Page 14 of Meduso
“Goodnight, Meduso.”
“Goodnight, Perseus.”
It was difficult for me to even attempt to fall asleep. I stared at the ceiling that was unfamiliar to me, studying the patterns in them. The small cracks, the differences in shades in certain spots, and the shapes of the different stones embedded within it. Being able to familiarize myself in a new setting put me at ease and would eventually allow me to fall asleep effortlessly.
Despite this, it took me another hour or so to eventually reach slumber. I then realized why that was the case. Being so close to Perseus for most of the day, I grew accustomed to his presence and warmth by my side. With him being across the room, there was a distance between us I was not used to. A coldness, or chill of sorts, progressed through all areas of my body. Now, having known the feeling of having Perseus near me and touching me, I didn’t want that feeling to subside.
Chapter 4
The rays of the sun creeping into the window disrupted my sleep, causing me to rise out of bed the following morning. My eyes darted directly over to Perseus’s bed, only to find that he was no longer there. I rose up, drawing my tunic around my body, and headed to the main room of his home. There he stood, lifting a large boulder up and down. I’d never seen anything like it. I couldn’t understand where this strength of his came from.
“Just stretching out for the day,” he explained. “Did you sleep well?”
I nodded. “Yes. Thank you for asking.”
Wrong. This was a complete lie.
I slept terribly last night. It was the first time I had spent the night anywhere that wasn’t my bedroom in the palace. Not only this, but I felt odd about Perseus being across the room from me. I was so used to him being by my side all day yesterday that I became a little displeased when the moment arrived where he was unable to sleep beside me. However, I felt it would be an impertinence to reveal this to him. I feared he would become more stand-offish if I admitted my newfound dependence on him.
“Good. You’ll need all the rested energy you have to handle fishing with Dictys and me.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” I confessed.
Perseus carried the boulder to the far corner of the room and dropped it down there before rubbing his palms together to remove the dust from them.
“You ready to head out?” he asked me.
I nodded.
We hiked down to the beach where we met Dictys, who was placing fishing equipment onto his boat. “Ahhh. Good morning, boys! Perseus, would you mind grabbing those crates for me?”
Perseus lifted the heavy wooden bins full of wire and netting and placed them into the stern of the boat.
“Perfect. That should do it!” Dictys stated.
We all stepped into the boat. Dictys handed me a wooden oar. “Watch Perseus and me, Meduso. Then follow our lead to match our strokes.”
The two began moving their paddles in a circular motion in the water, which allowed the boat to propel further into the sea. Their intensity picked up, providing great momentum. I then studied their movements and then copied them with my own oar. Dictys and Perseus looked back at me to see that I was able to keep up with them.
Dictys commended me. “Not too bad for a first-timer!”
It wasn’t all that difficult. Despite me not being as muscular and fit as Perseus, I was still fairly strong compared to most other mortals. After all, my parents were both gods, and therefore I had acquired at least some of their physical capabilities.
I finally turned my head around to see how far we rowed out from the island, which was now a small speck in the far distance.
“Alright, we settle here,” Dictys declared.
I withdrew my paddle from the water and laid it down in the boat. The sweat was profusely dripping from my head. I used my forearm to wipe it off. Perseus watched me do this and simply smiled. He didn’t even break a sweat, which was honestly somewhat irritating to me, but I smirked back at him.
Perseus began wrapping string around some of the large wooden poles, while Dictys lectured me. “The first type of way we fish is what I callangling. See this pole Perseus is using?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“You weave the string through the holes like this. Then the pole now becomes your base, and we lower the tight string into the water. But there’s a catch. The fish won’t be drawn to the string unless there is something there to attract them.” Dictys reached for a small, slippery creature out of the dirt in an aluminum pail. He knotted the insect on a metal hook attached to the string. “The fish will want to bite this as food and then…”
“They get caught on the hook.” I finished his sentence for him.
“Precisely!” Dictys exclaimed.
