Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 04

But, there was only darkness to greet him, so at least he had that going for him. They knew where he fell, but they didn't know where he landed. That wouldn't last once they got down the stairs and started scouting around the hill base of the acropolis.

Lying on his back, he took a deep breath, and sat up. His sword was still in the hand of his punctured arm. He squeezed the grip, and grimaced when pain filled the muscles. Still working. He rolled toward his sword hand to push himself off the ground.

He fell over onto his face. Then the pain kicked in. Cold fire shot up his arm, from the stick lodged all the way through his bicep and out through his tricep, into his shoulder, where the pain overwhelmed him and knocked the air out of his lungs. His arm was hanging out of its socket.

Groaning, he rolled onto his shield arm, pushed himself off the ground with his shield, and stood up with his arm dangling. He couldn't see it well in the shadows of the hill, city buildings, and tall grass, but he could see the strange gap where his upper arm was hanging lower than it should have been. Only flesh, muscle, and skin connected it to the shoulder, and each motion he made, each muscle he squeezed, shot only more pain up into the dislocated joint.

He let go of his sword, leaned forward, grabbed his sword hand's wrist with his shield hand, and yanked down. A loud pop, and the upper arm tensed with the shock of another wave of pain. Then, relief; the arm was back in its socket. Then he grabbed the arrowhead of the shaft lodged through his arm, and yanked it through. It was no ordinary arrowhead, but something large and polished to a sheen. He only had time to admire it for a moment before the pain brought him to his knees, and he gritted his teeth until his jaw ached while the pain faded. After a minute, it settled into a harsh, sickening throb that came in waves; a vast improvement over the minute before.

He got up, picked his sword up, and started moving through the city. The stables, he had to get to the stables. There should be at least a few horses.

Another snap of string and the crack of an arrowhead, this time against the dirt beside him. He jumped around and put up his shield, and blinked up at the stairway above. Two glowing white dots sat above him, Otrera, and were firing down at him. No one else, only her.

He held still, and the arrows stopped. She was scanning for movement, couldn't see him in the dark if he held still, and kept his anger from forcing his eyes to glow.

What a tenacious bitch. He'd have done the same.

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~~Medusa~~

She didn't think she'd be able to sleep. She was right.

Medusa slithered over to the tree line where Chimera stood, and watched the road. Every time she looked down the valley to the path Darian had walked down, she clutched at her heart. In the stars and moonlight, she could see everything better than she could as a human. And there was no Darian. He said tomorrow night by latest. In another twenty-four hours, she'd slither into Tiryns with Chimera as her bodyguard, and tear it apart looking for him. If it came to it, she'd kill to find him.

"Sleep," Chimera said.

"I can't. I want to, but I... I haven't slept a night alone since I met him. Even when we barely knew each other, we slept only feet from each other. He mumbles in his sleep."

"What does he say?"

Medusa blinked up at the giant next to her. "Nothing coherent. A lot of anger though, and something about... out of the sky? And someone named Philonoe?"

Chimera shrugged, and looked back to the road.

"Sssso, Chimera, tell me. You've been drifting around Greece for hundreds of years?"

"I have."

"Did you have a family?"

"I did."

Like getting blood from a stone, this one.

"What happened to them?"

"Killed by the gods and their worshipers."

She gasped, and pulled her human half away from him a few feet. Her fingers were on her lips again.

"I... had no idea."

Chimera grunted, shrugged, and looked out to the road. "It was a thousand winters ago."

"A... a... thousand." This man, this giant before her was ancient in a way she could not understand. She moved in front of him, and raised her height to look him in the eye. His gaze was the same cold, stone gaze it always was. "That's why Darian said you wanted a 'crack' at Athena. You want to kill her."

Chimera nodded. His thick arms were folded across his chest where the lion arms of his pelt were tied, and his fangs showed over his lips.

"But it was so long ago!" She reached out and took him by his colossal shoulders to shake him; he was so wide, she had to reach her arms far out to the sides to grab both shoulders. The stone wall of muscle did not budge. "Do you hold hate for so long?"

Chimera growled at her, a deep rumbling sound she felt through her body. "I remember it as if it were yesterday. And you, snake woman? Bellerophontes — Darian — told me of your trials, of Poseidon and Athena. You have must reason to scorn, where is your hate? Lost to weakness?"

Like lightning, rage overwhelmed her, dotted her vision, and took over. She braced her snake length against earth and tree, and pushed him. The giant fell over, and shook the ground when he landed. He reached out with both hands to brace himself, but the trees snapped and cracked right along with him.

"I hated! I hated until I felt my inssssides boil!" She snapped her tail against a nearby tree; the whip crack of its tip tore through bark and cut through depths. It hurt, but the pain was white noise. "I hated, and hated, but you and Darian, both of you ssslaughter and kill and then you forget. You forget! I've sssstared into the faces of my kills for decadesss! They ssstand there, statues in my garden of death, and they scream or sneer or glare at me for years, and years, and years. Ssso you'll have to forgive me, oh ancient giant, if I've learned to let go of my hate, because I had to face what hate did every day. I had to look into their eyesss for a century!" She twisted her body again, and snapped out a large portion of her snake tail so it collided against the trunk of a tree, and cracked the thick trunk before sending the tree toppling.

"... I believe you still have some hate in you, snake woman."

"I am not a sssssnake!" She slammed her tail into the ground next to him. Brush and twigs and pebbles cracked underneath the impact. Any animals that were still within earshot went silent. Not a bird or cricket remained in the night.

Chimera looked up at her, sitting up with his palms against the forest floor. His lion head had fallen backward off his crown, leaving his long, dark hair exposed. And without the upper jaw of the unusual lion's mouth over his forehead, she could see his dark eyes in the clear moonlight. He was smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" she said, and she slithered over next to him. Big as her snake tail was, she was still just human sized from the waist up, and the giant's massive height made her seem to small.

Chimera looked down, chuckled, and pushed himself back up. "I believe you will feel differently, Medusa, when we stand before the gods."

"I..." Images of Poseidon resurfaced. Tall, handsome, a beautiful beard of white, long hair, strong eyes of blue. She'd been so humbled, so terrified and overjoyed a god had literally come to visit her. So destroyed when he'd... taken her. How long had she struggled to let that memory go?

"I see it in your eyes," Chimera said, and he cracked his neck with a head tilt before he turned to look back out onto the road in the valley below. "When the time comes, you will take your revenge."

"I..." With a groan, she slithered back over to hover beside the giant. "I may." She couldn't lie to herself, she was still angry. But every time she got angry, she remembered the dead statues and their hateful, terrified gazes. It made her insides run cold.

Gods, please be ok Darian.

"I see light."

"Oh!" Her whole body started to vibrate, and she broke into a fast slither along the forest tree line. Light, this late? It may have been Darian. Maybe.

She got twenty feet before she fell flat onto her chest and palms in the grass. When she looked behind her, Chimera was frowning, and he had the tip of her tail in one of his hands. But before she could start yelling at him, he put a finger up to his lips. Shhh.

Frowning, but understanding, she slithered back over to him, and crouched low as he was. He nodded to her, and then pointed down the valley, further down the road to where the rolling hills swallowed the path.

There was light! It was so far it didn't look like it was moving, but sure enough, the tiny spec of fire was on the horizon against the starlight. And after a minute, it started to get larger. And then more lights joined it. A dozen other dots of fire joined the first, and they bobbed up and down while flickering in the wind.

Soldiers on horses, with torches. And they were chasing something.

It was hard to see in the dark, but another rider was ahead of them. No torch, and as they grew closer, Medusa could see they were slouched forward on their horse. The horse was galloping fast, despite the night, and the rider was barely holding on. They were hard to see in the moonlight, as if they wore black, but Medusa could see the shimmer of a white crest on their helmet.

"Darian..."

Chimera tapped her shoulder and shook his head. "I can see... thirteen pursuing him... and Darian is very injured."

"Then... then we have to do something!" Keeping her voice low in the deathly quiet of the night was making her whole body tense with frustration. "But I can't turn them to stone, Darian's too near, and if I use my bow, I... I can't hit that many. It's too dark, and they're on horses, and—"

"I will go. You can protect Bellerophontes."

Medusa looked back at the giant. His fangs were exposed, his huge hands dug into the ground, and his lion pelt was back over his head. She looked into the eyes of the dead cat on his hair, and for a moment, she thought she could see the animal hunger there too. He was waiting for her word, to send him into a slaughter. His slaughter.

"... do it."

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~~Chimera~~

The hunt was on once again.

He crouched low and moved by the snake woman. When he was past her, he closed his eyes, and breathed deep the night air. He could smell grass on the wind, the distant sea, the nearby birds, the stench of a dead deer deep in the woods, and of the humans that walked the road in the day. Digging his fingers deeper into the ground, he felt the gravel and grass, he felt Gaia in his palms, and he felt strength and stone and ancient blood in his veins.

Medusa, a woman and monster he felt worthy of his protection and his strength, would have no trouble dealing with these humans and saving her beloved, if she had confidence. For all her physical might, she was frail. He could see why Bellerophontes loved her.

He continued along the forest tree line, up on the hill. Below, the hill broke way into the huge valley of rolling hills and the long dirt road. It would be another minute before the Fate's Child would be directly below him, and maybe ten seconds behind him were thirteen riders. They had swords, and spears, and torches. And a woman. His animal eyes saw through the dark and flickering flames to catch her shape, leading the pack of hollering and yelling soldiers. They were looking to her like she was a leader.

And he recognized her armor. The leather cuirass, the band of metal across her right breast, the right metal wrist guard, and though a horse blocked his view, he imagined she had a left ankle guard, to guard her ankle when she blocked with her shield. Amazon armor.

What an Amazon was doing leading a charge of likely Tiryn soldiers, he had no idea. But perhaps she'd tell him before he ate her.

He dug his toes into the dirt, and sprinted. The ground ripped apart underneath his vast weight, the rocks vibrated until they lifted from their homes, and what few animals were still near scattered, their little claws making tiny scratch sounds against the forest floor. He could hear it all as he ran down the mountain side, but those on their horses, with their ears blinded by torch and wind and human weakness would hear nothing until he was upon them. Leaning forward, he let gravity carry him down with the hill, growing faster and faster until each step became a struggle to run with its pull. He mastered the draw of it, wrapped it tight in his grip, and used the slope of the hill to turn him into a raging force of mass and muscle and momentum.

Bellerophontes galloped past. He was laying down against the horse, one hand clutched to the reigns, the other dangling off to his side. An arrow was sticking out of his leg, and another was sticking out of his back. Somehow, an arrow had pierced his armor. At least his old enemy was still alive.

The hill slope lessened and faded, until he was running across the flat earth. Five more seconds, and he would reach the road. Five more seconds until the Amazon and her dozen warriors would be where he would be. Chimera licked at his fangs; he would taste blood tonight.

"Faster! Faster! Fas—"

Chimera pounced forward, hands out, and crashed into the Amazon's horse. The effect was immediate, and the Amazon was thrown from the horse with such chaos and speed that she flew into the air before rolling into the ground and skidding thirty feet over the grass in a mess of limbs. She did not get up. The horse did not get up either.

Chimera, growling deep into his gut, got up, and dusted off the dirt from his palms and elbows. Then he turned, and faced the other riders, before roaring. His voice boomed the deep, bellowing noise over the road, out into the hills, and far into the gravel to shake the landscape.

The other riders came to a grinding halt. "A monster! A monster!"

"A giant!"

"A lion!"

"The Chimera!"

Ah, one of them recognized him. Licking his fangs, Chimera dashed forward. The pure brute effort to push his titanic body forward so quickly tore the ground up and left massive track marks behind him. The gravel vibrated with the thunderous impact of each step. The horses could not stop fighting with their riders long enough to find a new direction before he crashed into them.

One horse, then another, and the two behind them fell over when his outstretched arms caught them, necks to his forearms, and the hoofed beasts were sent backward over and onto their screaming riders. Torches were thrown into the air in the collision, cries and crunched bones surrounded him, and he grinned. Even upon their beasts of burden, Chimera stood well above them, towering over them, and their torches lit the hungry gaze of his animal pelt for all the better.

One of the riders, a brave one, charged through the chaos and slashed at his arm while galloping by. The blade cut deep into Chimera's arm, and the pain stabbed up into his skull with hurried ire. He ignored it. Just another scar. And as the soldier galloped past, Chimera swung the back of his fist out and down at the rider's back, and sent him up and over his horse.

"Off the horses! Get on the ground! Spears and shields! Throw the torches on the road." The Amazon was back up on the path, and just as she said, she tossed the torch nearby while drawing her shield from her back. Whoever she was, she recovered quickly.

Chimera looked at her and rumbled in his chest. A beautiful creature, this Amazon. Small and terribly fit, like Bellerophontes. Long black hair, and dark skin, darker than found in Greece. Fearless too, stepping closer to him with her sword at the ready and shield up. The other soldiers stepped in around her, many with spear and shield, and others set the horses to the side of the road to join them.

Medusa would have preferred he ask them to leave, he was sure. The snake woman was far too nice, and naive. Blood was in the air, and he would not be satisfied until he'd had a taste.

He crouched down, put a hand to the road, and sprinted into the soldiers. The Amazon, barely half his height, ducked under his arms and got behind him, but two of the men behind her were not so lucky. They stabbed at him, panicked and screaming, mouths and eyes wide, while he reached out far to his sides and slammed his hands together. His palms were bigger than their skulls, and he crushed two of their heads together in his grasp. Metal bent and flattened in his grip, and the skulls within flattened quicker. Their screams were silenced in a glorious, explosive moment of blood and crunching bones.

The others approached him with timid steps. They poked at him with spears, stabbed his arms and legs, but he stood far above them, and their spears could not hope to reach his head.

One got too close. Chimera swung out with a foot while the other dug into the gravel. The human blocked, but the impact sent them flying into the air and into the darkness beyond the light of their torches. He'd heard the snap of bone when the kick collided with their shield; they wouldn't be rejoining the fight.

"Bring him down! Bring him down!"

The few remaining — some had run away — moved forward as a unit. They locked shields into a wall, guarding each other by the shoulder, and charged toward him with spears and shields pointed at him.

He returned the favor in kind, and charged into the wall. Their weapons dug through his skin, muscle, and some reached the bones of his ribs. The pain soared into a crescendo. The smell of blood filled his nose.

And he roared his fury when his titan shoulders crashed into their puny wall of shields. They broke apart like water on rock, and scattered over and onto themselves in the mess. Chimera reached down to grab the nearest one by the leg, and lifted him while he stepped forward and walked onto the body of another. The weight of his giant frame was more than enough to crush the soldier underneath him, while the one he held he whipped to the side as hard as he could. The soldier flew away, disappeared into nearby brush and darkness with screams, but his leg remained in Chimera's hand.

Chimera raised the leg up to his fangs, and took a bite.

The remaining soldiers screamed when he did. They turned, scampered for their panicked horses, and ran.

He roared after them, leaned forward, and readied another sprinting charge. But white fire surged up his back and forced him to his knees. Stabbing pain, deep in his muscle and ribs tore up through his back. And then another.

He stood up, but the pain remained. He spun around to see behind him, but when he did, he felt weight pulling down on his pelt.

"Fucking die already!"

The Amazon. She had one hand on the ancient pelt, and the other was holding a sword, stabbing him with it. He spun around again, but the little woman scaled him like a mountain. She swayed with the motion, grip relentless, and stabbed him in the side again, and again, and again.

He roared until he felt the ground tremble. When he tried to reach behind him with his arms, he could not grab the tiny thing. Again and again he tried, but her sword sliced open his side until his blood was gushing down his leg. Falling to a knee, he rolled with the motion and tried to land on his back to squash the creature there, but before he could, she let go and rolled off to the side. He crashed into the ground with a resounding thud that shook the earth.

He tried to get back up, but when he reached over to roll onto his knees, his vision blurred. When he looked down at his side, he found a river of red lit by torchlight. Looking himself over, he found more holes, made by more than just the Amazon.

Rumbling, he forced himself up to his knees, but fell forward onto a palm, the other clutching his side. Blood dripped from his fangs — at least that was not his own — but the host of cuts and stabs on his body were no longer healing. A couple of the remaining soldiers stopped running for their horses, and with slow steps, came back to stand before him.