aldersprig | Safer Shooting, a story for the Giraffe call

To ysabetwordsmith's prompt.

"It's really not his fault."

Cupido Tertius wasn't sure that having his mother clasp him to her ample chest and defend him was really what he wanted.

On the other hand, it kept the crowd of angry gods and goddesses from getting too close.

"My goat..." one of them began to protest. Another one bellowed over him.

"My wife!"

"It's his first day on the job!" Venus reminded them, squishing Cupido even closer to her.

"It's going to be his last." The growl came from behind them. Cupido flinched.

"I didn't mean it, Father." He sounded like a sniveling child, and he knew it. But if they thought of him as a child, and not as nearly a man...

"You can't yell at him, he's just a boy!" That wasn't his mother, it was Vesta, who was reaching out to stroke his cheek. "Back off, big, cranky, and fiery. All of you, back off."

"You know," his mother whispered, as another goddess joined the choir, "I can't see how you shot her accidentally. I really can't see how you shot yourself accidentally."

"It's a long story." One of the 'protective' goddesses stole a grope down his dhoti. "Urf. Auntie... And it's done now, Mother. My arrows can't be undone."

"No, they can't. So you had to choose the virgin daughter of another pantheon, didn't you?"

He stepped back a bit as another goddess got grabby. "I'm pretty sure it's fated."

"Well, then, I'll go have a talk with the Parcae, while you sneak out and talk to your little godlette." Venus gave her youngest son a little shove. "And from now on, practice safer shooting."