Serpent In Love (🔞) - Completed

7. A Snake's Fears

After bawling my eyes out, I finally ran out of tear to shed.

In silence, Aquila continues to hold me in his arms, one hand stroking my head.

A little more time passes.

Noticing I've stopped wailing, he pushes me gently from him to study my face.

As for me, I evade his gaze. I must look a frightful mess with my red eyes puffy and swollen.

However, the real reason why I averted his protracted gaze was; I fear he might see through to the nightmare that lurks behind mine.

Bothered by my downcast expression, he lifts my chin gently, forcing my face up to his.

"Hydrina, look at me." He commands in a soft voice, his other hand leaving my shoulder to encircle my waist.

When I finally peer into his blue eyes, I notice how crestfallen they appear.

Suddenly, I feel a corresponding pang of guilt piercing my heart.

"Now, tell me what's troubling you. Is it Typhon...?" Aquila asks, his hand on my chin ease up to caress a side of my face. Comforting me.

Feeling helpless, I nod before moving my glance to his chin. Simultaneously, I feel another wave of panic gripping my being at this stark admission.

"Hydrina...what must I do to make you believe in my words? I'd already sworn an oath to protect you from him...Not just me, but the forces of this realm will also keep you safe--"

How I want to believe in your words! If I can, I want to erase this hopelessness in my heart right now!

"--Typhon cannot be stopped." I cut him off, still averting his gaze, remembering my nightmare as I speak, "--No one can stop him because it is in his destructive design. A design that had been written for him in the constellation since aeon ago. Therefore, there is nothing you or the Olympians can do to change that." I said the last sentence as I recall what I desperately pray, is the final fragment of the calamitous presage envisaged in my nightmare. Except, I am now convinced that it isn't the very instance I reflect on it briefly.

In it, I witnessed how every Olympian fell in their battle against Typhon and his beastly 'allies'. It was a fierce clash of monsters and gods that eventuated in the collapse of Mount Olympus and defeat to its divine residents. Lord Zeus and his brothers included. The worst part was that it didn't just end there--

"What do you mean by that...?" Aquila asks, sounding bewilderedl frustrated, "Typhon is just another monster to be killed by Zeus's thunderbolts! Why do you claim he's unstoppable?! Hydrina, did you forget how powerful Zeus and the Olympians are?" His arms around me tighten as if to assert his presence physically to me "I'm begging you. Tell me; why are you so fearful of Typhon? What makes you so terrified of him for you to act this way? What do you know about him that frightens you so?! Tell me, please!"

Balancing his helpless questions in my head while averting his gaze, I breathe chilling words to describe the instigator of my unsettling fear;

"Typhon... He is the direct descendant of the old gods. An entity birthed from the belly of darkness whose lineage is of Chaos himself! He is much stronger and far more powerful than all titans combined. From this knowledge alone, how can I not fear him so?"