The Gorgon's Head

The ruins of the old temple had long been deserted. Everywhere there lay a thick layer of dust and rot, such that one could not take a step without kicking up a cloud of debris. Thick creeping vines choked off entire walls, while spiny fungus reached out longingly with gnarled fingers. The pre-dusk light shown through the large windows that decorated the outer walls, weakly illuminating the interior of the decrepit structure.

The sound of steel drawn across steel echos through the hollow halls as he unsheaths his sword. He feels a shudder of horror rip through him at the sight of his fallen companion. There is no blood, only the stone-scared figure of Jarder's lifeless corpse. Glazed eyes staring back at him, penetrating him with a look of sheer terror that is frozen forevermore on the dead man's face.

Neros now turns his attention to the twisting mass of scaly muscle that still stands hunched over the body of his dear friend. Her reptilian body slowly withdraws to the shadows, as if shrinking from his gaze. Her hands remain clasped over her face, the writhing mass of serpentine hair hissing about her head with irritation. The light of the setting sun dances off of her turquoise scales, casting delicate reflections on the wall behind her. However, this slight suggestion of beauty is lost on the grizzled warrior. The stench of death still too fresh in his lungs to allow for forgiveness.

"So it was you all along," he growls, raising the sword before him, "Killing us off one by one."

"No," she whispers. She still moves away slowly, coiling her snake-body around herself as if attempting to hide.

"You buried yourself in our midst, hid yourself behind our swords, shared our bread and water. We welcomed you and took you in as one of us. We trusted you!" he roared, "I trusted you!" The venom in his voice strikes her like a blow. She shakes her head, still hiding her eyes.

"I did what I had to in order to survive," she murmurs, "but I never touched any of the others."

Neros can't help looking back to his fallen comrade. "Why make him your victim?"

The swordsman slowly begins to move to his left around the body, hoping to find a better angle from which to strike at her. Rhine, painfully alert, matches his movements and keep Jarden's corpse between them. For awhile, silence falls over the pair as he awaits her answer.

"He would have killed me," she finally replies, "I had no choice. You can't blame me for defending myself."

"The hell I can't. He would have been justified in doing away with you."

The gorgon feels her throat tighten at the hate in his voice. She feel her blood begin warm under the fires of scorn. Through great effort she kepes her gaze downward, but her movements slowly regain their composure.

"Why," she snaps back at him, "because of my face? Because of my heritage?"

"You…" he pauses, letting all the anger and disgust within him congeal into one righteous mass of malevolence, "You are a monster, just like the rest of your kind."

In that instant, whatever had made her cower before him melts away. Unable to stop herself, she rears up to her full height. Neros, taken aback by the now imposing and breathtaking figure, hurriedly turns his gaze away from her.

She holds herself up before one of the large windows, her body silhouetted by the light of a blood-red sky. Still writhing, the living mass of hair frames her head, giving the suggestion of a halo. The gleam of the sun off of her scales distorts the shadows in the room.

"You know nothing of me," she growls back at him, "nothing of how I have suffered. You cannot know the pain I have inflicted on myself so that you and your party may stay safe.

"Do you know hunger, Neros? True hunger? Have you ever suppressed your strongest feral urges out of fear of harming someone you care about? Oh yes, my kind is not vegetarian by nature. I was often tempted to attack you and the others, but I thought of you as friends, as comrades. I even let your animals alone out of respect. There were nights when my hunger burned within me so greatly that I had to drink my own blood to dull the pain. Pain beyond anything you can understand.

"I forced cooked meat down my throat for you. When I couldn't take the taste anymore, I gnawed on gravel and foliage just to retain my strength. Do you have any idea what plants taste like to a partial lithivore? Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat dirt in the presence of a feast?

"How dare you judge me. How dare you-you who does not even attempt to understand my kind-pass judgment on who and what I am. You see me, and then place more faith in the validity of you folklore then you do in your own knowledge of me. Think of how many times I could have killed you before. How many times I stood there, sword in hand, while you yourself remained unarmed.

"Such blind hate your people have. I'm a monster in your eyes, then so be it. But understand that his being is as ugly to me as mine was to him. I saved him from the Drocem at the expense of my human form, and he pulled his sword on me. So much for the honor of Humankind."

"You killed him." The hate is still there in his words.

"Yes, and were the circumstances the same, I'd do it again."

"You say that and expect me to believe you didn't kill the others?"

"Stop looking through your own prejudice and think!" She bellows the words with such force that Neros is driven back. He raises his sword again as she glides closer, but he still keep his eyes turned away. "Look at the way they died. Marja, Kenro, all of them. Their flesh was torn and spilling blood, their lips were blue with poison. Now look at Jarder." She forces her hand into his line of sight, "My kind kills with our claws and eyes, and when either comes in contact with human flesh, that flesh turns to stone. No blood, no poison. We don't need it."

There is no flood of sudden realization playing across his features. No lessening of his unjust hatred. Just a gradual dawning of recognition that she speaks the truth.

"Gods above," he whispers, "it's true then. They've returned."

The gorgon leans closer to him, snake-hair softly brushing his cheek.

"And they have been stalking us since we got here." Her gorgon accent burns in his ears.

Rhine turns away from the shocked man, her serpentine body gracefully slithering across the floor to where her torch had fallen. By now dusk has fallen, and they will soon need the light.

Neros stands awestruck for another moment before sheathing his sword. Walking over to Jarder's body, he leans over and looked mournfully at the dead form of his childhood friend. He runs a finger along the stone scars.

"Why are you here?" he asks, trying to keep the disgust out his voice.

"To help you stop them." She speaks haltingly as she struggls to start the fire, receiving no aid from the human. "The Drocem are a plague on all life, and we don't trust you to keep them contained."

"There is no way to keep them contained," he spits back at her.

"The Gorgon have access to knowledge that Humanity does not allow itself to see. Believe it or not, some of us take time off from mercilessly killing people who have no way of defending themselves to pursue more scholarly pastimes."

He kneels down and closes the eyes of the corpse. Rhine moves away as he begins to softly say a funeral prayer into the ear of his former companion.

"I'm sorry old friend," he whispers when he is sure she is out of hearing range, "but I cannot avenge you as yet. There is too much at stake. But I promise that you will not have died in vain. They will all know her for what she truly is. She will not have the opportunity to commit this act of treason again, and when the time comes, I will repay your death in kind."

Sparks fly at that moment as the torch catches on fire.

Raising his voice, he asks, "Why didn't you just look at him and spare him this pain?"

"Contrary to your myths, we very rarely use that method of killing. Among our kind, looking one in the eyes is considered a sign of respect."

"I though you said you respected us, that you thought of us as friends."

"He attacked me in cold blood," her scales again begin to glimmer in the light, adding a supernatural glow to the firelight. "One who attempts to murder me does not deserve my respect."

Neros stands up and, making sure she is facing away from him, looks at the gorgon, "Maybe you just don't know how much he feared you."

"Of course I do," she begins slowly, "I saw it in every movement he made. I see it in ever movement you make," she turns to him, holding the blazing torch up, but still looking at the ground, "You'd be surprised how observant you can become when you don't have the option of looking into someone's face."

Had she had the chance to look at his face at that moment, Rhine would have seen the slightest flicker of pity and grief win its way into his expression. A remembrance of the human girl he had known; someone who had never truly existed.

"I don't understand that. I saw the firelight echoed in your eyes. I saw myself reflected in them. How?"

"I told you, the Gorgon have access to things that your kind hasn't acknowledged. You saw me as I would be if I was born from human parents. Reality infused with illusion to the point that even I couldn't tell the difference. Were you to look in my eyes now, you would die looking at the same being whose company you once welcomed."

"No," he says, once more turning away from her, "I welcomed the presence of a human girl."

He walks away calmly, a fire raging in his mind. As he reaches the doorway of the dark room, she calls to him.

"There is one more thing you should know before we continue," she says from behind him.

"Oh?"

"My kind has excellent hearing."

Neros turns back slowly. She stands there, Jarder's sword in one hand, eyes firmly trained on the blade. The torch is mounted on the wall behind her, the room still glowing with her warm reflections.

"As well as an incredible faculty for silence, so it would seem," he can't suppress a grim smile, "So you would listen to the death prayer given to a man you killed with your own hands." The accusation unmistakable.

"What can I say," she shrugs, raising the weapon, "I've never taken you for a religious man."

"You know I'll never let you close enough to mark me with those claws."

She matches his smile, "I don't need to turn you into stone to stop you."

They rush at each other, their blades interlocking in an intricate dance of steel and fury. One attacks, the other parries. One jabs, the other counters. To each attack there is a enraged response, and to each response a fiercer attack. The room grows humid with emotion as each pours the hate, anger, and rage suffered by their respective races into the struggle. An eternity of sweat and blood passes before Rhine can knock the sword out of Neros' hand and pin his back to the wall.

One hand restrains his right arm; the other hand presses the blade to his neck while the elbow immobilizes his left. His legs are barely able to support him.

"I honestly didn't think you'd be able to do that," he gasps, unable to catch his breath.

"You learn how to sense another's movement when you don't have the option of looking into their face." She pauses, also panting.

"Why are you waiting?" he responds after a few seconds, "Would you prolong this suffering?"

"What can I say? I still respect you." Her head falls forward and for a moment she brings her lips to his.

Neros, overwhelmed with shock, finds himself looking into the gorgon's face and meeting her gaze. Whatever hate he still retained melts away as he loses feeling in his body. Looking into the turquoise depths of her eyes, he sees pain beyond anything he had ever imagined.

"To what could never be," he hears her whisper as everything turns black.