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.