Once Upon a Winter's Spring

26. Bound

"You know exactly what you're doing to her," Hecate said once Kore had gone.

"She caught me with the Moirai," Hades informed them proudly.

"She did not!" Helios gasped.

"Hades, how could you?!" Selene chided the god.

Hades shrugged and took a bite of food with a smirk on his face.

"I noticed it bothers her when you call her princess," Thanatos remarked after some quiet time.

"She has the right to," Hecate responded to Thanatos before turning to Hades. "She's your wife, she deserves to be called queen."

"That is what she wants," Hades agreed. "But I need her to be sure of what exactly she wants and what comes with it. She doesn't know what she's asking for."

The celestial twins snickered at Hades' implication.

Their sister scolded them. "Grow up, you two!"

"My point exactly. She's younger than them! What would you have me do? Scold her?"

Kore was crying as she found a spot to sit by the river Styx. How could Hades reject her? Sure he'd never lain with her, but it wasn't like he hadn't kissed her before, or touched her skin red. She knew he reciprocated her feelings, but couldn't understand his distance. The hunger additionally was driving her crazy, since she'd last eaten when she was on Paros.

Apparently the underworld was in no mood to give her peace, as suddenly the floor started to shake. Something, somewhere, was stomping towards her, their each step causing the ground to quiver. Kore quickly jumped to her feet, a bit light headed from the shift in her posture.

When the ground wasn't bent on scaring her, the wind took over the job. It sounded angry with her, echoing the warning growls of beasts. The growls turned into barks and Kore ran for it. She didn't know where she was going, especially since it was so dark. But then she saw light coming from somewhere and headed towards it.

As she got closer to the light, Kore was shocked to see what appeared to be a land of its own. The spring goddess was naturally allured to the mystical land, and she forgot her fears as she approached the cloud like parameters.

Kore heard the clopping of hooves, and jumped as she remembered she was supposed to be running from something. Instead of growls, however, she now heard neighs. Kore turned around to face a horse unlike she'd ever seen before.

It was as white as the clouds surrounding them. Kore walked along its body, assessing it. From different angles, the skin beneath the fur changed colors, like a prism. Kore pressed a hand into its fur, and she cursed her own hair being rough.

She'd finally circled it and came back to its front, now amazed by the unique feature on its head. It was if a gold rod was coiled into a tapered horn and stuck in the middle of its head. Kore reached out to touch it, but the horse turned its head sharply in the direction where the stomping was coming from. The horn sliced her palm, and Kore flinched her hand back.

Satisfied with the threat gone, the unicorn returned its attention to the foreign princess. It saw Kore's bleeding hand and stepped closer to her. The creature bent its head over the wound and cried. Each tear that landed on her cut appeared to heal the wound as if it had never happened before. However, the proof of her injury were the few drops of her blood that had dripped onto the ground.

Kore was amazed by the creature's healing powers and petted it vigorously in thanks. The unicorn nudged her towards the clouds and Kore saw an entryway she could have sworn was not there before. Leaving the horse behind, she didn't notice it's remaining tears fall to the ground where her blood had been.