The woman whipped her head toward Tamatoa, and she moved as quick as lightning. Before he could so much as bat an eyelash, she was standing on him, pointing her blade at his throat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said and gingerly snapped her up from behind. "Is that a spear, or are you just happy to see me?"

Athena struggled against his claw but to no avail. "Put me down, crab!" she demanded, a deep line in her brow, her teeth bared in fiery anger. "I am Pallas Athena, daughter of Zeus, goddess of war and wisdom. I -"

"Oh-ho-ho." Tamatoa smiled, his eyes venturing closer to her. "So you are an immortal."

"Of course-" Tamatoa gently touched her lips with his other claw to silence her. As he did so, his gaze was drawn to the burns on her left arm. A flicker of a smirk danced over his face. He might be able to use this to his advantage later.
"You're no goddess of these islands," he insisted. "Where did you come from?"

In the driest tone she could summon, Athena answered, "I might be more inclined to speak with you, crab, if you put me down."

With narrowed eyes, he looked over the length of her with suspicion. "Alright then," he grudgingly agreed. "But I'm taking your toy."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than her spear was in his claw.

"Hey!" she shouted. Athena tried to swipe upward to recover her weapon but found herself in free-fall, having been released. She landed on Tamatoa's plates, hands already firmly planted on her hips.

"Well?" He pursed his lips, eyeing her impatiently. "Continue."

Even as she glared at him with scorching intensity, her tone remained level. "I come from Mount Olympus, home of the gods of the Greeks." She folded her arms and lifted her chin with pride.

"What is a Greek goddess doing down here in the realm of the monsters?"

Lips sealed and arms still crossed, Athena threw a hip to one side and tapped her foot, eyeing her spear.
Tamatoa followed her gaze and immediately rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, babe. You'll get it back. I just need to know you're not going to point it in my face again while I'm in this vulnerable state." He gestured to his belly.

Athena looked beneath her feet, and it dawned on her that the crab had never been a threat to begin with. He'd somehow found himself upended and had seemingly been stuck that way for some time. She also noticed that he was missing a leg. Amused, she looked back at Tamatoa with an arched brow and a teasing smile. "How did you manage to end up in this state?"

Entirely unamused himself, he blinked dully at the goddess before deciding that the fastest route to solving his situation was to humor her. Just a bit.

"Oh, you know," he said, rolling his eyes again. "Run-of-the-mill run-in with a demigod."

"Just a demigod?"
Another dull blink.
"I'm only joking," she laughed, waving at Tamatoa playfully. "Anyone who knows Heracles knows that a demigod can pack a punch." And, judging from the bulk of the man she had spied entering Lalotai, she was certain he could do some damage.

Yet another dull blink. "I haven't the faintest clue what you're talking about, Anathema, but I would really, truly appreciate it if you could give me a little push. Just a little push. That's all I need."

"It's Athena," she interjected. "And how do I know you won't just stab me with my own spear once you're upright?"

"You're immortal," Tamatoa retorted. "What do you care if I stab you with your own spear?"

"Fair point," Athena said. "Except we gods can still feel pain." When Tamatoa still looked skeptical, she continued. "Look, just throw it over there." She tossed her head to the right. "You'll have time to grab me if I make a run for it, and I'll feel better about this whole flipping-you-over thing."

"Fine," said Tamatoa, eyes still narrowed in distrust. He threw the spear aside, glowering at Athena as he did so.

"You know, that spear could help me gain some leverage . . ." She slowly pointed her feet toward the weapon.

"Don't even think about it," Tamatoa said threateningly, his claw already pinning down the hem of her dress.

Athena smiled coyly and shrugged as she slipped off his plates and turned to walk toward his back. "Suit yourself."

She set the aegis aside and positioned herself behind his head, settling into a lunge, her hands curved around the edge of his shell. Only then did she realize that the whole of his back appeared to be covered in gold. And only then, looking over the vast expanse of his body, did she realize the difficulty of the feat ahead.

"Look," she said. "No offense, but your, uh . . . size . . . rivals that of the Gorgons I've seen."

Contrary to Athena's expectations, Tamatoa took this as a compliment. "What can I say?" He grinned. "I'm a big, beautiful crustacean, baby." The crab really was full of himself.

Athena blew a stray curl from her face in exasperation. "I'm strong," she continued, "but I'm going to need your help. On the count of three, I need you to rock forward for me."

"You've got it, babe." He saluted her with his claw.
"Alright. One . . . two . . . three . . ."

Even without Tamatoa being dead weight, it took every ounce of effort Athena could muster to push him onto his legs. She was spent afterwards and, doubled over, hands on her thighs, paused to catch her breath.

"Ahhh, yeaaahhh," Tamatoa crooned, skittering slightly forward and then backward on his newly mobile legs. "Much better."

By the time he turned to face Athena, she had already collected her aegis, as well as her spear. "You're welcome," she said, a smug smirk on her face. She went to balance her spear in the crook of her arm to dust off her hands but winced when the metal pressed against the burn. Taking the blade in hand once more, she noticed that the red stripes had only deepened in hue. Her jaw lowered in disbelief, and a concerned crease formed in her brow. She had never experienced the worsening of a wound. A bolt of panic passed through her as she wondered if her powers weakened the further she traveled from Olympus, but she could not afford to alert the crab to this revelation. So her face became unreadable.

"Let me take a look at that." There was no pause, no asking for permission, simply the pressure of hard shell around Athena's waist and the disappearance of the ground beneath her feet. She instinctively raised her shield as Tamatoa pulled her closer and stretched an inspecting eye toward her arm. "That is a pretty nasty burn . . . Why you humanoids insist on keeping your skeletons on the inside is beyond me," he said with a shake of his head. "But I have just the thing for it." And with that, he began scuttling toward the mouth of a cave.

Athena cleared her throat. "You can put me down now."

Tamatoa side-eyed her. "Nothing against your legs, babe, but you've only got two of them. And they're shorter than mine."

She opened her mouth to reply but was hushed by the sight of the cave as they made their entrance. It was shining, shimmering, splendid, covered in gold and gems.
"Please," she said, never once looking away from the cave. "Please let me go."

Although mildly chagrined at her constant demands, Tamatoa could hear something innocent and searching in Athena's voice and was curious enough about its source to let her explore this feeling further. He lowered her to the ground and watched the goddess closely as she walked with slow and gentle feet into his home. Every step she took as though she were on holy ground. His antennae spread over her, trying to sniff out her thoughts.

Mouth agape and eyes wide, Athena soaked in the beauty of the crab's lair. She hadn't seen anything so radiant since she had left the marble halls of Mount Olympus. Looking back at Tamatoa with eyes that gleamed with restrained tears, she said softly, "It reminds me of home." She swallowed the memories and forced jest into her voice. Turning round to face Tamatoa, she held out her arms, gesturing to their surroundings. "Camouflage?" she ventured with a smile.

Tamatoa scoffed at this. "Camouflage? I never hide!" he said, folding his claws.

"Whatever you say . . . So, what's this magical salve you have for me?"

Tamatoa walked past her to begin rummaging in a nook of the cave. "What else?" he asked before turning around with a brown, fibrous fruit in claw. "Coconut oil." With the slightest pinch, he cracked it open and let it roll to Athena's feet.

Gathering one half into her hands, she looked at the foreign fruit before turning her gaze upward. "What's a coconut?"

With large and incredulous eyes, Tamatoa stared at her. "Clearly, you're not from around here." He picked up the other half of the fruit and, using the tip of his claw as a pestle, mashed the meat into a fine pulp. He held it out to her. "Eat the one you have," he said. "Use this one to coat the burn."

Athena accepted the coconut and used the spear to lower herself to the ground before setting it and the aegis aside. She dipped her hand into the shell, scooped out a palmful of meat, and smeared it over her arm. "Mmmm." She pursed her lips against the sting. "You know," she said, glancing at Tamatoa as she continued covering her arm with the pulp, "you never told me your name."

"You never asked," he shot back at her, eyeing her spear. If only it weren't so close to her, he could take it for himself.

"It's not every day you meet a gargantuan crab with the power of speech and a shell covered in enough gold to rival the stores of the gods," she said. "I was a little . . . taken aback."

At the sound of flattery, his eyes rested on her again. "Of course, you were." He grinned. "I," he said, drawing himself up to his full height, "am Tamatoa."

"Well, Tamatoa," Athena said, rising to her feet with the aid of her spear, "this is a beautiful lair you have. But I must be on my way."

"But you haven't tried the coconut yet!"

It came too soon, this outburst. She hadn't even begun to face the exit. Any small trust she had built for this crab was replaced with an unshakeable suspicion that he was trying to keep her there for reasons that were less than pure. Athena cast her gaze downward toward the remaining half of the coconut and thought of Persephone. She was in an underworld of sorts, after all, and she had no desire to suffer the same fate as Demeter's daughter. Was she face-to-face with the Hades of these islands? Chin down, she raised her eyes to Tamatoa.

"If I eat this," she said slowly, choosing her words carefully, "will I be free to go?"

Realizing his error, Tamatoa tried to compensate for this slip in composure. "Of course," he said, waving a claw at her. "Leave whenever you like. It's just . . . You'd be missing out if you didn't try the coconut. I mean, I am a coconut crab, so maybe I'm biased."

Athena wasn't entirely sure of his tone and kept an eye on him, but this explanation assuaged her fear enough for her to feel comfortable with collecting the fruit and sinking her teeth into its meat.

"Where I come from," she said, even as she chewed, "food can chain you to a place."

Brushing this cryptic comment aside, Tamatoa said, "Yes . . . Why are you so far from home?"

"Mmm," Athena cooed, licking the juice off her fingers. "It's no ambrosia, but it's not bad." Her banishment was not a topic she wished to discuss, least of all with a crab who reminded her of someone. She couldn't quite place the name . . . Oh, Narcissus. That's the one.

The goddess hadn't bothered to answer this same question when he was on his back. Now that he was on his feet, Tamatoa's patience was wearing thin. Clearing his throat with a grumble, he moved closer, hoping that his towering presence would persuade her to respond.

"Oh," she said, bending to set down the coconut and pretending to have only just registered the question. "Why am I here?" She added her own twist to it and shrugged. "I wanted to kill something."

"You made that abundantly clear when you brutalized a couple of bats out there." Tamatoa nodded toward the mouth of the cave, but he wouldn't be so easily distracted. "Why did you leave Greece?"

Athena bit her lip and clutched her spear more tightly, as though this were a battle it could help her win. She knew it couldn't. The grey of her irises had darkened with anger, but Tamatoa sensed that it was not meant for him.

"I didn't leave willingly," she finally admitted. "I was thrown out."

"Oh, this is getting interesting . . ."

Fists clenched, Athena looked away, ignoring this interruption. She hadn't talked to anyone about her loss of honor since she had left Mount Olympus. Even as her cheeks burned with the mere thought of speaking her sins aloud, she knew she needed this. With a deep, bracing breath, she began, "I was one of three virgin goddesses . . ."