Óshún Unearthed ✔

♐1

A hundred and five is a number
That comes to my head
When I think of all the years
I want to be with you. . .
~J.D
__________________

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Walking down the glorious streets of Olympus, the seductive tune of the wind accompanies me making it hard for me to stop the smile that threatens to claim my face.

My mind keeps conjuring images of how my beautiful wife is going to react, when I give her the little diamond locket I have tucked in my pocket.

Her golden smile is more alluring than the magnificent trees, that line the streets of my world. Just thinking about it brings an emotion that feels like a thousand wings fluttering in my abdominal region.

Being the god of love, people find it strange that I can't control my attraction toward her. "So much for being the god of Love," they'll scoff. They think being the god of Love means, I can not be affected by something I control. How wrong of them. . .

They can't understand how it feels whenever she is in a room with me. I lost my ability to speak. The entire world freezes and only she moves to the beat of my racing heart.

My brother Anteros, finds this to be a very exciting subject. His only aim being mockery. But I never pick offence in his petty jests. Even if I rain all my arrows on them, they'll still not understand. They can never understand.

Only the magnificent trees on this street can ever understand. The way they sway softly to the direction of the afternoon winds, only a living being deep in love can perform such feat.

Walking faster, I allow the soft tune of the winds, lead me home. Smiling as my eyes catch the first banner up on the highest point of my palace.

"I'm almost home my beloved," I whisper to the winds, expecting the same seductive tune that have become my companion to respond. But it doesn't, rather something else comes to my heart.

Confirming the response, an emptiness fills my heart. The wind sends me a sad song.

A song of separation.

A song that only comes to my ears, when some poor human gets their heart shattered by someone they truly love.

Each time this happens, I feel the pain like little pricks on the surface of my heart. It's funny how humans keep inflicting such horrible pains to people they claim to love. Why hurt someone you love?

Ignoring the downhearted music of the winds and the emotional sufferings it brings, I walk even faster.

Unwittingly, a most powerful urge to be with my beloved washes over me. An urge to be closer to her silky brown skin. To be able to touch even a strand of her long dark locks. To just feel her close, in order to reassure my sinking heart that she'll never break it.

I try shaking my head to drive the melancholic tune away but it remains. It just refuses to go, like the pain is being afflicted directly unto me.

The cries of broken hearts reaches me every now and then, but they only last for seconds. Never this long. Never.

"She'll never leave me," I say out loud to the trees that no longer look magnificent before my eyes.

Yes, my bride once lived among humans as one of them, but Zeus has given unto her immortality as a wedding gift. She'll never subject me to such pain. But why do I feel this way?

Reaching the outer steps of my palace, I take them two at a time, ignoring the servants that bow in greeting as the see me. Heading straight to my private chambers, where my beloved should be waiting, with that ever alluring smile of hers.

Squeezing the little diamond locket, in an attempt to feel closer to her. I increase my pace, not wanting to waste a minute longer without having her in my arms. Only she can cure me of this pain.

A pain that should have been long gone by now, intensifies as I take long strides navigating the bronze corridors of my palace. Only her smile can rid me of this prickly pain. A pain that has somehow embedded itself deep within the locks of my heart, for reasons, I still can't comprehend.

Taking the final turn, a frown develops itself on my sharp facial features as I find my mother blocking the entrance to my chambers. Unknown to her, my heart picks up an even faster rhythm. She never liked Óshún. So her being here, can never be for a good reason.

"Why are you here?" I ask her, as soon as I reach a hearing distance.

"I believe, I groomed a good enough son that knows how to appropriately acknowledge their own mother before rudely throwing a question at her." Glaring at me with her emerald orbs, she graciously invites herself into my chambers, not waiting for my response.

Everyone, from Mount Olympus to the world beneath us, knows how much my mother detests my wife. Ignoring her attitude, I push my impatience and unease under my skin. Following closely behind her, my eyes scan for the only cure to my dying heart. My beloved.

But I find an empty bed.

A fresh pang of pain hits me, and I almost topple over the bed, in my rush to step to the other side of it, in search of my beloved.

"My love?" I call, moving over to the bathroom door.

"Look at the way you search for her. Tsk tsk tsk, would you be this worried if I went missing?" Positioning herself on the bed- my bed- she watches me with an extra interest.

"What do you mean by, if you went missing? Mother, what have you done to my wife?" I ask through my teeth, anger now taking over the pain in my heart.

"Oh! May Zeus take my beauty if I ever harm that tiny little human you call a wife," she say, finding more interest in her long golden nails than my angered eyes.

"Where is she?" I ask again, fixing my gaze on her. I know asking her these questions is only a waste of my time, but I have to try and get something out of her. Óshún can't leave me.

"Fine! Fine! She mentioned getting tired of our world and returning to hers. Cupid, I told you, she didn't love you. Beings like her were never made to love a god," She softly replies, finally looking into my eyes.

Now I understand why the song of the winds hit so strong. Just like I felt the pain being inflicted unto me. It really is being inflicted unto me.

"I am sorely sorry my dear son, but you have to move on." She places her left hand on her forehead and shakes it as she speaks the words, like she is reciting the words from a shameful play.

Calming the inner turmoil my insides feel at the news of my missing wife. I slowly create a distance between us.

There is no point arguing with my mother. She definitely has something to do with this. Óshún can't just up and leave me. I believe my mother has done something.

Blocking out her disgraceful acting, I march out the door. Óshún being missing is a dream come true to her. Staying and trying to talk to her, will never get me my wife back.

The only thing I can do, is find Óshún on my own. If my mother is right and she did go back, there is only one place she can go. The only place she can feel comfortable being without me and that is in, Lagos, Nigeria.

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