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They found the children in the woods.
It was the nymphs and the dryads that first realized what they were. After all, the smell of divinity and mortality mixing together in a perfect blend is something completely unique.
It is a hard thing to miss.
Especially since the nymphs and the dryads are goddesses themselves, even if only minor ones.
They first started to notice when the echoes of Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Zeus’ scents stayed strong in the woods. Despite how none of those gods had been spotted anywhere in the woods.
Perhaps the first ones to truly realize the origin and nature of the children were the river nymphs.
They noticed when an echo of Poseidon’s divine scent ran through their waters, powerful and beautiful in the way that only the ocean can be.
Immediately all of them had gone to the source of the scent’s echo, determine to see if their Lord was truly here.
Or if not, then warn the foolishly naive nymph who had decided to imitate Lord Poseidon’s scent.
It never ends well when a nymph attempts to imitate a god’s scent because of a whim of hers. The last one was burned alive by Lord Apollo for her insolence.
Perhaps he might have been a bit more merciful, since she was such a pretty thing, any other day. But that day, one of his poor mortal children had died not long after their birth.
The child has been another monster. It was an unsightly thing. Black raven feathers covered the child’s bodies, their limbs twisted and spindly, their eyes closed shut as if they had no eyes.
It was a monster before it was a child.
But the little girl happily swimming in the water alongside three other children was no monster, not even in the slightest. It was obvious that she was not a newly formed nature spirit. After all, mortality clung to her like a second skin.
”The little girl must be Lord Poseidon’s child!” One of the nymphs squealed in very obvious delight. “She is his child!”
”She is?”
”Our lord has a child?”
”But that is impossible!” A nymph shrikes. “Everyone knows that no half-mortal child of the gods can survive past infancy,”
”Lord Dionysus survived,” a nymphs pointed out.
“But that was because Lord Zeus directly intervened and ensured his survival,” The unconvinced nymph scoffed. “And even that resulted in Lord Zeus suffering greatly thanks to his intervention,”
”Yes, yes, our sister is right,” Another nymph agreed. “No little godling has made it past their childhood, all of them turn into monsters!”
“But she is no creature of nightmare and pain,” A nymph rebuked. “You can see her for your own eyes. She is nothing like the others, she’s alive!”
And that was the truth, instead of being a monster of pain and misery like the others she was a happy and pretty little girl.
She was a pretty little girl happily swimming in the water, with a dark-haired youth that smelt of lightning and had the same eyes as the God King gently but firmly holding her hand.
”That boy!” A nymph exclaimed. “Can he be a champion?”
”No, he cannot he,” another nymph rebuked. “He is far too young for it,”
”And he smells like the King!”
She was a happy little girl with a scent that echoed that of Lord Poseidon. She had his eyes, the same sea green color.
She was a happy and pretty little girl trying to convince the dark-haired youth to let go of her hand. “I can do it, trust me Theo,” she argued, almost stubbornly. “I can swim by myself! It’s like second nature, I’m in my element,”
”But you’ve never swam by yourself before,” the dark-haired youth —Theo, he was named apparently— rebuked. “And there weren’t any clean rivers where you used to live,”
”He’s right Seaweed Brain,” a young fair-haired boy, who seemed around the same age as the girl, pitched in. The boy smelled of olives, ink, and sweet hay like an owl. His eyes were a startling gray color.
”He smells like Lady Athena!”
”He must be a champion, because Lady Athena is a maiden goddess,”
”But his smell is too much like hers to be that of a champion!”
“How do we know that you won’t drown if Theo lets you go?” The boy asked.
”I’m telling you that I won’t!” The little girl protested. She turned towards the beautiful light-haired haired maiden who was holding onto the tiny boy and said, “Lucy tell them that I won’t!”
The light-haired maiden simply laughed. “I don’t know Romy,” the beautiful maiden said, her voice teasing the little girl. “They do have a point, you never swam in your own before,”
The maiden had the same eyes as the Messenger, her mouth and nose were the same shape as his. “She can’t be a champion,” a nymph whispered. “She looks too much like Lord Hermes to be one,”
”And she has his scent!”
”See?” The boy said to the girl, smiling smugly. “Lucy agrees with me and Theo,” He was like a chick preening from the affection of its parent.
The little girl, the sweet little princess, pouted. “You’re no fun,” she complained. “I know I can do it on my own!”
“That’s what Atticus said when he tried to show that he could read that map of Crete on his own,” the youth remarked in amusement.
”Hey!” The little boy protested. “I could do it on my own! I figured out where the main temple to Ze—“ He stopped, before hastily adding, “The King, I figured out where his temple is,”
”Careful on the names,” The maiden warned. “We don’t want to draw their attention, it’s dangerous. Remember all those stories?”
”Yes Lucy,” the little boy murmured, like a chastised child that understood what they had done wrong.
“What does she mean by that?” One of the nymphs murmured to her sisters. “Why does she think that it is dangerous to draw the gods attention? She is Lord Hermes’ child!”
”Lord Hermes would never hurt her!” Another nymph stated firmly. “He’d cherish her as the precious child that she is!”
”She must have been fed those lies,” A nymph murmured. And just like that, the idea that someone had poisoned the mind of Lord Hermes’ child was rooted in the minds of the others.
It was a dangerous thing that was taking root in the minds of the nymphs. The idea that a precious and so very painfully wanted child like the light-haired maiden had been fed lies and kept away from her own father.
”Yes, yes, she must have! Otherwise why would she be so afraid of her own father and his family?”
“Why is she not with Lord Hermes? She should have been given to him the moment that she survived her birth!”
”Did her mother not pray to Lord Hermes?”
”I do not think that the mothers of any of those children prayed to the gods! Otherwise they would not be here by themselves!”
”And they would not be so scared of their own parents either!”
Here’s the thing, when nymphs start getting extremely invested in something they tend to get out of hand.
So perhaps it shouldn’t be so surprising that the nymphs all went closer to the laughing children and grabbed them.
First, it was the little girl that they grabbed. The Child of the Sea, the little one that the others called Romy. Two nymphs grabbed onto her, immediately making the girl yell.
”H-Hey! Who are you?” The little girl shouted.
”Romy!” The youth shouted as a third nymph raised her hands above the water and separated the youth from the girl.
”It’s-It’s…” the little boy shrieked.
”The water nymphs,” the maiden hissed out, eyes widening in wild panicked fear like that of a cornered animal.
”Lucy get out of here!” The youth shouted as he swam for the little girl.
”Theo! Theo!” The boy wailed. “Romy! Romy!”
The maiden swam backwards, despite having the boy in her harms. “Atticus don’t let go, no matter what,” She warned the boy, her expression grim.
“But we have to help!” The boy protested. “We have to help them! We have to—“
”We can’t do anything in the water!” The maiden snapped as she tried to swim towards the edges of the river.
“But-But…” the young boy’s wide eyes were glued on the youth, who was struggling to get anywhere near the girl. The boy’s large stormy gray eyes began to fill with tears.