A/N Just to let everyone know, this isn't going to be a short story. (Or so I'm planning) Achilles will live and everything, but it's not like he can just find Briseis in a second, and they run off all happy and everyone's okay with it. I won't give away the whole plot, but there's going to be a lot of things in the way. But keep reading! There hasn't been a lot reviews, but I'm still going. (Although they are very much appreciated and thanks to the people who have reviewed)
Chapter 3: The Awakening and a Slight Problem
Achilles was drifting in a sea of darkness, the gentle tide carrying him along in no particular direction. The pain had vanished, and his mind was blank. Sometimes he thought he saw faces and shapes mold themselves around him, but they always disappeared whenever he tried to get a better look.
After a while, his brain started to come alive again. Where was Hermes, coming to lead him to cross the River Styx? Was he actually in the river, doomed to float along ever more, never to even step foot in to Hades' Realm? Had he done that much evil in the world?
He had no idea how much time was passing. Had it been years since he'd died? Were they rebuilding Troy as a Greek city? Odysseus had probably been put in command since Briseis had killed Agamemnon. Briseis… What was she doing? Was she remembering him? Had she found another? Achilles' stomach lurched painfully at the thought.
But the pain in his stomach didn't go away. It started throbbing actually. So did his ankle.
'Nice,' Achilles thought sarcastically. As the pain got worse, the invisible water he was in started to get rougher. It was still pitch black. He couldn't move. He simply went along with the current, trying to decipher where he was going.
Then came the waves. Or was it waves of pain? One after the other, they engulfed him. Sometimes he couldn't breathe. Or was that his imagination?
'I thought death was supposed to be painless,' Achilles gritted his teeth at a particularly severe stab of pain. The water was becoming even choppier though his head never seemed to go under.
It was so rough… Achilles couldn't move a muscle. He was being tossed around, but staying still at the same time. It was coming to the point where he couldn't think properly with all the pain and movement.
'Zeus dammit, HELP ME!'
Suddenly, there was a bright light. Not a gentle one either. He still couldn't see anything. But he was becoming aware of no more water, and that he was on a soft surface. The light faded, and Achilles opened eyes he didn't know he had closed.
He still couldn't see well after all his time in darkness, and he squinted, trying to figure out where he was. When a smiling Odysseus swam in to view he had to close his eyes and open them again several times before he believed what he was seeing.
"About time you woke up," Odysseus said. "Every body has been calling from overseas, wondering if the rumor were true, that the great Achilles was dead."
"But I am, aren't I?" asked Achilles.
"You are very much alive, my friend," said the king. "But just barely. I've never seen anyone pull through with four arrow wounds to the chest and one to a particularly sensitive tendon in the ankle. It's been named after you, you know. The Achilles tendon."
The warrior sat there, stunned. He wasn't dead? But those wounds had been fatal, he knew it. If they weren't… they weren't… Briseis…
"Am I still in Troy?" Achilles praying deeply that he was.
"Yes, we couldn't move you while you were in that state." Odysseus grimaced. "You couldn't have picked a worse time to get mortally wounded. We've been having a lot of trouble with prisoners."
Achilles' stomach suddenly tightened. Prisoners? Were they hurting them? What if Briseis… no, he had seen her escape… Or what if she and Paris had been found?
These worries chased around his mind, but he kept his face calm and asked, "Prisoners from Troy? What've they been doing?"
"Oh, the usual things… Picking fights, being unreasonable, shouting insults… Most of the soldiers just want to go home, see their families."
"Did anyone escape?" Please let her be safe…
"Well, we have no real good count, but I'm sure about fifty to a hundred people got away, although we have no idea how. And it's just our luck the last of the royal family was with them."
So Briseis had gotten away. Achilles took a deep breath and tried not to let Odysseus see his relief. He swiftly changed the subject.
"You're in charge then?"
"Well, there isn't a 'King of Kings' anymore, but out of the Kings, they seem to think I'm the best to generally supervise things here. Some countries have gone home already."
"Are you expecting me to?"
Odysseus raised his eyebrows. "I don't think you could leave all the excitement…" Achilles laughed. The king was playing his mind tricks on him, but he needn't have bothered. Achilles wouldn't have left Troy while Briseis was somewhere nearby for all the riches in the world.
"How much time has passed since Troy fell?" If he could just find the trail of the survivors…
"Oh, I'd say about three months, and then it's going to take even longer for you to heal properly." Odysseus looked sympathetic. "I don't think that ankle will support you for a while."
Three months? Then even longer? Achilles fell back on his pillows, dismayed. He'd never be able to find them. They could reach Thebes in that time. King Eeton would take them in, and then he'd have no chance. He didn't even know what direction Paris had led them.
'Maybe we never were supposed to be together,' he thought dully. 'The gods seem to be doing everything they can to keep us apart.'
How very wrong he was.
Eros was worried about his mother, Aphrodite. She had never been this focused a couple before. They were only mortals, after all.
"Oh, Eros, you have much to learn," Aphrodite had told him exasperatedly. "I supposed it's because you're male. They can never understand the beauty of these things."
"Mother, you're fighting a losing battle. This mortal man can't heal I time for him to catch up to them before they reach Thebes."
"I'm working on it, dear son. You forget my power. I'm putting so many obstacles in the way they won't know what hit them."
Eros stilled looked unconvinced.
"Never mind boy, go shoot some handsome man into falling in love with a rock or something. And don't worry about me, I've got everything planned out."
Aphrodite didn't count on Eris.
Normally Eris just stayed with Ares, causing wars for him to fight in, but when she heard about Aphrodite's latest project, she got an idea, one that would cause the most trouble since the Trojan War.
A/N Dundundun… Well, not really, but you get the picture. Please review!