For the love of the Gods

Buffy was bored; she had been sitting at the bank of some river shed found for almost an hour.

Shocked when she realized she would love to slay something…and while she was on a god killing roll she could put a couple arrows in Artemis’s arrogant ass. Laughing softly at that image Buffy didn’t notice Kit approach until she was right beside her.

“What’re you doing” Kit asked politely, Buffy jumped slightly and smiled tightly at the satyr.

“Nothing, I get that this is heaven and I don’t have to work anymore…but is there anyway I can slay something?” Buffy asked, she couldn’t be the only slayer that died and still wanted to slay...could she?

“Yes there’s a daily hunt, we had to learn long ago that slayers differ from the average mortal. So each day at dusk we ride into the outskirts of Tarturus and hunt demons, real ones not those little hybrids that are dancing around earth.” Kit smiled and sat down beside Buffy. Involuntarily Buffy felt her eyes drawn to Kits hoofed feet.

“Do I scare you?” Kit asked

“No, I’ve just never seen a satyr before. You remind me of someone…I can’t remember who though.”

“That’s not unusual, you’ll eventually think of your mortal life less and less.”

“I don’t want too though; I mean…who will take care of Dawn? Or Giles…and who will save Xander and Anya when they get cornered by some vampire which lemme tell you, happens more than I think is normal…I miss them Kit.” Choking back tears Buffy looked away and angrily wiped her cheeks.

Kit frowned and reached up, idly fingering her horn she mulled over the right thing to say.

“I know it doesn’t make sense now, but eventually you’ll let go of your old life and everything will be better. You’ll know they’re safe, because they are, Buffy you died a noble death…slayers slay for the safety or the mortal world and when they die…well its fuckn spring break.”

“You know what spring break is?” Buffy asked, surprised and somewhat calmed by Kit’s words.

“Well, we satyrs aren’t known to follow the rules.” Kit smiled and then rolled her eyes. “Plus Morpheus lost a game of chess and id heard one of the slayers mention it so I wanted to see what it was all about….so….this goes no where, he gave me a pass to Spring Break in 92’”

Laughing Buffy looked over and try as she might couldn’t quite picture the Satyr at a bikini clad beach party in Florida. Kit chuckled and reached into a small satchel, pulling out bread and cheese.

Buffy remembered her wine and brought it into her lap, pulling out the cork she handed it to Kit who grinned and took a long drink.

“So why do you serve her? The Goddess” Buffy asked, breaking off small portions of the bread and cheese.

“She saved my life, my older brother Pan, he is sort of the unofficial king of the satyrs. We used to serve Bacchus and boy those were some fun times; we drank and partied all the time. But when I was born, Bacchus took it as a sign that my kind were cursed, so he set about to kill all Satyrs and Artemis put out his eye and here we are.”

“Why when you were born?” Buffy asked, intently listening as she ate and drank.

“There are no female satyrs. Or I should say before me all girls that were born from a satyr father were nymphs. I’m no nymph…cant fucking stand water.” Buffy couldn’t help but burst into giggles at the dry tone that Kit used in the latter part of her sentence.
After she composed herself she sat up and pulled at the grass.

“They took that as a bad omen then?” Buffy asked. Kit nodded.

“None of my family cares, but there are others that blame me for us falling from Bacchus’s grace. Honestly id rather serves Artemis any day.” Kit smiled wanly and stared off into the distance.

“You remind me of my sister, Dawn.” Buffy said, Kit smiled and nodded.

“The Key…it’s good those monks sent her to you. It was near impossible for Apollo and Zeus to devise a way to get her to you without interfering with the monks decisions directly.”

“She’s just my sister to me.” Buffy said quietly, Kit nodded again and looked up into the sky. Standing she bent to gather up the remains of there meal.

“The hunt will begin soon, are you coming?” Kit asked, Buffy shrugged and stood.

“Why not, could use to get rid of some of this energy.” Buffy stayed with Kit when the satyr turned and started to run; looking over in surprise Buffy questioned all the training she ever had because she was sweating horribly and Kit didn’t even look winded.

When they reached the court of Artemis’s temple Buffy looked around in shock, the room was packed with girls, there had to be easily a hundred.

“Now the twins are going to pick who goes with whom.” Kit whispered in her ear.

Looking up she saw Artemis standing beside a male version of her, he was truly handsome. He stood at the same height as his sister, with rich golden eyes and curled flame colored hair, for some strange reason Buffy was more drawn to his sister, the Goddess had her hair pulled away from her face, a series of braids and bands held her copper locks in check, the Goddess wore a white tunic and Roman style armor, the twins only difference in appearance aside from gender was that on Apollo’s chest plate there was a sun emblazoned, and on Artemis’s a moon and bow were intertwined.

“Slayers, we have a new addition to our forests, as we do whenever an addition is brought here we will redo each team, we will embark on this hunt as we always do, we have one night in Tarturus and will meet back here as my brother pulls the sun into the sky. Now to find those that will follow the sun and who will follow the moon.”

Artemis smiled and held her hands out palms up, Buffy watched as they began to glow a bright golden color, looking over at Kit in alarm she noticed that the satyr didn’t look worried in the least.

Suddenly the room was filled with blinding lights and when it died away she realized every slayer had either a small silver orb, or a small golden orb on there hand. Looking down she lifted her hands to her face and was surprised when the small silver light on her hand was a copy of Artemis’s symbol, the moon and bow intertwined.

Looking up she realized that the Goddess was staring straight at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Swallowing she looked over at Kit who was talking excitedly to a tall darkly handsome satyr, ‘that must be Pan’ Buffy thought.

“I see you’re in my unit.” A strangely silky voice said behind her, turning Buffy was surprised to see Artemis standing right beside her. Buffy didn’t fail to notice that all the girls nearest to her were in some way staring at the Goddess. Damn the woman was tall…

“Yes I am.” Buffy said levelly, trying not to make it to obvious she wasn’t comfortable with the Goddess standing so close.

“No slip ups Slayer.” Turning away from her Artemis raised a horn to her lips and blew, suddenly the entire courtyard became a flurry of motion as slayers ran or rode horses after Apollo’s moving chariot, Artemis who was now her own chariot pulled out and Buffy ran to the nearest armory and grabbed a long sword before turning and sprinting after the other girls.

***********************

Artemis turned to look behind her and growled, the new girl was keeping up. Turning back she was mindful of her wolves as she steered the chariot to the outskirts of her domain.
“Goddess…do you have a moment.” Artemis turned to see her second in command, Theron. A sleek beautiful centaur woman, with hair as black as night and a horses coat to match.
“What is it Theron.” Artemis was seeing the beginnings of Tarturus and was anxious to get the hunt underway.

“I would like your permission to court a fallen slayer.” Theron said, Artemis shrugged carelessly.

“You don’t need my permission, court who you wish. Now shut it, the hunts about to begin.” Raising her sword high above her Artemis charged through the barrier between her forests and Hades domain.

*****************

Buffy felt her instincts come alive as they all broke through some sort of wall, looking up she saw a centaur coming toward her, apparently heaven was chalk full of surprises. The centaur was gorgeous, hell everyone here was. The centaur’s horse half was black as pitch with a spackle of gray and while spots on her flanks, while her human half was tall and lean, olive toned skin and silky black hair.

Her pointed ears twitched as the centaur moved into position beside her, confused until Theron extended her arm, looking up she saw the centaur smile at her and gesture with her head.

Grasping the woman’s arm Buffy was swung up onto the centaurs back, surprised at first she held onto the creature’s shoulders.

As Theron began regaining speed Buffy chanced a look at the snarly Goddess once Artemis’s eyes locked on Buffy, she was a little surprised when Artemis suddenly lost control of the chariot and the entire thing crashed into a boulder Artemis failed to steer around.

Many things happened at once; Theron whinnied and turned, trotting over to where the Goddess stood fuming. The other slayers had stopped and were all trying to calm the wolves that were clamoring for Artemis’s attention.

“IM GODDESS…I am fine…continue on the hunt.” Artemis shot a furious look at Buffy before un hooking her horses harness and climbing onto the animal and charging after the girls.

“Is she going to be in a bad mood now?” Buffy asked softly, Theron snorted and laughed.

“She is never in any other type of mood Sunny Hair” Theron said softly. Buffy smiled at the odd nickname, but more surprising she found she was staring at Therons lips, her very full beautiful lips.

TBC

Comments?

Thanks for the reviews!!!