In Love with a Jackal

15b.

𓅓𓎛𓇋𓇋𓏏𓁐𓐍𓂋𓋴𓂝𓎛𓋩𓉔𓊪𓏛𓋴

The human girl, Tina, sat asleep next to me, her head once again comfortably resting on my shoulder.

After the third time, I had given up trying to remove her off of me and just accepted this torture. Cramped in this tiny train, with so many other humans, I had already fought off an impressive amount of the elderly just to keep my privilege of sitting. There was not a chance I would give that up so easily, simply to avoid this insignificant discomfort.

I barely remembered the last time I had walked this much, let alone taken a train. Even when I had to traverse the duat on my own two feet, I had never been relegated to such a constant embarrassment as that was "taking public transportation". Netflix had evidently misrepresented the reality of it.

The first time, even with all the curious staring I had received, I'd considered the metro to be at least bearable. However now, and with each consecutive trip, my enthusiasm waned significantly.

But obviously, once again I had that sort of bad luck, that would make teleportation one of the first abilities to become unavailable to me. This, matched with the fact that I was the only god who could not change his age, meant that no matter the time or place, I was eternally forced to listen to the grating nagging of people who considered themselves "older" and "wiser" than me.

If that old wirey hag with the ugly purple hat knew that she might very well see my smiling face again waiting for her on the other side, maybe she would have reconsidered chastising my footwear so vocally before getting off at her stop.

I sighed deeply and attempted a second time to escape from the sweaty thighs of the rather large man sitting next to me.

Shifting my cramped knees to the left, I unintentionally hit the bag of the middle aged office worker holding on to the railing above my seat. He glared down at me with a shake of his head before regripping the handle of his leather briefcase and moving it away from me.

Nevertheless despite the countless irritating moments such as these, I was still glad to have at least reached the age at which one could categorize me as a young man. After all, the horrors I encountered spending the prime of my civilization being essentially a prepubescent teenager, far outweighed the annoyance of having to listen to everyone's "life lessons" as I did now. And at the same time, I was also grateful I wouldn't look like the old ball of yeast dough that was Heh for a long time to come.

On the topic of Heh and life lessons; I still could not come up with a valid reason of why Heh would do this to me.

I mean stripping me of my godly powers and casting me to the peasants?

It was just too Greek!

Just like this awful place.

Greece.

I could simply not wrap my mind around the fact that one of my Egyptian brethren would invent a curse like the one that plagued me and this human girl. I was the lord of curses myself for crying out loud, and yet it's true nature was still able to evade my inquiry.

I knew that Heh had been angry, but he should have been the first to realize that this particular punishment was the dumbest thing one could possibly do to me. He was the one who knew what truly lay beneath my golden divinity best.

Had the old man finally gone senile per chance?

Exhausted, I brushed my fingers through my hair, trying my best not to move my shoulders, lest I disturbed Tina's rest. I was too tired myself, to deal with her fearful eyes, watching my every move as if I might pounce on her at any given moment.

Having to humor a human was incredibly taxing, so I was glad she'd unwillingly fallen asleep. The margin between terrifying her to death and having her cooperate was just too exhaustingly thin.

Unlike what Heh had accused me of, if one man understood the trials and tribulations of mortals it was me. Which was also exactly the reason why I didn't want anything to do with them. I had judged enough of them to know.

I glanced down at Tina again.

Simply put, if one were to accuse someone of being inconsiderate of humans, wouldn't it be Heh himself? Wasn't he the one who had cursed this girl to a miserable existence by tethering her to me?

She was so closely anchored to her fate, one could liken it to a shackle. Few people were bound so tightly, it had been surprising to me from the very beginning. It seemed there were plans for her.

And then after the visit to the fates, to learn that the defining events would also be things that made her so unhappy, it did not make the situation any better.

Knowing what lay ahead of us, it was clear I would have to break this curse no matter the cost. Heh had forsaken her; this would not end well.

As something on the rails rattled, the train shook, and my hand moved on its own, already accustomed to its job of keeping Tina upright.

No matter how much I thought about it, some things just didn't make any sense.

How could Heh be so thoughtless? And how could this curse be so strong? But most importantly, why were the divine Greecians still being this active?

Of all the things I had expected to find in this century, living, breathing demigods had not been one of them.

I wasn't yet sure how relevant this was to my own situation, but I knew something very odd was going on. Basilisks roaming free, demigods, the fates still frequenting their usual haunts. No other deities I knew of demonstrated this kind of affinity for the present like the Greeks did currently.

Something must be going on.

As the train once again stopped, the man next to me quickly scrambled to get up and whacked me in the face with his shopping bag. Without even attempting an apology, I watched as he scurried out the door and down the platform, completely oblivious to whom he had wronged.

I mumbled an insult in the old language and Tina next to me stirred.

Her drowsy eyes quickly found my face,

"Are we there yet," she asked me, her voice tinged with exhaustion, "I told you the name of the stop, right?"

"Yes you did." I answered, quickly stealing a glance at the map above the doors, checking if we hadn't already missed it.

𓌱𓅓𓎛𓇋𓇋𓏏𓁐𓐍𓂋𓋴𓂝𓎛𓋩𓉔𓊪𓏛𓋴