Destinies: Separate Ways

11th Fate: The Petrified Serpent

Desi POV

It all started with the fire-the fire that had engulfed something very precious to me, the fire that destroyed something I had gained through great struggle, the fire that made me lose all of my friends. Friends who were so hard for me to find, all gone just because of that damned fire. If only I could turn back time, I wonder if I could prevent this from happening before it even started. 
Desi:"Sigh, there's no use in thinking about this now" 
Desi:"I know I can't do anything on my own" 
I sighed again and started trying to go back to living my life as before, even though now I am all alone.

A month had passed since that accident, and I tried to distract myself by going to a zoo. While I was in the reptile section, I noticed an open glass enclosure, and beneath the enclosure, there was a sign saying that the animal that was supposed to be inside was a rather dangerous snake. I quickly looked for the zoo staff to report this. The staff immediately started searching for the escaped snake without causing a commotion among the visitors as much as possible.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, as I continued walking around the zoo, I saw a snake slithering toward a  child. I quickly stepped in front of the snake to block it from harming the child. Strangely, when I stood in front of the snake, it didn’t attack me but just stood still, staring at me. Not knowing what else to do, I just stood there and stared back at the snake, afraid that if I moved, the snake would strike me. Fortunately, shortly after, the staff arrived and immediately captured the snake, which was still just staring at me. I breathed a sigh of relief when I knew everything is safe.
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A few weeks have passed since the incident at the zoo. Right now, I'm in Lamia, a city in Greece. I let out a sigh after reading the name of this city again. Ever since the zoo incident, I've often encountered snakes or things related to snakes, and every snake I come across always petrified when they see me, and some even bow towards me. And now, here I am in the city of Lamia, and Lamia is another name for the descendants of Medusa, the half-snake women who have the ability to turn anyone who looks into their eyes to stone.

I sighed again when I saw a snake on the street near the city, and I had just arrived in this city. 
Desi:"Oh, come on! Why do I always have to run into snakes wherever I go" 
The snake I encountered bowed to me like the others, though I have no idea why they do that. I then tried to shoo the snake away. 
Desi:"I don't know why you're doing that, but thank you" 
Desi:"You can go now" 
The snake flicked its tongue a few times, then slithered away, and I sighed again.

I don't know why, but maybe because I've encountered snakes so often, I've become completely unafraid of them, and the fact that they never attack me whenever I meet them is probably another reason why I'm no longer afraid of the snakes I encounter. While I was relaxing in the city, yet again, a snake approached me. But this time, I felt like the snake was asking me to follow it. The snake wouldn't leave until I agreed to follow, so I had no choice but to go along with it before anyone else saw the snake and caused a commotion. I kept following the snake until we arrived at the Castle of Lamia.
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When I arrived at the castle, it was eerily quiet. There wasn’t a single person in sight, even though this place is usually bustling with activity. Not only that, when I entered through the main gate, I saw many snakes slithering around the castle. I also noticed a woman sitting surrounded by those snakes. However, the woman didn’t seem afraid at all; in fact, she looked like she was playing with them. The woman immediately smiled and approached me when she saw me, and that’s when I could clearly see that her eyes were exactly the same as the snakes’.

The woman looked very happy as she got closer to me. 
???:"Finally, you’ve returned, my sister, I missed you so much. You’ve even brought new family for us" 
Meanwhile, I was utterly confused because I didn’t know this woman at all, yet she called me her sister. Just as the woman was about to reach me, a large snake suddenly emerged from my body and instantly transformed into a woman, standing between me and the woman who was approaching. For some reason, I felt like the snake-turned-woman’s name was Medusa. 
Medusa:"Stop, Euryale! Don’t bother this child" 

Medusa:"She knows nothing about us, let her live her life as she wishes" 
Euryale:"My sister, this child inherits our blood, she inherits our power. She will never be able to live a normal life" 
Euryale looked at me with glowing eyes, and right after that, my eyes began to burn intensely, making it hard to keep them open. Meanwhile, Medusa quickly turned around, looking deeply worried about me. I noticed Medusa's eyes were the same as Euryale's—serpentine. 
Medusa:"Damn it! I didn’t expect it to happen this soon" 
Medusa:"I’m sorry, my child, your life might become very difficult from now on" 
Medusa:"I can no longer protect you" 
Medusa:"I’m sorry, but believe me, everything will be okay" 
Medusa then placed a pair of dark sunglasses over my eyes as they continued to burn. 
Medusa:"Wear this, my child, don’t let anyone look directly into your eyes, remember!" 
Right after that, I lost consciousness.
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When I regained consciousness, I was still inside the castle, but Medusa and Euryale were no longer there, and the swarm of snakes I saw earlier surrounding the place had also disappeared completely. Everything had truly vanished. I then tried to touch my face and realized I was still wearing the sunglasses given to me by Medusa, which meant that what had just happened to me wasn’t a dream.

A month has passed since that incident, and I followed Medusa's advice not to let anyone see my eyes directly. I almost never took off my sunglasses. I wasn’t doing this without reason. First, because when I took off my glasses and looked into a mirror, I realized that my eyes had turned into serpentine eyes, just like Medusa and Euryale's. The second reason is that one time I accidentally looked at a bird when I wasn’t wearing my sunglasses, and the bird immediately petrified and turned to stone.

I was thankful it wasn’t a person who saw my eyes, or they would have turned to stone like that bird. Many people grew curious when they saw me always wearing sunglasses, and whenever they asked me why I always wore them, I wouldn’t answer their questions. Some of them became so curious that they tried to take off my sunglasses by force, and I would always panic and push them away from me. Unfortunately, because of that, people around me started to think I was insane, and they immediately sent me to an asylum.

At first, I was very sad when people thought I had gone mad, but I was quite happy when I met Arga and Ayu inside the asylum, although I was confused about how the two of them also ended up here. The three of us spent our days in the mental hospital peacefully. Arga and Ayu then told me about their abilities and the things that had happened to them. I was very surprised and quite saddened because people also saw them as monsters, but because of that, the staff were very afraid of us, so they let us do whatever we wanted. However, our peaceful days were suddenly shattered when the Soul Eaters came to attack. The three of us had no choice but to use our abilities to fight the Soul Eaters. Whether I liked it or not, I could no longer remain as the Petrified Serpent.