31 Stories of Halloween

Day 26: The Peony Medicine

Prompt: Peony

Where the idea ascended from: According to one tale the name originates from the Greek word Paeon. In Greek mythology, Paeon was the physician to the gods who angered his teacher Asclepius after he extracted a milky liquid from the root of a peony that cured Pluto.

Standing before the very gods that mock me, I bow at their feet, "Please I ask of you to allow me to have the last peony milk. Please my mother she is ill and this is the only cure to save her. Zeus laughed endlessly, "You think I will give to you my peony milk, to you a mortal, and a child no less." I begin to cry when Demeter comes to speak, "I shall help your mortal child but in return, I want you to care for my peonies, and make more Peony milk."

I think it over, but nod. "As long as I can visit my mother once every moon cycle." The goddess nods and hands me a bottle, "Return to me in your garden and prick your finger and allow three drops of blood fall on the white flowers in your garden." I nod as reappear in my mother's room, I rush to her and pour a little in her mouth. My mother coughs as the life seemed to have returned to her face, "Mom!" I cry as she holds my face. She shushes me and hugs me, the family feasted and partied late into the night, but once the lights went out, I go to the garden to keep my promise.

I take my father's dagger and slice my hand enough for it to bleed but not hurt me gravely. Demeter opened a portal to her world and inside I was surrounded by peonies and other flowers, "I am a goddess of the harvest, but I do like my flowers. I would like you a mortal to watch my peonies so we can make more peonies milk." I nod as the days pass.

I feel like I've forgotten something, "My goddess, I believe I've forgotten something? Do you remember it?" The goddess turns to him and smiles, "No my child you have nothing to do other than tend to my peonies." The goddess guided me along, and I feel smaller than I have before, the more I watch the peonies the more forgetful I feel. One day Demeter comes to me, "Even though you were so young the peonies did their part, your youth was what the peonies needed."

Confused, I walked to the well, and what one would expect was a withered elderly man, but instead was a young babe. "What happened to me?" I asked with a quivery lip. "The peonies need the energy from the young and healthy mortals to grow healthily for the peony milk and you were just that. But you haven't even realized you've been here longer than one cycle of the moon, I'd say in mortal years it's been about twenty."

I cry as the goddess picks me up and carries me away, "Don't cry my child I will raise you I'm sure I'll protect you better than I did with my disobedient daughter who married that heathen of a god." Two nymphs come from the ground, "You two care for the peonies they need to be prepped for the cooking process to be made into the medicine. I'm taking my new child into the safe mini world I created for him.