A GODDESSES PARADISE (girlxgirlxgirl)

13; Athena

Why would she want to go back? Here there is light, colors, food, hope and fun things. Here she feels inspired to paint again, paint those blue butterflies in the garden outside. Paint Ariadne. Here she doesn't have to worry about what to eat each day, here she doesn't have to worry about where to wash herself up, or if she'll feel cold in the morning. It's crazy how in just two week everything has started to feel much better. Ever since she started learning the language, things have gotten easier, she has begun to understand more things after time, and doesn't feel the dread to stay anymore.

Maybe Isaac is here, and he too wants to stay?

Maybe they don't have to go back?

Irene shakes off such crazy thoughts. They are outsiders, they don't belong here. She shouldn't think like that. She is only learning the language to communicate enough to find her brother. No other reason.

When the teacher has started packing up her things Irene knows it's the end of the lesson. She too starts standing up, holding her white notebook in her hand, ready to leave the classroom and head outside. But it's around that time the door opens, and a certain blond haired girl sticks her head through the doorframe. Ariadne. Wearing a lazy smile. Irene used to feel conflicted, scared or nervous each time she saw that face, but now she can't help but smile herself. It's a cute, wide smile, that reaches her doe eyes and makes both taller girls awe slightly.

The Athena girl bows down, but before she can leave Ariadne stops her.

"I have business with Thea, and I'm taking Irene with me. Lets go together"

Irene understood the word, "go" and of course her own name. So she watches with big eyes as the other girl nods at the leaders words.

"Yes leader"

The three of them walk out of the temple walls, for the first time in a week for Irene. She looks around the city that looks both familiar and unfamiliar on the same time. Sure she has seen it before, but on the same time, she has only been here for fourteen days. The few cracks in the walls, the different colors on the rocks they walk on, the different shapes of the wines along the walls, all of them are still unexplored and unfamiliar for the girl.

The city is busy in the middle of the day. Merchants, students, all kinds of people hurry about along the roads. Irene has no idea what half of them are up to, everything is so new and different. In her own village it was easy. If they aren't a child they are working with either selling or getting fish, nowhere in between. Here there are hundreds of occupations, tasks and requirements to do.

The girls living in the temples have different tasks issued by the temple. Girls from Demeter's temple work in the fields, girls from Artemis' temple hunt and care for animals, girls from Athena's temple both teach and protect the city. Those who belong to the temple of Aphrodite have different, unrelated jobs to their goddess, however those who live at the temple work along the same lines. Care for the poor and sick, counseling, nursery school, helping others. There is not a single woman in the city that goes without a job, but none of them are stressed either. It's just a nice balance between work and calm, tasks and rest.

Since Athena's temple, and thereby Thea, is on the southwest side of the city, they leave the busy main roads and enter the smaller ones. The houses are closer to each other, the roads more narrow. Less people navigate these labyrinths, and not many know each and every one by heart. It's not easy, as many houses can look similar, many twists and turns leading to dead ends or completely different destinations. It's hard to know if you are going east or west, north or east, when you can't see the sea or any of the big roads.

But Ariadne is good at navigating, and so is the girl from Athena's temple. After all, she walked this route this morning, to get to Aphrodites temple to teach Irene. The black haired girl has learned to trust the people around her, believe that they are good before they are bad, believe that they want her best and will lead her down the right path. After all, they have not done a single thing to hurt her, not a single thing to force her either. Everyone has been extremely nice, and how can she ask for anything else?