She awoke to the sensation of tiny paws urgently and not so gently smacking her cheeks. ‘’Hey! Lady! Do you plan on sleeping all day or what?’’

Selene stared back into the angry bead-like eyes, then buried her head in her hands with the groan of an undead. ‘’I thought you were a dream.’’

‘’While I do like to show up in dreams and unannounced, this is not that situation-’’

As Selene struggled to sit up, Hermes had already helped himself to more of the dates, ran three laps around her like an excited puppy and was now nervously tapping his foot.

‘’And what kind of situation is this?’’ She rubbed her burning face… Still not feeling too good. But at least her bones ached less from their stone impact and more so from the ever-present fever.

‘’A temporary alliance kind.’’ Hermes responded almost as nonchalantly as he climbed on her shoulder. ’’I have better senses, you have the brute strength…plus having a god on your side is pretty damn cool, eh?’’

‘’When you say it like that…’’ Selene shoved her doubtful look under one of quiet resignation and began walking in a random direction.

''Hey wait- where do you think you're going?''

That was a damn good question. Where was Selene going? Far from the minotaur was a strong contestant. Another one was someplace with food that wasn't dry dates. She paused to look at her companion.

''...You don't have a clue, huh?''

She shook her head.

''Okay well...that's stupid. I thought you were an aspiring thief and y'now...heading to the palace to get riches and all that.'' He looked her up and down. ''Yeah...no. That's probably the least of your concerns right now.''

At this point, Selene was about ready to keep walking in that random direction. Hermes was right, some treasure was the least of her concern. Somehow it made sense for a god to be this out of touch, so at least that helped with his credibility.

''Okay, okay, let me try and sell you on the idea-'' Hermes jumped into her hair, looking down at her from her forehead. Selene half expected him to start trying to control her movements by grabbing her hair or something. But instead the beady eyes bore into her soul, and the tiny mouse spoke. ''The palace is on a hill. Real fortified place and...get this- there is a high possibility you'll find whatever else you desire outside of treasure there!''

''You're not pulling my leg, are you?''

''Would a god lie to you?''

Selene raised a brow. ''Gods can lie...sometimes...usually to other gods.''

''Yeah well last I checked you're a mortal. So you have nothing to worry about.'' He patted her forehead.

Somehow, Selene doubted that, but having someone to talk to was a refreshing change of pace. And Hermes was right - two pairs of ears and eyes were better than one pair that was currently struggling through a food poisoning induced fever. Hermes took his role of a look-out seriously, messing up the tangled mess that was her hair to the point where Selene looked like she had a bird nest on her head. Or well…a mouse nest. This certainly didn’t help her claims of definitely not being insane.

She was definitely sane. Perfectly sane. Just a wee bit sick and chatting up a mouse that claimed to be the messenger god…a mouse that conveniently appeared after she asked for help from the gods. If she was any more religious and unhinged she’d actually consider that option. But right now, Hermes didn’t seem to want to explain anything, dodging any question that wasn’t related to legends she’d already heard a thousand times.

With her mind occupied by working theories of her hallucinations (one of these being related to those clams giving her prophetic visions), she passively observed her surroundings, hoping to find anything edible or drinkable.

Her effort helped her to a few herbs. Nothing of substantial nutritional value, but it was a good start. A start anyway. Foraging was great but as long as Selene's only weapon was a sharp stone, she couldn't catch anything bigger than her fist. And that's only if she could get close enough without alerting the fist sized prey. Foraging it was. And the season was great for it. Early summer where heat was only starting to ramp up and the grass had yet to scorch into straw...Early summer...Wasn't it a bit too early for dates?

She clutched one of the dates in her hand. It was unmistakably date shaped, along with being flavored like one. It was a date. A perfectly ripe one.

Her eyebrows narrowed as she observed the impostor date which was currently innocently sitting in her palm. It shouldn't be surprising to her at this point. This was barely the weirdest thing to have happened since she set off from the shore. This weird date was perfectly explainable. Maybe the soil was just so good here? But no, that couldn't be the case. She remembered how strange it was that the palm seemingly grew from stone.

''Hey, you!'' Hermes called out from down the street. ''Come look at this-''

Selene sighed and placed the date back into a pocket.

'This' turned out to be a view. The street they just exited was raised up on the edge of a lush valley. It was slightly less cramped with buildings, though mother nature wasted no time filling this empty space. Years ago, this could've been an orchard, or perhaps a communal farming plot if the remains of short cobblestone fences were anything to go by. As her gaze wandered towards the horizon, she saw the palace. Selene had no doubt that the majestic, multilayered and nothing short of giant building in the distance was indeed the one and only palace of Knossos. It bloomed like a complicated but robust geometric flower, columns still standing proud and tall, effortlessly holding up the structure. Unlike the rest of the buildings, the palace was built to last. And it was lasting beautifully, considering the amount of years that had passed since the war.

Selene briefly thought back to her parent's tales again. Apparently the last push was against the palaces. They were the most fortified buildings on the island and once mainland soldiers started pouring in past the outer wall, the king called for all people to hide within the palaces. Not that it really worked out for them. Most people were killed, made slaves or escaped to the mainland where they ran away like her extended family, or hid in plain sight like her parents.

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Hermes attempted to whistle, but it came out as a squeak, as he briefly forgot that mice had no lips to speak of. The attempt made him briefly consider cursing. Wow. So he still had the ability to use his entire vocabulary, but whistling was where the line was drawn.

Nevertheless, his gesture was understood as Selene responded with a quiet: ''Yeah.'' Then she extended a hand and let the god climb into the five star luxurious viewing platform that was her palm. Briefly the woman began humming and smiling, but then caught herself when her companion's eyes regarded her with the stare of someone who demanded an explanation for her antics.

''I'm just excited to eat something other than weird prophetic dates.'' She explained, beginning to navigate down the steep and unkept staircase that led down into the orchard. The level of care she put into scaling stairs has exponentially...scaled upwards since her last incident.

''Nothing prophetic about dates.'' Hermes rolled his eyes as well as a mouse could. Which took great effort and included him exaggeratedly tilting his head in a similar fashion. ''What would they even prophesize? That you'll be eating them?''

''Maybe. Or maybe that I'll meet a little mouse that claims to be the one and only Hermes of the Pantheon.''

''Not claims to be. Is.'' He responded coldly.

''You haven't given me much proof in that regard...''

''Why do you need proof? Isn't believing like...the one thing believers are known for?''

Selene made a face as another out of touch statement rang in her ears. ''We don't believe in everything.''

''So you don't believe that a god could simply show themselves in the form of an animal?''

Her voice faltered.''Well...they aren't said to turn into mice - they're usually majestic creatures. Like an eagle or a horse or...''

''My father literally turned into golden rain just so he could get into someone's robes.''

Selene tightened the sash around her layered tunic.

''For the record that is NOT what I was implying.'' He spat out with the speed of an Athenian debater.

They stared at each other for exactly five seconds before the initial shock wore off and Selene could open her mouth (which was stuck in a perpetual grin, that was not so cleverly hiding her urge to start howling with laughter). ''So...you're not going to do one of your godly thingamagics to prove your identity?''

''No.''

''And I still don't know why.''

''You don't have to know why - all you need to know is that I am Hermes, I am a god and I will accompany you to the palace.''

''Why?''

Hermes squeaked in frustration. Then briefly thought about biting Selene's finger off. That wouldn't be very god-like, so he settled on condensing into a ball of anger with the density of a black hole. ''You. Don't. Have. To. Know!''

The human blinked at the tempered mouse. She wanted to ask why again, but she knew the mouse wouldn't answer her straight. You're hiding something and I know it. The other option would be that this guy was an absolute stuck up, spoiled- Actually that seemed accurate. Actually actually it could very well be both.

Silence fell between them as Selene stepped onto the grass at the bottom of the valley. And the record of the sound of silence kept going (though such a song hadn't been created in this universe yet, so the silence was literal). Darkness, the old friend, had yet to have fallen but the time was approaching. Approaching at a snail's pace mind you, but approaching nonetheless. The orchard was now catching only the last golden tones, which drizzled like golden raindrops upon the soft mesh of moss and plant life, right through the openings between leaves of the ever-branching trees. Trees that, as Selene quickly noted, had been peppered with flowers and more importantly fruit on some of them.

There were flowering pears and pomegranates with their tiny pink-white flowers, bathing in orange light. There were mullberries which were rich in deep almost black hues. There were even apricots - close to being overripe, but still hanging on by a thread. All of this and more because some of the trees hadn’t bloomed yet and it was all so…gorgeous.

Selene couldn't help but gasp with awe and joy. Yes it was only fruit, but it was a LOT of fruit and it was seasonal, which meant food for months to come and it meant jams and it meant the possibility of honey because why else would this amount of fruit be here and-

''We're pretty close to the palace walls.'' Hermes said, already not too thrilled about Selene getting distracted by her newly unlocked culinary options.

''How long is pretty close?'' She hummed, setting down the remains of now not-so-dry wood in a little clearing surrounded by a short cobblestone wall.

''As in - should get there right after nightfall if you hurry up.''

She took a moment to consider the urgency in the mouse's tone before she went on to consider the state of her body. Tired - check. Constant feeling of light hunger - check. Still a little iffy after the food poisoning - check. ''We'll go in the morning.''

''Why not now?'' Hermes nagged in a voice that was...very unbecoming of a god.

''Can you see well in the dark?''

He sighed. ''Not really, no.''

The corners of her lips briefly turned up. She set down the rest of her belongings and made a fire. It wasn't cold and she didn't have anything that could be cooked (or anything to cook stuff in), but at least the fire could make the area more visible when night did eventually come. The little flame flickered and grew and when Selene was sure it wouldn't go out easily, she turned to Hermes who had begun to warm himself beside it.

'I guess a mouse would get colder more easily.'

''Watch the fire.'' She stood up, looking between the orchard's trees. ''I'll go and scout the area here.''

⁓Ψ⁓

Hermes ultimately had no qualms, only mumbling something about ‘not being bloody Hestia’ and then went back to enjoying the warmth of the fire.

So here she was, walking on the cobblestone fence with the face of a giddy kid instead of a grown, twenty-something year old woman. The added benefit was that it was easier to reach the fruits while standing on the little wall. She filled quite a bit of her pockets (which were now light from the lack of dates thanks to Hermes).

She quietly walked along the path, taking in her surroundings. There were a few moldering barrels and boxes which held nothing much of interest. Some of them had more cobblestone - those that lived here probably planned to divide up the orchard with more walls. Selene wondered if they were good neighbors. It didn't matter much now though.

Gardens were abandoned outside of the criminals and thieves she had yet to encounter… and then there was the goddamned minotaur of Crete who was not a hallucination despite her earlier adamant belief that he was just clever propaganda. Anyway - it would be cool if during the invasion of Athens and Theseus' army the Mycenaean forces had a minotaur on their side. She wondered how differently the battle would have gone. And there was also the question of whether the political leaders knew about the Minotaur's alive status...it could explain why they sent criminals like her...no she wasn't a criminal- Why they sent people to this island.

Selene sighed heavily. Whoever framed her did a damn good job forging evidence. There was no way she'd ever see her father again unless she actively went against her sentence and even then- she'd need a boat and a ton of luck. Last time she piloted a boat she avoided death by sheer miracle…And possibly some meddling by gods because it was another kind of weird that she somehow always escaped death by a less than normally explainable circumstances. And all of that was topped off by how she somehow wound up on the exact island where she was to be sentenced to. There were just too many coincidences.

Just what kind of game was this?

She suddenly stopped. She had almost missed it in the dimming evening but right in the middle of the orchard were those same stairs. No not the same - they were in a different geographical location after all - but they were clearly made of the same material and in that same style and also went down in the same steep way. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to check if they also lead into inescapable darkness. She briefly shuddered. Or maybe she shouldn't. Without reason other than paranoia, it felt as though a presence was glued to her back. She turned around, then again as she stared at the stairs again. Her subconscious was subconsciously ready for a monster to grab her and drag her down the stairs. She took one step back, away from the stairs. The presence lingered.

’Nope. Absolutely not.’

It was definitely about the right time to return to the campfire. The stairs were giving her the creeps and light was turning thin and silvery, slipping into a dark night.

⁓Ψ⁓

The mouse had been exactly where she left him, looking to be snoozing away already.

''So much for guarding the fire, huh?'' Selene breathed with relief, sitting down beside him and subconsciously extending fingers to pet the mouse. What was more surprising than the softness of the fur was that Hermes had let her continue.

It was nice. It calmed her down. The presence she felt earlier had also gone out like a candle. That was also nice. Maybe the fates were kinder. It had not been so bad this last day. She had gained a companion and food. Although both were severely lacking in volume. But it was the little things in life that counted. And these little things definitely counted. Hermes counted. Yes he was being a mysterious little mouse, but at least she could talk to him. The fact that he talked didn't even register as strange anymore and while she was curious to know, Selene was happy to chalk it up to 'just the way things were now' with the rest of her growing list of supernatural experiences. Maybe she could be happy here and now.