Calliope - In The Arms Of Morpheus

Chapter 22

Desire paced little circles around their throne room in their threshold.
Aw, the poor innocent girl. She desired him, still, and there was nothing she could do against it. The good girl changed him. Dream was now corporeal and suffering so sweetly from the unknown bodily reactions. No jerking off for their poor horny brother. He said it himself, he exists to serve the humans. His desire for this to stop was irrelevant, as long as the muse wanted him.
Not ideal that she fled his realm. They still needed the saeculum for their plans. But there was still the pegasos...  As long as Dream was close to his little Muse, her desire was keeping him burning brightly, teaching their horny brother a lesson about their powers.
"Sister Despair, I hold your sigil in my hands. Will you speak to me?" Desire caressed the hooked ring of their beloved sibling.
"Naw. Not sure. Feeling kinda down today." Their twin grumbled from their lips-throne, where she had manifested, knowing full well, that she did not have to wait for their explicit invitation.
Desire put Despair's ring back into its back-lit place in the circle of sigils, surrounding their crimson red throne room.
"Aww, sweet doll," Desire sat beside her, wrapping their arms tenderly around her bloated sunken form. "Let me distract you a little."
Despair looked at them with her puffy eyes from under a veil of greasy hair.
"I need you to spread a little of your special glamor for me." Desire smiled.
"Huh?" Despair looked up at them, her thumbs twiddling with the lapel of her dirty brown vest.
"There is this little muse. We need to help her," they whispered into their sister's ear. "But right now she refuses cooperation in her own rescue."
"Don't know..." Despair started biting her bloody fingernails.
Desire hugged her close, caressing her cheek, feeling her melt desperately into the touch. "You know, she needs to be perfectly desperate to find a man, or she won't be able to be inaugurated as a muse."
Despair lifted her eyes again and looked at Desire, a small smile on her lips.
"Think you can help me?" Desire beckoned her.
"Of course." Despair beamed.

****

"You need to fly back to safety, you know." Calliope cuddled Hippolitos' nose and he nuzzled her back. She held his head and looked into his eyes. "Go back to the dreaming. There, no one is thinking of sacrificing you."
He nodded softly, and snuffled gently against her hand.
"Fare ye well, dear friend. I will miss you." Calliope patted him, and then stepped back, to watch him spread his glittery wings. He took a few steps back, then did a running start from the other side of the clearing at the spring of the Hippcrene. She watched him take flight, his multicolored form flapping across the pine trees. "Fare ye well. Take care of my love for me..." she whispered.
Now, there was no way of ever getting back to the Dreaming. It was for the better.
Just a few minutes of rest. One moment for her pain, and then she would pick herself up and do what must be done.
Calliope let herself glide down to the fresh, green grass, Hippolitos would have loved so much. He had a night-mare waiting for him.
She had just a nightmare to get back to.
A waiting inauguration. Vile men. And one of them was supposed to... Her stomach revolted. There was no one compared to Oneiros! No one could compare to her Endless. It hurt so much, to think that she would allow someone else to touch her.
Calliope missed Oneiros' soft and gravelly voice. Missed every single one of the sparing words he would use.
Soft lips snuffled against her cheek. Calliope looked up. A little softly violet nose nuzzled her, long lashed eyes looking at her. "Who are you?"
She snuffled her hand for treats, and gently flapped her tiny violet wings. A baby pagasos! "How did you get here?" Calliope breathed.
"Calliope!" Thalia's voice called from the path through the woods. Her sister ran to her, her bright yellow dress, billowing behind. "There you are! Where have you been? Who is this? Where did you-" Thalia froze and stared at the foal.
Calliope's heart sank. "You can not sacrifice her!"
"Why would I-... oh, Erato, I see." Thalia stepped closer and started caressing its fur. "What is it with you finding all these creatures all the time?"
"I-..." Maybe she was the only one with no ulterior motives. She just wanted to protect her. "She needs to be kept a secret."
"Why would I do that?" Thalia never had any secrets. She was far too keen on blurting them out loud, unless they concerned herself.
"Because she may be a gift from a secret admirer." Calliope lied.
"Really? A secret admirer!" Thalia beamed. "Oh my, she is precious! Do not worry, if I tell Erato, she's a gift especially for me, she won't touch her. She owes me, after the thing with Hippolitos." Thalia jumped up and down, excitedly, and pulled her girdle from her dress to make a makeshift bridle.
The pegasos would live, but in captivation.
"Her name is Ion, for the color of her beautiful violet wings." Calliope told Thalia, swallowing a big lump of pain down her throat, feeling it slide down her body, until it nested and burned in her chest.
"Let's go meet Erato, then. Make sure she is safe." Calliope clicked her tongue at Ion, pretty sure she would have followed them, even without the bridle.

(Calliope about to make a great sacrifice in order to hide how much Ion mans to her. And Morpheus has to cope with the limits of his still far too corporeal body. Please vote for this chapter and read on tomorrow, when the next chapter is published.)