Wicker Baskets and Goddesses
By Samsara Athanase
Chapter one : Ritual and Circumstance
It was a beautiful day in the fall of 51 B.C.
The ritual hunt was that day. Thirteen
Amazon -- four of the senior members of the Amazon Guard, the Queen Regent, and
eight perspective pledges -- set out to kill and skin satyrs, known to frequent
Teloq hunting grounds. Queen Regent
Ephiny led the pack as they stole through the woods and once they reached a
clearing with four forks, she divided the women into four groups.
An Amazon Guard led each group. Each
woman had a simple skinning dagger and the Amazon Guard carried a bow and arrow
and a gourd in which to catch the satyr’s blood.
The object was for the Guard to successfully shoot the satyr and for the
pledges to skin the creature, drain the blood into the gourd, and pack the meat
properly. The catch was that the
Guard only had one arrow each. Miss
a step: miss your chance to become an Amazon Guard for two years.
These eight women hoping for a shot in the elite squad, whose job was to
protect the royals, each survived a series of tests to prove their strength and
worthiness. There were only four
available spots open and the first four to make it back with a satisfactorily
skinned and packed satyr were the four women to be inducted.
Therefore, it was in the best interest of the Guard to kill quickly and
allow the pledges to do their work in skinning the creature well.
Ishtar, Phaedra,
and Solari went south-southeast. Ishtar
and Phaedra carried their daggers, vigilant for the presence of satyr activity.
Satyr often hid in the brush and it was advisable to shoot before they
noticed anyone and ran away. The
pledges found the target and as Solari prepared her bow and arrow and took aim,
Ishtar stopped her.
“Look!” she
shouted, running into the brush. Phaedra
and Solari were confused. From the
brush Ishtar pulled out a naked, squirming baby girl that had crawled out of the
wicker basket she was in. In the
wicker basket was a note.
“Who would leave
their baby here to die?” asked Phaedra, horrified that a mother would do such
a thing.
Solari took the
note and read it. “To Whom It May
Concern: Please take care of my baby. She
is my darling Samsara but her father is the God of War.
I do not want her to lead the empty life that he and I have led for so
long. I give up my rights to her.
Please take care of her and raise her to do good.
Never leave her in the hands of her father or she will become the next
great evil...” Solari paused. “The
next great evil,” she repeated. “She
was trying to escape Ares’ wrath.”
Ishtar cuddled the
baby, a beautiful, bronze-colored child with long black hair and
chocolate-colored eyes. “Samsara,”
she whispered. “The never ending
cycle of birth, misery, and death. Why
would your mother name you that?”
“Ishtar, we
can’t raise her knowing that she is the daughter of Ares. We have to kill her before you get attached to her.”
Phaedra knew Ishtar’s intention before Ishtar could say anything more.
Ishtar’s many efforts to become pregnant failed and she prayed many
nights to Hera for a girl-child.
“Kill her?”
she said, incredulous of Solari’s suggestion.
“She is a child.
She can do no harm to you.” She
held the child tighter to her bosom, defensive.
“She is the
daughter of Ares, the God of War, Ishtar! If
we let her live, then there is no telling what she could do to us aside from
what he will do! We can’t risk
this; we can’t risk Teloq for one single child.” Solari knew that once news of Samsara’s whereabouts reached
the God of War, he would do everything in his power to get her back.
That meant destroying everything in his path even if it meant destroying
Teloq. She knew the risk the tribe
faced because of its remote location -- although she appreciated the advantages
-- but in this particular situation, the dangers outweighed everything else.
Phaedra was lost
as to what to do. At one end she
agreed with her sister. There was
no telling how Ares would react when he realized where his child was and her
powers were most likely weak enough to allow them to kill her, but at the other
end, Phaedra realized that Samsara was just a baby.
What harm could a baby do? “A
person is a product of her environment. Maybe
she can be good.” When she got a
dirty look from her sister, she continued. “Let’s take her to Ephiny, Solari. She can decide what to do.”
Ishtar, pleased,
managed to tie the wicker basket to her back and use it as a baby carrier.
They continued on their hunt.
“Right there!”
called Ishtar quietly, as she pointed to rustling brush.
Solari took aim and shot her arrow into the leaves, successfully hitting
the satyr. The pledges went to it
and pulled out their daggers to do their job.
Unfortunately,
Solari’s aim was off. Satyrs are
like opossum. They manage to play
dead, and then they strike. The
animal was angered and he attacked the pledges.
Solari jumped in, hoping to kill him before he killed them.
Ishtar had placed the wicker basket down five feet away, and the baby,
sensing the danger, crawled out and shocked the satyr with a throw of her hand.
Enough to stun him. The
Amazon stopped. Solari turned to
the child and said, “She’s grown...” The other two turned to see what the
Guard had observed and were astonished. Samsara
had grown to about the size of a two-year-old and she walked like a toddler
would.
“Bad animal must
die,” she said in broken Greek. “Good
girls live.” She smiled and
giggled, pointing at the now dead satyr.
*****
The three returned
before sunset with the skinned, drained, and packed satyr.
Samsara followed them, holding Ishtar’s hand.
Ishtar managed to make a sack dress of sorts to cover the girl, who again
matured and now appeared as a five-year old.
They were thankfully the second group back, effectively putting Ishtar
and Phaedra in the Amazon Guard, but Solari spoiled the mood with her request.
“Queen
Regent,” she said. “We found
this child as a baby in a wicker basket. She
had this note from her mother claiming that she was the daughter of the God of
War. The mother was obviously
trying to escape his wrath. I
suggest we do away with her.”
“Why punish a
child for her father’s mistakes?” immediately interjected in Ishtar.
“A woman is a product of her environment and she is but a child.
If we raise her right she won’t turn out like her father.
The note clearly shows her mother’s intent on keeping her alive but not
growing up like she and Ares did!”
Ephiny looked at
the child and picked her up. “What
is her name?” she asked.
“Samsara,”
answered Phaedra. “It’s a
beautiful name.” Solari flashed
her much younger sister a look.
“Yes, quite,”
responded Ephiny. Solari was
incredulous at this turn of events.
Samsara, sensing
her victory, giggled. “I like
gold, curly hair,” she remarked, pulling lightly at the tendrils of hair.
“I wanna be an Amazon!”