Page 4 of Arrogance
My eyes widened. I was astonished by what I was seeing. It was a large chariot made of the purest gold, drawn by white, majestic swans. It glistened as the beams of the sun graced their presence upon it. I had never seen anything so gorgeous in all my life. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the equal amount of shock displayed on my mother’s and sister’s faces.
“Who is it for?” Artemis asked.
“It’s for Apollo,” my mother answered. “A gift from Zeus. He told me he would be providing him with a chariot. I just never realized it would be so… ornate.”
“For me!?” I was in disbelief. How could I deserve such a grandiose gift? Clearly, I must have been doing something right in order for my father, King of the Gods, to be sending me such an opulent gift.
I stepped forward to stroke the stiff necks of the swans. I was reluctant at first, wondering if they feared my touch. But in seeing how comfortable they were as I petted them, I then continued to do so. I moved behind them, with my palm spread wide, allowing my fingers to trace over the intricate details of the chariot. It must have taken hundreds of years to carve and craft such a fine vessel.
“Well, what do you think of it?” my mother called out to me.
“I think it’s a bit much. Definitely not for me,” Artemis interjected with.
“Well,Ilove it!” I shouted. “It fits me perfectly!”
It was at this very moment that I realized that this being a god thing… I could easily get used to it.
Over the next several years, my sister and I continued to be showered with gifts from Zeus and some of the other gods and goddesses. Even mortals had given us a multitude of jewels, metals, supplies, and even food, although I’m not sure as to why. It’s not like my sister or I were doing anything for their benefit in the meantime. We didn’t have the ability to bless them or offer anything to them in return.
However, we both were grateful for all that had been bestowed upon us. Now, I was eager to go to Mount Olympus or any other part of the world, for that matter. Just an escape from this floating island with a new change of scenery would be nice. To be able to visit the people and the gods who presented us these gifts would be so rewarding. I wanted to have the opportunity to thank them. I guess it would be a very long time until that day would arrive, for Artemis and I were still to remain here at Delos for many years to come. There was still so much for us to learn before we would rise to live on Mount Olympus. Our birthright.
In living on this island, alone with Artemis, we were bound to get into arguments and feuds along the way. For instance, I could not stand her obsession with hunting. She would try to kill any and all animals in her line of vision. There were times when I wanted to have experiences with the wildlife and learn more about them, but it almost became impossible to do so with Artemis around. Therefore, I had to set a few ground rules with her, in which I forbade her from being a predator to a few specific types of animals, like cattle and some of the other livestock.
I often herded cows in my spare time on Delos. It was a hobby I grew very fond of. I valued the time I spent in getting to know the ways of the cattle and their mysterious behavior. How they moved, how they migrated, and how they mated with one another. I picked up on their habits and eventually became self-taught in how to properly herd and get them to obey my commands. Of everything I had in my possession on Delos, this herd of cows was most valuable to me to the extent that I declared them to be sacred.
As a god, I had never acted irrationally, nor let my anger and wrath get the better of me. That was until I learned that my cattle were tampered with one day. After assisting my mother with a few gardening tasks, I returned to my livestock in the afternoon only to realize that something was amiss. Panic began to overtake me. My heart raced, and I broke out in a sweat when I saw that all of my cows were gone. Missing. Vanished, butwitha trace. I noticed there were a vast number of unusual footprints in the ground. Not like the hooves I am used to seeing, but rather they were from large shoes or sandals of some sort.
Just what in the Underworld was going on!?
Did I invoke some sort of curse for my cows to go missing? No. I couldn’t have. Perhaps it was a prank Artemis was pulling? That sounded more reasonable. Instead of heading off into the forest to confront my sister, I decided to follow the footprints, which carried me to an abandoned crop field on the island. I navigated through the heavy dead stalks of plants until I stumbled upon a lone cow that must have gone astray from the rest. The cow was sound asleep, except there was something peculiar about this cow. It had shoes on! I placed my fingers over my Aegean blue eyes and rubbed them as if that would help change this ludicrous image that was before me, but to no avail.
I kneeled down on the ground to examine the shoes. They were unlike anything I had ever seen before. There was no way Artemis could have pulled something like this off. She was a goddess, but didn’t possess this kind of power, unless she hid it from me, which I found to be doubtful. But that wasn’t the only thing wrong with this picture. I moved closer to the head of the cow. Its eyes were closed, but I detected no indication of a heartbeat. It was still. Lifeless. I lifted the body of the cow up to see the pool of blood dripping from its stomach and all over the ground. A huge laceration was visible. The cleanest of cuts I had ever seen. It then hit me as to what was going on here. Someone besides my sister, mother, and I were on this island. Someone had come to steal my cattle. Not only steal them, butslaughterthem.
I had to make haste and get to the bottom of this. My blood boiled. My face steamed and turned as red as the lava of Hephaestus’ volcano. I sprinted onward through the fields. I wanted tokillwhoever was responsible for this. I wanted to make them suffer for committing such an atrocious act, against me of all people… an Olympian god! Did they not know who they were messing with!?
Soon, I could hear loud brushes in the nearby thickets. I headed in the direction of the noise, only to be relieved that I had found my cattle at last. I stood on my tippy toes and pointed my index finger at each and every one of them, performing a head count, realizing they all were present, minus the one that was killed along the way.
Although they were all found and accounted for, their behavior was not normal. They were all trapped in the same shoes I saw the dead one in. Except these shoes were forcing the cows to walk backwards.
Who could have done something so twisted and demented!?
I then began to shout, hoping the culprit was nearby, hiding from me. “You can come out now, whoever you are! The jig is up! Show yourself, or else I will inform my father, Zeus, of this crime and he will condemn you to a fate worse than me!”
It was a bold move on my part to make this threat, although I was unsure if, in fact, my father would be able to punish this individual. But nevertheless, it was worth a shot.
And it, in fact, worked. A figure stepped forward from behind one of the nearby trees in the area and approached me. A coy smirk was shown on his face as he got closer to me. I studied him closely. He was fairly handsome, with some boyish features about him. He was not overly muscular, but had a lean yet athletic and fit build to him. Upon closer inspection of his attire, I became aware of his brilliant white wings on the helmet he was wearing and a matching set of wings that accentuated from the back of his gladiator sandals.
Based on the tales of the Greek gods I had learned from my mother, only one person fit this description. “Hermes!?” I blurted out loud.
“The one and only!” he replied, a little too confident for my liking.
“Did you do this!?” I aggressively stated, sounding extremely accusatory. “Did you steal my cattle and even… kill one of them!?”
The trickster of the gods held out his hands to me, shaking them as I stomped towards him. “Now, now, Apollo. Let’s be reasonable about this. I couldn’t resist! Those cattle were so sacred to you. I’ve watched you raise them.” he explained.
“And you thought that gave you the right to take them from me!?” I lunged forward at him, in an attempt to wrap my fists around that throat of his. I wanted to murder him for this. And I had every right to for this extreme of a violation towards me.
He side-stepped, avoiding my contact with him, and distanced himself from me. Out of thin air he pulled out what looked like a weapon. A turtle shell with entrails dangling from it. The entrails looked fresh. Still bloody and gory. I quickly put the puzzle pieces together. They were from my cow Hermes had slaughtered.
