Bride of the Sea God

Chapter 2

A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

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Pegai and its surrounding lands had been hit with severe drought in the past few years. Rain rarely landed in the region, and when it did, the drops only lightly moistened the cracks in the ground.

Aside from praying to the gods, the villagers turned to the sea for the source of food instead of the harvest of grains and vegetables that were more and more poor every year. Every day, the water level from the wells dipped lower and lower. Dust drifted from the dry fields in little swirls as the farmers tried to hand water their crops through pails.

Annabeth was not the only one to scavenge the rocky shore for the mussels that stuck on the rocks. Here and there, she pulled some edible seaweed clinging to the jagged stones, careful not to fall on the slippery surfaces.

"Ahhhh!"

"Run!"

Annabeth snapped up as shouts resonated from towards the village. She couldn't quite make out what was being said.

"Do you hear that? What are they saying?" She called over to a young boy who was digging for clams nearby.

"Can't really hear them this far." He answered. The boy narrowed his eyes. "Is that smoke?"

Pillars of smoke were rising from the clay tiled roof. But they were much bigger and more numerous than the normal amount of smoke in fireplaces. Had a fire broken out?

Annabeth and the others on the beach ran back towards the village. Fire had indeed broken out, but no one was rushing to put out the flames that were beginning to consume houses one by one.

No, Annabeth was realizing too late. They were all running away from something.

Her sandals, still wet from the beach, skidded on the cobblestone paths as she tried to halt her run.

Pegai had never been plagued by a monster before. It was a small, inconsequential town. War from larger city-states rarely found its way here, and monsters even fewer.

Yet, here in the middle of the square was a snake-like creature with a horned head like a dragon. The monster's body was as thick as a doorway, towering just above the roof of the nearest house.

"Have no fear, follow me!" Leitus, the archon's son, yelled and charged in. "I shall get rid of this fiend!"

The monster snapped its foaming jaws with teeth the size of one's palm at Leitus, who tripped and nearly missed having his head taken off. He yelped in fear, dropping his spear.

Then Annabeth saw the head on the snake monster's tail. No, there were two heads. The dreaded creature was similar to a snake with two heads on either end, supporting itself with its thick middle body. Vicious hissing came from either head as its tongues flickered.

An amphisbaena! Annabeth had seen depictions of the horrid monster in a scroll in the library. She had heard of such monsters but had never truly believed they existed in this world, with her life limited to Pegai and its existence free from monsters.

But why was this one so large? The scroll she had read said that amphisbaena lived in the desert and were typically no longer than a man's upper torso, small enough that wearing a living one around one's neck could procure fortune in fertility. Yet, this monstrous creature before her had destroyed three small houses and set them on fire. Was the drought so dire that the dry region around Pegai had attracted this desert dwelling creature?

A group of five guards attempted to subdue the amphisbaena with limited success. One man yelped as one head bit his shoulder as he was distracted by deflecting the second head with his wooden shield. Quick as a flash, the amphisbaena whirled around and defended itself against the other guards before they could coordinate a strike.