[hr][center][h3][u][b][The Stoneworks - Erling Manor Garden][/b][/u][/h3][/center][hr]

Yue took the last drag on her cigarette and allowing Archer to collect the stub in his foil pouch.  She exhaled slowly, savoring the dwindling aroma.  

[b][color=#CE2B95]"That doesn't align with what I understand to be the generally accepted telling of that mythos, which is interesting.  Reminds me, since my family are generally accepted as practicing Shintoists.  However, contrary to traditional Shinto, our family's worship focuses on five specific Kami: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Sarutahiko, Susanoo, and Ryujin.  Five dragons representing the Sun, Moon, Earth, Sea, and Storms.  There are other notable Kami in our family's cosmology, and other differences from traditional tellings of the mythos, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind,"[/color][/b] Yue mused, swinging her feet over the ledge rhythmically as she leaned back on her palms.

[b][color=#c45302]"The only Greek 'dragon' that immediately comes to mind is the one wrapped around Hecate's pinky,"[/color][/b] Archer chuckled, snapping his fingers and materializing a blank tarot card in his hand and whipped it out over the pond with a flick of his wrist.  It arced back around and Yue caught it gingerly between two fingers.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"Was that completely necessary?  I'm sitting right next to you,"[/color][/b] grunted Yue.  Archer just smiled without answering as she turned the card over in her hands.  It read [7-The Serpent], and featured an enormous serpent with emerald green scales entangled within a massive tree dotted with golden apples as it breathed acid down on some minuscule figure.  [b][color=#CE2B95]"Oh!  Ladon!"[/color][/b]

[b][color=#c45302]"Correct!"[/color][/b]  Archer chirped.  [b][color=#c45302]"The myth goes like... something something twelve labors, something something Hercules, something something Garden of Hesperides,"[/color][/b] he gestured dismissively.  [b][color=#c45302]"Zeus was conducting some alchemical research in a laboratory which he'd kept secret from the other Olympians, which he had guarded by a monstrous serpent he claims he tamed.  Well Zeus got busy doing Zeus things and forgot about his pet, and Hecate found the lab following Ladon's cries.  The creature's distraught emotional state was so powerful it had stained the local Manascape and attracted Hecate's attention so... she went to see what was going on and found Ladon trapped in Zeus' tree,"[/color][/b] Archer giggled, taking a moment to collect himself following something he clearly found incredibly amusing.

[b][color=#c45302]"Well Hecate has a [i]thing[/i] for adopting neglected or abandoned spirits, it's kind of become a running gag,"[/color][/b] he giggled.  [b][color=#c45302]"Zeus had since cleared out his lab there so all that was really left was the tree and Ladon, and Hecate is furious but doesn't know who to confront.  So... she brings it up to Zeus over family dinner one day and I've never seen him sweat so much!"[/color][/b] He snorted, unable to contain himself.

[b][color=#CE2B95]"Oh my God,"[/color][/b] Yue giggled.

[b][color=#c45302]"He made up some bullshit and swore the rest of us to secrecy,"[/color][/b] Archer laughed.  [b][color=#C45302]"Her hunt for the owner of the garden became so notorious that the rumors just could not be quelled, and Hera eventually took over tending it so she could give out the fruit that grew there as gifts."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#CE2B95]"Your family is too much."[/color][/b]

[b][color=#c45302]"We've had a long time to do dumb shit and collect stories."[/color][/b]