[Thera]

She was running, running through the halls of her families palace. Right turn. She slid her hand across the familiar walls, allowing the feeling to guide her. Left turn. She was almost there, the main gate where her freedom waited. Somewhere in the encompassing darkness that had been her only perception since her unfortunate birth.

She could hear the quickness of her heart, smell the purifying sent of an approaching storm. She could feel the minute texture against her fingers, her only form of comfort in its consistency. The feeling almost as familiar as the soft cloth she routinely wrapped around her unseeing eyes.

"Where are you going, little mouse?" Came his voice, sickly smoothe and briming with power. She could imagine a dark rolling cloud lit from within by the striking lightning of his eyes. His voice, the rolling thunder that followed.

She tried to run faster, as if she could outrun the voice that clawed away at her mind, the tempest of power that told her to obey his command. To outrun the fear that followed his presence alone.

"Do you think you can escape me, little mouse? You belong to me, my bride! My property!" She felt his presence behind her as he gave chase. She let her hand leave the guiding face of the wall and ran with all the speed that her diminutive body would allow.

He was meant to be her husband, a matrimony born of the uniting of two kingdoms. A choice that was never hers to make. His name was Caelus, a warlord. A cruel man that saw her as nothing but a prize.

"Where will you go, little mouse? Where will you hide that I can not find you! How will you survive without someone to control you." He had stopped screaming as he grew closer, "you can't even function without submitting, you blind little wench!"

She felt the air move as his had lashed out, snatching her hair and pulling her backward by her scalp.

She attempted to scream, but no air was allowed to expand her lungs before she was forced against the wall, and a closed fist slammed crushingly into her midsection.

"Ungrateful whore! Do you think you'd be anything without me?" She could smell his breath washing across her face, laced with wine and the smell of something rotten.

She thrashed against him as he held he against the wall, pressing his body against hers.

"You belong to me, little mouse!" Through his rage, his words were beginning to slur. His grip loosening as he swayed on unsteady feet.

"W-what ..... what have you done .... to me.... you little witch!?" He toppled as if he were a great tree, falling slowly to crash upon the ground, leaving Thera a chance to run.

He had drinken almost a full barrel of her father's best wine, her sister Cassia pushing him to drink more and more. Cassia now waited at the front gait with a carriage, her last lifeline to escape.

She ran, her feet aching as she finally felt the change in the air, the sudden chill on her skin and the sprinkling of rain drops that kissed her skin.

She moved forward until she felt the harsh grasp of Cassia's hand around her wrist, dragging her into the enclosed carriage.

"Come on you dimwit! Your lucky I have the patience I do, were you to busy tripping over your own limbs? You're lucky you have such a careing sister to save your life," This was Cassia's normal way, to remind Thera of her fortune for Cassia's consideration. Thera did believe she was fortunate, that despite Cassia's constant insults and sarcasm, that she must care.

"T-thank you, Cassia," Thera said as she reached out, feeling around for her sisters hand to squeeze affectionately. After a moment, she heard Cassia's sigh and felt the hand she sought, but not receiving a returning squeeze.

"I hope your thankful, most women would wish to be in your position, betrothed to a powerful man like Caelus," she drew her hand away from Thera sharply, "but I suppose someone like you would run from a life like that, a life that you do not deserve."

Thera wanted to recoil at her sisters words, to explain the cruelty that Caelus had promised her in whispers only ment for her. Of his rotten soul that even her blindness couldn't hide from her, but Cassia was probably right.... she didn't deserve the honor this marriage had forced upon her. Perhaps Caelus' cruelty was a side effect of her own shortcomings. She tried not to think of that as the carriage rattled along. The journey stretched for hours, hours of silence only broken by the clopping of the horses' hooves. She was on the verge of unconscious when she heard the change in terrain that the carriage wheels passed over, they wernt on the road anymore.

"Cassia? Are we leaving the road? I thought Athens was still a few more days ride?" She felt a chill run down her back as her confusion was met by the low sound of Cassia's chuckle.

"My dear sister, I only wish to stretch my legs, won't you join me?"

Thera could hear the sickly sweet tone of her sisters voice. It was an utterly unfamiliar sound that Cassia had never once used in her conversation with Thera, at least when she dained to speak to her at all. Despite this, she was filled with an affectionate warmth at being called dear sister.

For the first time, she thought she felt some semblance of sisterly love from Cassia, even from this tiniest term of endearment.

She felt her way to the door of the carriage and out, her remaining senses immediately assaulted by the lashing sting of an icy wind and rain.

"Isn't the weather just perfect, dear sister? Such a beautiful sky that you will never see," Cassia began to laugh with a malevolent joy that made Thera shrink into herself with discomfort.

"I have a gift for you dear sister, something to help you find your way," she snatched one of Theras hands and pushed a palm sized disk of cold metal into it, a small chain makings wearable.

"What is this, Cassia? C-can we get back in the carriage, please?" She attempted to look towards her sister in a pleading manner.

"It's a compass dear sister..... it shows the way for those who are worthy of seeing it guidance. Oops, I almost forgot. You are worthy of nothing dear sister," the cracking pain of a strike hit Thera hard in her chin. Knocking her into a disoriented panic.

"Sister... what have I done? I'm sorry.. please forgive me, I'll do better, I can be good I swear," Thera promised desperately, her hands moving to the ground to Steady herself as she grovled on the ground before her older sister. She froze in fear as she felt the edge of a steep hill, a fall that she had nearly fell off of in her blind panic. What had she done? Why was she being punished? Did she deserve this?

She could feel the warm rivers of blood that flowed from beneath her blindfold, an unfortunate side effect of her blindness was tears of blood. The visual effect almost giving her crimson bloody stains in place of eyes against the cloth.

"You are a wasted human, useless and ungrateful for the life you didn't earn! I worked to be a perfect daughter,  but our parents chose you to marry Caelus. It should have been me! It will be me," Cassia drove a saddled foot into Theras ribs, "there is something you could do for me dear sister, you can die. Alone and cold, where no one will find you, once you are forgotten,  I will ensure our kingdom remains strong."

Cassia placed her heal against Theras shoulder and kicked, forcing the younger girl down the hill, cascading into the darkness of the forest below.

-Several hours later-

Thera slowly regained her sense, her clothes soked and a bitter chill reaching into her bones. She cried out in pain as she tried to lift herself, a sickening snap and a jolt of agony forcing a scream from her lips. Her leg.... she could feel something was incredibly wrong with her leg, she couldn't see but she knew he leg was bent twisted in an unnatural angle.

She couldn't walk. Couldn't stand. She slowly dug her fingers into the gravle, and dragged, opening up lacerations across her skin as she pulled herself forward.

Thera whimpered in weak gasps, dragging, scraping her body against the stone and fallen branches of the ground. She couldn't stay out in the open. Crawled until her hand wrapped around the haft of a particularly sturdy piece of wood. With all the effort she could muster, she pulled herself into a standing position. She used the branch as a rough crutch or cane to take the wait of of her mangled leg, limping  in and hopping at a slightly increased pace, her other hand outstretched in a searching grasp as she looked for any type of shelter.

She walked for more time then she ever could have hoped to tell, meandering qnd lost. Unknowingly passing just on the outskirts of a village, the inheritance of the wooden homes said nothing. They maid no attempt to aid the bloody and blind girl. Their inaction was no act of malice but of fear, on her current path, the girl was already a dead woman walking. They could only hope that this woman's death might appease whatever monsters lived within the darkness of the valley. The girl passed without the slightest knowledge,  making her way into the forbidden lands, the neglected temples overtaken by the spirits and creatures.

The particular temple that Thera would find herself at was an overgrown mass, crawling with the creeping vines of wild grapes and choking vegetation. Thera felt the reasuing feeling of carved stone. She finally had a guiding wall that she could follow. she limped parallel to the structure, feeling the carved stone slowly give way to the rough natural feeling of a cave that continued into the foot of the looming mountain.

She cried in releaif as the pounding rain was cut off by the roof of the cavern.

Safety, finally.... Thera wanted to collapse to the stone floor and leave this waking world of pain, but not yet. She didn't want to stay where an animal or a stranger could happen upon her. She limped forward just a bit more into the cave.... have to keep moving.....

"I.... I can make it.... just a bit further....." The could hear the echoing of the scape of her wooden crutch. She moved forward....  until she heard the sound of something else, something large, slide quickly against the stone floor.

No... no, this couldn't be, something was in here with her! A monster? Robbers?

"Your smaller then the other 'heros' who come for my head," a deep woman's voice called from her right, slowly circling around her. There was no footsteps, but that sound of something sliding across the ground, "do you think a piece of cloth across your eyes will save you? My eyes aren't the only thing that makes me dangerous!"

Thera's breath was suddenly smashed out of her as something hit her fast, crushing her against the wall, two strong hands holding her off the ground. She felt the quite panic build in her as memories flooded her, memories of Caelus forcing her against walls in threat. It overflowed into a dry sob, all her tears dried on her cheek.

"Your no warrior ..... but you sought me out, Why?! Tell me, or I'll rip this blindfold from your face and end it!"

"I-i don't know who you are, m-miss! I'm sorry! Don't hurt me, please!" She pleaded weakly as she tried to look towards where she thought the woman's face was, "I don't know where I am!"

"But you cover your eyes, how would you know to do that?! Do not lie to me!"

Thera reached towards her face without thinking and hooked her fingers under the hem, pulling downward.

"Wait! What are you doing?! Are you crazy!? You stupid girl!" One of the massive hand let go of her shoulder and forced her hand away roughly. The hand felt odly... scaled. The grip was crushing and she could tell her wrist was probably becoming more bruised.

"I-im sorry! I'm so sorry, please......"

"You would be such a fool to meet my gaze? What trickery is this!? To lock eyes with the gorgon!? Why are you here?!"

"Gorgon? Y-your ...... no..... you can't be..... your," She understood suddenly, the hands, they were covered in scales, and she could hear a subtle hiss in the woman's voice.

"Yes, I am Medusa,and you have entered my home uninvited." This was too much for Thera, from the escape of one monster into the grasp of another. She felt the only amount of strength leave her small, frail body. Her empty eyes fell closed as her entire body fell limp, hanging from the Gorgon's hands.

["Fun" fact Thera means burdensome, yeah, Thera is gonna need so thera-py by the end of this book]