Mystic Island

☼☼6☼☼

Raine

There were times when I was fully awake and the weirdest thing would happen. Like, for instance, I would ride the public bus, and some dude would start randomly yelling or something. I don’t know. As a demigod, it was very hard to come up with normal weird situations. Wait. That made no sense. Never mind.
And then there were times when I was having a dream and I didn’t even realize I was having a dream. Some were so crazy but realistic in the way that they were so promising that when I woke up, I wished they were true. But this? This one was the meaning of the word ‘dream’.

It was night. The lone moon was arching a crescent claw in the middle of the sprinkle of stars, colder and brighter than the stars. I was at the edge of a forest so thick it was hard to see anything between the trees, despite the brilliance of the celestial objects in the sky. They were so bright…this had to be before skyscrapers and electricity was invented.
I didn’t think I was part of the dream; I was just watching it like a TV. I couldn’t control what I saw, but instead the dream was showing me what it wanted to. Suddenly, a whoosh of the northern wind heralded a pair of swift-footed girls running past me faster than I could breathe. My dream-sight followed them at their pace, and soon I could see them better. Both girls were clothed in chitons, short Greek dresses, both girls had dark hair, similar finely-shaped faces, same skin color, but those were the only things similar.
One girl had on a silvery dress that shimmered like billions of stars when it rippled, and she had pale silvery gold eyes while the other girl, same age as it looked, was wearing a pure black dress and had eyes the colors of the world, every shade and tint of each color. One of the girls had more brownish hair while the other had raven-colored hair. And the silver-dressed girl’s eyes were more playful than the other’s.
The black-chiton girl was starting to pick up more speed than the other, so the silver-gold-eyed girl turned to the passing forest and called out something in Ancient Greek, too quick to be translated in my head, and a deer nimbly loped from the trees. It was on the larger side with antlers the color of pure gold, glittery like the art glitter. The girl who had summoned it swiftly grabbed a horn in her childish hand and gracefully mounted the stag at the speed of light. The deer pranced past the black-haired girl, who hissed at her counterpart in frustration.
The upset child was complaining in the oldest of Greek, but I could understand with flawless translation. “No fair! That’s cheating!”
The moon-colored-eyed child looked back upon the girl with the colorful eyes and laughed, “No rules, cousin!” She leaned forward on her deer like a horse jockey and the deer accelerated to a greater speed. The deer-less girl groaned in childish anger and sprinted to her look-alike. When the young girls raced to the furthest length of the vast field, the deer leaped onto a scaling stone and sprang forth into the night sky.
It was the strangest sight, a silver girl riding a gold-horned deer into the blue-black sky. It looked like a picture in a fairy-tale book. The girl still earthbound growled at her and a pair of glittering black bat wings unfolded from her back, which had completely blended into her shadowy chiton before, and followed the beautiful deer.
The raced in the sky, rising upward and upward and upward and upward and upward and upward…until finally the deer-riding girl reached out for a cold curving claw with fine, pale fingers and the deer vanished. As young as the girl was, she was still beautiful, flawless, and I wasn’t one to get jealous, but apparently my dream-self did not agree. The other girl was beautiful as well, but the rainbow eyes that held so much innocence held something else, faintly, something that I never had seen in such young eyes: fierce ambition. The silver girl scaled the claw which I soon realized was the crescent moon so far above the heads of the children before, and now a great white talon that the silver child sat upon with such joyful patience. The winged girl soon stepped onto a star with one foot and bounded elegantly to sit beside the other on the waxing moon.
“Well, it’s about time you reached the moon,” the silver girl said happily. “I believe I win.” The young voice was childlike but somehow familiar, like an old friend I hadn’t heard for a while.
“I’ll win next time,” the black-haired girl promised. “And in the next game, no deer! And like the times before that, no bears either!”
The pale-gold-eyed girl laughed. “Just because dogs aren’t as fast doesn’t mean you can’t win. I’m just swifter!”
“And you also have a bigger ego,” the other added mischievously. The silver girl giggled, and pushed the other over. “Says you!”
The raven-dressed child elbowed her, the gray-dressed girl retaliated, and soon I was watching an immature elbowing war. At one point, the silvery girl elbowed the other a little too hard and she almost fell off the moon. She squeaked, and the other put her hands over her mouth, but all the time her eyes shone with amusement. “Sorry!”
The colorful-eyed kid rolled her eyes playfully, and then when her ‘twin’ wasn’t looking, she pushed her back. The silver girl squeaked too, and then there was silence. That only lasted for a few seconds because both kids busted out laughing. One was doubling over with laughter and came close to falling over the curve again. They continued the childish laughter until there was a flash of brilliant light.
I wanted to shield my eyes, but I wasn’t really there, so I couldn’t. The nine-year-olds watched the light with wide, curious eyes until it died down and a beautiful youthful woman with a blue-gray dress, silvery-blonde hair and a stern gaze materialized, standing on stars.
“What have we here?” the moonlit woman murmured. “Two of the youngest goddesses playing on my moon?”
“Sorry, Selene,” the black-clothed girl, the young goddess, apologized, ducking down like a dog being punished. But the other was clearly not so obedient. She stuck her chin up with pride, or perhaps immature dignity and her yellow eyes flashed.
“My daddy’s going to give me the moon,” she said proudly to the goddess Selene. “I’m going to share it with you.”
Her cousin came over her obedience and bounced joyfully on the cold moon. “Me too, me too! Asteria, my mom, promised me I would one day have the moon too! Me and my cousin will share it, won’t we?” She looked to the other child goddess expectantly, who immediately responded, “Yeah! We’ll share!”
“Minor moon goddesses,” Selene grumbled, eyes hard but sprinkled with faint warmth for the spunky young goddesses. “They all want the moon.”
She glanced around the sky with a sprig of fear. “Well, I can say nothing poorly of your father, silver one. If he has promised the moon to you, then I shall divide duties with you.”
“What about me!” the rainbow-eyed child asked joyfully.
Selene formed a tiny smile. Her eyes were darkened with apology for the black-dressed girl, but she lied, “You too, witch.”
The darker girl obviously didn’t find witch as an insult. The word witch pounced from the prophecy in the back in my mind frightfully, but I tried to ignore it, interested by what was happening before me. I had a small clue as to who the children were, but I wasn’t quite sure. There were a handful of minor moon goddesses.
The yellow-eyed one beamed benevolently with such juvenile delight. “Will you teach us to be the moon, Selene?”
Selene rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Perhaps.” When the two girls looked disappointed, Selene added, “When you’re both older. For now, you are much too young to rule the moon.”
The moon goddess glanced around the sky. “Where is your brother, silver one? He seems not be in sight.”
“Oh, my brother?” the dark brunet said. “Like he’d ever awake at night! He’s always busy bragging about his job with Helios in the sun chariot during the day to stay up. He treats me like I’m younger, but I think that tires him.”
“He was born first,” Selene remarked.
“So? We’re twins! Who cares if he was born first? He’s so annoying; at this point I tune him out.”
Selene looked to the one she called ‘witch’. “What about you?”
“I’m an only child,” she replied. “But that’s why I have my cousin!” They put their heads together, and Selene snorted.
“Okay,” she said. “Anyway, owning the moon is lonely, young ones. Very. It’s not like the Olympian council, where there are ten gods and goddesses.”
“But that’s why we share!” the witch girl squealed. “Speaking of the Olympian council, someday I’ll be on it. When I grow up.”
“Oh yeah, me too!” the other squeaked.
Selene looked at the spunky crow-haired goddess. “Yes, well, joining the council is…difficult. Most don’t get in…it’s based on heritage…but, good luck.” She looked to the shimmering yellow-eyed girl. “As for you, make good decisions when you join the council. Fight for what you believe in.”
The girl Selene had spoken to most recently beamed with excitement, promising she would, but the other frowned. “Huh?” she asked with rising sadness.
Selene pursed her lips, realizing she hadn’t been the most tactful, but she knew she was right and silently stuck to what she’d said. She quickly said goodbye to the two immortal children, one wound up, the other pouting. Selene shimmered away in a shower of stars, and the two goddesses were alone.
“Wow,” the silver one breathed. “Selene thinks I could get into the council!”
The other pouted more. “Good for you. But she doesn’t think I will.”
Her cousin smiled with teeth as white as the moon they sat on. “Of course you’ll get on the Olympian council! If I go, so do you! I’ll ask Daddy to get you on too. We’ll be together.”
“Friends forever,” the shadow-haired girl agreed, and they both smiled silently, sitting in the midst of many stars.
I grinned softly because I thought the scene was sweet and adorable. When I felt myself fading from this world so, so, so long ago, the young silver one turned her had and stared at me with wide, innocent eyes. I knew then exactly who I was looking at, only younger. Then the world turned black and sightless.

The young silver goddess had been young Artemis, which I knew for sure. But there was no goddess that looked like Artemis’ friend and cousin on the Olympian council…in fact; I had never seen such an immortal in my life.
Who was that girl?