The Myth of the Greek Heavenly Demon - Chapter 20

Chapter 20 – The Sound Of Hammers Shaking The Earth Like The Etna Volcano…

“Talli!!”

“Madam!”

After a fierce battle, Atalanta was subdued and fell to her knees, and as she even began to shed tears, a nymph who had been fidgeting beside Chiron tried to rush out.
Her name was Chariclo.
She was a nymph of the forest that protected the waters of Messenia, the Forest of Heroes, and she was known as the foster mother to all the heroes.
Almost all the heroes who studied in the Forest of Heroes were her foster children, and the heroes loved and respected her for always supporting each one of them with kindness and love.
Even Hercules, who would run amok when drunk, would quietly lower his head and calm down at the sound of her scolding.
One could see how deep the respect and affection the young heroes had for her were.

And only Chiron could understand how great the affection was that Chariclo, their foster mother and godmother, poured upon them.
And among those children, Atalanta was the one who weighed most heavily on the minds of both Chiron and Chariclo.

In an unforeseen accident that Chiron had failed to anticipate, Atalanta came to know about her birth in the most painful way possible.
And thereafter, despite trembling with loneliness, she began to sharpen her words and reject everyone except the Chiron couple.
For the couple who remembered Atalanta, once full of pride and illuminating those around her, the deepening wound beneath her thorns only deepened their sorrow.
However, last night, Chiron confided to Chariclo that the new student Dianes, who had just arrived yesterday, might be able to soothe Atalanta’s wounds.
An individual who, for the first time in a long while, made Chiron reveal even a bit of his true power.
Her opposition was based on the argument that, as impressive as his martial prowess was, healing a wounded soul was a different matter entirely, but she couldn’t ultimately bend Chiron’s will.

As a result, for the first time since Hercules joined, Atalanta was paired with Dianes as his guide during the free combat morning run, an exercise where no one had ever eaten breakfast.
In the end, the two clashed.

And as expected, the result was Atalanta’s defeat.
Adding insult to injury, Dianes even tried to break her last pride, her swift legs.
Atalanta eventually burst into tears.

“Let go of me, Chiron!”

“Calm down, madam! I assure you, the boy won’t dare harm Atalanta.”

Atalanta, who had always been the painfully sensitive one, was crying so sorrowfully that Chariclo could hardly bear it, but Chiron’s resolve was firm.

“If she can’t break down the wall she’s built around herself now, Atalanta will forever be bound by the past she’s holding onto!”

“But… but…”

What mother could stay still after hearing her daughter’s cries?
Atalanta’s heart-wrenching sobs felt like they were tearing through her entire chest.

“Look over there. Dianes is also withdrawing.”

Just as Chiron said, Dianes was lifting his feet away from Atalanta and slowly stepping back.

“Haha, what did I tell you? You should have trusted me.”

“Ah…”

But that wasn’t all.
He even reached out his hand to Atalanta, who had fallen to the ground in tears, and helped her up.
Even though Atalanta had aimed at a highly disrespectful and fatal spot for a man, Chiron, upon seeing it earlier, knew it was a hundred times her fault. Nonetheless, Dianes was showing magnanimity as a victor and displaying generosity and mercy as a hero.

“From the first moment we met, I thought this child had as much depth in her heart as she did in her competitive spirit. Fortunately, with this, Atalanta’s wounds…”

“…Excuse me, Chiron?”

“Yes?”

“Something seems strange.”

With a bewildered expression, Chariclo pointed to the two individuals.
Dianes, who was helping Atalanta up and brushing off her shoulders, was indeed the epitome of a hero…

“Gasp!”

“Chiron?!”

For some reason, just looking at Dianes’s smile sent chills down Chiron’s spine, causing his mouth to twitch.
That smile.
It was definitely the smile he saw before turning Artemis’s costume inside out on the island of Passos….!

“Madam, please stay here for a moment. I need to stop that child quickly…”

-Bang!!

Chiron hurried to calm Dianes, but the thunderous noise shaking the colosseum had already silenced everything around.
As if struck by lightning, everyone looked up to the sky, wondering if Zeus was angry, then slowly, as they lowered their heads, they saw the two at the origin of the sound.

Atalanta had fallen backward with a bright red bump on her forehead.
And in front of her, Dianes looked down at her with a look of disdain, while rubbing his reddened forehead.

Later, Orpheus would recall it as a marvelous event, reminiscent of the sound of Hephaestus’s hammer, where Artemis’s hunter was brought down by a headbutt of tremendous power.

Atalanta’s oldest memory was being held in her mother’s furry embrace, nursing.
When her mother stood on two legs, it felt like a small mountain was rising.
When her mother roared, the entire forest trembled, and a small hurricane arose.
Even a sharp-toothed leopard or a massive boar became meek as lambs with one slap from her mother.
The king of the mountain range, the proud ruler of the wild.
Atalanta’s mother was truly a strong being.
But when she whimpered from hunger, her mother would hold her in her soft arms and nurse her.
When she fussed in her sleep, her mother would carry her on her sturdy back, endlessly walking through mountains and forests to soothe her.
Even after she started to walk, and when she ventured out of the cozy cave to explore her mother’s mountain range, that sturdy back was still hers to claim.

Collecting dew-kissed wild strawberries in the spring.
Licking honey brought by her mother in the shade of cool trees to avoid the scorching sun in the summer.
Hunting plump salmon in the bustling river in the fall.
And cuddling in her mother’s arms to escape the chilly winter winds in their warm cave.

Before she received the name Atalanta, her life with her mother, as she remembered it, was her most precious memory.
However, as she gradually grew up, she realized something strange.
Her hands were small and delicate, unlike her mother’s sharp claws, and she wasn’t as fluffy and large as her mother.
Finding this odd, she asked her mother, but her mother would only smile silently and carry her on her head, walking through the mountain range.
Afterward, when Chiron brought her and taught her human language, Atalanta realized that her mother was a bear and that she was a human.

Artemis, the Goddess of the Forest and Maidens, pitied the little girl abandoned in the forest and sent her bear to take care of her.
Afterward, when she grew up, Chiron also informed her that it was at the request of Artemis, who thought the time had come, that he took her in, and she was just confused.

For some reason, she woke up to find her mother gone; the little her sat curled up in the cave, waiting for her mother.
To her, the world was the mountain range she wandered with her mother, and to her, life was the life in the forest she walked with her mother.
She cried sorrowfully and begged Chiron.
Just to return to the mountain range—to her mother’s arms—she didn’t need to be a hero or anything.
She just wanted to remain her mother’s little child.
However, Chiron firmly shook his head and comforted her.

‘You are a great child. You are the child loved by the king of the mountain range under the care of Artemis. Would you disappoint Artemis and the king of the mountain range who cherished you so much?’

Those words from Chiron made her stop crying.
Yes, I am the child blessed by the great bear that ruled the mountain range, and the beautiful and strong Artemis.
The king of the mountain range she remembered did not beg so weakly, and the Artemis in Chiron’s stories was a noble and proud hunter.
If I, who have received their blessings, do not honor their names, it would be a disgrace to their love and blessings.
The nameless child, who was the daughter of a bear, thus became a huntress named Atalanta.
The teachings of the forest and hunting learned from the king of the forest were further sharpened under the guidance of Chiron, and the small Forest of Heroes, filled with pride, acknowledged her as the daughter of Artemis and stood shoulder to shoulder with her.

Thus, days filled with pride as Artemis’s daughter and the happiness of self-discipline continued.
As days went by, the increasingly beautiful and strong Atalanta always ran through the mountains and forests, hunting the fattest deer and boars to offer to Artemis and the king of the mountain, who had returned to the constellations.
The young men, who admired such a beautiful huntress, caused a stir in the Forest of Heroes and neighboring countries with their fever.

Then, one day, suddenly, soldiers set up camp opposite the Forest of Heroes and blocked the entrance, and their messenger ran to the forest entrance and declared,

“In the name of Iasus, King of Arcadia, immediately return Atalanta to the royal family!”

She was confused.
She was the daughter of Artemis. She was the daughter of the king of the mountains who had nursed her.
But why does this Iasus, King of Arcadia, claim to be her father?
It was nonsense, of course, it was nonsense.

However, seeing the young heroes, furious at the sudden demand to surrender their comrade, and her mentor, Chiron, looking troubled at the sudden appearance of the army.
It seemed right that she should step forward to mediate the situation for now.
So Atalanta left only a letter for Chiron and quietly left the forest at dawn, heading toward the Arcadian camp.
However, she had no worries.
According to the teachings of her mentor, the soldiers of Arcadia were honorable and disciplined elite troops.
If she responded with courtesy and pride, as she was taught, they would also respond with respect and honor.
With such expectations, she appeared at the Arcadian camp.
Yet those expectations were shattered into pieces.