Each new step Hecuba took felt heavier than
the one before. Dread filled her heart as the guards escorted her
towards the village. The sweet air that invaded her nostrils and
lungs felt like poison to her soul.

For years, Hecuba watched as her life slowly
disintegrated before her eyes. For years, she let fear control her
actions as well as influence the lives around her. Along the way,
fear had been replaced with guilt and anger at her own weakness and
selfishness. For her part, she knew exactly when her fear started
to control her:

She was young and in love. And when one is
young and in love, one tends to think that one is invincible.
Hecuba was no exception and she dared to dream dreams of the
impossible becoming reality. It was then that reality decided to
rear its ugly head. Civil war broke out among the members of her
lover's family. His stepmother was cruel and would sink to any
level to destroy him and any siblings that were not of her
bloodline. So, in order to protect Hecuba and the unborn child,
they both decided to end their relationship. From then on, things
grew worse. 

Her family married her off to a young man
named Herodotus, whose family had hoped that the marriage would
cause him to get his head out of the clouds. 

Herodotus was more than happy to comply,
so he left his studies at Spatmos and they began afresh in a new
town where no one knew either of them.

Herodotus seemed nice enough at first,
even doting. He even promised to love the child as his own, but
that was before Gabrielle was born. The minute he saw her and saw
that she wasn't normal all Tartarus broke loose. "Is there
something you need to tell me Hecuba?" he asked accusingly.
Knowing that he would find out sooner or later, she told him the
truth. "A god? She's a child of a disgusting god!" He
swiped his hand through his dark hair. "I want a normal child,
not some freak!" he screamed as he stomped off. 

Fear griped her as she held her newborn
child close to her bosom. "He is going to leave me, how am I
suppose to take care of you?" She looked down at her newborn.
"Oh, please let her turn out to be normal. Please, I don't
want to lose my child." Hecuba knew the hard truth-most
half-mortals did not live long and stable lives. She did not want
that for her daughter.