Thanatos: The Blue Dawn

(28)Opal Pardon

"As the years flew by, I'd noticed something odd- I'd fallen for Alexus..." Hypnos paused; "Something I wasn't used to myself. Uh... It was unusual."

He sounded more like a scientist as he spoke about one of his previous loves. If anything was unusual, it was Hypnos' calm demeanour. I noticed again, for the hundredth time, just how different in character Hypnos and Thanatos were.

"A few months prior to the... argument, I had told Thanatos about my feelings for Alexus, in confidence, of course." I nodded and took a sip of my drink as Hypnos did the same; "It was difficult for me to be with her all the time. I'm a god and I have tasks to do, but I stayed in this palace on most of my off periods. I could tell back then that Alexus had no real feelings for me; she always saw me more as a brother than anything else. I feel... self-conscious now just thinking about it."

"Love is fickle." I said and Hypnos smiled softly at my reassurance.

"The night I'd told Thanatos about my love for her, he'd taken me out to go drinking." Hypnos laughed as he thought of the memory; "He thought there was something wrong with me. How things have changed..."

I blushed slightly as his eyes bore into mine, but luckily, he continued and I could breathe normally again. I'm fairly certain Thanatos and I weren't nearly as conspicuous as we liked to think we were.

"Some days passed and I had to leave for work. During those few days Thanatos had tried to convince me that I wasn't in love, but merely in-lust and I tried to explain to him the difference. It didn't work all that well..."

I chuckled knowingly as Hypnos continued; "Then, one night, Thanatos went drinking with Poseidon and a whole group of other gods. There was a celebration for some or other new demi-god, I can't remember all that well... At the feast, Ares and Apollo showed up, drunk, and started to look for trouble with my brother. They... uh, were swiftly dealt with. Thanatos isn't one to be upstaged."

I knew that very well. I could see at the banquet how irritated Thanatos was with Apollo and Ares. He couldn't stand them much less be in the same room as them.

"Ares, being a first-class brat, couldn't handle the defeat, and so he taunted Thanatos with the one thing he could do better- force women onto him. Thanatos has thankfully never been one for... force."

I knew what he meant. Not that Thanatos needed to be forceful- women flocked to him. He liked the chase, that's for sure. I'm fairly sure that's one of the things about me that caught his eye in the first place.

"Ares mocked Thanatos for not being able to sleep with every girl in his palace and teased him for it endlessly."

I scoffed and shook my head in disgust.

"You have to excuse us gods... We do not share many of your mortal tendencies. Incest, for instance, isn't frowned upon, but encouraged for a pure lineage. Sex is another thing we promote. It's something you'll get used to, eventually."

"I suppose..." I wasn't sure it was something I wanted to get used to- some things are better left sacred.

Hypnos saw my resistance and muttered; "What's normal for the spider is chaos for the fly..."

I nodded, understanding the fact that we were from two very different spectrums of the world. Things weren't always so easy. Black and white often created grey patches; some we try to ignore. Most we can't.

We tend to forget humans are, after all, just decorated animals.

"In any case," Hypnos twirled the dark liquid in his glass; "Thanatos naturally wanted to prove Ares wrong, and so he came back here and-"