Carved by the Gods

The Nightmare

Raven began visiting more and more, she was becoming one of my best friends, granted those who usually stared me in the eyes turned to rock. She stayed around, reading books and leaving them there for me so I could continue educating myself. She knew that being a healer was important to me, I may have been forced to go to the temple to learn, but I had always wanted to do more than what the other girls in our village were doing, farming, being housewives, working at inns, running a stand in the town center, nothing with enough substance or worth to me. Healing was what I had always wanted to do, to make people feel better, ease their pain. But now all I did was cause pain and suffering, with each life I took, I ruined a family,a brother, a sister, a son or daughter. I ruined it all. The heaviness that rested in my chest grew and grew each day that passed. My friendship with Raven was the only thing keeping me sane at this point, it had been only a week since I lost control of myself and whatever power I held was set free for just a moment. The time it took to reel it back in was frightening, my fangs went back, but the claws stayed, the venom and poison my body produced took a day to stop secreting, it killed the flower wreaths I had been weaving, and whatever plant life was near me in a five foot radius. I had found some scales forming on my back later that night, right after Raven had left, they'd been covered by my shawl I wore. Day by day we studied together, and read every scripture on ancient curses but nothing came to us, nothing on whatever Lexa had cast upon me. It must've been something original, that she'd either stolen from Murphy's library or something she had created all on her own, though I was terrified to learn how she'd discovered this curse. At night, when Raven had gone, and when there was no more I could do to keep myself busy, I tried to sleep. Lately it had been extremely difficult, I kept having the same dream over and over, of some stranger cutting my head off and using it to turn everything in his path to stone. He had short cropped hair that seemed to be styled upwards with a nasty smelling oil. When I would jerk awake as he turned the first person, that scent stuck. Sometimes I would see the statues, and the families of them sobbing, and mourning. I'd wake up crying those mornings. I tried to avoid sleeping all together some nights, but it was always impossible. I began to sketch more, mostly my mom, sometimes my own father, those ones I hid because of what he had done. I thought about him when I stayed up late, how he was doing holding the sky on his back, it wasn't an easy job by any means, in fact it was almost impossible had Indra not given him just enough strength to hold it. Sometimes I cried when I thought of him, the pain he had to go through must be excruciating. Tonight was one of those nights where I felt exhausted after crying about him, and the life I was being forced to live. Raven had stopped by earlier with a snack, rabbit and some bread with cheese, roasted and packed by the server of the Gods, Harper. Sweet girl from what Raven had told me, and extremely loyal, she was the one who forced Monty to come to me, they were together according to Raven. Harper had left me a note letting me know she'd packed them with care and updated me on what she would hear behind the scenes of the throne room, so far nothing of interest but Luna had not shown up for their weekly meeting, she had been absent since I was cursed. There was no way of telling how long it had been since this had happened. I'd guess at least a month, maybe two. Time seemed to move slower in my meadow, for all I knew, it could've been years. That was my fear, that it'd been years since this happened to me, and everyone I loved and cared about had passed away in that time thinking something horrible happened to me and they couldn't figure out just what it was. They thought I had left them all. The night wore on, my eyes burned from needing to rest and from the tears I had shed, but I tried to fight it I didn't want to sleep and see anyone else's faces. My eyes grew heavy as I stared at the book before me, trying to study the causes of illness and how to mend broken bones. So monotonous.

The world looked grey and brown, no life was to be found anywhere. The trees were dead, and the flowers were withered, the sky looked yellow, and it tinted everything with despair. Something was really wrong, the world wasn't like this yesterday, it was lush, my meadow was green and thriving with life even though I caused death. My sandals crunched on the dead and browned grass as I walked towards the forest nearby. Not that there was much left of it, not even a sprout was there. The nymphs didn't giggle when I walked by, the naiads weren't singing, I couldn't even hear the river, it had stilled. As I continued down the beaten path, it got worse, the trees were burning as I walked past them, after wandering I came upon a village. Humanity was still surviving in this wasteland? I reached behind me for the himation I'd attached to my chiton, but it wasn't there. Panicking I hid behind a tree in case anyone walked near me, but no one came. It was so quiet, I couldn't even hear the birds, or water flowing, the sound of wind was all I heard, faintly. I decided then, to venture into the village to see what was happening. What I came upon was disturbing, rocks. Statues, some intact some had fallen and crumbled to nothing but dust. This was clearly my doing, my power had done this. I continued walking through the town, my stomach churning more and more as it got worse. Animals, mothers, children. Children whose lives I had stolen before they could even experience the world and all it had to offer. Stopping in the center I noticed papers on the ground, everyone's belongings strewn all over the dirt, glass windows shattered. I picked one of the papers up, it had a caricature of my face. But it wasn't my face, it was a reptilian one, with oversized fangs, scales, nose slits on the sides of my face, scales and big, yellow, rounded eyes with black slits in the center. It wasn't accurate, but it was how I was seen. A true monster. What I was. There was a reward on the bottom for thousands of drachmas, some only had a few hundred drachma as a reward. My power caused this madness, my power had cause me to turn everything to stone. I heard noises coming from the forest, voices, dangerous ones that made my hair stand up on my arms.

"Wanheda!" A man screamed. The Mountain Men. I bolted from the spot I was standing in, ran towards the cliff I had before turning hundreds of them to stone. I tripped on my way there, scraping my knees, blood spilled from them, they burned as I got up again, ignoring the throbbing pain from my cut hands. When I reached the cliff, men came out, skinny, unkempt, The sky grew darker, orange almost as I neared the edge. My foot slipped and that was it. I fell into the valley. Darkness enveloped me, and I braced myself for the ground.

I woke up screaming. The nightmares wouldn't end until I spoke to someone other than Raven. Something was coming, something big and I could feel it. I grabbed one of the books Raven left for me, one on all of the creatures from her...our world, it had everything in it, explanations on certain animals, monsters, and a certain trio I needed to get into contact with. The Graeae. They'd tell me what I would have to do to either cure myself, or make my life functional again. Maybe after that I could go home. I could be back in society again and do something good for humanity. I had to plan this though, down to the last detail. My life is at risk with the bounty already on my head because of Mount Weather, and the lives of countless others would be at risk when I left. I had my sort of safety nets with wrapping my snakes up, and having a veil over my eyes, but it'd draw attention. So it seems I can only travel at night...I'd have to start packing tomorrow. For tonight, I'd rest and hopefully the nightmares wouldn't return, hopefully this determination I had found won't disappear.