So it's about time I update again. Sorry Stardew Valley is a pretty addictive video game... so it kinda tore my attention away. Like... for real. According to Steam I played 60 hours this week alone. Not that anyone reads this anymore because of my shitty update schedule, but I hope the internet enjoys this anyway.
So another detail I had to change from RW is Meg's literacy. In ancient Greece it was normal for girls of royalty to learn how to read and write, even if girls in the general population didn't. With Megara being royalty she would have been taught how to read and write, which is why you haven't seen me include her little literacy lessons in the story.
Also, not that anyone has picked on it, but I feel the need to defend one detail I keep adding. Meg getting freaked out by pillars or anything really that reminds her of her own death. If it seems odd to give her an almost PTSD level complex over it, I did it partially from experience. I had a brain tumor removed when I was 18 (any old followers of mine may remember my long hiatus during that) and for YEARS I could not hear the sound of a drill, saw, or similar noises without it making me flinch and get a headache because of the association with the surgery. Even the dentist sounds make me uncomfortable. So I figured Meg would have similar issues with anything that reminds her of extreme pain.
The meeting with Aphrodite did little to help my insomnia; her mentioning my family's curse was not the most sleep conductive topic. Dawn was still hours away, and sleep a fleeting fantasy, so I decided to risk Hercules's frantic worrying to wander around the island a little to explore the place where he was trained. The moon was close enough to full to provide an adequate level of light, ensuring that my chance of tripping over everything was at least slightly lower. Until the clouds hid it too. But I decided to take the risk.
Seeing the place where Hercules became Wonderboy was charming. The stadium was in good shape, considering the larger stadium Phil had commissioned on the mainland. The grass was still well trimmed, the equipment tended to; it appeared Phil even tried to manage to the moss and vines threatening to climb the stone. I tried to picture an (even more) awkward teenaged Hercules, in all his stuttering and clumsy glory. I was curious what he looked like before meeting Phil. Was he born the muscled man from every woman's fantasy, or was he some scrawny gangly teen like the rest of us once upon a time? He would talk to me at times about how hard it was to gain control of his strength, and evidence of that was hidden around the stadium if you looked for it.
Broken pieces of equipment shelved with the intact, cracks and fractures in some of the walls stone seating and railings. A few of the training dummies were hardly holding together. A discus embedded into a pillar, a spiderweb of cracks marring the surface. A twinge of phantom pain shot through me, and I backed away from it before I realized what I was doing. I scolded myself, but distanced myself anyway with the excuse I wanted to finish my impromptu tour.
Scattered throughout the stadium was evidence of Phil's legacy. Hercules was merely his latest, and most successful, charge. The satyr clearly took pride in his work; the various trophies, banners, medals, vases, and other scattered bits of pottery and fabrics that showed off previous heroes. I recognized many of the names from stories, poems, and epics. I couldn't help but feel a bit more respect for him. I had always attributed Wonderboy's feats to his own abilities, but I had never actually given much thought to how he honed those abilities.
Hercules was so proud and excited about his achievements and abilities it made me wonder if he would even be willing to tell me more about these teenage training years. During the months we spent getting to know each other our pasts was a subject we both seemed to steer clear of. I wondered briefly if he had as much to be ashamed of as I, but I quickly realized how silly that thought was. He was so damned good I couldn't picture him being as much a fool as I had been. I yawned, thinking I had managed to waste some time and figured it was about time I made my way back to the cottage.
Once back I heard Phil and Hercules were still deep into their snoring contest before I even opened the door, a winner yet to be determined. Resigning myself as reluctant spectator and judge of this contest I opened the door. Echo woke despite my efforts to be quiet, and charged a the door barking and wining, his tail wipping back and forth with enough energy to knock him off balance. Phil and Hercules were both thankfully disturbed from their competition, Wonderboy jolting to his feet like the vigilant hero.
"What?" He shouted, leaping to his feet and immediately knocking his head on a low shelf and cursing loudly while Phil provided backup with a series of monosyllabic noises and decided he won the snoring contest because he rolled over back to sleep mercifully quiet,
"Wonderboy! That mouth," I tisked, picking up Echo and pretending to cover his ears, "Why, never have I heard such language, think of the little one," and immediately weirded myself out at the sideways implication. Hercules blushed, and babbled a little only stopping when I chuckled a little, "Teasing... just teasing. I am the last person to call someone out for cursing," I rolled my eyes and put Echo back on the floor before I accidentally dropped the writhing critter. "Didn't mean to wake you. Couldn't sleep so I went for a walk, tried to sneak back to bed bug I guess Echo decided I needed a grander entrance,"
"Oh," Hercules sat back down, rubbing his eyes. "Nightmares?"
"No," Not this time, "Just couldn't sleep," I shrugged, deciding not to embarrass him by announcing the real reason. He mumbled a response and flopped noisily onto his back, causing me to flinch at the thud. Echo took advantage to manically lick at Hercules's face until he nudged the pup away and hiding under the protection of his blanket.
"Going back to sleep?" He mumbled,
'Gonna try," I replied, sliding into the bed where Echo enthusiastically joined me until I too hid under a blanket to try and hide from incessant (adorable) licking. Pushing thoughts of Aphrodite and my dead family from my mind I closed my eyes.
"Meg?" I sat up sharply, looking around for the source of my name, "Whoa, whoa, easy!"
"Huh? Oh... Wonderboy..." I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to focus, "What?"
"You were tossing around and whimpering... I figured you were having a nightmare," He explained, and I tried to recall my dream. A few pictures briefly came to mind and were gone.
"I can't remember," I explained, though that was probably for the best. "But thanks," I added. Whatever I was dreaming about was clearly unpleasant.
"I was about to wake you up anyways, Phil has a fire going outside, cooking up something to eat," I nodded, humming a 'yes' though a yawn. I was surprised that I had been such a heavy sleeper as of late, normally the slightest noise was enough to jar me awake yet I'd been the one waking up last. And I knew it wasn't my instantaneous comfort and sense of security around Wonderboy, as romantic as that explanation would be. "Never would have pegged you as a late sleeper," He smirked at me,
"I was up half the night," I retorted, feeling defensive and wondering where his uncanny ability to seemingly read my mind came from. He chuckled at me and held out his hand,
"Come on,"
"Alright alright, just give me a minute," I waved my hand at him. "I'll be right out," After sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, after a trek around an island, I had the strongest desire for a scalding hot bath. I mustered the energy to get myself up and outside.
"Hey there sleepy. Enjoy your coma? Should stay with me for a week, I'll train ya to handle waking up in the mornin'" Phil bellowed, gesturing me to join him and Hercules by the fire. I rolled my eyes at his comments.
"Yeah yeah," I sat where Hercules was frantically patting the ground, and was handed a plate of food, "thanks," I wasn't very hungry having only been awake for several minutes but ate nonetheless while the food was hot and before my urgent desire to leave ruined my mood. "You two slept well last night," I commented, deciding to respond to Phil's earlier taunt with some taunting of my own.
"So did you,"
"Well I was up half the night because you two were trying to see if you could wake up all of Thebes from this island with your snoring." I glared at Hercules, "You too Wonderboy," I added to his smug smile he was giving Phil.
"You said you just couldn't sleep!" he shouted back to me through a mouthful of food.
"Yeah, now you know why,"
"Oh I've snored my whole life, ain't stoppin' now," Phil replied dismissively. "You shoulda' heard how bad Herc was as a kid! Ah!" He began laughing, "
"Guess lucky for me Wonderboy doesn't seem to snore normally," I chuckled, my mood beginning to ease. Phil looked at me skeptically, lifting a brow,
"What, you watchin' him while he sleeps?" He asked, and I felt a sudden flush take over my cheeks, nose, and even my ears began to burn. I gave Hercules a sideways glance and saw he had stopped chewing a large mouthful of a food an equally aggressive flush reddening his own face. "Oh." Phil finally added, to really punctuate the silence with an extra edge of awkward. He cleared his throat and quickly changed subjects asking about the nightmare Hercules had woken me out of,
"I don't remember," I shrugged,
"I dreamed about the greatest pottery shop evah," Phil started, and carried on for a few moments about his favorite pieces of pottery to chew on. I wondered if it was a satyr thing, because it certainly wasn't a goat thing. Hercules too added a confusing story of his dream that neither Phil or I could follow. After breakfast we thanked Phil for cooking what was a startlingly good meal. Hercules whistled for Pegasus, who was enjoying the large open field. We mounted the reliable steed to head back to Thebes.
Par usual I clung to Hercules with every ounce of strength I had, Hercules holding onto me probably more to reassure me than anything, and Pegasus enjoyed himself trying to terrify me until he got a scolding from Hercules, and a threat of an unwanted gift of my breakfast from me. Hercules tried to rationalize my fear and explain it away with assurances I would be fine, and I argued back with my fear was not going to vanish so quickly; especially with Pegasus doing everything within his power to ensure my fear stayed as strong as possible.
We finally landed, and Pegasus flew back into the sky probably to burn off the desire to perform tricks he wasn't allowed to do when I was on his back. Once on my feet again I took a few moments to ensure I wouldn't simply trip over thin air the moment I took a step, or vomit all over the cobble path to the door.
"We gotta work on this fear," Hercules said. Again.
"You say that every time," I rolled my eyes. We head to the villa and I was looking forward to drawing a hot bath. We entered through a side entrance that opened into the kitchen and found Jason sitting at the table,
"Hercules! Megara! Thank the Gods you're home! Helen came while you were gone, Alex... she tried to... she... she was attacked!"