Chapter 25
Diana's hearing was correct, just to the north there was a crystal clear river, flowing gently out to the ocean slowly enough to be warm but still refreshing. She came to rest at the river's edge, her boots sinking into the soft silt of the bank as she touched down, blue eyes alert for any signs of Medusa.
She plunged the sharp, tri pronged end of the trident into the sand just on the low side of the water line before walking slowly into the water. The red that clung to her boots was the first to wash away, and it would continue to as she walked into the river until it came to her knees and began scrubbing away the gore that covered her, kneeling down to scoop some of the silt from the river bed, grinding it into her flesh to get the more stubborn sections out before taking the risk and putting her head underwater.
Even in the fresh water, the act of being submerged brought back time with Arthur; time spent in years gone by with Arthur in the beautiful capitol of Atlantis, but also more recent times, such as the battle with the cetus. She had to remember what she was doing here. This was not about Circe, this was about getting Arthur back and restoring the throne in Atlantis. Diana could not afford to get side tracked by personal issues and revenge on Circe. What happened between the sorceress and her mother was in the past; it was not any cross to be borne by Diana.
She ran her fingers through her hair, her nails digging into her scalp, scrubbing the blood and gore from her raven locks, and that's when she saw the movement out of the corner of her eye. It wasn't anything obvious, it was merely a flash, a shadow of something above the surface. She smirked. The trail had called the youngest sister. Good.
Diana continued on as if she hadn't noticed, continuing to scrub her hair, snapping her upper body out of the water and sending a semi circle of hair, flinging a wave of water as she went. It was all slightly homoerotic, the water and blood dripping down her form, washing off her skin and armour, the red washing away down river, spreading the scent of the Gorgon's death for the remaining sister to come find her.
And find her Medusa did. Holding her breath, Diana twisted her hair, draining the water and binding into a bun for the time being, she would need her hair out of her face for this fight. Stheno was the most vicious, but Medusa was the craftiest, and an expert with a bow. Even now, back arched to the warmth of the sun, Diana could hear the drawing of a bow.
The arrow was let fly from the bow and came zooming towards Diana. The Amazon Queen was smooth, and fast, her reaction time trained to accommodate battling inhuman and immortal combatants. Medusa's first arrow glanced harmlessly off her silver bracer, a silver band several inches wide that went up her forearm that all Amazons wore, to remind them of the history of bondage they suffered.
Diana brought her fists down and took to the air, flying towards where the arrow had originated, though it was possible by the time she got there, the slithering half serpent woman would no longer be in her shooter's nest, being able to see Diana rushing forward, without weapon.
Fine by her, Diana thought. It was all part of the plan any ways.
Medusa saw the charging Amazon, and while she was fuelled by rage caused by the murder of her supposedly immortal sisters, unlike the elder siblings she was not going to allow herself to be blinded by rage. Diana was a servant of Aphrodite and Athena, and charging in to save the Champion of Poseidon; she only added reasons to revel in her death when she murdered Stheno and Euryale. The remaining Gorgon was going to enjoy toying with Diana. She had been denied the ability to take her rage out on women for so long by the arrogant Athena, Medusa planned on enjoying this as much as she could.
Foolish Amazon, she thought to herself, noticing that Diana had left the trident in the sand, coming at her with merely her bare hands and the lasso she had hanged Euryale with. Medusa let her long tail hang in a tree, taunting the Amazon and lying about her position while she readied another arrow. She had missed with her first shot, Diana's reflexes were simply too fast; Medusa had misjudged, thinking that the time spent in exile after the great Amazon/Atlantian war had softened the Queen. It appears that quite the opposite was true. Medusa vowed she would not make the same mistake twice.
The second arrow released as Diana neared the serpentine tail, finding a home right in the woman's shoulder. The Queen of the Amazons bellowed in pain, the arrow entering through the back, tearing through muscle as it went and burst out the front. Normally Medusa would shoot with poison arrows, but with a woman like Diana it would be a waste of effort; nothing Medusa had at her disposal would work on Amazon physiology.
It was a clean shot, though, and caught the Amazon by surprise.
As much as Medusa would like to watch and take another pot shot at the Amazon, she knew that it wouldn't be long before she found the new spot. She fired two more arrows, both designed to miss the Amazon, to give her a false sense of hope that Medusa was not as cunning and clever as the legends had told. Of course, if you asked the Gorgon herself, she would say of course the legends were inaccurate; she was much more clever and cunning than the writers of legend had given her credit for.
Diana's shoulder crumpled forward as the arrow dug through her flesh, the sharp point coming out just under her collar bone. That the serrated arrow head missed her clavicle was a blessing, as was the fact it shot straight through her. It only slowed her slightly as she stopped to break the head off with her left hand, her right reaching behind her to draw the shaft out of her body just in case Medusa had access to something that could harm her.
A clumsy shower of arrows imbedded themselves into the tree, causing Diana to jump back, confident of finding a safer place on the ground and on the other side of the tree.
Funny, she thought to herself, pressing her bare shoulders into the rough bark of the tree, ignoring the pain flaring in her shoulder where it touched with her raw, open flesh. It was not like Medusa to miss, or to waste arrows, which she could guarantee now were not poison tipped as wasting a poisoned arrow was worse than simply wasting an arrow.
But why did the three arrows just fired at her miss? She had been a fairly stationary target, as foolish as that was, and yet Medusa had missed her… The only logical conclusion Diana could come to was that she was missing on purpose, but to what advantage? To draw Diana into a trap!
With this new clarity Diana sprinted back to the river bank. This confrontation had started with Diana trying to draw out Medusa, and foolishly she had allowed the Gorgon to draw her back into the forest, where the serpentine archer would have the advantage over Diana and her manual weaponry. Foolish, foolish! She scolded herself.
She reached the bank and had a momentary lapse of position, panicking because she could not see the trident. Very foolish, she thought to herself. She had left the most powerful weapon in her possession, that was not even hers to begin with, in the sand and Medusa had…
The sound of slithering alerted her to movement behind her, where she also saw the trident, still buried head down in the sand. She didn't have time to sigh with relief, merely moved towards the weapon, swift as her body would go.
The sand erupted in a plume as Diana landed face first, grabbing the weapon and rolling to the left, into the water and out of the reach of Medusa as she had also emerged from the safety of the trees to grab at the trident. She was surprised when a quick blast fired out of the end towards Medusa; that must have been what Poseidon meant when he granted her the ability to wield it as Arthur had. Because it was not planned, or even well aimed, the shot went wide and scorched into the bark of a tree several feet to Medusa's left.
"And that is the kind of sloppiness that felled my sisters?" she laughed, a sarcastic bark of a sound, her head tilted back as the snakes snapped viciously at nothing. It gave Diana enough time to get back to her feet, crouched low in the water. "Laughable!"
She was cocky, that was something Diana could exploit if she could get the snake woman to simply stand still for a moment in the opening, but she was quickly retreating back into the underbrush, firing several arrows off as she went.
Two were well aimed, one slashing Diana's hip, making contact just at the joint between her upper and lower armour. The second went into her thigh.
"Damn it!" Diana hissed, pulling the imbedded arrow out of her leg, checking the depth of the wound on her hip as she took to the air where she could be more maneuverable. She had to trap the Gorgon in the open, which would be easier once she was out of arrows. She had noticed six remaining in the quiver, and with two recently fired, that would bring her total down to four.
Medusa was smart; the writers of legend had given her her due, which to Diana was a signal that she must have been even more exceptional than what they wrote seeing as she was female and historians of the classical period were notoriously misogynistic. She wouldn't be foolish to just throw away her remaining arrows; Diana was going to have to outsmart her and get her to use up what she had left.