A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!
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Pegai and its surrounding lands had been hit with severe drought in the past few years. Rain rarely landed in the region, and when it did, the drops only lightly moistened the cracks in the ground.
Aside from praying to the gods, the villagers turned to the sea for the source of food instead of the harvest of grains and vegetables that were more and more poor every year. Every day, the water level from the wells dipped lower and lower. Dust drifted from the dry fields in little swirls as the farmers tried to hand water their crops through pails.
Annabeth was not the only one to scavenge the rocky shore for the mussels that stuck on the rocks. Here and there, she pulled some edible seaweed clinging to the jagged stones, careful not to fall on the slippery surfaces.
"Ahhhh!"
"Run!"
Annabeth snapped up as shouts resonated from towards the village. She couldn't quite make out what was being said.
"Do you hear that? What are they saying?" She called over to a young boy who was digging for clams nearby.
"Can't really hear them this far." He answered. The boy narrowed his eyes. "Is that smoke?"
Pillars of smoke were rising from the clay tiled roof. But they were much bigger and more numerous than the normal amount of smoke in fireplaces. Had a fire broken out?
Annabeth and the others on the beach ran back towards the village. Fire had indeed broken out, but no one was rushing to put out the flames that were beginning to consume houses one by one.
No, Annabeth was realizing too late. They were all running away from something.
Her sandals, still wet from the beach, skidded on the cobblestone paths as she tried to halt her run.
Pegai had never been plagued by a monster before. It was a small, inconsequential town. War from larger city-states rarely found its way here, and monsters even fewer.
Yet, here in the middle of the square was a snake-like creature with a horned head like a dragon. The monster's body was as thick as a doorway, towering just above the roof of the nearest house.
"Have no fear, follow me!" Leitus, the archon's son, yelled and charged in. "I shall get rid of this fiend!"
The monster snapped its foaming jaws with teeth the size of one's palm at Leitus, who tripped and nearly missed having his head taken off. He yelped in fear, dropping his spear.
Then Annabeth saw the head on the snake monster's tail. No, there were two heads. The dreaded creature was similar to a snake with two heads on either end, supporting itself with its thick middle body. Vicious hissing came from either head as its tongues flickered.
An amphisbaena! Annabeth had seen depictions of the horrid monster in a scroll in the library. She had heard of such monsters but had never truly believed they existed in this world, with her life limited to Pegai and its existence free from monsters.
But why was this one so large? The scroll she had read said that amphisbaena lived in the desert and were typically no longer than a man's upper torso, small enough that wearing a living one around one's neck could procure fortune in fertility. Yet, this monstrous creature before her had destroyed three small houses and set them on fire. Was the drought so dire that the dry region around Pegai had attracted this desert dwelling creature?
A group of five guards attempted to subdue the amphisbaena with limited success. One man yelped as one head bit his shoulder as he was distracted by deflecting the second head with his wooden shield. Quick as a flash, the amphisbaena whirled around and defended itself against the other guards before they could coordinate a strike.
Annabeth could tell the fight was turning ugly. The guards were uncoordinated in their attacks from the village's lack of experience in strife, and already one was down.
Think, Annabeth, she thought. What else did that scroll say?
The amphisbaena supposedly sprung from the blood that dripped from the slain Medusa's head as Perseus, son of Zeus, flew over the desert. The creature had high regenerative abilities if cut in half and the fangs were venomous. With its two heads, it could quickly reverse direction with the first head becoming the tail end and the second head facing the forward direction. However, both heads did not always communicate well.
Annabeth's mind whirred as she analyzed the battle before her.
Leitus had given up on being brave and was now scrambling away from the fight.
"Give me the spear!" Annabeth wrestled his spear away before he could get too far.
"What? That's my spear!" He protested.
"What use is it to you if you're the one running away from the battle like a coward!"
Leitus gasped and his grip loosened on the spear.
"Hey, come back here!" Leitus demanded. He faltered when he realized he would be charging back where the monster was without a weapon.
Annabeth ignored him as she rushed into the square. Four guards were left distracting the monster. The battle drifted closer to one of the destroyed houses.
She spotted some wooden crates stacked alongside the wall behind the house. Annabeth climbed her way up, using the crates as a ladder. Somehow, she made it onto the half-demolished roof without breaking her neck or stabbing herself with the spear.
The amphisbaena was now moving further away. It was now or never. With a strength Annabeth didn't realize she had, she leapt from the roof with the spear in her hands thrust before her, driving it straight down the amphisbaena's back.
With gravity's help and the force from which Annabeth had leapt down the roof, the bronze-tipped spear sunk into the amphisbaena's scaly back as though piercing through bread. Annabeth vaulted off of the monster's back, using the shaft of the spear's momentum to throw her away from the amphisbaena like a pole vaulter.
Just half a second later, both heads snapped towards where Annabeth had just been. Annabeth landed on her shoulder, grunting as a sharp pain ran down the arm, reminding her of the pain from the dream. She scrambled up from the cobblestones.
In its haste to catch the intruder who had dared to stab its back, the amphisbaena's two heads had snapped together towards the middle of its back. With both its jaws wide open, one head had accidentally snapped close on the other. Now the amphisbaena choked, one head swallowing the other. Flailing, the amphisbaena fell on its side in a circular loop with the spear shaft pointing inside the hoop.
"What are you doing?" Annabeth yelled, clutching her shoulder. "Kill it quickly before it gets free!"
She grabbed a fallen spear from the guard who had been knocked out. Annabeth jumped up and aimed for one head's eye, the only weak point she could assess. The amphisbaena shrieked in pain as the spear pierced through its eye.
The other guards had been mesmerized in what had just occurred. Snapping to attention from the monster's eye, the guards rushed forward. Within moments, the amphisbaena lay dead with multiple spears thrust in the eyes. With one last angry hiss, the amphisbaena stilled its body.
Annabeth turned around to see the other villagers came out of hiding, in bewilderment at what had occurred.
"Did you see that?"
"It was like she flew from the rooftop." Another whispered.
"It doesn't seem like she's quite human, does it?"
Annabeth stilled. All her attempts to remain unnoticed were ruined today.
"Annabeth."
She turned to see the archon. The years of drought and bad harvest had etched lines in the old man's face. The archon took in the sight of the half-ruined village and the amphisbaena's corpse. He gripped the sheathed dagger by his waist.
"What have you done?"
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The head matron fussed over Annabeth, half scolding her for being hurt, half praising her for attacking the amphisbaena.
"All the people are in quite a fuss over the amphisbaena. Such a large one, too!"
The amphisbaena had healing properties in folk medicine. By wearing its skin, ailments such as colds could be cured. Eating its meat could have aphrodisiac properties and so on. The size of the creature alone would provide medicine and meat for quite some time.
Since it was Annabeth who had made the move that allowed the monster to be defeated, the archon claimed most of the amphisbaena.
"The archon is saying that since I was his servant, as the master, he deserves the amphisbaena as the prize?" Annabeth said quietly as the matron finished applying salve to the bruise on her shoulder. It wasn't even a salve made from the amphisbaena but a normal salve. Even the broth that the head matron had given her was last night's leftovers. "And that Leitus is claiming that he slew the amphisbaena?"
"I-it was his spear that struck the amphisbaena."
The head matron looked nervously at Annabeth's stony expression. Somehow, the demureness of Annabeth's reaction frightened her more than if Annabeth were to lose her temper.
"Do not say anything, please." The head matron begged. "I'm afraid that...that..."
Before she could finish her words, the archon stepped in the room.
"Leave us," he commanded.
Sending Annabeth an anxious glance, the matron reluctantly left.
The archon studied Annabeth. Annabeth said nothing back.
For years, the archon and his servants always reminded her that she was just an abandoned baby and that she should be grateful that they took her in as a servant, and not a slave. For the first years of her life, Annabeth had been grateful, living under her adopted father's tutelage.
But now he had long passed away to let Annabeth fend for herself. With the archon's demeaning words and now the insult of taking away what belonged to her, Annabeth was more determined than ever to leave Pegai.
"I suppose after what you have done, you should be rewarded." The archon said at last.
Annabeth raised her eyebrow, her heart beating fast.
"But what a pity, that you caused the amphisbaena to be led to this village."
"What are you talking about?" Annabeth leapt her feet. "Are you falsely claiming that I deliberately set a monster loose in the village?"
The archon smiled, though with a cruel light. "The droughts have been so severe that such a desert-dwelling creature appeared within our walls. It is a clear sign that the gods are displeased with us. We must send a suitable gift to them." He stared at her. "You."
There was a long ago tradition that her adoptive father had once told her about sacrificing a person to the seas, to be sent as a bride to the ocean. A pharmakos, the tradition was called. Usually, the bride was of a prominent family, to best match the status of the gods. Privately, her father had thought all the brides ended up being fed to sea monsters or died in the seas from thirst and hunger.
"But I am a mere servant–"
"A servant who has accomplished a triumph unlike anyone has ever seen in this village. Your sacrifice as a bride will add on to the noble deed of slaying the amphisbaena."
"But you're not even letting me have the achievement of killing the monster! You are falsely claiming that Leitus is the one who did it!"
The archon frowned and stroked his gray beard. "The head matron has a loose mouth it seems. But no matter."
Annabeth's mind whirled, planning her escape. Most likely, they would send her away at dawn. Though she was hurt, she could make her way out under the night's cover, or even attempt an escape now. They would not expect her to attack now.
She tried to move forward, but to her surprise, her feet would not obey her. It was if they were stone and would not listen to her mind.
"I have always known that you are an intelligent child, Annabeth. But there will be no escaping tonight." The archon must have seen through her eyes. "Besides, I am a fair man. We will let you have a part of the spoils when you leave. Did you know a property of the amphisbaena's venom is paralysis?"
"The broth!" Annabeth realized in horror. That was most likely when they had placed the paralyzing poison in it because she had eaten nothing else since the attack. She had never expected the head matron to betray her. Though the matron had harsh words towards Annabeth, her actions had always been kind. "How dare you–!"
Annabeth lunged forward towards the archon in outrage, but the paralysis was creeping up from her legs. She fell forward, her gray eyes spitting with fire towards the archon as she glanced up from the ground.
The archon walked forward, tilting her chin up with his foot. "You should consider this the highest honor of your life to be a bride. No one else would take you in as a wife otherwise. Now you can pay back what you owe from this family."
"I owe you nothing. I even took down a monster for this village!"
"And I am grateful that your feat is now my son's feat. There is no need of it where you're going. And now, neither of us will owe each other anything now. Goodbye."
The archon stood over Annabeth's unmoving body as the paralysis finished consuming her body.
"Father..." The door opened, and his daughter and son walked in nervously. His daughter tugged at his sleeve. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"
"Yes. This is the only way."
"I wanted her to be my concubine," Leitus complained.
"No, we have discussed this, Leitus. Your marriage is coming soon, and we shall find a wife appropriate to our status."
"None of them are as pretty as Annabeth." Leitus complained.
"Would you rather your sister die or have a wife who will bring no dowry or power? This is all for you, my children." The archon gripped his daughter by the shoulders. "With the drought over the years and now this monster breaching our walls, the villagers are demanding we send a bride to the gods as appeasement. I fear the gods will truly forsake us if we do not send a bride. The only one suitable before was you, but now that Annabeth has accomplished such a feat, we do not need to send you. We can tell the village that the gods have ordained Annabeth to be their bride. They will not complain about who the bride is, as long as someone is sent."
His daughter was still apprehensive. "But, Father, the tradition that the brides sent before have always had re–"
"Shush, child. She is paralyzed but still awake."
The archon took one last look at Annabeth and left the room.
Less than an hour later, the people of Pegai gathered on the shores as a small boat was set off into the sea.
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A/N: I will be taking a break over the holiday weekend. Hope you're enjoying this so far!