Chapter Text
As I went down in the valley to pray, studying about that good old way, when you shall wear the starry crown, good Lord, show me the way.
At the end of a three day long scouting trip, Joel should have turned his horse around, done the sensible thing. A logical man would have recognized that voice for a siren song and fled. But for whatever reason, on that particular day, Joel threw away his logic. Perhaps he dismounted his horse and walked forward, taking the risk of peaking through the trees because the sound reminded him of the time before Cordyceps. Joel wasn’t a religious man himself, but he’d heard that song before, leaking from the churches of Austin on the occasional Sunday.
Joel stepped softly through the brush, peeking out through between two trees to see a sight not fit for the world they inhabited. A young woman sat on the banks of a creek, bathing her feet in the water, while she sang. She held the flower of an arrowleaf in her hands, twirling it back and forth while she bathed her feet.
Clad in a long, floral print skirt and a button up, her blonde waves hair held back in a headband, she looked like a girl stolen out of the pages of a history book. More surprising, she appeared to be unarmed. And as Joel realized this, the malignant cancer that still lingered inside of him thought it would be prudent to throw her over his shoulder, to take her for himself, and force her back to Jackson, where she would be safe behind their timber walls.
But, Joel wasn’t that kind of a man. Even in the past, when he and his brother did unspeakable things, they never kidnapped or did worse. Still, there was no way she was on her own out here. There had to be a father, brother, or husband, lurking somewhere nearby ready to kill him for laying his eyes on this girl. But then, what if she was alone?
Swearing to himself, Joel stepped forward, and made enough noise to alert her that someone was coming.
She stopped singing and stood. Joel came through the brush. She looked at him with her blue eyes like a doe struck in headlights.
“I ain’t gonna hurt you,” Joel said, holding out his hands and slowly stepping forward.
Silently, she stumbled backwards, leaning back against a tree on the opposite side of the creek. Joel decided not to cross the water, letting the stream act as a barrier between them. He stepped to the edge, letting the toes of his boots kiss the water. “You gotta be more alert, I watched you for a few minutes before I came out of the woods.”
“You from Jackson?” she said quietly, cocking her head.
Her assumption surprised him.
“You know about Jackson?”
“We do?”
“We?”
“Up in Tetonia. It’s our town.”
A lightbulb flickered on in Joel’s head. Her clothing suddenly made sense to him, “You’re from that religious group, aren’t you? I’m surprised they let you just go wandering around.”
She shrugged.
“They don’t know you’re out here, do they?” Joel asked, something akin to a smile stretching across his face.
She smiled and shook her head. Joel bit his lip. Why wasn’t this girl running from him?
“Sometimes, you just need to be alone,” the girl said, stepping forward, her own bare feet skirting towards the edge of the creek.
“Now, in Tetonia, y'all farm right?” Joel asked, crossing his arms. He knew the answer to the question, but he wanted to keep the girl around for as long as he could.
“Yes, sir.”
Fuck, he liked that.
“And all of the men have a bunch of wives. I can see why you’d wanna get away from all that? How many does your husband have?” Joel asked, crossing his arms.
“Oh, I’m not married.”
Joel raised his eyebrow. This girl had to be in her twenties. For a group like that, it surprised him that she wasn’t married and a mother to a few children already. Maria and Tommy hadn’t told him exactly where on the other side of the Tetons, the cult , as it was affectionately known in Jackson, was. However, it was common knowledge that the group didn’t bother Jackson, and was small enough not to cause trouble, so they left them be, even if their ways weren’t in line with their morality.
“You hungry?” Joel asked, pulling an apple from his knapsack. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Go on, you can take it,” Joel said. Slowly, she reached across the creek and took the apple from him. As the skin of their hands brushed against each other, Joel swore he heard her breath hitch over the babble of the creek. She thanked him and took a bite, and as she licked the juice of the fruit off her lips, Joel swore he saw desire swirl in her irises. They stood, on their edges of the creek, as she ate the apple in silence. It wasn’t a large piece of fruit, so it didn’t take her long.
Yet, the few minus seemed to stretch into hours as Joel studied her. He watched her eyes flicker to the pistol on his hip, but she seemed unfazed. Then, she said something that surprised him.
“You know,” the girl said, discarding the apple and taking a step into the stream with her flowers still in her hand, “You’re the first man I’ve ever met that ain’t my father or my brother.”
She looked up at him with a curious expression on her face, and Joel suddenly understood why this was the one girl in Tetonia without a husband.
What she did next surprised him even more.
With her feet bare, she stepped into the creek, the hem of her skirt dipping into the water. She didn’t cross onto his side, but instead stood in the cold tributary of the Tetons. She held out her yellow arrowhead, full of petals for him. When Joel didn’t take it, she reached up, and placed the bloom in the pocket of his flannel.
“For the apple,” she said, turning away from him. But before she could leave the creek, Joel grabbed her hand. She spun around and looked at him with bewildered eyes.
“It’s not safe for you to be out here by yourself.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Who are you?”
“Persephone,” she said, and Joel released her hand, letting her disappear back into the forest.