She was once just a child, the daughter of a pirate, who could only dream about sailing the high seas along with the men from her island. They would never take her with them, no matter how much she pleaded with her father. No matter how much she learned to handle the spear and other weapons. No, she was just left on the island like the other girls and women. It was not fair, she wanted to feel the wind, she wanted to be free, to go where she wanted and to do what she wanted.
But her wishes and desires never came to be. First, none would allow her to sail, even if she snuck on the ship in secret that one time. She did not manage to hide properly and was found before the ship set sail for another raid. She never repeated that, because of how much she got beaten by her father. She had never seen him so angry. That was why she never repeated her attempt at hiding on the ship.
And eventually, she never got another chance to do so, since all the men from her home island of Lemnos disappeared crew by crew. At that moment her last hope, of ever being able to sail the high seas, died. Instead, she focused her whole being on becoming a great guard. That way she would have at least some kind of freedom since she would not have to do hard work for a whole day, given that guards worked in shifts.
And then one day, three days ago to be precise, everything changed. Not that she knew it initially, but that moment she managed to "capture" Lady Arachne, would be the beginning of everything.
Firstly, she and others suffered a lot, and even probably died for a bit. Not that she could remember being dead. But she remembered being hurt a lot. Even though she did not know if those were her memories or someone else's. After all, once they woke up, they were all different and changed. All of them shared a vision or rather instincts. Everyone knew about each other even if they were a great distance apart. She still felt some of her comrades, who had decided to stay on the island of Lemnos.
Secondly, they managed to pursue Lady Arachne to allow them to leave the island with her. Lady Arachne was untrusting at first, but they convinced her, everyone adding the necessary skill to set sail on a big ship. And so their lady agreed to set sail with them.
And she finally felt free. Sailing on a ship with everyone was so great! The waves were rocking their ship, forth and back, from left to right. Strong wind pushing against the sails and dishevelling their hair wild. This was freedom like she always imagined it! And she loved it.
Even when the pirates tried to raid their ship. Even if she was forbidden by Lady Arachne to raid the raiders. Instead, they were to prepare for an impact. She just hoped that their lady would allow them to raid the next ship.
Suddenly an unexpected thing happened. The pirate ship rammed them, but it did no damage to their own ship. She realized that Lady Arachne must have known about the otherworldly properties of this ship. Soon after that, the pirate ship sunk. And their lady explained to them how life-threatening being a pirate was. Lady Arachne even described a sea monster and how it could easily chew on a bit ship like theirs.
She and others mentally shrugged and she thanked their lady for enlightening them. After that, she was not able to look at the sea without suspicion ever again. All the freedom she felt before, was filled with dread and paranoia. Even still though, she felt a pang in her heart. The illusion of freedom on the high seas being shattered did hurt.
That was why, she felt conflicted when they finally reached the mainland. Lady Arachne decided that the ship would be left behind and that they would go the rest of the journey on land. She felt some of the others feeling more disappointed than she was. She could not blame them, they were all daughters of pirates, after all. They had the sea in their blood. Alas, it was not meant to be.
But not everything was lost. Shortly after they disembarked, Lady Arachne told them that she would personally train them. This was great news because many saw their lady's fight with the raging man and how she won. Maybe she could teach them some of her spells, too?
And so, for a whole day, they marched with the supplies in their arms or on their backs. Lady Arachne led them, never stopping and barely talking to anyone. Eventually, they started to gossip with each other, since the plain march was mostly boring, even if they saw new landscapes so unlike their island. When one of them wanted to ask their lady to take a break, worrying about Lady Arachne since she was now missing one of her eight legs. Their lady just looked at them and ordered them to continue marching, after all, if they had time to talk, they could certainly walk even faster since none of them looked that tired. After which Lady Arachne increased the marching pace and they all had to scramble after her.
Admittedly I was surprised at the sight before me. The women that decided to go with me, managed to keep pace with me for a whole day, without as much protesting against cruelty. Certainly, there was one occasion when they asked me, sometime around midday, to take a break. In response to that I increased the pace, to see how many of them could keep up, with me while I slightly enhanced myself with adrenaline. I wanted to have at least a rough estimate of their stamina, to be able to decide who should have which combat role.
But to my surprise, they all managed to keep up for a whole day, even while carrying the supplies. What were supposed to be, these stamina freaks? None of them seemed to be especially well-built, but here they were, after a whole day of marching, at almost breakneck speed. Perhaps the people of ancient Greece were built differently if the original marathon runner was anything to go by. If so, my estimation method was completely useless.
This way, it would be better, to just outright train them. They all possessed some form of a spear, either crafted or just a sharpened stick. Hence easiest way would be to increase their combat proficiency with their weapon of choice.
The problem though was, that I lacked the necessary experience with spears. I had no use for such a weapon, in my first life. And while using the attached bayonet, of my second life, could be technically counted, it certainly lacked the range of the spears of this era. But while my skills with spears were average at best, I still had years of combat experience. Therefore, I knew how to end human beings quickly and efficiently. That I could teach them, to increase their human resource value.
And if they were able to replicate the accuracy of the firearms with their spears, they would become just as deadly, even if only on a shorter range. Though thinking about firearms, my new meatshields could certainly benefit from having ranged weapons as an option. Bows should be quite easy to make.
Alas, the current priority was to get them used to handling the spears they already had. But that would have to wait until the next day. One I need to come up with a decent training plan, that would not delay my search for Medusa too much. And two it was already dark, so creating a basic encampment was a must in order to avoid any unexpected surprises.
Gliding down to the Underworld has been mostly boring. The distance was long and since she was not an Underworld native, she could not just fast travel there. Looking at her wings, several of the feathers were slightly scorched, when she passed one of the more fiery parts. But better glide there without being forced to focus on the wingless flight.
She could not focus on it now anyway, since the perfect chance to find her long-lost daughter was just snatched away from her by her boss Zeus. What an asshole, why couldn't he just let her go search for Arachne? Nike swore to herself that she would enjoy wringing the bastard's neck, once all things were set.
Though that would take probably a while longer. Now landing the the bottom of the long fall, she was to meet the ruler of the underworld and then babysit some prominent kids for a while.
"Lord Hades, sir," said Nike when she finally spotted Hades.
"Good day to you, Nike, I've been expecting you," returned the pleasantries, Hades the king of Hades otherwise also known as the Underworld.
"Where are the Argonauts, sir?" asked Nike wanting to get over her next assignment as soon as possible.
"Just about to be ready to depart," said the king of the Underworld and motioned to Nike to follow him.
After a few short moments of silently following Hades, Nike saw all of the Argonauts arguing with each other and several of them were even wrestling. None of them looked even fazed by the fact that they died. Neither none of them looked even a bit serious, given the importance of their mission.
"They look a lot livelier than the last time I saw them," commented Nike to no one in particular.
Because of that, she did not expect Hades, who was several steps ahead of her, and probably should not have heard her quiet voice, to start giggling. This was quite an unexpected occurrence to witness. Given that Hades was usually mostly a stoic individual, at least by the hearsay among the other Olympians.
"Thank you, Nike, I needed that, it's otherwise quite dead down here," explained Hades with his usually stoic face and tone of voice.
Thanks to that Nike was not sure if he was joking, or if he was dead serious. What a difficult person to read.
"Anyway, make sure not to come into direct contact with the Golden Fleece, it is dangerous to us Olympians, even if it is currently inert," explained Hades and left Nike to her own devices.
Not wanting to waste any more precious time, the uplifted human decided to introduce herself to the Argonauts, to get this job done as soon as possible. After all, she still needed to find her daughter and the sooner this ridiculous quest was over, the better.
"My name is Nike and I will be your guide until you return Golden Fleece to Olympus," she introduced herself to the band of young men.
Their reaction to her presence was kind of predictable. Whistling and cheers and leering looks. As expected from a bunch of mostly still children. Her journey with them is going to be the most annoying.
"I've also been permitted to discipline you, should you not focus enough on your quest," said Nike transforming her weapon into a whip in a threatening manner.
Argonauts seemed to cool down after that, or maybe they froze in fear? Either way, as long as they listened and not fooled around, Nike would be a kind guide.
He saw how the High Weaver raged when the group that went looking for Lady Arachne did not return. He was glad that he himself was not a target of their leader's anger. But regretted immensely that the nice girl, who for a time served as their spy on Sappho, took all the beating.
Just remembering it, made him shiver. But it was not fair to the girl, she did everything she was ordered to and probably even more, since he knew Sappho's reputation.
After all, she was young and pretty and he felt that he would have to do something about the way she was treated. But as a lowly initiate, his words would not be considered, if they were even heard first.
However, the current High Weaver did show everyone the way one could obtain a rank they wanted. It was terrible, but admittedly effective. And so, he decided, if they would not hear him, if the others refused to see the reason, he would obtain the rank of the Weaver the bloody way. Then others and even the High Weaver would have to listen.
With those disturbing thoughts and newly found courage, he was ready to finally let his mind slip into Morpheus's realm for this night. But suddenly dragging noise woke him clearly conscious.
"Who's there?!" he shouted focusing his eyes into the darkness.
But no one answered, only more shuffling noises were spreading through his room. He was certain that was not alone in the room, that it was not just a dream. Alas, the invisible intruder did not respond.
"I know you are here!" he said as threateningly as possible, even if his knees were shaking in fear.
Could his casual thoughts about a murder anger something indivisible, maybe even the lord of the dreams himself? But his thoughts were interrupted by a silent slithering noise behind him.
Turning around, he saw the wall pulsating red!
M̷̢̡̹̫͓̲̤̼̞͈̖͉͋̇͒ͅǪ̷̮̝̭̲̼̟̙̹̝͉̹̼̀̀̈́̇̇͒̈̓́̀́͗̕̚̚͠R̶̺̳̜̟̻̮̗̿̍̐͒̈́̉̉̔̆͆͝Ē̸͕̭̫̥̖̲͗!̵̳̮̗͍́̾̔͐̊͆̉͆̓̾̌́̾͘͜͠͝ ̵̧͎̤̰͍̦̽͂̓̎͘̕Ğ̷̨̢̙̰̪̪̹̼͉̂̈́́̽̽͊͌̽̌̉͂̕͠͝ỉ̶͖͚͙̣͉̤̤̞̱̻̻̤̫̘̠͖͆̀̏̄͂͌̎͝v̴̢̝͚̱̙̹̩͈͕͖̬͇͔͍̺͠e̶̳̟͖̤͙̤̜̬̿̑̒͐̑ ̴̨̢̥͇̭̱̬̦̙̘̳̈́̏͋̊͝ͅͅm̵̧̡̨̧̛̤͔̟̮̯̥͔͕̊̈̀͋͌̓̇̏̉̀̄̄̕̚͠è̵̡̢̧̗̠̩͔̘̯̮̤̲͓̝̠͌́̕͜ ̴̢̡̨̫̠̫̭̲̩̘̃͆̅͝m̶̨̳͕͖̌̀͋̓͛̔͝ȍ̸̢̨̡͈̖͇̣͍̙̦̋̚͝r̴̳̳̝͎̭͇̹̻͙̖̪̺͙̤̽̍̏̆̍͒̄͋̕͜͠͝ě̴̢̧̢̝͙̘̣̜̘̜̫̖̽̉̃͠!̵̨̡̤̯̤͉̥̪̦̺̊̃̔̈̾̕͜͠
And then, he saw no more as darkness enveloped him.