Starhunter

Silly, silly child.

Silly child with ideas

Far too great

For your soul.

Silly, silly child.

The world was awaiting me

Never too great an adventure

So I left my sisters' garden

I left the dragon Ladon

Spawn of Echidna

And the firebreathing Typhon.

The world was awaiting me

It waited no longer

I traveled long and far

Over grass, over stone

Over waves that glittered

Maenads smiling at me from the depths.

I returned once and only once before these days

And that once he stood there

Holding my father's burden

Enduring the General's burden.

He caught sight of me, called,

"Fair maiden,"

"Zoe Nightshade," I corrected,

"Fair maiden, would you

Allow me a minute of respite

Rest from my eternal torture."

I gazed up at him and knew

I knew

That to free this god-strong man

This lion-pelted man

From his eternal torture

Was to give it to a Titan

My father, the General.

So I turned away from life

I turned away from sister

From father, from garden

To help this enchanting stranger.

And we left that day together

Hand in hand as

The cries of my father

My father, the General

Bellowed behind us.

Behind me, a traitor.

He told me his name was

Heracles, and I knew then

He was on a dozenth labor

One of many

Exacted for crimes he would not say.

And I did not press.

He then told me he would be there

If I needed him

No matter what.

Silly, silly child.

Silly, silly Zoe.

To believe a handsome stranger

On a labor for a crime

With a golden lion-skin

Slung about his neck.

Silly, silly child.

I gave him Anaklusmos

I gave him Riptide, I said

A powerful tool

A vicious weapon

He told me he loved me.

I thought I believed him.

He left me then, and I left him

With nothing more than a lingering smile

and a name.

Heracles.

The decades and years passed and passed

The garden, my sisters

My father, the General,

Ladon, spawn of Echidna

And fire-breathing Typhon.

They forgot me not.

They forgave me not.

I returned not.

The decades and years passed

And passed

And kept rolling by, and his

Fame grew. Reached even me,

Zoe Nightshade, alone.

My love's names was legend

Was I legend too?

Did he remember me still, after all those years

Those decades and years?

I traveled by foot

For days and days

Weary and footsore, I reached Athens

I knew he would be there.

Word was traveling, saying eagerly,

Heracles is coming.

The great and mighty Heracles is coming

Come to Athens

Greet the hero.

I traveled by foot

To meet my love.

But there as I waited

For him to arrive, with his heroes

Jason, Orpheus

I learned of his secret.

And my horror has never been

Greater

Than it was at that moment.

Three innocent children he had slaughtered

To gain his dozen tasks, and

They were his own.

I was overcome with horror, and then

From the Argo

Came no-longer-my love,

A woman on his arm.

An Amazon

On his arm!

I was broken, and I wept

And away I ran

Fleet of foot and chained of mind.

At the temple of Artemis I did kneel

Prayed to her,

Wept to her,

And then I knew that

There was one thing I must offer.

From my hip I drew

A box of deadly herbs

A goblet of iron

And I filled the goblet

With iridescent water

And into this I dropped a sprig

A sprig of Deadly Nightshade.

What folly it be

That my name be Zoe Nightshade!

But lo!

In front of me appeared

A gleaming flashing figure,

My lady Artemis.

My lady, there she stood before me

Hands outstretched, demanding

-a silver quiver placed upon her lithe shoulder-

Why I should commit the death

No-one should die?

This Heracles

This hero

Had driven me to suicide

For what?

For what was I destroying a life,

my own, no less,

for what?

"Come with me,"

she demanded.

"Join my hunters."

And as I studied her

Goddess of the hunt,

Goddess of eternal virgin

Twin of Apollo, Huntress Almighty

I accepted.

Without a second thought I became

Zoe Nightshade,

Huntress.

The goblet fell unheeded

The box of deadly herbs

Fell unheeded.

The goddess,

Artemis, my mistress,

She took my hand and away we went.

I served her

Loved her, she my mistress

For eons and aeons

And centuries

Millenia.

It was the love of a child

For her mother, her sister

A chaste love.

I rode with her

I hunted with her

Grew into

Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Zoe Belladonna Nightshade.

I smiled for the first time

In eons and aeons

In centuries

Millenia.

She left us, saying,

She would hunt alone.

She would, for once,

Find a prey and hunt it alone.

I led the hunters, as I

Had been told to do.

I won a challenge for the Hunt.

I traveled on a quest for the Hunt.

I lost a Hunter in the land without rain.

My quest took me somewhere I'd been before

My garden, my sisters

The burden of my father

My father, the General,

and Ladon, spawn of Echidna,

and the firebreathing Typhon.

My Ladon, my dragon

Knew me not.

He forgot the tender meat

I fed him when

He was behaved.

He forgot the healing veal

I fed him when

He was diseased.

My Ladon, my dear pet,

Spawn of Echidna and Typhon

Forgot me.

And I fought him

The wound he opened bled

Gushed a river of scarlet

Showed it not, I did

And I slew the horrid Ladon

Though I hated every second.

And then my father

My father, the General

Met me after all those years

Eons and Aeons

and centuries

Millenia.

And he struck me a mortal blow.

My Artemis, my mistress

Leader of the Hunt,

She cradled my head in my lap.

She whispered to me,

"Zoe Nightshade,"

And I murmured that I

I could see the stars again.

How they are bright tonight.

"You will be rewarded."

And now I run eternally

Amongst copses of stars

I run among the suns

Hunting for eternity.

I, Zoe Nightshade.

Here I am among the stars.

Will I stay there?

Silly, silly child,

You can never leave now.

There am I among the stars.

Now hunt I among the stars.