Calliope - In The Arms Of Morpheus

Chapter 6

What does one choose as a gift for an unknown Muse, if one had the choice of everything that has ever been dreamed of?
In the hopes that insomniac Erato was anything like her bubbly sister Thalia, Morpheus visited her dreams in a hurry and opted for Hippolitos, because he met both criteria: multicolored and shiny. And surely a mythical creature from a dream was unique enough to please the Muse of love poetry, even though he was not sure it it had kept its rare ability to time-travel.
Also, this time, he had officially sent his raven ahead, to announce his arrival and prevent disturbance of whatever the Muses were practicing. Erato's answer had been, that she was prepared to see him at the banks of the river Hippocrene.
Hippolitos trotted behind Morpheus in a peaceful manner, while Morpheus let go of the saeculum in his pocket. Luckily Thalia's dream had been about grooming his four-hooved companion, so his mane was bound and braided, he was brushed and in a good mood.
As Morpheus stepped though the last trees of the sacred grove onto the banks of the Hippocrene, a lonely muse sat on a stool, strumming her lyre. Erato seemed to have gotten rid of the veiled chaperon, his raven had told him about.
"Geetings, honored Erato."
"Greetings, Dream of the Endless." Erato sat upright, crowned by a wreath of myrtle and roses, colors matching her orange and green see-though dress.
"I come bearing gifts and seek your knowledge about love." Morpheus tugged at Hippolitos' reign. The pegasos stepped into the sunlight behind him, reflecting tiny fractioned rainbows onto his coat.
Erato placed her lyre on a cushion and turned her palms up. "I was looking to find out with what precious gifts the only being, who can gift anything anyone had ever dreamed of, could manifest." She held up her hands, as if she waited for Morpheus to place something on her palms.
Maybe it would have been wiser to retrieve her gift from her own dreams. "I brought you the best steed I could find in the Dreaming." He tugged, again, at Hippolitos' reign, which elicited an indignant snort.
Erato let her hands sink into her lap, her smile now frozen. "Very well. We muses seek unique gifts, and this one is a rather... unique gift for a muse of Poetry."
He should have gone to her dreams and retrieved a scroll of poems by Sappho, instead.
But the gift had already been offered, thus he was unable to take it back. Morpheus tied Hippolitos to the nearest tree and straightened himself up.
"So what is it, that you seek my inspiration for?" Erato's smile still looked plastered to her face, but she seemed to muster the grace she had left after her disappointment.
"I need to create a dream of the carnal sort. This usually being my sibling Desire's issue, I have no expert knowledge on how to execute-"
"-how dare you!" Erato stood, her cheeks aflame, her eyes staring at Morpheus.
"Forgive me, if I offended you."
"Never!" She grabbed her lyre, kicking her stool over in the process. "How dare you come here asking me for crude fornication!" She hissed at him. "Consider me not wooed at all. This girlish creature is not accepted as a gift!" She grabbed Hippolitos' reign and pulled it from the tree.
"Leave!" She hissed at Morpheus, then slapped the pegasos' back, making him dash into the woods, wings flapping. "Leave, and never come back!"

****

This being a lost cause, Morpheus turned to see Hippolitos' fluttering tail disappear between the trees of the sacred grove. Something light blue fluttered, then was gone too.
He would have to go and catch him, now that the pegasos was real. A mythical creature couldn't run free in the woods of mount Helicon.
Morpheus made his way a few miles up the hill, sometimes catching a glimpse of a fluttering wing, a rainbow-mane, and a silver tail. Sometimes, it was just the soft breeze of a blue veil, following the pegasos though the trees.
As the woods grew lighter and slowly gave way to a sunny clearing, the veil slowed down and revealed its owner, the most beautiful girl Morpheus had ever seen: Her warm brown hair, adorned by a thin bronze tiara, her small fingers, touching the trunk of the tree, she hid behind, watching the animal on the clearing. Hippolitos had stopped to graze from the thick, fragrant, grass, growing between sun-soaked boulders, at the bank of a tiny stream springing from a place deep within the stones.
Morpheus stopped and indulged into a few moments to take in this beautiful sight, maybe the material for a future dream. The gurgling from the flowing water had something entrancing.
Hippolitos, unfazed by the girl approaching him, grazed on. He stretched his translucent wings, now being out of the narrow wood's confines and enjoyed the lush green moss.
"Shhh, don't be afraid." She whispered, as she came closer. "A beautiful creature like you should not be bound like this."
The pegasos lifted his head and looked at her, a sunbeam reflecting from his blaze onto her face. "May I...?" She slowly extended her arms. "May I free you, Pegasos, creator of the pegai, giving us the clear water that the Hippocrene carries to oceanus?"
Morpheus couldn't move. Humans would have called this a magic moment, but this was also surely an encounter scripted by the fates.
Hippolitos nodded, and slowly the girl tugged the bridle across his ears and slipped the snaffle from his mouth. The pegasos shook his head, as if to get rid of the feeling, then nuzzled her hand.
"Maybe we can be friends, Pegasos."
She was right. Morpheus should never have tried to gift him. He was a creature of his own.
"His name is Hippolitos." Morpheus took a careful step forward, as to not spook her.
Deep brown eyes looked up into his. Her mouth parted slowly, then a smile spread on her face. "You are so tall..."
"Greetings. I am Dream of the Endless." Morpheus tried to be polite while being entranced by a beautiful brown curl, wrapping around her slender neck as she swallowed.
"Greetings, Oneiros. I am Calliope, Erato's youngest sister."
He lowered his chin. "Seems he took a liking to you. Usually those creatures are quite easily spooked."
"Really?" She beamed. "Maybe he wants to be my friend, then." She caressed his face and neck to the sound of Hippolitos' snuffling.
"You may be right." Morpheus felt the rare sensation of the corners of his mouth tugging upwards. "Seems he wants to be your friend."
"Hippolitos." The name rolling from her Greek tongue enchanted him. "Hippolitos, I was under the impression that your kind had been extinct. It's been hundreds of ages since seen the last of your kind were seen here," she whispered to his face.
"They are extinct. I took him from your Sister's dreams." Morpheus patted the other side of the pegasos' neck.
Her big eyes shone up to him. "He is perfect, just like the ones that used to live here." She whispered. "So beautiful. Can he stay here? This is where his ancestors were born, and had created the spring to our Hippocrene. He shall like living here."
Everybody else would have asked to keep him. She only wanted his freedom.
"He needs a protector. These kinds of creatures tend to be hunted."
Hippolitos turned his head and walked over to the stream, then dipped his head to the clear waters. The sun caught in his fur and reflected like a million crystals.
"I can do that. And I'm sure my sister Muses will help me."
Morpheus doubted that Erato would help.
"If you want that, he shall stay here." His face slowly got accustomed to the tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Thank you!!!" She grabbed Morpheus' hand, and, hugged it between hers.
To Morpheus, touch was a rare sensation. He had always avoided physical touch. It led to connection, that led to more touches that... opened the door for Desire's mischief. But he couldn't be rude.
"I have to go now." He tried to extract his hand from hers.
"No!" She let go of his hand, leaving it weirdly empty. "Don't go. Do speak... uh... tell me... about... uh... how you wooed my sister..."
She clasped her mouth with her free hand, her eyes staring at him as if she had said something bad.
"It went awful. It seems, Erato isn't as fond of horses as you are, Calliope." Morpheus' voice sounded rougher than usually, if that was even possible. If he was honest to himself, he didn't want to leave either.
"Tell me more, tell me everything!" She sat on a boulder and indicated the spot beside her. Then, again, her hand flew to her face. "Oh, I am such an indiscreet person. You don't have to-... I mean, I'd love to talk to you much longer, but..."
He sat beside her. What a refreshingly nice encounter. The second occasion in a few days to be doing something with no purpose at all. Just because it felt good. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything!" She blushed. "Speak as long as you want to me. I could listen to you for ages and not get bored."
Ages? Who would want to listen to someone for ages?
"O no! This is so embarrassing. I shouldn't have said that!" She glowed and hid her pink face.
Morpheus reached over and gently peeled her hands from her face. "Don't ever be embarrassed with me. Remember, I have seen everybody's dreams and nightmares. There is nothing that could faze me, Calliope."
She lifted her gaze. "It's just... I love your voice. From the first time I heard you speak I dreamed of your voice. Is that weird?"
Maybe. But he wasn't the judge for that. Morpheus shook his head. "I'd rather be liked for my voice than anything else."
"To be honest, I'm sorry, but I also like your looks..." She lowered her gaze again.
"Don't be." He took her hands in one of his and used the index finger of his free hand to raise her face to look up to him. "Everybody deserves to enjoy some beauty." A feat he was as guilty of, as she was.
Her eyes locked into his and he let go of her chin. "So tell me, Oneiros," his name rolled from her tongue like the sweetest treat, "tell me, what inspiration did you seek from my sister?"
"I was seeking advice on how to create an explicit dream."
"Oh..." her lips stayed invitingly open. "Why?"
"Dreams and nightmares alike, are created to teach a lesson. This dream's lesson shall teach humans how to love each others again. The knowledge of caring and pleasuring each other seems to have been lost in centuries of transactional marriages."
Calliope nodded, her eyes shining. "So you wanted her poems, to inspire you?"
He nodded. "Or whatever she would tell me to incorporate into my dream."
Hippolitos grazed nearby, from time to time looking up to them.
"I seem to have done something wrong. Or maybe brought her the wrong gift. She was furious at me." The sun's rays turned warm golden at the end of the afternoon. A butterfly landed on a stone nearby. "I may have to wait a while and try again."
"Or," her warm hand clasped his, "I could inspire you." She looked at him with wide, shining eyes.
"Calliope, surely you don't have any experience in that kind of field. This is a dream for newlyweds to guide them to-... shared fulfillment. You are still so young."
She held his gaze, which was extraordinary in itself. Most people shied away after a while, mumbling something about not being able to stand to look into the entire cosmos all at once.
"True." She said in a decisive tone. "But I have something more valuable than experience." She lifted her chin. "I have curiosity."
Morpheus stared at her deep brown eyes. Curiosity to make up a lack of experience. How was that going to help with needing someone to give him educated advice?
"We could just find out, together."
She did surely not just suggest that they- "Calliope. No. You are the virgin Muse."
She smiled. "It's not a prerogative to being a Muse."
"Calliope, you would not want that." Desire. So much desire. But who's? Hers or his?
And who was going to protect her from the consequences of desire? "I'm the worst candidate for these kinds of things."
She leaned closer to him, the scent of honey surrounding him like a blanket. "You wooed me with the most perfect gift, Oneiros..." She whispered. Her hand reached out to his face and he let her, craving the touch. It caressed across his cheek and slid under his hair, sending shivers from his neck down his spine. Her warm breath reached his face and he lost the will to keep up the wall between them, that would have been appropriate between an Endless and a Muse. Her lush lips tasted like milk and honey, drowning them in a chaste kiss, that felt like it should never end.
When she broke the kiss, her arms stayed around his neck, her breath still brushing his needy skin.
"See, I want to inspire you." she whispered, "Lord Oneiros, let me be your muse."
So close. So close Morpheus could just rob her of a more wanton kiss. So close he could just seduce her. So naive.
But Morpheus wasn't any good. He couldn't think of Nada, right now, but he knew that he was only good for sending people to hell. "No. We can not do that. I would be hurting you."
Gently, he pulled her arms from his neck and rose, trying not to look into her beautiful eyes.
"Farewell, sweet Calliope. You deserve to be wooed by a better man."
One who didn't send his girlfriend to hell.

(Ready to meet Desire? Then vote quickly for this chapter and head to the next one to find out what they might be cooking up.)