Page 2 of Meduso
My mother then interjected. “Athena requested our assistance in a war at sea. We assisted, and she was grateful for our help. We told her about our children and she offered to protect you all from the wrath of the other gods, only if you became her temple servants.”
From that day onward, the Graeae were rigorous in their daily lessons with my sisters and me. They worked tirelessly to prepare us for a life on the surface, and that moment when we would be presented to Athena was just a year from now.
“Ladon must go now. Say your goodbyes, Meduso. You will see him again next year,” my mother informed me.
“Next year? Why does he only visit us once a year? Where does he go all this time?” I was curious to know.
“Ladon is protector of the Garden of the Hesperides. He cannot be absent for so long. If Hera were to learn of his prolonged absence, we would all face her wrath,” she explained.
“But what’s in the Garden of Hesperides?”
My mother gave a heavy sigh but smiled. “The orchard is home to her golden apple tree. It was a gift given to Hera and Zeus during their wedding from your grandmother, Gaia. The Hesperide nymphs tend to the grove, but nevertheless Hera demanded the tree be protected from thieves and some of the nymphs that she did not trust. Therefore, Ladon, who never sleeps, was assigned as the tree’s guardian.”
I still didn’t understand why he was the sole protector of the garden. Why weren’t there other creatures who took shifts in guarding it? Why was Ladon forced to have to be separated from his family for all but one day of the year? All because the Goddess Hera had distrust in her nymphs and demanded it? It sounded very selfish to me and illogical, but I wouldn’t dare express these thoughts to my mother out of fear of her reprimanding me for questioning the thoughts and ways of an Olympian goddess.
“Well, what’s so special about a golden apple?” I asked.
My mother raised a brow at me. “Have you ever seen a golden apple, boy?”
I shook my head.
“Well, there you go. That’s why it’s special. It’s a rarity.”
Her answers were still not satisfying to me. I closed my eyes and pressed my soft, silky cheek against Ladon’s face, the face that I had originally petted, not the other ninety-nine others. It was a dichotomous pairing to have my smooth, supple skin against his tough, hard scute. I could feel Ladon reciprocate with affection by allowing me to hold him in an embrace. I sensed his breathing slow as the air from his exhalation drifted through the golden locks of my hair and hit my scalp with a pleasurable warmth.
I had only just met my brother, but knowing that I would only see him once a year gave me grief. My heart tightened and practically shriveled into nothingness when she informed me of this. It was as if I was handed an entertaining plaything only to have it stripped right from me and told I could only play with it once a year. A piece of my soul was broken off and would go with my brother. Discouraged, I separated from Ladon and allowed him to back away from us in the shallow water of the grotto.
His one-hundred monstrous heads began to diminish and he returned back to his original serpentine, draconic self with one head. With swift speed, and grace, he dove back into the waters, leaving my mother and me to ourselves.
“Dear child, tell me what the matter is?” My mother wiped a single teardrop from my cheek as she asked this.
“I just met my brother for the first time, and now I won’t get to see him again for a year!?” I raised my voice, but then realized I may have overstepped my boundaries with my mother. A nervous expression was displayed across my face.
My mother, Ceto, was a goddess herself. Goddess of the deep seas and its creatures and monsters. The whales, sharks, squids, octopi and even the most bizarre of sea monsters were at her beck, call, and command. She was a fearsome sight to behold with her moonlight blue skin and bright apatite eyes that matched the walls of our grotto and palace. Her hair was thick, with navy strands coming from her head that were almost lifelike. Sometimes, I expected the tips of her hair to open their eyes or stick out a slithering tongue. Her upper body was similar to mine, to that of a human, but her lower half was composed of deep purple scales extending into a tail, similar to a dark mermaid.
“Poor boy. There are many things in this world that are unfair. You still have much to learn, Meduso.” She rubbed my back in comfort and held her hand on it as we walked from the grotto and back into the palace.
I hated when my mother said things like this. That I had much to learn, or was still too young, or I would understand in due time. She kept coddling me and making statements like these for years. It kept only reminding me of my inferiority to her, my father, and my sisters.
As we walked the halls of our oceanic palace, one of my older sisters, Euryale, came up and strode with us. “You finally met Ladon! What did you think? Did he scare you? I bet he did!” my sister said in a chipper manner.
I shook my head as my mother spoke up for me. “Meduso carried himself fairly well. You could take a lesson from him, Euryale.” She gave the two of us a wink and moved down the hall ahead of us, leaving my sister and me to ourselves.
“Hmph!” Euryale grunted. “She’s exaggerating. I handled myself just fine when I first met Ladon years ago. I mean… I was startled at first, but just a bit!”
I tried not to snicker at my sister, but then I heard my mother shout back at us, “Euryale howled and cried so loud that even the creatures from the furthest oceans away could hear her!”
This made me laugh uncontrollably. My sister nudged me in the side. She then began to whisper. “Don’t believe her. She’s lying!”
Somehow, I doubted Euryale. When my eldest sister Stheno and I would play tricks and pranks on her, Euryale would wail out bellowing cries and screeches that were gut-wrenching. So, it didn’t take much imagination for me to think about how she acted when she first met Ladon and his one-hundred heads.
As my mother increased her distance from us, Euryale felt comfortable enough to have a one-on-one conversation with me. “It’s sad, isn’t it?”
“What’s sad?” I asked.
“Ladon and Echidna. They’ve been kept hidden from us for years and now that we’re old enough to be let in on the secret, we’re told we can only see them once a year!” Euryale exclaimed.
“It was hard to watch him go. I even cried about it,” I revealed.
