3

RAGE charged through Hercules like a lightning bolt worthy of Father himself as he looked upon the unconscious young woman nearby, not breathing. Never before had he felt so enraged, so charged.

He wasn't certain what had made him pause, turn, and stare off into the mists of the river. Hercules guessed that he had always looked but rarely paid attention during his quest to locate Phil, as Father had advised him. Most days since he journeyed to the temple, he didn't even look. Didn't think. Didn't feel.

His only goal was to train harder, faster, and stronger, and become a hero worthy of joining his true family on Mount Olympus. But when he, Phil, and his horse, Pegasus, had stopped for water and to rest for an hour, he'd felt a disturbance in the air, and he realized that they were not alone.

Then he'd heard a small sound that snatched him out of his reverie and from his senses, bringing his mind out of thoughts of Mount Olympus and what his true family was like and back to the present moment.

A cry of pain came from the woman and the audible grunting sounds of some beast. As he'd stood there staring, waiting for the creature to come into his line of sight, he felt…something. A dull knife twist in his gut of…what was it? Not pain or even interest, no. But inevitably. Destiny. Like it was…Fate.

Fate had ensured that he was here. Fate had ensured that he was put between the path of this creature and this celestial-like creature the foul beast had a vice grip on in its abnormally large hand and seemed hellbent on breaking every single one of her ribs, for reasons Hercules could not understand why it was.

When he'd spotted the vicious blue centaur holding a young woman captive, tears of pain, anger, and humiliation trailing down her cheeks, Hercules had felt his blood go ice-cold.

He had not even felt it as he'd not hesitated to charge toward the young woman in distress. The creature, whom he thought he heard the young lady call Nessus, dropped the young woman unceremoniously into the river.

Hercules grimaced as he heard her body hit the riverbank with a sickening thud that he knew would bruise.

"Your girl here belongs to you, boy?" The centaur smiled a wicked grin as it snorted and nudged aside the young brunette's limp body with one of its hooves.

She did not so much as flinch. She simply lay there on the ground. Hercules stared numbly ahead of him, unable to take his eyes off the young woman. Unable to breathe, his jaw going slightly slack in surprise, he turned angry, questioning eyes towards the beast that had done this to an innocent young woman.

He would not have imagined such a creature could be so cruel, and yet, the proof was right in front of him.

Hercules could not even tell if she was still alive, for he did not see the rise and fall of her chest to indicate that she was still breathing. He wanted to launch into a screaming tirade at the foul beast, but he kept his mouth shut after noticing Phil shoot him a withering look out of the corner of his eyes.

He also wanted nothing more than to draw his sword and lunge at the beast right then and there.

To take its head as a trophy and kill it as quickly as he could, but taking on the animal here, while it was still so close to the lady's body would be too dangerous for her sake. Hercules knew that he could not risk the woman being trampled upon, tripped over, or otherwise hurt in any other way than she likely already was.

Hercules knew he needed to get this disgusting creature away from this girl so that the young lady was in no danger of any further injury, and judging by her limp form, he knew he needed to hurry.

He could only pray to the gods that he wasn't already too late, that this beast had not already killed her.

The girl was so still that he wasn't sure if she even still lived and drew in breaths of air.

But for now, he had to hope and assume that she was still alive, just knocked out, and the only choice available to him was to get this foul centaur away from her, and fast. His jaw was cut like steel and his sword hand shook as he kept his fingers hovering over the hilt of his weapon. Hercules slowly took steps backward as the centaur slowly trotted forward, thankfully following his lead like he hoped the beast was.

Judging by the looks of his dull expression, the creature was not at all intelligent, thank gods.

"You must be this feisty she-wolf's bodyguard then? What, she wander off?" the centaur guessed, an amused smirk playing at his lips and a nod of its head, sure of himself. "And now, you've come to try to reclaim your precious prize?"

Hercules did not understand what the beast was speaking of but he simply scowled at the hideous creature. He owned no answer to this miserable waste of space and certainly was not about to waste time arguing over the girl. With any luck, the centaur would be dead or at least severely knocked out in a matter of minutes. It did not matter how it happened, only that he took care of the problem, and quickly.

The centaur, oblivious to Hercules' growing anger, continued taunting him.

"Would have been easier if she would have just told me he'd sent you as well. I don't know why your girl here thought it was such a big secret, just look at you, you're no match for the likes of me, boy," he laughed harshly. "Lay down your sword, boy, and I might let you mend her wounds before I take your head as a prize, kid."

"No," Hercules snarled through gritted teeth and glowered a look of daggers at the creature that would have had him already pinned had he the capability. He did not know who this beast was referring to by him, but he did not care. Right now, the only thing that mattered, was her and her safety.

There was no way in the Underworld he was laying down his weapon. Phil's words rang in his mind.

A hero is only as good as his weapon. He knew better than to hope this foul beast was capable of anything other than cruelty, especially towards an innocent damsel in distress.

And of course, the offer the wretch had given, even if this Nessus were sincere, it was not good enough at all. Hercules was not about to give this savage beast the option to retreat.

This centaur was going to suffer for what it had done to this young lady. Hercules had never tolerated violence against the innocent, even before he'd known he was descended from the gods themselves, especially against women, and he did not think he was capable of forgiving it either.

Hercules clenched his fists and felt his hands tremble with rage. He did not consider himself a violent man by nature, gods no, but never before had he wanted to decapitate something so badly as he wanted to now. He wanted to kill this beast, not just once, gods no, but over and over and over again as a fitting punishment for how badly he had hurt the lady. He wanted to bash its skull to the ground, to hear its bones crack, to watch the water of the river he guarded over turn red with his blood. He wanted it.

A surge of emotions that he could not control raged through Hercules so fast that the flustered demigod barely had any time to process them all.

As far as Hercules was concerned, this Nessus had already dug its own grave.

"Get away from the girl now, and please don't make me say it a second time. I hate saying things a second time," Hercules snapped through gritted teeth, letting go of his politeness and uncertainty for they would do him no good here. When the beast made no move to do so, Hercules growled as he lunged toward the centaur, who immediately sidestepped his blow.

He seemed more intelligent than Hercules had originally given it credit for, and it seemed a better fighter than anything else he had encountered thus far during training, but still not more than he could take.

Hercules swung his sword, managing to slice a shallow gash in the centaur's broad muscular chest as it attempted to dodge the blow. The massive beast roared in pain.

Hercules almost had no time to react as it reared upward on its hind legs and brought himself downward with such force that his front left hoof would have connected with Hercules' shoulder and bruised it if not dislocated it. He would have too, had Hercules not ducked away at the last minute. From somewhere behind him, he could faintly make out Phil's gruff voice ringing in his ears as he barked at him.

"C'mon, kid! This ain't the way it's supposed to go! You're fumblin' around like a newborn colt on its legs! You're makin' me look like a fool, the gods are laughing at me up there on their pedestals from Olympus! What did I spend all those months training you for if not for you to use your head?" he shouted, sounding on the verge of pure fury.

A light seemed to ignite behind Hercules's eyes at hearing his words. He flicked his gaze back towards the beast, who was preparing to charge, which gave the half-god a much-needed window of opportunity.

While the River Guardian was gathering momentum, Hercules saw the chance he needed and decided to take it. With a cry of rage on his lips, he bounded forward on his heels and headbutted the beast in the center of his chest as hard as he could manage. The sheer force of the move was more than enough in sending the beast careening backward. As it collapsed into an ungainly heap into the river's murky water, the sickening thud rendered Nessus unconscious and no longer a threat to the injured young woman.

Exhaling a relieved and tired breath, Hercules glanced back over his shoulder to find his horse and Phil staring at him, dumbfounded and disgusted at the spectacle Hercules has just made of himself now.

Phil was naturally the first to recover from the shock that his charge had taken in his words and shook his head to himself, amused.

"That's, uh, not quite what I had in mind, kid, but you did it! Not bad for a first victory! Now, what about the girl, champ?" he snorted, scurrying forward on his stout little legs for a better look at what had Zeus's boy so captivated. Phil's beady black eyes narrowed in on the damsel in distress that had distracted his charge, fully prepared to tell the boy to leave her be, though his eyes widened as he looked her over. "Whoa, kid, damsel alert, and a lovely vision at that," he snorted, his eyes practically bugging out of his sockets the longer Phil looked her over. "Mind her head, champ," the crotchety old Satyr cautioned as Hercules knelt into a crouch to lift the young woman's limp and unconscious form out of the river.

She was soaked through to the bone. Hercules lifted his gaze and glared sharply at Phil, taking the Satyr aback by the almost fierce display of protectiveness towards this broad who they had accidentally just stumbled across.

"I'm not going to hurt her, Phil!" He scrunched his nose and pulled a face of disgust, looking offended that his mentor would even suggest a thing.

Phil's face hardened under the demigod's gaze but the Satyr never flinched.

"You think I don't know that, kid, you're guided by your heart, and it's a good heart. Hades help us all if your heart ever darkens, but all the same, we don't know how badly your damsel in distress here is wounded. It could be worse than it looks. Let's just drop her off someplace, the home of someone who looks kind enough to help, and leave her alone, we ain't qualified to treat her wounds. She needs proper help, and we ain't the ones who are best qualified to give it, kid, do you hear me?" Phil huffed in agitation and scuffed a hoof across the ground, pursing his lips in disappointment as he took in the careful way his charge was holding this young woman, as though this fine broad were made of glass.

Hercules offered Phil a noncommittal grunt by way of response and tore his gaze away from his trainer and looked down at the young woman in his arms. The girl whose life he had hopefully just saved had one arm draped limply across her stomach, her eyes were closed, and thin eyebrows knitted together in a look of utmost worry. The girl's mouth suffered a bleeding cut on her lower lip and her lip was set in a slight pout and she was looking exceptionally pale. She was as pale as a ghost. Hercules immediately shifted her weight to better rest in his arms and carefully, he put a hand against her breast, letting out a relieved breath when he felt a very faint rise and fall of her chest. She was at least still breathing.

Phil snorted and stomped a hoof. "She ain't gonna wake up so nicely, kid. Not after somethin' like that, but I know what you're thinkin'. We can't bring her back to camp with us, kid, we need to be continuing. Thebes is calling your name, Champ. Now isn't the time to let yourself get…distracted by…that."

Phil huffed and Hercules's attention was once more drawn towards his trainer who had scampered forward to appear almost magically in front of him and was glaring at him. For a moment, Hercules was almost unnerved to see the shadow of the beast that lurked beneath Phil's heart and good-natured dark eyes.

Hercules almost flinched but forced himself to remain stoic as he turned to look at his mentor.

"No," Hercules grunted, his mind made up, his decision made. Phil would not be taking the lead on this particular decision. This call was his and his alone, and she was coming with him. He could not leave her out here to succumb to her wounds, or worse, face the centaur's wrath once the beast woke again.

Phil stared at Hercules as though he lost his mind.

Surely, he'd misheard. "What? No, not so fast, kid," Phill held up his hands and scowled heavily as he looked up at Hercules in awe and anger. "This damsel ain't coming with us, kid. What did I just say, huh?"

But Hercules shook his head, sending away the old Satyr's words with a shake of his head.

"Of course she is. Where else—" he started to say, but his trainer immediately cut him off.

"Uh-huh, Herc, ain't gonna happen, kid, and let me tell you how this is gonna go," he grunted. "We gotta be practical about this, Champ. Our camp is barely big enough for you and the horse here, we ain't got the spare supplies to be accommodating to this broad when she starts getting needy. She'll slow us down, Herc, and you know it," he grunted, gesturing with a jerk of his thumb over his shoulder towards where Pegasus was eyeing the woman in Hercules' arms with no small amount of disdain. Perhaps even hatred.

Hercules frowned and fought the urge to launch into a tirade towards his teacher. "She's coming with us, Phil. I'm not just going to leave her here. We don't know how badly she's hurt." Hercules fought to keep the edge out of his voice. "And if you don't agree with my decision, then you can walk to Thebes."

"But she…" Phil angrily clamped his mouth shut until his molars clacked together and his jaw hurt. He scowled and squeezed at the bridge of his bulbous nose hard, as though he thought he could squeeze out a solution to his trainee's attitude that way.

Phil shook his head and stomped a hoof, trying to dissuade the kid from this foolish idea.

The last thing the boy needed was the distraction of a female around when he had bigger more important aspirations. Once he was a true hero in the eyes of his father and the other gods, the ladies would flock to him and he could have his choice of any woman he wanted. He did not understand what was so special about this broad, but even Phil could admit the damsel had a pretty face. Prettier than he'd expected.

"Herc, kid, please reconsider this," Phil tried one last time to argue his point.

But Hercules could not let Phil continue and spoke up forcefully before the Satyr could get a word in edgewise.

"No, Phil. This entire time, I've always gone along with everything you've told me to do, but this time, please, just this once, will you please trust me? I wouldn't feel right in just leaving her here. At least in Thebes, she can get help."

Phil's resolve fell at seeing the spark of care and concern flicker to life behind the kid's eyes.

The champ had a good heart, he would give him that much, but a good heart wasn't going to be nearly enough in the eyes of the gods and was only a part of the measure of a true hero. He felt his anger and annoyance with the kid slowly subsiding. Phil knew he could no longer try to change Herc's mind.

"Fine, kid, you drive a hard bargain, but I hope you ain't gonna make me regret sayin' yes," he grunted, lowering his head, though he did not look at all happy about this new development one bit. "She can come with us to Thebes but the moment we touch down on solid ground, she's gone, outta your life, you hear me? She stays with us one night, and then to Thebes tomorrow, and that's it," he snorted as he looked at him.

Hercules' lips twitched as he fought back the urge to smile, turning his head slightly to peer over his shoulder and down at Phil, where the Satyr stood glowering at him with narrowed eyes.

"Thanks, Phil," he grinned, letting out a morose chuckle, and smirked a bit. "You won't be sorry," he called as Phil turned on his hooves and stalked off towards where Pegasus was eyeing him with no small amount of displeasure.

"Yeah, yeah, save it, champ. I heard it all before and I usually am sorry, but you, I like you. You're different an' I like that. See to it I don't regret this, kid," was all Phil barked at him by way of a reply.

"Don't worry, Phil," Hercules murmured, and then, turning his gaze back to the young brunette in his arms, he lowered his voice several octaves so that not even the old goat could hear him. "You won't."

He kept his gaze fixed on the woman in his arms, transfixed. Even in her sleep, she looked like a goddess. For a moment, he caught himself wondering if she was, a goddess disguised as a mortal. Surely, based on the stories he'd heard, it would not be the first time it had happened. He wondered which one.

Hercules tugged on the bridle a tad while Pegasus snorted and made a protesting whinny and staggered backward the moment he tried to drape the young woman's unconscious form over his lean and muscular back. The horse scowled.

"Pegasus, stop this, please don't be this way," Hercules pleaded, huffing a frustrated sigh as he looked up in alarm just in time to see the winged beast stomp a hoof irritably, wanting nothing to do with the girl.

A snort escaped the demigod's lips at how expressive Pegasus could be at times. He shook his head to himself and sighed, casting a glance towards Phil, perched on a rock.

But Phil merely raised a brow and said nothing. It was clear Hercules would get no help from him. Hercules sighed, growing increasingly irritated, and looked back to his horse. But the closer he approached with the woman in his arms, the more irritable the beast became.

"Alright, alright, I understand, Peg, that you don't like this, you don't know her yet, but I'm sure she's not all that bad. Why don't you give her a chance? Just…hold your horses for a minute and let me do this, please." But Pegasus simply scuffed a hoof against the ground in disapproval and whinnied loudly. Hercules rolled his eyes. He knew he did not like his jokes much. "Hey, that joke was funny, Peg, and you know it," he protested softly as he approached his horse. "Two apples back at camp if you let me. Maybe three if you let me do this without a fuss," he contested and stood still while Pegasus glowered at him.

It took the prideful beast several moments, but eventually, his horse laid down his white pointed ears in utter annoyance while his amused master helped the unconscious girl to sit up on the horse as best he could before climbing onto Pegasus himself, letting the girl's dead weight collapse back against his chest.

Hercules gave the horse an affectionate pat on the side and spoke in soft tones to soothe the horse's agitation.

"There we go, that's a good boy, Pegasus. Three apples," he promised his traveling companion with a glint in his eye. Pegasus offered a huff by way of response as he looked forward and took to the skies without looking back once Phil had scampered up onto his back, with some help on the last leg from Hercules.

Hercules was surprised to see that Pegasus was flying faster than the beast ever had in the months that he had known the creature since Father had gifted the animal to him at the temple, but perhaps it was the promise of three apples back at camp that was causing the horse to fly there with such speed.

The girl did not wake but began to shiver violently, uncontrollably. Hercules wound his hands around the young brunette's small waist and tried to ignore the faint blush speckling along his cheeks.

His fingers gripped almost painfully tight onto the fabric of her dress and it was all the demigod could do to keep from dropping her. Hercules knew it even then as he held her that the gods, that Fate itself, even, had brought something new and something extraordinary, something fascinating, into his world.

THE agony splitting through Meg's head from where she'd struck the side of her temple when Nessus had dropped her was nearly unbearable to suffer. A guttural groan left the back of her throat as she stirred awake. It took Meg a few minutes to open her eyes and once she did, she was struck with the frightening realization that she could hear no running water. Which meant that she had been moved, but to where?

Images and flashes of things that had come before waking up just now flitted through her mind's eye and the events that had led her to receive such a blow to the head came back to her in waves and she tried to lift her head to see where she was. But the moment Meg did, black spots snaked their way into her line of sight and she felt her world start to spin. She felt dizzy.

"Oh, gods, this hurts. Ow," she groaned and squeezed her eyes shut as she pressed a hand to the side of her temple in agony, wishing the pain would stop. "Iapetus, help me," Meg moaned lowly under her breath as she tasted bile. She felt sick to her stomach. She opened her eyes slowly and sat up, struggling to discern where she was and who had brought her here. Wherever 'here' happened to be for her.

She furrowed her brows as she realized that someone had draped a thick cloak over her lap and the sound of a crackling fire and the logs popping in the flames greeted her ears.

"Hello?" Her voice was soft but more than a whisper as she slowly sat up, willing the sick feeling to leave her body before she attempted to try to stand upright.

She saw no other souls wandering about here, she realized, as she sat up and let the cloak someone had draped over fall to the ground. Meg turned her gaze to the side once the giddiness in her vision danced away and the spots left her.

A campfire? She thought, furrowing her brows in confusion, and looked around to discern where she was.

It looked to be a makeshift camp, of sorts, and the fact that someone had taken care to drape the cloak over her while she'd slept made her realize that whoever had whisked her away to this place surely meant no ill intentions. For an enemy would not trouble to make sure she was safe and comfortable.

Meg tried to console herself as she looked around for any signs of life at all. She tried to wrack her brain for a logical reason why someone would take her with him…wherever she was right now.

If it was someone in league with Hades, well…most of the creatures and men who chose to ally themselves with the God of the Underworld did not take prisoners. They either decided you weren't killing for some reason or you were killed. There was no in-between.

She was learning about her new master fast enough, Meg realized bitterly.

But if it was someone allied with Hades who had brought her here, then for them to get her here was not something she could understand, and not just because she was suffering from a harsh blow to her head that was already bruising. Why was she here? For what reason?

Meg's thoughts were muddied and confused as she fought to get a grip on herself.

A thought swam towards her, dangerous, like a shark hungry for blood.

Maybe you dreamt it, Meg. There was no guy with a sword, there is no campfire, you were not miles away from the River Guardian's lair, you're still having your ribs crushed by that brute of a horse's ass, chimed a familiar voice from the back of her mind. It was the same voice that had consoled her and gotten her through the worst of Prince Adonis betraying her love and completely breaking her heart.

Alarmed, Meg quickly took another step forward, away from the forest clearing she'd woken in, and headed towards the edge of the woods, and whatever or whoever might be waiting for her there.

She stood amidst the tall trees swaying in the winds of the beginning of autumn, mesmerized and amazed she had survived Nessus' attack. But…what of her rescuer?

Meg chewed on her lip as she wondered if she should find him and at least say thank you.

Meg lingered in the shadow of a huge tree that was as tall as a marble column, feeling the earth seeming to rejuvenate her as she parted her lips slightly to draw in air and breathed in her first breath of clean air in weeks. She did not know how long she lingered, trying to decide.

But it was then that she saw him, just off to her right. Meg froze in her tracks, her breaths catching in her lungs. Her first impulse was to run and hide, to disappear before he would see her, but even as the thought flitted across her mind, she dismissed it immediately. She did not think this man would hurt her.

Surely, he couldn't see her. The man—no, this Wonder Boy, for only someone perhaps so pigheaded and wondrously foolish would take on a brutish fiend of a beast as horrid as Nessus—was standing with his back paraded to her, his hands running over the mane of his winged horse, a beautiful beast.

Meg, though she had sworn off men and the heartbreak they carried with them, was still quick to admire Wonder Boy's appearance. She liked how one strawberry blond curl fell over one eye and when he turned his head to the side, his crystalline blue eyes were the clearest shade of blue she had ever seen. He was truly something else, what she could see of him at least, from this vantage point and distance. Angular-defined muscles rolled along his chest, stomach, his arms, and rippled down his back.

Meg swallowed hard and when she did, it felt like she was swallowing knives.

She scowled and quietly shook her head to herself.

"Get a grip, Megara, do not even think about going there, you know better than this," she hissed through gritted teeth. Her embarrassment quickly gave way to anger. Her emotions shook her from her fantasy.

She stood there, shaken, trying to force her lungs to calm.

Meg frowned as she realized there was something about the way this Wonder Boy was standing that caught at her, causing a strange nagging tug at her heartstrings that she did not know why.

He kept his shoulders hunched inward as if it were cold.

But it wasn't cold. Cool, perhaps, yes, but otherwise a lovely night with autumn upon them now.

The man was as still and silent as an owl. He was completely still as if he were carved in the finest of marble, like the statues of the gods themselves. With that physique, she thought he could almost be one. The trees swayed in the wind, creaking and groaning as they moved with the wind, but he didn't.

Meg watched her savior, this Wonder Boy, for what seemed like a long time.

But Meg, not Wonder Boy, was the first one to move away. Exhausted, Meg quietly turned on her heels, having to lift the skirts of her dress a bit to avoid tripping on the long hem, and gingerly made her way back to the campsite, her side where Nessus had cracked one of her ribs throbbing as she walked.

Meg barely made it before she collapsed onto the pile of blankets that someone had set out for her and laid her on top of, hoping to ensure her comfort, which Meg appreciated, more than she could ever put into words. She was weaker than she thought. Meg expected to be facing another sleepless night, to suffer through another night of pain and bitterness and heartbreak, her imagination replaying the moment over and over again when Adonis had left her for the comfort of another woman, and one far prettier.

But in a moment, Meg fell asleep again. In seconds, she had fallen asleep and, for the first time in entirely too long, she was unafraid. She felt…safe here.

She enjoyed the first peaceful sleep she'd known in ages. That night, she did not dream of Prince Adonis, or her parents' deaths, many moons ago, which only added to her pain of Adonis leaving. No.

Meg dreamt of Wonder Boy.