Short Stories From The Deep

The Grove of Baxter

September 15th, 696 BC seemed to be just another normal day. The morning was misty, which is appropriate for this time of year, and the white-tailed deer were up early to eat some dark green grass. The only abnormal characteristic was a high-pitched cry coming from a nearby clearing. This cry came from the baby infant Marcus Baxter. This baby looked like any other baby, except he had bright blue eyes and a little bit of blond hair growing on top his head. Of course, to his parents he looked like the most beautiful object in this ancient world. His father, Julius, would hand the boy to the mother, Kaitlyn. Moments later though, while holding the little Marcus, Kaitlyn will succumb to her new wounds and perish.

    A few days later, after a burial, Julius will take Marcus to the nearby citystate of Dadona.There he would ask for breast milk for he cannot produce. Unsurprisingly, the Dadonaians do not wish to give this milk to a stranger so emotionally drained Julius tried to kidnap a local woman, who’d has just given birth, but was stopped by the young husband of the woman. In normal circumstances Julius would’ve been murdered, but the husband took pity and Julius was only banned from Dadona.

Distraught, hopeless, and with baby Marcus in hand, Julius walked in a random direction from the city-state. He kept walking until he collapsed from exhaustion, right under an oak tree. He slowly looked around and noticed that this was a grove full of immense oak trees of all different shades: brown, yellow, green, orange, red. The colors seemed to swirl together to create a beautiful panorama. This brought tears to Julius’ eyes.

“How can the world still hold beauty, when it won’t even give my son a chance?”

Like a waterfall, tears begin to flow down Julius’ face, but then a new voice feels his ears.

“What do you mean? Your son is still here, isn’t he?”

The voice was of a woman, but he could not pinpoint where it was coming from. The sound must have reverberated off the trees and coil around like a python. Desperate, Julius cries out,

“Who are you? Please help my son. He needs milk.”

“I am the Titanis Opis, mother of the gods.”

As soon as she said mother, Julius was filled with overwhelming hope.

“Oh dear Opis, will you help my son?”

All of the sudden, right in front of Julius the leaves flew in a circle, creating a great whistling noise like a mighty wind storm and a woman, fully nude with skin the color of snow, steps out from the leaves. Her hair is jet black, curly, and long. There is an orchid hanging from a stray bang in front of her face. Her eyes were a black hole and she was taller than a normal human.

“For a price, he must never fall in love, for after a taste of this milk, his children will come out impure and he will be driven insane.”

Julius knew this was his son’s only hope, so he speaks for the baby.

“He accepts this burdan, oh great Opis.”

    With that, he hands over his son to her and she holds the baby up to nurse him.

*

    Opis gave milk to Marcus until he was old enough to live without it. Each time Julius would be reminded to not let the baby fall in love and so Julius raised Marcus in solitude, inside the grove. Throughout the 18 years, Julius taught Marcus how to hunt and chop down trees and make fire and build houses, everything Julius knew that helped with surviving. In turn, Marcus listened and excelled in all these skills. He also grew taller than his father and developed a healthy tan, his hair grew thick and turned brown, and he had gained mighty strength, but his muscles were small. Also, his eyes had clouded over to a greyish-blue and he had made a habit to always have a playful smirk on his face. His father knew Marcus was very handsome, which in turn made Marcus’ life like living in a prison. But since that was all Marcus knew, he never questioned it.