HYACINTHUS

Chapter Nineteen

ON A BRIGHT SUMMER DAY, Apollo, the god of Sun, woke up early at the first beam of sunrise.

Outside of his residence on mount Olympus, the sounds and smells of a feast spread through the hilly terrain, a feast dedicated to the birth of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia.

Apollo didn't have time to attend the festivities. In summer, his duty was to ride a chariot in the sky from sunrise to sunset, for the humans to venerate his journey. Although he wished to gorge himself drunk on nectar and ambrosia just like your average god, he had important things to do, unlike those average gods.

He clothed himself in white robes lined with gold and adjusted the crown of laurel leaves on his head. Just when he was ready and about to step out, a few screams pierced the air.

Apollo ran out into the green clearing and saw the goddess Maia, who had just given birth, crying her eyes out. At her side, a few minor goddesses comforted her, although their eyes darted around, as if looking for suspects.

From Maia's unintelligible tears, Apollo caught a few words. "Baby... dissapeared... Hermes!"

Apollo widened his eyes. This was his chance. He was still a young god, mocked by the elders for just being a pretty face with no real duty. If he managed to find the child of Zeus lost in the wild, that would surely bring him some praise, right? He would be respected and deserving on his throne and place among the twelve Olympians.

"I will find your child", he said, bravery and foolishry rising in his veins. He stood straight and brought his chest forward. "I promise I will find Hermes, today!"

The tears dried on the face of Maia, Hermes' mother. Then, she nodded thankfully, and gave her blessings to the young Apollo. At her side, the other goddesses were mumbling approvingly.

Apollo gripped the reins of the chariot determinedly. This time, there was much at play. The whole Olympus was counting on him.

The sun was scalding hot. Apollo rose into the sky, his lips pressed and his gaze sharp. He scoured the earth with his eyes, intent not to lose even a bit of land out of his sight. On the mountains were no traces of a divine child.

Still looking, Apollo remembered the prophecy he had received when Maia came to Delphi requesting one, the child budding in her stomach. The child was going to be happy, handsome and good natured, but also capricious, fickle and trickstery. Maia wasn't interested much in anything other than the happiness of her baby, but the fickle temper of the future child worried Zeus.

As the sun journeyed from east to west, so did Apollo. At zenith, already exhausted, he flew over the pastures of Arcadia and decided to go down and rest a bit. Meanwhile, he wanted to check on his cattle, the precious herd of cows he had inherited from Helios, the previous god of sun.

Those cattle previously flew with the chariot in the sky, but Apollo wasn't yet quite skilled at managing them, so he let them graze here, on the vast green fields of Arcadia. Except, today... the cows weren't where they should have been. Apollo's heart raced with worry.

There were some tracks in the earth. They were about a thousand feet long, and then... they stopped. It was as if the cows had walked backwards, and dissapeared into thin air.

Apollo fell into despair. Not only did he take on the responsibility of finding his little half-brother he couldn't care less about, but now, his cows were stolen, too?

He inspected the traces more closely. Next to the hooves of a hundred gigantic animals, tiny, almost unnoticeable imprints of sandals dug into the dark earth. The footprints were so small they could only belong...