Serpent In Love (🔞) - Completed

11. A Snake's Woe

They say one does crazy things when one is in love.

I can relate to this saying more easily in my nightmare when I chose to save my lover and let Themiste dies.

If craziness is the same as selfishness, then I'm guilty of this act every time I watched Themiste died over and over again in that repetitive angsty nightmare of mine.

I contemplated on these admissions after sneaking back into Lord Zeus's palace's garden to wait for Aquila.

Crazier still, I let out a trembly breath of triumphant relief, is how less than I had managed to pull off an insane feat ever attempted by me in my short life.

Speaking of that death-defying stunt, I frown perceptively at the charmingly beautiful flowers around the garden. I wonder if they are poisonous...Like the ones grown inside Lady Hera's botanic garden I've seen earlier?

Pondering on this question fleetingly, my left hand touches a hidden pocket of my chiton...I really did that without getting caught today. Ha...How brazen I've become...Feeling satisfied with my today's mission's outcome, I switch my mind to my second concern. I wonder if everything's all right with the today's visit? I turn in direction of the garden's main entrance. I don't like it. Aquila is taking a little too long compares to his prior visitations... I should know. Ever since I'd consented to live with him on Mount Olympus, he had never once let me stay home alone.

In fact, whenever he has to report to his master, he would always take me along with him. Just like today.

But today, unlike those previous visits, I had to begged him to let me wait in Lord Zeus's palace's garden. Of course, I had my reason. Frankly, after getting choked awake in the middle of last night by that sickening nightmare (my fourth night in a row), I had to act. To start, a quarter of an hour earlier, I'd sprung out of the garden the instance Aquila went inside his master's palace to raid Goddess Hera's poisonous patch. Timing-wise, I aced my intrepid errand in perfect turnaround because when I stole back into the garden, Aquila still hasn't returned.

Presently, while occupying one of the benches grappled by uneasy thoughts, I hear loud fluttering noises, follow by audible voices to my left on other side of garden's wall.

Hearing it, curiosity crowds out my worries for the time being.

Quietly, I get to my feet and cross the manicured lawn toward the tall wall on my left. I stop in front of a flower bed to listen.

"It's imminent that Typhon will attack." A deep voice floats to my listening ears. "--It is just a matter of time before that happens. The way things are, he won't need to wait for much longer."

"What's he waiting for, anyway?" Asks a second voice oozing with contempt. "I mean, if he's as powerful as acclaimed by the Oracle Pythia, then he wouldn't be hesitating like this... Or perhaps, he is frightened of our lord?"

The last sentence hangs scathingly in the dense afternoon's warm air for a moment longer.

"There's a rumour going around at the moment, claiming why he's dormant." The first voice slowly answers, though its audibility drops significantly. "He's waiting for a cosmic alignment. Don't ask. Just listen. Anyway, the circulated rumour referenced a phenomenon that tears--no, fierces--open a portal in the sky. One which he will use to facilitate his ambush."

Oh gods.

Registering this information, I thudder. My heart thunders, in sheer panic and horror, it plummets into a tarry abyss.