Arcadian Huntress ⚢

Chapter I King Lycaon

The moment I was born, I was irrelevant in the grandeur of things. If I had believed in the Fates, I would have understood that I had just played right into its hands, sliding into the course I had spent so long avoiding. How was I supposed to know that I should have avoided the obvious? How was I supposed to know that this apparently innocuous conversation was all part of the Fate's rehearsed lead-up? I knew so little that it seems amazing now that I could have adequately functioned each day. 

I am Callisto, a Princess of Arcadia in my early life but I left home to join the hunt to remain an eternal virgin forever. And I wished people would know me as that. Not what happened after. Sometimes the Fates had more plans for me than I do on my own. 

But before you know about me, I want you to know the story of my family after I left home.

My Father, King Lycaon of Arcadia, the son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, was known to be a nefarious king. He introduced the worship of the Gods residing in Mount Olympus to the whole nation.

I wished people would remember him as that. But something happened that changed his reputation. I never knew why it happened and what caused my father to do it. I wasn't with him because I had already left. This is what I knew from what my mother had told me.

You see, Arcadia had a tradition, founded by my grandfather. King Father had diligently been guarding the laws established by grandfather for the Arcadian people. In order to keep his subjects from injustice, he would tell them that Zeus frequented his home in the guise of a mortal man so as to keep watch over how lawful the humans were. One day when he was about to perform a sacrifice, he was surprised when a traveler came and introduced himself as the King of the Gods.

Zeus has descended from the high Olympus, and disguised as a mortal traveler. Father remained indifferent but inside he's furious, especially when he learned the news of what happened to one of his daughter's caused by Zeus himself. Though, he was not sure if the traveler is indeed a god or just a petty human who cleverly thought he could be treated well if he introduced himself as such.

As soon as Cronus' son gave a sign that a God has come, and the common folk began to worship him. King Father mocked their prayers. Eager to prove false of the traveler's omniscient, he vowed. "I will soon find out, and by that plain test, whether this fellow is truly a god or a mortal. Nor shall the truth be at all doubt."

That night, he planned to visit the chambers while the Olympian God was heavy with sleep to kill him by an unexpected murderous attack, but he failed. Zeus didn't even notice his life was threatened so King Father quickly escaped the scene.

Not contented with that, he involved his 50 sons—my brothers—who he had sired with many wives. There's nothing else to say about them, just that they all took after him. My brothers were the most despicable and carefree of all people.

King Father began to plan an insanely dark scheme. An experiment was adopted to test the truth. So he took a hostage of the Molossian race, cut his throat, and some parts of him still warm with life, he boiled, and others he roasted over the fire and invited the man who called himself Zeus.

In the banquet, the Arcadian King watched as Zeus approached the seat. Just as the dusk shades were ushering in the night. He served Zeus the meal with the flesh of a prisoner, partly cooked and partly roasted. But no sooner had he placed these before him on the table, Zeus with his avenging bolt, overthrew the house upon its master and on his equally unworthy household gods.

The lightning bolt was also used to kill his sons. All 50 of them, and only his daughters were spared—my sisters, Dia and Psophis.

King Lycaon flies in terror, howls aloud, attempting in vain to speak to the avenging God. He tried to plea for mercy. His mouth gathered foam, and with his accustomed greed for blood. He turned to the sheep to avoid killing humans and earning their wraths, delighting still in the slaughter. His fancy garments changed into rags. His hair grew shaggy on his legs and arms. He turned into a wolf, and yet retains some traces of his former shape. There was the same gray hair, the same fierce face, the gleaming eyes, the same picture of beastly savagery.

One house might be fallen, but not one house alone deserved to perish. Wherever the plains of earth extend, the Furies reign supreme. It was from my father were the first werewolves sprang.

From that day on, the rest of my family learned that it's worst than death to anger a God. But the Gods were still angry and nothing soothed their anger unless they wiped humanity from Gaia's realm. Zeus sent the Great Deluge to destroy all mankind. Only Deucalion and his family escaped in an Ark, which Prometheus tells him to build. The rise of humankind was another story and not mine to tell.

Everything in the next chapter, from the beautiful blue sky, to the emeraldgrass is mine. 

A/N

Here's the first chapter, this happens years after Callisto left home to become a huntress. Next chapter will be all about her. Sorry, it's a short chapter by the way. There are many variants and I did my research so to mix every possible version of it into one.