The Angelus Brothers Chronicles - The Golden Hind

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kaia screamed and fought as the Trolls held her, and the woman sliced her shoulder with a knife. She seemed to be trying to coat the blade in Kaia's golden blood; once she had done so, she gestured to a trap door in the floor. 

"Down there. I may have further use for her." A small slim fae ran forward and opened the trap door as one of the Trolls shouldered the terrified struggling hind and, holding her, dropped her into the hole.

She landed hard on the floor; it had been from quite a great height they had dropped her. She was momentarily winded from the hard landing. It was almost completely pitch black wherever they had thrown her as well as cold and damp. Only a small grate about twenty feet above her let in any light, and it was not enough to see much of anything. 

Changing into her human form, she shouted up at the distant faces, looking down from above her. 

"Please. I haven't done anything. Please let me out. I just want to go home." The woman laughed and turned away as one of the trolls slammed the trapdoor shut. Kaia repeated the call over and over, but no one answered, and the door stayed shut. Time seemed to have stopped, so she had no idea how long she had been shouting for. 

Finally, she moved forward with her hands out until she found a wall a few feet in front of her, ice-cold and damp feeling. She felt her way along it, hoping to find a door but soon found the room was small and circular. To one side was what seemed to be a pile of rocks, but that was it. Groping her way back to the rocks, she felt her way around them and found some rough feeling fabric thrown on top. Picking it up, she wrapped one about her and put the other back on the rock. Then groped her way along the wall again, feeling high and low, trying to find some way to climb her way to the grate. The walls were smooth and glass-like to the touch, no foot or hand holds, not even seams between the blocks and too smooth for her to try and climb without something to grip. 

***

Kaia had been in her prison for days, she'd found the gate high above her head was dimly lit for a time then pitch black so she figured it was outside and that marked the day and night in this place. Wherever she was, the days and nights were shorter here than her home. She spent days shouting and trying to escape but to no avail. No one ever answered or came. Sometimes, she would hear footsteps near the grate, but no one ever responded to her pleas. 

It seemed to rain often in this place, and water would cascade down the wall from the grate. She was relieved as they hadn't brought her food or water. Whenever it rained, she would drink her fill as it flowed down the wall. The rain also meant that a small amount of some type of moss grew on that wall, which provided her with a small amount of unpleasant-tasting food. But before long, that was gone. 

Finally, one day, the trap door high above her opened, and for a moment, she thought they were finally going to free her. Something was thrown down, and the door slammed shut again. Once the crippling disappointment passed that no one even spoke to her, she went to investigate; it was a loaf of bread that had been thrown down. She had begun to fear they would never feed her; the bread wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. She rationed it out to last her 5 days. She could have eaten it all in one go but she didn't want to leave herself with nothing again, so she broke it into five portions and stored the additional ones on the rocks that had become her bed. 

Soon, a routine had begun in her dark and solitary life. The dim light would start to come through the grate, rising from her rocky bed. she would change from her doe form and exercise in her confined space, stretching, and running on the spot. She would do that for a time, then she would see what moisture she could get from the wall by licking it to just moist her lips. Unless it rained, then she would drink her fill, her face pressed to the smooth wall, letting the water cascade into her mouth. If any small amount of new moss had grown, she would eat it when it became mouthful sized, but always leaving enough for it to continue to grow. As what little light was fading she would return to her rock bed, offer a small prayer to the goddess to deliver her from this place, and change back to her doe form to be a little warmer and would go to sleep on top of one of her rag blankets and under the other. 

Time had lost all meaning other than day and night to her. Whenever the trap door was opened high above, she'd find herself excited by what would be thrown down. Mostly, it was stale loaves of bread. Sometimes more than one that would keep her fed for days and days. Once, a dry burnt leg of some kind of meat was dropped. This was the most filling thing she'd ever been thrown, and she savoured each burnt mouthful. On rare occasions over ripe fruit was thrown down, which also, over the many years she thought she'd been here, gave her little highlights to enjoy. 

The food didn't arrive regularly, though; she'd tried counting days a few times, but sometimes it could be 10 days between meals and other times twenty. She supposed it was when it was remembered and counted herself lucky that it rained every few days so she could at least get rainwater. 

Feeling tired and hungry was a normal part of life for her now. It had been so long since she'd felt full and warm that it no longer plagued her memory. Unsure why, but convinced one day Artemis or her sisters would come for her, she lived her life alone and in silence. Exercising, praying to her goddess, and waiting for food. 

***

Artemis screamed and stormed across the throne room to her father's seat. 

"No! He lost my Kaia. I will not have him here." 

"Is she still complaining about those animals?" Hera asked her husband in a bored tone. Apollo smirked from his seat next to her, now empty one.

"Yes, Hera. I'm still going on about my hind." She turned back to her father. 

"You sent my other four to their deaths, and your bastard son lost my last. They were mine." Zeus looked bored and sighed heavily. He backhanded his daughter, sending her flying across the room. 

"Those animals were nothing. Forget them. My son is coming to join us here as a god. He proved himself. If your stepmother can accept it, so can you, daughter." Artemis climbed off the floor and ran from the throne room, holding her face where her father had struck her. Apollo leapt up from his chair and chased her, intent on adding insult to injury. But when he caught her arm, he found tears, genuine tears, rolling down the face of his usually angry sister. 

"Artemis?" She shrugged him off and turned to leave again, but he caught her and pulled her into a hug. Something he hadn't done since they were children. 

"Sister, shh. Are you genuinely upset over those animals? Why? There are many more animals, choose others, and forget those ones. Paint the antlers of normal deer, you'll never know the difference." A sob escaped her lips as she let her brother hold her. 

"They weren't just animals. They were my hinds, my beautiful girls." Confused, Apollo held his sister as she wept for her lost hinds. Her beautiful, intelligent, gentle hinds that she would never watch frolicking in the sunshine again.