Atalanta

by Jennifer Saint

I had never known a human hearth; I had no conception of how rare a thing it was to be the protégée of a goddess, to spend my childhood in the wild simplicity and raw magic of the woods.

She was my sister, mother, guide, and teacher all in one, and just like her, I wanted to fear nothing.

“A girl to whom Artemis was devoted. They were dearest friends. Her name was Persephone.” “Persephone, the queen of the Underworld?” I asked. Crocale nodded. “They were girls together. Their most cherished place the island of Sicily, where they would play in the meadows and gather violets. They had both sworn to a life without men, like all of us have done.”

This has NO historical precident but I'll let it slide for now.

Her words echoed in my head—She should have run faster—and I vowed that I would always be fast enough. Whatever dangers lurked in the forest, I could never let any of them catch up with me.

I swallowed, remembering the dazed, panic-stricken girl who had scrambled down the banks to my cave. The bruises on her arms, her torn dress, the blankness in her eyes. “All who follow me must abide by one condition,” Artemis said. “I had no choice.” But we all knew there was nothing to be gained by pleading. Callisto knew it as well as any of us. Tears sprang up in her eyes, her arms wrapped around her swollen body as she sank to her knees, weeping bitterly.

As I’d predicted, I found the pool, lined with rocks and surrounded by ferns, its soft green depths reflecting distorted tree trunks and a shimmering sky. Ripples whispered across the surface of the water, a darker shadow leaning out across the opposite bank, and I felt her eyes upon me before I saw her. The bear, her face lowered to drink, but her attention seized by my appearance. The cub nuzzling into her side. Her eyes fixed on mine, dark and deep and steady. I stopped, suspended in her gaze. I stared back, searching those big black pupils for something else, something more. I felt the desperation yawning inside me, but she shook herself and turned away, back into the undergrowth, her baby safe against her flank.

Perhaps it safer as a bear than hunted down by Hera.

“Can I ask your name?” “Atalanta.” “Mine is Hippomenes,” he said. “Good luck, Hippomenes. Get out of this forest as quickly as you can. Don’t linger.”

“Go, Atalanta.” Her stare burned into me. “Board the Argo as my champion. Be the best of them all.”

“For it isn’t my decree alone, Atalanta. The prophecy that comes to you from the oracle is that marriage will be your undoing. If you take a husband, you will lose yourself.”

It is held by Aeëtes, the powerful son of Helios, in the land of Colchis, and it’s guarded by a huge serpent, with many perils along the way to anyone who seeks it.”

“My name is Meleager.”

The woman I had met, so full of fire and determination, a woman who would mastermind the deaths of every man who had wronged her and her sisters, she would be content to marry Jason?

“Then we waste our time, time we must spend in pursuit of the Fleece.”

So, they can stay an extra day for pussy but not a dead friend...? FUCK YOU JASON.

It wasn’t like the giants of the mountain. This fight was up close, meaty hands closing around my arms, bearded faces snarling into mine.

I am afraid for her.

I called back the memory of my goodbye to Artemis. I’d vowed never to marry, I reasoned. And there was no danger of marrying Meleager.

HE IS ALREADY MARRIED

Artemis had done nothing to me. I imagined her, back in the forest, running with her dogs. She wasn’t watching me. She was only waiting for me to return with glory in her name. If we won the Fleece, it would be enough. She would never have to know the rest of it.

Do you really think you can fool a goddess?

I felt invulnerable, like it was all mine for the taking, with no consequence to bear.

Waiting for the consequences

I wondered what that must feel like. To have their respect unmixed with resentment or suspicion.

We had to keep our secret only until the end of the voyage. Then Meleager would go home, back to his wife, and no one would ever know.

Atalanta, massive dumbass and asshole.

I caught a glimpse of another woman, half-hidden behind a pillar, watching us. She wore a dress of dark crimson, her hair piled up in a crown of braids, jewels sparkling at her throat and wrists and twined through her hair. Her eyes were steady, intent upon us—no, upon Jason—eyes that burned golden like Aeëtes’s did.

MY GIRL MADEA

A man who had done nothing to prove his merit so far, while the rest of us had conquered everything that had stood in our way.

And Madea will do the work for him.

Artemis had shown me that the gods could be as ruthless to their favorites as they were to their enemies.

So WHY do youj think that will save you from your affair with Meleager?

Jason thought the world was built for heroes. I knew we had to build it ourselves.

I searched my soul for faith in Jason; a hope that this was indeed the moment of his becoming.

Yea bc Madea is going to do all the work for him.

I glanced between Jason’s empty eyes and Medea’s intense stare, and I felt a queasiness turning my stomach.

Foreshadowing

The Golden Fleece was vivid in the dying light, and I couldn’t believe it was done, our quest achieved.

Mildly anticlimactic

But rounding the bend just behind us was a warship, Aeëtes at its prow. I had him in my sights, I fired, but my arrows veered around him, falling harmlessly at his feet.

Magic shield

Medea and Jason were at the prow of the Argo together. Jason was holding the Fleece before him as though he couldn’t quite believe it, and she was looking up at him with the same expression on her face.

I forget that she doesn't know Hera made Madea fall for him.

What glory had I won her? In the end, the Fleece was won by trickery, by Medea’s witchcraft and nothing more. That was it, the reason for the unease I felt.

Be so fucking real with me right now.

Now I had to wonder if I could go home to Artemis at all.

DumbASS

I remembered Hypsipyle, how easily he’d forgotten the promises he’d made to her, and I wondered

Jason’s mouth hung open; he stared at Medea as the herald took up his oars again. “You’ll go back there?” he asked, and I saw her face twist from smooth composure to rage. “Back to my father?” she spat. “What do you imagine he would do to me on my return? He’s lost his Fleece, his most treasured possession.” “Then why…?” “I gave up everything for your quest.” Her eyes were flames. “I made myself a stranger everywhere in the world. I can never go home, never see my family again. I left a wealthy palace to flee on your ship, so that you could have the Fleece. Now it’s yours and you can keep it; you can reap every reward while I lose everything I’ve ever had.”

It was the proximity I felt to Artemis here; it was making me anxious that even without marrying Meleager, I would still have broken my vow.

YOUR VOW WAS TO BE A VIRGIN YOU DIPSHIT

It was the battle I had wanted for the entire voyage, and even with my injured shoulder, I only wished there had been more like it.

That battle was boring as hell... Blaming Jennifer.

I felt drawn toward them by something other than their magic. It was their rage, I thought, the anger for their stolen girl that made them punish every man they saw.

please dont pin this on hades

“We’d both be breaking an oath.”

THE GODS DO NOT LOOK KINDLY ON OATHBREAKERS.

“I’d give up my kingdom,” he said. “I’d leave my family behind. We could go somewhere far away, anywhere we could be together.”

Bro