" I closed my eyes. If I had been a mortal, I would have heard the beating of my heart."

[pharmakis]

WHO: Circe
WHERE: The village, the woods
WHEN: 6/3
OPEN TO: OTA
WARNINGS: Mentions of mortality and death

---

The Village

Fear was rare in the gods and it was always over the unknown. For Circe, the moment that fear came to her was not when she climbed out of the fountain and found herself in a different realm, it was when she heard the sound of her heart and felt blood racing through her veins. Mortality was a concept she had thought of and considered, but never experienced and not in such a jarring way. It was almost as though she were living Glaucus' tale, she fell asleep and was changed. But she knew the reason behind his transformation. Had she done this to herself?

As she had when she arrived on Aiaiai, she had needed a day to curl in her room and let her fears pass before she explored and accepted her home. This was no difference. She disappeared after her arrival, preferring the woods to the village. She had found a mossy bank surrounded by strange flowers, wrapped herself into a ball and slept.

When the morning came, she was dry, the strange bracelet was still on her wrist and she could still hear her heartbeat. This wasn't a dream and she couldn't allow herself to cry herself until she became a tree or stone. Resolved, Circe pushed herself from her hideaway and trailed back towards the village. There was more life now, something that she hadn't seen the night before. There were animals, the sound of others working and mortals tilling in the fields.

She watched at a distance for a time, trying to decide whether this was some set prepared by the Olympians or some new punishment devised for her by the Fates. Had Aeetes cast some spell? It seemed unlikely and her intuition said no. With that simple reassurance, she pushed herself to find an empty home, assuming that it was for them to choose, ready and prepared for them. There was one near the riverbank that she liked, close to what looked like a Mill.

It was empty and dirty, unlike the mansion she had been given during her exile, though this meant little. It gave her something to focus on instead. She pulled her pant legs up to her knee and tied her hair into a loose braid, ready to work. The rooms needed dusting and there were paw prints from animals, she would have to find something to hunt the predators (as well as provide company.) Much of the plumbing was foreign to her, but that didn't matter in the moment.

She took the linens from the bedroom, washing them in the nearby river. There was a stone she could use to beat the sheets with, but this needed someone else to help her lay out the linens against larger stones. She scanned the path, curious and hesitant. Still, being shy and hanging her head would do her no good now. Summoning that same courage her powers had given her before, she called out to a passing mortal. "Could you come help me?" Not a demand, that was where the gods would mock her. "I need another set of hands if I hope to get these dry before the sun goes down."

The Forest

Her second day in the village was to clean her home, the third was to rebuild the garden that she had left behind in Aiaiai. She hadn't taken the time to explore the woods after she arrived, wanting to rest and let everything sink in (though she still had no answers). Most of the plants in the village gardens and fields were familiar to her, as hundreds of cultivating them allowed. But there were different flowers and vines in the forest that she didn't recognize. They didn't sing to her as her garden had, another unfriendly reminder of the magic she had lost. The creatures were different as well. There were no boars or wolves to keep her company, only strange amalgamations of two different types of animals. It left her questioning whether this was Zeus' personal playground, the place where his monsters could grow, but that seemed unlikely.

There were hostile creatures and others that were hesitant, but a few friendlier animals approached her. By the time of late afternoon, she had found a small collection of beasts to take back with her. Something that was pink and resembled a type of sheep, an animal that jumped as high as a goat but looked close to an elk, a weird crocodile/dog mesh and a cat with peacock feathers. They regarded her in different terms, but they were enticed enough to follow, both by treats, kind words and simply curiosity.

With a full basket, she was nearing the forest's edge, animals in tow. It was only the sudden snapping of a branch that nearly made them all disperse and run back into the wild. "No, don't be afraid!" She turned, dropping her basket as she knelt to try and lure them back towards her. "It's only a mortal. There's nothing to fear. They won't hurt you." She looked over her shoulder towards the figure. "Stay still. They don't know to trust you yet."

Comments

[tooktheblack]

Jon had met Circe in the woods once before so it didn't surprise him to find her there again, this time with a whole host of animals that she'd seemingly gotten to gentle to her with treats and gentle calls. He felt bad that his heavy foot had caused the lot of them to scatter and he gave her a soft, apologetic smile.

"If you keep feeding them, my lady, they will come back. I didn't mean to scatter them off this time, though, so I apologize for that."

[pharmakis]

She had seen Jon Snow the night before, returning to his home across the path from her own. It was comforting to know that a friendly face was nearby. After being alone for so long, she could almost feel the proximity of him, as though she could reach out and touch him. It was little wonder then that they ran into each other once again. It was likely it would happen a great deal, better that the animals grow used to him now.

She knelt on the ground, spreading out some of the food she had brought along for herself, things she had gathered as she still hadn't managed to work up the courage to visit the inn. It was the Crocdog that returned first, the same that had followed her in the forest when she had met Jon. Soon after, the Zalpaca and then the rest, wary and guarded in front of the stranger.

"It was easier to tame creatures before I came here. I had a house full of them. Hogs, wolves, and a lion. I don't know what these creatures are, but they're kind and seem to want company as well. It's better than an empty house."

[tooktheblack]

"I had a wolf before I came here to this place," Jon said. "A direwolf, a great one that was white and called Ghost. Now, though, I only have a cat that a dear friend left behind and a pair of dogs that seem to have taken me for their own master when she disappeared."

As if on cue, the dogs came up to investigate, curious about the croc dog and the zalpaca. Jon issued out a soft, firm command.

"Keep your distance, pups. Don't frighten any of these animals off."

[pharmakis]

"Did you?" Most men feared such creatures. She had seen Daedalus' crew cower before the beasts on her island. Average mortals understood the dangers of predators, and while there were some that held firm to their bravery, she had never met one that had managed to gentle an animal like that. He wasn't ordinary, in much the same way that Daedalus wasn't ordinary.

She grinned at the dogs, reaching out her hand for them. The crocdog pushed his head against her shoulder, nearly knocking her over.

"I have a lion on my island. She's been with me since my exile began."

[tooktheblack]

"Direwolves are the sigil of House Stark," Jon explained. "And we found a litter of them as pups - their mother had died. I raised Ghost by hand, so he was gentled to me, but he could still be fierce if he had to be. Did you raise your lion by hand, then?"

Jon hadn't ever seen a lion before but he knew they once roamed the Westerlands; House Lannister didn't get their sigil on accident, after all.

[pharmakis]

Sigils and Houses? The concept was a bit beyond her. "Is that the symbol of your patron god?" It was the only context that she could associate with that. None of her family seemed to appreciate wolves, which was all the better. There was no unpleasant comparison to be made. "Was he still with you before you were brought here?"

She smiled more to herself than anyone else. "No, I summoned her. She was called to me by my spell and was meant to be my companion." Her familiar, but that word was difficult to explain. "She is more than a pet or animal, she is bonded to me."

[tooktheblack]

Speaking of being bonded to an animal reminded him of his bond to Ghost and Jon nodded once in understanding. While no one knew what the Old Gods of the forest looked like, perhaps they were direwolves for House Stark.

“Aye, Ghost was with me. I had business to attend to in the south so I left him to protect my sister while she ruled as regent in the north. I didn’t want to leave her without protection. What I have with him - we share everything. Sometimes we share dreams, even. I don’t know if it’s like that with your lion.”

[pharmakis]

"You are a king?" It shouldn't have surprised her. Given his temperament and manner, she had assumed he had lived a hard life, not only in terms of difficulty but also the toil he must have endured. If he was a king, he didn't live in finery and indulgence. "Were you born a king or became a king?" That was always the difference.

That was a different sort of bond than she had, but clearly still steeped in magic. He was no pharmakis, but it was possible that he had been touched by the gods in some way. Great men often were. "Sleep and dreams are more novelty for my kind. It doesn't have the same meaning as it does with mortals. But my lion is loyal and powerful, as are many of the animals on my island."

[tooktheblack]

"Became a king," Jon said quickly, not wanting her to have any impression to the contrary. He'd been crowned after a battle, not by birth, and he knew that the crown he had meant nothing here. He didn't know how kings born to the throne would feel about that but that's how he felt.

"Crowned on a battlefield. Wait...you don't sleep, then? Witches don't need to sleep?"

[pharmakis]

That fit with the man that she was coming to know. He wasn't anything like Minos or other kings she had heard of. Instead, he was chosen by his people rather than the gods. Perhaps the Fates were kind to him, allowing him to pursue his greatness without much adversity, but the sisters were harsh and would have their way with him. If he hadn't earned his standing in myth and song, he would soon.

"Should I call you king then?" She smiled, teasing him in a soft voice. Ah, he came to the point. She looked between him and towards the sky, still uncertain whether or not her family would appear. Could her father hear her now? Would he laugh about it later with her mother? It seemed unlikely. She could see his chariot, but it was nothing more than a burning orb in the sky. Was it still him?

"Gods don't need to sleep. My father is a god."

[tooktheblack]

"Gods, no, don't call me king. Just call me Jon," Jon said, shaking his head. When she mentioned that her father was a god, he paused for a moment. He'd seen a great many strange things in his life - dragons, direwolves, this village - but he'd never met the daughter of a god.

"My lady, forgive me. I didn't know. If I had, I would have afforded you more respect."

[pretendtoneedme]

One thing they hadn't gotten around to doing after the whole... reset situation was checking over the mill. Well, more specifically, Clint had passed by there a couple of times on the way to hunt or gather firewood, and his cursory examination showed that the repairs they'd made the year previously had stuck around even when the rest of the village had been returned to its base state, and so it could be assumed that the thing still worked even though they hadn't used it much the year before. But he wanted to check it out more completely before the weather got too hot, and more importantly before they really needed it. With Arado at his heels, Clint had decided to take his hunting gear with him so he could continue to reestablish safe blinds in the forest and maybe bag a young buck if he could find one after looking over the mill.

But he'd never get there. As he was about to turn into the mill, instead, he heard a voice calling out to him, and when he looked over there was a young woman on the bank of the river, her hands full of wet cloth and not someone he was familiar with, which meant that she was a newcomer. If she was already doing something like cleaning, then the least he could do was help when asked. "Sure," he answered, detouring around the mill in her direction, Arado following him. His bow was still unstrung in his hand and his quiver over his shoulder, but as he reached her Clint slipped the quiver off and stuck the bow inside it, hanging the whole set on a tree branch. "What do you need?"

[pharmakis]

She was never shy in enlisting help when it was needed. While the other gods would be affronted to ask a mortal for anything, Circe preferred the toil and company. She was not so proud that it was humiliating and there was no reason to try and spare herself from that. This was a new realm, a new form of exile. If the gods were laughing at her, let them laugh. She intended to survive.

The man seemed friendly enough, though large and imposing. He was obviously a hunter, as the bow and hound indicated. He was quick to follow her direction and she was quicker still to shove a bundle of sheets into his arms. "I need to lay these out on the large rock there." She pointed further down the shore. The rock was flat and wide, allowing her to spread everything out under the sun and to give her space to clean without sand or soil staining the linens.

"The wind is a bit fierce today, it bundles them up before I have a chance to lay them flat. Another pair of hands would make this simpler." Despite being in an unfamiliar place, and despite being without her magic, she still felt that charge of confidence. As though she were mistress of this village as she had been mistress of her island. It kept her from cowering in the face of an unfamiliar figure, as many nymphs might.

"Am I interrupting your hunting?"

[pretendtoneedme]

Arado trotted up to the new arrival, curious about this person that he'd never seen before and being slightly wary but not aggressive - not a bad reaction for a hunting dog, really. Clint, however, suddenly found his arms full of wet sheet, and while he'd known she'd needed help with her laundry, that wasn't quite what he was expecting and it rocked him back on his heels a bit. It wasn't enough to over-set him or especially lose his balance, which he quickly regained in order to follow her.

"It can wait for a bit - you've gotta be new, so I'm guessing you don't have a clothesline?" Rooting around in a few of the houses had produced some of those, at least, and cord was fairly easy to make from tree fiber from the logs chopped for firewood. "Seems like putting 'em on the ground'll just get them dirty again." Sure, the rock might have less dirt than the rivershore or the mud, but there'd still be some. Regardless of his own clothing, though, Clint sorted through the bundle of linens that had been shoved at him to throw one sheet over his shoulder, finding the end of the other and starting to wrap it up in a spiral form. As he tightened the twist, following her to the rock, the water started running from the fabric to drip onto the ground and his boots.

[pharmakis]

She knelt, offering her hand out to the dog. While she didn't have the same magic to tame animals, she trusted that her presence was friendly enough to put the creature at ease. She ran her fingers over his fur, missing her lion and wolves. The nights would be long without them and she would be truly alone again, something she hadn't had to suffer for centuries. Now the darkness would find ways to play with her imagination and there would be nothing to soothe her until dawn.

Circe smirked at his suggestion, though a clothesline was a foreign word to her. "You have never had to beat laundry before?" Because soap was not a concept she knew, she only beat a rock against the sheets. What did it matter if it was laid out in the sun? "If you know a better way, then I will put you to work and have you set up a 'clothesline'." Whatever that was?

"Better you act rather than simply talk about it. I don't have much time today before the sun comes down, I should like to have everything ready for the night."

[pretendtoneedme]

Arado didn't accept the touches easily; it was drilled into him to protect his pack, and this new woman was not pack yet. Elkhounds could get over-energetic, and so Clint had worked hard to train him to funnel that energy into something productive, and also so he didn't scare anyone that was trying to be friendly. He whimpered a little, but Clint gave a one-word command in German, and he submitted himself to it willingly enough. Clint figured that anyone who was decently respectful and wanted to pet a dog should get to pet a dog.

"I've had to beat car rugs against the fence sometimes, but we pretty much just wash things." Her phrasing definitely made him look at her with a very much what the hell? expression, and honestly he almost dropped everything he was holding and walked away right then and there. Just because he was willing to do her a favor or lend a hand didn't mean he was up for being talked down to like that, and he definitely had other things he could be doing besides that. "'Put me to work?' Lady, I've got better things to do than be ordered around by someone I don't even know."

[pharmakis]

It was a stark reminder to her how different her life was now. Where once she wrestled with her lion and tamed the wolves and boars of her island, now she had to wait for a dog to be commanded to let her pet him. She smiled sadly, scratching behind his ears before rising once again to her feet. There was an emptiness in her where her magic had been, a silence where she could hear the life and power in all things.

He was using words that she didn't recognize again, but it was the incredulous expression that caught her attention. "I meant it kindly, forgive me." It had been so long since she had someone as company that she was more used to giving directions rather than actually ask for help. "If I am taking you from something, I won't keep you."

[pretendtoneedme]

At her apology, Clint relaxed a little, even though he still wasn't exactly pleased. She was an adult, so it was confusing to him how she'd be so oblivious, especially since she'd been pretty polite before that.

At that point, his brain caught up with him and reminded him that not everyone came from a time he was familiar with, or even a world he was familiar with. Sure, variations of his Earth seemed to be the most prominent places to pull people into this mess, but it wasn't a hard and fast rule as he knew from talking with Baze and Ned. If this woman came from somewhere completely different (and if she didn't know what a clothesline was, that was probably true), that would explain a lot, and the best thing he could do would be help her, trying to lead by example. He wasn't entirely confident in his ability to do that, but, well, better try, right?

"You might've meant it kindly, but saying it like that's not gonna win you a lot of friends." It felt weird to be explaining this - this was something he'd had to talk to his kids about, when they were really little. Not a grown woman. "Most people here're willing to help, but just remember not to try and boss people around, okay? A clothesline's just a small rope or thick cord you string up between two trees or something sturdy and hang things you just washed on. There might be one in the kitchen of your house, and if you just got here you probably need soap. That's in the butcher's shop in the middle of town."

[pharmakis]

"It has been some time since I have been with others." Or truly ever had a friend. Glauchus was one once, but his sudden shift into godhood had changed him into a man more interested in his own glories than anything else. Love and friendship were nothing, only trinkets to adorn his reputation. "I meant to tease you, but it came across as something else." Another moment where she said or did the wrong thing in her life.

"I suppose I am still too similar to my family than I meant to be." Mortals built altar fires and prayed to the gods. She had thought she was better than that. Her cheeks still burned with embarrassment. "Truly, I am sorry."

Still, she wasn't able to follow completely his line of thinking. The clothesline seemed like a clever idea, but soap? "What is 'soap?'" She asked him, bundling the sheet in her arms. Her scrubs were becoming damp again, but she paid it little mind. Her chores would dry her once again. "Could you help me make a clothesline?"

The Forest

[ad_dicendum]

Of all the things unusual about a beautiful young woman surrounded by animals like she's walked out of a legend, the thing that caught Gaius' attention was that she called him mortal. It wasn't a word he knew in English, but he'd learned enough to know that many words in English meant the same or similar to words in Latin without their endings.

Mortal. Mortalis. Subject to death. Spoken as it would be in a song about the gods.

He did not have the chance to think any more about it, though, because she turned her head to him and told him to be still. He did as she asked, stopping several yards away from her. He crouched, slowly, as she had done, and waited to speak until she did, thinking that the sound of his voice might frighten the creatures more.

There were so many of them, more than he usually encountered when he ventured into the woods, and many different types, some strange enough they could very well be from the stories he'd been thinking of, like the cat with a peacock's feathers.

This place was strange enough for a tale, itself/

[pharmakis]

It took a moment of gentle coaxing for the animals to slowly make their way back to her. Some remained hidden behind the trees, still far enough that it gave them some distance from the stranger. While others, like the crocdog, immediately came to her side. The rest would take time and the promise of more food. They at least hadn't left completely, returning to their burrows and hideaways.

"They must not be used to people coming into their woods like this." There were hunters, she knew that. But someone who came to them in search of company? It was likely unnatural to them, as unnatural as they appeared to her. But there were qualities about them that reminded her of her own beasts, now left behind on her island. Though the effort to tame them was more difficult now than it had been then.

"Who made these things? Which god?" She asked, looking back at the man. How could it not be a god responsible? Was it Zeus with his lusts or some form of trickery played by Hermes? It would be the sort of joke he'd enjoy, likely he was laughing at her now, trying to befriend these monstrosities.

"I saw the other creatures that were not so gentle. How do you keep them from coming to the village?"

[ad_dicendum]

"I believe people have not been here for a long time until now. They usually stay away from the village themselves, so maybe they have some memory of people." What had been found around this place had been largely ruins, or abandoned houses like the villages when they'd arrived. Many of these animals seemed truly wild, unfamiliar with people, as she'd said, and in his experience, that was a rare thing anywhere people regularly went.

(Though the animals in the ruins of Carthage had been bolder than many, and there had been thousands of people there, once.)

She was the first person he'd met here who'd asked him about the gods, not as someone who didn't know his religion, but as someone who shared it, or something like it.

He shakes his head, then turns to her, his dark eyes keen and appraising. "I do not know. There are no temples I recognize here."

[pharmakis]

"No, this may be an place where gods are exiled." Much like her Aiaia. Whether there was something special about this village, she hadn't seen it yet. There were no stories of battles fought over this landscape, gods or titans felled during the struggle for Olympus. Instead, this place was a mystery.

"The gods are still present," she nodded up towards the sky. Her father's chariot was still crossing the horizon. Could he see her through the trees? She couldn't imagine that he cared, even if he could. She was out of his mind, as he preferred her.

"There is something controlling magic as well." It had taken hers, though it must still be present somewhere."

[ad_dicendum]

He still prayed, every day, to his gods and his family's guardian spirits, and he'd made a special appeal to Neptune when the first village was plagued by earthquakes, but he wasn't a priest or an augur, and he didn't know how to tell whether the gods were present or not.

"I had not thought about that, that the gods could be exiled here."

He studied her more closely, curious at the knowledge she showed about the spiritual world that had always been so present to him before this place. He shook his head, holding out one hand, palm to the sky. "I am no priest and know little of magic, but it seems that you know more of the gods than most people I have met here."

[pharmakis]

"Where is here? The gods have served punishment to each other before. Time and location matters little, they can move more quickly than others." But if she was here and powerless, would that mean the gods were powerless as well? It wasn't impossible to turn a mortal into a god, but that was due to her own magic. The gods couldn't do this to her, it had to be something else.

She shifted her basket on her arm. "I am well acquainted with them." More than she wanted to be, honestly. She knew the truth behind them and how feckless they could be. "They are my family." Though she doubted they would ever freely admit to that.

"I am Circe." She didn't expect him to know her name. Very few knew of her, save for reputation. All the better, she supposed. There was some peace in that.