A LIGHT AMONG THE SHADOWS

As the lord of the underworld was scheming his revenge, a new day was about to start.

"Eri! If you don't get up, you'll be late for work," shouted Meg at the bottom of the stairs. Her two children slept upstairs, but as usual, Erianthe had overslept once again.

"Zzz… What's all the fuss? Mm… The sun hasn't risen yet," mumbled Eri in bed, about to turn over and go back to sleep.

"Eri for the last time! You'll be late!" repeated Meg, this time knocking on her eldest daughter's door. This child never learns; Morpheus is excessive in putting the mantle of sleep over her.

"Oh my, it's true! I have to go to work!" and with that, Eri woke up with a start and jumped out of bed, tripping over the sheets in the process. "Ow! That hurts!"

"What are you doing on the floor, Eri?" asked her mother, leaning against the door frame.

"Well, you see, mother, I was admiring this fabulous wooden floor; it's a masterpiece of rustic architecture," answered in a sardonic tone her beloved daughter. Eri and her occurrences, thought Meg, made it obvious that she was her daughter; after all, she was as sarcastic as her.

"Come on, get up. Breakfast is ready."

"But mom, your day doesn't start for another three hours. You should go back to bed and rest. Don't tell me you've already chopped the wood."

"No, I haven't yet," and before she finished speaking, Eri rushed out of the room to the backyard, where all the wood that needed to be cut was piled up. Without hesitation, she grabbed the axe and started chopping the logs at full speed. She wasn't going to let her mother do it.

"Eri, it's not necessary. I'll do it later. Come in for breakfast; besides, have you noticed that you're still in your pajamas?" Meg reproached her and immediately followed her daughter to the yard.

"Mom, I promised to cut the firewood, and I will!"

"But Eri…"

"No buts, Mom! You can't carry the weight of everything by yourself! Otherwise, the same thing that happened a couple of years ago will happen to you again!" Meg's firstborn replied, annoyed. "I don't want to lose anyone again."

Meg watched as her daughter broke down. She had a strong temper, and she was almost always in a good mood, especially since she had a lot of energy, but occasionally the circumstances got the better of her.

Without thinking twice, she approached her daughter and hugged her. It hurt her to see her like this, but what hurt her more was that she was still a child, a child with adult responsibilities.

"Ssh, relax, my girl. Everything will be all right, you'll see," she said, trying to calm his daughter's spirits. She noticed that it had worked.

"Yes, mom, everything will be fine, but that's why you don't have to carry the weight of everything. We must help each other and share the tasks."

"You are right, honey, but you should also apply that advice to yourself, okay?"

"Okay, mom," and with that, Meg gave her daughter a kiss and walked into the house, leaving her to finish chopping the firewood. What neither of them had realized was that in the distance, just where the forest began, a peculiar trio was watching them:

"Sir, this is where Meg and all her offspring live," Panic commented.

"How old she is! The only good thing is that she is still looking hot," added Pain.

"Have you seen the girl with the orange hair? That's Meg's daughter. She's pretty cute, isn't she?" Panic laughed.

The two little imps went on with their gossip without noticing that Hades wasn't playing along. He was just watching. He watched the girl chop wood non-stop. It was obvious that she was not skilled with the axe, but she was stubborn.

He couldn't help noticing that she was wearing a thin nightgown that reached above her knees. It was a fabric that occasionally clung to her body from moisture or sweat, causing it to accentuate her delicate figure.

Her orange hair, which so reminded him of his dumb nephew, was long, waving in the light breeze of the early morning.

From his distance, he could not distinguish much more, so taking advantage of the fact that he was wearing the invisibility helmet, he approached the girl.

Already in front of her, he noticed that she was not very tall, although he would not deny that he was above average, since he was a God.

Suddenly, Eri stopped chopping wood. Something was not right; she felt as if she was being watched, so she raised her head and looked in all directions. On the other hand, Hades thought, she's got me, but when he saw that the girl was back to her own business, he unintentionally let out a sigh of relief.

This time she looked straight ahead; she had heard someone, and she even smelled something strange. Sulphur? It couldn't be. She was imagining things, and she was still sleepy.

Hades, for his part, had been petrified. The girl was looking him straight in the eyes, as if she knew he was there. Her eyes were blue with a touch of lilac color, her upturned nose had subtle freckles, and her lips were quite full. Pain and Panic were right. She is cute, but what am I thinking? The lord of the dead said to himself that his main goal was to take revenge on that whole family.

That was his moment. She was defenseless, so he could do something to her; he could scorch her. But, he wanted to see them suffer, so the lord of the underworld was ready to reveal himself in front of that insignificant mortal until he heard someone's hurried footsteps:

"ERIANTHE!" yelled the little Zenos.

"But what are you doing up? Ugh!" Before Eri could answer, Zenos rushed at her and knocked her to the ground.

"Good morning, sis!"

"Zenos you should be asleep. It can't be that every day you get up at the same time as me; it's still early in the morning."

Without stopping hugging his sister, the youngest of the family replied:

"But if I don't get up early, then I can't see you, and we can't play."

Seeing her brother's sad face, Erianthe got up together with her brother. An idea had occurred to her.

"Zenos wait for me; I'll be right back." His little brother nodded and went into the house, searching for breakfast and work clothes.

"What do you want all that for?" said his mother with an arched eyebrow.

"I'm going straight to work, mom. I'm taking breakfast and clothes to change. I'm going to wash up in the creek."

"Are you out of your mind? At this time of day? Eri don't" Before she had finished, her daughter had already gone out to the courtyard, where her brother was waiting for her.

"Come on! A race to the creek! The last one is a cyclops with conjunctivitis." The two brothers ran without stopping to a small stream nearby.

Meanwhile, Hades watched the scene dumbfounded, so he decided to follow that crazy girl and her brother. When he arrived, he saw the two brothers playing in the water without stopping. They stayed like that for a while until Eri got out of the water and went behind some bushes to change.

Hades noticed how his body temperature increased, but he didn't make a move to spy more than what he observed: toned legs, tanned arms, etc., although, in his opinion, and for his taste, she was thinner than he expected. He watched as she dressed in numerous layers of old, worn, and grimy clothes that, obviously, were too big for her.

Finally, Eri put on gloves, a helmet with huge goggles attached by a strap, and a travel cloak that she was dragging along.

When she finished dressing, Eri came out from behind the bush without noticing that three sinister figures were constantly spying on her. She approached her brother, who was sitting on a rock, wrapped in a blanket that her sister had brought so he wouldn't catch a cold.

"Well, little one, it's time for me to go to work," Eri said a bit sad.

"Do you have to go?"

"Of course I do, Zenos. With what they pay me, we can eat the three of us; just think that with mom's job, we wouldn't be able to survive."

"I understand, Eri."

Eri signaled her brother to get up from the rock and go with her. The two of them were walking along, holding hands. They said nothing to each other, as neither of them needed it. Eri knew that her brother depended on her a lot and that if it were up to him, he would go with her to work. But it was not a safe place for a child, so he always went with his mother to the field, where he could play with more children who were waiting for their mothers to finish work.

They reached the main road, where they had to separate:

"See you in the afternoon, Zenos," Eri told him, leaning over and giving him a kiss on his brother's forehead.

"Okay, but don't be late getting back home, okay?"

"Of course, I will be back on time. Don't doubt it." As she was about to leave, she noticed how something grabbed her robe, and it was her sibling who was about to cry.

"When is it going to end?"

"I'll finish when the sun is at its highest, Zenos, don't you…"

"I don't mean that! When will the war be over? I want to see Daddy. I want him to tell me about all his adventures, like when he fought the hydra or when he saved Mommy from the river of the dead."

"I see you remember all the stories I told you about him." Eri looked at her brother with much affection and gentleness, for he was very little when their father left and didn't have many memories of him. "Don't worry, Zenos; I have hope that he will come back."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, I'm sure! A promise is a promise. Remember," she winked at her brother, and left for the crossroads where the four main roads met.

"Goodbye, Eri, have a nice day!" Zenos said goodbye to his sister and hurried home, where his mother was waiting with dry clothes and a bowl of warm milk.

The underworld trio watched the scene. Pain and Panic waited for orders from their master to see what they would do.

"After the girl boys", said Hades, so they set their course towards the path Eri had taken.

They walked for a quarter of an hour until the girl sat down on a huge stone that just marked where the crossroads met. Another quarter of an hour passed until a huge wagon with people stopped in front of her.

"Good morning, you have Eri! Are you ready for a new day of hard work?"

"What else can I do, Acrisius? I need to be ready for whatever the day brings." And she got on the wagon and paid the usual one coin per round trip. She went to the end of the wagon, where it was empty, sat down, and adjusted her traveling cloak by putting on her hood, as it looked like it would rain.

"By the gods, what a day we have ahead of us," said Acrisius, pulling the wagon. What no one had noticed was that they had three stowaways: an invisible one sitting next to Eri and two little demons transformed into bugs.

"Next stop: Thebes Quarry."

Another translated chapter, fresh from the oven!

I hope you like this first "encounter" between Erianthe and Hades.

Thanks for reading, and remember, English is not my mother tongue. Sorry if you find some mistakes.

Don't forget to leave a comment, so I can hear your opinion about the fic.