Chapter Two: Just Another Day
Melody groaned as sunlight fell on her eyelids, waking her up. She stretched, wincing as rough tree bark dug into her back. Sleeping in trees kinda sucks, she decided. But it was better than the ground, so...
She unbuckled the belt with which she had strapped herself to the tree branch, sat up, and stretched again. "I hate mornings," she said to nobody in particular.
A new day, a new town, a new monster. People to save who didn't know they needed saving. Graves to visit, respects to pay, and by dinnertime she'd be gone, but it wouldn't matter, because nobody would know she had been there in the first place.
She preferred it that way.
She sat on the branch for a while, watching for something small, fuzzy, and breakfasty to wander by.
Eventually, she grew tired of waiting, and decided to have a vegetarian breakfast. She climbed down the tree and set about gathering roots and leaves.
After eating a slightly wilted dandelion salad, Melody decided to get into trouble. That, after all, was her specialty.
It was almost noon before she found anything worth getting into. After following mundane animal tracks for hours on end, she spotted a trail she knew all too well. It was slithery, reptilian, and really really big, not to mention everything around it was dead.
"Hydra," she whispered.
She didn't follow it right away; hydras, while easy to follow, are notorious for killing unprepared adventurers. So she gathered firewood. When she had enough, she made a torch and went off in search of the monster.
Finding it didn't take long; the trail wasn't exactly straight, but once she got close enough, she could find it by the smell alone.
Before long, she was crouched in the underbrush several yards from the mouth of a cave. It was the closest cover there was to the hydra's lair; everything beyond had been killed by the monster's poison. The place reeked of death and decay.
Melody pulled a flint and steel from her pocket and lit her makeshift torch. She slipped the ring from her finger with the thumb of the same hand, at the same time pressing the stone. She flicked the staff before it had finished expanding, sending the glowing blade out with a soft click. Then she picked up a makeshift rope she had braided from long, green grass and tied the torch to the other end of the staff.
"Showtime," she said quietly.
She slipped silently out of the undergrowth, weapon in hand. As she neared the mouth of the cave, she could hear the hydra's hissing breath.
She knew better than to fight a hydra in a small enclosed space, so she whistled sharply and shouted, "Yo, Ugly!" to draw it out.
A serpentine head flashed toward her, and she barely managed to sidestep in time. She spun her staff, the blade at one end slicing cleanly through the monster's neck, then the torch at the other end singing the flesh so more heads wouldn't grow. Another head shot out of the cave, jaws snapping, and got the same treatment. There was a moment of stillness.
A wet scraping sound came from the cave, and the hydra appeared, dragging its fat, slimy body along, its bloated belly scraping the ground as its lizard legs struggled against its weight. Its mass of heads writhed and hissed.
Melody wrinkled her nose at it. "You're disgusting," she informed the monster. One of the heads hissed, and she caught sight of something that made her very, very angry.
Something was caught between the monster's huge fangs. Something small and pink that looked suspiciously like a little girl's shoe.
The next head struck at Melody. She struck back, then went on, no longer waiting for the hydra to strike first, but just decapitating and burning whatever was within reach. She showed no mercy.
Eventually, every head had been severed, and the hydra's body collapsed limply and dissolved into dust. Melody stood over it, panting, and glared. Then she looked up at the sun and realized with a start that it was mid-afternoon. She had lost track of time while caught up in murderous rage. She trudged back to the forest, climbed into a tree, strapped herself to a branch, and dozed off for a few hours.
When she woke again, the sun was setting. She sighed, undid the belt, and climbed down, then made her way toward the town at the forest's edge.
First she went to a small cafe and bought something cheap to eat. Normally she would hunt for her food, as she didn't have much money, but the local wildlife might not be safe. After all, there had been a hydra nesting nearby.
Then she went to the local florist and bought an armful of marigolds.
The final stop was the cemetery.
She stepped through the rusty gates, noting that the hinges had recently been oiled. The graves were pristine, and many had flowers on them, presumably left by grieving friends and family. But many more had been given nothing.
Melody walked between the graves, distributing marigolds. Then she drooped one by accident.
"Cantet!" she snarled at herself. "Cantet et miseria!" She crouched to pick up the fallen bloom.
Another hand reached for the flower at the same time. A pale, olive-tinted hand bearing a silver skull ring.
Melody froze as the mysterious boy from yesterday scooped up the marigold and set it gently on a grave. " 'Cantet et miseria'?" he inquired politely.n"May I ask what that means?"
Melody looked up at him distrustfully. Instead of answering, she demanded, "Why are you stalking me?"
"I'm not stalking you, although I can see how you might get that impression."
"What do you want, son of Hades?"
The boy looked impressed. "How'd you know?"
Melody snorted. "It wasn't hard to figure out. You're wearing a sword made of Stygian steel. You appear out of nowhere and disappear without a trace. And you apparently talk to dead people."
The boy nodded, then added, "But what if I had been a son of Pluto? I might have been offended."
"Had you been a son of Pluto, you wouldn't have asked me what " 'cantet et miseria' means."
"You never did answer," he noted.
"Why should I?" Melody inquired coldly.
Nico sighed. "If you answer my questions, I'll tell you why I'm here."
Melody groaned inwardly. He probably didn't know just how tempting that was to her. Curiosity killed the cat, she remembered her father telling her. But satisfaction brought it back, added her own remembered voice. She had always been curious, always certain that every question had an answer, and desperate to know what that answer was.
"Fine," she said. " 'Cantet et miseria' means 'crows and misery'. Happy?"
"What about my question from yesterday?"
Melody glared at the strange boy, still suspicious and distrustful. Give the poor guy a chance! whispered her shoulder angel. What's he ever done to you? He's just as curious as you are. Maybe you're not so different!
Melody's shoulder devil was quick to retort. And what of he's just like all the rest? What if he's just a worthless primate who mocks you and refuses to understand?
Then I can handle that, Melody thought.
"I do this," she said carefully, "because I was always taught to be respectful, especially to those who are rarely respected. The dead are often forgotten. Nobody cares about most of the people in this graveyard anymore. But the fact that they're dead doesn't excuse it."
"That's right," agreed the strange boy quietly. "It doesn't." Then he suddenly asked, "What's your name?"
"Melody," she replied. "Melody Tolin. And you?"
"Nico di Angelo," he answered, holding out his hand. She shook it reluctantly.
"You still haven't told me why you're stalking me," she noted.
"I'm not stalking you," Nico replied. "The dead just asked me to ask you some things."
"Like?"
"They have a lot of questions. Maybe you should come to the Underworld so they can ask you themselves."
"The Underworld..." Melody mused. "I've never been there..." She looked up at Nico. "But why should I trust you?"
"Why shouldn't you?"
"I don't trust anyone who hasn't earned it."
Nico sighed. "How do I earn your trust?"
"By not killing me on the way to the Underworld."
Nico grinned. "Sounds good to me." He took Melody's hand - she almost yelped in surprise - and led her to a deep shadow cast by a tree... then through it.
Melody had always wondered what shadow-traveling was like.
It. Was. Awesome.
