His words had been whispered so that no other could hear. She had never told anyone what her father had said that day, had never needed too. His words had seeded a pride in herself that never needed anything from anyone... and yet.
It was so easy to give... to him.
Chiron had told her that she would need to send him away with Teucer and that had nearly broke her heart. Then he had told her the plan and that she would travel with Poulxeria as a bodyguard and she had been so happy but he had told her she must hide her identity so that Matu's attention would be on Poulxeria. Jealousy and injustice had raged in her heart, it had eaten at her.
When they had found the village that the Stygians had violated she had felt his fear even more stronger than her own and had wanted to embrace him but it had been Poulxeria he went to.
When he found the first shadows of his path and realized that he could sense what could not be seen, it was Poulxeria who he had looked to.
When Mera had helped him defeat the demon, it had been Poulxeria who he had drawn close to.
Even when Poulxeria had revealed Mera's secret and presented her to Matu, it had been the older woman to whom he had turned.
And when he discovered his godhead in the presence of The Winter Wolf it had been Poulxeria who had soothed him and told him that he was still the same person.
Suddenly Poulxeria was gone... not just dead but gone, her body cut into nonexistence and spread on the winds of the storm. It had nearly destroyed Mera to hear his howl of loss and rage. Every time he had turned to the older woman it had stung Mera but she never wished any ill because of it.
She had wanted to rage and be spiteful but there was no fuel for it, when always she had seen him in quiet contemplation with Poulxeria. Mera had been happy that there was someone for him, someone to help him be centered.
Now as she stared into the storm, with rivers of rain streaming from her hair into her eyes she understood and she wondered at the complexity of Chiron's plan.
Poulxeria had been perfect, a motherly and wise figure to comfort and guide Matu, just like Telamon had been to Mera, someone to point out the path. Now she was gone and while Mera lacked the wisdom of the bull dancer she knew the way.
She could never tell Matu the path to walk, but she had the skills and the strength to walk it with him.
There! The figure moved down the slope like water, following the most direct line. Mera would have diverted around obstacles but he used them to his advantage, spinning around the trunks of tree or leaping from boulders.
He was different. He had greater confidence and purpose; she could easily see it in the way he moved down the mountain, like a single stone from an avalanche he flowed over the terrain.
She picked the point she would join him at and bounded down the ridge. The smile that he greeted her with nearly distracted her into losing her footing. His arm snapped out and steadied her.
Always it had been her steadying him.
"What happened?" She asked as she matched his pace.
"A message from me." His voice was different, sure and steady.
"Some advice that has strengthened you?"
"I think it was meant to do that." He laughed and sprang from an outcrop flying high into the air then landing in a slide of shale. Mera sped to follow him but avoided the loose rock where she could have broken a leg. Somehow he thrived in the chaos and easily slid along with the avalanche he caused only to lithely step aside from it to watch as a thousand stones hurtled down into a gully.
He laughed deeply and Mera found herself laughing along with him, the joy of the moment too contagious.
Lightning flashed turning him from a vague shape blurred by the rain into a sharp silhouette. For the first time she noticed his proportions. A head taller than her and perfectly proportioned. He did not have the giant and thick muscles of Ajax but neither did he have the long bandy limbs of Teucer. Her brothers forms had never held her eye nor had the bodies of any man she had known, but there was something in the shape of his waist that hypnotized her. Her foot caught on a stone and she plummeted towards a ravine. In an instant he was there, caught her in the bend of his arm and setting her back on the ground.
"Are you well?" He asked.
"Yes, I was distracted for a moment." She looked up into his eyes as he held her and then wished that she hadn't. If she had been distracted before...
"Distracted by what?"
"Wondering what had changed you so drastically." She half-lied.
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