Chapter 9

~~Otrera~~

They weren’t stupid. Well, not completely. Under the guise of night and the magical mist of Charon’s ship — one of Charon’s own fucking ships — they sailed to the coast many miles from the city. They needed the cloak of night, but also the protection of the forest and mountains, to scout the area with any degree of safety. Andromeda was a sorceress, a mighty one; they weren’t going to underestimate her just because Otrera and Perseus’s trap had failed.

It had been a bad trap, Otrera thought to herself as she jumped from the smaller vessel onto the beach. Perseus had probably expected her to die in the fight, and for him to emerge victorious, alone, covered in the blood of his enemies. Not for any dislike of her, but just for the fun of the violence and the glory of the story it’d create.

Psychopath.

Not that Darian was much better. Better, sure, but not much. Every so often, she found herself glancing at the man, and when they made eye contact, she caught the flicker of hesitation there. A moment’s worry. He knew he was different, and he wasn’t happy about it. That was a step up from Perseus at least.

Nighttime in a foreign land. It was the typical karst landscape but more extreme: cliffs, flat rock, forests, bush, and tiny rivers. But, with only stars and moonlight to see by, the unknown land, vast as it was, made her nervous. She shivered, rubbed her arms where her armor left them exposed at the bicep, and stepped further out from the group.

Chimera was right behind her. “I do not smell much in this land. There should be ... more. I can smell birds, and deer, snakes, other creatures, but not in the quantity I should.”

In the past several weeks of fucking the giant every night, she’d forgotten he was a beast. A real, live animal, with a nose for hunting things that he’d kill with his bare hands, and eat raw, bloody. Kind of like a hunting dog, but she didn’t say it.

“So something’s scaring the nearby animals away?” she said.

“Yes.” He squatted down next to her, and she leaned against his arm when he did. Too much? He quirked a brow at her, and she quirked one right back.

“What?”

He shrugged, smiled, and looked back over his shoulder.

Gallea finished playing his tune, and as quietly as they’d came, the massive, mist-hidden ship melted away into the sea. Not a sound, not even the creek of deck and wood. Good chance Andromeda didn’t know they were coming with that ship taking them places. Hopefully.

Medusa was dressed in nothing but her wrappings, but considering what the creature could transform into, that was probably for the best. And besides, the serpent had her bow, and she had the makings of a great archer. Darian was beside her, dressed in the black and silver hoplite armor that reeked of mission-from-Olympus design. But, she’d have worn something like that too, if someone had given it to her.

If Ares had given it to her.

She gritted her teeth until it hurt, and pushed off Chimera to start walking again. Get out of your head, Otrera. Stop thinking about all the stupid shit, before you brood yourself into the ground. Start doing.

“Alright, so, plan?” she said.

Darian came up to her, stabbed his spear’s grip into the ground, and pointed his free hand toward the road. The road was old, thin, and along its sides the mountains curved and the forests broke with enormous boulders. It was a rough landscape, and to get to Aethiopia would require either walking the road, scaling the horrible cliffs and tight forests, or finding a path through the mess of rock that went on and on.

“I didn’t expect this landscape. Good hiding, but a pain in the ass. We should see about finding a place we can hide that’s closer to the city, while also scouting the area for unknowns.” He pointed to one of the cliffs, and the flat face of rock it carried. “Let’s meet at this cliff’s base when the sun is over our heads. Chimera, you’re with me.”

Otrera tilted her head to the side. “I’m going with Medusa?”

“Course. This way I don’t get distracted by her lovely breasts, and you don’t get distracted by the eleven feet of man meat with the nice chest.”

Everyone jaw dropped.

“What, I can’t make jokes?”

Otrera snorted on a laugh, even as Chimera and Medusa looked at each other with what must have been some weird twist of appreciation and offense.

“Makes sense,” Otrera said. “What about those two.” She gestured to the two satyrs.

“If it gets dangerous out here, we’ll come find your hidey hole.” Gallea hopped over to them, but with a bit of caution for the bandage on his waist. “Course we’d prefer to stay out of the fight. Easy for the two of us to live out here in the woods; satyrs and all that.”

Otrera grunted, and pointed a finger Pinna. “And you?”

“I’ll be watching.”

“You have any idea how fucked up that is?”

“It ... it’s not ... we—”

Darian waved a hand and nudged Otrera back, away from Pinna. For a moment Otrera considered putting Darian’s head into the ground for touching her, but the man shook his head and sighed.

“It’s ok Pinna,” he said. “I get it. Gallea’s earned enough credit for the both of you. Stay out of the way best you can, but if things get bad and you need us to help you, you’ll need to become visible again.”

Pinna’s smile grew until she was beaming. “Hopefully that won’t happen. But ... thank you.”

Otrera rolled her eyes. But, she understood. Gallea saved the man’s lover; Otrera would have felt the same if someone had saved hers.

Lover. She took a glance at Chimera, and ran her eyes up and down his body. Scars, muscle, rugged beard, long hair, dark eyes. You couldn’t ask for a more definitive example of pure brutal, primal power in the shape of a human. And he was human ... ish. Was he her lover? A couple weeks of constant sex — amazing sex — and they’d never brought up the sensitive topics again. Ares, Darian, her dead tribe, Iobates, none of it. All they did was fuck, fuck, and fuck some more. It was probably a good idea Darian split them up.

“Alright,” she said. “Come on then snake girl.” Without bothering to look behind, she started walking. A sword in its scabbard on each hip, shield on her back, and dressed in her Amazon armor. Leather and metal guards and no helmet, but she felt infinitely more comfortable and ready for battle than she would be wearing something like Darian’s.

Medusa slithered up to Darian, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Sun over ours heads, base of the cliff.”

“Yeap.”

“Ok. Be careful! Don’t fall or anything.”

“You too. It’s rough out here. Be careful where you slither.”

“I will!”

Oh gods. Otrera looked at Chimera, and the two of them rolled their eyes upward in sync. That earned a chuckle from her, and she winked at the tall bastard before she started walking.

“Come on! Damn snake.”

“Coming!” Medusa slithered after her, but they only managed thirty feet before the serpent raised herself higher and started waving back at the group. “I love you!”

“Love you too,” her man said. And, against her better judgment, Otrera looked over to see Medusa blow Darian a kiss.

“You two are you going to make me puke,” she said, eyes on the ground beneath them. The night sky was bright, but not so bright that she was comfortable. Dark patches of wood were about, and crevices and small canyons intermixed with cracked cliffs. It meant their chances of finding anyone or anything troublesome was nil, but it also meant traveling would be horrible.

“I can’t help it! He loves me.” Medusa blushed bright enough Otrera could see it in the dark. “He loves me he loves me.”

“Yeah, I get it. Shut up about it.” Twigs and branches snapped at Otrera’s arms, and she guarded against them as she pushed through the trees. A night fog was growing, making it difficult to see much below the knee.

“Come on Otrera. Have you ever been in love?”

No, she hadn’t. What sort of queen had time for love? She turned, and put a finger to her lips. Shhh.

Medusa nodded, and lowered herself until she was shorter than Otrera.

“ ... never?” she said, voice just a quiet hiss on the air.

Well, it was probably too much to expect silence from an airhead.

“Never.”

“That’ss sssad. It’s my first, and ... and it’s so amazing! You should—”

“Good gods, what did a social addict like you do for a hundred years alone on an island?”

“I ... it...”

Ugh, the woman was so sensitive. Whenever Medusa was angry, or feeling aggressive, Otrera could see she was more than capable of confronting things head on. But when she was docile and calm, she was a complete pushover. That was no reason for Otrera to be a bitch though.

“Sorry. It must have been rough, being alone for so long, and having to do the things you did.”

“It ... it was.”

The damn snake was smiling at her again, and as they moved further through the wood, Medusa grew closer and closer. Soon the serpent was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with her, and smiling at her between waves of trees they had to weave around.

“What are you smiling at?”

“You.”

“ ... why?”

Medusa shrugged, and lowered herself close enough to the ground she was practically lying on it. “I’m glad I didn’t shoot you.”

“What?”

“When you were chasing Darian, outside Tiryns.”

“Oh, right ... thanks.” Damn, she’d forgotten. Medusa had had the opportunity to kill her then and there. If things had—

A twig snapped. Otrera turned around with a jump backward and away from the sound. At the same time, she drew a sword and readied it, blade pointed forward horizontal.

Medusa squeaked at Otrera, and unslung her bow before nocking an arrow. “What is it?”

“Shh.”

Talking, always with the talking. She really should have shut the woman up, and now they were going to pay for it. Nothing came out of the wood yet though. Otrera took the opportunity to get her shield onto her other arm, and got low to the dirt as she sneaked forward.

In the forest, with cliffs and rocks everywhere, night time, and fog; wonderful. The element of surprise wasn’t much use if they got caught the day they arrived!

But nothing was there. She poked her head around a tree at where she’d heard the breaking wood, and found only brush.

Too good to be true. Frowning, she kept her shield in front of her and started to walk the area in a slow circle. Medusa had her bow up and was doing the same, though she raised herself higher and higher until she was over ten feet into the air and scanning the woodland.

Otrera looked up at Medusa, only to hear Medusa’s harsh hiss, and the crack of arrow cutting into wood and bark.

The Amazon ran up to where Medusa had shot the arrow. Nothing. Nothing? She quirked a brow at the serpent, but Medusa hissed again and turned her torso about on a swivel, only to fire another arrow into the dark. But from the sound it made, Otrera guessed it found only rock.

“Shooting at shadows?” she said.

Medusa shook her head. “Something ... sssomething’s hunting us.”

Spotted. Great. But if—

A lion’s roar drew her eyes, and she brought her shield up again, only to get knocked down under the immense weight of the attacker. Or at least, she thought she’d been knocked down, but the skidding ground underneath her and the spinning of the world suggested otherwise. She’d been tackled and sent flying.

Her back crashed against a tree, and the familiar pain of impact greeted her. Lightning cracked across her vision when her head did the same, and her body went limp against the dirt. Get up. Get up.

She looked across the small opening in the wood to Medusa. The serpent was spinning around again and firing at the moving shadows, and again the arrow cracked against nothing. Nothing that roared like that moved that fast.

Medusa’s hisses turned into a loud screech when she too went underneath an enormous blur of shadow. But Medusa was large, heavy, and the creature didn’t manage to bowl her over.

Otrera jammed a knee into the ground and forced herself up. Still breathing, no broken bones, no excuses. Get up. She chanted her own drills into her head until her body was moving on its own, and she ran at the enormous creature wrestling with the toppled gorgon.

It was some sort of cat with dark fur, somewhere between black and gold. A large lion, leaner, and where a lion’s head would have been, its snout was shorter and jaw larger, with fangs that raised upward like small tusks. Its claws dug into Medusa’s shoulders where the serpent fought it off; her bow was gone and lost to the brush and shadows.

As Otrera ran at it, the giant cat raised its head to look at her, drool on its growling chops. It raised its tail, and struck. She lifted her shield to block it, but it did not come. Instead, the cat’s tail crashed against her shield with enough force to drive her back a foot.

“What in Tartarus.”

Again its tail snapped out against her shield. In the dark, blocking a fast-moving object wasn’t the easiest, and she had to keep her shield up as she tried to get closer. But the monster struck again and again, like some sort of scorpion trying to sting prey.

But it was distracted, and Medusa took advantage. There were too many trees nearby for the gorgon to throw her snake body around, but she could still maneuver a little. She got underneath the chest of the predator, and after wrapping her tail around a nearby tree, she pushed against it while pushing herself away from her rooted body. The cat toppled over onto its back, and scrambled its paws against the air in panic.

Otrera jumped at it, sword raised. Fate’s Child legs sent her ten feet into the air before she came down with a hard slash, but the monster got back onto its paws quickly. It tore through the ground with claws and weight, and got out from underneath Otrera before she could land. So damn fast. Without room to run around, the cat jumped at a large tree, and bounced off of it to come at Otrera again.

Jumping at it was a bad idea. The thing was too fast for her to try aerial maneuvers. She crouched down, raised her shield up at an angle, and caught the beast’s weight against it. The angle let the beast’s claws slip right over it, and once she was under the colossal creature, she pushed up hard as she could. Fate’s Children were strong, but the lion weighed a ton. She had to drive her whole body upward, shield against her shoulder, feet hard against the ground, every muscle in her legs trembling with the burst of strength.

The creature flipped over her. Favor repaid in kind, the creature slammed back against a tree and crumbled onto the dirt and grass. One of its legs twitched and scratched, while its raised tail stabbed at everything nearby. The tail’s tip was barbed, and it had a long spike on it.

What the fuck kind of cat had a scorpion tail?

Bad time to be surprised. The creature got back to its paws and dove at her, but she didn’t have enough time to get her shield up. Screaming and hissing, the creature slammed her down onto the ground, and the ground greeted her with a solid punch to her lungs. Sword went flying. The ugly, oddly flat face of the lion crashed down upon her, and slammed her shield down against her chest when she managed to get it under the beast.

“Get off!” At least the monster was big enough she had the room to pull her knees up to her chest, and kick the beast in the ribs with both feet. Sandals pushed hard enough to send the creature back, but it didn’t phase it. Otrera scampered for her sword, but again the beast struck out at her. Every time she moved, it leapt for her, and she was forced to dive out of the way and in the wrong direction, away from her sword.

Back to a tree, she started looking around, eyes snapping from tree to branch to rock. Think of something think of something think of something.

Where in Tartarus was the damn snake woman?

Right on queue, Medusa came rolling out of the dark. Coiled around something, she was hissing and screeching and trying to grab its tail.

Great, another one. But at least the distraction worked. As Medusa came between them, the other cat changed targets and dived for the gorgon. Claws met scales, and Medusa’s scream rose when her blood gushed from the deep cuts. Her snake body was too busy crushing the other creature to deal with her new attacker.

Otrera wasn’t. She dashed for the sword, and rammed it into the side of the other cat still biting and clawing at Medusa. Its screech was louder, and more monstrous than the gorgon’s, and Otrera’s eyes went wide when it raised its weird face up to roar at her with enough volume she could feel it. She stabbed again.

The third stab through a wall of meat and muscle was enough to get the creature to fall over, wailing in agony, but as she jumped over it to try and get the sword into its head, it turned toward her and struck with its tail. Otrera only had enough time to see her eyes go wide before Medusa unwrapped much of her own tail from her opponent, and snapped it against the creature’s body. It flew over onto the grass and cracked against hard layers of rock before stopping against a tree once more.

The one in Medusa’s coils broke free. In the chaos, the gorgon got her hands onto its tail at the same time the creature tried to stab her, but the proximity and mess of limbs caused her to fall over the creature. A strong snap of her tail between her and the beast sent it through the air to land on its companion.

Otrera thought she was strong, but the gorgon was proving strong enough to beat Chimera in a fight.

Both monsters got up in seconds. They turned to face the two women, snarling, growling, claws digging into the dirt and tails raised like dancing scorpions.

“Otrera, step back.”

“What?”

And then there were three monsters.

Medusa’s human body grew. Face spread out over a growing snout. The snake fangs of her mouth, usually hidden, grew to enormous proportions. Human skin turned to scales. The snakes of her hair evolved into gigantic pythons. And claws, massive, ridiculous claws.

But it was the glowing eyes that made Otrera gasp.

For just a moment, she knew she was dead. She could see the glow, the reflection of yellow light blasting against the leaves and cool night moisture. She could even hear it. Like a surge of fire caught in a wind blast, the yellow light spread outward from Medusa and filled the darkness of the forest clearing.

Otrera threw herself backward, and scampered. Hiding behind a tree, she held her knees up to her chest, and stared out into the shadows casted by the yellow light behind her. The sound of flesh turning to stone was one she’d never heard before, of bones crunching, cracking, and freezing petrified. The screeches of pain of monsters as they died.

It only took a few seconds, thank the gods. Once the gold light was gone, Otrera stuck her head out from around the tree. Medusa, panting and struggling to stay up, had her huge claws against a tree trunk and her python hair dangling.

“You ... you ok?” Otrera said.

“I will recover.”

That voice, rasps and hisses layered over something deep and menacing. Like out of a nightmare. Medusa looked to her, and caught her in one of her eyes; they were pulled to the side of her face somewhat, somewhere between a snake and a monster. But, they held no venom or malice. Medusa smiled — if you could call it that — and nodded to her before she started to undo the transformation. Her scales returned to human skin, her snake hair shrank, and her warped face returned to the beautiful woman. The eyes though, yellow snake eyes with black slits, they remained unchanged.

Fate’s Children were basically demi-gods, with eyes that glowed white with mystical power when their strength emerged. Medusa was something else entirely.

Otrera shivered, gulped, forced herself to walk up to the gorgon, and looked to the two cats. Statues, with mouths open wide and their bodies toppled over onto the grass.

~~Darian~~

He waved after Medusa, and once she’d disappeared into the dark wood, he looked up at Chimera, and started walking.

“Feel like having a bonding moment?” he said.

Chimera grunted, and crouched low. For a moment Darian thought he would say something, but the beast returned only silence once he started prowling.

Darian shrugged, and started to walk down one of the cliffs. Steep and sharp rocks meant using his spear as a staff. “I’m surprised you didn’t say anything, when Otrera and I had that fist fight.”

Again Chimera said nothing. Damn he was quiet too, but when Darian looked back, the giant was indeed walking behind him, claws on the rocks bracing himself. Quiet as a stalking lion.

“I figured you wouldn’t care about Philonoe. But about my brother, I ... I thought you’d say something.” Because even an animal understands family. Chimera had said as much.

“We are scouting.”

At last, dialog.

“I’m being quiet. Besides, you know no one’s around. You’d smell it.”

Chimera sniffed the air, and frowned at him with an exposed fang. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. The fog grows, and blocks my senses.” He raised the arm with the snake tattoo on it and showed it to him; where its eyes once glowed red, they no longer did. “And now I have only my senses to follow.”

“Right ... right.” At least Chimera was proving dependable. Darian, on the other hand, couldn’t keep his damn mind off of the fight with Otrera.

During the fight, when the need for violence and some aggression started, the white glow was as comforting as a sword in his hand. A weapon, protecting him, arming him. But when the fire in his skull exploded and buried his thoughts in red, it wasn’t the same. He looked down at the shield, remembered how he had buried it in a tree when he was yelling at Medusa about Proetus. A reflex, an impulse? He hadn’t told his body to do it, it just did it.

He looked at his free hand and squeezed the air a few times. When the only person in his life was a warhorse content to go to battle with him, it was never a concern. But now with Medusa, it was fucking terrifying him.

Pain. A root caught his toe; Greek greaves were woefully inadequate at protecting the feet. Wincing, he stabbed his spear shaft down into the dirt and blinked a few times to try and focus on his toes in the dark.

He only had enough time to take a breath before Chimera put his fingers around Darian’s neck, and threw him backward. Pain, again. Back and arms collided with a tree, and the small warrior spun around before planting into the dirt on his side.

“What in the—”

Roars. Screeches of fury, animal fear, and a loud, crashing thud of weight on the ground. Darian forced himself up, drew his sword, and ran over to find Chimera wrestling with a giant cat. A giant cat? Darian did a double take to make sure the horned one on Chimera’s back was still there; it was. The new cat lacked horns, but made up for it with a scorpion tail that it stabbed into the ground by Chimera’s neck.

Darian readied a dive jump, but stopped himself short. Ignoring how the cat was biting into him, Chimera grabbed the creature by the tail, and yanked on it hard. Very, very hard. The tearing of muscle and skin earned a wince, but it was the splatter of blood over Darian’s chest that made him step back when Chimera ripped its tail off.

The cat jumped off the beast and started rolling on its back. It couldn’t understand what’d happened to it, only the overwhelming pain of having a limb ripped off. Blood poured over the grass as it screeched and rolled in a lost frenzy, and Darian again took a step back to avoid the chaos of its massive talons and claws shredding everything around it.

Chimera got up, walked over to the huge beast, and slammed his foot down against its skull. Bone gave way and brains exploded outward from the imploding mess, and the creature’s death throes lasted a few more seconds than they should have before they stopped.

The giant panted a couple of times before his breath steadied once again, and he looked at the tail in his hand. A giant scorpion tail.

“Manticore,” the beast said, and he dropped the huge tail to the ground. “The sting is paralyzing to giants. Deadly to humans.”

“Manticore?”

“An older creature. Not of the old ones, but old still. I did not realize they would have survived here, this far South.” Chimera nodded toward Darian, and continued their walk. “Where there was one, there will be more. We should be cautious.”

“I expected scouts,” Darian said. “Not beasts.”

“Perhaps they are both?”

He nodded, sheathed his sword, picked up his spear, and got down to a knee to inspect the dead animal. Not much left to inspect with its head missing.

~~Medusa~~

“I think there’s something on its head.” The Amazon walked up to the statues. “Wow.”

“Wow?” Medusa said. Exhaustion took her, and she held onto the tree while she panted. It was tough, recovering from the gaze; it made every use a gamble. And the result was not one she wanted to repeat, with more dead growing in numbers around her, and the petrified, horrified faces she was forced to stare into when she turned them.

“Stone. Actual, real, solid stone.” Squatting, Otrera sheathed her sword, poked one of the giant cats in the forehead, and flicked her fingernail on its exposed fangs from its open mouth. “Hey, there’s some kind of symbol on the forehead. Can’t see it well in the dark, but it looks like a brand of some kind.”

“A brand, why would ... perhaps they are Andromeda’s creatures?” Deep breathes. Her vision cleared and energy returned. But with awareness and the calming of adrenaline came the flood of pain of torn open scales, deep gashes, and bruised flesh. It’d take longer than a couple days to fully heal, and Darian was going to see and fret about it. Damn.

“Maybe?”

“Did she not tell you much about her army or forces?” Wincing, she slithered over to the Amazon, and lowered herself down to her so she too could examine the monsters. Giant cats with scorpion tails, flat faces with large under jaws. Disturbing faces.

“She has lots of secrets. Perseus and I kept to her secret nymph island for the most part. The ritual room though, where she used the mask to change me, that wasn’t on the island. It was probably here, but I was blindfolded for the trip.” With a groan, Otrera stood up and started walking again. Limping, but walking.

“You ok?” Medusa said.

“ ... what?”

“Are you ok?”

Otrera turned to face her, rolled her eyes, and pointed at the scales on Medusa’s side. “Shouldn’t I be asking that?”

“I ... I um—”

“Like a typical mom, can’t think about herself for one second. Yes, I’m fine you stupid woman. Take care of yourself first, then you can worry about me. So you ask about me, I assume it’s because you’re fine, because you’d have to be really, really stupid to ask me if I’m fine when you’re injured. I must have made a mistake and exaggerated your injuries. Did I?”

Medusa raised a hand up to her lip, and looked down. So cold. With a pained whimper, she shifted her scales about to show Otrera where the giant cat had cut into her.

“I am injured,” Medusa said, “but I’ll heal.” And she would of course. What would have killed someone, she could heal in a matter of days. Poor Gallea.

“Less concerned with whether you’ll heal, more concerned with whether you’ll be a liability. But...” Otrera gestured to the the statues. “I should learn to trust you. Hundred years you said?”

Finally, progress. Medusa nodded and slithered closer. “Yes, but nothing like this. I fought men, not monsters.”

“Well, considering this”—Otrera pointed at the symbol on the creature’s head—”I worry that no one’s fought anything like this. I’m guessing this is Andromeda’s doing, putting these creatures out there. But what, how, why, I don’t know.”

The symbol was nothing much, she’d seen cattle brands just like it. A circle with a cross through it. Hard to tell from the stone remains, but it didn’t seem like it’d been done with hot iron.

Humans did love to brand things. Poor Darian.

“What do we do?” she said.

Otrera shrugged, got up, and started walking. “Let’s find your bow. You good to keep going?”

“I ... I am. A bit slower though, but yesss, I can keep going.”

“Good.” With that, the Amazon queen resumed their patrol.

Medusa took a deep breath and slithered after her. Darian would have been in a panic about her wounds, but Otrera only gave her as much concern as necessary. If she said she couldn’t keep going, Medusa was sure Otrera would have helped her to their rendezvous early. Would Otrera become the leader of their little group given time? It was possible, and it sort of fit, but then, how much longer would their journey last?

Mind wandering and unfocused, Medusa winced when rock and twig scrapped against her rapidly closing wounds. “Do you think Andromeda will notice two of her creatures are missing?”

“Maybe. She plants a lot of seeds, that sorceress, but she’s not omnipotent. I’m thinking if she’s getting sacrifices from this city, she doesn’t want people to leave. She really, really hates this place.”