It was a white owl.A great number of birds sing, but it will be rare to call owl hooting ‘singing’ as we know it. Except for this one, which was singing a human song in a language I did not understand.Enthralled by its voice, I turned to go to it when I felt different, a change I had not noticed before. I looked at my body, and there found my answer.All of the metal was gone, and I stood in the semi-nude, wearing nothing but a white loincloth. The joy I felt at having my body back touched only a few things I had felt before, and I touched myself, exploring all I had missed since that day that I found my curse. The warmth of my skin, a welcome change from the cold metal that I had previously owned. The tiny hair on my arms. The lean, visible muscles that stood out on my arms and legs, the curves to them aesthetically pleasing.And my face…The burnt half of my place was back, and I had no mask on half my face to hide my shame. It was the same with the hair on my head, now back to be
I removed my hand from my eyes to see who it was, and when I did, I fell to my knees before this woman, my head bowed low.“Stand up, mortal, and look at me.” I heard her say.I raised my head to look, and her very appearance made me want to remain at her feet forever, simply kneeling and taking in the beauty that was hers. There are hardly words for me to describe this surreal beauty, as even subjecting such beauty to something as shallow as words feels like a grave sin to me.Her white skin shone like light, and her golden hair was like a crown upon her head. Her eyes were the same colour as her hair and seemed to show that she was one of exceeding wisdom, and her lips were redder than cherry. She wore a garment made of snow white fur, knotted at the joint of her smooth white shoulder, and which fell down to her knees. In her hand was a bow and an arrow, the both of them, golden and tastefully designed.Bowing before her brought the last two lines of the riddle to my memory:‘Know t
Now left on my own, I followed the path I had come through, walking barefoot. My instincts — most probably the one the woman spoke of — made me walk on tiptoe and crouch low in the grass, carefully watching for the animal. I also tried to look at the grass for anything it could have left behind. Dung. A footprint.I came upon a bit of its dung and followed the footprints, hard as they were to track because of the grass. I soon found myself wishing for a hunting dog that could help me track the animal, and then went straight to wondering why I wished for a dog. I wasn't a big fan of dogs, finding them more aggressive than my preferred cats, and could only bear to tolerate them around me.Without one, however, I continued to seek.Hours passed without me finding it, and again, I relied on my instinct — which made me miss Maia's guiding voice for the first time since I found myself here — to think of hiding near the spring. Deer were not like my camel who could go without a drink for da
I ran to the white-furred, two-headed deer, where it lay dead.Its mouth was open, allowing for a limb tongue to fall outside, and the eyes, despite their stillness, appeared to look at me in a final act of surrender. I ran my fingers through the fur, feeling the body, and it was still warm to my touch. It did not move when I pulled the arrow out and wiped the tip on its body, which I was doing very immersively, not stopping even when the arrow was wiped clean.I lost myself doing it, somehow unable to draw my concentration from it, and it took a black shadow passing above me to draw my already lost attention.My eyes checked the sky above me, and I saw the owl come directly at me, gliding so smoothly through the air that it could have been a missile. With a graceful turn, it came and fluttered its wings a distance above the ground, and suddenly, it was no longer the owl but the woman, her golden hair shining in the sun.“You are quite the shooter, Mortal.” She said, coming towards me
My mind hung between joy and sorrow over this victory.I had come to the end of Level 2, with victory, and it would all be complete the moment I looted this tomb and stripped it of its treasures. I had fought against all odds, travelled 310 km through the desert, moved with Sand Demons as travelling companions, defeated an Invincible Soldier, and been kissed by a goddess.That last part was where my sorrow lay.In the time when I was snatched up from the tomb and taken to that garden where there was only joy, I found no reason to feel anything that would hurt me. My body had gone back to being human and able to feel the breeze that swept the earth, and my face needed no mask to hide the burns that turned half of it into a twisted, scarred mass. I could run and feel like me, and live. Until now, where I found myself snatched back to my new reality, the man Hades’s tricks forced me to be.The human, animate hands that had made the bow and arrow were gone, like in a dream, as what held
With the sunrise came one of my lowest lows.My mind was weighed down by thoughts of all I didn't have, all that used to be mine that I had lost. I thought of my current struggles, of how I had been played first by Debbie and by Hades, of how I found a glimpse of peace in that garden before killing the Invincible Soldier, of how many levels I still had to pass and how many tasks and missions to finish before getting my body back. There was a wind blowing that morning to top it all up, throwing up sand that went into my nose and eyes, caused me to sneeze incessantly, and made me very miserable.With a morning like that, I had no desire to do anything.Anything that would not require too much effort.First, I watered my camel and munched on some of the biscuits in the biscuit box, having hardly any need to touch them since the beginning of my journey. It was the only benefit of a metallic body and Hades curse. The metal body did not need nutrients, and with the human part using so litt
She snuggled into my arms as the smell of her shampoo filled my nostrils.Underneath the sheets, we were only clad in underwear, and I moved close to her, only stopping because she didn't let me come any closer. “I'm on my period, love.” She whispered, and I was content to simply hold her to myself.We had only been married for two weeks, and slipping the ring upon her finger was easily the best decision of my life, at least until I remembered the fact that we still hadn't made love in all that time, only restricting ourselves to quick lip kisses and night long cuddles.I suspected she was shy, and I was trying to be patient with her too. We had a lifetime to be with one another after all, and two weeks seemed fair for me to keep waiting.From the living room, the sound of breaking glass reached my ears and made me jump out of the bed in alarm, looking for a weapon against the intruder as my wife stared wide eyed at me.“I'll protect you, sweetheart. I swear to God.” I said when I lea
“I will not sign them.” I stood my ground, even though the courage was newfound to me. It was coming from a place I did not think I owned.A hiss escaped Mancini's lips as he waved his hand.There began the second round of my assault, even more painful than the first. Blows to my head made me dizzy. Those to my side and stomach made me feel a crack in my rib that made me howl with pain, and one that struck my crotch made me want to pass out.“Get him up.” Mancini ordered.They were rough with doing this, and it was one mighty pulse of pain that hurt so much that I couldn't stand straight. Keeping my eyes open was becoming a Herculean task, as they were so swollen that it hurt to move my eyelids.“Why won't you sign them?” Debbie asked.It was unbelievable for me to hear her voice in this place. She was still here, watching them beat me up. It brought me a bit of shame.“I won't let them take you away from me.” I managed to say, despite the blood that filled my mouth and even went down