The Moirae | Teen Ink

The Moirae

April 7, 2014
By variant SILVER, Wright City, Missouri
variant SILVER, Wright City, Missouri
6 articles 6 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
What a slut time is, she screws everybody.
-John Green, The Fault In Our Stars


*The Moirae= the three Fates
*Ou'le!= Hello, in ancient Greek.


From the moment they were born, their fates were sealed. Three girls were risen from the ashes of the *Moirae before them and were forced to live in a dark, dank cave. To protect the girls from those who might do them harm, the mountain was sealed with infinite mists to shield the girls from the human eye. Only a God or an otherworldly creature could see beyond the mists.
Ever since Lachesi was a child she had been a curious one. She measured the lives of a mortal being, while her sister Clotho spun the threads, and her sister Atopos cut the thread that caused the mortals to never awake. To be quite honest, they were feared. The Moirae even made the God’s quake in fright.
The day Lachesi escaped the cave was no exception. Zeus’s thunderbolts roared in the sky, and shook the grounds beneath. The mortals ducked and screamed in fear. The God’s searched the ground for the girl who had no intention of returning back to the cave. Lachesi bounced back in shock as the lightning bolt split a tree in half. She cowered even farther under her cloak of invisibility. To the mortals, she would appear a beautiful maiden, with flowing blond locks and icy blue eyes. To the God’s she would not appear, it would seem as if she had just vanished. When she reached his village, she had a plan to give him the cloak, and so he would be invisible to both the humans and the God’s. She would spare his life, and let herself be struck down by Zeus’ bolts.
The bolts had yet to reach his town, so she ran the streets in a crazy looking for him.
A slight breeze ruffled his lustrous brown hair over his forehead, as he gently swept it away. His family was poor, so at such a young age, he was immediately put to work. His skin gleamed with sweat from the smothering heat of the sun up above. To her, he was beautiful, even more so first hand. It seemed as if her heart was crashing against her chest. Then the sound of thunder began rolling in.
Quickly, Lachesi ran to the boy. He looked up at her smiling.
“*Ou'le!” he said. They didn't have time to talk, because the longer she stood there, the closer the lightning came, as did their chances of surviving.
“Alexarchos, you must run, leave now.” Lachesi urged the boy.
“What?” The boy asked, looking down at her. He was confused as to what she was asking. He couldn't seem to comprehend why she was talking as if she knew him.
“The Moriae have destined for you to be an example. Your thread was set to be cut today, but I have temporarily stalled my sisters.”


The God’s were a reasonably large part of the mortal’s culture. They prayed to them, and left sacrifices, hoping to get good fortune in return. When someone tells a mortal, the God’s have destined them to die, they are not one’s to stay.


“Where will I go?” the boy asked.


“Anywhere, just get out of this village, and do not stop until you leave it safely behind.” She paused, “and take this.”
Lachesi took off the cloak that hid her from the God’s, and draped it over his shoulders. “You must go now,” she said.


The lightning thundered closer, each bolt coming quicker than the last. Hearing the mortal’s screams sent her heart into a wild frenzy. It wasn't that she was afraid of the God’s killing her, she was afraid of what they would do to her if she was caught. All three sister’s had been specifically forbidden to interact with the mortals. In no time would it be necessary to speak with one. Lachesi knew the punishments of her doing so. The consequences she would have to bear, no matter how frightening. She would deal with them if they caught her, but for now she ran.


Lachesi forced herself to run in a different direction than Alexarchos had gone in. Though she very desperately wanted to chase him. As another bolt stuck, it sounded as if it were right next to her, just as the ground began to shake. It split right down the middle as someone arose from it. Hades appeared right before her eyes, in all of his glory. His black hair was dark, as he smiled sadistically at her.
“My dear Lachesi,” Hades began, “come with me.”
His hands were outstretched, they had black vines going up and towards his arms, making it seems as if it were poison racing through his veins. A bolt struck right behind them, causing Lachesi to fall forward and into the arms of Hades. He pulled her down into the whole with them, as she struggled in his arms.
“Let me go,” she gasped as the air seemed to become thick and cold. She could see her own breath. It was different than she thought it would be - the Underworld that is.
“My dear Lachesi,” Hades said, placing her next to a river, “if I were to release you, then who would save your poor boy. He doesn't have the immortal powers your sister’s do.” Hades said, gesturing towards an adjacent wall. Her sisters were tied in snakes, venomous to immortals.
“What did you do?” she questioned before looking back at the river. Right before her eyes Alexarchos swam across her vision. “Let them go,” Lachesi demanded, sounding more confident than she actually felt.
“I will, in good time my dear. First I have a series of tasks that you must complete.”
Before she could even answer he continued on. “You must complete all nine requests, or your sister’s and your precious boy will die down here.”
She contemplated praying to the God’s above, but that had never done her any good. “Okay,” she whispered, knowing the only way to save them would to complete the tasks, and pray the God’s wouldn’t catch her.
As Hades listed off the tasks, a thought came to mind, was he doing this to spite the God’s? Or was giving her these impossible tasks to make sure she didn't come back alive?



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