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Forgiveness	By : Elise_Green Category: Fairy Tales, Fables, Folklore, Legends, and Myth > Myths Views: 6900 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

Chapter List
- 1-Forgiveness
- 1
Lumbering through the brush, I held my muzzle close to the earth, tracking the burrowing mammal through its den. I knew I was near as drool fell in strands to the ground. It had been too many days since my last real meal. The berries, shoots, and beetles had staved off starvation, but I was craving the fullness of meat in my stomach. My small ears twitched at the sound of tiny nails scrabbling on dirt and rock as the weasel tried to scamper to safety. It had been as startled, as I was, when I stumbled upon it gorging itself on a fallen nest of eggs. The smell of the rotting yolks had drawn us both to the find. Unlucky for him, he got there first: now he was on the menu.
Suddenly a new scent drifted through my nostrils and I paused in my pursuit. Man. I lifted my head to the odor and tried to gauge the direction. I could tell, he was nearby; his sweat reeked, allowing it to drift in the mid-spring breeze. Swinging my heavy head from side to side, I listened for movement. A thicket of brambles blocked a large gap between two old pines. He was there, hiding. I was too large to try to escape unnoticed—if he hadn’t already seen me and was now waiting for his perfect shot—so I swung my pendulous body around to face the man. Hauling myself to my hind legs, I raised up fully. I jutted my jaws forward and roared loudly. Threads of saliva coated my sharp teeth. My warm breath was rank with decomposition. Stumbling forward, rocking side to side on my trunk like legs, I did my best to terrify the man. I didn’t want to attack him, but I would if he threatened me. He wouldn’t be the first. The smell of his sweat now mixed with the slight bitterness of urine.
I heard the man fall back and scramble, not unlike the weasel, away from me. Had I still been able to laugh, I would have. In my previous form, though just as deadly to man, no man would have ever moved so quickly from my presence. Now he could think of nothing else except flight. I fell heavily to the ground as the man sprang to his feet. He grasped a javelin in his shaking hand. The tip of it caught the setting sun and shot a line of fire into my eyes. I roared again, my front feet leaving the earth to pound down hard. He froze. The javelin hung uselessly, the tip piercing the dirt at his feet. I staggered closer still, the light brown fur of my body moved in waves with my steps. His eyes widened and his mouth gaped open. As I moved around the thicket, I saw this man more clearly. I was mistaken. This was not a man: it was a boy. A tall boy, to be sure - he hadn’t yet filled out in his shoulders and only a downy brush of hair covered his cheeks.
Stopping, I titled my head at the boy. He looked familiar. His eyes were a dull green, like the color of moss in the fall. His hair was fair, long, and wavy. However, his nose struck me. Thin and straight, it bulged at the tip. Like my mother’s. Like my own had once appeared to me—back then so hated for its perceived ugliness—when I looked in the polished silver. Sniffing heavily, letting my nostrils flare, I raised my head to get a better whiff of this boy. Familiarity tugged at my consciousness. I closed my eyes. For a brief moment the image of an infant flashed before me; the same fair hair and green eyes, the same nose. My son, Arcas.
“Go away,” he said. His voice shook and squeaked. I opened my eyes at the sound. He had raised the javelin and now hefted it on his shoulder. Though poised like a practiced hunter, I did not fear him. His voice echoed in my head. I had difficulty accepting reality with my epiphany. This was my son, Arcas. My eyes began to mist. I thought I had lost him all those years ago…
“Go away!” his voice broke my thoughts as I stumbled back into the present.
My son. He was my son. I stood up and walked toward him. Raising my front legs, I moved to embrace him. Arcas pulled back his arm and bounced the javelin in his grip. Though sweat ran as rivulets down his forehead, he had made the choice to hold his ground. I opened my maw.
Arcas. All that came out was a grunting roar, but my ears only registered my heartfelt plea. He tilted the javelin up. Hesitating, he readied it to thrust into my beating heart. I took one step too close. The javelin arched with impressive force and speed.
A blinding flare of lightning struck the earth in the exact moment I felt the tip of the javelin part the thick fur of my hide. My world stopped. My Arcas was gone.

***
The lengthening shadows of dusk cast the forest floor into darkness. With the waning sunlight came a cold, whipping wind. Had I been any less than I was, I would have prayed to the gods for salvation. Since I was a nymph of the woodlands and huntress of Artemis, I did no such thing. However, the suggestion did cross my mind. For I was lost.
When the stag had appeared across the stream from our resting stop, it was I who first noticed. He was a magnificent creature. My bow had been lying on the soft grass at my feet, my arrows still resting on my back. Moving slowly so as not to startle him, I reached for my bow. It was a practiced move. The stag never noticed. Taking confident steps closer, he had lowered his head to lap at the cool, fresh water. As I raised my bow and reached back over my shoulder to pull an arrow free, his ears flicked at the slight noise of the bowstring flexing under my expertise. Fully drawn, I sighted the stag but before I could release my arrow, one of the sisters had sneezed. I spared a moment to send her a hate-filled glare then took off after the fleeing stag.
No one followed. It was the stag versus I: prey versus hunter. Until I lost his trail and ended up here, lost myself. Failure did not sit well with me. Nor would it sit well with Artemis. Above all, I wished I hadn’t lost the stag for her sake. When any of us nymphs managed to bring down an animal, she was always been there to embrace us as equals. She rejoiced in our successes, for they were her successes as well. She had been our teacher, our mother, and our goddess and we were her students, her children, and her maidens.
Just the thought of her brought a flush to my cheeks. I loved her. She was my comfort in the darkness, my inner voice encouraging me to greatness, my confidant, and of course my friend. I wished, but did not pray, for her presence now.
“Callisto?” Her voice, though not sweet or gentle, hummed with life and femininity. I turned at my name. My heart stopped beating at the vision before me. Dressed in a sheer tunic, her thighs bare above the knee and her hair lying unbound across her shoulders, Artemis was a sight to behold. I felt my skin heat.
“Goddess.”
“Why are you so far from the others? You know you are walking in the wrong direction,” her voice lilted with suppressed laughter. I dropped my head with a shy smile playing at my lips. “You always were too headstrong to ask for help.”
“Yes, goddess.”
“Enough of that,” she whispered. Draping a muscular and tanned arm over my shoulders, she leaned close and ran her lips across my temple. I shivered at the sensation. My knees weakened and I fought to maintain my balance. Her voice fell an octave and slid across my skin setting my nerves aflame. “Let us get back to the others.”
“No.” The word came unbidden from my lips. “Not yet.”
I turned in my goddess’ embrace. “My dear Callisto.” A wave of desire swept through me, settling in my breasts and then moving to pool lower at the crux of my thighs. “My brave Callisto.” Her hand flowed along the curve of my shoulder and up the arch of my neck. Cupping my chin in her palm, she continued. “My strong Callisto.” My eyes drooped as she brought her lips close to mine, breathing her wild breath as a caress on my cheeks. “My beautiful Callisto.” Our first kiss sent sparks of passion racing in my blood. I could feel both our hearts beating in the rush.
She stepped closer to me, wrapping her arms around my waist, holding me flush. Our breasts pressed together. I squirmed with the pressure, using her already peaked nipples to tease and harden my own. She deepened the kiss; licking the seam of my lips before easing the tip inside to sweep through my warm, wet heat. The rising moan in my chest burst free, vibrating through the cavern of my mouth. Artemis echoed my moan with a hum of her own. The hand holding my chin moved up to tangle in my hair. Gripping the back of my head, she pulled her mouth from mine and began trailing kisses down my throat. My body bucked under her onslaught. She used the momentum to grab my ass and grind my pelvis into hers. Keening, I filled the dark forest with my urgency. I needed to feel the goddess against my bare skin.
I started to wrench at the brooch holding up her tunic. My nails dug at the unwieldy clasp. She laughed, a rumbling low sound of mirth. Had I been anywhere else, feeling anything less, I would have questioned the oddity of that noise. As it was, I too far gone under her spell to notice. Keeping my pelvis tilted up and pressed against her, she still managed to step back enough to tear her tunic away. Naturally, mine followed.
Nude within the goddess’ arms, I sighed as the sensation of her warm and heated flesh sliding along my own. She lifted me by the hips and urged me to wrap my legs around her waist. I did as she commanded. Taking two steps, she backed me into the cool and slick trunk of a cherry tree. I reached up into the branches and grasped two to support myself. Locking my thighs around her ass, I began to move like a snake against her. Undulating my hips and pelvis, I rubbed my delicate nub of flesh against her pelvic bone. Her lips spread and arched into a leer at my wantonness.
“Never would I have imagined…” she mumbled. Her voice flowed through me like the growling of storm clouds.
Artemis placed a palm on my breast as my head fell back and hair swung free. I couldn’t stop now even if I had wanted to. I rolled my nub into her erratically, the passion within me building until I no longer had control of my actions. Her hand massaged my globe, fingers tickling my nipple, teasing, and pinching it until it reddened with desire. She brought her lips to it then and licked, letting me feel the entire length of her tongue as it aroused me even further. Puckering, she pulled my nipple deep into her mouth and sucked. Like a cub feeding from its mother, she suckled my breast strong. Wave upon wave of ecstasy coursed from my breast to the nub.
Exploding, I screamed.
Without waiting for me to regain my senses, my goddess unwound my legs, picked my hands from the branches and turned to drop me on my hands and knees to the earth. Her foot nudged my legs apart before she fell to the ground behind me. A hand snaked under my body, drawing fingers from my throbbing nipple to my swollen nub and then up to my wet core. I shook. Sweat broke out all along my body, wherever she didn’t touch.
“You are so willing, so ready.” The masculine tenor of Artemis’ voice shocked me through the engulfing desire. Peeking over my shoulder, my eyes widened with what I saw. Artemis, my goddess, flickered, her visage fading in and out as a bearded man’s face became clear.
“No!” His large, rough hand moved quickly to stifle my scream. His other arm wrapped around my hips and pressed me low so my breasts brushed against the dirt.
“You are mine, Callisto.”
I felt the head of his cock force its way inside my damp and aroused folds. I clenched hard to stop him. He only groaned and pushed harder. I shoved back trying to dislodge him from my sheath but only caused him to invade deeper. I bit at the hand covering my mouth. His booming laugh rocked the earth beneath me.
“Go ahead and fight.”
Tears leaked from my eyes. I didn’t want this. He didn’t care. Over and over, he took me. When at last he finally came, I wept. Withdrawing, leaving me like an animal on all fours, he patted my head and disappeared.

It took me hours to return to Artemis’ scared grove. It took another few months for me to find comfort with my sister nymphs. At first, their hands on my skin had me cringing during our baths. Soon enough, though, I mastered the art of pretense. Life continued as it always had. Nightmares plagued me all night, but during the day, no one was any wiser to my shame. I kept my distance from the goddess lest she learned the truth of my feeling for her and what it had cost me.
A few months became half a year. With the changing of the seasons, I was feeling hope again. If Persephone could start her life anew every six months, then so could I. That hope came crashing down the afternoon I spent too long soaking in the well of cool spring water. Lately, my body had felt different, achy and heavy. Floating in the water was the only time I felt better. The other nymphs had already cantered off into the woods to spend the day with the young fawns and fox kits. Artemis had gone off hunting boar in the early morning. I was alone.
At least I thought I was. The goddess returned as the noon sun hung suspended at the peak of its journey. Seeing me, resting, asleep, she decided to sneak up on me. It was the touch of her fingertip on my lip that had been jolting awake, terrified. She backed away at my obvious fear.
“Callisto? What is it my nymph?”
I clambered to my feet in the water. Facing her, I struggled to take deep breaths and calm my racing heart.
Her eyes were drawn to my stomach. “You are with child?” Her brows creased and her lower lip quivered.
I shook my head. What? I looked down at myself. I thought I had been gaining weight because of the winter - all that meat. A child?
“Leave, nymph,” her voice was hard, unforgiving and like ice. “You are no longer welcome in my presence.” Disgust marred her features. I saw myself mirrored in her eyes; my distended womb ugly in relation to her toned and slender frame. Not bothering to dry, I hauled my body from the spring, threw my tunic over my head and left.
Through blurred eyes, clouded with tears, the only thing I saw was the man’s face who had forced this fate on me.

For three months I wandered alone. The child within grew big. I spent most of my days crouching beside fruit bushes, picking the ripe ones and eating them. I was too ungainly now to do much hunting, nothing but the slowest animals would fall prey to me. Once the greatest of the goddess’ nymphs, I was nothing now except a refugee. A fugitive from the only life I had ever known.
Sitting on the bank of a stream, far away from my old hunting grounds, I relaxed in the sun. My ankles ached and my gut was rumbling. I rested my hands on my stomach. I could feel my child kicking. She was going to be strong, like her mother, I decided. Enjoying the moment, I fell asleep.
“Wake up, Callisto.” I opened my eyes and squinted into the sun. A tall, regal silhouette filled my gaze. “It is time.”
The pain, when it came, was unlike anything I could have imagined. My entire body was wracked by the enormity of the agony that radiated outwards from my womb. The shadowed woman knelt at my feet and spread my legs.
“Let him come, dear. Open your body. Let nature flow through you. Follow your instinct.” Her voice was soothing, in an authoritative way. I gave in to her words. I had no other choice.
The wailing of my child startled me back into consciousness. Teetering on the edge of a dark abyss, I had gotten lost in the sting of my flesh being ripped wide. Holding him high, cradling him in her arms, the woman smiled down at my baby.
“It’s a boy. Do you have a name for him?”
“Arcas.” From where the name came, I wasn’t sure. Already spoken, I couldn’t take it back.
“Fitting, I suppose.” The woman cast a sneer down at me, splayed in the grass, blood marking the pain I had suffered and the life I had borne. I tilted my head at her. You suppose? “You did not really think I would forget how you seduced him away from my bed, would you?”
Memories assaulted my weakened brain. His attack on me, his words, the wave of passion he had cast over me.
“He was my husband, nymph, and this should have been our son. He is mine to do with as I like.”
“You can’t…”
“I can. You will not be able to stop me.”
She spun on her heel and began to walk away. I tried to lift my broken body from the ground, to rise and follow her, to take my son back, but I couldn’t. I could only watch as she disappeared into mist.
Throwing my head back, I screamed out at all the injustices of my life. I screamed until my throat was rough and red and my voice cracked. Then I roared; I roared with agony as my body morphed, bones broke, and muscles tore. I roared with the full force of a giant brown bear.

***

“Approach, Callisto.” The deep voice caused a shiver to trace along my spine. I stood at the edge of a great marble floor encircled by twelve monstrous thrones. Each was handcrafted and carved from various precious metals. There were no walls and no ceiling. I appeared to be standing on the top of the world. Giants of men and women sat in the thrones, bright and garishly clothed, diadems resting on judging crowns. All eyes were trained on me.
Easing down to my hands, I began to lumber forward at the command. A snigger of contempt echoed across the hall from the woman sitting before me.
“Hera.” The man beside her said, his warning clear. It was the same man who had ordered me to come close. A voice, which once again caused my body to jolt with shock.
“Why, Zeus?” She patted his arm, her eyes never wavering from me. “Look at how she bows before us.” I stopped. I looked down at myself. I was no longer covered by fur, no longer bore claws, nor did my jaw hang heavy and gaping. I was wearing a simple chiton of pure white, my fingers and toes wriggled free, and I could smile. So many years as a bear, I had forgotten what it was like to be a woman. Gingerly, I stood again. I took one hesitant step forward, then another.
“Callisto, I have called you here to ask your forgiveness. Our forgiveness.” Facing the man in his throne, I turned at his gesture to look at each of the giants. Recognition dawned on me. At the realization of where I was and who these giants were, my stomach flipped and I fell to my knees vomiting. A collective gasp of astonishment flooded my ears. My vision blurred and unconsciousness threatened.
Oh, gods…
“Shush, my dear girl,” a woman’s gentle voice broke through the haze that had enveloped me. I focused my gaze on an elderly face, tanned, and wrinkled by too much time in the sun. Her brown eyes twinkled with kindness. Placing a gnarled hand beneath my arm, she helped me rise from the floor. When I swayed, she tightened her grip and steadied me.
“Shame on you, brother. You should be ashamed to make this girl so scared. Especially since you brought her here to beg for forgiveness.” Her voice was no less gentle, but I heard the strength behind the words and tried to place her. Brother?
“Demeter?” I asked. My voice shook with the effort to speak. I half-expected a roar to escape my lips instead of the Greek name.
“Of course, dear,” she answered quietly. “Do not worry. He knows I am right. I always was and always am. It comes from being the eldest.” Her smile was genuine as she turned to face me.
Letting go of my arm, she brushed a surprisingly soft palm across my cheek before walking away. As she approached her throne, she grew in size until she was once again towering over me. I took the opportunity to observe each of the Olympians as I spun back around to pin my eyes on Zeus.
“You raped me.”
He had the audacity to smile at my proclamation. A muffled cough from behind me dropped the smile from his face. “I did.”
“And you casted me out, Artemis,” I never moved, but slid my gaze to hers. I caught her narrowed eyes and her pressed together lips. She struggled to keep from speaking. “Even though he took me against my will?” I didn’t wait for her answer. I didn’t want to hear her answer. In my heart, I still felt her abandonment the strongest. “Hera, it was you who cursed me. A bear?”
“I should have turned you into a toad, you un—“
“Hera!” She paled at her husband’s harshness.
“That wasn’t all was it? You stole Arcas from me. Was it your plan to have him be the one to finally kill me? Didn’t want to bloody your own hands?” The queen of the gods turned crimson at my words. Her knuckles gripped the armrest so hard they began to turn white. Shifting her weight, she moved to stand. It took Zeus’ heavy hand on hers to keep her enthroned, but I could still see the rage flare in her blue eyes.
“We must beg your forgiveness, Callisto. You have been greatly wronged by us.” His voice calmed and fell on me in a seductive wave. Its rich tenor filled me with a longing I had forgotten.
“Brother…” Demeter chastised Zeus.
“Right. It is so hard to be this close to you without wanting you again.” Hera shot him a hateful glare. At least I wasn’t the only one she despised now. When he started speaking again, his voice was full of the thunder in the clouds, but was absent of desire. “You were spared your fate at my demand. Whatever it is you think of me, I never forgot neither you nor Arcas. It is now my place to ask you to forgive our treatment of you.”
“Why?”
“In order to rule wisely we must be reminded of our humanity from time to time. We are offering you a gift in return. Do you forgive us?”
I bowed my head at his words. I wasn’t ready to speak the words he was commanding me to say. Forgiveness for a lifetime stolen from me was a hard morsel to swallow. “I wish for my son. At my side. I have spent too many years absent from his life. He deserves a mother.”
“But you fell at his hand,” this time it was Aphrodite who spoke up, “how can you still love him so much?”
“She is a mother,” Demeter answered for me. She was right. I was his mother. No matter what he did, I would always love him. I always had. Even as a bear, I had held that image of him as an infant in my head. Perhaps he was the reason I retained the little of my humanity that had kept me from attacking him.
“Granted, Callisto. Your son will be returned to you.” I fell to the floor in a deep bow.
Unable to work against the fates to save my life, for not even a god has that much power, my son and I were placed in the heavens.
I am a guardian of the mortals and a reminder to the gods.
Forgiveness takes time.
- 1
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Forgiveness