Instead I'll be posting part of the prologue for my "Heart of Stone" book.
Prologue
The golden man came for her under the
cover of darkness, or more precisely the Helm of Darkness gifted to him by
Hades, lord of the Underworld which rendered the wearer invisible.
Perseus, for that was the name his
mother had bestowed upon him, had traveled many day to reach this out of the
way place at the end of the known world in order to find the cave in which his
prey the Medusa lived in solitude, save for the company of her two gorgon sisters
Stheno and Euryale.
Sneaking quietly in the yawning mouth
of darkness which was the gorgon’s home, Perseus saw many things which he did
not understand. Stone statues of warriors and terrifying beasts, as well as
ones made of glass, clear and fragile.
Making his way past these strange
additions to what should have been an otherwise barren cave inhabited by crazed
monsters. It wasn’t long before Perseus noticed other strange things like rugs
and wall hangings. A small table here, and a torch holder there.
Continuing deeper into the cave,
moving quickly while being careful to not give his presence away, Perseus
noticed that the darkness of the cave, illuminated partly by the moonlight
filtering in from the cave entrance and projected by a few of the glass statues
into deeper parts of the cave which he a surely passed at this point, was
beginning to lighten. With the coming of the light also came the soft sound of scuffling
and a strange hissing sound.
“Ahh, I have found the feared Gorgon.
Now to slay her and take her head as requested by my King.” thought Perseus as
he crept closer to the source of the light and the strange sounds. Hiding
behind a seemingly well place rock, Perseus drew out the gift the goddess
Athena had given him, a brightly polished shield. Athena had warned him that to
look upon a gorgon’s face without protection would surely result in death,
before giving him the shield to use as a mirror.
Settling himself into a comfortable position
with his back against the rock, Perseus looked upon the scene revealed in his
shield.
A great cavern lay beyond his position
lit on three sides by torches set into the walls. On either side there were
tunnels carved in the stone walls.
“Those must lead to other caverns…”
Perseus assumed.
He also noticed there was furniture
within the cavern. There were large raised divans placed in a central location,
while low table were scattered in the surrounding area. The main thing, though,
that caught his eye and kept it was the sight of the three Gorgons.
Perseus studied the gorgons in the
surface of his shield. All three were seemingly petite women, with fair skin
like the moon. What he could see of their bodies above the waist seemed very
womanly indeed covered as they each were in short stola each a different color.
Below the waist, however, starting where the legs would on an ordinary human
there was instead a thick column of flesh covered in scales which must have
been over 15 feet in length and resembling the body of a snake. They also had
snakes in their hair. Although upon
closer inspection, Perseus realized that the snakes seemed to be actually
growing out of their scalps along with their hair. The two of the sisters moved
restlessly around the third, which upon further inspection accounted for the
strange scuffling sound he had been hearing and couldn’t place, the sound of
their serpentine coils rubbing against each other and the stone which made up
the floor of the cave. Perhaps thankfully, the two moving Gorgons had their
backs turned to Perseus’s location effectively hiding their faces from his
gaze. The third sat hunched over, her face also hidden where it lay held in her
hands, her petite shoulders moving in jerky motions.
“Sssissster,”came a pleading cry.
Startled, Perseus quickly hid his
shield under his long cloak. So the strange hissing sounds he had heard hadn’t
been just the sound of the snakes of the Gorgons hair, but the gorgons
themselves. Perseus had assumed them to be crazed monsters, but thinking about
everything he had seen since entering the cave gave him pause. Perhaps he
should sit and listen more, for killing dangerous crazed monsters on behalf of
your king was one thing, but…
For anyone wondering female gorgons never have to pee. EVER. It's magic, bitches. Seriously i totally lost my mojo while writing this because someone asked my how they were supposed to use the bathroom.
Thanks for reading hopefully i'll be able to come up with something for next week.
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