DIMITRI

  The boy had heard from his Teacher that the internal prison of Tartarus was a place of isolation, without any light or air for the sinners to see. For not a single light of hope to escape on their painful eyes.

  Teacher lied.

  All those days he was moving in the darkness of the underworld, Dimitri got blind from the brightness of the desert. Surrounded by light cream stone walls, he could see that there was not a single soul out. Looking above, he could see that there was no sky. The stones were keeping everything in touch. But there wasn’t even a torch. Where was this light coming from?

  Did not matter with his body now bleeding deep from his hands and broken leg. Turning his head back, he could see that he had left a trail of his own crimson. So, he sat down and took out a few bandages and one remaining small flask of Influence. Pouring it into his flesh, the boy bit his lips, trying to stop the agonizing pain. Then, he moved the bandages, wrapping them tightly to his skin.

  Tight but not too tight for the blood to stop completely. Someone had taught him that. Who was that man?

  Keeping walking now, he could listen to whispers in each wall. Different pleading voices of salvation. And the voices kept growing even stronger the deeper into that desert. Slowly, he noticed that those walls had engravings of people, showing their suffering. Then, the engravings were shifting and showing the reason they were in.

  A mortal challenged the gods, and he succeeded by humiliating them. He is now pushing a stone to a high cliff, and later it falls back. He has to push it back to the cliff until it falls to the beginning once didn’t matter how painful it was. Because he had to fulfill his punishment.

  Another one belonged to a king who killed a mortal and offered this mortal as a sacrifice to the gods. Furious as they were, hwasis swimming for eternity into a lake while a vine of grapeswass hanging at the top. But when he lowers his body to drink, the water disappears. And when he arches his body up, the vine gets lifted.

  Dimitri tried to think of what punishment was awaiting for him at the end. Maybe a vision of him to be forgotten by everyone, or his punishment was to actually be stuck inside this desert with his body still bleeding?

  ‘’A mortal?’’ A painful feminine voice spoke up from inside one of the walls.

  But looking at her engravings, the woman was a goddess with her lower body being half fish with long sick hair and gills around her neck as if it was a beautiful necklace.

  ‘’Yes’’Replied the boy and waited for the walls to change.

  The goddess laughed.

  ‘How does a mortal exist outside?’’ Her voice was surprisingly not even mocking. She was actually curious that Dimitri was outside. Maybe because for them, there was no outside.

  ‘’It’s a long story’’He said and looked down at the dagger, which was whispering.

  ‘’Mortal man, what are you holding there?’’ Asked the goddess. ‘’That blood doesn’t belong to you.’’

  ‘’Blood?’’ The boy’s shoulders moved higher, and he was about to open the cover once again.

  ‘’Not here’’The woman explained to him. ‘’YOU cannot open it.’’

  ‘’Why?’’

  ‘’The blood that you have belongs to a great enemy of the gods with the name Typhon. He once challenged’’

  She stopped speaking. The boy could listen to her trembling tone. A goddess was afraid.

  ‘’He is a child of the god that holds the prison. Tartarus himself. He wanted to become king of the gods. And he almost did manage it with his blood being so poisonous to them. But soon after, that creature was punished to hold a mountain far from here’’

  Dimitri’s eyes opened wide and looked at the dagger. How can his teacher have something powerful like this? Can it kill gods? Why does he have it if he doesn’t use it?

  ''How did he manage to win?'' Asked the student, the prisoner whose voice held a deep sorrow and regret.

  ''When the gods are being born from celestial stones, a name is being given to them. A name full of power and control over their entire souls. A god can use the name of another one and make them obey each and every one of those commands. A complete soulless servant for the one who managed to snap the god’s name. The king of the gods managed it and took Typhon’s true name, and with his thunder, he crashed him down to a mountain, forcing him to hold that mountain. And all it took was his true name.''

  One word. One single word and a god could be tamed. Dimitri could imagine how much power the person could have had. With a power in their fingertips they could even rule the wrold, being gods themselves.

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  The godess cleared her throat as it seemed to notice that the boy was having rushing ideas inside his mind.

  ‘’No matter the reason that you are here, you cannot open it.’’

  ‘’Why shall I trust you?’’Dimitri pointed at the prisoner. And so the stones finally shifted.

  The goddess and the king of the gods were once in love. So deep in love that he promised her to make her a queen. As she was expecting a child, the king got a prophecy that the child would dethrone him. So, he challenged the goddess to turn into something small, and so she turned into a fly. The god now caught her and swallowed her whole. But as she was about to fall into her death, she moved at the god’s head, giving birth inside it.

  And months later, with the king in pain from his tremendous head, someone opened his skull, with a grown woman getting out. But the goddess was now, she got imprisoned after that moment. Showing now that her punishment is to be in a closed room with her belly full until a baby gets out. Then, the baby vanishes, and it comes back again.

  Why? Why was she actually trapped? It couldn’t be just that. How can gods be so cruel?

  ‘’I miss my daughter’’ She wept. ‘’And as much as I want to get free, I know an enemy that lies near that I do not want to face.’’

  Her tone was honest, compared to any other gods he had seen. She even sounded mortal.

  ‘’I have to keep going’’He admitted and moved where the whispers were taking him.

  ‘’Her name is Athena’’ She announced. ‘’Do you know her?’’

  A long pause as he was trying to think of the right words for her to listen to.

  ‘’She was worshipped by everyone. A wise goddess with the mind of a thousand men. She had bright temples for the entire world to admire.’’

  The boy waited for the goddess to say something about the way Dimitri was speaking of the past. How could he say that most of her temples were destroyed by people like him? How could he tell this mother that her daughter might not exist anymore?

  ‘’I am glad’’There was a sign of relief. ‘’Be careful on the road deeper. Cause a hungry guardian is awaiting for you’’

  Dimitri nodded and kept walking as he tried not look behind him or to see more of the engravings. She was innocent. She had no reason to stay there, but she still was, having a punishment worse than death. How many more would they be there? How many mortals and gods were innocent and got imprisoned in the dark cell?

  The boy’s mind became blurry from the pain as he looked up and found at the top a beautiful woman with curly reddish hair, fair skin, and an upper body that was blessed by the gods.

  Was he dreaming?

  ‘’Are you a mortal?’’ Her throat let out a heavy masculine voice, and the boy stood there stunned. Then, her entire body moved out, and the boy found that from the waist down, she had legs and tail of a dragon with broken wings being exposed from her back.

  He wanted to run. He wanted to puke from the sight of her bleeding skin and organs that were getting out between her legs. He wanted to cry. But instead, he stood there silent as she jumped fast from the stones and was ready to attack him with her tongue, getting out.

  ‘’None shall be out of their cells'’ She growled.

  Run, stupid boy, run.

  As she was now so near, the boy hit his leg,s and they began moving as fast as they could.

  ‘’But I shall thank you for getting out. I haven’t had a proper meal for centuries.’’

  Her golden eyes were glistening with hunger while her gentle hands turned to sharp red claws, and the boy was trying to get out of the straight path. He tried to show her the dagger that he was hiding, thinking that it might actually do something. However, the monster was starving so much that it would rather die than stay without any flesh much longer.

  Think, boy, think.

  Dimitri, no, found once again his small tint and ripped one of the bandages that had alcohol. With the small fire now, on his burning hands, he waited for the terrifying goddess to be so close to him as her heavy organs were being spit out.

  She seemed disappointed that her dinner was not as playful as she had expected, but her sharp claws found his neck. Her long tail moved around his waist, and she began licking his face with her fiery tongue.

  ‘’Young and ripe’’ She growled, and the boy looked at how far she was from her stomach. So, he took a good look at her wide mouth and her thousand teeth.

  As she was about to bite him off, he snatched the fire inside her mouth, and tears escaped her eyes as her body gave up to the fight. So, the boy’s bleeding body kept running far and far from all of it.

  ***

  The blood stains stopped from one point, but Odysseus could still see the boy’s broken footsteps. As he was rushing, he found the god of messages stopping at one of the cells.

  Why was he following them still? Odysseus had known the god for thousands of years, but he was confused by that sight.

  ‘’Metis said that your kid might get attacked by Campe.’’

  Odysseus kept rushing as fast as he could, with his mind turning blurred and his heart having a single goal.

  But the god was one great distraction from his goal. So, Odysseus grunted and stopped to look at him.

  ''I am actually trying to help-''

  ''Help?''Gasped Odysseus. ''Your help would be to get out of my sight''

  Hermes sighed and leaned closer to the man's body.

  ''Or else what?''

  ''Or else I will use your true name for everyone in the cells to listen.''