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

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."

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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?"

"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."

"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."

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."

"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.

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

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