Once Upon a Winter's Spring

22. If The Shoe Fits

Kori finally went home to Paros and had her birthday as Aurora. The next morning, Apollo rode across the sky and began the new day, and everyone went off to work. As he was riding, a glint caught his eye and Apollo landed his chariot to explore it. There was something fallen by the palace stairway, and the curious god picked it up.

"Interesting!" He mused as he examined the shoe-almost made of glass. By his feet lay a pile of withered and wet flowers which had previously made the shoe. The dew on them had frozen overnight, leaving behind an ice shell.

Apollo stowed the shoe and went home. He lounged under the tall tree in the middle of his veranda, tossing the shoe up in the air. Sometime later, a spear shot into the tree bark behind him. Apollo sat up just as in time as his twin came to collect her weapon.

"Of course I track that infuriating light to you!" Artemis accused him.

Apollo rolled his eyes. "I swear by Zeus, my simple existence infuriates you."

Artemis shoved him. "Whatever you're tossing has been shining through my window all morning. Give it!"

Apollo teased his sister for a moment, holing the shoe out of her reach until she snatched it.

"... a slipper?" Artemis asked, confused.

"Not just any slipper...!" Apollo leaned over her shoulder, "a glaaass slipper!"

"How peculiar," Artemis noted as she examined the shoe. "It's so small, I wonder if I may wear it." She sat in the bench and attempted to try on the footwear. She tried maneuvering her foot every which way, but the glass slipper was just too small from somewhere.

"Curiouser and curiouser! I must take it around. Find out who fits the glass slipper!" And so, Artemis ran off with the special shoe.

And so, the glass slipper became the newest gossip around Olympus. Even the higher goddesses got into the fun, but not even Aphrodite's foot could get into the shoe. Resigned, the dainty goddess of love went back into her castle, swooning over her love seat.

"What's wrong?" Aphrodite looked up to see Kori walk in with Eros beside her. The cherub sighed dramatically.

"If it's that stupid slipper..."

Aphrodite huffed, tossing the slipper onto the other couch. "How can anyone be fairer than I?"

Kori, who'd just returned from Paros, was unaware of the mystery of the footwear. Curiously, she went to look it over.

"How pretty, a glass slipper! May I try it?"

"Might as well. All the women in the kingdom have, why shan't you?" Aphrodite passingly responded.

Kori joyously sat on the couch and took off her right shoe, slipping on the infamous glass slipper.

It fit like a glove.

Kore squealed in delight and stood up, prancing in her new shoe. "Ee! It fits!" Her screams caught the interest of her hostess, who studied her.

"Oh, it almost reminds me of a slipper I lost some time not long ago. Although, it was made of flowers, rather."

"How exciting!" Aphrodite acknowledged. "We must show everyone!"

Aphrodite rushed Kori over to the courtyard where the gods hung out, and they immediately recognized the shoe on Kori's foot. Even Hera was there to see it.

Later in the evening, Hera was at home, brushing out her hair at her vanity when Zeus returned from his excursions.

"Anything happen while I was gone?" He pressed.

If anything, Hera appreciated her husband's equal interest in gossip.

"Oh, nothing terrible," she chuckled as she recalled the recent antics. "Though there was a silly little shoe."

Zeus had been pouring himself a chalice of ambrosia when he paused, interested beyond belief.

"What, shoe?" Zeus asked sternly as he went closer to his official mate.

"Well, Apollo found a glass slipper one morning, and all the girls on Olympus tried it on. But no one could fit in!"

Zeus sighed, relieved as he leaned back in his arm chair and took a sip of his drink.

"Then of course your princess had to try it. And lo! Kori fit the glass slipper!"

Zeus finished his cup in a single take and swiftly stood up. "Gather the pantheon. Now."