The sun rose early that morning, spreading rays of a golden hue across the streets of Olympus, reflecting off the many pristine buildings the likes of which could be seen nowhere else. The sun had not shone so boldly in many years, and with the new rays of light, a bold and beautiful white marble palace was unveiled to the residents of the mountain for the first time in decades. A sight lost to the mountain so long ago was returned more impressive than ever.
Down the streets of Olympus, as far as you could go, nestled amongst brilliant parks on the very edge of the mountain lay the homely palace of the eldest child of the late titan lord and lady. Awakening to the rays of her only son's domain, Hestia's face unveiled a smile rivalling the sunlight for brilliance. As she rose and changed from her sleepwear, Hestia disappeared in a swift vortex of flames only to reappear next to a building so different from those on the mountain.
As if hewn from the nature around it, vines grew from the ground up along the edges, coupling with the moss that formed along the northern edge of the building. The home and forge, combined to be one, was not the imposing masterpiece of the palaces of Olympus, design by her ever innovating niece, but a testament to the hands that built it. Running her hand along the rough surface of the weather worn wood that formed the walls of the home, Hestia reflected on the times she had watched her child build the very walls she touched. What felt like yesterday in her immortal life had been years ago.
Entering the building, Hestia was surprised to find it empty but soon deduced where she would be able to find the inhabitants. Trekking along the well worn path down to the beach, Hestia saw two large forms laying on the sands where the tides would only reach far enough to just touch. On the left there was a large white mound of fur that raised up upon hearing her approach, reaching an imposing height of 4 foot 2 having finished growing after being named the godly animal of her son. The bear turned it's piercing purple eyes upon her before running over in huge bounds and wrapping around her and encasing her in the warmth that exuded from her fur.
Chucking, Hestia softly rubbed her granddaughter's snout whilst she turned her gaze onto the large black form that had laid beside the bear that was now grumbling her approval. Similarly raising to his feet, Perseus stood at 7 feet, a sight that would send even immortals running without even seeing the razor sharp fangs or eyes that belayed the true power of the being. Morphing back into his human form, Perseus turned back to see his mother and daughter watching him and smiled with joy.
The three were soon after joined by another woman who was wrapped in a soft, light brown dress with a golden bow around her waist. Smiling, Perseus wrapped his aunt in a hug, whispering to her, "I missed you auntie."
"I missed you too nephew, it has been too long." Demeter replied, placing a soft kiss on his cheek before the pair parted, facing the others.
After their greetings, the four retreated back to the only house currently on the island, prepared for the busy time ahead, constructing the new home along with Perseus honing his newfound abilities. Once they re-entered the clearing where his home resided, the group decided on the location of the second building, placing it on the other side of the clearing as the one now there.
After quickly planning out the layout, something Demeter was surprised to find out her sister was very knowledgeable about. They decided to take a break and focus on powers before beginning the gathering of the materials they will need. As Perseus sat in the middle of the clear with his legs crossed and Erimia laying next to him, his mother and aunt in a similar position as himself across from him, he was about to begin focussing on his inner power before his mother interrupted.
"Perhaps we should start with 'Mia?" She offered, "She has always had some power, but we are unsure the gifts she may have been granted now."
Nodding, Perseus instructed his daughter on what she needed to do in order to access her power and explore it as he was about to and joined Demeter and Hestia across from her to give her space. It took a few minutes before a glow surrounded her, surprising Perseus as rather than the purples, oranges and greens which usually indicate his power, Erimia shined a bright white, the same shade as her coat, making it appear that her fur was shining and expanding to surround her.
In a brilliant flash that lit up the entire clearing, the light died out revealing a sight none of the onlookers had expected. Laying on the ground was a beautiful woman, wrapped in a soft white, flowing chiton. She had the most pristine white hair and as her eyes peered at Perseus' own, he saw the same purple she'd always had that she got from him. All in all, Erimia would easily be taken for a goddess despite her looking to be around 12 years old.
As Erimia acknowledged her situation, her eyes widened with shock as she began to panic, leading to Perseus quickly scooping her up in his arms holding her to his chest, whispering reassuring words into her hair. Finally calming down as Demeter and Hestia gave the two space, both also in shock, Perseus placed her down on her feet, luckily, she seemed to have maintained fine motor skills despite her transformation.
Once again peering into her fathers eyes, Erimia nervously asked, "W-what's happened to me father?" She spoke in a soft and velvety smooth voice.
"It seems becoming immortal has granted you a human form. It is fine my child; it just means you can return your families hugs." Perseus said with a wide smile as he re-embraced her rejoicing in her new form.
Hestia and Demeter were beckoned over by Perseus' gaze and joined the embrace, surrounding Erimia in a seemingly foreign warmth, "I'm sure you can still turn back my child." Perseus reassured her.
Smiling for the first time in this form, Erimia responded, "Good, I feel more comfortable in my original form, but this is cool."
The two goddesses present giggled as they took in her smiling form drawing a look of confusion from the newly transformed human. Turning her gaze to Perseus, Erimia silently asked the obvious question.
"You seemed to have kept your fangs and I must say it looks quite cute." Perseus said smiling merrily as he looked as the little fangs that formed her extended canines that poked out slightly as she smiled.
Blushing a bright red, Erimia transformed into her original form and let out a sigh, "much better." The two goddesses also recovered, and the group went back to their tasks of exploring the new powers the two held.
By a couple hour after noon they had decided that along with the usual effects of full godhood, Perseus had simply gained far greater control over his existing powers, to an extent that baffled the goddesses, while Erimia held the power of one of the weaker minor goddesses in the domains of her father. Summarizing their discoveries of Erimia's nature, they deduced that due to being both adopted by Perseus and his godly animal, if she could still be called that, Erimia was granted her human form and the powers of her father like a demigod child may possess, only further illustrating Perseus true extent by the extent of Erimia's own newly acquired and unpractised powers.
Whilst there was a large task ahead of the group both training Erimia in her powers, and in Perseus honing his and controlling them, they collectively decided to move onto the other task awaiting. And so the rest of the afternoon until the sun began to set was absorbed by Perseus collecting large stones with Hestia's help in fire powers to break them from the mountain, whilst Demeter went through the forest finding strong trees and increasing their size before harvesting them for Erimia to carry back to the camp, dragging the huge logs with her maw.
At night, the group ate a stew of squirrels that had been collected by Perseus with ease on the way back from his last trip lugging stones and prepared by him and his mother. As they discussed their plans over the fire, Demeter and Hestia came to the conclusion that they would spend their nights on Olympus and make the necessary appearances but otherwise spend their time on the island working on the tasks ahead.
And so, it continued, for the next month the group worked together, and a few days after the months end, stood together before the house they had built. After only a few minor adjustments to Hestia's original design the group stood before a beautiful home. Looking similar to the forge Perseus and Hestia had previously constructed, the floors were made from stone and compact dirt with thin wooden planks laid over it. The bottom of the walls were stone before changing to wood as it went up. A quarter of the way into the structure the walls extended upwards to allocate for a second floor which had an indoor balcony overlooking the foyer along with another balcony on the other side looking out into the forest beyond. Extending out to both sides from the entrance foyer were sets of rooms and straight ahead was a sitting room with lounges around a hearth along with a kitchen on the opposite end of the large space. In the middle there was a large table, the top of which was a single polished plank of wood from a huge tree that Demeter and Perseus had created as they worked on his powers.
Overall, whilst large the home retained its homely feel and had rooms for everyone, meaning the forge could become solely for creating weapons and tool and whatever else necessary whilst they could all stay in the house. As the group stood admiring the building Demeter spoke without breaking her gaze from what had become one of her proudest creations, "Are you sure you aren't also the god of carpentry Perseus?" Resulting in a chuckle from the rest of the group, including Erimia who was in her human form which was a rare occurrence.
Whilst the goddesses had both been involved in events far grander than the construction of a home, they had never created something physically with their own hands. Whilst powers were used to collect resources for the construction, all work was done by hand, with Perseus doing the heavy lifting, sometimes with the aid of Erimia in her bear form. Hestia had done a range of tasks including the handcrafting of all furniture used other than the main table, having taught herself the skill through observing mortal builders, furthermore she also created the blankets and sheets by hand with materials hunted by Perseus and his daughter, including creating the coverings for the lounges from silk velvet leaving them with a beautiful crimson hue from dyeing.
Demeter had also helped Hestia with crafting furniture but had focused on assisting Perseus in construction wherever she could. In the end, the sight of what they had achieved as a team, as a family, was impressive enough to induce an extended silence as the group was at a loss for words.
Coupled with the progress made on the construction, Erimia had gained full control of her powers, simply possessing Perseus' own powers to the extent of an extremely powerful demigoddess or weaker minor goddess, plus her transformation that she trained to use flawlessly in a battle scenario.
Perseus himself was a different story, not yet complete in his training, his powers had grown, and kept growing for the following couple weeks since they started training before evening out. Learning to control his abilities and resulting aura had at first seemed simple but evolved into a more complex task when it was realised that in order to do so he would have to master each and every power he had. Despite this he had still made good progress with control over his domains of Dawn, dusk, day, night, sun, and moon and fire coming most naturally. With coming into these domains, he gained far greater control over the purple flames he could summon, being able to now summon more and manipulate it far more precisely to the point where he could create a semi-solid construct that they figured out others with blessings of fire could use, meaning Erimia and Hestia. Furthermore, if above ground he could seamlessly teleport, just disappearing from one place and appearing in the other with no sign of his movement, though if he wasn't above ground he could still use his flames to teleport or simple flashing as he had been taught by his aunt. In addition, he can now manipulate concentrated light and darkness, both of which could be used to blind others, with shadows being able to solidify enough to wrap around and move opponents. Coupled with these abilities, he could rapidly move across short distances in straight lines with light, and shadow travel within surrounding shadows as his mother informed him, her brother could also do.
Along with a few other nifty tricks in those domains, the next to be mastered was that of battle, with which he could fight with even more prowess, something neither his mother nor aunt had imagined possible. In addition, his strength had grown tenfold to an extent beyond the natural strength of even the stronger gods due to his battle domain, meaning that Erimia also inherited strength from this domain, as would any demigods he had, which when brought up by his aunt cause blushes and denial from the relatively young god. To his pleasant surprise, the domain of battle also granted Perseus greater ability in his forge, to both craft immaculately and enchant weapons, be it to not dull, or transform into different forms.
Finally, his domains of nature were taught to him by Demeter, something the two had enjoyed bonding over as Demeter had mostly missed being able to teach her daughter Persephone, what she knew. Hearing stories of his cousin throughout the month Perseus had decided that he would also have to meet her properly, already wanting to meet Hades from the stories he had been told by his mother, but that would be a long time if Zeus' endless paranoia was any indication. With his extended powers, Perseus was now able to summon plants of all sorts from the ground, most vitally so being huge vines and roots that could go from ensnaring an enemy to toppling a building with ease. Demeter was so impressed she had told him that his power was almost as great as her own, though it was found that whilst they also shared the ability to manipulate the earth around them, Perseus was limited to earthquakes and opening ravines, whereas Demeter could use it to the point where she could be mistaken for Gaia herself by someone who hasn't seen her before.
It was upon learning more of this power that Perseus' now seemingly endless anger towards Poseidon and Zeus only grew further. Demeter had informed him when he asked why she wasn't considered so powerful given all she could do, that when her brothers found out about the extent of her abilities as they fought their father, after the war her two younger brothers had seen to demolishing most temples that had risen in her honour be it from lightning strikes or crushing waves if they were close to water, killing all mortal inhabitants with the temples' destruction. Although angered, Demeter had refused to react knowing it would only bring more harm to the mortals who had not done anything deserving of such a fate, and therefore decided to remain in the shadow of 'The Big Three', although Hades was the only one Perseus considered to be at all great even though he was yet to meet his uncle.
For his last domains, Perseus was struggling to cope with his new powers over water, something which he was now focussing on along with hunting, whereas his domain of wolves had seemed to only heighten his senses given it was mainly represented in his wolfen form and the devotion of all wolves. Whilst he had decided with the approval of his aunt and mother to wait for Aphrodite to learn the ins and outs of his domain of natural beauty given it was his greatest domain of connection to her which none of them knew much if anything about as of yet, although he had learnt to control his aura in that regard, as he was lucky to be surrounded by those considered family, lest the aura take effect given, as explained by Hestia, it amplified attraction from those around him, likely to cause all mortals and most immortals alike to be entranced and under his control as a result.
Deciding to break away from his trance, Perseus walked up to the door and held it open to admit his family to their new abode. They all entered for the first time since completion and gathered in the main room as Hestia and Perseus began on dinner whilst the other two sat on the lounges and talked together in quiet whispers. After a merry dinner, the group all retired to their separate rooms, looking forward to the future of their custom made family.
The elder goddesses were awoken the next morning to rapid and relentless clashing of metal on metal, walking down to the entrance, the two saw each other and after a glance, smirked and opened the door before settling down on the front step as they watched the two younglings battling it out without use of powers, lest the island suffer the consequences. Back and forth the weapons swung and smashed against one another and it wasn't until the two broke apart for a moment that the two observers could identify what weapons they were. It then became apparent that like usual Erimia was using her hunting knives made for her by her father, from infusing his purple flames into a large strain of quartz and then refining it into two beautiful blades, Perseus had made the permanent constructs of his powers. The fire still flickered and raged within the blades, able to break free and consume the blade in a wicked heat at the will of the wielder, although even without so, a cut from the blade, even to an immortal would leave a nasty wound that would cause both intense pain and drain their energy.
Perseus on the other hand was using his now most favoured weapon, ekleipsi, in its split form of shorter dual swords, one an inky black with a silver glow and the other a pure white with a golden glow, clearly representing the night and moon, and the day and sun respectively. Although capable of easily destroying any normal blades, Erimia's held up under their barrage, although all knew Perseus held back as whilst Erimia had clear talent she was outmatched by a fair mile. After their break, the two decided to end their workout and head in for breakfast before beginning the real training for the day.
For the following couple weeks, things ran generally in the same fashion, with Demeter and Hestia their most often, only leaving for short visits to Olympus for appearances sake, Erimia and Perseus would rise early and practice their combat before breakfast, the rest of the morning was then spent with Perseus focussing on his hunting domain which by now was mastered and so he worked on teaching the others to shoot bows although only Erimia chose to join him in hunting for lunch and dinner. Until lunch each day Erimia had been staying in her human form before changing to her more natural form as she watched Perseus train each afternoon and worked a bit on her powers.
Perseus' afternoons involved training his powers over water and pushing his boundaries, then trying to draw in all his aura and ground himself. Thankfully he had finally mastered his water powers after all these weeks, therefore not accidentally causing violent waves around the island or freak storms.
Overall, his domain over hunting gave him increased skill with a bow, although some of that must be attributed to his battle domain, further it granted him the ability to sense all nearby lifeforms, the area of detection only growing with focus and practice, and by now he could passively identify all nearby major lifeforms to himself within a hundred metre radius subconsciously at all times.
His water domain on the other hand was far more powerful, as the counterpart of his domain of fire it supplied a similar level of power, allowing him to cause storms of varying degrees extended to gale force winds and a blinding downpour. In addition, it allowed him to manipulate surrounding water to a similar degree as his fire in its precision and versatility although he could not summon it as easily from nowhere, requiring to draw some from the air with difficulty, although instead he could easily summon water from the surrounding ocean even when kilometres away, and could bring up tonnes of water straight from the ground in devastating geysers if necessary.
Whilst his powers of water could possible extend further, he decided he had sufficient control, not taking to them as naturally as his other powers, although he understood there was definitely room for growth in all his powers, just that they were more explored than his domain over water. Originally Hestia had though that this choice was based on Poseidon and had tried to convince Perseus to keep going regardless as he was of no concern in this regard and held no power over Perseus' own domains, although Perseus convinced her it was not that, and rather that he was simply more attuned to his other powers.
Regardless of all of this, Perseus awoke that morning more excited than he had ever been before, with his aura and powers entirely under his control, and him being more powerful than ever, Perseus knew the time had come. He was going to meet his mother. As that single thought ran through his mind over and over he began feeling a jumble of a range of emotions, whilst excitement remain predominant he began to worry if he was going to be good enough, or if his mother would really love him, despite Hestia's assurance that she did. More doubts ran through his mind as apprehension grew, but not one to cower before adversity Perseus pushed these feelings away and allowed his joy to consume him as he got changed into this days clothes with a bright smile on his face. Training was over and it was now that his life was truly beginning, and whatever faced he and his family he would be ready to fight and protect them, but along with that there was all the joys to look forward too, all the freedom, the friendships he'd longed for that he hid from his mother so that she didn't feel unreasonably guilty for his situation. Maybe he'd even find love, Perseus blushed at this thought pushing the ridiculous idea aside as he recalled Hestia's talk of demigods. He had long since decided to live life to a higher moral standard than all the gods who ruined mortals lives for their pleasure, especially those that did so whilst hurting those they were married too.
Hestia had taught him about the sacred concept of marriage as she spoke of her downtrodden sister who had been treated so poorly despite being the 'queen' where she held no power and all she gained was cruelty and faithlessness. Perseus had sworn years ago that when he found love, if he ever did, that it would be the right person, he would love them and they him for who each other was, not position or power, not pure lust, or a quick fling. He would make his mother Hestia proud with how he lived his life, at least that was his goal, and he hoped to do right by his other mother that he was soon to meet as well. As his thoughts began looping back, Perseus shook his head, ruffling his hair as he scoffed at his own stupid ravings, that was an issue for later, now to meet his mother, he thought, his smile returning full blast.
A/N:
Hello everyone, there's a few quick things that I wanted to cover here...
Firstly I appreciate all and any feedback and on that note, please tell me if there's a correction needed as I won't take offence and it helps to improve the story, also given how long ago it was that I started if you notice anything that doesn't make sense continuity wise please point it out so I can fix it up because I don't want it to be confusing or annoying for readers, thanks in advance.
Secondly, a question to all of you out there, I know we are yet to meet Aphrodite but as I have changed some things in terms of the timeline of events, Heracles is still at the start of his trials and the Olympians are the eldest children of Kronos - Hades, + Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes and Athena, as such I want you all to decide, will Aphrodite end up having more demigods like previously described, will she marry Hephaestus or someone else, will she stay alone satisfied with her family in Perseus and the family he's already building? The decision it up to you all.
Well then, sorry for that taking so long but wanted to give you all an update on a few things, please leave reviews and thanks for reading, 'til next time :)