Medusa: Fate's Game Ch. 03

"Gaia will guide us," he said, but when both she and Darian blinked at him, the giant reached for a stick and started to prod the embers beneath the roasting kill. He believed his words.

"Gaia," she said.

"Yes."

"... you speak to Gaia."

He made a sweeping motion with his hand to the land around them. "I can ask of her aid. And when Gaia speaks, I know how to listen."

"I know the stories, that giants are children of Gaia. But they're just stories. These things aren't..."

Both the men quirked their brows at her, and she lowered her head with a sigh. She was a god-cursed creature, Darian was a chosen apostle for the Fates themselves, and they rode one of Charon's vessels. Why couldn't the third member of their group be something as absurd as a child of Gaia herself.

"How old are you?" she said.

"Old." The beast shrugged, as if nothing had existed before him.

His gravelly, deep voice did remind her of the Earth, that was true, and they had found him sleeping in what was nothing more than a big hole in the ground. He may as well have been carved out of the Earth. She thought she was old, and while Darian made her feel like a young woman, this ancient thing made her feel like a newborn.

She slithered a little closer. "And what... I don't... what do you do?"

The giant blinked at her again. It was like talking to a big, stupid oaf. Not like, was!

"You've been alive for so long. What have you done this whole time?" she said.

"... what does any creature do?" He made another sweeping motion with a hand, this time to the country landscape about them lit by the stars. "The lions and goats and snakes, they do not do, they simply are."

"We are not animals!" She slammed her hands against the scaled length she was leaning against. "We are humans! And you, giant, are close enough! You sssspeak, and argue, and wear clothes, and and... you do stupid things for no reasons! People do that, not animals."

The Chimera laughed, a quiet laugh that rumbled into the ground. "Humans are just animals that think they are gods."

Medusa looked to Darian for some help, but her lover shrugged, with a hopeless expression on his face.

"We're not," she said. "We're not, we... we're not."

The Chimera tilted his head to the side again — with the dead cat on his head, it looked like the cat was looking at her inquisitively — and poked at the fire a few times.

"Aren't you going to ask?" she said, and she motioned to her snake body.

He shook his head.

"You don't care about why the person you've pledged yourself to is half snake?"

Again he shook his head.

She was really, really starting to hate this man.

"So, uh," Darian said, "when are you going to tell us where to go?"

"Tomorrow. Gaia will tell us." He nodded and poked the fire some more. He was confident in his words, like asking of Gaia was just a part of his life. The man was a rock of resolution and self belief.

Everything she knew she wasn't. She wasn't so blind to not see she hated him because he was what she wanted to be: confident in himself. The thoughts stung in her eyes, and she wiped them away.

"Can we trust him to not kill us in our sleep, Darian?"

The Chimera grunted again, and poked at the fire. He looked offended.

"I trust the Fates more than I trust him. They wouldn't set me up just to get me killed in my sleep." Darian grinned at the beast. And the beast grinned right back at him. "Besides, he lost to you. He knows you're in charge."

Boys! Boys and their stupid war games and their violence and their utter disregard for their own mortality. She threw her arms up in the air, slithered over to the other side of the tree, and coiled around the two bedrolls before laying herself down. She could hear some mumbling, but after a few minutes, the two men went quiet.

Darian climbed over her coils, and for a moment, she considered tossing him off. But she didn't. Instead she waited for him to lay down on the bedroll next to her before she turned to face away. That ought to hurt him.

"You're angry," he said.

"You just realized?"

"No, but I'm confused."

She looked over her shoulder at him with a glare. "Confused? You and him, you used violence, deadly violence like... like... children! Ssstupid children who resolve everything with their fists. Worse than children! Like warmongering barbarians! Content to throw each other into a pit of swords to settle your differencessss!"

The rage poured through her. Her stare was ice, and for a moment, she was sure she could turn him to stone without transforming. How could the man be so stupid, and so callous, and so juvenile? How could he forgive violence so quickly? How—

His eyes opened wide, and his body went still. He stared her, tightened his fists on the blankets, and sat up. After a while, he pulled his knees up to his chest, and held them against his tunic. No longer in his armor, he was free to rest his chin on his knees, and sigh.

Her heart stopped. She'd said something, something awful. She lifted her torso off the ground and slithered herself closer to the small man. All her rage, gone in an instant.

"What? What is it?" she said.

"Is it really like that? Him"—he gestured to the giant still sitting by the fire—"and me, just resolving everything with swords and spears?"

She tilted her head to the side, and brought it closer to the man. Her snake body pushed her torso closer to him, until her body was pressed to his back, and she put a hand on his shoulder while the other hugged around him.

"The two of you treated the fight like it was a casual thing. That's why I'm angry. It's not casual, it's dangerous, and... life is precious and... and all that philosophy stuff they talk about in Athens." She hugged him tighter, but when she put her face next to his, he turned away a little.

"I thought you were being ridiculous, when you said I'm too violent." He shook his head and hid his eyes with his knees.

"I'm not—"

"How old were you when you first killed someone?"

"Killed someone? I... it was when I was cursed." She tilted her head to the side, and tried to nudge her nose into his ear to draw his attention back to her. "Why?"

"I was twelve."

She froze. "Twelve?"

He nodded, but kept his head on his knees.

"Just some thieves. They broke into my home, attacked my father, my mother, my brother." He looked down at his hands, and squeezed on something he no longer held. "I was outside at the time, and I heard them, hitting my family, looking for money."

"Did... you didn't get the city guard?" Medusa squeezed him. She pulled more of her length over to him, and circled him with some of her snake length to protect him from the cruel world. She wanted to ask about his family, but it could wait.

"No. Didn't even occur to me. I just... grabbed a knife, and let it happen." He sighed, turned his head so she could see his eyes over his knee, and gave her a sad smile. "I butchered them. Got one in the back when he wasn't looking. The other, he... yeah." He slid hid forehead into the groove of his knees again to hide his face, and hugged his legs. "And I didn't even feel bad, or... or anything. They were just meat."

"Da—"

"Medusa, do you remember the faces of the people you've killed?"

"... yes." Every one of them.

He pulled his head up, looked at the sky, and took a deep breath before looking to her. His eyes ripped her to pieces. Mournful eyes, but, he still had a small smile.

"That's why I like you so much. I don't."

He moved to put his head back onto his knees again, but she caught his shoulder, and turned him to face her. Before he could say anything, she wrapped both of her arms around him, and hugged him tight. He squirmed a little, but she didn't let go. She slid a hand up to his head, pulled it into the nook of her neck, and stroked his hair with her fingers while her other hand rubbed his back.

After a minute, Darian relented, and slipped his arm around her to hug her back.

"I'll be your missing piece," she said.

"My missing piece?" He forehead slid down to her neck, and he relaxed against her.

"Yes. I don't know why, but your conscience is missing a piece." She nuzzled her cheek against the side of his head, and her snake hair settled along his shoulder. "I'll be your conscience then, and... and you can be my sword. I don't have that instinct. I'll get us killed." She knew she would, eventually.

"Ok... alright, I like that." He lifted his head and brought his nose to nudge against hers. His beautiful smile was back, but she only managed a glimpse of it before he was hugging her tight again and hiding his face in her neck. "You didn't need a sword to deal with the Chimera."

"Only because you were in trouble. If it wasn't for that, I would have..." I would have ran away.

He breathed deep of her neck, and hugged her tighter. "Sorry I made you do that."

"It's alright," she said, and she nudged her cheek against his. "It's alright."

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Medusa awoke with Darian snug against her. She'd wrapped her arms around him before falling asleep, but during the night she must have wrapped him in her coils too. Chuckling, she loosened her snake body from his, and looked to the rising sun.

The giant was sitting by the fire, in the same place and posture as when she'd left him.

"You didn't sleep?" she said.

"No. Under the Earth, I will sleep for age. But now I am risen." He stared into the coals of the dead fire, eyes hard as rock, breathing slow, and voice still as gravely as before. She could swear, hearing him speak was like listening to Gaia herself. Every word was a rumble of power.

She'd defeated him. Gods, she'd defeated such a brute! Her transformed state was even more monstrous than this ancient thing of muscle and stone? Her mind drifted back to Darian, when she had jumped in to save him, and that moment of fear she'd seen on his face. She must have been so terrifying to have scared him, even for that split second.

"Ssssso if you're awake, you're just... awake? No sleep?"

"No." He tilted his head to the side, cracked his neck, and resumed staring at the coals.

Her new guard dog was as interesting as dirt. Maybe very old, special dirt, but dirt nonetheless.

"Morning," Darian said. He rose with a stretch and reached out to grab her waist from behind.

"Morning." She tried to slither around to face him, but he pulled her back down onto their bedrolls, and resumed snuggling. "Um, it's dawn."

"Mmm, I want more of this." He squeezed her waist, holding her back to his stomach, and nuzzled his lips into her neck before kissing her spine. Like lightning, tingles went down her back and into her snake body.

"D-Darian! He's right there..." She turned her head to look at the young man over her shoulder, and then nodded toward the giant. The Chimera didn't look her way, or blink, or anything. He sat there like a statue, his ancient beast hide tied around his neck by its arms and drawn over his back like a cape.

"So? He's like a dog, he doesn't care." Darian gave her ear a kiss, and she squeaked in response. But a few moments later he let her go, and sat up, chuckling. "So," he said, and he got up with a jump before he started stretching out his muscles. "How does this 'talk to Gaia' thing work?"

"I will ask of Gaia," the giant said. Still he did not move.

"Uh huh." Darian wandered closer to him, no armor, no sword or shield, nothing. Medusa could feel her heart race faster at their proximity; one strong kick from the giant and Darian would fold in half. "When, where, how?"

The Chimera growled. Sitting on his butt, knees up and forearms draped over them, he was just as tall as Darian. So huge! So ridiculously gigantic, a tower of muscle, Medusa couldn't wrap her mind around having defeated him. But when the giant looked her way, he gave her a small nod, a tiny thing, a precious gift. He really was her new guard dog.

"You lack patience," the Chimera said.

Darian made a fist. Medusa could see the glint of anger in his eyes, but it faded into a chuckle a moment later. Those two had the strangest bond she would never understand.

"You're not wrong. So, what should we call you? The Chimera sounds pretty ridiculous," Darian said.

The Chimera shrugged.

"Don't care? How about... um..." He looked to Medusa, and shrugged too.

Medusa rolled her eyes. "Chimera workss." She rose to a full height, well above what either men could reach, and stretched out dozens of feat of aching, sore snake body before lowering herself back down to the ground to slither toward them. "Is that ok?"

"Whatever you wish." The giant nodded her way again and looked back to the fire.

"Fine. Chimera it is." She settled into a coil in front of the two men, and looked Chimera straight in the eye. She ignored the part of her that was scared of him, big and brutal as he was; he was her guard dog from then on, after all. "Chimera, ask Gaia and find out where this entity we're hunting is."

Chimera grumbled, so deep Medusa could feel it through the ground into her scales, and he got up. She backed away, but Chimera turned to the side, and walked out ten feet. Once he had some clear grass in an open area, he got down onto his bare knees again, and started to dig up the earth. His hands broke through the ground like water, and he scooped rocks and dirt to the sides until he'd dug himself a foot-deep hole.

Darian and Medusa blinked at each other, but gathered around and watched anyway.

Medusa gasped when Chimera bit a chunk out of his wrist. He grimaced with the pain — even the giant felt pain from that sort of wound — and spit the skin he'd torn off into the hole. Then he spit out the blood in his mouth, and followed it with the blood from his wrist, all into the hole. Only then did she notice the beast-like fangs he had, now soaked in red.

She almost reached out to try and treat the wound, but then she remembered the fight. The arrows she'd fired into the giant were ignored. The wounds this beast sustained were superfluous. And right before her eyes, she watched his wrist heal over in seconds. Her new guard dog was terrifying.

He hummed, a deep sound that filled the earth around them until it was rumbling. The blood vibrated and churned, the chirps of birds vanished, the whistling of leaves ceased, and the wind around them grew to a standstill. Dead silence, except for the trembling earth beneath them. Like a minor earthquake, it filled Medusa until her snake tail was tingling at its tip, and her teeth were jittering together.

The blood reached up out of the pool, and scooped some of the earth into its hole. Medusa stared down at the madness, and tried to blink away what must have been her imagination. But again the blood reached up, and with a wave of its red form, it scooped more dirt back into the hole.

Chimera put his right hand into the blood, drowned the head of the snake tattoo in the red, and let the sentient pool bury his hand until it disappeared into the ground. The red earth clung tight to his skin, and just like the Chimera, it rumbled. A gentle earthquake, a soft thing nothing more than pleasant vibrations underneath Medusa's scales. But, watching the soaked ruby earth hug to Chimera and mold around his flesh made her whole body tremble. The Earth was talking to the beast.

They stood there for some time. Chimera rumbled deep in his chest in tune with the soft earthquakes, and his arm did not budge. The insanity of what she was witnessing settled into her belly, and she looked down at the ground after some time. Gaia, the Earth, mother to titans and grandmother to gods, was speaking to them. She lowered her body closer to the ground, and placed her hands upon the grass. Vibrations. Just like her voice in her chest when she talked. She smiled, and looked at Chimera. The beast looked back at her, and tilted his head to the side. She confused him. Well, he confused her! Two could play at that game.

A few minutes later, the giant removed his hand, and shook the red dirt free of him. Some red stayed, and Medusa thought it was some dirt still stuck to him, but he used his other hand to wipe off the leftovers, and two red dots stayed on his hand. Two red dots where the snake tattoo's eyes were.

"Gaia has given me the scent of... your taint," he said, and he gestured to Darian with his tattooed hand. "I will be able to track down the work of the Fates, as long as it is within the touch of the Earth."

Medusa gasped. Darian frowned, and eyed the beast and his altered tattoo more closely.

"Alright," Darian said. "So you can sense me?"

"I can."

"And can you sense where our target is?"

Chimera brought the hand to his face, took a few short sniffs of the tattoo's eyes, and nodded. "Two days hard walk to the North, on the coast."

Darian stood up straight with a jolt. Medusa stood up straight too, and snapped up her bow ready to shoot. But Darian didn't move after the jump; instead, he stood there, and glared at Chimera, hands in tight fists at his sides.

"Tiryns!?"

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~~Darian~~

His whole body ached, and it wasn't from his fight with the giant — well, that too, but it wasn't the main reason for his ache. His body ached whenever he thought about Tiryns, Proetus, and his wife Stheneboea. Every time he pictured that woman's face, beautiful, disgusting, his fists clenched until his fingers cracked and his wrists hurt. Medusa must have noticed, she kept glancing his way, and when he turned to catch her glance, she snapped back to staring at the horizon and slithering forward.

He wasn't surprised. He could feel the anger he was radiating. Worse, every so often the edges of his vision started to blur white, and he had to shake his head to suppress the rising bloodlust. He'd have to walk into Tiryns, with V carved into his forehead, every inch of his body demanding revenge, and not take it. If he tried to kill the king and queen, he'd be risking everything. But it was all he could think about. The sickening irony of being forced back into that cursed city while barred from the only reason he'd ever want to go back, was infuriating.

"Any idea what I'm even looking for while I'm in there?" he said.

Chimera was ahead of them, walking the grass and scouting the hills with a hand up to block the sun. "I do not."

"How could you not know? You managed to track where something is that's over seventy miles away!"

Chimera grunted, looked over his shoulder at him — the lion mouth on his head was terrifying — and shrugged. "Gaia can sense where, not what."

Darian grumbled some more, and kicked at the dirt several times before he fell into stride next to Medusa.

"Are you... going to be ok?" she said.

"No."

Medusa winced and pulled away. Her hair fell down flat again her shoulders, and she slumped. He'd snapped at her, the one damn thing going well in his life.

He reached for her hand. "Sorry. Really, just..." Just thinking about Proetus and how he betrayed me makes me want to rip out his insides with my bare hands. "I'm trying to calm down."

The gorgon looked down at where his fingers were touching hers. She hesitated, something on her mind, but after a moment she nodded and took his hand into hers.

"Thank you. But your anger is... I would be angry too. This thing we're chasing, whatever it is, is in Tiryns. That can't be coincidence."

"Exactly! This is a game, someone's screwing with me. Either the Fates or whoever this thief is, they know about me, about Proetus and Stheneboea, about my past. But how would they know about Chimera's ability to track? The Fates knew. So either this thief learned from the Fates, or this thief didn't know at all, and they were just waiting at Tiryns for..."

"For what?"

"For... when I eventually show up and kill Proetus and his wife."