Meliboea
The boat that Poseidon had gifted him was unbelievably fast. As soon as he had said the word it had started to speed over the waves with an incredible pace. The waves seemed to blur together beneath him and only in a matter minutes Perseus wasnt able to see Elaeus anymore. A while he had sat there, staring at the horizon behind which his former home still lay. A quite peculiar mix of emotions had churned inside of him. He was afraid, he could readily admit as much, but also, for the lack of a better word, elated? Or rather excited. His whole life he had dreamt of going away from home, of starting his very own heroes' journey.
Ever since his father had revealed himself to be Poseidon, god of the sea and the worldshaker himself, Perseus has had dreams of grandeur. Of living through dangers and adventured, of fighting man or monster alike alongside his father all to finally pass on into myth at the end of his life. Just like the first Perseus had. Or Theseus. Or Cadmus or any of the other great heroes of the world.
Though, with his mom's death all those dreams and childish hopes had died a quick death. He had to work, had earn money and find food, had to provide for his family and thus was froced to grow up very, very quickly. He had always loved to dream and imagine, mind you, but there never had been any time to do so. That is, until now. Now, five years after this fateful day, five years after this gods forsaken funeral, after five years of living and fighting utterly alone, he was here. Sitting in a magical boat zooming across the Agaean Sea, the stars little more than white streak above him, the waves churning violently below him. In this impossible situation he finally found enough peace to just... relax. He leaned back and let his thoughts circle around, thinking about everything and nothing in particular.
Perseus didn't know how long he sat there, simply staring up intop the night sky. But when the stars receded and the sun shot its first rays over the horizon he stirred. The boat seemed to slow down as well, and it wasn't hard to find out why. Before him, in the distance, a small patch of land came in sight. A patch that grew and grew the nearer he came.
This must be the coast of Thessaly, Perseus thought. And that means that Meliboea cannot be far!
He could nary believe it. In only one night he was further away from home than he had ever thought possible!
Soon the Port of Meliboea came in sight. Like it was guided by an invisible hand the boat smoothly weaved between great galleys and smaller fisherboats alike and finally reached the harbour's shore. Percy took his bag in one hand, slung his spear over his shoulder and exited the boat. Just as he turned in oder to pull it out of the water the sea around it starded foaming and blubbering and the boat sunk beneath the waves, never to be seen again.
Shaking his head, and ignoring the looks he recieved from the bystanding people he ventured off. After all, its not everyday that you're able to explore a whole new city in a whole new kingdom.
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Meliboa was pretty, Perseus found out after traversing its many roads and numerous markets. Way more pretty than Elaeus ever was. Especially the temples were extraordinary. Painted marble statues of the gods were scattered inside, each with their own sacrifical fire burning merrily in front of them. Colorful cloths were draped over them, most of them purple. Seriously what was it with Meliboeans and purple? Before coming here Perseus had only ever seen garments in this colour when the high lords of Elaeus decided to celebrate one of the public holidays or something. Wasn't this colour supposed to be rare and expensive and only affordable by royals? Weird.
Perseus shook his head. No sense in dwelling on question that don't matter.
"So, lets see, what do I need?", murmured and scratched the stubble on bis chin. He really could use a barber in the near future. He had cecked his bag and there waqs nearly everything he needed for his journey to Rome. Well, emphasis on nearly. There was unfortunately one thing he lacked that was very important: A windrose. Or, in other words, a compass. Without one he wasn't even able to differentiate betwwen north and west, so reaching Rome of all places without one bordered on the impossible.
But, unfortunately, windroses were quite expensive. And even though he had taken every single drachma he could find back home, something like that was way out of his price-class.
And that was why he was here, in the temple, in front of Poseidon's statue, contemplating whether he should ask him for help or if doing so on the very first day of his journey was too pathetic.
He broken out of his deep thoughts when a bloodcurling scream shattered the revered quietness of the temple.
Perseus, expecting the worst, sprinted outside only to find a sobbing old man kneeling on the temple's stairs. His hand was clutched around a piece of a clay vase, the word doron, sacrifice, engraved upon it. His hand gripped it tight enough to draw blood, but the man didn't seem to notice. He just sat there, satring and the ground murmuring "why" over and over.
Okay, thats... There's no was that this is normal, Perseus concluded.
"What happened? Can I help you?", Perseus asked, while reaching out and offering to pull the old man up from the ground.
Upon asking that the mans's tears only seemed to intensify, though. "N-No one can help me, young one", he whispered. "The gods have decided and I shall not defy their will. I cannot, even though I want nothing more"
Perseus sighed quietly. Of course. "What have the gods decided, then?"
"Death!", the man cried. "The death of my son! And the death of my family!" Cue even more crying.
"What?", Perseus asked bewildered. What the hell? Why would they do that?
He asked as much. An older woman, clad in purple garments and with quite an amount of jewellery on her person answered him. With a resigned, tired voice she said: "It is quite a long story, young man. But in short, here in Meliboea we have always lived due to the trade with colours. You see at our shores a certain kind of shellfish lives, and catching and hernessing them grans us extensive amounts of pourple dye. And this dye is essential for our wealth, for we can sell it for quite high a price. But, a few years ago we became bold, and in our hubris we challenged Poseidon. Send more shellfish to our shores, we said. Else we will cose all your temples and you will fall into oblivion" The woman grimaced. "He did not take well to that. So he sent a sea monster that will ravage our shores and kill all the shellfish if we dont sacrifice one son and one daughter of our city to it every month. And Pelos here" she gestured to the man on the floor "has to sacrifice his only son, as the lot has decided today"
For a while Perseus said nothing and just stared incredolously at the woman. Are, are those people for real? How stupid can you be to piss off a god like that?, he wondered. But, while thinking that, a plan formed in his mind. Those people looked important so they were bound to have some money.
"Well, I'm not going to lie, that was not a smart decision", he said. The woman laughed humorlessly upon hearing that.
"But", Perseus continued. "Maybe I can help"
The woman's eyebrows rose. "How?"
Perseus scratched his cheek. "Ah, well, uh, I can kind of... talk with animals? Like they really seem to get me. There was never one animal I ever had problems with"
Now that was a lie if there ever was one. Perseus was, to be frank, absolutely terrible with animals. Only horses seemed to tolerate him, but that was probably because his father created them in the first place. And fishing came naturally to him, but he had never tested out whether or not the fish he caught actually liked him.
The old woman seemed skeptical. "You wish to reason with a sea monster?", she laughed "I honestly cannot say if you are brave or stupid, young one"
The old man, Pelos though, was another story altogether. "Can you truly do that?", he asked, and his eyes were full of hope. "Can you save my child?"
"Uhm, yeah, I guess", Perseus said. He cleared his throat. "I mean, yes, of course I can!"
The surrounding people began murmuring quietly upon hearing that.
"But", Perseus said and held a finger up in the air. "I have a condition"
"Yes, everything for you", the old man said and bowed his head deeply. "Save my son and whatever you wish to have I will see to it that it will be yours!"
The man reached out with a hand and Perseus promptly shook it.
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Some time later - At the cliffs of Meliboea
Perseus was no hunter. It just wasn't in his character. He had always been a rather straightforward guy and had never seen the appeal for the constant lies that the people in charge always seemed to covet. Sneaking around in the shadows, silently stalking one's prey? No, behaviour like that just wasn't his style at all. Add to that, that he had no semblance of patience whatsoever and one can see clearly that hunting was not Perseus' forte.
Luckily, this particular day he didn't have to hunt anything. Instead he was led to some cliffs less than a mile outside of Meliboea and was told to wait. For what exactly he didn't know, just that "He would notice when the monster arrived"
The amount of time this monster took to show up was what threatened to drive him insane though. He had never really been able to sit still for prolonged periods of time. He always had to do something. Be that fidgeting with his hands, tapping his foot or just plain walking around.
The area he found himself in reminded him a lot of the theatres back in Elaeus. He himself stood on a picturesque beach which sides were covered by large and steep cliffs. Only a small path of stairs that had been carved into the rocks provided a way to even reach this place.
He looked up into the sky. The sun was already standing high and bathed the world in its warm gaze. Alongside the cliffs, in safe distance from the beach, but still close enough to not miss a thing, a great many of Meliboean citizens stood, intending to see whether the newly crowned champion of Meliboea would accomplish whatever he set out to do or not.
Perseus scoffed quietly to himself. Been here for not even one day and these guys already made me the champion of their freaking city? Just my luck to get roped into fighting for a bunch of clam-obsessed weirdos.
His spear was standing in the sand next to him. At least I got you, Perseus mused and ran his hand softly across its silver length. Aaaaand, now I am a weirdo as well. I mean, who the heck talks with their own weapon? Thats just something weirdos would do.
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All over greece counteless warriors, some of great prestige and renown, others unremarkable and obscure, but all nonetheless more or less skilled at what they did, sneezed.
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Suddenly, there! Something happened! The sea in front of him began bubbling and foaming and he saw a long, dark shadow moving just beneath the surface. The waves split apart and with a deep growling sound something emerged from the water.
It was a crab. Orange was its shell and covered by various corals and clams. And it was big. With three meters in height it easily towered over Perseus, as well as the two teens that had been chosen as sacrifices. Slowly it dragged itself out of the water and over the beach, its small, beady eyes solely focused on the two whimpering children before it, ignoring Perseus entirely.
That changed quickly after Perseus cleared his throat though. Its eyes snapped around and gazed at him unnervingly. There was something in that gaze. Something like deference? Or recognition? Perseus wasn't sure, he wasn't very well versed in giant crabs facial expressions after all.
"So", the young demigod started. "My name's Perseus. What about you?"
The crab did not answer. Instead it simply continued to stare at him, not moving, bar a slight indenting of its head that could maybe be interpreted as some kind of bow. So far so good.
"So… well… I know about your mission", Perseus continued. "About punishing the people of this city here. And that's fine! Nothing wrong with making sure the gods are respected. But, you see, I think that these people have suffered long enough. So, I don't know, could you please leave them be? Otherwise I fear that I might be forced to enforce my will with violence"
There, that was a nice and diplomatic answer. Polite, while also self-assured, nice, but also clear and demanding, a plea, combined with a show of strength and force.
Evidently the crab did not seem to agree with this evaluation at all. If anything it seemed to disagree completely even, if one considered that instead of giving an answer it just raised one of its claws and slammed it down, intent on squishing the annoying little pest before it.
"WHOA" Perseus barely managed to jump out of the way. "Hey, why do you-", he started but before he could continue talking he had to dodge another claw. Sand splashed all around him and the terrified screams of the two sacrifices behind him filled the air. Okay, talking-time is over. Now, let's fight.
Sadly, there was only one small problem. Perseus didn't know jack shit about fighting crabs. Especially the homicidal-three-meter-variant. Versus people or maybe the odd wolf or snake? Sure, he could manage that. But a crab? He had no idea where to even start.
The crab smashed its claw in the sand again, and again Perseus was forced to jump back to avoid it. While doing so he had managed to grab his spear so there was at least that. Not wasting a moment the crab raised and smashed its claw down again and again. All the while Perseus desperately tried to recall what exactly he had learned about fighting with spears. It was, admittedly, not much. He knew that he had to keep his enemy at a distance so he could use the extended reach of his spear at maximum efficiency. And he was certain that spearmen had to be nimble and fast. Why he didn't know but in all his life he had never seen a spear-wielder who was not slender. It made sense, he supposed. When wielding a spear or a lance you had to jab with it, and the faster your jabs were the more you could execute. It also lowered the chances of an opponent grabbing its shaft and then cleaving your head in two with their own weapon considerably.
While he had thought about all this Perseus noticed something. In his hand the spear his father gifted him seemed to thrum with, well, not quite power but something akin to eagerness? Like, like it actually had sentience and wanted to be used. Fighting this urge and keeping the spear and his hand steady was getting harder and harder with each second.
When the crab's claws came down the next time this strange urge broke free; the pincer came down, sinking deep in the sand next to Perseus. His hand began moving without his input and with a short jab and a flicking of his wrists its blade had embedded itself deep into a small crack in the crab's armor. With an unholy shriek of pain the crab pulled its claw back, wrenching the spear out of its flesh as it did so. Idly, Perseus noted that the urge to swing his weapon had dissipated completely.
For a short second the crab stared at him. Then it charged again. It raised it's claws, trying to squash Perseus with them again and again. But Perseus, as if guided by a power not his own, managed to dodge every single time. And, the more he dodged, the more he stayed inactive during the fight, the more his spear seemed to hum with energy. Then, suddenly it happened again. His arms moved without his input, finding another tiny crack in the crab's armor and stabbed through it. Another shriek of pain escaped from the beast and the battle began again. For a time this pattern did not change. The crab charged the young demigod, Perseus dodged and his spear fought seemingly on its own. Slash after slash found its way through the monster's defences. Until, finally, after what seemed like an eternity the spear stabbed into what seemed to be a vital part of the crab's armor. It gurgled a last pained shriek, shuddered and then collapsed onto the shore. It didn't move again after that. It was dead.
For a short while silence reigned. Then, cheers. The citizens of Meliboea who had watched the fight from the cliffs above cheered in joy and some even rushed down towards the beach to free the bound teens and to congratulate and thank Perseus on his victory over the monster that had tormented them for oh so long.
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After that the people of Meliboea brought Perseus back into the city. They cheered and cried tears of joy for him and already plans were made for a grand feast in Perseus' name. Perseus though declined. He knew that he only had a limited amount of time and thus just wanted to leave the city and make his way to Rome. He just asked for one thing. A windrose, a compass, so that he may be able to safely make his way through Greece before the monsters would swarm and kill him.
Thus he stayed only a day. He stocked up his supplies, gladly given to him by the people of Meliboea and made his way out of the city's gates and into the wilderness, intent on arriving in Rome as soon as humanly possible.
The inhabitants of Meliboea didn't forget his deeds though. The opposite actually. For a great many years to come they would tell tales of the young hero that passed through their streets. Who slew a monster and saved their city, only to ask for a simple compass in return. Περσέως εὔτακτος, Perseus the humble, they would call him, and they were forever thankful for what he did.
Perseus though did not notice any of this. By the time this story had spread in the area he was already long gone, braving his way through the Greek wilderness, not aware that this fight would be the beginning of something so grand and mighty, that not even the gods could have foreseen it.
Alright, I'm truly sorry that you guys had to wait this ong for the next chapter. But between university assignments and getting Covid of all things writing was not really high on my list of priorities. I'm back again though so the next chapter should be out considerably faster. This was my first ever fighting scene that I wrote and while I personally think that it turned out kinda okay, I'm not sure what you guys think. I hope that I did not disappoint, and, since it is quite late here when I'm uploading this I'll just go to sleep now and correct any typos I'll find tomorrow. Hope y'all enjoyed it and see yousoon in the next chapter! :D