❝𝘴-𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯❞
❝𝙞 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪.❞
𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗖𝗬 𝗝𝗔𝗖𝗞𝗦𝗢𝗡 had met a lot of people and he had seen a lot of things that had caught his eyes. But she was a different story. The girl with the long hair was just someone he coul...
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XX. THE DAY IT REVEALED TO US THE FINE LINE BETWEEN GREED AND PRIDE
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"Put a price on emotion,
I'm looking for something to buy"
DODIE WASN'T SURE WHAT TO expect when the fog before her cleared — well, that seemed to be the common theme in this quest: Dodie didn't know things. Either way, the moment the fog disappeared, it revealed a dirt road that greatly differed from the concrete asphalt they were on just moments ago.
It was like any trace of the urbanity had disappeared. All around them was green; the grass was thick and the breathtaking view of the blood-red sea could be seen overhead. The summit of the mountain loomed over them, its storm clouds swirling with power. She could feel the tension in the air as they approached the path leading to the top, which led through a lush meadow of shadows and flowers. It was just like the garden of twilight she had seen in a lush dream. And frankly, that made her feel... anxious.
You know, Dodie would like to say that if it hadn't been for the enormous dragon, the garden of Hesperides would've probably resembled heaven — or Elysium, if she had ever seen it.
The grass shimmered with silvery evening light and the flowers were so vibrant that they almost seemed to glow in the dark. Stepping stones of polished black marble led around either side of a five-story-tall apple tree, every bough glittering with apples. But they weren't just any apples, these apples were golden with an allure that Dodie knew she could hardly resist from taking a bite. Their fragrance was enticing, and she couldn't help but imagine how delicious they must taste.
"The apples of immortality," Thalia said. "Hera's wedding gift from Zeus."
"I think you meant Gaea,"
Thalia paused for a moment. "What?"
"Gaea," Dodie said, looking around anxiously as the hair on her neck stood. "She was present during their wedding before she went to sleep. This garden is the very place in which Zeus and Hera were wed," It was hard not to want to imagine immortality in her hands, though the dragon coiled around the tree might be giving her a hand in throwing that idea to the drain.
Dodie could already feel her stomach flipping as she stared at the Dragon; with its serpent of a body being as thick as a booster rocket, finished with glinting coppery scales, and heads that were more than Dodie could count, as if a hundred deadly pythons had been fused together; your initial thought would be to be scared. However, he was asleep, which made him less intimidating. The heads lay curled in a big spaghetti-like mound on the grass, all the eyes closed.
