Small Synopsis: This is a story about a hero called Aspis and the world where Medusa's blood sprang offsprings. It also features main characters such as Medea and Asterios in the cast. And characters such as Theseus and Jason get their asses kicked.

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ+, maybe action, romance (perhaps)

Mind you, this is a very rough story draft.

What was a Gorgon? A woman? A snake? A human turned into a monster with no emotions or feelings to boot?

Medusa was killed by a man, a demigod, who quickly became a hero because of that. 

From her blood sprang the majestic Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor. Their parentage: Medusa and Poseidon. 

But from the blood sprang more creatures. Like Gaia birthed the Titans and then the Giants, the blood of Medusas’ beheaded neck spread like a river below the earth.

From this, the Gorgones were born—retaining their prominent characteristics from their slain mother and behaving like the mindless monsters everyone wanted them to be. 

Or were they?

Aspis walked inside the old and decrepit temple of the infamous Gorgon. She was hiding away in a lair, away from the world, but never safe from prying eyes.

 Her hand glided over the defined triceps Of a petrified hero. They littered the hall in the hundreds. Most of them had withered to dust, lost their shape or crumbled to dust. 

Few of them, though, stuck out as new additions. Aspis adjusted her shield and drew her Harpe, a sword with a sickle protrusion along one edge near the tip of the blade.

“Would you come out?” Aspis’ voice echoed in the hall. She heard the brushing of something large against the old and edging music floor. “I just want to bring back the villagers. Then we'll be gone, I promise.”

The Gorgones charged from behind, breaking dozens of old heroes in its wake. Aspis held the shield in her left and watched through its reflection. 

She cut off the monster's hand and rolled under its girth and out of the way. The monster crashed through the piles of stoned heroes. 

Aspis presented her sword to the snake monster's head. “Can we talk now, please? Preferably without killing each other.”

The Gorgones regarded Aspis with a wary gaze and an even warier hiss. They regarded Aspis' lack of armour, mostly contained with Bronze bracers and greaves over her limbs.

Aspis wore sandals and a typical Greek chiton that stood out among the armour, but the most noticeable clothing was her green headscarf, hiding her hair.

The Gorgones hissed, and Aspis held her sword closer to its neck. “Don't turn your head, or I have to cut it off,” she warned calmly.

Her enemy hissed again. It noticed Aspis holding up her polished round bronze shield, protecting her eyes.

The monster grinned and fiddled with his fork tongue. Its tail acted first. “Big mistake, missie!”

Aspis was flung in the air and the Gorgones unhinged its jaw, ready to snap the woman in half. It knew she shielded her eyes from fear of petrification.

However, it didn’t know that wasn’t the case.

“GrRRRAaaaA!” screamed the Gorgones when Aspis drove the edge of her shield into the snake monster's tail. Its milky white eyes stared bewildered at the sword heading at it. 

“I'm sorry,” said Aspis, and beheaded the monster. Blood speckled the mosaic floor and its head rolled down the floor and towards the locals who watched the fight.

“She's a hero.”

“The second Perseus!”

“Slayer of the Gorgones.”

The locals rushed through the old structure, searching for their petrified loved ones and avoiding the corpse of the Gorgones.

They gathered around the new petrified forms of their partners, friends, siblings and children—and wept.

Aspis stared at the ground and kicked away a nearby pebble. “Bring me an amphora.”

Kneeling before the decapitated neck, Aspis gathered the blood into the vessel, added salt and herbs, and then stirred it.

The families watched her curiously. “What Are you doing?” Asked a curious girl.

Aspis gave her a faint smile and pulled out a brush with rich brown hair on its end. She dipped it into the amphora. Speckled with a bright red colour that almost glowed. In a wide arc, she sprayed the blood over the statues.

The colour ran down their faces. Nothing happened for the moment before cracks appeared all over their bodies. Light shone through, and with one plop after another, the captives were released from their stone prison. 

Dazed and disorientated, the lost people reunited with others while Aspis leaned back against a pile of statues, keeping her distance. 

“Hero, return to our village with us.” 

“The new Perseus. We have to honour you.” 

Aspis gave them a strained smile. “I will. I just need to rest and take care of the monster’s corpse. Would you mind?” 

She didn’t like to drive away from them like this, but Aspis needed a breather. There was another thing she needed to do.

Standing up, Aspis emptied the amphora on the floor, reminding herself it was once the home of the three Gorgon Sisters. Medusa was gone, her offspring springing up from the Earth, while the other two remained gone. 

This was the birthplace of the first offspring of Medusa, and the one where the new ones spring up from. Aspis pulled out a ripe and fresh lemon she got from the villagers, alongside the leaves and branches of a tree. She formed a small cover on the floor, kissed the lemon and put it in the middle. Then she retrieved a bag of eggs and placed it around the fruit. 

She shuffled away and shuddered, restraining the feeling of hunger she had felt since she hadn’t eaten anything all morning. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Aspis rested her fists on her knees and waited. 

Closing her eyes, Aspis calmed her breathing. Cleared her mind. Ignored her thirst and her hunger. Her dry mouth and rumbling stomach were part of her fortitude, to train her patience. To earn control. 

Aspis picked up on the change of light as the sun’s warmth touched her through the columns. Her dark olive skin warmed. Her sharp nose took deeper breaths and exhaled slowly through her thin lips.

Calmness took her over. Then her ears picked up a shuffling. “Hey there,” she said, keeping her eyes closed. 

Hesitation. Then the swallowing of an egg.

“Please don’t kill me.” 

“I won’t,” she replied and retrieved a cloth. “Can I tie that over her eyes?” 

“Hm.” The creature agreed, and Aspis tied its eyes before opening her own. She looked at a baby Gorgones. Determining their gender was difficult, but she knew it was young. Almost as big as a 2-year-old, but barely a few months old. 

It still had its baby hair, with no snakes growing from its ebony and wavy tips. The upper body was black, while the lower body had a short tail with grey scales.

“So this is the culprit who turned the people to stone?” asked an angry female voice, her footsteps echoing through the columns. The Gorgones pressed its face against Aspis’ chest. 

“You scare them, Medea,” said Aspis. “And lower your voice. Their hearing is sensitive, and your tone scares them.”

Medea held up her hands in a placating gesture, but her sneer was still there. She huffed back a black lock. “What’s the plan now? We can’t keep it.”

“I didn’t want to do that,” shivered the Gorgones, clinging tighter to Aspis. “My sibling said to do that, saying we needed to defend our nest.” 

“You were used,” Medea spat, placing a hand on her hip—her purple chiton rippled in the winds. She kicked the other dead Gorgones. “Contrary to other’s belief, not every Gorgones has the petrifying gaze. They can even resist it to some degree. It used you to kill those villagers.” 

The Gorgones in Aspis’ arm struggled in her hold. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to-” 

“I won’t kill you,” Aspis’ tongue warbled softly, calming down the Gorgones in her arms. “We will relocate you.” She looked over at Medea. “Did you bring the Stamnos?” 

Medea scoffed and crossed her arms under her chest. “Asterion, bring it here.” 

After the snap of her fingers, another, much louder, footsteps were heard. They were heavy and much more laboured—as if they were not human-like. The Gorgones shuddered to hear it. 

A tall man over 2 metres in height came in. Its form was shrouded in a dark cloak. It carried a wide amphora, revealing their hands covered in white fur. It put down the amphora and snorted audibly, to Medea’s dismay.

“Hey! Be careful, you daft ox!” Medea slapped Asterios’ hooved leg. “Be more useful and carry that corpse for me, would you?” 

Asterios obeyed. He stopped next to Aspis, who patted his furred leg. “Thanks, big guy,” she said lowly, and it grunted appreciatively. Aspis lowered the Gorgones into the amphora. “Hide while we get to the ship, ok?” 

Their head peeked out of the amphora. “You smell funny. Are you my new sister-” 

“And down with you.” Medea slammed the lid over the amphora to close it shut. The Gorgones whined from the hit. Brushing her head against her chiton, she approached Aspis. “You have to be more careful.” Medea adjusted Aspis’ headscarf. “What if they saw your hair?” 

Taking Medea’s hand in hers, Aspis stroked it and gave it a peck, placing Medea’s fingers against Aspis’ forehead. Her brown eyes shimmered with a green rim.  “Thank you, I didn’t notice.” 

The smaller woman restrained an angry blush and pulled away her hand. “Whatever. We should return to the ship.” Aspis finished adjusting her headscarf. “Oaf, gather the corpse and let’s go!” 

Asterios grunted agitated, stomping his foot and complaining. 

Medea yelled, again, “No, we’re not going back to the town! I got the necessary stuff. We’re not staying for a feast since you can’t go out to the public.” 

Asterios sulked, letting his head hang, and dragged the body behind him. They walked down the temple complex and to a ship hidden on the outskirts of the nearby village. 

It was a Lembos ship from the Island of Crete. Usually, you needed over 50 people to operate it, but they had their ways with Asterios’s strength. Aspis stored the amphora in the lower decks. 

“Stay here, ok? I’ll come back with food later.”

“Thank you, sister,” said the little Gorgones in the jar. “The eggs were tasty.” 

Aspis smiled faintly. Her stomach grumbled. “Glad you liked them.” Returning to the deck, Aspis exhaled deeply. The cold breeze of the evening hit her, making her shiver until Medea threw a woollen cloak over her. “Thanks.” 

“Don’t,” said Medea. “We still got a trip to do. And you need to make an offering.” She handed Aspis the amphora filled with blood. “I finished the concoction. It should suffice.” 

Nodding, Aspis took the jar and walked to the aft. She poured the liquid into the seas, smelling the rich blood entering her nostrils—there was honey mixed into it. Aspis straightened her back, clapped her hands to the seas then spread them. 

“Grant us safe passage, oh great lord of the seas,” she mouthed in a prayer. The ship unmoored gently away, left the shore. They unfurled the sail, and Asterios pulled the oars with his massive arms. 

“Where to now?” asked Medea. 

“We need to bring them somewhere safe.” Aspis watched the setting sun they sailed towards. The cold made her body shiver. Her stomach grumbled. “I could use something to eat now.” 

“Heh, figures. Come, I prepared something for you. Also bought some honeyed wine for us.” Asterios grunted expectantly. “No, I didn’t cook more. Stop asking!” 

Author Notes!

Aspis' design is inspired to her being half-Greek and Half-Persian. She's semi tall and around 170 and more I'd wager. She has a green headscarf, dark olive skin with a green tint to it and a sharp nose. She loves citrus fruits, especially lemons. Aspis fasts a lot. Medea has a darker design with long locked black hair and a purple chiton. Maybe she's also peer-shaped, cause *cough*. Atreus is mute. I'm thinking of the fact that his father cut his throat when he was born and now can't speak. It wasn't shown yet, but he can talk in sign language. Maybe he learns it still. He has white fur, which I think just plays to his parentage, since his father had white fur