Children of Zeus

Kore and Persephone

When Demeter returned to Mount Olympus that morning, Kore was nearing exhaustion. For hours, her daughter had trampled the Xirokampi, the barren foothills where lynxes of the northern forest had come to see the lovely maiden. Kore had insisted, tugging at her mother's favorite embroidered skirt, pleading with her, to take the northern trail up the mountain, so that she could run among the kri-kri, the wild goats with wry horns that inhabited the mountains of Crete Island. Zeus had brought them to Mount Olympus at his daughter's request, but Kore's fascination with the animals of the mortal world worried Demeter.
This morning, when Demeter descended the mountain to teach the mortals of the secrets of fertility, Kore wandered from her mother, frolicked among the jackals and wolves, stroking the fur of the wildcats, even after they growled at her and nipped her fingers in play. She couldn't say that Kore showed malevolence or predisposition to witchcraft at any point in her observations, which Demeter made carefully, always watchful over Kore from afar, but Kore had an innocuous predisposition to things of mystery and the supernatural.
Demeter had discussed with Hecate her daughter's penchants for daydreams and her spiritual connection with nature, her rejection of mortal society altogether, and the conventional goddess customs of her mother. Hecate, the goddess known to be familiar with the dark side of the moon, the one who seemed most appropriate to ask regarding these concerns, had disregarded her anxieties, told her that she was far too domineering, and warned Demeter that it would one day prove to be her downfall.
"Delusional," said Demeter. "That's what you are, Hecate. Delusional. Let me remind you that my child is born of the great Zeus, and I too, his sister, hail from Mount Olympus."
Hecate, scorned, turned a dark and rocky moon toward Olympus that evening, and with her usual stoicism, said very little in response to Demeter's conversation, although she reminded her, "Next time, dear goddess of all things fertile and prosperous, if you don't want my advice, kindly, don't ask for it."
And the two did not speak for some time.

Read Kore and Persephone in the Zimbell House Anthology Children of Zeus. Available here:
Children of Zeus: A Zimbell House Anthology https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947210130/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_v5LaDbQ6G0DCG