A tall bronze man laid against the brownish cobblestone wall, wearing a furry short tunic. He has a short black beard and short hair touching his broad shoulders. If a woman was inside the cave, she would have faded, seeing the most beautiful macho man in her sight. After all, he looked like a model from a historical romance novel. A Greek historical romance novel specifically.

Roger slowly stepped toward the dozy man. "Hercules?"

The muscled man flashed his eyes open and looked around. "It’s Heracles! Who said that!?"

"I did. My name is-"

Heracles grabbed Roger’s throat and slammed him against the wall. His fingers squeezed Roger’s poor neck like a sponge toy. He gasped for air.

"Who are you!?" Heracles roared, spraying his warm flowery breath into Roger’s face. His oily tanned skin reeked with the lotus scent. He must have eaten too many lotus flowers from the village. "Here to drug me again, wench?"

Roger couldn't speak a single word. If Heracles wanted to, he could break Roger’s neck with a single twist.

"Hold on." Heracles looked up and down on Roger. He padded Roger's chest and dropped him. "You're not a woman! Explain yourself!"

Roger coughed as he rubbed his throat. Tears dripped down his face until his voice returned. "I'm Roger….. Zeus sent me….."

Heracles glared. "Zeus? My father?"

Roger rose off the ground, resting his hand on the wall. His breath still puffed out from his panting mouth. "He said he needs your help. A Giant army is going to attack Mount Olympus. You are the only one who can fight them."

Heracles swirled his finger into his right ear. "Am I not hearing you correctly? Why do the Gods need my present to fight the Giants? Everyone knows the Gods can fight anyone without shedding their blood."

"He said specifically you have to fight the Giants." Roger rubbed his lip. "Something about a prophecy predicting you are the one who will save Olympus."

Heracles crossed his big arms. "Did the prophecy say my name?"

Roger shook his head. "No….. Zeus said only a mortal can fight them. But I understand why he chose you."

Heracles shrugged. "It still sounds silly to me."

"I know, but have you ever questioned the Gods?"

Heracles laughed. "Only a fool would question them." He pointed his thumb at his chest. "I never doubted my father. If he wants me to fight by his side, then I must answer his summon."

Roger sighed.

For that moment, he feared the great legendary hero would kill him while high on the lotus flowers. Good thing his head quickly cleared.

"Right, now let’s get the Hades out of here!" Heracles exclaimed and looked around. "First, we must find my lion coat and Riptide."

"Your Riptide?"

"My sword! Those island wenches better not have-"

Something pulled Heracles down and dragged him away into the darkness.

"Heracles!" Roger raced after him. Even if he doesn't have Hades’s gear, he won't have time while Heracles's life is in peril.

He sprinted across skeletons and broken bones further throughout the cave. Were they all victims tricked by the women who offered them lotus flowers?

The horror grumbled inside Roger’s stomach, but he doesn't have time to think more about it. If Heracles dies, then nobody will have a future.

As the cave grew bigger and bigger in Roger’s perspective, he reached a giant hole where a vine pulled Heracles toward. More lotus vines grew from the hole, stretching across the walls. Whatever was down there, that must be where the lotus flowers grew from.

"Hang on!" Roger leaped and landed on his stomach as his hand caught Heracles's grip. The hero hung on the edge inside the hole. The vine still held onto his leg.

Back on his feet, Roger pulled the man up, until Heracles managed to climb out. The hero grabbed the vine and yanked it off his leg. He tossed it into the hole.

“Are you okay?” Roger helped the hero up.

“Of course I am fine!” Heracles gruffed. “I’m Heracles!”

Roger rolled his eyes.

From the hole, ten long vines rose and grabbed onto the edges. A giant white flower with pink petals climbed up and hung over the hole. It looked like one of the lotus flowers, but bigger with a giant mouth full of fangs. The thing roared like a lion.

Roger’s heart dropped. "What the hell is that!?"

Heracles beamed an eye at him. "Hell?"

"I meant Hades!"

The legendary hero glared at the creature. "If my eyes are not playing tricks on me, that thing is growing the lotus! Those wenches drugged us so they could feed it for more flowers to poison themselves on! Worse whores ever!"

Roger snickered, but facing the giant plant creature was more serious when his life was on the line. "Should we run?"

Heracles laughed and cracked his knuckles. "Heracles never runs from a fight! Stay back and watch!"

With a run, he charged toward the creature, raising his left fist.

The lotus creature swung its vine, hitting the hero. He flew back and slammed against the wall, leaving a crack.

Roger retreated to find a hiding spot, but a vine grabbed his leg and pulled him down. As the creature dragged him toward its mouth, Roger struggled to grab onto the ground. The ground was too smooth to grip on. "Help!"

Heracles rose and raced for Roger’s aid. He leaped over a vine and slapped another one away.

He reached Roger and stomped his foot on the vine. The creature screamed and released Roger.

"Thanks!" Roger got up.

"Just stay back and let me handle this!" Heracles charged again.

He leaped through the air and landed into the creature's mouth. He punched and kicked until the thing fell into the hole.

"Heracles!" Roger approached the hole and glanced down.

He could only hear the lotus monster screaming in the bottom abyss. Heracles roared while his mighty fists echoed in wet splattering sounds. He sounded like a lion, devouring its prey.

He's a beast! Roger thought, feeling his legs quiver.

The violent beating soon calmed, leaving Roger breathless in suspense. But he saw a figure climbing up, making him realize it was only Heracles.

He sighed in relief. "Are you okay?"

The hero pulled himself out of the hole, dripping in pink liquid that nearly represented blood. When he rose, Roger could see the tough hero didn't fight unscathed. Red scratch marks and tiny blood leaking holes blended in with the pink goo on his body. Whatever pain the monster inflicted on him, Heracles ignored it with a grin. "I'm fine! See?"

Roger nodded.

Across the walls, the pink lotus flowers faded black and crumbled to the ground. Everything connected to the hole suddenly aged to dust.

"I think you killed the source," Roger suggested.

"Indeed." Heracles chuckled. "Now let’s find our belongings and leave immediately."

*****

Medusa heard a roar past the bushes in the woods. A normal person would run away, despite their curiosity. But Medusa wasn't afraid. After all, she has her own power to protect herself against anything.

She sprinted through the forest until she approached a clearing where a white vari house stood near a crop field. On the other side, cattle rammed through the fence and escaped to the grass field.

The roar echoed again, and a large shadowy figure dived from the sky and landed on a brown cow. Medusa dashed toward the creature to get a better glance at it.

The thing has a body of a giant lion with red leather wings and a long scorpion tail. With its huge claws, it tore open the cow’s stomach and devoured the cow’s intestines. The gore was grotesque, but the creature was amazing to Medusa’s eyes.

“Help us!” a man’s voice shouted.

Medusa glanced back toward the house. A man and a woman with two children ran toward her. When they realized her unnatural features, all of them gasped in horror.

Medusa glared at them. “Fools.”

By instinct, she shot her yellow beams at the family from her eyes. In an instant, the family faded into stone, holding each other’s hands.

Medusa couldn’t help it, but why should she care. Nobody could look at her face without turning into stone. She whether turn Athena and Poseidon into stone, and push them off a cliff to watch their bodies shatter into oblivion. That was her true goal, not to save lives.

While ignoring the statues, Medusa approached the beast. It finished its feast and glared at the serpent woman.

She grinned and blasted her yellow beams at it. The winged lion roared into silence after its body turned to stone.

Medusa stepped closer and tipped her scepter on the lion’s head. Purple glowing cracks spread across the beast’s body. It opened its purple eyes and twitched to life.

Medusa grew her grin wider. “You are now mine, beast. Understand?”

The winged lion glared at her and bowed over the cow’s corpse.

Medusa giggled and petted the beast’s head. “I’ll call you Windar, the roaring wind. Is that suitable?”

The lion gruffed.

“Now you will help me find Heracles so I can kill him.”

*****

Roger found the gear inside a small chamber outside the cavern tunnel. Weapons, armor, and other goods piled up like junk around the stone walls.

The lotus women must have left all their victims’ belongings in the chamber because the monster couldn’t digest them. It must have a very sensitive stomach.

“My coat and sword must be here!” Heracles stormed in and looked around. “Athena will be furious if I lose the sword.”

“She gave you the sword?”

Heracles picked up a barrel and peeked underneath it. “It was her gift to help me slay the monsters during my labors. I preferred the club, but nobody can refuse a goddess’s offering.”

Roger checked the corner where helmets lay in a pile. “Why are you on this island?”

Heracles placed the barrel down. “After Queen Omphale released me, I joined a crew of sailors to reach the mainland. A storm pushed us off course, landing us here. We met the women who offered us the flowers to dine on. I think the captain called them the Lotus-Eaters.”

“The Lotus-Eaters?”

Heracles scratched his head. “A tale from Odysseus who encountered them. He escaped while the women drugged his poor men, never to see them again. It was too late when the wenches enchanted me and the crew. That was all I remembered.”

Roger wondered if the lotus plant had the power to cloak the island from the gods or anyone from discovering the island. If he didn’t come, who else would have rescued the hero from the cursed island?

Heracles picked up a tunic, grimacing at it. “Those poor sailors. Fallen into lust so the wenches could feed them to their abomination. I will avenge them after we make our haste out of here.”

“Wait!” Roger held up his hands. “Maybe they are victims too. The lotus probably drugged the women because it need slaves to feed it. Without it, they might be free.”

Heracles raised an eyebrow. “And if they attack us?”

Roger’s lips thinned. “Then we will defend ourselves. Women or not.”

Heracles nodded with a grin. “That is what heroes do when danger surrounds them.”

Roger wasn’t picky about killing anyone. But if there was another way, he would take the option instead.

Past the helmet pile, the black horned helmet laid next to the black armor and the bident. With relief, Roger picked the helm up and gazed at it.

“Is that Hades’s helmet?” Heracles asked, pointing his finger at the helm.

Roger grinned a little. “Yeeeeeee-yes.”

Heracles dropped his mouth. “How did you get it? No mortal survived Hades’s wraith!"

"I didn't steal it. He actually let me borrow it."

"Why?"

"It’s a long story, but I am helping the gods. Bringing you to Olympus matters more than how I got Hades’s armor."

Heracles shrugged. "Indeed."