Okay, technically, this should be called “Zeus tries to get revenge” but…I’m tweaking the story a lot to make it less misogynistic, and because I was hoping to give Prometheus more of a hand in how it turned out, so…sticking with this title. Anyway, this picks up right from the end of part one.
“That was a pretty clever trick,” Hermes said, looking at the smoke rising from the mortal village. “Maybe I could actually learn from this guy…” It wasn’t often that he met someone who was almost as accomplished a thief as he was!
“Don’t pick up any more bad habits, little brother,” Apollo said, glaring at him. “I don’t want you stealing any more of my possessions.”
“I’ll steal from someone else, then,” Hermes laughed.
“I won’t let him get away with this outrage,” Zeus growled. “He must be punished!”
“It’s only a tiny flame,” Hestia said, stroking his arm consolingly. “And fire always grows to make up for the loss. The winter’s coming on, and the mortals must be cold down on the surface. I’m sure he only wanted to protect them.”
“I had the fire taken away from them to protect Demeter’s forests from those foolish mortals!” Zeus bellowed, making Hestia back away from her brother in terror. “I won’t allow that prattling Titan to get away with defying my will!”
“You were eager enough to listen to him when you thought he had a warning for you about how to keep your uncontrollable lust from getting us all locked up in Tartaros,” Hera snarled at him. “How quickly you change your tune!”
“Maybe if you really want to punish him, you should give him a wife,” Apollo commented, shaking his head. After seeing what his step-mother was like, Apollo had quickly decided that he was never going to marry. In fact, he had decided to stop himself from ever reaching full physical maturity, so no one would ever expect him to marry. If he always looked like a youth, then he’d never look old enough to be a husband. Plus he’d look prettier, which was always nice.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Zeus agreed, with a cold glare at his own wife.
“I don’t think he was serious,” Athene pointed out, but her father wasn’t listening, having immediately leaped upon and embraced the idea.
We're All Mad Here! 