Stone to Flesh

Chapter 1

Pythagoras jolted, knocking back his stool when the wooden door swung open with a familiar force. He was disappointed to see Jason standing there, shaking his head and dropping a damaged sword against the sculpted wall.

'You still haven't found him?' Pythagoras couldn't stop himself from asking.

'No,' he must have already left the city...,' Jason trailed off. They both knew where Hercules must have gone. His letter and recent actions regarding Medusa made it clear.

The sour smell of wine became less potent as the days went on. It washed away from Hercule's room, allowed to escape through cracks in the wooden doors and crude boards against the windows. Without his usual replenishing of the aroma, the shared house smelled foreign. Pythagoras had never known it to smell so clean and stable in all the time he'd been here. Jason, still fresh to their home, seemed put off by silence more than the lack of stench. Pythagoras could understand that too. Hercules wasn't blistering on about some deranged plan to double, triple, or quadruple their money, specifically his, Pythagoras', money. Nor was he laughing or flittering on in his lately way. There was no laughter, or drunken complaining. Not even a creek in the bed where his bloated body might be turning. Nothing, not a sound, stead for the two men breathing and the stool still teetering on its side.

Pythagoras fiddled with the stool against his foot before placing it back in front of the table. His blond brows knit while he murmured under his breath about dismal possibilities. The silence was barely cut by his quite voice. Jason sat on another stool, this one taller and on the other side of the table.

'Any luck with your equations?' He asked, looking at the curling parchment on the table. Pythagoras jolted again before looking across the table as if this were the first time he'd seen any of his own work before. The symbols were momentarily jibberous to him, until he laughed. Triangles were always Hercules' favorite way of rousing him one way or another. Of course he had tried to focus on them earlier, to no success.

'None at all. Even when he's not here, the man's a distraction. Is there any hint as to where she is? He couldn't have left with nothing.' Pythagoras began gathering the parchments, placing them in order and reviewing the top few.

'If he did, he didn't share it in the note. The oracle's no help either. She says what's going to happen has to happen. It's destiny,' Jason explains. He turns away to look toward Hercules' room, glaring beyond it. Pythagoras stands, pausing at the oracle's mention, but only nods. He enters his own room to put his research away and returns with a smaller, crudely folded note, which he smooths on the table.

'We may have missed something the first time-'

'You've read that note a hundred times the past week, Pythagoras.' Jason interrupts the small man while turning back toward the table.

'Yes...but there must be something, some way,' he finally concludes before turning the note toward Jason. He isn't as delicate about it as Jason expects, and nearly rips the parchment from the other man's fingers. 'Maybe another set of eyes, yours, will see it differently.'

'New eyes...yes, maybe,' Jason responds, his own eyes flickering back toward Hercules' room before he begins to read.

Pythagoras and Jason,

I can't stay here knowing she's out there, all alone, because of us. We gave it to her, we have to help her. Neither of you have to help. Neither of you can. For once, you aren't strong enough or clever enough for this Jason. Pythagoras, you're weak and can't hold a sword to save your life, and I don't need swords on this trip anyway. Keep your brain where people can use them. Work on those blasted triangles, whatever they're for.

When I find her, if I can help her, if we both survive, I'll come back home. With her. If not, then it was nice knowing both of you.

Pythagoras, just avoid the deters for a while.

Hercules

'I can't pull clues from this anymore than you can,' Jason starts. 'We'll just have to start asking around until we find someone who's seen him...or heard of her.'

Pythagoras agreed despite the hopeless situation put before them. They have found paths to trickier ends than this, but none that left the two men quite so quiet and uneasy.

Hercules' labored breathing kept any animals in the nearby brush from lingering, but also altered any passersby of his location. The satchel crossing his back was once heavy with food and wine, but had since lightened considerably the farther he trekked from Atlantis. It had been six days now since he left. What was left of his bread was hard but eatable. He worked his teeth down through the crust to find the soft core lingering. He caught his breath while chewing. A fallen tree became a forest throne which he sat upon. It was there that a giggle caught his attention. Bread crumbs fell from his lip to the thick mess of mousy brown bread below it when he looked around.

Another giggle.

This light laugher was less lighthearted than the one before it. As the sound twisted around the trees Hercules twisted with it, until he fell back and hit his head on the splintering stump. He reached out for his weapon but was unable to pull it from his belt. All he managed was to untangle his flask, leaving it on the moist dirt beside himself when he fell.

There was a sensation of movement that roused Hercules once or twice after the initial hit, but it took a cold splash of water to finally wake him up. When he opened his eyes there was a middle aged woman standing over him. Her dry, grey-black marble hair covering most of her face, slipping out from under a tattered, blue fabric hood. She was the source of the giggling, made fact by continuing the sound as he roused. Hercules attempted to escape her close proximity and eerie laughter. Her grip on his tunic, however, was ironclad.

'Oh no, not you again. No, no. I want nothing more to do with magic,' Hercules began to complain the moment he laid eyes on the woman before him. Circe laughed, releasing him but blocking the entrance to the cave as she walked past him.

'I know who you seek,' she whispered, her lips pulling back into an astounding grin. Hercules shook his head again. 'Oh yes I do, yes. It's that little fan of yours, the young woman you saved from the sisters...but who wouldn't wall at your feet in love without my help. The little palace wench has gone missing, hasn't she, Hercules?'

Hercules swelled up and grabbed Circe's shoulder but before he could turn her back toward him, the woman disappeared. Her cackling was enough to know she reappeared on his left. 'Medusa was never some simple palace wench...and she's not a wench at all. She's a beautiful girl-woman! The most beautiful, no matter where, or what she is.' His voice shook on the last four words.

'So you keep explaining...but what good is beauty if you can't look at it? And you'll never look upon your sweet Medusa's face again, in any case.'

'What do you mean? Why can't I look at her again? Has something happened to her? Tell me, tell me now or I'll-'

'Hit your head on another tree stump?' Circe interrupts his verbal flailing by waving her hand in his face. He backs up, warry of staying too near her. 'She's left you and this place, there must be a reason don't you think?'

'I know the reason. I know...I saw, or well, I saw what she can do know, after what she's become.' Hercules sighed and ran his fingers over his thinning hairline. Circe circled back toward him, a cheshire smile pulling her lips tautly as far as they could be seen without hair to obstruct them.

'Do you know what she's become? The monster that she is now?' she asks, toying with him now. Hercules takes a step toward her, his hands curling and clenching into fists. She's too quick for his exaggerated movements, however, and any attempt to attack or go near Circe leads to another teleportation, and failure. 'She's a gorgon with the magnificent power of stone sight. Any unfortunate soul to look upon her will find themselves a living statue, a true work of art.'

'What can I do?' he asks, his tone lacking the fight it had moments ago. Circe smiles.

'Do you wish to know where your lady resides and how you may help her?'

'Of course!' Hercules instantly responds.

'She is in a cave, far to the west of Atlantis. Along the oceans shore look for the statues of men, swords raised. Those men made the foolish choice of hunting her, and have created a deathly garden warning.' This information lingered in the silent air as Hercules appeared to ponder it. The cave in which they stood was different than the one she described. Here there were odd symbols on the walls, dripping whatever substance was used to draw them. Hercules could recognize a few used for magic. Others were the symbols of offerings.

'I will find a way,' he finally declared.

'I can show you how…a way you can be with your beloved. But for a price.'

'A price? What price? I'm not helping you lure in Jason again,' he growled. She shook her head, amused. When her hair moved it showed the edges of an expansive scar on the hidden side of her face.

'A contract is what I want. Should I call for you, and I will, you will come and bring to me what I request. It will not be Jason, that I can promise,' she adds with a shrill giggle.

'To do what?' Hercules questions, turning to watch her movements around the cave.

'You'll find out when the time comes. Until then, give me your word,' Circe demands, turning to him with an extended hand. Hercules looks at it for a long moment, his eyes straining to see something past the hand before him. Eventually he grabs it and they shake.

'Yes, alright. I'll do it. Tell me what I need to do,' he says. Circe pulls him closer and takes a brass coin from a pouch on her hip. She presses it to his wrist, where it seers a seal into his flesh. His howl echoes in the cave, causing birds to fly away in the surrounding forest.

'If you should break our deal, if you don't come to me when I request you, and if you don't bring what I request, then by this mark you will die.' She smiles while Hercules curses magic under his breath. When she releases his hand, he covers the burn instantly. 'Come, I will tell you the choices you can make. But be a silent piggy, there is no more time for interruptions. Soon you'll be too late.' Hercules opened his mouth but quickly shut it before speaking a word. He shuffled after her, heading deeper into the cave. The grip on his wrist tightened with each step.