Page 12 of Monster Song
Demos
I
could say I was mad about having to compete against Hephaestus too, but I wasn’t. I could say I was angry at him for building the cage that trapped me and delivered me to the Underworld, but I wasn’t. Sure, I was pissed and bitter about it for a long time, but things were better for phoenixes than they were on Earth.
Unlike the other monsters, I came from a relatively long line of phoenixes. We were one of the first things created by the Olympians when they visited other realms. They all had animals they wanted to be associated with them. They could have just left it at that.
Fucking Hestia wanted to be a badass. She didn’t have any animals associated with her. She just had her hearths. She thought creating a firebird would give her more status than some Olympians people feared a little more. That was how the first phoenix was created.
Let’s just say Hestia made a colossal mistake creating a bird with fire who would rise from the ashes. Once my ancestors realized, yeah, it hurt to die, but we would just come right back, we had zero desire to do her bidding. Sure, it pissed her off, but there wasn’t much she could do about it since she added the whole rising from the ashes thing to her curse.
Every time a new phoenix was born, she knew. She’d start making appearances to them when they were just children trying to get at least one phoenix on her side. She tried to manipulate me when I was only a baby phoenix, but she just reeked of desperation. I relished in it and manipulated her right back.
I probably shouldn’t have let the ruse go on so long, but it was just so much fun. I was fooling an Olympian, and yeah, I was enjoying her kissing my ass. I should have known she would explode when she realized it.
Hephaestus built cages out of some sort of material not even phoenix fire could burn. Every single phoenix was rounded up, caged, and dumped in the Underworld. We were understandably pissed, but at least we were all together.
We soon realized how much better it was there than on Earth. There was only one Olympian in the Underworld, and he didn’t want a pet phoenix. He just told us to try not to set shit on fire and directed us towards lodgings.
My family could have crafted their own motto about refusing to serve any Olympian, but Hades was different. I gladly volunteered to guard Persephone when he was looking. They were both different. They were so down to earth, and as far as I knew, none of them had ever cursed anyone or created a monster just for fun. Unless you counted Cerberus. He seemed rather proud of his three heads.
So, no. I wasn’t mad at Hephaestus for that cage. Hestia would never have given up until she had one of us on her side. And I learned enough about her while playing her that she would have used that phoenix to make the rest of us fall in line.
We phoenix were proud, but we were also a very tight-knit family. My family was currently collared in the pit with the rest of the monsters, and I desperately wanted to free them.
I wasn’t angry about the collars either because he came here in person to help us remove them.
I could admit I was arrogant and could be an ass sometimes, but I fully intended to thank Hephaestus for helping free my family.
And if River had feelings for him too, I’d just have to get over it because I had a feeling I’d be sharing her with even Pavlina, who I loathed.
Chapter 9
Pavlina
W
e’d all shared our origins over a beer at a tavern. Kimon and Demos had parents. Tryphon and I were both cursed. Unlike Tryphon, I could remember my human life quite well, even now. Neither Tryphon nor myself could figure out if Poseidon did him a kindness by taking his memories or he was just covering his tracks.
Athena seemed like the most logical Goddess to follow when I was human. She seemed to help with quests, and I hadn’t heard about any curses. Plus, she helped with intelligence, and I didn’t think she acted rashly. So, Athena became my patron Goddess. I sacrificed and paid tribute at her temple.
I was worshipping in the grove of olive trees by her temple, just minding my own business. I stayed a virgin because she was. Poseidon was still bitter she bested him in a contest. What better payback than defiling me at her temple?
To make matters worse, she wasn’t all that logical after all. She wasn’t mad at him. She was furious at me and cursed me to be a giant spider. I was pregnant with Poseidon’s child, but instead of giving birth to a demigod, I ended up laying eggs and hatching about nine hundred baby spiders.
They were just spiders. They weren’t like me, and they didn’t have a human form. They also stayed small. So, not only did she curse me, she took away my ability to have children. I never tried again with anyone else because I didn’t want to get their hopes up about a child and end up laying a bunch of eggs again.
That was way before I realized I was into women. I didn’t last that long as a monster. To say I was pissed off and acted out was an understatement. It wasn’t long before a demigod came to kill me. Sure, some monsters just wanted to be left alone and tried to hide, but I wanted to burn the entire world down and acted up.
I overheard Hephaestus and River. He was worried about us being mad at him because of his weapons or the collar. Honestly, I needed to be put down and brought to the Underworld. I was angry and bitter. I was killing people just because I could. I was killing men just for looking at women.
Hades was the one that talked me down when I got here. He set me up in a house and came over with ale every night to just chat. Yeah, he listened to me badmouth his entire family and even got a few barbs in himself. That was when I realized they treated him just as badly as they did the rest of us.
I knew they treated this new man in River’s bed just as severely. Probably even worse than Hades based on how his shoulders stooped at the slightest harsh words. Hades always had this confidence about him, but it looked like whatever was done to Hephaestus wore him down.
I wasn’t angry River invited him to snuggle with us. Yeah, I could be a bitch sometimes. Pretty much all the time, if I was being honest. But I had feelings, and I felt things pretty intensely.
I didn’t know Hephaestus, but I could remember Hades being there for me once. I didn’t consider him competition for River any more than I did Tryphon, Kimon, or Demos as long as I got my turn at big spoon.
