Chapter 29: Regaling The Tales II
" Hestia! " A voice reached out to her, to no avail.
" ... " Her mind was a haze, pondering needlessly.
" HESTIA! " Demeter yelled, something the soft-spoken Goddess never did.
" Hwa! " Hestia exclaimed, abruptly waking up from her stupor. Springing up to attention from her lawn chair.
" Yes? " She continued, trying to shrug off the embarrassing fact that she was just staring off into space for minutes on end.
" Sigh... this is unlike you, sister. Anyway, what do you think about the situation? " Demeter moved, not really keen to tease her elder sister.
" Oh! Uh... it's definitely peculiar I guess... the only thing I'm truly confused about is the motive. " Hestia answered.
" It's definitely strange, but I don't think we should be worried... it's not like the Hydra was our enemy from the start anyway. Zeus seemed apprehensive though, maybe he knows something we don't? " Demeter added.
" I don't think it goes that deep, Demeter... Zeus is just paranoid like that. I can understand it a little, ever since he got cursed. " Hestia reassured.
" That does not absolve him of his recent... distasteful- no, deplorable endeavors Hestia! I don't understand why you still hold hope for that fool.. " The Goddess of green sighed, exasperated.
" Well... he's still my younger brother... I will admit though, my patience is running quite thin.. " She confessed.
As they chatted without a care in the world, suddenly they felt a new presence heading to their location.
" A Little Owl? Oh, Athena! Over here!" Hestia said excitedly as she stood up and waved her hands.
Gliding silently, the owl swooped down at supernatural speeds. And with a burst of light, the majestic owl revealed itself to be Athena, Goddess of Art, Wisdom, and War.
" What might you be here for, niece? " Demeter softly asked as she set down her watering can, and decided she was done for the day.
Heading over to the wooden table - that seemed quite alive, it even had flowers and leaves growing on it - she sat on one of the spare chairs.
" I think I discovered something. It's related to the recent news, thought I can get your opinions on it, Aunt Hestia, Aunt Demeter. " Athena shared. She was still calm and composed, but she wore a small smile as she conversed with her family.
Don't get her wrong, she certainly does not approve of her uncle Poseidon and Father's... adventures, to put it lightly. Out of all her family, she was closest to Hestia (naturally), and her aunt Demeter. She was not well acquainted with her uncle Hades, as he seemed quite anti-social.. and Hera was quite hard to get along with.
" Uhm... you mean about the Hydra's motives? " Hestia surmised.
" Ah, yes. See, I noticed a peculiar connection between some news throughout the years. " She started.
" And? What did you find? " Demeter urged as she received some tea from Hestia.
" Do you recall the remnant world incident? " Athena asked, also accepting some tea.
" Remnant world? Oh, If I recall correctly, that was the giant island that escaped time and space right? I heard some of the Oriental deities had found it. " Hestia remembered with a finger on her chin.
" It was quite a big deal too. Since the Island kept spawning ancient animals and spreading them around. " Demeter recounted, she remembered this because she had heard of once-extinct flora blooming around it.
That was where she got her hands on the endangered ferns and plants she kept in her garden. The incident was very, very big deal, especially because the chronological anomaly started reviving some ancient animals that the Gods used as a test run for mortal life, dinosaurs and the like. She had heard that the dragons were quite upset when they found their lizard kin were wiped out though, it was probably the reason Dragons don't favor Gods much.
Luckily, the Island was in the Pacific Ocean, so the dinosaurs did not get very far from the shores.
" I heard the island disappeared before we the other Gods could handle the situation though, how is this related exactly? Or could you be insinuating that the Hydra destroyed the Island? " Hestia once again deduced. Her curious nature was one of her lesser known traits, something she displays sparsely.
" Indeed, that is exactly what I am implying. " Athena confirmed.
" But why! I don't see how this makes any sense, why would the Hydra destroy an island filled with significantly weaker and lesser beings. It's illogical, unreasonable! " Hestia exclaimed.
" I don't know the motives, since I am currently investigating that now... but I have concluded that only the Hydra could have managed something like this. " Athena pressed on.
" There are plenty of similarly strong beings, you know? The sky father Ra, for example.. or maybe Shiva, the destroyer! Amaterasu even! " Demeter reminded.
" I am aware. However, none of those beings had any particular involvement of interest in this matter.
And it was the Taoists who discovered the anomaly, specifically Ao Guang, the Dragon king of the East Sea. I found that he had discovered the island after sensing the familiar energy of the revived beasts, so Lady Amaterasu could not have been involved. " Athena explained.
" That makes sense... but why the Hydra? " Demeter asked, fairly convinced.
" I do not have enough evidence or information, but the reason I say it is the Chaos-born is because they are the only sufficiently powerful and mysterious enough being to do so. And besides, if it was another foreign God, the Jade Emperor would not be pleased of their interference. " She reasoned.
Indeed, it was considered massive disrespect and offense if a God, or any deity or creature of a particular pantheon to meddle in the affairs of the other.
" Alright you've convinced me... that doesn't explain the intentions of the beast though.. " Hestia lamented as she finished her tea, slumping on the table once more.
--- Pacific Ocean, Anomalous Island, decades ago, ---
The Hydra was quite relaxed today. They had just finished hunting some Blue Whales for breakfast, now they were roaming the seas. I would've liked to say that they were just following where the current took them... but they were a bit too colossal for that.
Five heads were comfortably wrapping around each other, each doing their own thing to relieve boredom.
But alas, fate was a rude, pretentious, single-headed being, and they soon saw something that just felt so... wrong.
" ? " They vocalized a sound that expressed their confusion. Unfortunately, such powerful soundwaves seemed to have affected the strange creature, making it bleed from all orifices.
Looking past the bloodied water... and keeping quiet this time, they saw a strange oversized fish. It was bronze colored, and looked like a fish clad of the armors their enemies usually wore. It had a giant jaw that looked like it a living trap that crushed bone.
Looking at the relatively small fish, the Hydra felt a sense of familiarity. Not the good kind though, it felt like an old meddling enemy of theirs. The fish looked like it didn't belong, as if the world was rejecting it's existence.
Tracing the dreadful energy, they came across a very large island. It was filled with exotic plants and gorgeous, tall trees. The most prominent feature though, was the peculiar set of inhabitants. Oh, and also it was covered in a weird field of magic.
Entering the field fearlessly, they discovered that it was closely linked to time, like it was a fragment of time that had broken off from the timeline, becoming an independent dimension.
And so, looking at this once in a lifetime sight, they reared their heads... and rained down deadly poison onto it. The chaos that ensued was traumatic, two legged and wingless dragons were fleeing and some four legged, some armored, some just tall lizards were flailing in similar desperation. They seemed to fear the flood of poison that was coming for their demise.
Wreaking havoc for hours, never fully satisfied until it had razed the anomalous land into nothingness. The Chaos energy enchanting the poison had given it special effects that enabled it to little by little, erode the existence of the fragments of time.
But of course, after the destruction, came restoration. Channeling their domain of Time, they restored the previous, rightful state of the Island - completely normal and lizard-less.
They did not mind the work, as it was pretty stress-relieving. But it was also their most sacred duty.
" Restoring. Order. " They chorused.
--- To Be Continued ---
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