' donkey. At this rate, he and Pan were convinced that Dodo wasn't a real donkey. They'd been drinking her fucking milk when they were babies and for some reason, Dodo had thirteen foals, thirteen grandfoals, and fourteen great-grandfoals (Number 14th was adopted). All were alive.
And yet, Dodo was still around. She HAD to be ancient enough to become somebody's sausage by now.
Dionysus, Ganymede, and Pan cautiously squinted at Dodo.
The donkey gave them a warning bray and flared her nostrils.
"You think Pops will notice if we roast her?" Pan asked.
A bray caught their attention. All males screamed when they found Dodo standing on Ganymede's side of the bar.
"What the?" Pan stared back at the pot Dodo had just been standing by. "How'd she get here?"
"DODO! GET LOST!" Dionysus jumped over the bar and started to push Dodo from the back.
She kicked him on the stomach with her hind legs.
"No violent animals in my bar!" Ganymede grabbed an empty bottle and smashed it against the counter. "Don't make me go Molotov on you!" He pointed the broken glass bottle at the donkey.
Dodo turned to look at Ganymede. Her teeth held on to a straight razor blade.
"The donkey's got a razor!" Pan began to freak out. "How did you get a razor? HOW DID DODO GET A RAZOR?"
The winds were rising. Dodo dropped the razor when the winds' blows started to sound like agonizing screams. Through the foliage above, the sky had darkened. Massive thunderbolts were cracking. They could hear the water crashing in the wells and the lake. Emergency gongs rang across Nysa.
"HURRICANE!" Harpies screeched repetitively. "HURRICANE! HURRICANE!"
"EVERYBODY GET INSIDE!" Silenus appeared and quickly grabbed his boys. Dodo leaned so her master and his sons could ride her. "GRAB ANY SUPPLY YOU CAN ACQUIRE! ANYONE WITH ENOUGH ROOM, PROVIDE SHELTER TO THE TRAVELERS!"
No room for conversation, everyone scrambled for cover. Ganymede closed his booze garden and took shelter, taking a whole barrel of wine with him. Shepherds quickly gathered the animals underneath hollow trees. Celtic nomads, with their muscular arms, grabbed as much food and healing herbs as they could. Families of satyrs and nymphs guided travelers and their wagons to their homes.
While traveling, the retinue survived off huts. Sleeping in the open air was common in Nysa, but for storms, none were stupid. Nysa had its shares of Old-World temples. Temples long forgotten when the 6 Traitors Dynasty took over. Temples overrun by the roots of ancient trees. Members of the retinue with families had made their homes in the temples dedicated to the primordial gods and Titans.
Riding Dodo, Silenus took the boys back to their abode. The largest temple, nearly drowned by the roots of an ancient bristlecone pine, in all of Nysa.
The sole temple dedicated to Gaia, the Greek Mortal Realm's first fertility goddess.
Once they got in, Silenus pushed the boulder, blocking the entrance. Dionysus manipulated the roots to cover the windows. Pan started a fire in the fireplace Silenus had built just by the statue of Mother Earth herself. After everything was secured, Silenus milked Dodo and poured it in a small pot over the fire.
"Some cups of warm milk will help us sleep through this," he said.
"I hate storms." Pan trembled even after Dionysus got him a blanket.
Dionysus fidgeted his fingers nervously. "My… Zeus isn't angry at us? Right?"
"Of course not." Silenus shook his head reassuringly. "You're safe." He looked at the statue of Gaia in concern. "What in your name could have caused this?"
"Another storm?" Pan asked.
"No. Another hurricane. In our side of the world, hurricanes only happen when catastrophic things happen on Olympus."
Dionysus bit his lip. "I hope Auntie Persephone's OK."
"She should be fine in the Underworld." Silenus stroke Dionysus' cheek. "I'd be more worried about what they're fighting about. The last time I witnessed a hurricane, Zeus had sealed off our realms after Persephone's banishments. Hurricanes represent the threat of disbalance in the Olympian order."
"Did you witness a lot of hurricanes, Pops?" Dionysus sat down next to Pan. Pan tossed half of his blanket over Dionysus.
"Boy, I witnessed the first hurricane." Silenus pulled the pot off the fire once the milk was ready. "Have they taught you the story of Typhon yet in class?"
Dionysus and Pan both leaned forward, ears out and eyes focused. Silenus chuckled and poured hot milk in cups for his sons.
"Well, for one, you two know how the 6 Traitors defeated Kronos and established the hierarchy. You also know that for eons, it was forced to believe that fertility goddesses were nothing but a myth."
"A myth within a universe of myths? That's stupid." Pan immediately drank down on his cup. "My bro's literally a fertility god!"
"You want Pops to finish the story or not?" Dionysus silenced Pan.
Silenus gave Dionysus his cup. The old satyr finally sat down while Dodo snuggled next to him, braying in her sleep. He continued with his story.
"BUT! The one story that even the Muse of History herself can't compress into nothingness… is the truth. The truth that after the Titans were defeated, Gaia herself might have gotten furious. Furious that her husband Ouranos' descendants, HER descendants, kept abusing the power of fertility goddesses for their own ambitions of power. Her husband did it to her. Her son Kronos did it to Rhea. Her grandson did it to Metis, the mother of his own wife.
"Angered by the endangerment her fellow fertility goddesses were experiencing, Gaia decided to teach the gods a lesson. The same way Zeus created Athena all on his own and she emerged from his head, Gaia, in her hibernation, mixed her wrath with the darkness of Tartarus. One fateful day, nearly 2300 years ago, a darkness erupted out of Mt. Etna."
"That volcano in Sicily?" Dionysus asked.
Silenus nodded.
"The darkness transformed into Typhon, the primordial god of monsters." When Silenus held up his arms, the fire made his shadow appear to be a monster with long arms. "His arms could reach Carthage and Colchis at the same time, darkening the skies over the seas. His skin was nothing but ashes and dust, mortals thought his whole body was a tornado." Outside, the winds got louder. "His mane was a never-ending thunderstorm; you couldn't tell if it was him or Zeus approaching. Venom always poured out of his eyes; it destroyed all forests. His feet were burning coal, torching every farm and piece of nature, killing many nymphs. And his legs…" Silenus shuddered. "Typhon's legs were covered in nothing but scaled dragon heads. They all went up from his ankles to his waist. Hundreds of dragon heads of all shapes, horns, fangs, and scales. Their tongues could pull in prey the way toads catch flags. The heads could talk. Every time Typhon spoke, the heads spoke all at once. The god of monsters was a whole army himself."
"Did the gods beat him?" Pan asked, sounding hopeful.
"Not the first time. Zeus, in his ego, chose to stay back. The others made a run for it. Hades went to the Underworld while the others fled to Egypt." Thunder boomed outside. "It was a terrifying time. Typhon's storm and assault felt like eternity. At some point, Typhon managed to capture Zeus, remove his sinews, and imprisoned him."
"What's a sinew?" Dionysus asked.
"It's that weird thing in your body." Pan showed off his goat leg. "Some guys said that it's cooked a lot in the East."
"Why remove the sinews?" Dionysus frowned. "Why not remove liver?"
"Because sinews connect the muscles to the bone. Like pillars supporting a temple's room. If you remove the pillar, the roof collapses. If you remove the sinews of a god, his muscles, heavier than you can imagine, would weigh down against the bones. Zeus couldn't move without them. Typhon had him imprisoned and guarded the sinews with Echidna, his wife."
"But obviously, it didn't work, right?" Dionysus said. "Zeus' still around. He sounds like he got his sinews back."
"He did. Nobody ever found out who, but some mysterious deity snuck into Typhon's domain, stole the sinews, and returned them to Zeus. His power regained; Zeus banished Typhon back to Mount Etna. Typhon's impact hadn't fully disappeared, though. Typhon was in the Mortal Realm for so long, his powers affect it. Now, every time disbalance occurs on Olympus, you can sense his impact. Whatever's happening on Olympus must be Typhon bad."
"How often do they happen?" Pan pulled on his half of the blanket.
"Not that often. But it's best to be wary." Silenus refilled their cups with the remains of the warm milk. "Olympian disbalance can impact everyone, even those uninvolved. The way they organize their systems can be prone to drastic, impossible changes. I prefer to keep Nysa uninvolved. Our ways would clash with theirs."
A yawn escaped Dionysus after he finished drinking. Grabbing a thick blanket of ox skin, Silenus lied down by the statue. The sons rushed to cuddle by him. Dodo was already sleeping. Pan started snoring the moment his head rested on Silenus.
"Pops?" Dionysus asked, tucking Pan in the blanket they'd just shared.
"Yes?"
"You're SURE… Zeus' not going to come in the night? I'm not ready to be an Olympian."
Silenus looked sadly at Dionysus.
It was a tragic world the demigod lived in. Half liked him, a quarter feared him, and the others despised him. The hair color was all they needed to confirm he was a child of Zeus. There were the moments when some nymph and mortal parents wouldn't let their children play with Dionysus.
In their words, Dionysus was bound to be an 'unfair player, just like the King of the Gods'.
Dionysus had grown up in a community. Zeus had grown up self-centered. The demigod's occasional tantrums didn't diminish his fears. His fears that one night, Zeus would burn his way into Nysa. Find Dionysus and drag him to Olympus.
Silenus was selfish and fearful in his own right.
Maybe years later, Dionysus might be ready. Right now, he was still a child.
"You're MY SON first." Silenus tucked Dionysus under the ox skin. "You're a child of Nysa first. As long as you never forget that, that purple thunder manchild has to prove he's worth your respect. You're a fertility god. First one in your pantheon. Don't forget it."
Dionysus nodded, yawned, and snuggled more against Silenus. "Can Pan be a god too?"
"If he wants to."
Silenus watched his sons fall asleep while the hurricane continued.
…
The morning seemed endlessly cloudy once the hurricane ended. It almost felt like forever when the tribe cautiously opened their windows. After Dionysus summoned the roots away, Silenus looked out the window to inspect the damage.
The rain had fallen heavily in their sleep. Most of Nysa had been reduced to a large swamp. Ganymede could be heard crying over his damaged Booze Garden.
Without warning, Dionysus swung out the window and slid down the temple's roots. Tribe members watched him walk straight into the muddy waters.
Dionysus inhaled and closed his eyes.
He felt his senses rooting with those of all the roots underneath the soil. He heard the cries of the drowning grass. He heard the whimpering of sick nymphs.
Underneath his tunic, the pendant she gave him felt warm against his skin.
The Sun will always give you light with this, he heard her say when she first gave him the pendant. The real Sun. Not the faker.
When Dionysus opened his eyes, they flashed green and purple. He clasped his hands. The water began to lower, draining itself towards him. Ivy grew on his muddy legs. The more water he drained; the more Dionysus grew.
Grapevines formed a crown over his purple locks. Once there was no more water left and the grass was good again, purple pollen burst out of him in a wave. All the trees in Nysa began to bloom flowers and bear plentiful fruits. Violets grew under his toes. Daffodils popped by the lake. Asters and lilies grew on the fields and newborn nymphs cried for the first time. Roses coated all the mountains of Nysa. For the final touch, grapevines with fresh grapes dangled from all the branches.
When Dionysus reverted to his regular size, the fresh grapes squeezed their own juice out. Tribe members quickly grabbed empty barrels and ran to fill up. Satyrs giggled as they drank directly from the cascades of wine. Nymphs rushed to find the newborns.
Dionysus scratched out the grape seed sweats off his hair. He felt Silenus patting him on the back.
"Nice work," the satyr said.
"Thanks, Pops." Dionysus fluffed his hair.
"Uncle Silenus!" Atalanta jumped off her bear and ran to join them, Pan catching on. "We didn't lose a lot of supplies from the storm. We still got plenty of meat and Dio just gave us a TON of wine and herbs."
"That's good to hear." Silenus ruffled Atalanta's hair. "It's the last two days of the week. You should all have some fun."
"You sure nothing needs to be fixed?" Pan asked. "I could check on the sheep."
"Make more booze?" Dionysus offered.
"The lake might have some newts!" Atalanta nodded.
"You three are sweet, but I'm sure the rest of the retinue can help. Children shouldn't always work." Silenus tapped each of their noses. "You three can play for the whole day. Maybe go play at the lake?"
"You're SURE you want us to go play?" Dionysus insisted.
"I can always get chaperones for you." Silenus smiled mischievously.
"You know what? Lake's sound good!" Dionysus quickly smiled. Pan and Atalanta both agreed.
"Lord Silenus!" Ganymede ran towards them. "Lord Silenus!"
"What happened? Shouldn't you be refilling your stocks with the extra wine?" Silenus asked.
"Already on it!" Ganymede panted, pointing towards the thick woods above their spots. "Satyrs spotted the King and Queen of the Underworld coming this way! They look like they just came back from war!"