Alexa was big. That was the first thing she noticed when she became aware of her surroundings. She was big. How big, she did not know, but judging by the full grown man jogging next to her she seemed to be about three times bigger than she had been when she put her head down on her pillow.
The two of them marched across a craggy landscape, with sparse patches of grass and ferns. Dead brambles mixed with the coarse sand and stone underfoot. The whole place smelled unmistakably of sulfur. It took several steps before Alexa realized that her left leg was completely bare, while the other was in some sort of brace, clutching her from the foot all the way to the calf. Every other step sounded unnaturally loud.
"Are you sure about this?" The man next to her asked. She glanced down at him looking past a curling, brambling black mass attached to her face. Despite her newfound height, he still appeared tall, his hair was black and curly and his beard was trimmed short. He wore a tunic, cinched at the waist by a sword belt, a cloak hung loosely around his shoulders, and although both his feet were adorned with sandals one was a slightly different shade of brown, more red in tone than the other.
Alexa felt her mouth crease into a small smile.
"Aye, captain." A voice said, using her own lips. "I'm sure. If it isn't done, we'll have to survive the gods only know how long with what few rations remain. I will not risk our quest if I can do something to assure we make it home safely"
There was a pause, during which Alexa found herself amazed at the new deep, bassy, baritone she found herself speaking with. She continued, her mouth twitching slightly at the corners.
"Besides which, your beloved has not taken well to the food situation. If I have to spend any longer on board with her I may have to tie her to the anchor"
The man next to her grimaced and looked away.
"She's...not so bad, once you get to know her. She just has a different way about her." The man said, though something in his voice made her wonder whether he himself believed the words he was saying.
The pair traveled in silence for a time, until they crested a small hill and found themselves staring down into a basin dotted with smoking, bubbling pools. Each belched out plooms of thick, eggy gas. The man next to her gagged slightly and covered his nose with his cloak. Alexa ignored him, her own eyes drawn to a figure sitting in the mud.
Although Alexa would consider herself large by mortal standards, this creature, this thing was larger. Even from a distance Alexa estimated it easily cleared 10 feet tall when it stood upright. It was boxy looking, with its skin as craggy and rough as the ground they had been walking over. He grinned a lopsided grin, showing cracked, misshapen, green teeth below a slightly dripping, squashed looking nose and single massive eye set directly into his forehead. The cyclops stood, his sheepskin loincloth coated with mud.
"The gods be with you, my friend." Said the man next to Alexa. Alexa squared her shoulders and walked forward into the hot muddy field.
"Well! Didn't think you'd show up!" The cyclops laughed, grinning even wider. "But here you are! Right on time!"
"I did swear to be here" Alexa responded cooly.
"Heh, a promise made by a hero is never to be trusted!" The cyclops scoffed.
"A promise made by a cyclops, less so." Alexa shot back. "We have an agreement."
"Of course! Pankration, to the death. The winner will receive the hand of the lovely Princess Tryphosa-"
"Which I will return to her once I've won." Alexa interrupted.
"The rights to her dowry-" The cyclops tried to continue
"Which are rightfully her father's and will go to the man who actually weds her." Alexa interrupted again.
"And the rights to rechristen the temple in the name of whatever god they wish." The cyclops finally finished, glaring down at Alexa.
"It is already dedicated to my father. Why would I want to rechristen it?" Alexa said with a roll of her eyes. "We are both agreed on the stakes and my captain is here to officiate, he will declare the one he brings back as the winner."
"Yes" The cyclops grunted. "The contest starts now!"
That was the only warning Alexa received before the cyclops' great fist slammed into her with the speed of an oncoming truck. Leaping to one side, Alexa barely avoided the punch aimed towards her head, instead taking it on the shoulder. The force, however, sent her flying, skidding through the mud. She slammed her right leg straight down into the mud. The metal brace squealed and groaned but held firm as she skidded to a halt.
The cyclops closed in on her again, but this time Alexa was ready. She raised her left arm to block the haymaker aimed for her head. She felt it connect with her forearm, the blow made her buckle but she drove her other fist forward. In the space of a second she had delivered three powerful jabs, one right after the other, into the cyclops' gut. It winded her opponent but he recovered before the fourth fist flew. He grabbed her by the wrist and swung her over his head like a sack of flour, flinging her through the air again.
The muddy ground absorbed much of the force and Alexa dissipated the rest with a controlled roll. She came up spitting out dirt, much of it stuck in her new beard. She gritted her teeth, her opponent charged, baring his own. He clasped his meaty, craggy hands high over his head. Alexa grunted and jumped to one side, driving her bronze covered leg into the cyclops' left knee. The one eyed beast bellowed in pain and swiped at her, but Alexa had already jumped out of harm's way, getting in close to deliver another few strong punches to the center of her opponents body.
She, or more appropriately, the man whose point of view she was stealing, seemed to have realized that getting in close was too risky of a prospect with such a powerful opponent. She ducked, parried, and dodged each of the cyclops' blows and followed through with a few well placed, almost as powerful hits of her own. Before long the cyclops' body was covered in large blackening bruises.
But this could only last for so long. During one jab straight to her opponent's kidney, Alexa overextended. The cyclops had managed to whirl around and grab Alexa's throat, slamming her by the collar straight into the mushy mud.
Pressing her into the ground, the cyclops began to squeeze the air from Alexa's lungs. He grinned a malicious, moss toothed grin down at her.
"You heroes are all the same! You think just because you're a child of a god it makes you special! That nothing on earth can hurt you! I'll let you in on a little secret, demigod, most monsters have the blood of the gods in them too!" His grin grew wider as Alexa gasped for air, her struggling growing weaker beneath his bulk.
"Not...just...god blood" Alexa managed to gasp as a familiar pulling, burning sensation filled her gut.
"What?" The cyclops asked, confused for the very first time since their fight began.
"I...not just...god blood." Alexa gurgled again. Her eyes locked on the cyclops' own. She drew a ragged gasp and choked. "Mountain blood"
All around the pair the pools of boiling water exploded. Coils of red hot stone, covered in blackened and grayed patches of hardening rock burst, sizzling, through the pools and all struck simultaneously. Each hit the cyclops' chest and the combined force threw him back several feet. He slid and stumbled, his legs caught in mud that had rapidly hardened as the water was scorched out of it. Thick bands of burning hot lava wrapped the cyclops from head to toe. He was immune to the heat, but the lava just kept coming, covering everything below his neck and cooling into a thick volcanic rock. The cyclops struggled, his massive strength breaking the rock as it hardened but it was doing its job. It held him fast while Alexa got to her feet. She threw herself up a spire of stone she had just created, leaping high over her opponent like a wrestler performing a drop from the ring post. The cyclops saw what was about to happen seconds before it did.
"Father! He-!" He screamed, but before he could finish Alexa had driven her bronze braced foot straight into his skull. She felt something beneath her give, then half a heart beat later a gold sand puffed out of the broken stone mound she had crashed into.
Huffing and puffing, Alexa pulled herself up and brushed the monster dust from her clothing. The man from before was whooping and cheering some distance away where she had left him. She gave him a small smile and waved, already starting to move towards him when the earth rumbled.
The ground shook and it was all Alexa could do to keep standing as a voice boomed. "Palaimonius!"
Alexa turned towards the sound of the voice. Water gushed up from the gushed up from the ground, a new salty spring forming in the middle of the former battlefield. The rock spires she had created cracked and dropped into the pool, quickly swallowed up by the rising water. Stepping purposely onto the muddy bank was a man. His beard was short and neat, black as his hair. His eyes were as green as the sea and surrounded by sun crinkles. In one hand he held a trident practically humming with power, a greenish blue light dancing across the tips. Alexa found her throat convulsively swallow.
"L-lord Poseidon!" She says, quickly bowing.
"None of that!" Snapped Poseidon stepping up to Alexa. It took all of Alexa's willpower to keep from flinching. The sea god glowered down at her.
"What have you done to my son?" He growled, waving the trident at the pile of stones. Alexa gulped again, but rather than cower, which was all she wanted to do, Alexa felt her chest puff up.
"My lord, he was using his strength to bully the nearby kingdom. He was killing villagers and livestock indiscriminately, and with no sacrifices to the gods! I only did this at the behest of King Nikodemos, who only asked me for the fear of what he would do to his people and his daughter if he was allowed to continue his rampage." Alexa felt the explanation tumble from her lips.
"Be that as it may, he was still my son!" Poseidon growled, the tips of his trident glowing more brightly. "And you will be punished for this!"
"You must do what you think is right, my lord." Alexa found herself saying, glancing away from Poseidon's face and looking at the ground. "I will gladly accept my punishment so long as the people of this kingdom are safer than they were yesterday."
Poseidon continued to glare down at Alexa for several long moments...then…
"Damn you heroes...why must you always be so noble" The sea god sighed, his face softening slightly. He glanced back at the salt water pond he had made and sighed again. "I love all my children...every single one of them, even when they do what Xenophon did."
He turned to face Alexa again. "He was in the wrong, I know, but that does not mean you can escape punishment for this." He frowned at Alexa, then his eyes were cast towards Jason, then he looked back at the pond again. "Your father...he'd be Hephaesteus? He blessed you with the blood of mountains?" He waved vaguely at the smaller pools, now bubbling and boiling once again.
"Aye, my lord." Alexa answered with a nod.
"Very well then." Poseidon said, suddenly businesslike. "From this day forth, no demigod with mountain blood within their veins will ever be allowed in my domain. Ships they sail on will be met with parol, and any who find themselves within my domain without a ship will become as weak as a fish is upon dry land. That is the curse I lay upon you Palaimonius, and be grateful it isn't something far worse!"
"T-thank you, my-" Before Alexa could thank him properly, the sea god turned and marched back into the pool he had made. The next second, he was gone.
Alexa turned back to her companion, who was staring, open mouthed, at what had just occurred. With a sigh Alexa trudged back to him.
"I suppose that means...I can't return with you, captain." Alexa said sadly, the pair walking back down the other side of the hill.
"It...it is unfortunate but...no. No you can't." The man next to her said with a small shake of his head.
The world around Alexa began to swirl, as if the world had suddenly become a water color that someone had dunked in a bath tub.
"Well...I suppose it's better than what could have happened." Alexa found the baritone saying from a long way off. "At least I could do my part to get the men back to Iolcus. Do us a favor and raise a glass for me, won't you Jason?"