hi. so, let us begin.

Summary: because maybe, the daughters of bellona and the daughters of atlas are not so different.

love is blind. love is a lie. love is chaos. love is the thing that makes you run around in circles panicked, your head in the clouds and yet your heart staked into the ground. artemis. athena. hestia. they all decided to go down the road of maidenhood forever, because love makes you take chances. it is unpredictable, unable to control.

the daughters of bellona and atlas all took their chance. they failed, and the only answer is in their blood.

war.

Zoe Nightshade was one of many unknown heroines hidden behind centuries of Greek mythology. The layers all get jumbled up, and she is stuck between, forgotten and mistaken for just the cold princess of the Hunters. Yet underneath is a loving heart, and nobody ever thinks about that, because people are ignorant and tend to forget the most important parts of legends, the string of the necklace.

She was the most beautiful of the Hesperides, and yet the most cold, for none of her sisters ever saw her as one of the girls. She didn't like dressing up. She didn't care for boys. She absolutely detested gossip, and also her sisters, who seemed to worship these three things. In her free time, she would go down to the tree and sit next to Ladon and hum a few long-forgotten melodies before falling asleep, but not completely. Only a fool would fall into deep sleep next to a highly poisonous and dangerous dragon.

Other times, she would sneak away from her sisters and go down into the woods. It was absolutely a magical place for her, what with all the unfamiliar plants and creatures and plain adventure, something you don't get a lot when you are a Hesperide. The flowers were beautiful and the lake was enchanting, but the best thing she loved about the woods was the little dryads that lived. They were much better company than her sisters, and they told her all kinds of things about the forest. She would then fall into cushions made out of leaves and just watch the birds fly by as the dryads chattered on.

One day - she never did count the days that flew by - she had heard a rustle from somewhere deep in the woods. If she was anybody else, she would probably have scampered off and ran away, but curiosity got the better of her, and she found herself walking towards the noise.

It was a bit far, and the sun was setting, but she had little fear of the dark nor the wild and kept on going. Her sisters wouldn't notice or care, anyways. "That weirdo's probably off to mate with the monkeys again," they would say. Or something even worse. Not that she really gave a damn.

Just when she thought she had lost track of the creature, a rough hand clamped over her mouth and she let out a surprised shriek before she was thrown onto the ground, someone breathing above her heavily.

She bit the hand.

"Ow!" the thing bit back a curse. "Gods, don't you have any manners?"

She finally allowed herself to open her eyes, and she saw a man, with a lion pelt and a purple toga underneath, slightly ripped at the knee. He had muscles of steel - she gulped - but looked kind enough, in the 'absolutely effing hot' way, as her sisters would have liked to describe it.

"I-I..." she looked up at him. It had been a long time since she had spoken to a real human being, or as much of a human as a half-Titan could be. "Who are you?"

He blinked, as if he found it surprising that there were people that didn't know his name. "Hercules, of course. Who did you think I am? Quiet down, pretty one, or you'll get us caught."

"If you think you could ever get caught in this place, you are much more ignorant than the Hercules I know of," she laughed, and it sounded like springtime. Just for a moment. "You do know where you are, o brave hero?" A smirk played on her lips.

"The Garden of the Hesperides, pretty one. And you never know when a god or goddess might be watching. They don't interfere in my quests, mostly because the gods don't give a shit anymore in the happenings in our little lifes." His grip tightened on her upper arm, and she felt shivers down her spine. "It's getting dark. Think you might be able to lead me nearer to the garden?"

She shrugged. "But you do not know who I am yet."

"Unless I've gone crazy, you must be one of the five sisters, but I thought they were much more chatty and flirty."

"I agree. I have broken the tradition."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Not really." She started the route back to the Garden. "If you do not wish to be stranded in this forest, follow me."

"This is dangerous for you, pretty one. You might be banished from here."

His eyes seemed to change colour in the afternoon sunlight, shining wickedly, but his words slipped so smoothly from his tongue.

"I will handle that, but you must take care near Ladon. One bite, and your life shall slip away." She removed a pin from her hair with her skillful fingers. It was set with a single pearl, and it glistened brightly, matching the shine in her dark eyes. "Take this, hero. Follow my plan. You shall be able to get the apple if you follow all of the instructions carefully." She stares at the dirt ground. "I hope this is worth this."

He captures one of her hands in both of his. "I promise, Zoe. I shall not let you down."

Funny how the heros always seem to make promises they can never keep.

A/N: Yes, yes, thank you for reading this fic. It isn't finished (no duh), and I'll be focusing on the four female characters in the series I love best - Reyna, Zoe, Calypso, Hylla, and in the end, Annabeth. Revolved around the backstabbing men in the series, and some not in the books, lol.

REVIEW. Or I won't do the Jeyna *pouts* and I've gotten quite good at them, I promise.