Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 01

It was just before the dawn. Medusa slithered down along the grass and bush, and with a century of practice, she did it without making a sound. For her, hunting required a more savage and reptilian approach, and that meant she had to get down onto her stomach and hands. Normally she would slither while her torso remained upright at the hip, but now she needed to crouch low, as low as the grass. Instead of her soft, white wraps she normally used for her breasts and hips, this morning she went nude, and let the monster out. Her skin, all of it, had become snake scales; she could press her stomach straight into the ground without hurting sensitive parts anymore. Her neck had spread out much like a cobra's, and her snake hair had grown into huge pythons that grabbed nearby branches and brush. Her face was an elongated, hideous combination of snake and human, and much larger than either, but that didn't matter, she couldn't see her own face without a mirror. And it wasn't her that wanted a massive meal, it was the beast inside.

She could see the large family of boar. There were several families on the island, and they had no predators, none except for her once every few weeks. Her only source of food before Darian had arrived to help. Perhaps she would treat herself?

She struck out from the brush with the speed of a viper. It was only for twenty feet, and for twenty feet she could strike with a speed even Darian could not. Thirty feet of powerful snake muscle launched her forward.

The family of pigs squealed and bolted, but surprise was on her side; she had waited until they were asleep. They all took to the brush in random directions, panicked, but one of them did not.

This one was fatter than the others, slower, and normally she would have avoided eating it for fear it would hurt her with its size and thrashing. But not this time. She sank her huge teeth into its neck, gripped it with her now scale-covered hands, and started to wrap the thirty feet of her length around it in coils. More and more she circled the huge, struggling monster of fur and flesh, until it had disappeared inside rings of her body.

And she squeezed. Bones snapped, and with her teeth lodged onto the boar's neck, she could hear them break as if they were her own. But she'd long lost her squeamishness; this was her lunch. Tighter she squeezed the struggler, tighter, until it could no longer move. Tighter again, until it could no longer breathe. Tighter, until it was dead. To kill it took a long time -- it was a huge boar -- but after well over ten minutes of wrestling, it was at last nothing but a dead thing trapped in her coils.

Then, for the final act of animal brutality. She pushed her head forward toward its body, unhinged her jaw, and began to devour the beast head first. And that too took a long time, much longer than she liked. Fifteen minutes of vulnerability, fifteen minutes of just laying there while she slowly worked its massive girth into her gullet. It must have been over three-hundred pounds.

But there were no predators on the island, none except her. The boars feared her, huge as she was, and would not attack her even when exposed like this. So she took her time, did it right, clenched and unclenched her whole length's array of musculature until the meal was past her stretched and malformed upper body, and down past into the deep, long canal of her snake half.

Only then could she relax, and let the monster return to its slumber. Her human torso reemerged from the armor of scales, her neck and head returned to their normal size, and her snake air did too. She patted her body to make sure the transformation was complete; she was always a little afraid she'd never return to her normal self. As normal as a gorgon form was, at least. Better the half-snake than a giant snake monster.

"Wow," Darian said. The small man approached from her back, a small courtesy for her nudity. From behind, all there was to find was her back, and the scales of her snake length that met her just above the hip, and below the small of her back.

"See? It's a grotesque act."

"Surprising, sure, but grotesque? It was like watching a giant snake with arms eating." He hoped down from his tree -- agile as a monkey, he was -- and landed down next to her snake body. "That's so much food!"

"Yes, it...!" She gasped at the sight Darian was staring at. There was a bulge ten feet down into her snake body where the boar sat in her digestive track. She threw her human half in between the unsightly display, and at the same time covered it with her hands. "Don't look! Please, it is embarrassing!"

Darian nodded, turned, and looked away, complete with a whistle. But she could see he was struggling to not laugh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the end of the day, the horrible display of stretched flesh and scales along her snake belly was gone, thank the gods. Part of her was angry at Darian for his small teasing, but many parts of her were happy that, after only a week with another person, she could socialize like that again. She was even smiling again.

Tired, sleepy from with the morning's hunt, and unable to completely hide her constant smiling, she coiled up next to the pool. With a satisfied sigh, she laid down her human body along her scaled length, hugged her arms underneath her head, and rested. Comfortable, fed, and oddly at peace with the gentle sounds of Darian swimming in the pool.

Plus, she liked to watch him swim. Such a delicious, lean, muscular little creature. She pictured coiling around him, holding him, and just easing herself down onto.... She shook her head. Don't be ridiculous.

"Medusa," Darian said, "can I ask a question?"

He swam up to her, but avoiding touched the tip of her tail that was dipped into the water. He never did touch her, ever.

"... if you will answer one of mine after." She bit her bottom lip, worried.

But the offer only made Darian's beautiful smile grow. "If you think you're up to it."

"I am!"

"Alright." He swam back and forth in front of her in a slow and leisurely way. "Do you hate people? They know that you are the victim, and they still hunt you."

She shook her head, sighed with the weight of that question, and rested her chin on her arm along her coiled body. "People. They... they are good people. Afraid of the gods, and... and... just afraid."

Darian winced with her answer. He seemed dissatisfied. "People are mindless, god-fearing insects. You give them too much credit."

She tilted her head at that, and it was her turn for a question after all. "... why do you hate people so much? I... I saw what you did to that warrior from Athens when we met. You had defeated him, but then you... destroyed him." And I could practically see the hate pour from you when you turned his skull into a splattered mess inside his helmet.

Maybe it was too much to ask. Fear swept through when she saw Darian stop swimming and look away, but after a moment, he looked back to her and sighed much the same way she did.

"...I was betrayed by many people. Betrayed by family, betrayed by kings, betrayed by... everyone." He pointed to the V burned into the center of his brow. "Betrayed because they are fools who mindlessly follow the gods, gods unworthy of any respect or loyalty, let alone worship." Again he sighed, and he sank his face into the water before raising it. Water dripped down his tanned skin, along his nose and his lips. He normally looked so young, but right then and just for a second, she could see an age to him. "The world of men and gods is just... I want no more part of it."

"I ssssee." Darian had a twisted history then. Perhaps she could find out more, later.

Darian got up out the pool and started to walk past her, naked except for his loincloth. Something on his face, something stern, something angry caught her eye, and she slithered after him to catch his hand.

"Darian, I meant no offense. Please."

He stopped. She stopped. Everything froze. He turned his head slowly, and for a second she thought she'd see an angered Darian for the first time. But, his face carried only a hint of sorrow, and also... surprise? His gaze, she realized, was pointed at where she held his fingers in her palm.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"No, I'm sorry," he said. "Just, it's a sensitive topic, and I'm the juvenile brat who gets upset about it. I don't know how you deal with it. I can't even think straight when I remember my betrayal, and... it makes my blood boil."

Oh gods, if only he knew. "I have had many, many years to deal with mine, Darian."

"Heh, true." He smiled at where their fingers touched, and his thumb stroked her knuckle. It was the first time he had ever touched her since the night he'd treated her wounds, but now his thumb, wet with water and softened by it, just lightly grazed along her finger.

She almost melted.

"You... you always avoid touching me. I thought... I thought I.... I don't know, I revolted-"

"I didn't want to upset you."

"Upset me?" she said.

He turned to face her, but now it was him holding her hand, and his usually loud, boasting smile had softened into a gentle thing. "After what happened to you, I figured the last thing you'd want is a man you just met touching you."

Oh. She should have believed him when he said he wasn't repulsed by her; the man was just trying to avoid offending her.

"For a time, I did think of men as... vile, sick creatures," she said, and she gazed down at where their fingers were touching.

"We are."

She blinked, and her snake hair lowered before pointing its many heads at the man. Darian had looked away again, down at his bare feet, and a sad frown had replaced his smile.

"You... did not strike me as the brooding, serious type, Darian."

That got a smile from him. "Sorry. Happens to the best of us."

"And... I do not think you are vile."

His smile brightened even more, until he was almost back to his usual self. "How can you be so nice? A hundred years? If I was you, it could be a thousand and I'd still be hating the guts of every god and any thing with dangly bits between the legs."

She tugged on his hand a little and brought him a few inches closer. "I can't help it. Aphrodite and Eros were those I looked to with fondness, but it was Eleos I held most dear."

"Oh wow, you worshiped Aphrodite and Eros?" Darian scratched at the back of his head with his free hand again, and laughed with his usual warmth; whatever storm haunted him had passed once more. "If I had known you were one of 'those,' I would have been trying to get into your bed from day one."

"Do not tease me, Darian!" She frowned at him and yanked on his hand a little. From so close, she could stare at him with her snake eyes like an angry mother hen.

"What, you don't think I would?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Wait, was he serious? Could he possibly be serious? She frowned again, but his smile did not waver. He met her gaze with unrelenting confidence, and where they still held a hand, he caressed the back of her fingers with his thumb, and winked at her.

Her heart stopped. Her eyes went wide. Her mouth parted just slightly, just enough that she must have looked a fool. As if turned to stone herself, she stared at the beautiful man who had just challenged her. He couldn't have been serious. He must have been kidding. What if he wasn't kidding though? What if all she had to do, was keep hold of that hand, and pull him toward her bed. What if all she had to do, to have something she wanted so badly, was just take it.

His smile turned into confusion, and his right brow quirked along with it. After a time though, he lowered his eyes and tried to step back.

"I'm sorry," he said, "that really was rude of me. Now I feel horrible, saying that after what you've been through."

He tried to let go of her hand. She didn't let him.

He couldn't have been serious. But he had said she was beautiful, that he thought snakes were beautiful, and more than once his eyes had drifted to her clothed breasts. Was it all a game to him? Or did he actually want to....

"... Medusa?"

She tried to say something, but nothing worked or made sense. She could just proposition him back, but it seemed so absurd, so ridiculous, a monster asking a human for.... She bit her bottom lip, careful to keep her massive snake fangs within her mouth, but enough to chew on her lip nonetheless. Darian was such a nice man too, the nicest she had ever known. All it took was a few words from him to turn her into a silly child, and now she felt like a girl just barely old enough to crave a man, and overwhelmed by it.

"Medusa, you alright?"

She gulped, and opened her mouth one last time to say something, but all she could find was silence. She would not throw this away though, this gift, this chance. So get out of your head Medusa, and do something.

With a lowered gaze -- eye contact was impossible at this point -- she started to slither towards the small home that contained their beds.

She did not let go of his hand.

"Whoa, Medusa, I didn't mean you should-"

"You... do not want to?" Finally, words!

"I do! But I put you on the spot, and-"

She started slithering toward the house again, this time a little faster. He wanted to. He wanted to. The words made her giddy; she could feel her snake hair practically dancing on her scalp.

"Medusa, I'm trying to apologize!"

She ignored him, afraid he'd say something to put her burst of courage to an end. Instead, she pulled him along into the dark room, and further, and further, until he was in the center of her pile of huge blankets. Then, with jitters trembling up and down the length of her entire body, she started to circle him, and circle him, and circle him again until she had circled him thrice. There was still plenty of room for him within her coils to move about, but for her, it was as if she had created walls to protect them both from prying eyes.

She lowered herself down into the center of the coil, and faced the small man. His confidence was shattered, and he looked very nervous, as if a snake had just captured him and was ready to devour him. For a moment, she thought perhaps he truly was afraid, but a moment later, Darian took a step back, rested his palms against the smooth scales of one of her coils, and looked up to her with wide eyes. He looked... entranced, even in awe. And that made her smile more than she thought she could.

Darian was dressed only in his loincloth, soaked as it was, and every bit of his body was open to her. So close, so very close, she wanted to reach out and touch his lean and defined body, his tanned skin, his... everything. And like as if a bubble had burst inside her mind, she realized with a wave of exhilaration, that she could do just that.

So she placed one of her hands upon his neck, and the other against his chest, and she squeezed with just enough pressure to feel the hardness of the warrior's body. He was a little short, and his shoulders did not have the width of the typical warrior; and yet, it was all so... perfect. It fit his soft but confident smile, his short and trimmed beard and hair, his playful gaze that could turn cold when it wanted to. It was most definitely not cold then.

She lowered both her hands, one to drift down his arm and tease along his bicep, elbow, and down to his wrist. The other traced the indentation of his abs, and when she noticed his breathing was getting faster, she rested her hand against his stomach to feel his breathing quicken.

He was excited too.

"Medusa, we don't have to-"

The hand upon his arm reached for his face, and she pressed a finger to his lips to shush him. But once there, she shivered at the sensation of his lips and breath upon her skin.

Her boldness surprised her. Everything about this surprised her, and she knew it was all this man's fault, teasing her, making her laugh, making her smile. She wanted to return the favor, and she wanted to enjoy returning it.

She reached to her neck with both her hands, and behind it to undo the knot that held her wrap in place. It slipped free, letting the weight of her heavy breasts pull down against her ribs, before she tossed the fabric aside.

Darian's gaze lowered to her bosom, eyes even more wide than before, bewitched. Her breasts were quite large, heavy, and they pulled down with their size, but that did not seem to bother the man trapped in her coil. She could feel the heat started to rise inside her; her nipples were already hard and swollen atop puffy, pink areola.

Then she reached down, and undid the knot of the wrap that hugged her waist and hips tight. With that tossed aside she was completely naked, and all her fears were laid bare. The snake half of her reached up to her pelvis and wide hips, even replacing her butt. But, at the bottom of the V where human flesh and snake met on her front, the base of her pelvis and her pubic bone, the last trace of human was her womanhood.

"I... this... I don't have legs." Blushing did not begin to describe how red her skin had become. "And so it... the angle...." Her sex sat flat against the base of her pelvis and was pointed forward, toward the man in her coils.

Darian's eyes had fallen to stare at the pink flesh she had just exposed, and Medusa had to fight the urge to cover herself. But, when she looked down at Darian, she could not help but notice that his loincloth, still dripping with water, was now wrapped tight against his erection. This man, this strange, carefree man, was aroused looking at her naked body.

She licked her lips. Fear and apprehension and shame were thrown down the mountainside. All that was left was one very, very aroused gorgon.

"D-don't... move, please? I...." She placed her trembling hands onto his body again, and massaged with tender touch along his chest and stomach. "I know I said I was ready, and I am, but... please don't move?"

He nodded, only barely, his mouth still parted and gaping. Those dark, brown eyes of his raised to hers, and then drifted back down to her naked human flesh, then back up to her eyes, and then down again. Like a young boy, he could not control his gaze.

A small memory dug itself from her mind. She could see herself, a tall woman, curvaceous and young, serving the temple and catching the eyes of men and women. It had delighted and excited her then, and it excited her now.

Poseidon would not take this joy away from her. She would not allow it.

She lowered herself a little more, until her torso hovered only a few inches higher than the man's. Her hands found his hips, and she held them as handles to guide her while she leaned in.

Darian's gaze was caught inside hers, and this time, it did not break. He just stared at her, the tiniest smile on his open lips.

She put her forehead to his. Her snake hair explored Darian's neck and hair with slow, sultry motions, but their flicking tongues managed to pull a little, ticklish chuckle from the young man. Not a drop of disgust or fear or even annoyance on his face with how her host of snakes nuzzled into his warm skin, along under his jawline, against his cheek, his collar, the back of his neck.

Then she licked his lips with the tiniest, quickest flick. Her tongue was long, thin with a forked tip, and it flicked at the air the same way her snake hair's tongues did. And still it did not bother Darian. He just returned her testing with a quiet laugh.

Satisfied, excited, and boiling, she finally pushed her lips onto his.

She had told herself to make it a small kiss, a fleeting thing -- this was just about the sex after all -- but it did not happen. Darian's eyes drifted closed, yet she could not fully close hers. She had to see, had to watch what he did, had to be absolutely sure. But, all she found was the relaxed and enticed face of a man.