The Legend of Perseus: The Labors

Ch. 20

Ch. 20

Perseus felt nauseous.

He'd eaten more Stymphalian Bird than he cared to remember.

Actually the bird's taste wasn't too bad. But three days of the same food for breakfast, lunch and dinner had soured him towards the meat. Something about it bothered him after the first few servings. Part of him wondered if it just the thought of where the meat came from but in reality, it didn't matter. He was just sick of the dam taste.

Not to mention, Heracles' culinary prowess extended to stew.

And ended there.

So yeah, he'd had all the Stymphalian Bird stew he wanted for a lifetime.

But when he looked over at Heracles, who was still enjoying the Stymphalian Bird stew like it was the best thing since sliced bread , he knew he had more of it in his future.

"Let's get out of here. If I have to smell any more of that bird stew, I swear to the gods I'm going to throw up."

Heracles looked up and gave his friend a slightly confused look.

"I thought you liked it? It's some of the best stew I've ever made."

Perseus rolled his eyes, "It was good... For the first eight servings. Let's get back to Tiryns. I want to get started on the next trial."

Heracles brought his bowl to his mouth and inhaled the last bit of his stew before standing up, wiping his mouth and sighing contently, "Very well. Let's get moving, those birds apparently found a new home. Let's grab a half dozen or so of the carcasses as evidence of our success."

Perseus breathed a sigh of relief and started stringing bird carcasses together for the journey back. Once he had eight of them strung up, the two heroes took off towards the west on the journey home.

A few hours into their trek, a silent communication started between the two demigods. For the past hour or so, they'd been followed. Both had picked up on it pretty quick, but they both knew better than to give away that they'd spotted their unwelcome companion.

Someone was intentionally trying to stay out of sight while keeping on their trail. They couldn't get a good look without making it obvious that they had noticed their follower.

Perseus waited for the right moment before slowing starting to veer off the road they were on, slipping into the woods without Heracles even sparing him a glance. They made the move so smooth, someone walking beside them may not have noticed.

Heracles waited a few minutes, keeping up his normal pace and giving Perseus the time he needed to get into position.

Once he felt enough time had passed, Heracles slowed his pace just a bit, not enough to be noticeable but enough that whoever was tracking him caught up a little bit, even without meaning to.

Before they had a chance to notice how close they'd gotten, Heracles whirled around and fired an arrow right over their head. If he'd wanted to hit them, it he could have. He wanted to startle them and it seemed to have the desired effect as the figure stumbled back in shock. Heracles bolted towards the figure, who he could now see was wearing a thick cloak with the hood pulled up, hiding their face from sight.

Heracles closed in, lunging at the figure, trying to bull rush them and take them down as quickly as possible.

At the last second, the figure dove away, rolling on the ground towards the woods to avoid the hulking form of Heracles. Before the figure could climb back to his feet, they heard the sound of an arrow being loosed from somewhere close. The sound was quickly followed by another and the thwacks of arrows hitting the ground reverberated right by its head. It tried to jump to its feet but found its cloak was pinned to the ground around the arms.

Two arrows had caught the extra fabric and essentially pinned them to the earth. Though they could obviously break free, there was no time before a foot planted itself on its chest, keeping it from struggling.

"Who the Hades are you? And why are you following us?" Heracles booming voice berated the figure before the hood was pulled back from their head, revealing curly black hair and a handsome, albeit somewhat chubby face.

Perseus found himself a little surprised by what he found under the cloak. He'd expected a monster, or at least an intimidating man looking to rob them. But instead, he found a young man right around Heracles' age. While he was around Heracles' age, he was not nearly the intimidating presence like Heracles was. If anything, he seemed more frightened of them than anything.

Though he was a rather handsome young man, he looked more childish than anything with his chubby cheeks and small pot belly. Perseus actually felt a little bad about attacking the guy. Heracles kept his foot on his chest though, waiting for answer.

"I... I'm sorry." The man choked out. "I've been looking for you two. I wasn't sure how to approach you."

Heracles put a little more weight on his foot making the man wheeze in pain.

"And stalking us seemed like the best way to come and greet us?"

The man's face was turning red under the pressure on his chest. Perseus gave Heracles an imploring look. Heracles rolled his eyes but pulled his foot off the man. But when he tried to sit up, he found a sword at his throat.

"I'm still waiting for an answer." Heracles growled. "And my patience is wearing thin."

The man raised his hands slowly, "I am your brother, son of Zeus."

The effect was instantaneous as Heracles' sword dropped from his neck and made him take a step back, a mixture of shock and disbelief covering his face. But before he could speak, the man continued.

"My name is Dionysus, I am a son of Zeus. Our father has sent me to find you two. The gods are in trouble and need our help. He sent me to gather you two to help me aide the gods."

"How can we help the gods? Surely anything that threatens the gods is more powerful than we could even comprehend." It was Perseus who spoke. Heracles seemed to stunned at the revelation that their was another son of Zeus in front of him.

Dionysus rubbed his chest where Heracles had stepped on him, "I will explain everything on the way. Time is short and Zeus has called upon you two for help. Will you join me in aide of the gods?"

Heracles' eyes were wide as he tried to comprehend everything being thrown at him. He looked to Perseus whose mind seemed to be just as stunned as his. They caught each others' eyes for a minute as a silent conversation took place between the two heroes. Then Perseus extended his hand to the chubby looking man still seated on the ground in front of them.

"Gods in trouble? Not sure how we can help but if that's what the gods require, then let's get going."

Dionysus took the younger demigod's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and he thought about how he was going to explain what he'd been told.

A.N: Confused? So, if you read my author's notes, you'll remember a ways back I said I had two short stories planned for this series. This is the first one. It will most likely be less than 10 chapters, maybe even just 4 or 5, depending on how it goes when I'm writing it. But this chapter is the intro to my new short story, The Legend of Perseus: The Gigantomachy. My next update will be chapter one of that story. I'm going to write that and then return to this after because in the timeline of my series, the first giant war occurs right smack dab in the middle of Heracles' Labors. Hopefully you guys will like it... If you don't, you can say so... But to be honest, I don't care cuz I like the idea. So... Thoughts on this plot twist?