The Old Family

(1)Burning the Midnight Oil

Burning the Midnight Oil

"So you see Lady Aurora, I have no choice but to relocate my lovely festival and I am deeply worried it will affect the outcome of the whole ceremony. I cannot imagine the disgrace!"

"No..." I tapped my finger against the old parchment in my lap. My voice was far off and clearly filled with boredom. "We can't have that, now can we..."

"Exactly! Oh, Lady Aurora, not only are you stunningly beautiful, you are so wise too..." The old demi-god Priapus said with a twinkle in his dark brown eyes. I wanted to sigh.

You'd think after our first few meetings he'd actually stop flirting with me and start lifting his eyes up from my chest. A girl can dream...

"Thank you, Priapus. You're too kind, but let's focus on your- uh... What was it again?"

"Phallic festival."

I wanted to throw up and cringe, but that would be very unprofessional- especially considering Priapus was the god of large- erm... those things.

"Right." I cleared my throat and tried to smile as genuinely as I could. This was not how I wanted my lovely, sunny day to go- discussing penis festivals with an old god whose eyes seemingly had a larger magnetic pull towards the earth's core. "So you say Demeter's flower festival will ruin your... eh - lovely celebrations, because they're in the same field?"

"Exactly!" Priapus exclaimed and pointed a finger up as if expecting Zeus' ghost to agree with him. He would have too, if the old perverted king was still alive. "I must ask that you, as the royal advisor, inform Demeter to move her festival's date."

"Ah, yes..." I closed the parchment and gave Priapus a smile; "Unfortunately, you do know the ranking of gods and goddesses and Demeter is an Olympian. I'm afraid your festival is the one who needs to change dates- if it bothers you so much."

Priapus grumbled a bit and stroked a hand down his long beard. I eyed him from under my lashes; "You understand, don't you Priapus?"

The old god grunted a quick 'yes' and stood up, his toga riding a bit too low on his waist for my liking. I avoided my eyes. I tucked the paper back into his hand and smiled politely; "Thank you for coming to see me about your concerns. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you today."

"Ah, no matter! Aurora dear, just seeing your face makes it all worth the trouble!" He bowed slowly and winked. I grinned and waited for the old man to leave the room, grumbling as he went. I expect Demeter will be very happy to hear that the annual 'phallic festival' was to be moved to another date, so as not to clash with her 'flower festival'.

Poor woman has been rotten with worry for months now. Who wouldn't be? I frankly don't enjoy a nice dab of genitals in my rose bush...

Well, you know what I mean.

I was bent over the desk and searched through some papers, my long, emerald dress swaying against the golden legs of the large piece of furniture. I thought a bigger desk would make all of this paperwork easier to find, but clearly it only made the search area bigger. Smart move, Aurora...

"Done for the day?"

I looked up into Apollo's bright blue-green eyes; they shone like diamonds. He was in a happy mood. Well, no wonder. He'd just returned from Earth and I knew exactly why he'd been there. I scheduled it for him, after all...

"Have a nice tryst?"

Apollo chuckled and came to stand next to me to pour himself some wine. "Very pleasant, thanks for asking. And how was the meeting with Priapus. I just saw him leave with a rather stressed look on his face."