Sickle Moon

Witches, trolls, goblins and faeries danced in ritualistic movement around a fire as dragons looked on. The flames were outlined against the starry night sky and wisps of smoke escaped into the air. As fleet- footed elves hurried into the clearing, the bugle blast of Dawn could be heard on the horizon. Summer had begun.

Persephone would soon come back to middle- earth. Demeter was beside herself with joy. Flowers were blooming. Birds were chirping. All the other things normally associated with a much awaited happy ending were afoot. Messengers had been sent to all the kingdoms. There was to be a ball. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel and every other princess of yore, now all matronly queens in their own right smiled.

Yet, deep down in the very pits of Tartarus, Hades was fuming. First, he was banished from the Olympus all because he had tried to (very cleverly he might add- if only that big oaf Ares hadn’t opened his mouth) steal centaur technology. How was he supposed to know that the damn geniuses would build an encryption that even THEY couldn’t break? Weren’t all maniac hackers/ programmers supposed to leave at least one back door open for a re-entry?

Anyway to punish him for his (“so-called”) transgressions, the Council had first chained him to the rocks to be picked apart by vultures-that was back when he was in his titan avatar, Prometheus. When that wasn’t enough, they had banished him from upper and middle earth altogether to guard over the souls of the damned! He gave a hollow laugh.

The last few millenniums had seen increase in the hostilities. When he had captured the girl, (my- what a new-fangled name she had!) direct negations had been opened with headquarters up above. Lineage and family was all in its place, but honestly all these joint family and weird relations who kept popping up on his screen just gave him a headache.

Of course, the wrath of his bigger and betters (ha-ha) in Olympus was not contained that easily. Poseidon had let loose his fury in a spectacular display of nature that had all but wiped out a nation of the middle-earth. How fragile these humans were! Running about trying to explain everything through their “gawd-help-us-it’s-the-end-of-the-world” theories. Nostradamus had been the worst among them.

Anyway, the girl had escaped. She had guts; he had to give her that. Of course, he had sent Cerberus after her, but how many roads can a three-headed dog take, especially when the middle head is whiny and mean?

On middle earth, a kid collapsed as Hades moodily snuffed out his soul. The MMORPG that he was wired in to, suddenly went haywire, giving rise to more fatalistic theories.
The coin flipped. The butterfly flapped its wings. The proponents of the chaos theory watched astounded (well they were dead technically, but still, ghosts you know) as with a single dice roll the Gods changed the path of history. For they were playing for high odds. And they were not averse to cheating. The only question was, who would win?


PS: This is how I perceive and make sense of the world around me. If you read between the lines, look a little deeply, you will find that a little of what happening around the globe (especially in my country) is reflected in the story. Call it an allegory if you will.

PPS: I hasten to add I am an atheist, yet mythology in every form (especially Greek) has always fascinated me.