Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 01

"I'll be fine. I heal well. And...." She pressed down on the wound again, and winced a little, but she was smiling all the same. "I'll be fine, thank you. And... you... you won't...."

He quirked a brow at her, but realization dawned on him. Her eyes were downcast, her hands fidgeted along her scaled length, and her hair drifted about with its noses pointed at him. She was worried to the point of fear.

So he did what he did best, and smiled. "I'm not going anywhere."

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~~Medusa~~

She watched the man walk off, with a corpse over each shoulder. He was strong for a small man, strong for a man in general. Strong, and brutal. He hadn't just killed those two men, he had ruined them. The first, he'd almost torn his head off, and the second's head was nothing but soup inside his helmet. She shivered a little with the memory of it, of those white eyes and his silhouette murdering with such savageness in front of her. Terrifying.

But this Darian was anything but terrifying. He was... cute. He was short, and lean, and he most desperately needed a bath, a trim, and a haircut, but those brown eyes of his, they were so confident.

And it had been a century since she had talked to anyone. By the gods, she needed to talk to someone.

As the minutes went by, and she stroked the horrible wounds her snake half had suffered, she started to panic. Her breath came out faster, and her eyes started to flick up to the temple entrance over, and over, and over. Please come back, please come back, please come back.

"Sorry, I realized I had no idea where to take the bodies, so I threw them down the mountainside."

Relief washed over her when the man came back into view, the night sky's stars behind him at the temple entrance. He carried an air of carefree to him, like a boy who knew the world was his toy, but she knew there was more it than that. He had avoided details about himself, she noticed, but she wasn't going to push him on it. Anything, anything she could do to just have someone to talk to, if even for a little while.

"Thank you. You're... thank you." It was more than she had talked in so long, she was running out of words.

"I don't suppose you have a place I can sleep? I think we could both use some rest, considering." He approached her, and she flinched a little. Just seeing movement coming her way still shocked her, and she had to take a breath to force herself to relax.

"Um, yes... there's a home behind the temple, where I... yes, yes you can sleep there. Come." She started toward the the side entrance, and almost fell over. The muscles in the long length of her snake half struggled to bend and weave like they wanted to, with the three holes that had been cut into them. She had to concentrate to slither forward, and not contract the muscles that had been stabbed. It took control, but she'd had a long time to practice. A long, long time.

"You sure you're alright?" Darian said. He matched her pace beside her, and he was casting glances back at her slithering shape. He wasn't repulsed, he wasn't scared, he wasn't even disturbed, he was just concerned.

More than once, she caught his eyes looking her emerald scales from tip to hip, and each time, his gaze showed only intrigue. Intrigue! She almost vibrated with excitement. No sleep would come for her, not tonight. She wanted to talk! She wanted to do anything!

Outside the temple, they were high up on the mountain of the island, where there were few trees. The horrible storm that she had seen way off to the West was gone, and now the sky was completely clear. The stars were shining brightly.

It was disgustingly perfect, and every part of her expected her first moment of happiness in a century to be dashed against the rocks of the mountain side. What had caused all this, a man coming to her island, saving her life from a potentially deadly fight, and now... no, stop. Don't think about. Stop ruining it. Just stop.

It wasn't much of a house really, just a single floor home made of white stone. It no longer had a door, lost to the centuries, and only had a large, single room within and a couple store rooms. But, there was a reason the temple had been built on the tiny island, where nothing else was to be found. And it was the spring.

Along a cliff face of rock, there was a huge crack, and from it poured water. Clean, clear, crystal water. A pool had been built, carved into the rock beneath them and smoothed under an artisan's hand to let the water fill a large basin, large enough even for swimming, before the water poured over a spout that lead it down the mountainside to create a tiny stream. The lifeblood of the little island, and the small amount of life it supported.

"H-how is this... what?" Darian stood at the edge of the water, jaw dropped, and stared.

"Some said it was Poseidon's blessing, others said it was Athena's." She shrugged, and slithered over to the water to scoop some up with her hand, and drank it. "I do not know where it comes from, only that it has been unending, since even before my time."

"That's amazing." He got down his knees and also took sips of the water. His face brightened, and he took another sip, and another, and another. The poor man must have been thirsty. It warmed her core to see her water help him.

"It's the only reason I could stay on this island. And," she said, and slithered over to the open entrance of the home, "this is where I sleep. And... it's, um...."

Darian got up to join her, a new bounce in his step she noticed, and stood beside her. When he looked inside, he laughed. And not just a small laugh, or a tender one, like he'd been careful to use around her. This one was almost a roar, and he put a hand on the stone wall to steady himself.

She blushed so horribly, she could feel her face about to ignite. The room, what once held furniture for people to sit and eat, was now filled with nothing but blankets. A giant pile of blankets, which she slept on and had made a glorious mess of.

"Th-th-there's another room... and, uh... you can... here!" She slithered into the room, winced at her forgotten wounds, and reached down to find one of the most recently washed blankets. "It's clean! I... yes, please. Please follow me."

So awkward, so terribly awkward. But, when Darian followed her into the home, she breathed a sigh of relief, as if crossing the threshold would have somehow whisked away the illusion. But Darian walked right up to her, smiled, and took the blankets from her, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Did he not realize no one had ever, ever looked upon her in this form without hate or fear in their eyes?

"Thanks. I think I'm going to pass out in seconds. Are you sure you're going to be alright? You were bleeding badly, and you looked... it was bad. I thought you were going to bleed out. You don't want to clean those wounds right now?"

"I will be fine. This has happened many times before. My snake half is... it is no concern. It will heal."

"Alright, if you're sure," he said. Then he smiled again, like they were endless to give, and turned to head into the small room off to the side. It too had no door, but the room, once a storage room, was empty, and it had plenty of space for him to lay the large blanket out and sleep upon it. He poked his head out, gave her another nod, another smile, and vanished again. When he laid down, she could still see his feet, just the edge of them around the doorway.

Half of her was ecstatic, and boundless energy poured through her from head to tail. She wanted to go to him, stand him up, and start talking again. She wanted to ask about Athens, and Thebes, and Sparta, and Corinth and Argos and Boetia and even Macedonia and Thessaly. She wanted to ask about any new poems or stories she may not have heard. She wanted to ask about anything! She'd talk about the weather, anything.

But, exhaustion grabbed her. In the rush of so many things happening at once, her body had forgotten the battle from earlier, and the wounds it had sustained. Ache joined it, and she found she had to lay down. The large room really was filled with blankets, old but soft, and she coiled onto the familiar softness as any snake would. With her head on her arms, her arms on her snake body, she closed her eyes. Excitement fought off Hypnos and his sleep, but only for a few minutes until weariness dragged her under.

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Waking was always a slow process. The night was a little cool, and that meant her body cooled with it. It wasn't until the dawn started to warm the mountain that she woke up, and a little while after that before she warmed.

She ached. Why did she ache? She pushed herself up so her weight was on her hands, hands on her coils. Some blankets were wrapped around her snake half at a few different points. Right, she'd been stabbed when some more 'heroes' had come to kill her. And the ache in her chest came back with the memory. More people she had killed.

But she hadn't killed all of them. Two of them someone else had killed. Someone else.... Darian! She looked to where the man had slept, but she couldn't see him. And when she got closer, the room was empty. Was it a dream? Please gods no, not a dream. Please don't let it be a dream.

She slithered out the front door, into the clearing behind the temple where the pool was. The sun had just finished rising over the horizon, its warmth energizing her, and she looked around with a hand held up to her eyes to block its light. Where was he? Did he exist? What -

Only a few feet away, Darian sat. He no longer wore a shirt, and his waist had one of the temple priest loincloths she had never bothered to throw away. His legs were dangling in the water, and his hand held up a mirror in front of his face. In the other hand, he held a small dagger.

He turned the mirror then, and she caught his gaze in its reflection.

"Good morning," he said, like he'd said it a million times to her before.

She had almost panicked, afraid that it had all been a dream. But he was there, smiling at her in the mirror, and... shaving his neck. Not only that, he had cut his hair too, short like the Athenians did, and from what she could see, he had trimmed his beard down short as well. Short, and groomed.

When he set the mirror aside and turned to look at her, she caught her breath. Now, with his tan skin clean of dirt, his hair and beard trimmed and shortened to a mere inch, his brown eyes shown through. The small man was delightfully cute, and shirtless. His small stature betrayed the muscles of his body when he was clothed, but now that she could see everything, she found herself blushing. His lean form hid nothing. She could see the indentation of each muscle along his back. His body lacked for body hair as well, as if someone had rubbed his skin with a pumice stone to groom him; perhaps his youthful appearance was to blame? He had no scars either! He looked more like a well-groomed prince.

She blushed all the harder. She liked what she saw. How could such a young fellow have been so brutal the night before? His smile was beaming, and his brown eyes carried a confidence she could not fathom.

"... g-good morning," she said.

"You were taking a little while to wake up, so I explored the temple. I hope you'll forgive me. I just had to deal with this mess though," he said, and gestured to his head and face, "and take a bath."

"You...." Could she compliment him? Would that be weird? "You... it suits you."

He chuckled. She blushed, regressed to the wee girl of her youth from so long ago. A hundred years of solitude had done many things, but it had also robbed her of her ability to talk. Darian didn't seem to mind though, he just smiled some more. It was a handsome smile.

"Thanks. I was working as a prisoner in a quarry for almost a year, before they shipped me off to Athens. I have a year's worth of grime to wash off." With a sigh of joy, the man pushed his weight forward, and let himself sink into the pool his legs were dangling within. The water stopped at his chest, and he turned to face her. "You have no idea how thankful I am. Not just for the pool, I mean, but a place to rest my head, and good company."

She had to look away then, and combed her snake hair to hide her obvious embarrassment. Could the man not see what his overt and social demeanor was doing to her? She would have to ease into this.

"You are w-welcome. But, good company?"

"Yes, good company! I expected Medusa to be a wicked and ugly creature, based on the legend, but you are not wicked, and are certainly not ugly." He turned around a few times in the water, even splashed around a little, and she watched from the corner of her eye. His hands wiped at his skin, apparently trying to wash away dirt he had already washed off. But, if he had spent a year working in a quarry as a prisoner, she could not blame him his need for cleanliness.

"Not ugly? Did you not see me... transform... when I turned that Athenian to stone?"

"I did. That was scary, I admit. But that lasted what, three seconds? I see you now and all I see is a beautiful woman with some snake features?" Again, he shrugged, not a trace of blush or embarrassment or shyness to him. "And besides, snakes are elegant, lovely creatures."

Too much, way too much. All she had known for so long was the occasional hateful group of men, calling her monster and trying to cut off her head. This man and his words, cast so lightly at her as if they were obvious, were threatening to make her explode from how much she was blushing.

She took a long, slow breath. Talking. Humans talk with each other. And despite her snake half, she was still largely human. She slithered over the last remaining feet to the pool edge, took another breath, and settled into a coil.

"The... transformation. It takes over when I cast that... gaze."

"I am sorry. That is a horrible burden to bear." He shook his head, and scratched at his neck where he had cut the beard to almost nothing. "After what you told me last night, about Poseidon, I... it really is."

The memory of it made her whole body tense, every last, scale-covered inch. So long ago, so damn long, but she could still remember the awe that went through her when a god had come to visit her, one lonely night in the temple. She could remember kneeling and bowing her head to the great and mystical entity. She could remember him pinning her down, and the twisted grin on his face.

She had lowered her head, she realized, to avoid Darian's sad gaze, but the man had swam up closer to her. He raised his hand as if to touch where her scaled length was nearest the pool, but he stopped short when her eyes met his.

For a moment she thought maybe he was afraid to touch her; he would not be the first one. But, the look in his eyes carried no revulsion, no fear. He was just... sad for her.

Part of her wanted to be angry about that. How dare someone be sad for her? But that part of her had faded long ago, when she had accepted the truth of the situation. She'd been raped by a god and cursed by another for something not of her own doing. She deserved a little self pity, and maybe even a little sympathy from others. She just never expected to get it.

Get out of your head, Medusa. For the first time you have someone to talk to. Do it.

"Do you... truly not find this a monstrous form?" Her hands ran down her hips and followed her scaled tail, until she had turned about to continue tracing her coiled length. "Or this?" She ran one of her hands through her hair of snakes again, each with its own snake head, and each with its own desire to expose her every emotion. "Or... this?" She leaned toward the man in the pool below her, just a little, and widened her eyes at him. Yellow snake eyes, speckled with almost invisible green undertones, all around black vertical slits. She didn't even have eyebrows, but just several more green scales that lined where eyebrows should have been.

And for the whole thing, the small hero in her pool kept his hazel eyes on her. In fact, when she had leaned in, he had swam a closer again, and stared straight at her with an unblinking gaze.

"No. I don't." Another smile. "And I've been meaning to ask, just... a little presumptuous of me, but can I ask a favor?"

"P-please do."

"Can I stay here? For... well, until I've worn out my welcome? I've nowhere else to go, not really, just a pile of pain and misery waiting for me back in Lycia and Tiryns. I'm in no rush to deal with it, if ever."

He wanted to stay! But, that would mean she would have to share her island with someone, her home. Someone else, a man no less, would be near her while she slept, while she ate! Her solitude would be lost, both the misery it brought, but also the protection, and the cave for her shame.

Were it long ago, she would have said no. But now, she had to stop herself from diving into the pool and squeezing the man in a snake hug. Too much, that would definitely be too much.

"Of course! Yes, I... there is...." She scratched at the scales near one of her wounds. "There are plants to eat here I think, fish, bird, and boar. I think it can be done."

His face brightened like a child's. "Thank you! But, uh, you sound surprised about the plants and fish and bird. What did you eat while you lived here?"

She blushed again, but this time a frown followed it. "I survive as a snake would. Once every couple of weeks, I devour a creature whole. Usually wild boar."

"That... is amazing." He pulled himself up over the rock to stand up beside her, as close as he could with several layers of coils between him and her torso half. "A whole boar. In one gulp? Damn. So you-"

"Yes, I must transform, as with the stone gaze, to eat."

"Right. I uh, then I can understand if you'd want privacy while you do that. But... you know...." He rubbed at his chin with a finger, and offered her another one of those confident smiles he had in endless supply. "If you are comfortable enough to show me, I would like to see that."

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The next week went by with unusual speed. Normally, her days were long, empty, and incredibly dull. It was a snake's life of laying about and watching the sun or stars go by, and every so often eating something. A hundred years of such dullness had nearly driven her insane.

But then suddenly, every day had become full of surprises, full of dialogue, interaction, full of possibilities. It was such a little thing, she realized when she thought about it, that one outcast on a lonely island had become two, but it didn't matter. A gift's value was in the eye of the beholder, and Darian's confidence and enthusiasm were not only unending, they were addicting.

She knew there was something hidden behind that happy, childish smile of his, private thoughts that ate at him. But as the days went by, her fear that it was about her relented. Whatever it was, it was personal, and she did not wish to violate his trust.

Her wounds did heal quickly, so quickly that Darian assured it was more than just natural. Perhaps it was because she had been touched by a god? For better or worse, it would appear. At least she could find the silver lining in that.

She helped show Darian where animals could be found on the island, and how the mountain contained a deceptive amount of animal life in its twist and turns. She knew them all. Darian showed her how to spear fish on a beach, which required some trickery and amazing reflexes. But, whatever changes that had happened to her body had drastically changed her taste for food; no fish for her. Birds though, they interested her, and Darian used his unusually good aim to down several with throwing rocks.

Capturing a boar though, that was her domain.

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