“One.”
“Excuse me?”
“Two.”
“If you think you can just-“
“Three. When I get to five, love, your time is up.” Her eyes widened as he said, “four,” and she ran.
“Five,” he whispered, grinning. He watched her run into the trees, her multiphasic wings touching the branches, their dark bark flashing to green blooms of summers long forgotten, only to fade in moments to their stark white of winter.
He pounded his fists into the ground in anticipation, raising his face to the glowing moon in the night sky and howled like one of his own hell hounds. He pushed his legs backwards, powerfully rocking the earth, shifting the dirt, and sending a small wave of cold earth into the air, as he roared forward as if propelled by the energy of the sun itself.
He caught her scent, the glow of her passing, like the soft touch of a lover long remembered, and he howled again, caught in the moment. A faint giggle floated back over the air in response, and he realized he had already passed her by. She had spun in place somewhere along the way, hiding amongst her kindred spirits so he would not notice.
He stopped running, feeling the night air pull his sweat from his naked back, steaming in the winter air. “The Dryads. Clever, my love. Clever.”
Another giggle floated from the other direction in response, and just the hint of her voice teasing him from afar. “If ever I wasn’t clever, silly boy.”
He stretched his arms over his head, wiggling his fingers among the bare branches, as if tickling the tree’s skin. “It is not time for spring-“
“It is always time for spring,” her voice floated from his right, and then to the left, “if I am allowed to dance among the trees.”
Hades smiled widely at his wife’s teasing. “Instead come and dance with me, love.”
“Time enough to dance with my husband in winter’s embrace, dearest, now my sister’s yearn for us to frolic a while longer so they may dream of spring.”
A flash of green in front, and a tree blossomed in moments, the pink flowers of an apple tree burst into being, as if lit by a sun from another world. In the gloom of the winter’s hold dreaming in between the spaces of the wood, it was a strange, even to his ancient eyes.
He had personally witnessed the birth of stars, the demise of entire populations, and the shift of a thousand light years as the Titans had assailed Olympus with their fury. But here, under the canopy of bare trees, under the terrestrial sky of Terra Mater, his heart was filled with joy at seeing his wife’s power manifest. Everyone knew that Persephone could bring life to anything, but only Hades realized her brilliant touch included his own heart.
“You love me,” she called.
“And you love me?” He replied.
“More than all the springs that shall ever be, and the summers that shall follow,” Persephone’s voice narrowed to a faint whisper again. “What do you wish of me, my Lord?”
Her voice was like a soft tickle across his neck, and absentmindedly, he ran a hand across his scalp to push the black hair from his eyes. “I wish to see that which makes me whole.”
“Your wish is granted,” she coalesced nearly in front of him, framed by a circle of trees, and they burst to greenwood and leaves in ethereal song. “I am here to tell my husband, I am his and he is mine.”
Hades strode powerfully forward, his fingers vibrating the shadows as he passed. “And what do you wish of me, my wife?”
“A dance.”
Hades stopped in his tracks, watching his wife smirk as she floated softly to the ground, her bare toes causing green grass to leap from the sleeping earth. Her Aspect was as brilliant as the sun, as if Helios had dropped a tear of his golden light within the folds of the forest.
“A…a dance?” He stammered incredulously.
“Now,” she smiled seductively, “such a Lord as yourself surely knows how to dance? You do such other things related to dancing so well, I would think the light step of your feet would match the care of your lips and fingertips.”
Hades grumbled lightly, and the shadows near his feet groaned and retreated from the ground, briefly revealing the white glow of the Underlands. They slunk back slowly, uncertain of the place they held before.
“Come now, my love. I promise a kiss.”
“A kiss?” Hades rose an eyebrow and grinned again.
“You know of my kisses, then?”
“I care for them greatly, my Lady,” Hades admitted openly.
“Then you shall remember your dancing feet, and join your wife,” Persephone raised her hand in invitation. “Come.”
Hades laid his hand over her palm, and they entered into a dance only the Dryads would witness among the embrace of the soft winter’s night.