Journeying for many long days to find the woman of his dreams, following the instructions in the scroll that the goddess of love, Aphrodite, must have sent him, he was unable to sleep properly the whole time. But Theseus was a man on a mission, like possessed he progressed forward, barely stopping to meet his human needs.
And in dreams, he met her, the Amazonian warrior, so beautiful, so toned and strong, so close yet so far. Imapatince was killing him, every minute he felt his heart die, only for it to start beating ever so faster with eagerness to finally meet her. If only she would appear before him this very moment.
Although that might not be for the best. He was tired after the long day, famished and dirty. Hardly presentable to his future queen. She would though him a vagabond, truly not worthy of the future king of Athens. Such a miserable sigh.
As such the fast-flowing forest river, came in handy at this very moment. Theseus drank his fair share of refreshing cold liquid and decided that he would stop here for today. With the running water nearby he could get rid of the grime, from the several days of the journey. But first, he had to make a basic campfire, to keep himself warm during the night. And to keep wild animals away, since he wanted to wake up in one piece and not in someone's stomach.
Collecting twigs and small dry branches, Theseus wandered towards the nearby river, looking for a good spot to make a camp for the night. When suddenly, he was tackled down by something big. Was he going to die, becoming dinner for some predator, he did not notice?
The answer to that was swift and surprisingly not brutal. The strong and soft, and so human arms turned him around, still pinning him to the ground. And there in front of his scared eyes, he saw her.
"I dreamed about you!" his mouth uttered without his mind ever so commanding.
On top of him, was the woman of his dreams. The mystical, yet so real Amazonian warrior. The beauty and the strength in a single being. He even started to feel somewhat comfortable, in this, otherwise uncomfortable position.
She, the Amazon, just raised her eyebrow at his remark, numerous thoughts running through her head. He felt so small as her eyes measured his lying form. And then another surprising action followed. She kissed him.
"Not bad! What is your name, man?" she asked, letting him catch a breath of fresh air.
"Theseus, future king of Athens," he said grasping.
"Athnes? That's good. I'm Antiope, by the way" she said.
"Antiope?" Theseus repeated the name.
"Yes," she answered.
"Ehm! Antiope, would you come with me to Athens?" he asked, unsure of what the answer could be, once his initial daze had passed.
"I actually wanted to ask you the same, to go with you to Athens," she explained.
"Why?" the future king asked.
"Don't worry about little details. By the way, you seem like a good choice. You look strong enough. You have a spark of fight in your eyes and you do not look half-bad. So, will you be mine?" Antiope said.
"But... Yes, please," Theseus could barely answer when she ravenously attacked his face again.
He was drowning in her lips. Theseus would have never guessed that Amoznons lips would be so soft. His rationality faded as he existed only for this very moment. But it was not to last. Suddenly, their lips parted, like snapping as a lifeline.
"We have to go! Others will soon start looking for me!" Antiope said, helping Theseus to his legs and together they ran.
She was relatively soon to discover, where the silver blood did come from. As unpleasant as it was, to look at a giant spider leg. It was more important to figure out how it was even possible, that it contained such a rare thing. And that was how Aphrodite was able to overcome her arachnophobia, at least partially.
Ever since the initial shock, of discovering silver blood in a giant spider leg, she had been busy at work, not noticing how much time had passed since then. Figuring out to whom the metallic liquid belonged, was absolutely crucial! Mainly because it made no sense! She was the one who helped with the creation of Arachne and the girl's only parent was human during the duration of pregnancy. Therefore it was completely impossible for Arachne to have the silver blood. Even, when she was changed into a monster, by Athena, her blood would not turn silver. No, being turned into a monster changed people's blood to dark red, almost black color.
Thus only one option remained. Arachne must have encountered someone of Aphrodite's kind, who gave her the silver blood. But when? It must have been sometime after she was changed into a monster since during that time, neither Nike nor she could observe Arachne. Otherwise, Aphrodite would have known.
Or there was another uncanny and very unlikely, if not outright impossible, solution to the silver blood conundrum. A solution she liked even less than the previous one. A solution that could have potentially nasty consequences. A solution that someone, much like herself, or worse, someone more complete than Aphrodite, gave Arachne their power. Someone gave their very essence to Arachne some time after she was conceived and before she was born. But that would mean that Arachne was not Arachne, but rather... One of Aphrodite's own original kind.
That was why Aphrodite, for the past several days, or maybe weeks was zealously working on analyzing the silver blood, obtained from Arachnes's amputated spider leg. Once, she finally got to the core of it, she would be able to tell, from whom the silver blood originated, when Arachne obtained it, and if she was truly a Nike's child... Or something else entirely.
She was SO close now! At the exact moment, she managed to get to the core of Arachne's silver blood, she was interrupted, by a message that Theseus found his new beloved Amazonian princess and both had eloped together. It was great, that the distraction for Amazon worked exactly as planned. There must be still a bit of strategist in her since her plan worked so flawlessly.
Without further distractions at hand, Aphrodite impatiently waited for the analysis of the pattern to give her the results. So far most of the known core patterns have been compared, but without any match found. She was getting restless because of this since all preferable and even neutral candidates were already unmatched, and the only remaining ones were less than good news.
Several minutes or maybe hours later, looking at the final results, Aphrodite saw nothing. No known match was found.
"I don't understand!" Aphrodite looked at the resulting pattern eyes wide.
Several days on the hunt and she was still furious! The monster that hurt her Athena, was still somewhere out there, free to do whatever it wanted. Without any recuperation of what it did to hers Athena. Such a deed should be severely punished. If only she could get the monster in her hands. She certainly would enjoy torturing it.
But it was long gone when Nike arrived at the crime scene. At first, she was angry at the uplifted human, for her incompetence. But her Athena calmed her down, telling her, that Nike was a great subordinate, who always carried her job with utmost responsibility. This made her slightly jealous, that her Athena was talking so greatly about another woman.
And when she complained to her dad, she heard much the same about Nike. Her father rather told her, that the monster was certainly greatly intelligent. Yet, reassuring her, that they would eventually find it and once that happened she would be able to do whatever she wanted to the monster. However only after they learned its secrets of how it hurt Athena in the first place.
She hated that but was willing to wait just a little bit. If they knew how it could hurt Athena, they could come up with some kind of defense against it, should something similar happen in the future.
Although, the unresolved transgression against her Athena, was boiling inside of her. Once her Athena was feeling better, and did not need her help with things, she stormed out of the Olympus, to go on hunt. To calm her nerves by preying on weaker and less intelligent creatures. Only this way, she would be able to relax and release some steam.
By releasing the tension of her bow's chord, another stupid animal lay dead on the ground. In a single shot, in the middle of a dense forest. It was not even fair, she was just too good at this. One of her retinue went to collect the catch, she could not be bothered by it.
"Lady Artemis!" shouted one of her scouts, returning back to main group.
"What is the next target?" she asked, hoping for something more exciting than this little thing, whose life she ended just mere seconds ago.
"No target, lady Artemis, but we found something strange," answered the scout.
"Something strange, you say!" she, the Artemis was not happy, with the news her scout brought back.
But she would not be so unreasonable, as to execute the scout, just because she did not bring the news, she had expected. Finding and training a good scout took a lot of time and she had no patience to do so now. Therefore keeping the scouts, she currently had, was easier. Even when she was angered by the news.
"Yes, my lady. Others do not know what to make of it," informed the scout, while already walking in the direction of the strange things.
At least the scouts she had, were capable and did not waste her time.
"What did you find?" she asked.
"An abandoned village, full of statues of men," answered the scout.
How stupid. Why would anyone leave statues of men in an abandoned village? And why should that even interest her in the first place? She should just punish the scouts for bringing such ridicule to her attention, instead of doing their job and finding some worthy prey.
But as they were running through the forest, she realized that the sight must have been certainly strange. None of her scouts would know much about men, if they did, they would not be able to join or if they learned later, they would have been driven out after being punished for their wrongdoing.
Yet, her scout's curiosity was not all that was strange. The sight that opened before her was quite peculiar. The buildings were already eroded and overgrown by nature. Yet the statues looked pristine. She would have thought that they were placed here recently. But who would have so much time to put so many greatly crafted statuses in the empty village? It made no sense. Moreover several of the statues have their legs wrapped in the roots of various plants. So they had to be placed here a long time ago. And on top of it all, the statues lacked any kind of pedestal.
No matter what she might have thought before, about her scouts wasting her time. The whole thing was clearly unnatural. Mainly the statues, under closer investigation, since they were not made of any naturally occurring stone. No, the statues were absolutely artificial. But that made no sense. The only thing that could create this material has been dead for centuries. And for one, she knew that the creature never made it to this part of Greece.
"Medusa?" she wondered, how could it be, that there were petrified people, in a place where they should not be?
Oh, but wasn't it great? She might not be able to hunt the monster that hurt her Athena, as it completely disappeared. But now, there was another prey she could hunt for her entertainment. Whatever this thing was, it would be fun to deal with it. After all, she always regretted that she could not deal with the original Medusa. Luckily for her, there was now a replacement.
Artemis grinned sadistically and ordered her scouts and whole retinue to search for some kind of clues that could lead them after this second Medusa, even if this place as abandoned for some time.
The marching speed was greatly reduced, thanks to the crippled trainees. Those who could barely move told me to leave them behind, that they could do on their own, but that request was frankly ridiculous. Were they suicidal? The fire-breathing man-eating horses could return anytime and I have no intention of wasting my human resources anymore. The way they were, they would not be able to even buy some time to the rest, covering our retreat, should the horses return for them. The incapacitated trainees, were not fit for fighting or in some cases even protecting themselves. The monster horses would obliterate them and if my observation, during the mad fight, were anything to go by, they would be then eaten. I had no need for a rested and well-fed monstrous enemy to follow me.
That was why, I ordered all of my trainees to follow me and help those who had a hard time moving under their own power. Luckily, there were not so many cases of handicapped trainees, as such our group could move relatively fast. Yet the journey ahead of us, which in my original plan would last ten days at most, had to be extended to a full month. Counting for the injuries sustained and unseen looming danger.
Arguably, being paranoid was the right thing to do since some of the enemies managed to retreat. Thus they were still alive and could perhaps decide to be absolutely unreasonable and come for revenge at the worst time possible. While I doubted that the intelligence of monstrous humans was equal to that of humans, they did not have to be intelligent, or even sapient, to do something stupid. Therefore a countermeasure had to be enacted, in case of unexpected ambush.
The time of marching during the day has been reduced from the whole day to half a day or even shorter. There were several reasons for this decision. The camp, for the night, would have to be placed in an advantageous and secure location, while pike walls and shallow trenches were built around it, in preparation for the known enemy. This took time without proper entrenching tools available. Something that would have to be remedied in the near future, once a smith who could and was willing to make shovels was found and hired. Next, my able-bodied trainees still needed to train, acquire supplies, take a patrol and of course rest. All in preparation for the next unexpected enemy attack. And finally, some of the trainees had a hard time moving under their power and thus would tire themselves and those who helped them move faster.
Alas, not everything was negative, there was, in fact, a very positive side to the whole fiasco. No amount of exercise could compare to the real-world experience. While preferably, I would like to train my new meatshields in a more controlled environment, Being X was being a damned bastard like always. As such I would use this great opportunity to turn my trainees into perfect battle-hardened soldiers
And after two weeks of travel, I was starting to be paid some dividends for my investment. Those trainees, who could, did improve by leaps and bounds. Quite frankly they must have been freaks of nature, to improve at such an unnatural speed. Though the unnaturality was probably a function of this world, where monsters and god-pretenders were real. I had no intention to complain about my trainees' improvement.
The other trainees, who were now sadly disabled, gave their all to improve their math skills. Truly marvelous dedication, and with the knowledge they obtained, they could easily become great philosophers of this time era. And perhaps become famous teachers to some noble or rich people. If only all employees and subordinates across all my lifetimes were this enthusiastic. Maybe I would not have ended in a conflict with Being X. Although that way, I would not have ever met any of my comrades from the second life, neither I would have tasted Serebryakova's coffee. Nor I would have met Sappho.
However, it was not time to reminisce, now. The training of my new meatshield took priority along with staying vigilant. I refused to be caught with metaphorical pants down ever again. After all, it has been too quiet for too long. Just long enough to get comfortable, only to have the peace of mind snatched away out of nowhere, by some even more ridiculous thing than the last time.
Or perhaps the horses would come for revenge, which I considered unlikely, as we left their territory long ago, while also making sure that none of them followed us. The monstrous horses would have to possess a great intellect, to be able to follow me and my trainees, based only on a trail we left behind us and keep a significant distance between our groups, to not alert me of their presence.
Yet, it seemed that I was proved wrong once again. Since the heavy and deep clatter noises were heard, during the afternoon training session. But this time, we were prepared. The entrenched encampment was as fortified as it could be and my trainees thirsted for revenge. Better remind them to fight with their heads clear.