124. ‘We Must Go to See the King of the Orchard’
‘We Must Go to See the King of the Orchard’
Perses told his jovial nephew.
I was already feeling tired just looking
at the youth. He seemed like someone
Asteria and Leto might find more palatable.
Zephyrus had a wide smile for us all
as he sang, ‘A journey through
the clouds for one and all it is.’
And a cloud appeared under our feet.
Unlike Boreas’s sturdy cold vessel,
this was a haphazard but warm cloud
that lifted us from the shore and above
until we were travelling through the air.
The infant within my belly
also disliked this means of travel,
and in a few moments, I had to sit.
The cloud held me like a cushion.
Asteria sat next to me
as Pallas looked upon me curiously.
‘Is all well?’ she asked me quietly.
I nodded to her as I heard Zephyrus
say to his uncles, ‘This is the best
way to travel, is it not? Sailing
through the air on a cloud?’
I vehemently and thoroughly disagreed.