❝ when the stars fall from the sky, you and i will dance in the fire they leave ❞
Hermes knew one thing to be true in this universe; the Fates had blessed him greatly and he would not waste this opportunity. Not least when the elusive Guardian of D...
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𝔇usk had just begun to hit the forest of dark trees, shafts of sunlight glimmering through the leaves and highlighting patches of flowers. A stream curled past their feet, trickling steadily back down the mountainside to the town that they had just left.
Yet, up here in the mountainous forests of Northern Greece, it was hard to tell that there was any civilisation in the slightest. It was dense and in all honesty, most of them felt that they had stepped through a portal into some magical realm ruled over by faeries or the like.
The path curled once more, leading them through another denser copse of trees before finally, it broke into a clearing.
They were in awe.
In front of them was a mountain meadow, filled with long grass and wildflowers. Bees hummed around them, going about their work steadily and the wind brushed through each stalk gently. The path had trailed off, now splitting into two so as not to disturb the peace and, as the archaeologists continued along the path, they saw a small pond which seemed alive with animals that they did not know the name of it.
They continued along the path, through the meadow, before finally reaching their destination. Before this month, they did not know that this place even existed, yet in front of them sat a perfectly preserved temple, untouched by mankind.
It was made of once great marble columns, lined with ivy and other crawlers that lead into the roof. The roof had holes in it, opening for the sun and stars to make their appearance and the river that they had seen on the way up to the temple curled through it using channels in the floor.
Flowers were still growing inside of the temple, crocus flowers and daisies, thyme and peonies, hyacinths and irises, each in pots of soil. The stream fed through each one, watering them and letting them prosper in the light.
How long they had been there was a mystery to all.
Further in, they found a large plinth, sculptures carved into the rock, but they were hard to make out, having been worn down with time and wind. The eldest archaeologist stepped forward once more, pulling his torch from his backpack and turning it on.
Sure enough, his thoughts had been founded, for above them was a large statue. It was of a woman, dressed in a peplos that hung from her figure. Her head was tilted to the side, a smile on her face as she seemed to look down at whoever was standing by the plinth. It was easy to see that this was a goddess' temple, but which was the true question.
"Come, translate this." He waved over the linguist on the team, pointing to some words at the bottom of the statue. "What does it say?"
The linguist hummed, pulling some books from her bag and flicking through pages of research and notes.
"Delia."
"Delia?" The archaeologist frowned. "I have not heard of them before."
"Goddess of life and health." The linguist continued to translate, blowing some dust and dirt from the inscriptions. "Protector of heroes."
"I truly have not heard of her." They all shared glances, wide eyed and astonished. "We have found a new goddess?"
"I think so..." The linguist sat back on her heels, mouth parted. "This will be the biggest discovery of the century."
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The temple was even more beautiful in the early morning light, practically glowing and the sunlight cast a golden haze across the statue of Delia. It also provided a clearer light to see the temples inner workings more clearly.
"The walls are simply covered in writing." The linguist muttered, eyes wide in happiness. This was all she could have hoped to be able to do. Her knowledge of the language of Ancient Greece was finally coming into use in the best discovery of her lifetime.
"Can you translate it?" She nodded, still in awe, pulling her notebook out and jotting down what the inscriptions said so that she did not have to keep looking up and down. There were walls of inscriptions, and she needed her neck so she could read as much as she could.
"It is interesting. I have not seen a temple like this before, or do you think that perhaps, because the other major Ancient Greek temples were destroyed, we have never noticed that they were filled with writing?" The archaeologists were muttering to each other again, their brains whirring. "What stories do you think we have to lost to the destruction of the temples?"
"Or, is it possible that there are more temples in the mountains that we have yet to find?"
"I've translated the first part." The linguist turned, her head tilted. "I think it is a myth."
"Why?"
"The first line speaks of Hermes, the messenger to the gods, and then also, Delia."
"Maybe it is another myth of Hermes stealing something and then repaying them again. There are a few of those." The archaeologist muttered.
"No, I think this is a story of Hermes falling in love with Delia." The linguist muttered. "Look, you can see that some of the words further on roughly translate to love."
"We only have one other myth like that, the one with Hermes and Aphrodite." They all grew more excited at the thought of, not only discovering a new temple and goddess, but another myth as well.
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The buzz of a phone distracted her from her work. Picking it up, she turned it over, reading the message that popped up on her screen before sighing.
She had known it would only be a matter of time before people became curious about the path into the mountains that seemed to only appear during the month of April, but she had hoped the stories she'd spread would have warned them away from it all.
Her dress floated in the warm breeze, and she quickly tied her hair back with a ribbon before exiting her home and locating her shoes. She had known that this day would come, but now it was here, she didn't know exactly how to feel, not after protecting the temple for so long.
Sighing, she turned towards the mountains, searching for the path amongst the trees and squared her shoulders. She could do this.
It was simple.
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Hiya,
I'm in love with this rewrite, that's all you need to know. It's looking like it's gonna be so much fun!!! Also, this is the prologue, we're gonna get into the main stuff on the next update day, I just had to put this up now.
