Who: Demeter, Persephone, & Zale What: Gift giving Where: Demeter’s Grove outside of Miami When: Last Month, the Saturday after Zale’s birthday Warnings: none
It was the day of her children’s visit, and Demeter had been up since shortly before daybreak, unable to sleep through most of the night. So, since then, she’d been keeping herself busy with making certain that everything was ideal for Persephone and Zale in her Grove.
As the sun rose over the land which belonged to her, it was clear that there had been significant changes in the landscaping over the course of the month. Before her return, there had been nearly clear fields from the main road to Demeter’s home. Now, there was no way to see the large, farmhouse for the trees that blocked the view. What the earth goddess now called her Grove was in actuality a veritable forest made of a variety of local native trees. Though they were not so closely packed that one could not move between them comfortably, there were enough of them that one could not see more than fifty feet into them. They were also mature trees, easily appearing ten to twenty years old in age. Fortunately, just as Demeter had mentioned to her eldest daughter, the entrance of the driveway that branched off the main street was still where had always been. Though the pathway now wound through the woods, instead of just being a straight shot, it still led straight to the earth goddess’s home.
The area immediately around Demeter’s house was the only clearing within the middle of the maze-like Grove. Thought it didn’t have near as many trees in the front of back yard, it was still brimming with all manners of flora. There was also a different atmosphere within clearing as opposed to outside the forest. The air was crisp, clean, and constantly moving, and there seemed to be an unusual but still natural energy humming through the ground and plants. In short, it almost felt like a small piece of Olympus. Almost, but not quite...
It was here that Demeter awaited her children’s arrival.
Persephone leaned forward in the driver’s seat, peering around the path of trees as she wondered if this would be the last bend. “She wasn’t kidding about the landscape changing,” she said with a laugh, flashing Zale a quick grin. “I thiiiink this is......it!” She grinned, finally pulling up to the house. “Wow.” She’d really done a great job with the place. Even though it was fall, all the healthy plants and clean air was doing wonders for Persephone’s vitality. She pulled the car to a stop, parking it and reaching into the back seat for the wine she had brought as a gift. “Okay, go smother her with your affection.”
Zale had spent the car drive from the beginning of the driveway to the end half leaned out of the passenger side window. The grove didn’t seem real, like something pulled from a movie, like they had wander onto some elaborate movie set. “Momma really did a lot of work...” he muttered, mostly to himself as he undid his seat belt that he had already shoved off his shoulder anyway. With a return grin, he nodded to his sister and then threw open the door of the car, and in a full dash launched himself at his mother.
Demeter had been fussing with the edible arrangement of food that had been laid out on a round patio table in her backyard when her children drove up. There were plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, of course, in addition to the baked and cooked dishes that were favorites of both Persephone and Zale mingled throughout. Suddenly, she heard the rapid footsteps rushing towards her and she lifted her eyes to see her youngest son closing the distance between them.
“[Zale!]” she exclaimed with delight as she stepped away from the table and hurried forward herself to meet her son, wrapping him up in a tight embrace as soon as he was within arm’s reach. “[How have you been, love? And where is your sis--Oh there she is!]” She glanced around briefly after pressing a kiss to his cheek and quickly zeroed in on Persephone. “[Hurry up and come over here! Ah, I’ve missed you both so much!]” It was clear the earth goddess was in a far happier mood than the last time either of her children had seen her.
Zale hugged his mother back with all the might in his young body before releasing her with a continued smile. With his uncle absent and his school mates not around, he didn’t mind being a bit of a momma’s boy for the day regardless of his age, “[I guess she didn’t want to try to tackle you with a hug like I did.]” She did look so much happier. Her cheer almost seeped into his soul and eased the subconscious anxiety that dwelt therein. Miami had not been kind to his mother, her being happy and here was a birthday gift enough.
“[I would love to tackle mom with a hug, Zale, but unlike you, fashion dictates that I wear silly shoes,]” Persephone informed him, making her way up to her brother and mother. She gave her mother a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek as she held out the bagged wine to her mother. “[For you...great job redecorating. That was some ride in!]” For her part, Persephone wanted to not think about the awkwardness or the time apart. She was happy to act as though these were the good old days, even if the differences were there.
Demeter savored the moment of having both her children in her arms. Briefly she thought of Zale’s twin, Amara, and hoped that she was doing well with her father Poseidon. Perhaps later she would ask her son how his other sister was doing, but for now she wanted to focus on him and Persephone.
“[I hope you didn’t have too much trouble finding your way through the Grove,]” she said as she reluctantly disentangled herself from her children so she could accept the bottle of wine. “[Though I’ve told the wood that you two are always welcomed here, I wasn’t certain how many twists and turns it would make you take to get here. I think it was in a mood to show off.]” The Grove was normally more accommodating to her requests, but Zale and Persephone were the first actual visitors to travel through them to get to Demeter’s sanctuary.
She smiled at the two of them. “[Please make yourself at home. I need to go inside for just a moment.]” Once inside her home, Demeter went to the living room and straight to a new large steamer trunk that rested against one wall. Though at first it seemed to be an antique Victorian-styled travel chest, on closer inspection one could see that all the straps and clasps were made of living plants, which she was now quietly coaxing into releasing their hold on the box.
Zale watched his mother enter the home until he couldn’t see her any longer before turning to his sister, “[You could have just taken off your shoes and run bare foot.... I don’t think any paparazzi are around here.]” At his own words, he then looked around the impressive grove all around them. It was easy not to think about the past two years in this place, mostly because it felt so fantastic to begin with. Reality didn’t feel like it should intrude here.
“[Oh darling, I love you, but you are a boy,]” Persephone murmured, reaching out to ruffle his hair. She gave another glance around the porch before peeking inside after her mother. “[It is a little lonely though, isn’t it?]” If Zale was younger, she probably would not have started this conversation. “[I remember mazes like these...they were meant to keep people out.]” She imagined Hades would say they were meant to entrap whatever was within.
Zale nodded a little. He didn’t know what his Uncle would say nor would he try to imagine what he would come up with but he had no choice but to agree with his sister. He would agree but not mention the fact that he could imagine Hades doing something very similar... build a maze to keep out everyone... to never be surprised by guest or intruder. He wouldn’t mention it to Persephone or his mother, unsure how well that similarity would go over. His mother was happy, he wouldn’t risk her mood souring. “[Momma has gone through a lot. Two houses in Miami got invaded...” He closed his eyes, unable to not flashback to how zombified monsters had invaded their first Miami home -- how he had been forced to text his uncle, how that was how his uncle and mother had first come in contact with each other in Miami, how injured his mother had been... and then the second time, when he was kidnapped from Hestia’s house while she was pregnant and it was Persephone and Hades busting down doors... Opening his eyes, he sighed, “[I guess she would rather be lonely than vulnerable...]”
A moment after Zale finished his comment to his sister, Demeter came back into the yard. She’d gotten what she’d needed from her trunk and now had couple of items in her hands. One was a small basket with its contents wrapped in a delicate white and silver lace cloth. The other was a wooden box that was the smaller sibling of the one which contained the earlier gift Zale had been given earlier.
She looked at her two children curiously. “[Is everything alright? You both look so serious.]”
Zale glanced over at Persephone, a clear busted look on his face, before looking back to his mother, “[Yeah, everything’s fine...]” His eyes then fell to the basket and the box. The box looked familiar... like the one he just received but both made him curious, “[What are those?]”
Demeter gave her son one of those mysterious, secretive smiles she’d honed to near perfection over the ages. “[Gifts,]” she said simply. “[This one is for you,]” she said to him as she set the box on the table with the food. “[And this is for you,]” she said to Persephone as she handed the basket to her eldest daughter.
Hidden by the cloth was what, at first glance, looked like a simple basket of fruits and flowers that were considered to be Persephone’s favorites and sacred, including several pomegranates. However, they were far from ordinary. They contained the same kind of aura of energy about them as the offering gifts that had been sent to Zale in his earlier gift of horse figurines, only these were specifically directed towards Demeter’s eldest daughter.
Inside Zale’s box was more mysterious and certainly gave the obvious vibe of something other-worldly. There was a clear crystal vial that was the size of a golf ball, had the shape of a teardrop, and was twined with thin tendrils of silver. Inside the vial, it almost looked as if trapped within was a globule of liquid light. It swirled around within its container, refusing to touch the glass which held it, and glowed with a warm green light. Though relatively calm within the box, the closer it got to Demeter’s youngest son, the more excited and happy it seemed to be.
Persephone was about to say something nice about her gift, when she noticed the odd aura about them. She pursed her lips. That was curious. “[What did you do to these, Momma?]” She glanced over at Zale’s gift, eyes squinting at the glow. She was vaguely aware that her mother had fallen in with other deities and other magics. She glanced up at her mother’s face, curious to see what the explanation was for these things.
Zale couldn’t help himself. Maybe it was because he was a fourteen year old boy or maybe it was from the host of his uncle’s comics he read or maybe because it was due to his Grecian blood that just loved to open strange boxes and desire otherwise possibly ominous things or maybe it was a combination of those things that had caused his hand to reach out for the glass with the glowing green light in it. But he paused, his hand hovering over it -- in quite dramatic fashion -- as he heard his sister’s question. Even though the question wasn’t about this gift, it was a good question. “[And what is this?]”
Demeter watched her children’s reactions closely. She curled herself onto one of the comfortable outdoor chaise lounges that sat among the rest of the patio furniture as they opened their gifts, then spoke up only after they started asking questions. “[You both know what happened shortly after I left Miami. I’m afraid I haven’t told you too much about what happened after that.]” Though her tone had become more serious, she didn’t allow herself to become upset. These memories were the least traumatic of the ones she’d carried over the last two years, after all. She mentioned to them to take a seat where they liked. This tale might take a bit of time.
She told Persephone and Zale about travelling northward with Thanatos after becoming ill, but not wanting to return to Miami. The goddess recounted how her companion realized that they were being observed once reaching New York state, and were finally approached when they reached Grand Central Station in New York City.
It was then that they learned of the existence of a Celtic pantheon run society tucked away under the Adirondack Mountains, led by the immortal goddess Danu. A mother goddess herself, and as old as their own lost matron Gaea, she’d sensed Demeter’s distress once she’d entered the region and sent several of her followers searching for her. With nowhere else to go, she and Thanatos went with them to their city.
It was there that the two of them stayed for the majority of the last two years. Demeter was taken under the wing of Danu and slowly nursed back to health. The city, which was once the source of the Avalon myths, was similar to NYC in that over the ages it had become a sanctuary for the surviving mortals and immortal beings of myths and legends who endured various falls from worship and belief and managed somehow to migrate directly to New York. Mortal non-human beings, such as fae and celtic elves and even the descendents of their own Grecian beings such as nymphs and satyrs, populated the majority of the city and supplied a steady source of belief and worship in the immortal gods who lived there as well. The immortals lived comfortably within their own identities there, having no need to hide under a mortal guise.
“[It’s because of them that both Thanatos and I have become stronger than we were when we left Miami,]” Demeter said. She then nodded towards Persephone’s basket. “[Those are not from me, but are an offering for you sent by the Grecian descendants living there, as were the horse figurines you received Zale. They recognize all of my living children, even Amara wherever she might be. I have something for her as well from them, if I had a way to send it to her.]” She took a moment to let all that she’d revealed sink in as she grabbed a glass of juice to drink from in the mean time.
Zale reverted to his previous theory that today was more fantastic than real - more like something from a movie... “[I have her address...]” he murmured as he picked up the glass, no longer able to resist it. He brought it eye level to look at the green glow inside, trusting that it was safe. His mother wouldn’t hurt him but.... “[But what is this, Momma? Did the worshipers make it too?]”
Demeter shook her head with a small smile as she set down her glass. “[No, Zale. That is a gift from me to you. It’s something that ought to have been your birthright from the moment you were born. That, love, is energy... The kind of energy that gives me, your sister, and the other members of our family our abilities and powers. When you and Amara were born, I wasn’t strong enough to imbue that kind of gift on either of you, but now... what you hold there... that rightfully belongs to you.]”
Though she still couldn’t give either of her mortal children the freedom from death and aging she wished she could, it still warmed Demeter’s heart greatly that she could finally give them some measure of divinity that came from being the children of gods. She only wished her youngest daughter could be there with them to share in this moment with her twin.
Zale’s eyes widened and he lowered the glass and the happy green glow to give his full attention to his mother. He would never be able to move away from the surreal feeling that had clung to him ever since entering the grove -- an odd sensation for him considering the family he lived with and the life he was born to. “[This is powers in a jar?]”
Demeter shook her head a little. “[Not exactly. This is a portion of my own energy that I’ve set aside for you, but it’s not any specific power or ability. What powers or abilities that may be awakened will be wholly your own.]” She paused for thought. “[More likely than not, this should help give you greater control over that part of you that is Arion from the past.]” Demeter gave her son a concerned look. “[Do you still sleepwalk like you did back before I left?]”
The question made Zale lower his eyes and look away from both his mother and his sister. Suddenly, he wished he wasn’t here anymore... His sleepwalking hadn’t been something he enjoyed when it first began and when it started up again... Someone else, and yet his own former self, taking over his body in the middle of the night had been had been enough of a weight on his shoulders and a spectre lurking in the shadows for him but when it started to happen in his current house...
When he had learned Arion had met with his uncle and hadn’t been kind.... After that night and the chaos he knew he had caused, the chaos he knew any young frightened foal would cause in that house trying to escape, he had tried his hardest to hide any new nightwalks. Arion and him had come to an understanding... A secret one. But maybe he wouldn’t have to explain. Instead, he nodded to his mother’s question, “[Yes.]”
Seeing the change in her son’s demeanor and posture, Demeter felt her heart clench. She hadn’t meant to upset her only son. The goddess moved from her seat to where her son sat and wrapped her arms about him in a comforting hug. She then reached out and took the glowing bottle into her own hand. “[When I left Miami, I was at one of the weakest points in my existence. I was too weak to handle all the otherworldly things going on within our family... Too weak even to take care of myself and those who depended on me. It took me two years, but I’m finally strong enough to do the things I need to do... To take care of those I love the most.]” She pressed a kiss to Zale’s hair, and gave Persephone a loving look, since she couldn’t quite reach her without leaving her son’s side.
“[And now,]” she said as she held up the small bottle to the light. “[I want to share that strength with you and your sisters. Especially you, because I know you of the three have had such a hard time these last few years. It hasn’t been fair, the troubles you’ve had to deal with. You shouldn’t have to face them as a mortal. You should be facing them as an Olympian.]”
Persephone watched, feeling a mixture of things. She was deeply sympathetic to Zale’s plight, as she had been that mad night with Arion. She was grateful that her mother would give such an important thing to Zale, wishing she could provide for her brother in such a way. However, mixed in with all of that was concern. She watched her mother and Zale touching, bonding again, and she worried. Perhaps, it was Hades’s influence on her. Perhaps. it was the experience of nurturing an abandoned child, building up some level of trust with him. Whatever the reason, she was afraid of how fast the reconnection was happening, of what her mother expected from all this, of the confrontation that might need to occur if she wanted Zale back in her care.
She plucked a flower from the basket, feeling all the love within it, stroking her fingers over the soft skin of its petals. It reminded her of a simpler time, when she was a girl and didn’t have to worry about the tragedies of life.
“[Thank you, Momma...]” Zale murmured against his mother as he wrapped an arm around her to hug her. As he released her, he took back the bottle of glowing light and closed his fingers lightly around it to all but completely hide the shining light. To be an Olympian.... He was still getting used to high school.
With utmost care, not quite being sure if the little glow had true emotions or what it could experience and feel, place the bottle back inside of its box and closed it again. “[I think... Maybe if it would be okay... I’d like to um...]” Be more braced? Not be in shock that his mother both said all those things and managed this gift? Think about the consequences of being more Olympian? Consider that Arion still felt different than himself and what this might do? And at the same time, try not compare all of this to the Percy Jackson movie... Though that thought made him snicker just a touch and at the very least, lightened his own mood. Persephone wasn’t mean enough for it to be that movie anyway... “[I think I want more time for it, Momma. Do you think we could just have a picnic now?]” He had a feeling Persephone would like that, too.
Demeter could not say that she was surprised by her son’s reaction. She understood that this was a life-altering gift she’d just given him. So it made perfect sense that he needed time to think about it. She gave smiled gently at him. “[Of course, love. Take all the time you need.]” She pressed a kiss to his forehead and gave him a little hug before rising to her feet to look at both her children with contentment.
“[You know, a picnic sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s gather the food up, and we can go exploring the Grove. You two can choose the ideal spot for us.]”
Nothing more would be said this day about the gifts she’d given her children, or about her past in a place far from Miami. All that mattered was making sure Persephone and Zale could be happy and content in this place she now could call her home. This was a day for them.
Summary: Demeter’s children arrive to visit their mother at her newly completed Grove the day after Zale’s official birthday. There, she reveals more about what she’s been through the last two years, and then she gives both her children gifts of a supernatural nature. Her son’s birthday gift is of a more drastically reality-altering variety, should he choose to actually use it. Afterwards, the three go for a picnic in the beautiful, but surreal woods which guard the earth goddess’s home.