you're too young & eager to love

I meant to post this yesterday, but Dreamwidth was taking so long to load (probably due to my fickle internet connection) that I got impatient. Technically, I still wrote though!

Working more on the Hydra.

-

There is much you do not comprehend.

The sounds startle you. The rush of so many tongues, and your own voice a sibilant spread of water tones, no longer the multiple, threatening roar of fanged mouths. You shape gurgling words in your mouth, but they taste and sound empty.

Before, you had been a threatening force. A creature of imposing dimensions. Now, you are miniscule in comparison to so many surrounding objects. Even if you had been as you were, the height of mere buildings astonish you now. Their tops threaten to touch Olympus, and you wonder why Zeus is untroubled by the looming intrusions. He toppled the Titans for less, and you remember them as being similarly colossal.

If you knew how to cry, you might. Your body is unfit for this new age. Attacked by the elements, easily bruised and battered. You break your nails testing your strength against a pane of glass and do not understand. You recall being unleashed, but the purpose, the reason, fails you. For what? For this limited, undesirable form?

A sense of relief overcomes when you realize your speed remains. That your running steps still sound like thunder. You can climb effortlessly, the rope of muscles in your arms the same. You can stay beneath water for hours, only a mild restraint, and one that the geography of a steel city barely allows.

Zeus’ son, the slayer of beasts, the infallible demi-god, cages you once more. Places you between conventional walls and speaks to you in the old, familiar words - the Greek and Latin that you understand but cannot repeat. He teaches you language, as though he were stealing fire for your salvation. Another puzzle.

He finds that the smell of cooked meats nauseates you, so you eat raw fish wrapped in seaweed and rice. You are hungry constantly.

When another hero arrives, you stare angrily and stand taught. You remember the feel of a tail slicing the air behind you, how easy it could be to wrap talons around a muscled neck. Now, they only gaze at you, a hint of bemusement and thin pity. They bring you to a woman you both recognize and yet cannot place, but you dip your eyes naturally, your timeless soul whispering to the length of her hair.

In the dark of the night, you stir defensively. You wake, unable to forget the monotony of guarding.