The Obsidian Prince

Prologue - The Myth

Prologue

The grass moved like a green ocean in the faint breeze. The sky was an impossible blue and the grass a green that could only be described as emerald. Flowers covered the field, small dots of colour in the green mass.

The young woman was sitting under an olive tree, looking at her friends as they played in the field. She was beautiful, full of life and joy, her eyes as green as the grass. Her hands were playing with a flower, making it grow from a tiny sprout to an unnaturally large, pink daisy. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter and the goddess of spring. She was very similar to her season, always changing, always showing something new and interesting. Full of ideas and tricks she could show her friends. Her mother loved her dearly and she was always proud over her daughter.

 Persephone glanced at her friends at the green field, her eyebrows pulling together as she saw that they where running towards her, waving their hands over their heads. She looked around to see what was upsetting them, and was met by the cold gaze of Hades.

He was the ruler of the Underworld, the dead. He was also the older brother of Zeus. Persephone didn't scream, instead she sent vines of honeysuckle and ivy to cling to his feet as he slowly walked towards her. The plants fell dead to the ground when they made contact with him. Persephone stumbled up from under the tree, but it was too late. Hades took her arm in an iron grip even a goddess couldn't break and pulled her on to his dark chariot. Her friends watched as the chariot disappeared in a cloud of shadows, taking their goddess with it.

According to the myth, Persephone was tricked in to eating six seeds of a pomegranate when she was in the Underworld. This prevented even the most powerful of the gods and goddesses from saving her, because when someone eats something in the Underworld, one must stay for ever.

When her daughter was missing Demeter couldn't complete the task of keeping the crops and plants growing, and the humans starved. They begged the gods for help and Zeus, the king of Olympus, finally made an agreement with his brother. He would let Persephone go for six months each year, but she had to come back to Hades for the rest of the year. It was this that gave the earth its seasons, when Persephone was with her mother everything grew and prospered, but when Demeter's daughter had to leave, everything died in her grief.