Chapter 256: The Firelight Is Always Warm
Relying only on these most primitive ways of obtaining food, going hungry one meal and full the next was the norm of life.
Especially after the tribe had children, a large amount of labor had to be diverted to care for the children, making the pressure to eat even greater.
More mouths to feed that cried hungrily, yet fewer people going out to forage.
Without food, they would go hungry; if hungry for too long, they would lose strength; if even longer, they would die.
Moreover, starving to death was the most painful of all ways to die.
Without exception.
Although the laws of death were still imperfect now, and with humans’ current physical quality, they were quite resilient and generally wouldn’t die.
But relatively speaking, going hungry was even more unbearable.
And without end.
The pain of hunger would only increase with the duration of the hunger, never decreasing in the slightest.
That feeling was truly worse than death.
In hunger, humans also learned sacrifice and trade-offs.
If everyone starved together, they would all lose strength, and eventually all meet their end.
Limited food sometimes had to be given to those who needed it more and were more important.
This was the most painful and difficult choice, but sometimes it had to be made.
Hestia watched humans endure the pain of hunger, even suffering even more tragic consequences because they ate indiscriminately in desperation.
Every time, her heart was filled with immense grief and sadness.
Her fire could bring warmth, make food easier to eat, make food more delicious, yet alone…
It could not make food more abundant.
She had once taken the initiative to ask Zeus, what should be done?
Zeus’s reply was only one sentence.
“Wait for our dear Demeter.”
“When Demeter awakens, her abundance, combined with your flames, will ensure humans no longer go hungry.”
“At least, what makes them go hungry will no longer be nature.”
Hestia at that time didn’t understand why Zeus said that, nor did she know exactly what to do.
But she knew Zeus would never be wrong.
At this moment, this was Demeter in her divine palace, seeing humans for the first time through her “eyes” in the mortal world.
She shared humans’ joy and sorrow, beauty and struggle, needs and hope, as well as her own love for humans, unreservedly before Demeter’s eyes, telling her everything about humans.
Hestia believed that her most gentle and loving, most passionate and kind younger sister, this true Mother of Earth, would like these children just as she did.
And when Demeter, this Mother of Earth, truly came to like humans, spring would not be far away.
At that time, the Mother of Earth would sow eternal wheat ears and abundant hope between their hunger and longing.
God loves the world.
The Mother Goddess does too.
May the firelight always warm, may the heart not stray.
Demeter, through that huge Mirror of Divine Fire, listening to her dear elder sister’s gentle recounting, had seen all of humans’ simple yet resilient lives.
Watching these small and ignorant yet infinitely possible humans toil and labor on the earth.
As the Mother of Earth, she only needed to slightly sense with divine thought, and the pulse of the entire earth was in her heart.
Their joy and sorrow, hardship and ease, strength and weakness, everything felt like her own heartbeat.
Faced with these living beings who also possessed wisdom and emotion, the Earth Mother Goddess’s love for “life” itself naturally gave rise to the softest compassion in her heart.
Because she could empathize.
The original entanglement and unwillingness in her heart trapped by “emotion” had long been easily covered by the vast scroll of “life” among countless living beings in the broad heaven and earth.
From her dear elder sister’s broad and selfless great love, the deepest, most magnificent great love belonging to the Earth Mother Goddess in her own divinity was also awakened.
The radiance of the Mirror of Divine Fire slowly converged, and the image in the mirror gradually faded and disappeared.
Demeter’s butterfly-wing-like eyelashes were still moist, but the teardrops at the corners of her eyes had almost been dried by the warm firelight beside her sister.
She raised her head to look at Hestia and said softly, “I understand, sister.”
“Thank you, sister. You told me that the purpose of love is not narrow possession, but walking toward happiness together.”
She looked at Hestia; that pair of emerald eyes no longer held confusion, replaced by the unparalleled breadth and determination belonging to the Earth Mother Goddess.
“I will think it through carefully and love properly. Not just love Zeus, but also love my children, and even more, love every lovely child on this earth.”
Hestia smiled tenderly, stroking her younger sister’s long hair with relief: “That’s right.”
“My dear younger sister, then what do you think of these children?”
Demeter’s willow brows furrowed slightly, deep contemplation between them; she said softly, “These ‘people’ are very weak, but I can feel they are completely different from ordinary mortal spirits.”
“They possess wisdom and emotion similar to ours; they are simple and pure, a group of very lovely children.”
“Moreover, I can be certain that Zeus has placed great expectations on these children. And these children indeed have a brilliant future worth our anticipation.”
As Demeter spoke, a hint of resolve flashed in her sea-green eyes; she looked at Hestia and said earnestly, “Sister, I want to go to the earth myself and take a close look at them. Will you come with me?”
Hestia felt surprised in her heart, yet somewhat hesitant; she said softly, “Of course I want to, but… Zeus previously had no intention of letting me descend to the mortal world.”
Demeter let out a light “hmph,” her lips curling slightly, regaining some of her past spoiled and arrogant demeanor, full of unconcealed resentment: “Who cares about Him! As long as He hasn’t explicitly forbidden it, what can’t we do?”
“He right now…” As she spoke, Demeter looked discontentedly toward the horizon, where golden clouds and colorful auroras roiled into a sea, thunder’s light and wisdom’s aurora overlapping into a blushing, heart-pounding splendor.
Resentment grew stronger in her eyes as she murmured, “He right now has definitely cast everything aside, how could He care about the affairs of the three realms?”
“Uh…”
On this point, Hestia fully agreed.
However, she was still somewhat hesitant, after all, she never did anything to make Zeus difficult.
“This… isn’t it a bit too hasty? I think we should still ask Zeus’s opinion first?” She cautiously spoke up.
But Demeter could wait no longer and directly took her good sister’s jade arm, pulling her to set off.
As they walked, she said coquettishly, “For what we want to do, does Zeus dare stop us? If He dares, then we won’t let Him enter the palace gates!”
“Right!” As if suddenly remembering, “We should also call Hera to come along! Looking at this spectacle filling the sky, she’s probably feeling upset inside; we can go keep her company and help her clear her mind.”
Seeing Hestia still hesitant, Demeter continued to persuade, “Good sister, just relax. We’ll go to the mortal world and conceal our forms, that’s all?”
“This time, we’ll just look and not do anything for now. Only by truly walking among humans, seeing for ourselves, and experiencing it firsthand, can we know what these children truly need.”
Hestia thought it was indeed so and finally nodded: “Alright, then we’ll go together. But you must suppress your nature, don’t be too willful, don’t disrupt Zeus’s schemes, lest He be put in a difficult position.”
“This time, we’ll only observe, think about what to do first, but don’t take action for now.”
Demeter nodded repeatedly; Hestia smiled slightly and said no more, instead saying, “Hera hasn’t seen you in a long time and must miss you; let’s go see her first.”
The two goddesses smiled at each other, rose into the air, their garments unfolding two gentle arcs of light in the sky, flying toward the nearby Temple of Fertility.
Their three sisters’ divine mountains were connected, their peaks like hands clasped in gaze, the closest and warmest stretch on the Mount Olympus mountains.
And at this time, Hera’s heart was a mix of complex emotions.
On one hand, she felt sincere relief for her close friend Metis finally achieving her wish.
On the other hand, she was deeply worried for her dear elder sister Demeter.
Just not long ago, when Demeter awakened, that divine power fluctuation shaking heaven and earth—she felt it clearly.
Immediately after, the entire Olympus shook three times with the earth’s pulsation.
As for why… there was no need to think much about it.
All of Olympus, even the stupidest fool, even that idiot Epimetheus, could figure out the key; how could clever Hera not understand?
The affection between their sisters was her most treasured possession.
She really didn’t want because of that scoundrel Zeus, even the slightest rift to appear between them.
That would truly be not worth it!
Seeing Demeter’s green divine light representing the earth fly straight to their elder sister’s divine palace, Hera grew even more worried.
She wanted to rush over immediately, but feared the timing was wrong and it would only add fuel to the fire, so she could only wait restlessly inside her hall.
In fact, at this moment across all of Olympus, even the earth below and the netherworld further down, there were no few goddesses waiting to watch the excitement.
Seeing Hera’s house catch fire was worth many goddesses gossiping in private for centuries, even grinning for years without closing their mouths.
Of course, there were also gentle and loving goddesses silently worrying and ready to go console at any time.
At this moment, when Hera finally saw her two sisters’ divine lights coming toward her together, the heavy stone in her heart finally fell mostly.
Immediately, immense joy surged in her heart; she hurriedly ordered Leto and Asteria beside her to quickly bring up all the prepared divine wine and ambrosia one by one.
