This was fun to write. I think I may do some more about young Medusa.
I don't own Soul Eater or the characters from Soul Eater.
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"You just need practice, sister, don't be so hard on yourself," Arachne said, smiling down at her younger sister.
Medusa scowled. "I don't want to practice, I want to be good, like you. Then none of the kids will dare to laugh at me."
Arachne laughed lightly. "Come. We've worked enough today."
Walking behind the spider-themed witch, Medusa pouted. The two of them had spent the day playing a game in which they would both try and scare one of the neighborhood kids, and whoever scared their target the most won. Medusa had lost, as usual. She just couldn't get her snakes to be scary enough, while Arachne had mastered sending her spiders to sneakily creep down the sleeve or pant leg of the victim. When they realized there was a spider there, they always screamed and ran, while half the time Medusa's snakes were too slow to escape being stomped on.
The next morning Medusa slipped away while her two sisters were still sleeping. There was hardly anyone around at this hour, which was fine. She wanted to practice in silence.
Glancing around her to make sure she was alone, the twelve-year-old witch started chanting.
"Nake, snake, cobra, cobubra." She closed her eyes, focusing her energy. Hearing rustling behind her, she spun around and released her arrows. It was a bird.
A dead bird. She smiled. Breakfast.
She was walking back to their hideout when she realized she was being followed. She muttered under her breath for a few moments, continuing to walk while gathering her magic.
Suddenly spinning around, she released her vector arrows, pointing them at the boy following her. He was staring at her fearfully, wide-eyed.
"You're… you're one of those witches, aren't you…" he stuttered.
"Obviously. Why are you following me?"
He blushed. "I… I saw you kill the bird… I was hoping maybe you could teach me that trick."
Medusa frowned. "I can't teach you magic, idiot. You're not a witch. Go home before I have to kill you."
"But…"
"Go away," she snapped. Arachne didn't like it when she or Shaula talked to normal kids, except to scare them away. Witches were not to mingle with humans.
She turned and walked away, dissolving her arrows. She needed to get back before her sisters woke up.
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Medusa scowled, looking out over the city as the sun set. It smelled here. Humans were disgusting creatures, but her sister Arachne insisted that they stay here. Arachne loved to spy on the humans, sending her spiders into people's homes to learn their secrets. Sometimes, when she was in a good mood, the eighteen year old would share those secrets with her sisters. More often she left her two younger sisters to fend for themselves.
"Do you come here often, Ms. Witch?"
Medusa leapt up, spinning around. "Why do you keep following me!" she yelled. "Do I have to kill you?"
The boy stumbled back. "Sorry. You looked lonely. I… You look hungry. Do you want to come eat dinner with my family? I won't tell them what you are."
She glared at him with all the fury she could manage, but then sighed. A proper meal shouldn't be turned down, even if Arachne would punish her for accepting. "Fine," she snapped. "But then you leave me alone."
The boy grinned. "Ok. I'm Adelais, by the way. My dad's a doctor. He treats all kinds of things and saves people's lives."
Medusa followed the boy, annoyed by his prattling. Didn't he ever stop talking? She refrained from saying anything, though. Sometimes it was smart just to not say anything.
"This is your house?" she asked, surprised, looking up at the large house, complete with courtyard.
"Yup," he said. "Dad's pretty good at his job, so sometimes we even get to host dinners for important people."
He dashed inside, Medusa following slowly, frowning slightly. Arachne would not like this. What if someone important found out what she was? Her sister had told them many stories about how humans acted toward witches, and none of them were good. As much as she hated this city, she didn't want to be chased out.
She scowled down at the ground as Adelais went to fetch his parents.
"See, dad. This is the girl I was talking about. Can she eat with us tonight?"
Medusa looked up nervously. The man was tall, but skinny. She could tell by a glance that he wasn't a farmer or manual worker. A doctor.
"Hello child," he said, smiling down at her. "What's your name?"
She scowled at him. Arachne would definitely punish her for being here. "Medusa," she muttered, looking away.
"Welcome, Medusa," he said, still smiling. "My son brings in all sorts of strays. Why don't you come in and eat something."
"I'm not a stray dog," she muttered under her breath, following him. "I'm a snake."
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"See, that wasn't so bad," Adelais said after dinner, his perpetual grin still plastered in place. "Maybe you can come to dinner every night."
Medusa scowled at him. The food had been good, but this kid was getting annoying. "No. I can't," she said. "My sister is already going to punish me for being here. You know that spider your mom brushed off the table? That was her spider. She knows." She started running away from the house. "Now leave me alone!"
Arachne met her halfway, frowning down at her in disapproval. "I give you simple instructions, little sister," she said. "Stay away from humans. You know they will kill us if given a chance. Especially if they are not afraid of us."
"I know," Medusa snapped. "And that's why we have to scare them, because if they are afraid of our powers they won't mess with us." She had heard this lecture many times before.
"And…"
"And I haven't perfected my snakes yet so I can't afford to take such risks." Medusa looked away, scowling. "I know."
"Then you know why you are not going to leave the hideout tomorrow, and you are to have no food or water for the day," Arachne said sharply.
Medusa stuck her tongue out at her sister before running past her, back to the old empty house they called home. She ignored her younger sister and sat in the corner she had claimed, letting one of her snake constructs crawl around her fingers. It was still too slow, and its form wavered. She watched as gaps appeared in the snake's body until it finally dissolved into purple light.
Arachne let her go out to forage at evening the next day, lifting her 'grounding' early. Medusa slipped through the nearly empty streets, using the shadows to hide in. She like shadows, they were familiar and comforting. Sometimes she thought she heard whispers coming from the darkest shadows. When she asked Arachne, her sister had told her that there were beings even more powerful than witches, and maybe it was one of them whispering to her.
Arachne promised that it would be explained to her when she got to go to her first convocation of Witches, but for now they had to stay in the city until Shaula was old enough to go as well. They couldn't leave her here alone.
"Do you actually eat rats?"
Medusa looked up from where she had been waiting behind a column for a large rat to come within range of her arrows.
"Adelais, GO AWAY!" she screeched, her prey long gone. "You've gotten me in trouble once already, do you have to do it again. Leave me alone!"
He looked down at the ground. "Sorry. I wasn't actually following you. I was just running to the merchant's stalls to get some stuff for dad and I saw you there. I didn't know you had to eat rats."
"They don't taste bad," Medusa said, looking at him haughtily. "And I always kill them before they have a chance to bite me. My arrows are extremely quick."
"I've seen. Please don't kill me?"
She sighed. "Fine. I need to find another place to hunt, anyway. You scared away the last rat."
"You were the one who yelled."
"Don't you have to get back to your daddy," she snapped.
He nodded sadly. "Good night."
"Good bye."
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The next day dawned clear. Arachne woke Medusa early, letting Shaula sleep. Their youngest sister was still too young to use her magic, so it was just the two elder sisters who scared the local children right now.
"I have a perfect target picked out for you today," Arachne said, smirking. "Maybe today you'll actually beat me."
Medusa rolled her eyes but followed her sister. Together they slipped through the shadows to the main merchant's square. It was still early, but there were a lot of children about doing their morning chores.
"I've had a few spiders watching this area," Arachne whispered as they watched from a small alley. "It's the perfect place. In a few minutes my target will be here, and then a few minutes after that yours will come. Simple."
Medusa remained silent.
Arachne's target was a young boy, obviously well fed and with sandy colored hair. It didn't take long for him to run away terrified.
"Here comes yours," Arachne said a few minutes later, smiling smugly.
Medusa watched as a new boy came within sight. It was Adelais.
"That's not fair!" she whispered to her sister angrily. "He already knows me!"
Arachne looked down at her sister coldly. "We are witches. We do not mingle with humans."
"But there's no way I'm going to scare him!" Medusa replied, her voice rising.
"Medusa!"
She flinched. The boy had heard her.
"This must be your sister Arachne," Adelais said, running over. "Hi! I'm Adelais, Medusa's friend."
"You aren't my friend," Medusa snapped, suddenly furious. "You are an ignorant, obnoxious, ill-behaved, spoiled brat." She took a few steps toward him, her magic coalescing around her in a purple aura. "I was punished because of you, but you don't listen. No, you never listen."
The boy blanched and stepped back. "I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone." Tears threatened to flow from his eyes. "I didn't know you didn't like me."
"It's not that," she snapped. "It is the fact that you are never punished. But you are an ill-behaved child. You must be punished."
Her vision seemed to blur, and suddenly she was laughing. "Yes," the snake witch said, "you will be punished."
Suddenly a fully formed magical construct erupted from her mouth, fueled by her sudden madness. The snake wound itself around her arm and reared into the air, its head larger than the boy's.
Still laughing, she pointed at the boy. The snake struck swiftly, its aim true. A spot of blood appeared on the boy's side, quickly growing larger. Shocked, he collapsed, still staring at Medusa.
"I said I was sorry," he sputtered, his life quickly fading.
Medusa recalled the snake and coiled it fully around her arm, letting it remain fixed on her skin. "I win," she said simply, the feeling of insanity fading. She looked down at the dead human boy, almost surprised that she didn't feel sad.
"This time you did," Arachne said, smiling coldly. "Did you learn anything from our game?"
"Humans are nothing more than pawns," Medusa replied. "Witches do not mingle with humans."