He looked confused, as if he's never heard of Hera and her followers, "I thought Hera was one of the good goddesses."
I sigh. I remember hearing the story from my mother at a young age and I was hounded by Hera in my dreams after hearing them. "It's a long story but I suppose we have nothing but time, it starts in the ancient times."
I clear all things out of my mind as I tell the story, only focusing on the most accurate version of the story I can tell, and the road ahead of me.
"Hera was considered most of the delicate goddesses, that is until people started to figure out what she did to the heroes Zeus had sired while they were married. She was the goddess of marriage, which made her think that her marriage was supposed to be the perfect example."
"But wait, is she not the goddess of marriage anymore? You keep referring to it as if she isn't anymore," Damon interrupts me.
I shoot him a glare, "Don't interrupt me. She's no longer the goddess of marriage because Zeus and her divorced and she renounced her title. She is now a goddess of mischief, and she is still the goddess of birth. Why do you think divorce rates skyrocketed the way they did?"
"You're telling me that Zeus and Hera divorcing have something to with the divorce rates?" Damon looked at me like I was crazy.
"Yes!" I exclaimed, "Now let me get back to the story."
Damon through his hands up in defeat. "You see, even in the ancient times, Hera was always resentful of the women that Zeus would sleep with and the children he would sire. There was this one time, she cut the eye lid off of one of Zeus' lovers. She then made the poor woman eat her children. Her name was Lamia. If the stories are correct, Zeus gave her the powers to pluck out her eyes so she didn't have to watch herself eat her children. Zeus, who often watched, made Hera's punishments easier on the victim. Probably from the guilt. There's also the stories of Callisto, who is Ursa Major and her son is Ursa Minor; Echo, who was cursed to repeat the last words of the person she was talking to forever. And we can't forget the most famous demigod, Herakles, who was named after Hera himself as a peace offering. She tried to kill him when he was an infant, then drove him to madness causing him to kill his wife and his children. Those were only the mortals. She also threw Hephaestus off of Mount Olympus, because he wasn't perfect. And to top it all off she hated and neglected Ares because of his attitude. I take that one kind of personal. Over the years, people started to realize that Hera was crazy as Hell. A petition started going around to remove her from the Olympians. It passed, which only made Hera even crazier. She hated the fact that she was removed and was easily replaced by her sister Hestia. After only a couple years, she had finally had enough of Zeus, so in front of the entire Olympian group, she renounced her title as goddess of marriage and served Zeus divorce papers. He was embarrassed to say the least. He took her powers and told her that she no longer had a place on Mount Olympus. Ever since then she's been hiding on Earth, many theories are that she's living as a hippie, or that she's part of the LGBT movement now. From the looks of the two followers back there, I wouldn't be surprised if it's both. However, a couple years ago, a bunch of demigods started fighting other demigods, in the name of Hera. No one knew if she was behind it all, as their leader, or if the fighters just liked the way that Hera did things and wanted to fight in her name."
Damon raises his hand, "Is the story almost done yet?"
I give him a dirty look, "Shortly after the fights started breaking out, Hera went back on Mount Olympus and started claiming all these kids. Telling the gods that they were fighting for her dignity. She claimed all of the children as her own. Turns out she had been busy on Earth. As the years have gone by, she gains more followers every month. They always have one thing in common. A peacock tattoo on their inner forearm."
I touch Damon's arm, "Right here."
He looks at me with wide eyes, "And? Where does the peacock come into the picture?"
I roll my eyes, "It used to be Hera's sacred animal, as well as the cow."
Damon looked like he was trying to take it all in, "So let me get this straight. Hera, who had always been crazy, tricking everyone into thinking she was good, was discovered as crazy. She then got tired of Zeus's shit, so she left him and renounced her title. He got mad so he took her powers away. Now she's living immortally building an army against the Olympians?"
I looked at him in awe, "Well, yeah long story short."
The car is silent for a little while before I finally speak up, "We just have to keep an eye out for the peacock on the arm."
He nodded, "They can go in any safe house too, being demigods."
I sigh, "Unfortunately, that's true."
I didn't want to think of how hard it was going to be to find a safe sleeping place on this week long journey. We had five days left, and the two had already been hard. I heard snores coming from Damon and I looked over to see him sleeping peacefully against the window. It was going to be a long five days, I thought to myself. The only thing I could hope for was being able to find a safe place to make our base for the night.