[Lucius]

Lucius walked for miles, tracking the path of the blind princess. Somehow, the creature had survived through a rather treacherous stretch of forest. Lucius had to jump and scramble across trenches and around the den of some colossal beast that he dared not rouse from slumber.

"Damn this like little skank," he grumbled to himself. The blind creature didn't understand her place in the world. Lucius grinned as he imagined how he would teach her, how he could show her that a woman's only place was to be of 'service' to someone like himself. If only his own wife could understand that!

His mind flashed back to her, to the woman he had put actual effort into courting. Had he known she was  prude who refused to sleep with him, he would never have married her. It hadn't helped that he had misjudged his her bodyguard that never left her side. He couldn't even take her love despite trying for years now. Damned devotees of Artemis, always whining about their oaths of celibacy, he had broken plenty of those oathes in his own travels. It was a favorite to make those girls scream.

[Hermes]

Hermes was a golden blur of movement. He moved fast enough to create blasts of noise and rings of broken air in his wake. He found the cave in seconds, found the warm little nest in even less time, and found Medusa there. He waited for a second, watching the two as time remained slow around him. He did this often, his thoughts going a million miles a minute as always. The blind girl was curled up on a sleeping bag in the corner of the room while Medusa was in the middle of a morning stretch despite it being almost noon. He waited for nearly twenty agonizing seconds as time caught up with him, and the world started moving at normal speed.

"Ello darling! You have a message I, the benevolent herm...hey!" Hermes broke off his introduction and had to dodge a thrown blade aimed for his forehead. It wasn't like it would have hurt the god, but he disliked being interrupted.

Medusa rose to her full height and slithered towards him, her snakes raised and her eyes meeting his. She looked the very picture of a hydra if made by Aphrodite.

"Oh darling, you should know that stoney business doesn't work on the devine. Can't have one, justifiably, I might add, pissed off gorgon turning Olympus into a fancy statue garden," he flitted to the side and looked over and the oracle who had been startled awake.

"Oh! Look at her, pretty little thing! Not my type, but I can see what Aphrodite sees in her," the girl squeaked in fright as she scooted backward until her back hit the wall.

"Medusa!" She cried with fear, "Who's there!? Medusa!"

The girl scrambled around until her hands landed on what looked like a broken spear shaft. Once she got her hands on it, she pointed it toward Hermes as if it still sprouted at spear tip.

Hermes grinned and then turned back to Medusa, "Anyways, your message! From our dearest huntress Artemis, you two are in grave danger. There is a dangerous man making his way here now, a grotesque sort of.... well, frankly, his manners are awfully similar to Poseidon."

Medusa's face went as pale as her scales could, lovely lime Hermes thought. The blind little oracle gave a look of confusion, her soft features wearing the emotion with innocent beauty.

"Anyways, that's my job done. I wish you luck!" He he began to move, time slowing once again. He could see Medusa's face changing slowly from fear and disgust to rage. He almost felt bad for her, but he had other messages to carry. Other warnings to deliver, threats to make, and gossip to spread. His attention had already moved away from the little duo, and just as fast as he was, their plight was forgotten.

[Medusa]

Medusa was hardly allowed to even experience her emotions before Hermes disappeared from her home. Thera was still waving around her walking stick to ward off the non-existent adversaries.

"Damn Hermes," she muttered with a low growl. She turned towards the terrified girl, her expression softening. With a small sigh she slithered over to the girl, hissing to make her presence known before she placed a hand on the girls shoulder.

"It's ok Thera, he left," Medusa watched as Thera's face slowly calmed, her head tilting towards Medusa.

"W-was that really Hermes? T-the god...." Thera was shaking, trembling like a leaf in an uproar. This wasn't a new thing for the girl, but it was only now that she truly noticed how small the girl was. Thera only came up to Medusa's stomach when she straightened to her full height.

"It was, and if his message was from Artemis, then it's for your protection," Medusa slithered away from her to her nook of wepons. She strapped a curved blade around her serpentine waist and her quiver across her back, "Artemis protects maidens and  innocent girls, I'd say you fit that description."

Medusa turned back to Thera and froze. The girls breath was coming in shaky gasps, her hands raising up to clasp her hair in balled fists.

"A-are we in danger?! What's going to happen to us? What if they take me back?! What if they hurt you?! What if.." her words failed her as hyperventilation took her. She shrank into herself little by little.

"Hey, kid, listen to me. There's nothing that a human can throw at me that I can't handle, I won't let anything happen," Medusa felt a small ache spread through her chest as Thera reached out her hand towards Medusa, silently pleading for something that Medusa didn't understand. The moment stretched for what felt like eternity as the struggling girl reached for Medusa, but the gorgon didn't reach out in reply.

As if realizing what she was doing, Thera pulled her hand back and tried to force herself to breathe. Medusa felt as though she had missed something, missed an opportunity that was right in frontof her.

"Stay here..... I'll return once I take care of this," she snatched her great bow from where it lay and knocked one of the large arrows to its string. If she were lucky, she could take out the human with little effort and return to the comfort of her nest. A quiter part of herself whispered that there was more to it than that, that she wanted to protect more than her home. Her eyes roamed back to Thera for a split second. The girl had crouched back down and was hugging her knees to her chest, looking almost like a child. She had to force her gaze away. She knew she would look at the girls face for hours if she allowed herself. She hadn't been able to look upon beauty like hers for nearly three centuries without it inevitably turning to stone. Thera was a rare glimer of light that she thought was excluded from her, something pure, something that she could keep safe.

Medusa shook herself out of her thoughts. No, she wasn't doing this for the girl, she told herself. She was doing this to protect her territory. She held pity for the blind girl, that was true, but she what she wanted most was for her to heal and leaver Medusa to her solitude. She had considered letting the girl be rescued by the next hero after her head. At least then she would be looked after. This time was different. However, if Hermes was to be believed, any man that reminded a god of Posiedon was not someone Medusa could allow to live.

With a deep sigh, Medusa turned and slithered away towards the entrance to her home. She couldn't set her head straight, couldn't push the image of that girl out of her mind. She was a distraction that Medusa couldn't afford right now but her face was she could think about. The way her red hair curled across her cheeks, the way her face so looked like it wanted to smile, but couldn't.

Medusa stopped just before the opening to her cave, bow ready. She was unaware that she was already too late to stop the intruder in her nest.

[Thera]

Thera sat alone. She always ended up alone. She hated it, hated this far more than she would ever admit to anyone. To be perfectly honest, she wanted to be heald. To be close to someone and feel warm and safe, but she knew nobody would ever want her. She wondered if she were ugly, she had never seen herself but she couldn't imagine anyone finding her attractive. She couldn't see her face, but she had felt it, could almost imagine it. She knew its contors and the way her nose was small, and her cheeks were soft. Her face thin from not eating often enough. That was most of her, though.

She had for a moment believed that her betrothal to Caelus would have meant she'd finally have someone to love her. That she wouldn't be so alone, that someone could care for her. Instead, the man had treated her like she was some sort of tool, something less than human.

"Why can't I have been normal?" She whispered to herself, listening to how her voice bounced off the stone walls of the room. Something about the wait it echoed was... something wasn't quite right. That's when she heard it, the slightest scrape of a footstep, someone who dragged the toe of their boot instead of raising it high enough. She could hear the intruders breathing, determining its difference from Medusa's. Medusa's breath was larger, slower, her lungs taking in more air than a normal person's with a distinct hiss. This breathing was shorter, gravely and she could smell something rotten.

"Poor little thing, all alone in a monster's den. Don't worry, I've come to rescue you," the voice was dripping with false sweetness. Smoothe but in a way that felt unnatural rather than calming.

Thera hardly had time to react before a hand firmly grabbed her by her wrist and tugged her to her feet.

"Your sister wants you back, seems your husband to be isn't very happy that his prize ran away, can blame him though. If you were mine I'd take you before the vows were even finished," Thera felt a familiar fear well up in the pit of her stomach. She tried to pull away.

"N-no! I'm not going back! I'm-" her words were silenced as she felt the sharp sting of a backhanded across her face. She could almost feel her brain rattle at the force of the strike, the only thing keeping her upright being Lucius' iron grip around her wrist.

"Silence! I don't like toys that make noise," she was hoisted up and felt an arm around her waist, pinning her to the foul-smelling man's body. Theras arms were pinned to her sides, her feet lifted from the ground. She thrashed and kicked, but her body felt too weak to do anything of note.

"MEDUSA!" Thera screamed with all she had in her lungs. She couldn't think of anything else to do. She made to scream again, but a hand flew over her mouth and cut off the plea for help. She fought and squirmed and flaied her body to try and free herself. She freed one of her arms and slamed it backwards into her captors head, colliding with something soft and crunchy, earning a curse from the man.

"I was going to be gentle..... but you had to be a brat and call the monster here. Well, your sister didn't say you had to be unharmed," With a sudden force, he threw Thera against the stone walls, her skull bouncing off of it with a sickening crunch. Her head ached as if it had been smashed beneath Hephaestus' hammer, leaving the blind girl in a daze. She felt a hard grip around her left hand and then something cold against her ring finger.

"Nobody would want you for a wife anyway...." Thera felt shock jump up from her hand and threw her body, dulling the pain.... something warm was spurting from her left hand. Something felt like it wasn't where it should have been, where it had been mere moments ago.

[Hello hello, I am so sorry for the wait and the shitty chapter, collage has been a bitxh but I'm doing my best, I hope yall enjoyed because this was an absolutely awful chapter to write. Please comment your thoughts and ideas!]