Sun Mote Copse Demeter's sorrow

Whether Wraen sensed the "quivering lip" in Eljay or simply realized, that she had had a very grim introduction to an otherwise very complex, but somewhat happy AU take of the original myth, but she smiled at him encouragingly. But - had enough dignity not to tell him "do not cry yet, this is not over" - having learned in a course of one conversation, how very easily embarrassed her packmate could get. 

"That's not all. There is Demeter, who loves her only daughter very, very much and is probably a bit overprotective and restrictive of her. And then there is Persephone, who - instead of being just beautiful, spoiled, selfish and silly - is a brave, curious and headstrong little goddess. I will tell you a little secret here - when I was small, I imagined, I was her," she lowered her voice to conspirational whisper and, when she finished, she winked at Eljay, thus asking him to keep a secret.

"Persephone, though not as powerful as her dear mum, had one very particular power - she could make things alive. Be it a touch to the ground," here she tapped the snowy surface with her forefoot, "and green grass and flowers sprouted out. Be it a caress to a weakling or a runt and it would gain strength to live. And as it later turned - she could also awaken a heart that had slumbered for hundreds of years."

"Having spent all her days in company of nymphs, fauns and satyrs, and having cheeky remarks to all advances of the old nature god Pan, she was daring and shameless enough to approach Hades on one of the rare Olympian feasts that he had been invited to. For the sake of your ears and mine I won't delve in, what she said, but on the whole she was an annoying fly that keeps pestering you, but which you cannot swat or get rid off," she continued laughing. 

"However, either because of her persistence or because Hades grew tired of her annoying him, they started to converse and found out that for two gods of so opposite nature and realms, they really had a lot to talk about and discuss," she said. "At the end of the feast, Persephone bid goodbye to the god and touched him on his forehead, unbeknownst to her causing a change in him. You see, Hades's heart had grown cold and weary in the grim world he had to rule. To a point that it was easier for it to be shut away. It took just a little of Persephone's special magic to wake it up, to begin beating again and for him to realize that he was still capable of feeling something."

"Fast forward many months and secret meetings later - I imagine Demeter was not thrilled by her daughter's suitor, but she would not have liked anyone else either, Hades asked Persephone to join him in ruling the Underworld. And with her being at odds with her mom at that point, she agreed, loving her spouse-to-be and feeling sorry for him and also being tempted by the throne and the honours that came with it, and not realizing, what she was getting herself into," Wraen went on and hoped that Eljay had not been already drowned in the barrels and barrels of words she was shoving at him. But the story needed to be told and to the end. And just like Persephone, he had agreed to listen, not realizing, what he had got himself into.

"There are many peculiar things about the Underworld that are different from the one we live in. The relevant things for this story, however, are that, whoever goes there, does not have a way back up. And that this is a place, where death dwells, therefore Persephone's power of making things alive and grow was not of any use. So, you can imagine that after the novelty of her kingdom had worn off, she began to miss her overbearing mother, her friends - the Earth and life there. Aside from her mate, who did, what was in his power to make his young wife happy there, she did not have any friends. Just endless passage of the souls from the dead," she went on, but was close to the end.

"And as we know from the original tale, Demeter was mourning her lost daughter and neglected her duties to an extent that Zeus - the king of all gods - decided to intervene. They made an exception to the main rule of the Underworld and, though unwillingly, Hades agreed to let Persephone leave him for six months every year to tread the Earth with Demeter, but welcomed her back, when her time was to return," she said. "And I think that, if one rule of the Underworld could be tweaked, then - in order to console his wife's sadness in the realm, where nothing can grow and live - he created a little pocket there, where she created a very special garden, where such plants grow that no one knows in this world or the other."

And this was it. And hopefully Eljay had was still alive and had not aged and withered to an old man, while he had listened. 

Thank you for you patience with me! As it is for Wraen, this is also one of my favourite Greek Myths, and therefore my take of, how it would have happened, if I had been in charge of story-making those thousand years ago.