Book of Panacea

Prologue:

“Where is that idiot of a twin brother now?” Artemis grumbled to herself.

Her horses were getting restless from the scorching heat. Their eyes switching back and forth, their nostrils flaring from the scent of smoke, and their ears twitching.

Artemis wiped a bead of sweat from her upper lip with one hand, while calming her horses with her other.

The sun was blazing down on Earth, its heat creating havoc all around. From the smell of smoke, she realized that fires were already starting just from the extensive heat from the sun. There were animals passing her and her chariot, and her lips trembled when she realized that they were running away from a fire that could not be stopped anymore. Eyes wide with fear, some with singed fur, others with smoke coming off them.

Still, she kept waiting for her twin Apollo to take the sun down in his chariot, even though she knew it would be too late. For two days she had been standing here with the moon behind her chariot: two days of watching the sun evaporate the water, leaving nothing for anyone. Clouds of smoke obscured her vision; she decided it was time to go. To hell with her brother. If she wasn’t going to leave soon, the sun would obliterate everything around her; it was turning into a supernova. Not even Hades would be safe in the middle of the Earth. Best leave now before all Hell broke loose on top of the fires.

“What the hell is going on Artemis?” Hot-headed Hades, god of the Underworld appeared right next to her, making her jump. Crap! She left it too late.

“Why is the sun still heating up Earth? And why are you not doing anything about it? Where is Apollo?” he demanded all these questions be answered by her. She rolled her eyes.

“How am I supposed to know where my brother is? He is late, I know. And I also know it is hot. He will be here any minute now.” Her lip twitched with the lie.

She knew it was too late, but Hades had not figured that one out yet. If he decided to take out his anger on her instead of her brother, she would be in deep trouble. He was a frightening sight to behold, dressed in black from head to toe. Black jeans, black shirt, black vest. He towered over her and she hoped he couldn’t see her trembling from the repercussions of her brothers’ mistakes.

“He’d better be. Look at poor Cerberus, his paws are full of blisters from guarding hell!” Hades gestured to the giant beast standing next to him. Cerberus, his faithful but vicious hellhound, was the only creature to ever get one iota of compassion from His Deathliness.

The beast was limping and whimpering, acting like a wounded puppy. Artemis knew better than to get close to Cerberus, he was dangerous. Next thing she knows, the dog collapsed onto her feet. Because of the sudden move, she had no time to step back.

Six blood-red eyes stared at her, giving her the shivers. His teeth were on show as he was panting- it was a frightening sight. Suddenly he rolled onto his back, freeing her feet. His paws were in plain sight now, and she gasped at the horrific vision they represented. Each paw as big as her head was covered in blister upon blister. His belly seemed like one big blister with ooze coming out of it and smelled rotten.

“Cerberus, get up! Don’t embarrass yourself.” Hades yanked at the chain, but the dog didn’t move.

Artemis was on the verge of tears. She was the protector of animals, but there was nothing she could do! Not for Cerberus nor for all the creatures screaming in agony in the distance. She really hated her brother right now.

Hades looked down on her, hatred blazing in his eyes: “Tell your brother that if I ever see him again, he will wish he could die. Cerberus has done nothing to him and now he is dying!”

Hades hesitated, but not for her sake. “Can you fix Cerberus?” His voice had softened only the slightest.

Biting her lip, she shook her head. “There is nothing I can do, nothing for anyone. I am truly sorry about Cerberus. The only thing I can offer is to ease his pain a bit.” She clenched her fists. As much as she loved animals, this was no animal, this was a monster, she still had to offer the relief.

Hades sank down on his knees next to Cerberus and threw his head back. A deafening roar was followed by an even louder howl.

“Apollo will pay, mark my words!”

With a deep sigh, Cerberus’ six eyes closed and he died. Hades’ face was frightening and Artemis squeezed the reigns of her horses tightly. She looked over her shoulders, hoping to see her brother.

“It is too late now, little Artemis. Your brother signed his torture warrant with this act of violence.”

“As much as I hate agreeing with him, he is right. There are already fires starting all over the planet.” Zeus had just arrived.

She was going to strangle her brother; every god had his duties! And they all answered to some degree to Zeus as he was the god of Thunder and King of the gods.

“And look here, humans are burning as well! She was so pretty.” Artemis’ nose twitched from the strange smell that accompanied Zeus.

She spun around and gasped. As soon as she did, she wished she hadn’t. The smell of burning flesh made her gag. He was looking down at a ... she was not sure, probably a pretty human, as Zeus claimed. Now she was just bones with some flesh still attached at some places. Her mouth was wide open in a scream that was silenced by death. Why Zeus was carrying around the corpse of a ‘pretty’ human was beyond her. The cheater couldn’t be that desperate, could he?

Next, Hera arrived, Queen of gods and wife of Zeus. She had a bright smile on her face; everyone looked at her in bewilderment. Why was she smiling in the face of catastrophe?

“Artemis, would you be so kind as to thank your brother? Zeus lets go to our island, no more humans for you! You will be all mine from now on!” She seized his arm and with a last wicked smile in Artemis’ direction, she teleported away.

“I am so sorry!” Artemis exclaimed. Hades’ thunderous expression was all the answer she got. He grabbed his helmet and was putting it on his head when Zeus appeared again.

“Brother, I just realized that you haven’t got an island, and would like to offer you a place in my palace on my island.”

“I am going back to the underworld, why would I need to have an island?”

The party was only getting bigger. Artemis slapped her forehead as Aphrodite appeared. Hoping that the woman would keep her mouth shut was a lot to ask, so what came out of her mouth next was going to be a grand disaster.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Actually, I don’t hate it, but Hades dear, the sun is going red-star on us. Earth is going to take its last breath any time now. The sun will explode and take Earth with it; even my favorite spa has evaporated. Without that, Earth sucks anyway.” Aphrodite was the bringer of this wonderful news, and if Artemis didn’t have her hands full with her horses, she would have put her fist in the stupid woman’s face.

It was eerily quiet for all but thirty seconds.

“Ach, well, see ya.” With a bright smile, Aphrodite left.

“Offer still stands, Hades.”

“How magnanimous of you, brother. I guess it has nothing to do with you being alone on the island with your wife, does it?” Artemis saw that Hades had put Zeus on the spot. However, Zeus would never admit his troubled marriage.

“You want a place to stay or not?” Zeus was tapping his foot now, his face turning red.

Hades just sighed and nodded. Together they teleported away.

Artemis took one last look at Earth and guided her frightened horses away from the fire to teleport to her island.

***********

“Artemis, you have to help me!”

None other than Apollo stood before her, once she arrived on her island.

“How dare you show up here? Earth is burning and all the creatures with it.”

Artemis was furious, so furious that if steam were to come out of her ears, she wouldn’t be surprised.

“I’m not sorry for what is happening; there is a good reason for me not showing up in time.” Her eyes widened at his answer.

“There had better be!” She all but yelled.

She saw him coming closer to her with a bundle in his arms.

“This is my baby; the birth was difficult, so I had to be there. His mother died, but I could still save him.” He spoke softly while looking tenderly down at the baby in his arms.

“Why out of all your children, do you care about this one?” her forehead wrinkled as she stared at the baby.

“This one is special,” Apollo stated as if that cleared up everything.

Artemis was not satisfied with this answer. She crossed her arms and asked: “How so?”

“His offspring will be very important to the existence of all creatures.” Artemis raised an eyebrow. “So,” Apollo continued, “an oracle told me.”

“Which one?” More than half of the oracles were full of nonsense.

“Delphi.”

Now she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. Delphi was the one oracle that had the highest truth rate all over Greece. She hardly ever came out of her temple, so for her to have appeared... Important. So important to kill Earth? Probably.

“Look Artemis, I need to ask this favor of you. You need to help this child and hide its identity so that none of the other gods and goddesses knows of his existence; they would kill him to get to me.”

Artemis nodded. She knew this was true, but where was she going to hide a baby?

“What will you do?” She asked quietly while taking the tiny bundle from his arms.

He sighed deeply and lifted his shoulders and hands.

“I will find someplace to hide. I will take my punishment in due time, but for now, I need to disappear. No-one can know of this baby nor the prophecy.”

“So, this baby is half human?” Artemis asked in wonder.

“The baby will be immortal, but only when he has passed his training.”

With one last longing glance at the baby, Apollo teleported away.

© Tine Peeters, 2018, original