The Curse of Love

A Story by Sasha Kaur

Araela, a Hunter of Artemis, angers Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and is cursed to fall from Artemis' grace.

Princess Araela waited for the ferryman, Charon, by the River Styx; her long, silver hair blowing in the wind. She was surrounded by spirits of the dead, but unlike those poor unfortunate souls, she was not overwhelmed by grief. She did not wail or scream like they did. Instead, she was the picture of serenity.

Araela turned her back on the River Styx and made her way to the bench under the dead tree with a gnarled trunk. The crowd of spirits parted before her, for they knew that she was royalty.

It was not the crown above her brow that marked her as a noble, it was how she held herself ; with confidence, poise and a sense of regality that only those with royal blood possessed. Even the spirits of the dead - no matter where or whence they came from - knew to respect someone of noble birth.

Araela sat down on the bench, ankles crossed, and began to braid her hair. Just then, the spirit of a fallen warrior stepped forward.

"Your Highness", he said, bowing deeply.

"You don't have to bow, soldier," said Araela, with a sweet smile. "And you don't have to call me 'You Highness'. Do away with those formalities. Just call me Araela".

"Yes, Your Highness. Errr... I mean, ummm, Araela".

Araela flashed him an amused smile. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"Well... Umm... We- ", he gestured to the crowd of spirits behind him, " -were wondering how you died. It's unusual that a princess, such as yourself, would die at such a young age." He quickly added, " We don't mean to offend you or anything, we were just curious".

She finished braiding her hair and used a leather strap to tie off the end. "I'm not offended. I don't mind telling you, but it's a long story".

"Then tell us. It's not like there's anything else to do while we wait for Charon," said a spirit from the crowd. The other spirits nodded in agreement.

"Very well," she said. She smoothed out her skirts and began her tale...

"It all started when I broke the Hunters' vow. To join the Hunt, you have to pledge yourself to the goddess, Artemis. But that is not all there is to being a Hunter. You also have to turn your back on the company of men. to never grow up, never get married. to be a maiden eternally. To forswear romantic love forever."

"The life of a princess was not for me, so I swore my services to Artemis. I was next in line for the throne as I had no brothers but I relinquished my place as heir to the throne and gained a new title as a Hunter. I became an immortal."

"I upheld my oath for nearly two hundred years. I would have been a Hunter forever if Aphrodite had not meddled with my life."

"Why? What did she do?" asked the spirit of a young a man.

"The goddess Aphrodite made me fall in love,: replied Araela, with a melancholic smile.

"But isn't love a good thing?" the young man said.

"It is, but love can also be manipulated to be a bad thing. Take the Trojan War, for example. Aphrodite caused that to happen."

"But love prevailed in the end," he said.

"Yes, it did, but at the cost of thousands of lives," Araela said, trying to reason with him.

The spirit of the young man opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by another spirit before he could say anything. "Oh, hush up! Just listen to her story without interrupting!"

The young man grumbled to himself but did not say anything else.

"Now, where was I?" asked Araela, temporarily lost.

"You fell In love," prompted the spirit of the fallen warrior.

"Ah,yes. I fell in love with a demigod named Deimos. He was a son of Apollo and he had inherited his father's good looks. His hair was the colour of the sun and his eyes were a lovely hazel, but it wasn't his appearance that caught my attention. No. It was his skill in archery. No matter what he targeted, his arrow would always hit the mark."

"At first, I resisted his advances, but he kept pursuing me, even after I told him I was a Hunter. I even threatened him to stay away but my threats fell on deaf ears."

"Then one night, Aphrodite appeared before me. She chastised me, like I was a little girl, for not giving in to Deimos. I reminded her that I was a Hunter and I had sworn to be a maiden forever. I tried to be as respectful as possible when I told her that I would not break my vow just to appease her, but I might have still sounded impudent. She became quite angry and said, ''Heed my words, Areala. I will cause you to make the worst mistake of your life and you WILL fall from Artemis' grace". I wanted to notch an arrow and shoot her on the spot," Araela said.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The spirits became uneasy. "You should be careful about what you say about the goddess," said the spirit of an old man.

"Why? What's the worst that she can do? I'm already dead," she shrugged non-chalantly. "Besides, she has no power here. This is Hades' domain."

"Anyway, Aphrodite left after she gave me her 'blessing'. I felt no different that day, but the next day was a different story entirely. I started feeling... attracted to Deimos". If spirits could blush, then Araela's face would have been bright pink. " I met him everyday after that and then one night, I gave myself to him. Artemis came to me the next day and cursed me. She said that for breaking my Hunters' vow, I would die protecting a person whom I believed to truly love me. I begged and pleaded with the goddess and tried to explain that I had had no control over my actions. That I was cursed by Aphrodite, but the goddess was merciless. As aftermath of Artemis' curse, my long, brown hair turned silver and I felt as though part of me had died. The Hunter part of me."

Araela looked down at her hands as tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, took a deep breath to calm herself and continued her story.

"I stayed with Deimos after that, trying to deal with my actions and trying to learn how to truly love him".

"But didn't you already love him before?" asked a spirit.

Araela shook her head. "No. I was compelled to love him by Aphrodite's curse. There wasn't any place for him in my heart." She went on telling her story.

"About a week later, Artemis' curse came true. A Nemean lion attacked us. To be more specific, it attacked Deimos. It ignored me completely. Deimos fought long and hard but he soon grew weary. I shot arrow after arrow at the lion but they bounced off the lion harmlessly. I suddenly remembered how Hercules had defeated the Nemean lion. I shouted at Deimos and told him to attack the lion's eyes and mouth, its weak spots. But the lion was wary. It closed its mouth and narrowed its eyes to slits".

"Deimos grew weak from his injuries and faltered. The lion crouched and readied itself to pounce on him. Just then, a voice echoed in my mind. It was Aphrodite. She said, " What better love story than one that ends in tragedy...". I felt a sudden force propel me forward, almost as if someone had pushed me, straight into the awaiting jaws of the Nemean lion".

"My spirit lingered long enough for me to see that Deimos used the window of opportunity I'd provided to stab the lion in its throat. Once the lion had died, he collected its pelt and left. He didn't spare me a second glance."

"In the remaining few seconds that I was on Earth, another voice echoed in my mind. This time, it was Artemis. She said, smugly, " I told you this would happen... The price for breaking your oath." I screamed and shouted at her that it was not my fault, but I was already being dragged down to Hades. I came to terms with what happened while I waited for Charon with the rest of you".

"And that, is my tale," Araela said, with a sense of finality.

"That was pretty crazy of you to jump between that Nemean lion and Deimos," said a young boy, shaking his head.

"She did it for love," said a young girl, dreamily.

"No. Didn't you young-lings hear what she said? She was pushed. No doubt it was Aphrodite's work," said the spirit of a grumpy old man.

Araela nodded at the old man. "I believe it was her , too."

The spirits broke out into discussion on whether Araela's actions were caused by the goddesses or not.

She heard a group of spirits discussing what was the craziest thing that she did. One said it was breaking her Hunters' vow, while another said it was taking the vow in the first place.

Araela strode towards them. "Do you want to know what I think was the craziest thing?" she asked them. They nodded. She smiled and simply said, " Angering a goddess".

"I don't get it," said a young girl. "Why is that crazy?"

"Well, if I hadn't angered Aphrodite, this wouldn't have happened. If only I had just kept quiet," Araela said, with a tone of regret. "What's been done has been done. But if I had to choose among everything I did, then I would definitely say that was the craziest thing I've ever done in my life."