Medusa: Fate's Game

Chapter 1

~~Medusa~~

Blood poured from her scales onto the smooth stones of the temple. There would be no hiding, not while she was marking the path behind her like a bleeding deer. Artemis would have laughed.

"Get back here!" The warrior's voice echoed throughout the temple, empty as it was. No one but her, no one. Except for these fools.

The four of them poured up her steps, past the garden of statues worn with time, and into the vast nave. It too was filled with statues, but instead of the warriors that decorated the stairs of the temple, these were statues of simple men, women, and children, clamoring over each other to escape something from long ago.

She slithered as best she could among these statues, hiding in the dark, as pointless as it was. They had torches, they had spears and shields, and they would have no trouble dealing with her amid the standing stones. Each time a flicker of fire light crossed the faces of the dead, she looked away from their petrified eyes, and trembled.

"Found you!"

One of the warriors squeezed through the standing statues before lunging at her with both hands upon his spear.

"Leave me alone!" She twisted, veered, and slithered between the array of standing dead with practiced speed. The spear's tip dinged harmlessly off of one of the stone, but the warrior was not alone. The three others were behind him a moment later, and were circling around her, using the statues of the dead as cover.

She slammed her tail behind her, ignored the pain and splattering red of her blood, and cracked its tip toward one of the warriors who approached. The bastard was too fast, and hid behind the stone dead as soon as she swung her tail. The weight of her body was far greater than the young Athenian could anticipate though, and the statue they hid behind cracked apart like a pebble on an anvil. Bits of the once loyal servant of the gods, now nothing but stone, shattered against the temple walls. The warrior on the other hand had managed to duck, and he dived back down into the shadows cast by their dropped torches.

Another warrior nearest to her, brave, or cocky, took advantage of the distraction. He leaped up onto the statues, and bounced on several pairs of shoulders before throwing himself into the air toward her.

She stared at him, and let the monster inside out. Her face bent, twisted, and elongated. Her jaw grew pointed, huge, her neck grew thick, and her fangs grew massive. Where there was once skin, snake scales emerged and covered her face, neck, even her arms and torso. Her voice came out only as a harsh hiss, and her snake hair grew into a mane of pythons as long as a man was tall.

They wanted to see the monster. Then let them see.

A bright, burning light of gold erupted from her horrible, mutated snake eyes. It lasted only moments, but it was more than enough to cast half the temple in the powerful gaze. The other three warriors were quick to hide themselves behind the many pillars of Athena's once great temple, but the one in front of her had no such option. He landed only several feet away from the base of her snake tail, and was trying to stab his spear down into her with both arms.

But then he raised raised both his hands into the air, slowly, and with a grinding scream of pain to follow it. The crunch of the transformation was louder than breaking bones, and sounded like rock cracking under flame. With each stomach-turning snap, the Athenian bent and twisted in pain, and each time it was a little less as he was turned.

In only took a few seconds, but it was a few seconds of pain and misery, and she had to watch every unending second of it. The warrior was staring at her, eyes wide, mouth open, screams of pain his last moment before he was nothing but stone.