Gorgon (Medusa x blind girlfriend story)

I

My sisters had been the ones to raise me. We lived in caves, a system of dark tunnels and passageways that I had grown more accustomed to over the years. Located on the sandy beaches of the island where I spent most of my life. I looked much different from my sisters, Stheno and Euryale. They were gorgons, winged women with tusks that expanded from their faces as branches did a tree, and talons so sharp that even a gentle touch was enough to kill. Beautiful beats that surfed across the skies and hunted on the ground. Meanwhile, I was mortal. No wings sprouted from my back, nor tusks from my face, and my fingers could not slice and kill as theirs did. The only similarity we had being our dark skin and brown eyes.

My mother had me on Mount Olympus, and upon the realization that I was mortal, and could not live in the seas like them, abandoned me with my sisters. I never managed to meet my parents, Ceto and Phorcys, yet I had the overwhelming sense to make them proud. Believing deeply that if I did something great, they would return to take me in with open arms.

It had been difficult for my sisters to raise me. I was not as durable as them, like glass to obsidian. They were pillars of muscle and strength, with the velocity of a falcon. While ten storms would not be enough to sway them, a strong enough breeze would be enough to topple my small body over. On many accounts they had forgotten I was mortal, often accidentally leaving me to hunt my own mice and kill my own boar. It took them years of learning, but eventually we managed to adapt.

A month before my seventh birthday my sisters took me to the nearby village, a sign of life outside the content solitude shared between the three of us. We did not go often as my sisters would face grave judgment. Mercilessly thought of as vicious gorgons disrupting the peace between gentle mortals. They would wear capes to hide their wings and faces, but it did not do much due to their size and tusks.

I had loved the village. An oasis of smells and people, food, and toys. And each day at twelve, some sort of spectacle would take place by the fountain at the village centre. It was usually a lyre player, though on some days it would be a singer, a jester, and on rare occasions a puppet show. Stheno had gone to do her own shopping that day, and because she had finished hers early, Euryale was the one to take me to the fountain. We wandered through the market hand in hand, avoiding and ignoring any ignorant stares from others. Pretending that there was nothing strange about a young girl dragging her massive, gorgon sister through the streets.

Once we reached the outskirts of the crowd surrounding the fountain Euryale propped me onto her shoulders so I could see past the mass amount of people. I was surprised to see there was no performance by the fountain that day, only an announcement. Two women stood next to each other, wearing matching white peplos and cream sandals. The eldest of the duo stood with her hands resting crossed below her chest, with her nose turned out and upwards. Her features were sharp and strict, the only imperfection in herself being the slight lock of crimson hair that escaped the tight bun adorn her head. The younger woman held in her arms a basket so full of olives that it began to overflow, she had brunette hair down to her shoulder blades and a round face with a mole about her cheek.

"My dearest friends," the eldest one spoke, her nose remaining high and proud. "I come here today to convey to you, the will of our impregnable Goddess, and champion, Athena."

The crowd burst out into an array of disappointed groans and whispers. Most of the crowd, realising there would be no performance, grumbled away, dragging their feet through the dirt. Only a small group of younger women staying.

"My"-she shook her head. -"Our Goddess, has especially instructed me to bestow upon you all the honour of serving her, to become more than what you believe your life to be. To become a priestess." The way she described it made it sound exciting, and while I did the love the small life I had with my sisters, I couldn't help but fantasize about having more.