Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
I'm having to improv. Could be worse; could be hands, stone balls, or both. Friggin' Mythago. I still give her a hard time about that!
CERAMIC DM March 2012
I'm having to improv. Could be worse; could be hands, stone balls, or both. Friggin' Mythago. I still give her a hard time about that!
Mirth
Explorer
Mirth - Judgment
phoamslinger vs. FickleGM
Two well done stories here, one of lost glory and one of lost treasure.
Style -- phoamslinger comes on strong with a story set in ancient Greece, a good mixture of gods, goddesses, political intrigue, sex, murder, etc. But FickleDM counters with a treasure hunt involving slavery and interspecies love. Tough call. Both stories grabbed me, and I liked elements of both, yet phoamslinger's was a bit long and didn't hold my attention all the way through and FickleDM's was short on development and didn't give me enough to sink my teeth into.
Picture use -- phoamslinger made excellent use of world's most famous ferryman with his life going to the birds, played a great angle with the reflection in the teapot, but then sank with the offhand use of Cypress and the kiwi birds. FickleDM took the kiwi bird and ran with it, made it relatable and fascinating, yet almost to the exclusion of all of the other elements, all three of which seemed incidental to the main plot itself.
Personal connection -- I loved the well-wrought setting that phoamlinger created and Charon had that deep, depressed voice of Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide going on in my head. The use of the teapot was beyond clever, however it seemed like an entirely new story had to be created just to wedge that teapot back into the main plot. From there, Charon stayed a strong voice but with nowhere to lead us readers except a dusty, crumbled battleground covered with tiny, wacky birds. FickleDM throws us right into the thick of it and ramps up the pressure of a bad man gone badder and the woman and bird who fear him greatly, yet ultimately exact their revenge and get him back for it. Problem is, "it" is never really discussed or explored, leaving the readers confused and wanting more.
Final judgment - Despite a strong sense of foreboding dread and malvolence, FickleDM comes up just a little bit light vs. phoamslinger's overweight heavy love sammich of a tale.
MATCH 1 WINNER in a 2-1 split is .... PHOAMSLINGER!
phoamslinger vs. FickleGM
Two well done stories here, one of lost glory and one of lost treasure.
Style -- phoamslinger comes on strong with a story set in ancient Greece, a good mixture of gods, goddesses, political intrigue, sex, murder, etc. But FickleDM counters with a treasure hunt involving slavery and interspecies love. Tough call. Both stories grabbed me, and I liked elements of both, yet phoamslinger's was a bit long and didn't hold my attention all the way through and FickleDM's was short on development and didn't give me enough to sink my teeth into.
Picture use -- phoamslinger made excellent use of world's most famous ferryman with his life going to the birds, played a great angle with the reflection in the teapot, but then sank with the offhand use of Cypress and the kiwi birds. FickleDM took the kiwi bird and ran with it, made it relatable and fascinating, yet almost to the exclusion of all of the other elements, all three of which seemed incidental to the main plot itself.
Personal connection -- I loved the well-wrought setting that phoamlinger created and Charon had that deep, depressed voice of Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide going on in my head. The use of the teapot was beyond clever, however it seemed like an entirely new story had to be created just to wedge that teapot back into the main plot. From there, Charon stayed a strong voice but with nowhere to lead us readers except a dusty, crumbled battleground covered with tiny, wacky birds. FickleDM throws us right into the thick of it and ramps up the pressure of a bad man gone badder and the woman and bird who fear him greatly, yet ultimately exact their revenge and get him back for it. Problem is, "it" is never really discussed or explored, leaving the readers confused and wanting more.
Final judgment - Despite a strong sense of foreboding dread and malvolence, FickleDM comes up just a little bit light vs. phoamslinger's overweight heavy love sammich of a tale.
MATCH 1 WINNER in a 2-1 split is .... PHOAMSLINGER!
FickleGM
Explorer
Congratulations phoamslinger! Well done. I will definitely be looking to participate in these regularly, so long as we start to do them regularly, again. And I look forward to continuing to read everyone's stories.
Now, it's off to bed...and perhaps writing some dream-stories.
Now, it's off to bed...and perhaps writing some dream-stories.
phoamslinger
Explorer
wow, thanks all.
I humbly look forward to the next match-up and will strive for tighter tale telling.
I humbly look forward to the next match-up and will strive for tighter tale telling.
Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
Congratulations, Phoamslinger!
Deuce Traveler, my story is right on schedule. I read it this morning and chopped a bunch out. Yep, right on schedule.
I am sure the judges will understand if you wish to concede early.
Oh, and good job Phoamslinger! See you in the next Ceramic DM, FickleGM.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Thanks! But golly, those sound like the words of someone afraid to compete. I'm not going to make it that easy on you.
I'm happy with how this came out. Let's see how it does. 2500 words.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
Bullheaded
Round 1, Match 3: Piratecat vs. Deuce Traveler
Ant peered down the alleyway from atop her shelf. "Someone's coming," she hissed. "Asterion! Shut up and pull yourself together. Someone's coming!"
"Hrrump. An audience!" Asterion belched, wobbled and stopped talking long enough to step up on a box and fumble with his fleece robe. Ant heard the sound of an insistent fountain, and smelled the sharp tang of urine. Asterion rumbled a low laugh. "Much better. It's an offering to the sea god. Here you go, Dad. Look, I'm you! I'm making water!" Slowly, like a sinking tide, he toppled.
The sound of footsteps hurried past the alleyway. Ant caught a glimpse of a small and birdlike girl moving at an uncertain run, perhaps looking for something. She didn't look happy, and Ant had seen her before. The girl was gone in seconds. On her way down to the harbor of Knossos, thought Ant. They were so, so screwed. She swiveled to glance down at Asterion.
"Look, Ant! Not bad for a new coat! It's absorbent!" Asterion rolled back and forth in his own water, the shimmering ram's hide he'd just stolen slapping wetly at the ground. Then the massive creature threw his great head forward and snorted. "The world is spinning. I think something bit me. And my horns hurt."
"Horn," said Ant patiently. "You only have one horn."
"You should have seen the other guy."
"I did see the other guy. The other guy was a dragon, the kind that never sleeps. You ripped off your horn when you tried to gore it. You didn't kill it, you just made it angry, and then it tried to eat you, and then we ran. And I still don't know where the hell it came from."
"I dunno. But I'm still drunk. What was even in that horse cup?"
Ant sighed. A nearby shelf held the jawbone of an ass. She leaped over to it, froglike, and looked down at the great black two-legged bull. "Buddy, that was the cup of Poseidon. It was being held by a cupbearer of the Earth-shaker himself. And you flipped up her dress, guzzled down the drink, blasphemed your own father, and fled with that damn golden fleece. So I think it's fair to say that whatever was in that cup, it wasn't meant for you."
"Bah!" Asterion climbed unsteadily to his feet, fell over, got back up, and wrapped the fleece around himself possessively. "The cup had horses on it. I like horses. And she was tiny. How could she carry it? I'm big! A bull! That's who should drink it! That's who should wear this fleece! " He thumped himself on his chest, swayed unsteadily on both feet, and wiped his filthy hands on the gold pelt. A mischievous grin crossed his lips. "C'mon, Ant. Let's go drink some more."
"I don't drink. I watch you while you drink. And according to Athena I'm supposed to keep you out of trouble."
"You don't do a very good job."
"No. No, I don't."
Ant leapt onto Asterion's shoulder and he staggered back out of the alley. They almost made it to the next tavern before the dragon caught up with them. It had gotten larger.
* * *
The final straw occurred just before dawn, a time usually meant for sleep or mayhem. A pebble pinged against their inn room's shutters. Then another one. Then a full fledged rock. With Asterion snoring on a too-small bed beneath the golden fleece, Ant clambered to the windowsill and opened a shutter.
A full fifty sailors stood outside in the waning moonlight.
"What?"
A lean figure stood forward and peered upwards toward the darkened window. "Hail, stranger. Are you perhaps of a bovine persuasion? I am Jason. The Oracle at Delphi has foreseen our quest to Kholkis to uncover the Golden Fleece, the skin of a ram sired by Poseidon, guarded day and night by..."
Ant cut him off. "Let me guess. A huge serpent? A dragon who does not sleep?"
Jason blinked. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess. It's been a tough night. Sired by Poseidon, you say?" She looked over at the bed. Her friend farted in his sleep and tugged what was apparently the skin of his half-brother over him like a blanket. Awkward. "So what do you want?"
Jason shuffled his feet a little and look embarrassed. "Well, the thing is..." One of his sailors nudged him from behind. "We were all set to sail off, and one of my crew here decided to check with the Oracle one last time, you see, and..." Words tumbled out of him like water cascading down a cliff. "She said that instead of sailing through hideous peril to Kholkis, we could just come to this inn and ask for the Bull of Minos."
Ant silently regarded them from the window.
"Which we've now done." Jason coughed expectantly.
Ant just stared.
"Soooo... perhaps you have it?"
"Piss off," said Ant, and slammed the shutters.
Ignoring the raised voices from outside, she hopped onto the bed and shook Asterion awake by his single remaining horn.
"Wha?" He turned his head and vomited all over the floor. It was a geyser of brine and stunk of low tide. "Don't feel too good."
"You think? I was not given to you by the Gods to watch you throw your life away like this. Stop being bullheaded."
"Ha! You said bull..."
"Shut up. The dragon can sniff out the fleece, the wine from the horse cup is poisoning you, and there's an annoying amount of sailors outside who want that damn fleece. I know a curse when I see one."
Asterion pushed himself up onto his elbows before another wave of nausea washed over him. His voice rumbled wetly in the darkness. "Yeah. I feel like someone scraped me off a boat. We need to find that cupbearer and apologize." He turned his head and vomited again. Tiny fish flipped and skittered in the brine. "Sooner rather than later, I think." He staggered to his feet. "Auggh, I feel horrible, and I think I hear those sailors on the stairs. What else could go wrong?"
Just about then, the inn shook as the dragon attacked. Again. It had grown.
* * *
Battered and beaten and exhausted from their flight, they soon found her in the Temple of Poseidon. The human worshippers couldn't see her but everyone felt her presence. The girl had wide eyes, hair the color of wet stone, and the wings of a sea bird. She turned to look at them as they entered.
"So. The thief returns." Her voice trembled with anger, and her wings beat slowly behind her. She smelled like the angry sea.
"Yeah. About that." Asterion snorted, not used to apologizing. "I'm kinda sorry. Here's yer fleece. Needs some cleaning." Her nose wrinkled as he handed it over. "So if you could just lift the curse, we'll be on our way..."
"No." Opening her fist, she let the fleece drop onto the floor.
Both Asterion and Ant stared at the girl. Asterion's jaw sagged. "No?"
"No!" Then she was inches away, eyes blazing, wings hammering in fury against the damp temple air. Her voice shook. "Don't you know who I am, monster? You are a bastard son of Poseidon, but I am the chosen cupbearer of the Earth-Shaker himself! He chose me from the sea birds and raised me to serve him. You are a shameful mistake, but I am chosen. It was I who placed the treasures, who hid the relics, who whispered in heroes' ears and guided their ships. Only I was allowed to bear the horse cup of Poseidon. You disrespected me, bull of Minos. You stole the Golden Fleece and drank a brew meant for a mortal. I reject you."
She paused and drew a deep, measured breath. "You will die for your actions, and I will watch you die, and no one will weep at your passing."
Asterion's huge scarred knuckles clenched as if resisting the urge to throttle the life from the girl, and he instead reached down to pick up the fleece. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the temple. The Golden Fleece shimmered around him in the dim light. The cupbearer's wings slowed as she watched him go.
"He didn't kill you, you know. He's making progress."
"That's not progress. That's a monster who simply isn't hungry yet."
Ant cocked her head. "What's your name, cupbearer?"
The cupbearer didn't look at her. "I am named Gull."
"Gull, call me Ant. Technically I'm an anthroparian, a construct. I was made by Pallas Athena to be a friend to those who are friendless. To.. to guide them." Ant spread her spindly arms. "So let me guide you. That half-man out there is despised by his mortal father, forgotten by the God who sired him, and considered by everyone he meets to be a brutal man-eater. I kind of like him. He's not a bad guy, if you don't mind them coarse. But whatever you think of him, he's trying to find a destiny. You're about to cut that short."
"Good." Her voice was bitter.
Ant paused, and gently touched Gull's cheek in supplication. "Please. He disrespected you and your station, but either the serpent or the cup he drank is going to kill him. Then his destiny will go unfulfilled. He needs your help."
Gull's huge eyes turned to Ant, and she slowly settled to the temple floor. Salty puddles formed beneath her bare feet. "I cannot."
"Please!"
Gull shut her eyes. "You misunderstand. I didn't say I will not, for you are wise and I will not deny you. I said I cannot. Poseidon is the God of horses as well as the sea, and you saw the cup your bull defiled. The minotaur's actions have stripped me of my mantle. I can no longer open an ocean portal to the Sea God's realm. The horse cup has returned to its rightful place, but I am cast adrift. The traditional passages are barred to me."
Silence filled the temple. Minutes passed while Ant thought. "Okay, the traditional paths are barred. That means not using the sea. Which is fine, because there are a lot of angry sailors trying to find us right now. But no one ever thinks about the other options."
"Other options?"
Ant looked up and caught Gull's eye. "If I can get you to Poseidon's palace, will you help us?"
Gull stared at her, longing and fury battling in her gaze. She hung her head. "Yes."
"Then follow me."
* * *
The sacred herd thundered ahead of them through the Archanean gorge, moving inland, and the serpent closed in from behind. It was no surprise the wild horses were fleeing. The dragon had appeared in the distance near Silamos and it could clearly track the Golden Fleece by scent. With Asterion refusing to give up the ram's skin, his only choice was to run even faster down the narrow path and hope that they reached their destination before the dragon reached them. Now Gull flew ahead, scouting the way through the low trees of the valley's floor, and Ant rode upon the great bull's shoulders.
"Ant?" the bull puffed. Seawater leaked from the corners of his mouth.
"Yes?" She stared behind them, judging the serpent's speed. Not long now.
"This is a terrible idea."
Gull stopped ahead of them, landing on a low hill. Horses galloped past her through the trees. "Here!" the cupbearer said. "This place is most sacred. Here!"
"Now what?" asked Asterion. He bent double, brine leaking from his nostrils as he tried to catch his breath. Behind him the dragon writhed sideways and uprooted a massive tree. It had only grown since they'd first encountered it. Ant could even see the tiny glint where Asterion's left horn was stuck in its snout. "Do I fight the dragon?"
"Now," said Ant, "you open the door to your father's realm."
"What?" Asterion stared at her. "I think you've missed something. I'm not a demigod, Ant. I'm..." He spread his arms wide and looked down at himself in disgust. "I'm a monster. You know it. Half man, half bull, a great drinking tolerance and a whole lot of fury. That doesn't make me a God. I can't open some doorway, and I'm not," he jerked a thumb at the dragon closing in, "going to be able to do a damn thing about that."
Ant held Asterion's huge head between both of her tiny hands, and she gazed into his black eyes. "You are not a monster, Asterion. You are a child of Poseidon. More importantly, you have drank from the cup of your father and you are garbed in the skin of your brother."
He blinked. "The skin of my what now?"
"Never mind. The point is, you are the son of the Earth-shaker. Go ahead, my friend. Shake the earth."
Asterion turned from her and took a deep breath. The dragon roared defiance as it hissed, coiled, and tried to strike at the bull. Gull hovered before it, keeping it back by pure force of will.
"Gull," said Asterion, "let it come."
She did, and Asterion readied himself. The huge serpent's mouth gaped, the lower jaw unhinging, and its fangs dripped venom that hissed and smoked on the forest floor. The dragon lunged, and Asterion was ready. He leaped purposefully into its mouth, one muscled arm holding open its jaws while he wrenched his own horn out from under the dragon's scales. "This," bellowed Asterion, "is MINE!" Then with his horn firmly grasped in one fist, the bull brought his foot high and stomped it down on the serpent's tongue once, twice, three times. "FATHER!" the minotaur roared. "OPEN THE WAY!"
And at first, silence, even from the very surprised dragon. The trembling was imperceptible. Then branches swayed, then the earth itself shook. Every bird in the gorge took wing at once. The terrified serpent reared upward, dislodging Asterion as it did so, and fled back through the gorge. It didn't get far. A massive fault in the earth opened beneath it, and the dragon tumbled out of sight.
With a hideous grinding of stone, the world shifted.
Where Asterion stood, the stone itself rose fifty feet up from the forest floor. Seawater appeared and cascaded down off the new cliff face in veils, rainbows forming where the water touched the light. The bull kept his feet as the earth ripped itself apart, and when the shaking stopped he stood above a pitch black rift into the earth. The air whistling out of it smelled like salt and blood.
Gull touched down next to Asterion, and looked off the cliff face into the waterfalls and the portal beneath them. She whistled, the cry of a bird. "I forgive you."
The three of them descended together, and passed into Poseidon's Realm.
Round 1, Match 3: Piratecat vs. Deuce Traveler
Ant peered down the alleyway from atop her shelf. "Someone's coming," she hissed. "Asterion! Shut up and pull yourself together. Someone's coming!"
"Hrrump. An audience!" Asterion belched, wobbled and stopped talking long enough to step up on a box and fumble with his fleece robe. Ant heard the sound of an insistent fountain, and smelled the sharp tang of urine. Asterion rumbled a low laugh. "Much better. It's an offering to the sea god. Here you go, Dad. Look, I'm you! I'm making water!" Slowly, like a sinking tide, he toppled.
The sound of footsteps hurried past the alleyway. Ant caught a glimpse of a small and birdlike girl moving at an uncertain run, perhaps looking for something. She didn't look happy, and Ant had seen her before. The girl was gone in seconds. On her way down to the harbor of Knossos, thought Ant. They were so, so screwed. She swiveled to glance down at Asterion.
"Look, Ant! Not bad for a new coat! It's absorbent!" Asterion rolled back and forth in his own water, the shimmering ram's hide he'd just stolen slapping wetly at the ground. Then the massive creature threw his great head forward and snorted. "The world is spinning. I think something bit me. And my horns hurt."
"Horn," said Ant patiently. "You only have one horn."
"You should have seen the other guy."
"I did see the other guy. The other guy was a dragon, the kind that never sleeps. You ripped off your horn when you tried to gore it. You didn't kill it, you just made it angry, and then it tried to eat you, and then we ran. And I still don't know where the hell it came from."
"I dunno. But I'm still drunk. What was even in that horse cup?"
Ant sighed. A nearby shelf held the jawbone of an ass. She leaped over to it, froglike, and looked down at the great black two-legged bull. "Buddy, that was the cup of Poseidon. It was being held by a cupbearer of the Earth-shaker himself. And you flipped up her dress, guzzled down the drink, blasphemed your own father, and fled with that damn golden fleece. So I think it's fair to say that whatever was in that cup, it wasn't meant for you."
"Bah!" Asterion climbed unsteadily to his feet, fell over, got back up, and wrapped the fleece around himself possessively. "The cup had horses on it. I like horses. And she was tiny. How could she carry it? I'm big! A bull! That's who should drink it! That's who should wear this fleece! " He thumped himself on his chest, swayed unsteadily on both feet, and wiped his filthy hands on the gold pelt. A mischievous grin crossed his lips. "C'mon, Ant. Let's go drink some more."
"I don't drink. I watch you while you drink. And according to Athena I'm supposed to keep you out of trouble."
"You don't do a very good job."
"No. No, I don't."
Ant leapt onto Asterion's shoulder and he staggered back out of the alley. They almost made it to the next tavern before the dragon caught up with them. It had gotten larger.
* * *
The final straw occurred just before dawn, a time usually meant for sleep or mayhem. A pebble pinged against their inn room's shutters. Then another one. Then a full fledged rock. With Asterion snoring on a too-small bed beneath the golden fleece, Ant clambered to the windowsill and opened a shutter.
A full fifty sailors stood outside in the waning moonlight.
"What?"
A lean figure stood forward and peered upwards toward the darkened window. "Hail, stranger. Are you perhaps of a bovine persuasion? I am Jason. The Oracle at Delphi has foreseen our quest to Kholkis to uncover the Golden Fleece, the skin of a ram sired by Poseidon, guarded day and night by..."
Ant cut him off. "Let me guess. A huge serpent? A dragon who does not sleep?"
Jason blinked. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess. It's been a tough night. Sired by Poseidon, you say?" She looked over at the bed. Her friend farted in his sleep and tugged what was apparently the skin of his half-brother over him like a blanket. Awkward. "So what do you want?"
Jason shuffled his feet a little and look embarrassed. "Well, the thing is..." One of his sailors nudged him from behind. "We were all set to sail off, and one of my crew here decided to check with the Oracle one last time, you see, and..." Words tumbled out of him like water cascading down a cliff. "She said that instead of sailing through hideous peril to Kholkis, we could just come to this inn and ask for the Bull of Minos."
Ant silently regarded them from the window.
"Which we've now done." Jason coughed expectantly.
Ant just stared.
"Soooo... perhaps you have it?"
"Piss off," said Ant, and slammed the shutters.
Ignoring the raised voices from outside, she hopped onto the bed and shook Asterion awake by his single remaining horn.
"Wha?" He turned his head and vomited all over the floor. It was a geyser of brine and stunk of low tide. "Don't feel too good."
"You think? I was not given to you by the Gods to watch you throw your life away like this. Stop being bullheaded."
"Ha! You said bull..."
"Shut up. The dragon can sniff out the fleece, the wine from the horse cup is poisoning you, and there's an annoying amount of sailors outside who want that damn fleece. I know a curse when I see one."
Asterion pushed himself up onto his elbows before another wave of nausea washed over him. His voice rumbled wetly in the darkness. "Yeah. I feel like someone scraped me off a boat. We need to find that cupbearer and apologize." He turned his head and vomited again. Tiny fish flipped and skittered in the brine. "Sooner rather than later, I think." He staggered to his feet. "Auggh, I feel horrible, and I think I hear those sailors on the stairs. What else could go wrong?"
Just about then, the inn shook as the dragon attacked. Again. It had grown.
* * *
Battered and beaten and exhausted from their flight, they soon found her in the Temple of Poseidon. The human worshippers couldn't see her but everyone felt her presence. The girl had wide eyes, hair the color of wet stone, and the wings of a sea bird. She turned to look at them as they entered.
"So. The thief returns." Her voice trembled with anger, and her wings beat slowly behind her. She smelled like the angry sea.
"Yeah. About that." Asterion snorted, not used to apologizing. "I'm kinda sorry. Here's yer fleece. Needs some cleaning." Her nose wrinkled as he handed it over. "So if you could just lift the curse, we'll be on our way..."
"No." Opening her fist, she let the fleece drop onto the floor.
Both Asterion and Ant stared at the girl. Asterion's jaw sagged. "No?"
"No!" Then she was inches away, eyes blazing, wings hammering in fury against the damp temple air. Her voice shook. "Don't you know who I am, monster? You are a bastard son of Poseidon, but I am the chosen cupbearer of the Earth-Shaker himself! He chose me from the sea birds and raised me to serve him. You are a shameful mistake, but I am chosen. It was I who placed the treasures, who hid the relics, who whispered in heroes' ears and guided their ships. Only I was allowed to bear the horse cup of Poseidon. You disrespected me, bull of Minos. You stole the Golden Fleece and drank a brew meant for a mortal. I reject you."
She paused and drew a deep, measured breath. "You will die for your actions, and I will watch you die, and no one will weep at your passing."
Asterion's huge scarred knuckles clenched as if resisting the urge to throttle the life from the girl, and he instead reached down to pick up the fleece. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the temple. The Golden Fleece shimmered around him in the dim light. The cupbearer's wings slowed as she watched him go.
"He didn't kill you, you know. He's making progress."
"That's not progress. That's a monster who simply isn't hungry yet."
Ant cocked her head. "What's your name, cupbearer?"
The cupbearer didn't look at her. "I am named Gull."
"Gull, call me Ant. Technically I'm an anthroparian, a construct. I was made by Pallas Athena to be a friend to those who are friendless. To.. to guide them." Ant spread her spindly arms. "So let me guide you. That half-man out there is despised by his mortal father, forgotten by the God who sired him, and considered by everyone he meets to be a brutal man-eater. I kind of like him. He's not a bad guy, if you don't mind them coarse. But whatever you think of him, he's trying to find a destiny. You're about to cut that short."
"Good." Her voice was bitter.
Ant paused, and gently touched Gull's cheek in supplication. "Please. He disrespected you and your station, but either the serpent or the cup he drank is going to kill him. Then his destiny will go unfulfilled. He needs your help."
Gull's huge eyes turned to Ant, and she slowly settled to the temple floor. Salty puddles formed beneath her bare feet. "I cannot."
"Please!"
Gull shut her eyes. "You misunderstand. I didn't say I will not, for you are wise and I will not deny you. I said I cannot. Poseidon is the God of horses as well as the sea, and you saw the cup your bull defiled. The minotaur's actions have stripped me of my mantle. I can no longer open an ocean portal to the Sea God's realm. The horse cup has returned to its rightful place, but I am cast adrift. The traditional passages are barred to me."
Silence filled the temple. Minutes passed while Ant thought. "Okay, the traditional paths are barred. That means not using the sea. Which is fine, because there are a lot of angry sailors trying to find us right now. But no one ever thinks about the other options."
"Other options?"
Ant looked up and caught Gull's eye. "If I can get you to Poseidon's palace, will you help us?"
Gull stared at her, longing and fury battling in her gaze. She hung her head. "Yes."
"Then follow me."
* * *
The sacred herd thundered ahead of them through the Archanean gorge, moving inland, and the serpent closed in from behind. It was no surprise the wild horses were fleeing. The dragon had appeared in the distance near Silamos and it could clearly track the Golden Fleece by scent. With Asterion refusing to give up the ram's skin, his only choice was to run even faster down the narrow path and hope that they reached their destination before the dragon reached them. Now Gull flew ahead, scouting the way through the low trees of the valley's floor, and Ant rode upon the great bull's shoulders.
"Ant?" the bull puffed. Seawater leaked from the corners of his mouth.
"Yes?" She stared behind them, judging the serpent's speed. Not long now.
"This is a terrible idea."
Gull stopped ahead of them, landing on a low hill. Horses galloped past her through the trees. "Here!" the cupbearer said. "This place is most sacred. Here!"
"Now what?" asked Asterion. He bent double, brine leaking from his nostrils as he tried to catch his breath. Behind him the dragon writhed sideways and uprooted a massive tree. It had only grown since they'd first encountered it. Ant could even see the tiny glint where Asterion's left horn was stuck in its snout. "Do I fight the dragon?"
"Now," said Ant, "you open the door to your father's realm."
"What?" Asterion stared at her. "I think you've missed something. I'm not a demigod, Ant. I'm..." He spread his arms wide and looked down at himself in disgust. "I'm a monster. You know it. Half man, half bull, a great drinking tolerance and a whole lot of fury. That doesn't make me a God. I can't open some doorway, and I'm not," he jerked a thumb at the dragon closing in, "going to be able to do a damn thing about that."
Ant held Asterion's huge head between both of her tiny hands, and she gazed into his black eyes. "You are not a monster, Asterion. You are a child of Poseidon. More importantly, you have drank from the cup of your father and you are garbed in the skin of your brother."
He blinked. "The skin of my what now?"
"Never mind. The point is, you are the son of the Earth-shaker. Go ahead, my friend. Shake the earth."
Asterion turned from her and took a deep breath. The dragon roared defiance as it hissed, coiled, and tried to strike at the bull. Gull hovered before it, keeping it back by pure force of will.
"Gull," said Asterion, "let it come."
She did, and Asterion readied himself. The huge serpent's mouth gaped, the lower jaw unhinging, and its fangs dripped venom that hissed and smoked on the forest floor. The dragon lunged, and Asterion was ready. He leaped purposefully into its mouth, one muscled arm holding open its jaws while he wrenched his own horn out from under the dragon's scales. "This," bellowed Asterion, "is MINE!" Then with his horn firmly grasped in one fist, the bull brought his foot high and stomped it down on the serpent's tongue once, twice, three times. "FATHER!" the minotaur roared. "OPEN THE WAY!"
And at first, silence, even from the very surprised dragon. The trembling was imperceptible. Then branches swayed, then the earth itself shook. Every bird in the gorge took wing at once. The terrified serpent reared upward, dislodging Asterion as it did so, and fled back through the gorge. It didn't get far. A massive fault in the earth opened beneath it, and the dragon tumbled out of sight.
With a hideous grinding of stone, the world shifted.
Where Asterion stood, the stone itself rose fifty feet up from the forest floor. Seawater appeared and cascaded down off the new cliff face in veils, rainbows forming where the water touched the light. The bull kept his feet as the earth ripped itself apart, and when the shaking stopped he stood above a pitch black rift into the earth. The air whistling out of it smelled like salt and blood.
Gull touched down next to Asterion, and looked off the cliff face into the waterfalls and the portal beneath them. She whistled, the cry of a bird. "I forgive you."
The three of them descended together, and passed into Poseidon's Realm.
Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
Bravo, sir! Bravo.
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
[sblock]Thank you! I loved yours. You wrote that story better than I could have; I'm not sure I would have attempted it. It reminded me of the Black Company. Very evocative, and really well written.
What a good first round. [/sblock]
