The new and revised version of Tethys. :D I was going to write it as a poem, but I decided I liked having the verses mixed in wit the actual tale. Let me know what you think?
Twixt fire and water, earth and sea
A barren coastline waits for me
Once more my rendezvous to fill
Once more to meet a cruel fate’s will
Her bare feet pounded against the stone. Dark walls rose on either side of her where the path burrowed into the side of the hill. The steps were roughly hewn but worn by time and treacherous when slick with rain. Her breathing was ragged, pale clouds swallowed by the gushing water. She reached the summit and came out into the full force of the wind. It caught at her, tearing at her thin dress, turning her thick hair into a whip. She lay curled at the foot of the balustrade where it had thrown her, clinging to the wet marble as the gale screamed. Gasping from the climb and the harsh cold, her thin body shook, loosening her grip. The wind howled with renewed fury, dragging her inexorably towards the cliff. Tightening her grip she gazed fearfully down at the cold, dark water so far below.
He is long gone, he is no more
I fall alone on this dark shore
I waited long, it was naive
A cruel fate led me to believe
She had known, deep within, that this was how it would end. It had been two long, hard years since he had been taken. They had not heard anything for so long. She had hoped, she had been blind. He was gone. When the news had finally reached her, she had fled blindly. Running from a truth she could not deny. It had led her here, back to the same place where they had pledged their love beneath the full moon. That night he had been captured, wether by pirates or brigands she knew not. She had believed, believed in the power of love to bring him back. There was no moon now, and he would never return.
It was a trick, a hoax, a lie,
It drew me here, at last, to die
There is no hope, this is the end
To you a warning now I send
Hours passed, the wind blew the clouds away and the cold grew deeper. She rose and descended to bottom of the cliff by the light of a full moon. The shores had shrunk, swallowed up by the raging tide. Something dark was in the waters that ill fated night, willing her on, drawing her deeper. The water swirled around her ankles, urging her on, drawing her in. Without a cry she dove into the sea, cleaving the waves like a slender arrow with not so much as a ripple to tell of her passing.
Trust not to fate, the hard and cruel
To her you are a single tool
A pawn trapped deep inside her game
Of love and death and endless pain
That might have been her end, but every fifty years, on a blue moon, a slender figure clad in white, rises from the depths of the ocean. With heavy heart, Tethys, Goddess of the Seas, rises to traverse once more the steps along the cliff, once more to mourn for her lost love. Then once more she sinks into the seas, swallowed up by the waters to wait for another blue moon.
June 2012