Lamia, The (Full Version)

[Author's Preface] Dear readers, this story was published previously under the same name, but strangely only half of the original story came out. This is the full version.

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The Lamia

Belen pressed himself against the tree, hoping that the pale moonlight would obscure his silhouette. The cypress was icy in the cold night, its rough bark prodding into his back, making the disastrous night just that much more uncomfortable.

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his hard breathing, focusing in an attempt to deliberately slow his breathing. He did not want his cold breath to give away his position. Despite grime and sweat stinging his eyes, he forced himself not to rub them.

He gripped his kopis, blade raised against his chest. It gave him some small comfort in its presence. The bronze blade barely gave off any shine as he had taken the precaution of rubbing it with ash before they had set off.

The last few minutes were a complete blur. Running. Panicked shouts. Branches obscuring his vision. Brambles tearing at his sandaled feet. In the chaos, he saw Kyros get taken in the darkness. One moment he was crouched by the bushes, the next he cried out and was dragged into the undergrowth. A veteran of many brutal fights, he had the experience to know it was an opportunity to withdraw rather than be rooted to the spot to witness the gruesome death, like some kind of naive youngster in his first battle.

He fled down the trail as fast as he could.

Or so he thought.

-----

Earlier that morning, Belen, Kyros, Syna and Pedar had wandered down the road from the city of Pyga and came across a quiet village by the river.

By the river banks lined with olive trees, a man sat with his son taking shelter from the midday sun in the cool shade. They each had fishing rods in their hands and Belen could see that they had already had some success with a few fish tails sticking out of the basket beside them. But they were not done yet, and in the clear shallow waters, there were many beautiful brown trout swimming lazily about.

Kyros veered off the dirt road and approached them. "I bid you good afternoon, gentle father. Have you any fish to spare for some hungry travelers?"

The man looked Kyros over and then looked past him to Kyros' companions. "Well met, traveler. Our village, just beyond where the road crests, you will find that we have a fishmonger who sells a wide range of fish from the Pyrenean Sea.

Kyros laughed, "I'm certain what you have will be much fresher than what is in your village market."

When he saw the man's wary eyes trail down his body to his falcata sheathed in his belt, Kyros quickly held up his hands placatingly, "Plus I'm happy to pay you for your trouble! Say three drachmas for two fish?"

The fisherman's expression brightened upon hearing the price. "I can do that."

When Kyros returned to his friends, Pedar looked at him in disbelief.

"Are you insane? Three drachmas for these two fish?! We could have gotten these same fish for one drachma back in Pyga. What were you thinking?"

"Peace, Pedar. I'm a warrior, not a merchant," shrugged Kyros. "Besides, I saw how he looked at my blade. He obviously thought I looked dangerous to him. If we pay him more than a fair amount, he'll know we aren't highwaymen. Think of it as buying goodwill with the locals."

He began walking towards the inn. Pedar rolled his eyes and called out at his retreating form, "We earned that money fair and square, Kyos. We spent five days in a swamp to capture that wisp! And Belen nearly lost his arm to a crocodile!"

Syna placed her hand on Pedar's shoulder, "Well he didn't, because we were there to watch his back. That crocodile had a dozen arrows in him the moment his eyes broke the water's surface. It should've stuck to ambushing fat water voles."

"Well, it still set us back another day by causing the wisp to flee deeper into the swamp," Pedar grumbled, but his retort had grown softer, feeling more mollified.

The four of them were in the middle of haggling for a room at the village inn when a crowd of people began to form in the street outside. Turning around, they saw a body being brought in to the village elder's hut. Through the blue cloth they carried it in, a large patch of red leaked through onto the ground.

The four looked at each other and their subtle nods spoke of their unworded agreement: potential opportunity.

Entering the hut, they pushed their way through the throng of villagers. One of the men who found the body was telling everyone how he found it in the woods.

"I would never have found Deimos' body if his pendant didn't reflect the sunlight into my eyes. I have no idea how he wound up so high up in the hills."

Deimos' hair and clothes were matted with twigs and leaves, while much of the straw colored material was splattered with dirt. It was a gruesome sight, with a broken leg and a gaping hole in the side of his torso.

"This is exactly what happened to Alekos three weeks ago, and to Kostas the month before that!" wailed an elderly woman.

Chatter broke out amongst the crowd, with words like "cursed by the gods" and "monster" echoing in the conversations.

Kyros spoke up, his voice cutting through the noise, "How do you know this wasn't a simple bear mauling?"

"We have some vineyards to the north and some barley fields in the lower slopes. And at the base of these foothills runs a major road. With all this activity, we have not seen bears here in over a decade." said the elder.

"Besides, in recent weeks, on particularly dark nights, we have heard the wails of a woman in anguish. Some of us have gone in search of these cries, but they keep moving. They begin at the far end of the vineyards or the fields, but when we walk forward, the cries seem to then come from deeper inside the forest," a younger man added.

Another man chimed in with his own account, "It's true! Once, when I went to look, I saw the shape of a beautiful woman walking amongst the trees. She beckoned me, but as I walked toward her, the roots tripped me. When I stood up again, she had vanished."

"Wait. In the moonlight, how do you know she was beautiful?" interjected Belen.

The man looked sheepish and looked to the floor. "Well, you know... she just was."

Another man standing beside the speaker grinned and made cupping motions at his chest, causing Pedar to bark out a laugh before stifling it. Beside him, both Syna and Kyros tried to hide their smiles. Only Belen remained thoughtful.

The elder cleared his throat, regaining everyone's attention, "We have seen tracks at the edge of the forest and they are not those of a bear. Whatever it is, it has made walking about at night unsafe, especially when it is moonless. And it grows bolder. On some of such nights, people have heard snarls and the heavy tread of animal paws. it knocks on our doors, but we daren't open them."

Kyros spoke up, "Revered elder, allow us to aid you."

The elder looked at Kyros thoughtfully before shaking his head, "I have seen many militiamen pass through our village. Men - and women (he nodded at Syna, who nodded back in turn) - who come with swords and javelins. We are thankful for your kind who keep our roads clear of bandits. But these are not military campaigns. I fear you are not equipped to deal with monsters and beasts cursed by the gods. If the gods do not answer our prayers, we would need heroes like Perseus or Jason to help us."

"Gentle father, my friends and I were once militiamen, many years ago. We now ply our trade precisely as monster slayers." Kyros replied. "We may not be great heroes, but we are skilled. Pedar is a great tracker, whose fieldcraft has helped us find difficult prey or track down and rescue their victims. Syna's athletic prowess and skill with pilum, spear, bow and horse make her unmatched for leagues. Rumors are that she was in fact an Amazon that was somehow left behind in a normal village."

Syna laughed at this, "You do so love to tell that story, Kyros. I know who my parents are, and they are fine and healthy still, working the vineyards in Cyprus."

"Or so they claim," shrugged Kyros as he looked about the room, earning him smiles and a few laughs from the gathered crowd. He then proceeded to clap his hand over his last friend's shoulder. "And then there is Belen. My good friend here is a decent swordsman. But it is his mind that is sharper than any blade. I have teased him on occasion for reading so much, but in truth, I have much respect for his passion - a passion that has granted him access to the Great Library of Alexandria! He is an expert on strange and exotic beasts. He has come up with many cunning ideas that have helped us defeat harpies, ogres, manticores, and even a cyclops!"

The crowd, spellbound from his introduction, were cast into a breath of silence as Kyros paused for effect, savoring their rapt attention before continuing. "So as you can see, if we can get rid of some of the great scourges of the land, surely a beast that cannot come through your doors should be something we are more than capable of handling?"

Cheers and excited chatter broke out all over the hall. The elder looked at them with tears in his eyes as if Hercules himself had come to grace their presence.

-----

After Kyros had suitably impressed the villagers with their experience, Pedar interjected with the need for a suitable fee for bringing an end to this menace. Some haggling took place and at the end, the elder had reluctantly agreed upon a fee that the village could stomach.

The four asked the villagers about locations and sightings before setting out. By dusk, they reached the outlying areas where they were told it could be found. Pedar found some paw prints that resembled a lion. However, as the spoor was several days old, the tracker decided that the area should be safe enough to set up a campsite before venturing further in.

"Did you see the tracks?" asked Pedar. The team had settled down for the night. As it was the night after the new moon, there was little light beyond the warm glow of their own campfire.

"It's very strange. Lions don't live this far up," Syna said while bundling the fish they bought in herbs and wrapping them in leaves before skewering them for the open flame.

"It's more than strange, Syna. Did you notice the distance between each print? If it is a lion, it's not particularly large. But the gait seems wrong. It wasn't plodding like a big cat on the plains, but it prowled like a smaller ambush hunter," Belen stared into fire. He was in the middle of preparing their pot of cracked wheat and lamb, but as he lost himself in thought, his hands hung limply over his knees.

Kyros rolled his eyes and gently took the ladle out of Belen's hands and continued stirring, "Even better for us that it's a smaller lion. A few pheasants plucked and left out, a nice deep pit, and we should have caught ourselves a 'ferocious monster' within the next two days."

Belen turned to Kyros, "Did you notice the marks on the body? It was rended, not bitten, Kyros. The man's entrails had spilled out but were not eaten. This was no man-eating lion. We need to find more information."

Syna laughed.

"Belen please, you always worry. Seven out of ten times the beast we pursue ends up being a bear, a wolf, a mountain lion or like that time - a troop of raccoons! Even if this is something more, if nothing else, we should be grateful our game is smaller than a manticore. May the gods protect us should we have to fight another one of those. It wasn't even their tail spikes I worried about so much as their incredibly foul breath when they lunged to bite."

"I remember!" Kyros laughed and pointed at Syna. "That last one hated your javelins after it tore through both its wing membranes. It really wanted to take your head off. Then this green gas began spilling from its jaws. I could not believe it! I'd never seen one do that before. And I remember my eyes stinging and my eyebrows burning when I rushed forward and slammed his muzzle aside with my shield as it went for you."

Syna bent forward as she laughed, her golden braid shining in the fire's glow. "It was so bad! It smelled of onions and bad cabbage ... and ... garbage. Merciful Hera, both your eyebrows had been singed off and you smelled of its breath even weeks after that!"

Kyros wiped tears from his eyes as he laughed, "You think that was bad? Try being me! I smelled it all the time."

Pedar was doubled over as well. "You kept tearing so much that people thought you'd lost your family. Kindly strangers would come up to offer you words of comfort before stopping three feet from you and then fleeing in the other direction!"

Belen, lost in thought, did not laugh. "It is neither the thunderous roar nor the beat of wings that I fear. In the Great Library, there were scrolls that told of more cunning beasts that roamed the land. Creatures of the hidden claw."

The three's laughter stumbled to a halt at Belen's ominous words. In the pause, Pedar spoke up. "Hidden claw? What in Hades' black arsehole are you on about, Belen?"

The three of them burst out laughing again.

"Are you a seer, Belen?" a woman's voice spoke out.

The laughter ceased as they looked at Syna. "It wasn't me," she said.

They realized this voice was deeper; throatier. They looked around into the dark woods around them as they slowly reached for their weapons.

"Who goes there?" Kyros challenged at the dark.

A dark shape leapt out of the foliage and landed straight into the fire, scattering their cooking and throwing up embers into Kyros and Syna's faces.

Belen instinctively grabbed his kopis and rolled away into the brush.

With the campfire extinguished, Belen groped blindly in the darkness, waiting for his night vision to return.

During these few moments, he heard Pedar cry out and fall to the ground. He heard Kyros' blade clatter to the ground as he stumbled backwards. He heard Syna's grunt followed by a thump as she hit herself against something solid like a tree. He heard a hissing cackle of a dangerous woman intent on causing them harm. He heard his own blood thundering in his ears as he tried to remain calm and still.

Pedar gurgled in the blackness and Belen knew that their tracker had fallen, his lifeblood oozing out of some mortal wound.

It had launched itself into their camp, invading their rest, attacked his teammates, and with a rustle of dried leaves, fled back into the darkness before any of them could react.

Belen stared wild-eyed and unseeingly into the night. Was this a woman? Its voice certainly sounded like one, but it moved like a graceful predator. Only one thing was certain - this was not some stupid beast.

Here, for the first time, any initiative and planning had been taken away in one fell swoop. It dawned on him just how fortunate his team had been in the past. They'd spent the last years hunting ferocious beasts, wild and monstrous creatures, and even occasionally rooting out vile undead. Each success they'd enjoyed was the result of studying the creature's environment, careful planning and the setting up of traps beforehand. They had always taken the fight to their quarry. Never before had they ever encountered an adversary so willing to attack them before they were ready.

"Syna? Belen? Are you alright?" Kyros whispered out into the treeline where Belen crouched. With his eyes beginning to adjust, he saw Kyros bent over Pedar. The hunter coughed and gurgled as his lifeblood oozed a shiny black, leaving his body from great gashes that ran from his chest and throat down his abdomen. It did not look like he would see the end of this night.

"I'm here, Kyros," Belen replied. Syna remained silent; motionless where she had fallen.

Falcata in hand, Kyros reached into his bag and drew out his dagger. Standing up, he spat in rage, "I don't know what this beast is, but it has bought itself vengeance! I intend to flay this creature very slowly before cutting its head off -"

Kyros' words were cut short as he heard something twang behind him. He only managed to twist himself halfway around before he was dragged into the undergrowth.

Belen wasted no time and fled down the path they came, but as he ran the path broke up, leading to more undergrowth and denser woods. Chest burning and out of breath, he leaned against a tree.

It made no sense. He was sure the broad path was correct, but as he ran, it got narrower and how could he have been running downhill only to find himself nowhere near where he thought he was going?

His sweat chilled against his skin in the cold night and made his clothes stick. He closed his eyes and tried to take slow and deep calming breaths as quietly as possible.

The forest had indeed become silent, much like how it might when something dangerous lurked. At first, he heard the light rustle of leaves and thought it was just normal leaf fall, but he soon realized there was a steady rhythm to it. It was the sound of someone - something - walking, and it was getting closer.

"Poor Belen," the same woman's voice floated through the night; low, smooth and velvet.

Belen pressed himself even further against the tree. This creature was intelligent; the scholar who had written the scroll was right to fear the hidden claw.

"It must have been difficult, traveling with friends like these," her voice was feminine, yet imposing. She sounded like a monarch. "You were forever advising them caution, thinking of how they should react should misfortune befall your hunt. And while they did eventually listen to you, you have been lucky."

Fear stabbed at him in his thoughts. She was right, wasn't she? They'd faced many monsters, and his friends followed his lead on strategy. How much did he really know about these creatures? A few days of scouting the monsters' territories; the traps they'd laid. They'd somehow come together and were able to fall into place. Yet all it took was one of these creatures to decide that it did not wish to follow their script and now their party was scattered and its members fallen. Such hubris!

Belen shivered as he realized his mind had wandered into such dark thoughts when he should be paying attention to the danger he was presently in.

It dawned on him that perhaps it was not his fault. Perhaps this creature had some kind of ability to invade the minds of men and confuse them. Or even make them see what it wanted them to. Some kind of glamor....

"So clever," the woman's sibilant voice came from much nearer now. Belen gripped his kopis tightly. All he had to do was listen to her tread and her voice to know where she was and how high she stood, and let her take a few paces more forward...and he would step out swiftly to take her head. "You have spent so little time with me and you already have an inkling of what I can do," she smiled from the darkness, "but there is yet more you have not discovered."

Her eyes blazed in the darkness and a fog came over Belen. His focus slipped and his grip upon his blade loosened.

"Come out, Belen. You know that I am not your enemy," her velvet voice coaxed. It felt warm, friendly. Sultry.

He felt an urge to obey her. Slowly, drunkenly, he stepped out from behind the tree, sword held loosely in one hand. His eyes rolled in his stupor, attempting to focus.

"Look upon me. Gaze upon my form and know that I am your one great love, and your greatest wish is to serve me and please me."

Looking up, he beheld the form of a woman, her hands raised in the air. Her face had the noble features of a goddess, crowned by flowing dark hair. She wore no clothing to hide her broad shoulders and a muscular physique. His eyes roamed lower, gazing upon her generous breasts held proud and high upon her chest, tipped enticingly by large, dark areola, capped by stiff, pointed nipples. Her globes swung heavily with each motion she made, stealing his attention.