Kampē

No-one spoke. We silently walked through the cave. I felt my eyes lose focus as I continued to venture through the cave.

As my vision became unclear, my perception of the surroundings gradually changed. It started with the temperature within the enclosed space. First it was cool, then I felt needles of feat piercing my skin and irritating it and finally a cold that suddenly hit my body and made my skin tighten up reflexively. Additionally, I noticed the cave was slowly morphing into a tunnel before my very eyes.

The Prussian hue of the cave, became an ominous swine red hue until finally settling on Midnight Black. I knew that we were all transitioning to the underworld and through it all, we remained unfazed and continued our intrepid voyage into the underworld with the goal of gaining what we need to kill our father.

The journey continued. We trekked on without a word being uttered. Eventually, torches emitting cyan light started to come into view. A foreboding feeling washed over me. As we commenced , there were more torches and the cyan glow began to pulse dreadfully. I felt a feeling I had not felt in a long time. I felt fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what was to be. Fear of my eventual fate. We came to a stop and I looked up slowly.

When I Raised my head, I beheld a large gate that towered over me. It was even larger than the giant tree we perched on. It was a golden grilled gate. The gate consisted of old yet regal spears lined-up and ties together by intricate , golden, metallic vines.  The golden gate reflected the ominous cyan hue of light emitted by the torches. 

Looking through the small gaps of the gate, which was pulsing with malice. I saw a shadowy silhouette of a feminine figure rising from the shadows behind the gate. As the figure approached, its features became more prominent.

The figure was definitely a woman. She had a beautiful angular face,  amber pupils that shone in the dark, almost serpent like, a Grecian nose to complement her features and beautiful fill lips. She was absolutely gorgeous. 

She looked at us cautiously. " Who are you and what do you want?" she inquired without fear, but still looking at us like we were enemies.

Hestia stepped forward and answered her elegantly, " We wish to save our uncles from the underworld." 

The woman behind the gate silently looked down, then suddenly shot her head up and inquired once more, " Have you gained leave from the Lord of titans and lord of time, Cronos."

This time we were silent for some time. However, before the silence could become deafening, Poseidon marched forward, grasped the gate and thrashed at it furiously. " Open the gate woman!" He ordered vehemently. I started back in shock, luckily, no one was  looking at me.

I did not expect my brother to hold such arrogance and insolence when speaking to others. It was shocking. It was scary. I would never want to be on the receiving end of such balant discourteousy and hate. I would never want to be looked down on like that, but it seemed to be the only way to make her open the gate.

Poseidon continued his vigorous and furious thrashing of the gate for a few more seconds until Hades stepped forward to reason with him, " Be still brother, there is no need or benefit in scaring the woman beyond this gate...she is..." He was cut off abruptly by Poseidon.

" She is what? " He asked rhetorically, " A hindrance in our way? Too weak to do anything? A pawn for father? Or best of all a toy for all men? Ha ha ha..." He ranted as he fumed with clearly repressed anger.

He was probably still enraged by the fact mother didn't try to save him from father. However...

Before anything more could be said, Hestia reached out to Poseidon.

However, before she could touch him, he slapped her hand away roughly. Pah! The sound reverberated through the tunnel. We all held our breath. I took a step backwards. It seemed my brother was letting his repressed hatred for both our parents consume him and make him do horrible things.

Everyone was silent as they observed Poseidon as he looked at Hestia with bloodshot eyes which were filled with nothing but hatred. 

Hestia stepped back cautiously. Our brothers seemed to be frozen with shock and were unable to see the imminent threat approaching Hestia. Demeter and I move foward in a futile attempt to help Hestia. 

" Move." Poseidon growled. We stood firm. He raised his hand, but I didn't avert my gaze from my emotionally wounded younger brother, and I just could not hurt him.

This was the same case for all of us. Our brother, Poseidon, was just throwing a temper tantrum. He was the second youngest after all. We just needed to endure. I was ready to endure for him. If he hurt me, it would be okay. I would heal. After all, me enduring the pain, would show him that I love him. I mentally braced myself.

Before  Poseidon could move to harm me. I heard a creaking sound coming from the direction of the gate, and out dashed the woman who remained in the shadows. She stopped Poseidon with strong push. Dumbfounded, I looked at the woman who came to my rescue. I was grateful. I turned to my siblings and saw them analysing her with a sense of awe and wonder. I looked at her again and was shocked by what I saw,

Her beautiful face was framed by a head of writhing snakes, which replaced her hair. He upper body was similar to our upper bodies, however, her lower body was that of a scaled beast. Her silver scales shone softly in the faint light. She had sharp talons protruding from the digits of the paws of her forelimbs and hind limbs. A flexible tail that danced lazily behind her.

I stared in awe. Before I could thank her, Poseidon suddenly leaped behind her and held her in a chokehold. Her eyes widened in shock. In an instant, Hestia went before her and delivered a solid punch to her gut, and kicked the gut for her reptilian body. In an instant, Zeus dashed forward , with a knife in hand and plunged it repeatedly into her heart. With each plunge into her heart, blood sprayed all over the place. As I continued watching, frozen in place, blood sprayed all over the place. 

The woman's serpentine Amber eyes slowly lost light as she died. Her lifeless body crumpled onto the ground when my siblings let go of her body. The shock on my face was as evident as the blood droplets on my pale skin.

Zeus slowly approached me, his hands dyed crimson with the woman's blood, and reached out to me whilst he soothingly spoke, " It was all an act. From the time Hestia was hit. It was all an act." His blood red hands reached out to wipe the droplets of blood that had landed  on my face. I froze in place, and I felt my heart flutter. I do not know if it was from fear or something else, but it fluttered.

Zeus continued his endeavour to try and wipe the blood from my face, but he only made things worse. It was all for naught. Giving up on wiping the blood, he placed his whole hand on my cheek, making me feel sticky.

He spoke soothingly, " Don't be afraid. It was all an act."