Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 04

The Amazon stepped in front of him as well. He reached for her, but she jumped back, and stabbed downward into his forearm to cut deep into the hard muscle. The pain was a blur, filling his skull and blinding him, until all he could do was kneel there and breathe through the burn. Then the tiny woman drove her small foot into his face, and sent him over onto his side before she ripped her sword from his arm.

"Chimera. I thought that Bellerophontes had killed you? You vanished when he'd said he'd killed you, after all. I never thought he'd have recruited!" She laughed, her hard voice on her small body a strange contrast. "I guess I'll be the one to do it then."

Her eyes were glowing white. He could smell the stink of the Fates on her. Yet again, another Fate's Child aided by comrades would be his undoing. The thought made him growl with the frustration of it.

The remaining two soldiers walked up beside her. "The Chimera. The king would—"

An arrow snapped past over Chimera, and into the sword arm of the soldier. The bleeding man screamed, and jumped back to hold up his shield. The other raised his own shield and got closer to the Amazon who did the same.

The Amazon bashed her shield with her sword. "Who goes there!?"

Chimera turned his head. Medusa slithered out of the dark, just at the edge of the light the torches gave, and she hissed at the three remaining.

"M-M-Medusa!" The two remaining soldiers dropped their swords, and ran.

And then there was only the Amazon. She lowered her shield enough to expose her face, and her glowing white eyes could not hide the blatant shock that laid there.

The serpent slithered up to Chimera, and for each foot the snake woman covered, the Amazon took a step back.

"Are you alright Chimera?" she said.

He rumbled deep in his chest. "I will heal."

"Darian's... he'll live." Medusa nodded to herself, but she kept her bow raised, arrow nocked, and her eyes on the Amazon. In the dark and torchlight, her yellow snake eyes were like beacons. "Don't make me kill you. Please."

Please? Chimera rolled his eyes. How the snake woman had survived a hundred years with Greece's best coming to her doorstep, he could not understand.

But then, just her presence was enough to send the Amazon back further, and further, until at last the woman turned and fled. She managed to find a horse, and vaulted onto its back with ease. A moment later, she was gone.

And then it was only the two of them. Chimera, grumbling and rumbling, forced himself onto his knees again. With a hand on his side, he stood up, ignored the waves of vertigo that followed the waves of pain, and started to walk in the other direction.

"There's... is that flesh in your mouth?" Medusa slithered next to him, and raised her body to meet him at head level. She reached up, and with a frown and firm hand, grabbed his chin to turn him to face her. "It is! What were you doing?"

"Fighting."

"You don't eat the people you're fighting when fighting them!" She plucked the bit of human skin and muscle from his fangs, and tossed it aside with a loud 'yuck.' "You eat people?"

"I do."

"I... I... why would you do that?"

"Why does an animal eat anything?"

"We are not... arg!" She slithered ahead of him, and looked over her shoulder. Her snake hair danced high with bared fangs and angry glares at him, similar to her own. "If I catch you eating anyone who doesn't deserve it, I'll stone you." Her tail slammed into the dirt beside him, and then she slithered further ahead. "But... thank you."

A few minutes of walking lead to Bellerophontes, laying on the grass with his helmet and breastplate removed. He was coughing, sputtering, and a couple of broken arrows were on the ground next to him. He tried to sit up, but fell back and starting coughing again. Blood splattered up onto his lips.

Chimera sat down beside the small warrior, and despite himself, did the same thing. Blood — his own this time — rose up onto his lips, and he rumbled with the pain of moving to lay down.

"Thanks," Bellerophontes said.

Chimera turned his head to look at the tiny man, brow quirked. "... you're welcome."

"Darian, are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Yeah. Fate's Child and all that. I'll heal." He forced himself to sit up, but he couldn't hide the painful groans when he did. Once sitting, he reached for the small rock dangling from his neck. It was glowing white. "That Amazon had this, and it started glowing when I showed up. And... and she..." He started coughing again. More blood speckled his lips, and he fell back onto the grass, clutching his chest with his one good arm.

Medusa's stern face shattered. She put herself down onto her hands beside the small warrior, cradled his head with one hand, and stroked his chest with the other.

"Rest. Just rest. I'll get some water and make some bandages. And then I'll take you back to Gallea and Pinna and they'll take care of you and make sure you heal right and—"

Chimera tuned out the rest of her doting. The snake woman was treating Bellerophontes like a child, holding him and stroking him. A mother and her baby.

But then, memories drifted through his mind of a time long before, when the land was quiet, filled with wings and hooves, and the humans were just harmless, hairless apes. Warm, fond memories, of hands holding his head when he rested. To be cradled and doted on was not such a bad thing.

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~~Otrera~~

She didn't return to Tiryns. Why would she? The king and queen were dead, the city was up in an uproar looking for Bellerophontes while at the same time trying to deal with the fact their king had died. Chaos did not begin to describe the madness she'd find there. Madness she caused.

The day was a cloudy one, with the hint of rain on the horizon as the sun rose from its slumber. Otrera laid in the grass along a hillside, and stared up at the dismal day.

Her necklace was gone; Bellerophontes had escaped with it. All in all, the ambush was a colossal failure. She had at least some information though. Medusa and the Chimera were working with the bastard. How in the world had the man acquired such companions?

She sat up, lifted her sword sheathe, and drew the blade she'd plunged into the brute a dozen times. The Chimera was a giant, not the four-legged beast she'd assumed he was, and he'd been a titan of muscle and strength. Twice as tall, twice as thick, twice as wide as any human. Only with the distraction of the city guard had she been able to best him. Medusa though, the snake woman was not something she could face directly.

So close. So damn close. She'd be so damn fucking close. An arrow through his arm, into his back, and leg! Fate's Children were hard to kill, she knew that, but she hadn't expected him to be that hard to kill. What was it going to take to kill that bastard?

"Proetus and Stheneboea, dead. Heh." She smirked and danced her fingers along her sword's blade. Stheneboea deserved to die, all children of King Iobates deserved to die. Just as her clan had died.

Sometimes, she wasn't sure she was mad at Bellerophon for doing the deed, or Iobates for ordering it. But, at least one of his children was dead. That was something, right? Philonoe could wait.

Is revenge all you have left, Otrera? This wasn't supposed to be about revenge, remember. This was supposed to be about the future. You have a deal with Andromeda.

Shadows flickered in the sky, wings that cut through the clouds with size and width greater than any bird's. It circled her, making its way down to her in a slow spiral. It was about time, she supposed. Time to explain her failures.

She got up, sheathed her sword, picked up her shield, her quiver, and her bow. The massive bow Andromeda had given her was still a strange and bewildering thing to hold, and its arrows with gleaming smooth tips were just as huge and unusual. No Greek used such huge bows, but it had done the trick. If only she'd managed to hit the bastard somewhere fatal.

A minute later, the shadow flapped its wings over her head, pushing aside grass and twigs with the blasts of air. It neighed at her, and then fell the last five feet with a clop of its hooves onto the ground.

The beautiful white horse trotted up next to her, and turned its head to look at her. Dark, deep eyes. Its grand wings were enormous, but he was a horse after all, and weighed much more than a bird. His coat, mane, and tail were such beautiful, vibrant shades of white, that she found herself wanting to comb and groom him.

But the gold muzzle around his mouth was a ring of thorns. Delusions of romantic, poetic escapes with the beautiful white horse were dashed every time she looked at his face, and the cruel muzzle Andromeda had put there.

"Sorry," she said, and she patted the horse's neck, "about... you know, everything."

The horse nodded, and then motioned to his back with his head. Nodding in return, she put both her hands onto the beast's back, and vaulted up onto him.

Then, the hard part. She leaned forward, held onto Pegasus's neck, and prayed. The horse spread his mighty wings, broke into a hard gallop, and jumped.

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Soaring through the sky was terrifying. Every time she looked over and down to the Earth far below her, her stomach turned, and she had to close her eyes to keep her food in its place. The air was cold, and harsh, and every flap of Pegasus's wings made them go higher. It wasn't long before they were so high, the land beneath them was unknown to her; if she'd been a map maker, she'd have been overjoyed. But Pegasus's job was twofold, she was sure: take her back to Andromeda's nest, but also make sure she didn't know how to get there.

The second part was easy. So high up where she could barely breathe, she could no longer tell North from South, and she was sure Pegasus's route was filled with unnecessary twists and turns to prevent her from discovering its location. Trust in your allies is such a wonderful thing.

The clouds were the strangest thing. You never reached them. From the ground, they seemed like big balls of puff, but when flying through the sky, they were nothing more than fog. A depressing note for her depressing journey. They cut through layers of mist, high through the sky, before they started to descend in a downward spiral between a quartet of mountains. Try as she might, Otrera could not recognize the area, only that the mountains could not be crossed easily, making the raised valley that laid between them quite protected.

And a beautiful valley it was. A flowing river along the lush grassland ran through its center, and all around were patches of green forest atop soft soil and blankets of flowers. The unnatural garden of life, sitting in the center of where the four mountains connected, was almost as high as the mountain tops themselves, and the river — she had no idea how it held a river this high — flowed off an edge into a waterfall. The waterfall turned into mist long before it ever reached the Earth.

Serenity untouched by man. Mostly.

Pegasus lowered himself into the clearing along the river bank. Landing was easier than taking off, but Otrera still found herself clutching her stomach when she hopped off the beast. The world was spinning, but she forced her eyes onto the stationary objects nearby. The tall trees of unnatural perfection, the perfect clear blue of the rivers, the perfect grass made to be laid upon.

Before her, a trio of naked women sat in the grass, combing each other's hair and braiding it. Some looked young, some older, all beautiful and ripe with sexual allure. Looking at them made Otrera lick her lips. Their skin was alabaster, their nipples pink, and the trio were a mix of brunette, blonde, and redhead. They smiled at her, their pointed ears and perfect lips a glorious combination of exotic and beautiful. Otrera waved back, and took a step toward them. She could do with some naked hair braiding too.

Sounds drew her ear. Much as she wanted to play with the nymphs, Andromeda wanted to see her. She started to walk along the river's edge, and scanned the forest grove to find the source. Sure enough, she found the woman sitting on a rock, a staff in her hand and some floating pebbles over the other. Floating pebbles. Otrera blinked twice to make sure.

Andromeda was, as was everything in the Hesperides' garden, beautiful. Long blonde hair, blue eyes, with a tall, lean physique, though what curves she had were hidden underneath her thick chiton. Unlike the nymphs though, Andromeda's gaze was ice, and her stance and posture and hard chin all reminded Otrera of herself on a bad day.

The noises weren't coming from Andromeda though, they were coming from the man sitting against the rock Andromeda sat upon.

A handsome man with shoulder-length blonde hair and blue eyes like Andromeda, except his eyes were warm, his lips looked soft, and his chin was both masculine and inviting. He was tall, with broad shoulders, a muscular body, and smooth tawny skin. Not a scar to be had.

Beside his left and right were two more nymphs, naked as he. On his lap was yet another nymph, and this one was facing away from him, her back to his chest, her legs spread open to hook around his, and her smooth sex on display. She was grinding her little body against the man's, and making a host of mewling noises. When Otrera came closer and stood in front of them, she could see the nymph was pushing her ass against the man, while the man was laying back and enjoying it with arms wrapped around the shoulders of the other two nymphs.

It was a glorious display of anal sex, and when one of the nymphs slipped her fingers into her sister's folds, the array of sexual stimulation was perfect. Otrera licked her lips again, leaned against a tree, and waited.

"Otrera, how nice of you to join us," the man said.

Andromeda groaned. "Perseus, you have been fucking that girl's ass for thirty minutes. Finish up already." Andromeda looked down over the rock at Perseus, rolled her eyes, and returned to her floating pebbles. She must have been practicing, Otrera thought, with how she was floating them in various patterns over her palm with great focus.

The two nymphs beside Perseus looked up and frowned. The one on his lap was too busy trembling and wriggling all over the man to care about Andromeda though.

"You're welcome to join," he said, and he reached up with one hand to find her leg dangling off the rock. He slipped his fingers up underneath the chiton, and stroked her ankle.

Andromeda sighed, put down the pebbles, and turned on the rock so her feet hung of the edge and onto Perseus's shoulders.

For a moment, Otrera thought of Stheneboea and her obvious sex addiction. Perseus seemed different though. He leaned over to his right, kissed one of the nymphs, and then again for his left, before he kissed the ankles of Andromeda. The sorceress rolled her eyes, but Otrera caught a glimpse of her grin before she managed to hide it.

The four women watched Perseus fuck the little nymph in what was apparently a very pleasant rhythm for another few minutes, before at last the girl collapsed back onto Perseus's chest, panting and moaning, her folds dripping over the fingers of the other nymph. And of course, drops of white started to drip down Perseus's testicles to join the mess of juices on the grass.

Was everyone she was forced to work with a sex addict? She couldn't blame them, but it did make her jealous.

"Otrera," Andromeda said, and she stepped off the rock, onto the air, and walked down invisible steps to stand in front of her. "You seem well, so I trust you have good news? When your necklace stopped responding, I feared the worst and sent Pegasus immediately."

"I... don't."

"You don't?"

Otrera shook her head. No use in denying it, the sorceress was going to find out eventually with those eyes of hers.

"I don't have good news. Bellerophontes showed up, Proetus and his wife died in the confrontation, and he stole the necklace and escaped." Despite several arrows in his body. Fate's Children heal too damn fast. She was happy that now included her, but it meant Bellerophontes had escaped when anyone else would have died.

"... I see."

"He didn't just escape, Andromeda. He had help. A giant wearing a lion's pelt, with horns, and he had a snake tattoo on his arm. And... Medusa. He had two monsters helping him! What was I—"

Andromeda put up a hand, and started pacing. The hint of kindness she had in her face faded, only to be replaced with more ice.

"So, Bellerophontes escaped. With the necklace. He killed Proetus and his wife. And he has the help of Medusa, and a giant."

"I think the giant was the Chimera." It was a sick joke. A bad, sick joke that the man had somehow recruited the beast that had launched his fame.

"I see."

The sorceress continued to pace, chin in her fingers. Perseus was unfazed by the whole situation. The beautiful man got up, walked the three nymphs down to the river, and they laid upon its shore until they were neck deep. The girls giggled, buried the man in kisses — especially the one who had just enjoyed riding him — and caressed his lovely body.

Perseus. The man was always so calm, so confident, not unlike Bellerophon. He rarely said a word to her, but when he did, he was sweet and kind and the perfect gentleman. And he was gorgeous. No wonder the nymphs threw themselves at him.

His skin had no scars. Like a proper Fate's Child.

Andromeda breathed deep, and leaned her weight on her staff. "He has the necklace. That is strange. I thought he would come to Tiryns for revenge, not to take my bauble."

"He was wearing black and silver armor, with thread designs on it. And he said he came to Tiryns looking for something." Otrera gritted her teeth. Best not to say anything about her killing the king and queen consort. Let Andromeda come to her own conclusions.

"Then, I'm afraid we were too late, and the Fates have already made their move." The tall sorceress reached into her dress, pulled out a strange, black mask, and raised it up to look at it from the front. Along its face were swirling lines of silver, some chaotic pattern Otrera could not follow. Its mouth and eyes were open, and it had hooks along the top and sides for a face. If someone were to put it on, it would not be easy to get it off. "He's looking for this."

"You think the Fates have recruited him? Then why would he come to Tiryns?" Otrera said.

"Cause you were there. You, or the necklace I gave you. He's tracking us somehow." Andromeda pulled her feet up, and sat upon the air. "The Fates cannot find us, but... I'll have to destroy the charm on the necklace, in case he can indeed track it. A shame. It took many lives to create that bauble, and that again to destroy it from here."

"... lives?"

Andromeda tilted her head to the side, quirked a brow at Otrera, and nodded. "Yes, lives. To manipulate the power of the Fates requires lives." She held out her hand, and the mask floated above her palm in a slow spin. "You saw the ritual that gave you your power, the skulls that littered the chamber when I asked you to join me. It took twenty lives to fuel this mask's hunger. You saw the aftermath."

"Those were... fresh?"

The sorceress smiled her ice smile. "Of course. The Moirai mask cares not for bones. It needs people. To bestow the power of a Fate's Child? It took many."

Otrera stepped back until her feet found the river. Her jaw parted, she raised a hand to her lips, and she blinked down at Perseus beside her. The man, his nymphs, none of them even cared about what the sorceress had just said.

"Don't worry about them," Andromeda said, "they were just lives from Aethiopia. And believe me, Amazon, if you think your hatred for Iobates and Lycia is warranted, you have no idea what Aethiopia deserves."