Page 53 of Meduso
“Oh my, Perseus!” Stheno placed her hand over her chest. “Did you catch all of those fish yourself?”
“Of course. It took me an hour, but…”
My sister spoke over him. “An hour!? You caught that many in just onehour!?”
He nodded.
“Well, you must teach me your ways, demi-god. I would love to see what techniques you use.” And just like that, Stheno and Perseus were carried off into their own discussion together. I did not dare to interrupt. I simply watched them intently, listening from the side. I was beyond overjoyed to see how much they had in common and how invested they were in their conversation with each other.
“…And who came up with this contraption over your eyes? Is that simply just glass stone and a fishing line?” Stheno inquired, with great interest.
“Yes. Meduso and I came up with it,” he revealed.
“Ingenious!” Stheno exclaimed.
Eventually, Euryale returned with her hands full, holding the many large cups of wine in her arms. She was slightly spilling the overflowing libations, but not too much was wasted. She was just as astonished as I was to see Stheno and Perseus deep in conversation.
I did my due diligence to carry some of the cups from her hands to sit them down, not wanting her to distract my sister and lover. “Shhh. I’m scared to interject. I don’t want this moment to end,” I whispered to her.
Euryale replied softly in my ear. “Yes. The longer we can keep this going, the better it will be, for all our sakes.”
Unfortunately, no matter how quiet Euryale and I could have been, their one-on-one chatter was put on hold now that the fish were completely cooked. Stheno turned away to gather our hand-crafted plates and utensils, while Euryale cut up the vegetables. We each filled our plates generously with the massive amount of food we had prepared for this feast before moving to sit around the fire.
Stheno was the last to return, kindly handing each of us our cups of wine as we sat and ate. She then raised her cup into the air, motioning for the rest of us to follow her actions. “I would like to toast, to Perseus. Welcome to the Island of the Gorgons. And we hope you enjoy it here as your permanent residence with our brother. And again, I would like to apologize to you for my behavior early on. I should have realized that one additional person here to help protect Meduso is something I should not take for granted.”
“Apology accepted.” Perseus glowed as he said this.
We all drank from our cups and continued to eat and have light-hearted discussions throughout the night. After some peer pressure, Euryale had managed to convince Perseus to have well over four heaping cups of wine along with the rest of us.
As everyone laughed and was giddy, all I could do was smile. Despite me being a cursed gorgon, this scene, right here, was all I ever wanted. Sitting around the fire with family and loved ones, just lost and engaged in our own bliss. And lucky for me, these nights would continue on for months to come.
Chapter 17
Since the night of dinner with everyone in the dining cave together for the first time, things progressed very smoothly. Perseus and Stheno would often be on their own during the day, teaching each other new skills and traits they both were accustomed to. This left me unaccompanied, which I often enjoyed. As much as I loved Perseus, it was healthy for me to get some alone time to myself to think and for clarity purposes.
I usually kept myself on the opposite end of the island from where Stheno and Perseus were in order to allow them and me to avoid any sort of distractions. Today, I decided to scavenge the beach close to the cliffs to see if there were any shelled fish I could gather for food. Lately, I found myself experimenting with different types of cooking. I would often gather various types of fish, vegetables and plants with unique flavors. They were all mixed in a pot together over the fire. Some of the mixtures I made were beyond delicious, which I kept in the back of my mind for potential future meals, while others were just sour and off-putting to the taste. I also made a mental note of those terrible things that I mixed together to make sure that I would never do so again.
As I dug into the deep crevices of the cliff to grab some of these organisms, I felt a dark shadow hovering over me. I immediately dropped everything I had in my hands, completely thrown off by the figure right behind me. That glowing auburn hair and those unearthly blue eyes scanned me, almost menacingly.
I gasped. “Poseidon! What are you doing here!?”
“I have come to warn you, Meduso,” he shared. “I will no longer curse those who come in close proximity to this island.”
I had a sneaking suspicion as to the reasoning behind this, but needed confirmation. “But why?”
“I protected you because you were mine and I wanted no other to have you. But I can see you have captured the heart of another. A heart who also belongs to the gods, I might add. If he weren’t a demi-god, I would have disposed of him long ago. But now, my hands are currently tied.”
“Yes. I do love Perseus,” I confessed.
“Well, be that as it may, I can no longer linger here and watch as another man makes love to you. I look like a fool protecting someone while he lives happily ever after loving another,” he shared.
“Please, Poseidon. I beg of you to see past all of that. Your disturbance of the seas has brought peace to my life. I no longer have to be anxious over intruders coming to this island to murder me.”
“Enough! I will not stand for this. The others will view me as weak if I give in to you.”
“You must reconsider…”
The sea god then cut me off. “I will not. That is final.” His voice became much deeper and stern as I imagined how a typical god would speak. “Once again, you have defied the gods! Your one simple task was to live on this island peacefully, without falling in love with another. But here you stand, completely disobeying all that I demanded of you. Yet you expect me to give you,my property, up to some mortal without consequence!?”
