"Help." The woman cried holding onto the man a little tighter as she looks to me with hope, a view that left me in distress.

But with the slight movement, it seemed the wound that was hidden from my sight was agitated, dyeing the waters red.

Her eyes immediately trailed away from mine to the man's chest and pressed down, wanting to stop the bleeding, but assuming from the amount of blood draining from his veins, I doubted whether I could be of any help.

"Please."

She begged, almost pulling out the silver strands that blocked her eyes, her hands trembling as they did so.

"Yes." I said absentmindedly and drew closer to the banks, as if carried away by the sobs that evoked empathy.

But a few steps away from the first line of water, the light caught in the seqins of her dress of coloured silk blinded me momentarily.

I blinked, as if waking up from a dream.

I suddenly noticed the man dressed for battle, had his face covered entirely with dried blood that hid away the most distinct of his features, while the strained injury bloomed fresh red.

How are they floating, I wondered.

But strangely I chose another question to voice being caught in between an impulse to help and another to stay out of trouble. "What happened to you?"

"A monster..."She cries.

It was a primal sound, one we are programmed not to ignore.

"..It attacked us, and my husband...he..." She looked down at the man, unable to continue, and began to wail as if the sheer force of her sobs could bring him back, and undo what's done.

I wasn't able to say a word as she cried in such a desolate manner that no one could bare to listen to it for long, and the need to comfort the beautiful maiden became an urgent priority.

I shivered as something cold began to climb up from my ankles, making it harder to move.

"Why aren't you hurt?" I asked in a state of dwam, overlooking the unpleasant sensation, but at the same time irked by her attire that did not suit the scenario.

She looked mildly suprised. And the eyes that I had thought were pale brown turned out to be the murkiest of grey, poisonous like lead.

And it wasn't until I gave her a curious glance, that she replied and withdrew her fingers from the man's face, who suddenly resembled a discarded toy.

"Because I am too weak, they let me be."

They? Were there more than one?

However, I didn't get upset or find it ridiculous, instead falling into an pacific state, nodded.

"Now help me." She demanded as the cold creeped up my thighs, and I nodded again like a fool.

Ouch!

My toe struck something sharp, and given a fright I held up my leg in my hands to examine the damage. But the incautious move hardly balanced out my body on one leg and almost instantly, I fell back.

Plop!

Having fallen open mouthed, I felt the coolness rush in, and despite the shallow depths I had stood on, I struggled to surface, and when I did my thoughts were uncoordinated.

"What are you doing?" She was no longer crying, and her look of annoyance gave a slap like shock to my mind that was yet to sort out the facts.

I held up a hand, and broke away from her chilling gaze to turn back to the banks, feeling instantly shocked by the lack of memory of the short journey.

"What are you doing!" She repeated, and then looking back to her I spoke the truth.

"...I don't know."

As I began to ponder over it again, the lady grew quiet, and held onto the man's wrist.

I looked up at her, and the grey eyes staring back at me gave off a dim light.

She looked awfully deranged when the tears ceased, and casually pushed away her husband from her lap, the body immediately sinking.

"It's been centuries since a mortal resisted the urge." The grief stricken voice was now no different from a hiss.

Begrudgingly, I grumbled at the remark with a shadow of a guess towards what was to come.

Fearful to turn my back towards her, I walked back, noticing finally of my missing shoe when I felt the mud clamp around my naked feet.

"You should be honored to be devoured by a Drakon." She smiled for the first time, showing off her sharp teeth consisting entire of canines.

"No thank you!" I blurted out, pleasantly free of the spell clouding my judgement.

And as I backed away, her body began to convulse before lowering itselt into the lakes depths, and the last thing to catch my eyes were the long blue feathers that replaced her silver locks.

My body involuntarily shuddered when something small and dark projected out from the waters, and as if taking a sniff it twitched.

I turned around and ran, causing big splashes as I lifted my legs against the liquid resistance.

But my eyes were always looking back, somehow knowing I could never reach land as it slowly moved closer, and behind it surfaced a snake like body.

And the assumption became the frightening truth when something sharp caught around my ankle.

My face hit the water with a painful slap, and with the lack of its former depth, I lived a few seconds of sickening pain on being dragged over pebbles and sharp rocks before finally submerging.

I forced my eyes open, and the lights that were so strong an instant ago was a blur.

My hands and legs kick out violently when the control over my body returns.

But it brings a piercing pain to my leg that was caught firmly in the mouth of a creature resembling a wolf with its ears and snout.

I bent my legs, and clawed at the creature in desperation, as the residual oxygen depleted in my lungs.

'You are too weak.' I heard the woman's voice in my mind.

My eyes stung as they open wider when the vague figures before me swam closer.

The human skin she wore was discarded, and blue scales covered her body from under hairs of feathers to her waist, and below it was a blood curdling anomaly.

Like a large octopus, tentacles rose from below her torso with the long mass of muscles ending in a wolf's head, the creatures compound eyes looked like enomous crystals of cut glass.

My head felt like it was going to explode as the need to inhale became a pressuring demand.

I was still weakly struggling to pry off powerful jaws when something fast and nimble lashed onto my left hand.

I screamed when another wolf pulled at my arm as if it detach it from it sockets, and like a piece of rubber stretched to its limits on a board with pins, my body was made to halt its futile resistance.

Was my life really going to end in such a way?

A moment of anguish, more so than the pain took rule, as I became light headed.

I imagined the woman with blue scales to have a venomous smile when another of her strange limbs sprang towards me.

The wolf bared it fangs, a foretelling of the pain. And by the inclination of its head, I knew it aimed for my neck, that was left vulnerable with my one hand captive, and the other struggling against the cold currents.

But a few moments before imminent death it seemed I was blessed with clarity, and time slowed as the creature stared back at me, its sharp teeth of pale yellow mere inches away.

But something didn't feel right when dark blue smoke exploded behind the creatures head, into a halo that slowly spread and covered me whole.

And then, I was no longer sure if my eyes were opened or closed.

A scream was fleeting inconsequentially into the dark as I tried and failed to combat the drowsiness.

And finally free of shackles I was embraced by the darkness.

■

I awoke on soft grass as a streak of light trickled in through the thick canopy and warmed my face.

Slowly and reluctantly I opened my eyes. And with heavy lids probed my surroundings in confusion, feeling disoriented.

I tried to sit up, when my stomach churned. A pressure gradually built up my throat till my body curled over, coughing up water.

With lingering nausea I bend over on my knees trying to get the remaining water out, until my mind cleared.

Then it all came back to me in a rush, a vivid replay of sharp fangs and merciless water.

Dread creeped in uninvited as I looked around again expecting to find the bones and corpses I had missed.

But nothing fortunately indicated for the place to be the Drakon's lair, so open with only the trees for cover.

While wondering of the ways I got here, my hand reached up to wipe away the string of saliva hanging from my lips.

But I suddenly paused with a strangled scream when I felt searing pain, and I was reminded of the fangs that gnawed on my hand.

My eyes that had involuntarily shut opened to a haunting sight, the damage done enticing a guttural cry.

Blood trickled from where the cells that should have been protected by smooth skin, were left open and raw.

The white jagged ends of broken bones peaked through weeping flesh where two fingers were chewed clean off.

And the abnormality to the hand missing the index and middle finger, brought a shock like no other.

Instincts told me to stop the bleeding, but for a while I couldn't move and only stared in stark horror.

And only when the numbness was starting to be replaced by pain did I take off my sweatshirt and the t-shirt beneath it.

I pressed the light coloured clothing over the dreadful wound and let it soak up the excess blood before tightly typing it up.

And when it was finally hidden away in a clumsy lump, I was gifted rational thoughts.

The soaked sweatshirt was worn again when I looked down at my ankle, finding the reason for the pain to be crescent shaped bite marks on each side.

Mud and tiny specks of green had become enmeshed with pink flesh that was spotted with blood of red and blue.

Blue blood?

It lead me look closely at the blades of grass around me, until I found a near invisible trail of coloured blood.

Could it be that I was saved?

I assessed the injury on my leg again before forcing myself to stand. My heart was beating in a feverish rhythm when I limbed along the inconspicuous track.

With every step it felt like nail bombs were exploding under my skin, but I kept going, unable to fold and put away the doubt.

And not far away the lake came into view, and it turned out I had awoken on near the opposite bank.

But however the once transparent water body was contaminated dark blue, as if someone had thrown in indigo paint.

Numerous heads of impaled wolves surfaced one after the other, each with slack jaws and open eyes. And even the ever thumping forest was silenced by death.

The last of my strength crumbled, and I hit the ground, the same instance the god of the Underworld slowly emerged.

And when he had turned to me, my vision was already a hazy blur, and breathing a laborious task.

I blinked away the tears when he began to move, his strong muscles making it seem effortless to wade through the gloomy waters, as if it had split for him to pass.

The broad silvery metal of his sword reflected the misty surface, making one believe it imprisoned within, the souls it slayed.

My eyes wandered in search for the Drakon's body. But a blue feather floating close to the shore made me realise, I would not find her whole.

The god had not drawn his blade with intentions to grand death in a blink.

I struggled to get up to my feet when he was close enough for me to decrypt his frown, but when efforts turned vain he was the one to pause.

He stared as the silence stretched out uncomfortably long before I carefully called out his name, with longing and hope.

"Hades?"

And as if the call broke him out of the reverie, he suddenly began to approach while anger grew in amber eyes with every step.

I gingerly held up my hand, joking.

"You caught me red-handed."

The words said, were laced with a tremor, birthed between a whimper and a smile.

His eyes never once softened as the distance disappeared in long strides, a pace I have never seen him take on.

With a thud, he dropped to his knees before me, and for a long moment remained motionless as he stared.

Amber eyes suddenly shifted from my view as a hand enclosed around my waist, and pulled. And soon I was delicately wrapped in a warm cocoom of his chest and arms.

No one spoke as I began to cry.

The tears that fell was like a bucket of water. Once it leaned and started to pour, it became uncontrollable.

And the time it took to show signs to stabilise, stretched long, but he never drew back.

I wanted to dig further into his arms, the warm safeguard against all cruel intentions. But flinched when in a careless moment let the injured hand brush against his clothes.

His pupils promptly contracted, and the same hand that had mercilessly swung down on foes, tenderly pulled my arm over his shoulder, elevating it from accidental aggravation.

My eyes caught the fallen sword lying behind us, and how his gaze flickered over my forehead, ridden with scratches.

Concern, the reason to his furrowed brows, gave rise to an odd feeling of happiness.

His expression suddenly became unfathomable, but the rage within amber eyes were potent and burning, when he spoke.

"It surprises me that you are smiling."

The nuance to his words put me on edge, and quickly I frowned and touched my forehead, in a weak attempt to look away.

Hades paused for a moment, and not long after, breathed a sigh. He then held the back of my neck firmly in one hand, feeling the warmth.

"You have a fever."

The observation went less cared for when his fingers squeezed the strand of hair hanging over my eyes, from its roots to its tip, effectively relieving it of the Darkon's blood it dripped.

His eyes narrowed at the creases around my nose and eyes, and gave me a quizzical look as I smiled again.

"What is it that you want to say?" He asked, with hints of bridled wrath.

"It's not every day that you have the King of the Underworld knee down before you." The surprisingly selfish remark slipped past my lips naturally, almost ignorant to its unreasonableness.

And following it the hand around my neck moved up to support my head, and he looked at me carefully as if gauging the size of the brain within.

"You have lost too much blood."

He grabbed my elbow and lowered the arm that rested over his shoulder. "You must rest. I will tend to your wounds. "

The anxiety I felt on seeing the bloodied t-shirt was subdued by the simple assurance, but I did not want to fall asleep.

My uninjured hand had a tight grip on his cloak, that refused to let go even for a second. "How did you find..."

"Rest." He did not let me finish, and swept my moist lashes with his thumb to have my eyes close shut.

But when the touch disappeared, I opened my eyes, much to his displeasure.

"I am a little scared..." I admitted in a small voice, plagued by doubts whether this was reality or another enchantment.

His hand that were at a close distance completely clapped over my eyes when I avoided his nagging glare, and the arm around my waist pulled me a little closer.

And somehow I deeply appreciated his stubbornness, and his silent acceptance of my fears. But in the end when the veil was moved away I dared to go against his word.

I squinted my eyes to make sure I could open them properly, and then shook my head.

There were no fumes over his head, nor a grimace pluckering his lips, but my mind simply brought up the image of a seething kettle.

Lowering his head, he gave me a sharp look.

"Elia."

The last syllable dragged out in warning.

I missed you, the words clung at my mouth, but I did not give them a voice, for I knew at the moment I was being spared from the anger that would surely come, and it

did me no good to coax the furious waves to break free.

I would like to delay it as much as I can.

•••••••••••••••●●●●●●●●●●●●●••••••••••••••••

A fool.

A naive fool.

Covered in a ghastly mix of blood and grime, she barely sat upright, and yet, she attempts to smile.

"It surprises me that you are smiling."

••••••••••••••••●●●●●●●●●●●●••••••••••••••••