APOLLO

Walking back to the temple with the sun at the beginning of fall was the only thought I had in mind. As it was calling me back. My temple was calling me to go there.

I could not stop thinking of what that man said. How foolish mortals could be?

I was at my lowest. Cursed, banished, unable to do my duties to do what I pleased and the only thing I wanted to do was to…

The image of the woman returned to me. Her wounded face as it was covered by the veil, her silk wild curls, her grinning lips. I wanted her punished. On her knees, crying, begging for my mercy.

That is what I wanted.

My eyes aimed for the temple only to find a dark shadow coming out from one of the windows. Now the figure was running far from the temple.

Who could that be?

I decided to follow the figure as it moved to the forest, dressed in a dark cloak.

Walking a few paces away from them, taking careful steps so I won’t draw any attention to them. But they were fast, like the wind as they got one with the trees. At that moment, I lost their sign of existence, looking left and right.

I narrowed, trying to take every guard I could to this stupid body.

I Turned my head back to see a sickle, aiming at my throat. I grabbed the hand of the holder tight, making them move back and fall to the ground, with my weight conquering them.

‘’Now little mort-’’I tried to speak but I saw the revealing face under the cloak.

‘’Oracle’’ I gasped.

Her face grimaced and then a smile.

‘’Surprise?’’ She asked with a laugh and looked at me with her sharp eyes.

Her hair was down to the grass, letting it be on with the earth, her body open for any attack or wound. Her hand with the sickle far from it. If I wanted her dead…If I was someone else who got her…

‘’Why are you out?’’I asked her, still my weight, trapping her. She did not even struggle.

‘’Why are you following me?’’She asked breathlessly. Looking down now on her clothes I could see how messy they were. In a hurry.

I stood up, letting her free, and tried to avoid her gaze as I started explaining myself.

‘’I saw a dark figure jumping from the window and I thought it might have been an enemy.’’

‘’Enemy?’’ She muttered confusedly. Didn’t she have enemies or was she trapping them in a secret house?

‘’Now tell me’’I moved back to her and found the bag around her arm, slightly opened for me to notice the hemlock and daffodils. The ones that I gave her and created. Then, to her sickle.

‘’Tell me’’I sighed, pushing my brow with my fingers.’’You won’t try to fight Python alone? With simple poisonous flowers.’’

‘’Alright.’’She replied calmly, fixing herself up.’’I am not going to fight Python alone.’’

‘’Good’’I nodded with a smile of relief.

‘’Cause you will come with me’’She said with a grin and kept walking away from me, continuing down the path of the cave.

‘’What?’’ I turned to her and grabbed her free wrist.

‘’Come on now, the sun is still up,’’She ordered me and got out of my grasp.

My face twitched as she kept moving unbothered and swinging the sickle as if it was her toy. She stopped walking as she realized I did not follow her.

‘’Perhaps’’She sighed and looked at me back with a devious grin.’’Are you scared? A devoted of Apollo afraid of a big snake?’’

I tilted my head to the left and grinned at her as I restrained myself from shouting at her.

‘’Not at all, my oracle,’’ I replied and started walking with her.

A few minutes passed as we were walking in silence and she was now holding a tablet, muttering a few words.

‘’Poison, snake, poison snake…’’

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‘’Hey’’I asked her. She woke up from her reading and put the tablet back in her bag.

‘’So, you can read…’’I tried to make conversation.

She nodded.’’I know, it is forbidden, but I had to.’’

My eyes arched as she said that. She took one deep breath.

‘’When I was a kid, in one of the temples of Apollo, one other boy tried to make a fool out of me by giving me a tablet, telling me it was a message from Apollo.’’She explained slowly.’’I was all so excited and I went to the archpriest of the temple with a grin on my face of joy when I was giving the tablet to him.’’

I could see the wounded eyes narrow.’’It was not a message was it?’’I asked her.

She nodded.’’It was just written that the arch prophet is a liar and a deceiver.’’She explained.’’I took a lot of beating that day’’Her arms moved up, trying to arch her back.’’So, I promise to not myself that I am going to learn how to read. And I did’’She laughed back.

I nodded as I realized everything that she said now was the complete and honest truth. She was from a temple of mine?

‘’May I ask one more thing?’’I said dryly. Her entire face turned on me as we kept walking with the air becoming slowly chillier. And yet as we were all alone, I felt that someone was watching us. No mortal, but someone, something else.

‘’Why are we going there? Perseus did agree to send people there.’’

Her eyes grew wider as she nodded.’’Correct but…I just do not feel standing inside.’’

Ah…

‘’Myrto is a follower of mi…of Apollo’’She corrected herself. ‘’She is at my temple, devoted. I just need to find her.’’

She kept walking, trying to be calm. All this for a mere mortal? No, it was not.

‘’You love her.’’

She kept walking as she did not reply with a yes or a slap. But it was in her eyes. I knew that it looked good.

‘’I just feel that twenty men won’t be enough.’’She sighed .’’And’’ She moved her hands to my arms, squeezing them tight as her face now was bright with her smile all excited.

‘’I need to take the snake’s poison.’’

I blinked confused as she was still smiling from the amusement.

‘’If I take it, I might find an antidote of snake poison.’’

Antidote…

I let out a chuckle. My, she was interesting.

She replied with a blink and cleared her throat. ‘’I mean, that's what my God told me.’’

Really?

I kept walking as the woman found her attention drawn to a pink hyacinth that was growing near a tree, the flowers perfectly bloomed, making the woman mesmerized by the beauty. She stopped and moved to the flowers, getting on her knees and plucking it out gently as it was now on her fingertips.

She replied her gaze getting softer.

‘’Does your God really want to attack his child?’’I asked as she moved the flower close to her node, her dark lips. Like as if it was kissing it. I felt my cheeks turn for a moment a bit hot like someone threw fire at me.

‘’I see you also have read the stories’’She laughed.’’I am not going to attack him…’’She explained looking away from me.’’I will just make it fall asleep, rescue Myrto and the boy and take a few drops from his fangs’’Her eyes looked at the afternoon sky. ‘’I am no fighter, but Poison’’She grinned.’’I…can make sure people will..’’She cut off her words as she let her lips and nose touch the flower again. As if she was in love with it.

I could not stop feeling my cheeks getting hotter and hotter, my chest-hurting eyes widened up, and then without even realizing it, I moved closer to her side, grabbing her hand that was holding the flower and pulling my lips closer to the petals. I could smell the sweet scent coming from the buds, pollen inhaling my nostrils. The heat stayed but the pain on my chest had now gone away. Looking at her gaze, I could see her cheeks had now been painted with a slight shade of red. Yet, her lips were blooming in disgust.

I could not help but smile at that expression. It was so different from the ones I usually got. So intriguing.

‘’Now,’’ she backed away, giving the flower to me as she tried to catch a breath.

‘’Will you answer me a question?’’

‘’Of course, my oracle’’I replied with a smile while we kept going. For a moment, I saw the woman's brow twitching.

‘’What did you listen yesterday?’’

I listened to everything and I know everything. That was the truth. But I could not tell her.

‘’The girl lost her home, didn’t she?’’I asked her.

She nodded.’’Few days ago, I gave her father a prophecy.’’She explained.’’My God showed to me that he was a cruel man. My God warned him.’’

I stopped walking as she kept explaining herself.’’My God warned him but he did not change. And he paid the price’’Her words became harsh, cruel.

She killed someone today. Someone cruel. Did she take the judgment in her hands?

What will I have done? That was my question. But I wasn’t there, I did not listen, I could not listen. But she did and…Was she playing God for justice and not just money?

‘’Incredible’’I gasped out loud. She turned to me, her face wide, confused. She was…far more interesting than Hermes told me.

I kept moving at her side, and the eyes around us grew more. And it seemed by the way she was grabbing the sickle. My eyes searched around. Three on the left, three on the right, and one….

I turned my head back with my hand now grabbing someone’s throat. A man dressed in white and golden bracelets. His pulse was twitching in my grasp and a mere power at that moment made me smile.

‘’Drop him’’Another voice rasped as men with bows and arrows were aiming at both of us. And one of them aimed directly at the woman’s heart.

Aiming me with a bow and arrow like an animal. How humiliating.

I dropped the man and he started coughing down on his knees. But he was still grinning as the rest of the men told us to follow them.