Selene wasn’t sure if it was her senses that came back to her, or if she came back to them, but slowly, steadily, her eyelashes finally fluttered open. Immediately, her vision went away once again, eyes burning as they were hit with the force of the sea. With confusion and saltwater washing over her, she urgently scrambled away from the seashore, spitting out salty sand grains that somehow found their way into her mouth. Her eyes stung and watered from the salt. She hacked, crawling on all fours, pulling the heavy fabric of her dress behind her. ‘How did the Nereids do it so elegantly?’

Once she put enough distance between the ocean and herself, her eyes cleared. She sat there, blinking away at the neverending blue. The events of the night seemed more like a bad dream than ever. There was no ship and her bag was also nowhere to be seen. With a defeated sigh, she started squeezing the water out of her clothing and taking off most of the layers. She was soaked. The weather was sunny and the sea breeze mild, so she wasn’t too uncomfortable though. Only shaken.

With her curiousness refound (and no immediate threat of drowning), Selene turned around to check on whatever was behind her and immediately let her eyes wander in awe. What she saw was a wall of buildings around the shore everywhere her eyes could see. There was no doubt this was Knossos. The city that enveloped the entirety of the island. Her ancestors' home. Her prison.

Looking over the painted, element-worn walls, she had yet to see an entrance, but there had to have been one as she somewhat worriedly realized that she was lucky enough to get washed up on the only beach in sight and probably won the lottery of life and death. Her other options would have been a nice inviting and bone shattering cliff where the waves crashed with unrelenting power, slowly corroding the black stone that made it up. On another side, the cliff was replaced by the walls of the city, once white marble turned green, orange and all sorts of nasty-colored rainbow from the moss and dead sea life that stuck to it.

‘Thank you Fates’ ,She thought to herself, adding: ‘’...And Poseidon.’’ after a while.

She ran a hand through her soaked hair, then proceeded to get the upper layers of her clothing off. It was warm, and she wanted to dry the clothing better. With a sigh, she began searching the small beach for her belongings. A few of the pieces that could have once been the boat were scattered around, but none of Selene's belongings.

She grieved the bag for a few moments, but ultimately had to agree she was just happy she lived through the experience.

"What next?" She thought out loud. Probably water. Her hand subconsciously went for the canister on her hip.

Surprisingly, it was still there - and sealed tight. With relief, Selene smiled at her newfound supply of one (1) bottle of water. That was exactly one less thing she had to worry about for the immediate future of…exactly one day.

Next up… that would be food and fire.

More importantly fire - with how fast time was going by, she wasn't sure she'd dry off before dawn. And it gets cold around the sea.

With that, she set off for another round along the short beach- along the behemoth of a wall that lined it. There was some shrubbery that was far enough from the water edge - some good, dry shrubbery, she noted. Without difficulty, she broke some off, piling it up right next to the wall. It was an okay spot to spend her first day at, Selene thought. She just hoped the sea would stay calm now.

Not too long after, a tiny crackling bonfire appeared - Selene was lucky enough to find a good stone to start it - some kind of quartz embedded into the surprisingly ornate outer walls. Things seemed to be looking up for her. At least as much as they could - she did just have a near death experience. Her thoughts wandered to the night again. She had a dream- she must've, but she didn't remember what it was now. The dream felt distant, little tendrils of memories slipping right past her nets of consciousness, slipping away like fish…gods she was hungry.

She went back to the edge of the beach, trying to see if something edible had been spat out of the endless blue.

Right, the dream…I think a lot of people were looking at me.

Stolen novel; please report.

She churned the water beneath her feet.

There was water as well…And it didn't want to take me…

Her splashing movements uncovered a clam beneath the sand. Selene quickly kneeled without even considering her dress, examining the small dark oval. Yup. It was a clam. No doubt about it.

The thought of food immediately made her mind go elsewhere - to the kitchen. To the kitchen... she didn't have right now. To the recipes… which she couldn't make. Her face contorted into one of bitter acceptance. This would definitely be a challenge. But alas, Selene decided a better way to spend her time instead of complaining would be to keep looking for the clam's friends.

As the sun set, she had collected around fifteen. Truth be told, there were a few more, but Selene decided that destroying the local population of this tiny beach wasn't exactly a good long term plan.

She rummaged her surroundings for a container and luckily enough found one - albeit the amphora was sporting exactly zero ears, as well as a more than jagged cracked rim. It would do. After filling it with seawater, she put it over the fire. Conserving the drinkable water was more important than bothering with making delicious food, though the ruined taste would surely irk her later. With thoughts of perfectly flavored clams, she went to gather more wood.

When she came back, the water was boiling. Quickly, the clams were poured into the water. Then they were covered with a big enough shard she found tossed nearby. It would hopefully seal the heat in enough.

Selene sat nearby, watching the flames dance and crawl around the surface of the amphora.

The sun had slowly set over the sea. Even slower yet, the first hints of stars peppered the sky, which had turned into a light wash of oranges, then reds and then dimmed to a muted dark. Everything was still in the quiet. Not silent, no. The silence here was accompanied by the rhythmic hum of the waves and crackling fire.

In a split and singular crack, the monotonous evening was broken. More broken was the amphora - the culprit of said noise. Fire sizzled and then gave out with a final hiss and puff of white smoke.

Selene swore at her quickly dimming surroundings. There wasn’t much time till darkness swallowed everything. With newly found urgency, the woman sprung into action. She didn’t know what to save first. Fire. It had to be fire. In the darkness, she grabbed a few more branches, hastily setting them down further away from the place of disaster. When she went to grab her flint stone however, she found only empty pockets. A nervous lump appeared in the back of her throat.

It was fine. Everything was fine.

Again, she searched her pockets. Again, she found nothing. Still slightly damp, cranky and defeated, she went to grab the clams. At least she wouldn’t go to sleep hungry. At least she had food.

⁓Ψ⁓

She woke up with a strong need to purge her insides. Clutching her stomach, she watched the world around her. It was spinning. Selene retched. Then retched again. Her mind was throbbing and she was shaking with fever, pain only made more apparent by the nausea and dry throat.

Must have been the clams, Selene thought through the nauseating haze. Did she get sick? Were the clams undercooked? Perhaps the water didn’t boil for long enough? Her body felt like it was on fire, despite the fireless night she endured. Remains of acid still burned her throat. She took a few cautious gulps from her flask to calm the questions her mind was bombarding her with. It hurt to think.

She weighed her choices. There was no other food here. No resources either. And a high tide could finish what the storm couldn't at any time. It was obvious what she had to do.

‘’Can’t stay here.’’ She muttered.

With that, she got up, searching the short beach one last time for anything useful. In the morning light, she found the pesky quartz again. For a split second she debated throwing it into the sea. She decided against it. The quartz and one of the sharper shards she found in the ruined campfire went into her pockets. It wasn’t a knife, but it was at least something. Lastly, she tied as many branches as she could with the sash around her hips, lumping it all on her back.

Somehow, with great difficulty (and a lot of help from the cracks and missing bricks within it), she made it over the wall, falling over to the other side like a bag of flour.

She was inside. What she saw, however, was not what she imagined.

The sight first evoked Athens in her mind. She herself only visited the colossal city consecrated to the goddess of wisdom and strategy once. In front of her were narrow streets. Too many of them. The walls weren’t flat or empty, mirroring and even outshining the detail of the outer walls. Instead, all of them had doors, windows, colored murals, colonnades, porches and terraces. The buildings haven’t fallen yet, but the materials looked strained and tired. The labyrinth wanted to sleep, but yet it stood tall, showing off echoes and shards of its previous glory. To a human eye, the urban tangle read as abandoned. That wasn’t true. It was breathing with life. Various vines and plants perched from the terraces, stretching up to catch the first sun rays of the day. Moss covered the ground and Selene caught herself being grateful for it softening her previous Olympics-worthy display. As the light caressed the greenery, Selene heard the chirping of cicadas. She was sure there was more life hidden within the walls of the city.

So this was her family's home. Crete. A new emotion settled in her stomach to accompany the painful pangs of hunger and nausea. The emotion was coldly detached and yet longing. It was a longing for an experience she didn’t and couldn’t ever have as some part of her wished to have lived within these walls.

Her father and mother were sparse in their retellings and Selene asked less and less over time. Part of her curiosity died with her mother. Part of it was buried when her father ran out of strength to run their business. That was a long time ago. Now she wished she asked more.

Now however was not the time. Sickness swelled within her, but struggling as she may, she had to move forward. Through doors, windows and windows that looked like doors, she inspected the rotten insides of the homes that were now only houses. Looted. Fully. All that was left within was that same rubble she found on the beach - bits and pieces of furniture, pots and carpet that had been fully integrated into the ecosystem. Her vision kept on blurring, refusing to focus on the interiors or their details.

Through all this, sharp pangs bloomed in her stomach again and again. She knew they had many causes. Pain, food poisoning, anxiety,…hunger. Selene kept walking.