Half of my Heart

Seedling

She was life incarnate. Soft, young, with hair the color of new leaves and skin the first blush of spring, Persephone was life. Where she went, plants budded and bloomed, flowers blossomed, trees grew, and with that her curiosity. Under the eye of Demeter, Persephone roamed over lands. She saw civilizations rise and fall. She saw the beginning of every new life ahead. She saw more of the same her whole life.

The humans prayed to her. They praised her easy harvests, her light, her beauty. They always asked for more. The further she roamed, the more she found wanting of her, as the humans razed the steps of grain behind her.

Over time, she saw their waste and negligence. Her mother ignored the waste, urging Persephone to continue her work in favor of the humans gratuity and worship. A small price to pay for the prayers deserved, Demeter always said. Persephone could only listen and watch as her fruits would wither in gluttonous storage; the humans were selfish in their shares and would let another starve if they could. She wanted better.

Each meadow, orchard, green grass she stepped through bloomed, and yet her heart would not. She loved them, as taught by her mother, yet she could not overlook their faults. As she continued to walk on, blessing the land with her grace, Demeter began to watch less and walk further away, giving Persephone the space to work on her own. With the freedom, Persephone searched for more. She looked through desolate lands, sandy beaches, and rocky caves, and left her touch of green in every place she discovered.

This trail of life created a beautiful mystery for another god. He of death. The underworld. Hades. In his caves and desolate lands he heard of impossible growths and unbelievable beauty. Persephone unknowingly led the Lord of the Underworld to the mortal realm in search of the cause of his mystery. He followed her peonies and roses and apple blossoms from space to space. He saw as she did - the humans who took everything she blessed and hoarded it as gold. The grains they stored being used as economy, instead of a pure god's intent of life. He found her and watched.

She, in her blooming pink skin and glowing, soft green hair, touched the earth and sprung what he so missed. She was everything. He saw her eyes watch the humans carefully, blessing the children and scorning the politicians. He saw her fingers run over farmland and create bounties. He saw her steps, light and slow as they created patches of greenery in her wake. She was everything missing from the gods he knew.

She was quiet. Soft. Kind.

He saw the cunning in her eyes, and saw her as his equal. She calculated when to leave to the next land, when the kings would become too greedy. She smiled when Demeter looked at her with such brilliance he couldn't guess the entrapment she might have felt. Then, once Demeter had gone off to tend to her own cultivation, he saw the flash of loneliness in Persephone's otherwise shining golden eyes.

How could he not love this being?

He who presided over death sentences and a River of souls and the fates of what happened after she left. He of rough hands who made rough choices. Dark blue skin and black hair. Eyes like the night sky. A perfect match to her.

He waited patiently for Demeter to leave and for Persephone to find another of his caves. When he stepped into the light, she didn't seem surprised. Just curious.

"If you hit one of these just so," he smirked at her and picked up a rock from the ground. Hades hit it against a larger rock and held it out to her. Shining emerald gleaned between them. "You'll find Rhea's blessings."

A twinkle lit in her eyes.

"My name is Hades," he pushed the emerald rock into her hands.

"I know who you are," Persephone smirked back. A playful smile lit her face. She was everything in that moment.

"Then you will know, Demeter advises all of her nymphs to stay away from my caves." Hades took a calculated step backwards. Persephone stepped forward, closer to him than he expected.

"My mother also advises us to stay away from the sand, but who could resist the beauty of the ocean at sun down?" She looked down at her emeralds. "Does this cave lead away from the mortal realm?"

"Wouldn't you like to see for yourself little nymph?" He stepped forward. He could see the details in the marigolds in her hair. Each was unique in petal and variant in color.

"I am more than a nymph, soul snatcher," Persephone said, closing the gap between them. "I am a fertility goddess. Don't you know that I am life itself?"

He could smell the florals on her. She could see the stars in the midst of the darkness of his cobalt eyes. He looked skeletal in his robes. She wasn't sure if it was a trick of the cave lighting or if he was truly that slender. It wasn't like the other gods she met. They who were flashy in their appearance and brimming in power. Hades was a quieter, calmer presence than she expected.

"You are life until your next step," he responded with a chuckle. Persephone blushed.

"If I go down, to the Otherworld, will I return?" She looked at the emeralds again. She had seen the refined jewels of the mortals before, but seeing it in it's raw state was finer than anything she could have made. They were rough, and real. They didn't carry any of pretenses of men.

"You can always return," he replied, voice soft. She did not look back as he held her hand, guiding her into the darkness.