Let me tell ye a story that was passed down through generations. From my Muth, her Muth and her Muth's Muth. I tell ye this because it be so important and I be beholden to me ancestors who say it be the female of the bloodline who should tell the tale to her youngers, to any and all who be wantin to hear of struggle and triumph. And love especially. A deep and powerful love between four heroes in an age long past.

You see, there be two handsome men and two comely women. The four be alive during the same years in that ancient past and their futures set to stone, although not in a manner we be expecting. For these four be partnered, you see, with bonds deeper than the sea that brought us from our homeland to rest here all comfortable-like in our nest.

One gent be part-god, in the line of Zeus, righteous as the day is long. The other three be mortals, all very special in their own ways.

The older of the women, the warrioress, especially beholden of powers. And there was a deep dark evil in her that be fierce when piqued. It be up to the younger, she who tells stories so sweet they dripped honey from her pretty tongue, to keep the warrioress calm and favored. For when they be parted the dark woman gets all ruthless and crazy-like. Yet, unbeknownst to the younger she is also loved, true by the female warrioress, but also by a golden man.

Twas the good-looking he, the hunter that be bound with Partgod. Himself loved the bard but knew not how to express what was in his heart to the precious little wench he felt a jewel. Then they be parted by circumstance and need.

It came about the women be transported by magic to a future time. A quarter century, at least, parted the four. All contact lost, never to return.

Some say, but it be not confirmed, that the part-god felt relief at this break for he kept secret a truth not so mysterious. He loved Hunter with a deep hidden, jealous passion. As long as his companion pined over Bard there be a chance he and he be parted, a fate the Partgod could not abide.

Then one day in that future time that be long in our past, on a land far from their own, the warrioress, tall and dark and brave, fell into the hands of bad. There she be tormented and tortured cruel. Finally, she die at the hands of evil, for evil she had wrought in her before years, and there be much sadness. For she had changed, truly changed, into a good one, a hero to be proud.

Bard, having learned all she did about battles and passion from her friend, was lost. Sadly, she poured beloved's ashes into the ocean and watched as water and wind spread and consumed what be once her's alone. Bard traveled she did, trying to help thems who couldn't helps themselves. Yet she pined and badly.

It be but one season and she return to home, to the land where she had been bred. But gone was family. Gone was everyone she loved. What, she thought, had she done to deserve such a horrible fate?

Then once again she beheld Hunter, made the same age as when she had left the past time. Magic by the gods, some say. Hunter's Partgod could not bare to lose him, it is said, as he saw his companion, he who gave him purpose, growing older.

Yet soon, after the change, a strangeness happened. Partgod found another. So cruel and guilty was he to have tampered with the natural order. He was made by no other than a love god, Cupid he be, to feel overwhelming devotion to the Hearth Goddess, Hebe.

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But love be love, Hunter thought unawares, and he be happy for companion. He wished Partgod and bride well. But it be done with a half heart because Hunter truly yearned for what Partgod had. He also be angered with him for interfering, as all the gods had done down through those ancient times.

Then, when he beheld she who meant so much and discovered Bard be alone, Hunter was again consumed with passion. He wished nothing more than to be groom to a willing bride.

They wed, loved long, deep and natural - as was in both their natures - and be happy. She give him six youngers but always there be a yearning in both for what they had lost. For as they loved one another deeply they loved even more those who be gone from them.

And finally, when Hunter and Bard be old and gray, she fell into illness and he knelt at her bedside and they reminisced over their grand life. "Be not sad for me, husband." Bard had uttered, "I go on to paradise." Then, during a moment, just before the end come, she look into the heavens and saw her other beloved - her tall, dark warrioress - and knew where she be fated. She gently called a name that was not of her husband and lifted a hand.

He looked to where she look but saw nothing. But he understood. "Go to her." Hunter say, "And one day soon perhaps I be joining you both?" but in saying the words he thought of Partgod and be mightily sad for he be missing him bad.

With that, knowing his thought and loving him just the same, bride look back at her groom, voicing a word of affection, and gently passed on, hearing only his quiet whimper of grief in closing.

It would not be long before he too did a passing. Those who attended Hnter's last days, including he and Bride's children, say he did not go on as imagined. It be said he but go to that land where his Partgod lived. He who had many many children with the goddess, all of whom the hunter watched over and protected when Partgod too eventually passed.

And it was promised, by Cupid, that Hunter and Bard's children also be protected, by the gods themselves, and be forever bless.

Was there ever a rejoining of the four? Some say in the deep dark night, when you spy stars passing one another in the sky, that be them. And the other stars, that be still, be the gods who look down upon us, their children, with a protective light.

The moral be, because children there always be a moral, to love and be love is a great matter. It give and give. The stain of evil in mortal beings *can* be washed away if it be true that there is love, retribution and forgiveness.

And we *will* be reunited with those who mean the most to our inners because that be the way of fate.

And that be the way ... of love.



THE END
by
IolausGabLuv