Clarestes. Chapters 39 to 42.

Chapter 39 - “How come you had no woman before me?”

Clarestes discovered that at times Mera would retreat into a sadness of the soul, and when this happened she changed in many ways. For instance, during these times she might only say a handful of words or perhaps even be absolutely silent for a day. He always worried for her when she suffered such, although he tried not to show this outwardly as this only made her condition worse.

When Mera was under one of these dark spells, another very strange thing happened. She never grew angry at him, or became angry about anything else for that matter.

He would watch her carefully when she was afflicted by one of these low times of her mind, and each night he would pray to the gods and goddesses that she would wake the next day and become angry at him, whether it was deserved or not, for then he would know that the spell was broken.

In the past when Mera was under one of these spiritless palls, after a handful of days of this, she would return to her old self. The dark circles that grew around her eyes would retreat until they were gone. She would talk to him again, share stories with him again when she was a girl, and ask him to tell stories of when he was a boy as well. She made him laugh with her jokes and she would gift him with her insights, and her beautiful laugh, and everything else wonderful that she did as well.

And everything less wonderful...for when she snapped back to, she would also snap back at him...and curse, insult, and berate him soundly when he angered her as well.

And she would go back to joining with him. Indeed, she would let him join with herself whenever and wherever he wanted, which he thought was quite the perk, to say the least. Usually they did so sweetly and lovingly, but she was very capable of the opposite as well. If she happened to brush against or even walk past him, and he was moved by her beauty, or her inner being, or both, and he grew excited by this, if she noticed, she would drop whatever she was doing and say something like, “Hey boy, what was that look in your eye? Am I mistaken or were you checking me out? Do you want some?”

The first time she did this he thought she was joking and so he cried, “Yes, always!” Then she shocked him by undressing on the spot (which happened in one of their fields). And then they...you know...as his head swiveled around on the watch, and as he prayed to Aphrodite that no one would approach and witness.

She had an uncanny ability to do this, to sense when he wanted her, and, as he thought she was beautiful and he loved her, she sniffed him out a lot. As was said, at first this shocked him, then in later times he felt guilty about it for it seemed wrong and demeaning. But eventually he decided as it was not, for she always undressed quickly with a big smile on her face, and she always enjoyed it, alot! Sometimes she would attack him. throwing off his clothes while laughing, if his slow ass was not moving along quickly enough for her taste.

These joinings, many times, were not so tender and gentle as the others, to say the least.

Yet this night Clarestes knew no joining, neither sweet nor primal, was likely to come. Nor any of her jokes, laughter, stories or insights, as she weaved slowly at his father’s loom, and as she was yet again under one of these dark spells. He strummed his lyre quietly and he was particularly worried as this sad bout was different, for she had been under it for many weeks, and the dark circles about her eyes were deep. Deeper even than when he saw her striding toward him in his field that first day. So as he plucked his lyre, Clarestes’ thoughts were of only her well being.

“How come you had no woman before me?” she asked quietly and these were the first words she spoke to him that day.

Clarestes smiled as he thought she was finally coming out of it and he said, “Why would I have had one? For as you know, and are fond of noting and pointing out, sometimes as much as a dozen times a day, I am still a boy.”

He gave her such a wide opening with is. He could only imagine what she would say to him in return. Most likely it was going to be insulting. Most likely it would be witty and clever. Although he knew she was very, very capable of being wise, so this was a possibility as well. Mera had so my ways to come at him with.

Mera, indeed, was a woman who could proceed in many directions and she went down the path of one of them. Clarestes waited and waited, but she said nothing.

He looked to Mera and he said, “Hey, you are still there?”

To his surprise again Meral said nothing, and she looked very dejected. She would not look him in the eye.

Clarestes, frowning, put down his lyre. This was not good. He asked, “What is upon your mind?”

Mera asked, “Why did you have no woman here before I came? Why were you not married?”

Clarestes thought for some time. Finally he said, “I do not know why. I do not know how to answer that question.”

“Try” she said.

Clarestes said, “That is like asking a poor man why he has no money. Usually he does not know...”

“Sometimes he knows,” she said.

“Good, well let me know what he knows, for I was always womanless before you, and I have always been poor.”

Mera said nothing to this.

He whistled at her and when she looked at him, he asked softly, “What is amiss?”

She said, “I can not give you a son, or a daughter. Nor should I if I could.”

Mera said this for she had never had the moon’s bleeding of women, and as she was twenty one years old, she all but knew this was not to come. Ares had never given her a child with his horrid rapes, and neither had Clarestes with his sweet joinings of love.

“When did I ever say I wanted one?” asked Clarestes.

“Never,” said Mera. “But all men do.”

“Not true. I would be happy to have children with you, but would be just as happy without. That is the truth.” said Clarestes for he had contemplated this and thought this would come up with Mera at some time. And he was not lying, for now when he thought of his future, Mera was always in it, with or without children made no difference to him. He could not imagine himself with any other woman, nor did he want to.

“I want to be with you always. Will you marry me?” he asked.

Mera said softly, “No.”

Clarestes’s heart was wrung by these words. He was so taken aback by how badly this stung him, he said, “Other than when my parents died, I do not think I have ever been more saddened in my life.”

“And that is but one reason why I will not marry you. I bring sadness. That is but one reason. I could think of a dozen more…”

Clarestes smiled and this relieved him of a bit of his pain. He said, “Well, I do not know what the other reasons are, but I know you are wrong about the first. You have brought me more joy than I have ever known before. Now tell me what the other twelve reasons are, for perhaps I will be able to punch holes through them with such ease as well.”

Mera was quiet and then he saw her slump over and down. He recognized that position she took. It was the same pose of pain she took the last day they worked the parched fields together, when she took it so he would not see her weep.

He stood and walked to her. He swept her hair from her face and lifted her chin and saw what he feared. Her eyes were welled. Then he saw a tear fall big and slow from one. And another fell and so it wretched his heart. And more fell, each more saddeding than the last.

He tried to embrace her, but she pulled away from him, and to all he said she now said nothing in return.


Many years later Mera entered their home. Clarestes sat at their table. He talked and laughed as he ate his meal. A woman with her back to Mera also sat at their table, on her very own log no less! She drew her sword and closed upon them. As she drew nearer she caught what looked like a tinge of reddish color about this bitch’s pretty, light brown curls.

“What the fuck is going on?” she shouted.

Clarestes carried on and he ignored Mera in full. Indeed, he seemed oblivious to Mera’s presence, and he acted as if he had not heard her words.

The woman, on the other hand, heard Mera all too clearly. She turned her head around to look at Mera, and in doing so she revealed the most beautiful eyes Mera had ever seen. And the first eyes Mera had ever seen that were green.

Her heart leapt and ached with jealousy. She cried out, “Who the fuck are you? And what are you doing here?”

The woman was calm and seemed at ease. If her face showed anything, it was pity. “You know who I am,” she said quietly.

But Mera did not recognize this woman, and so she drew even closer. Then she saw that the woman suckled an infant at her breast.

She froze and she was afraid. The babe looked up at her and the infant looked like Clarestes. The same nose. The same chin. The same sandy hair. Against his mother’s ivory white breast, Mera saw he had Clarestes’ brown-gold complexion as well. Everything about him was Clarestes.

Except for his eyes, for they were not grey. Now this infant’s eyes were the most beautiful and vibrant green eyes Mera had ever seen.

Mera looked to Clarestes in complete panic and terror, but he talked to this woman about this and that, still seemingly not aware of her in the least.

The woman looked to Mera and she said, “I’m sorry. I am so sorry, but he can’t see or hear you. Believe me when I say he remembers you, and you can take comfort that he talks about you a little more than I wish.”

Then Mera awoke with a start, trying desperately to regain her breath as she clutched her racing, pained heart.


Early the next morning Clarestes slipped out of bed quietly so as not to wake Mera. He dressed and went into the common room. He gathered his things and then went out to take care of the animals.

But he need not have worried about rousing her for she was already awake. When he closed their front door and started toward the animals’ pens, she too slipped out of bed and went to their front door. She cracked it and watched him until he gathered the sheep and then led them along the path to the pasture that they would feed upon that day.

Then she went back into their bedroom and she put on her armor, as she wept.


Later that morning after Clarestes had put the sheep and then the goats out to pasture, he returned home. He went inside and Mera was still not awake. He started to quietly make breakfast so as not to wake her, but then he sensed something...wrong.

He went to the bedroom door. He cracked it and looked inside. Mera was not in bed. He flung the door open and saw her armor and her weapons were gone as well.

He felt like an arrow had pierced his heart.

His mind was instantly awake and moving. Where has she gone? What should I do? And what do I need? What is the best thing to do first?

She could have gone anywhere, but he tried to guess what her likely destinations would be. The City of Marsia came to mind as he remembered Prince Pleodes’ invitation to her on the pirates’ isle. This was where he hoped and prayed she was going, for this was the best place for her to go. Prince Pleodes would welcome her and then send him word she was there.

But he knew this was hopeful thinking. He thought of the more likely place she would go, and this horrified him.

He decided this was the way he needed to go. She could be going anywhere, but if she was going to where he feared she was going, then he must go this way at once and chase her down and stop her before she arrived there.

He would not don his armor, helmet or shield as they would just slow him down. He would not bring his spear or sword as he decided they would hinder him too much as well. His knife and his father’s bow and quiver of arrows would be all he would arm himself with for they were light, and he could carry them to the edge of the world if need be.

He retrieved all of the coins he had in the house (they were not many) and bagged them. He packed food in a shoulder sack and retrieved two water skins. He stuffed some clothes into another bag, retrieved some rope, and that was it.

He left his house and took the path from his house that led north. He ran, praying to Hermes for fortune and speed.

Perhaps Hermes answered this prayer for Clarestes was about to get some luck.

For a time he swiftly ran that long trail that went to Nycius’s house. Halfway there he almost ran headlong into Nycius’s son Therias, who was running southward toward Clarestes’s home as well.

Therias leaned over upon his knees. He was sweaty, winded, and was having a hard time catching his breath. Clarestes cried, “Did you see Mera this morning!?”

Therias nodded his head. Clarestes asked with fear, “Was she going north?”

Again Therias nodded his head, and when he finally got enough breath to speak, he said, “I was taking our sheep out to pasture when I saw her walking quickly over one of our fields. She was wearing her armor and had her spear and shield. When I called out to her, she looked at me for a moment, and then she broke into a run, making her way to the north. I went home and told my father. He said I must go to you as quickly as I could, for perhaps this was of very grave and ill portent.”

“Fuck!” shouted Clarestes loudly and angrily, This shocked Therias for he had known Clarestes for so long, but he had never heard him curse. As Clarestes ran up the trail, he did something he also never did. He did not even thank him for his news. Indeed, the only words Clarestes gave him were, “She is going to her death!”


Sometime later when Clarestes broke the trail’s head, he saw Nycius standing at his home’s doorway and waiting for him. He looked to Clarestes with concern.

“She goes to Thrace,” Clarestes said to him low as he drew close. “She will meet her death there. Where did Therias see her?”

“In our barley field to the north and east,” said Nycius.

“Will you take care of our animals?” asked Clarestes as he hurriedly reached beneath his cloak for some coins.

Nycius grabbed Clarestes’s hand and he said, “Already taken care of...wasting time with that, son. Anything else you need?”

“No,” said Clarestes and then he started to run northward. He shouted, “All I need is much, much luck.”


Sadly, Clarestes did not get any more luck that day. He was hoping to overtake Mera that first day, but he did not. As he curled upon Gaia late that night he knew not finding Mera that day would make finding her all the more difficult. Finding Mera now, would be like finding a needle in a haystack.


Chapter 40 - “Promise made and promise kept. There is your dagger back.”

Six days later a dishelved and dispirited Clarestes jogged upon yet another road that led northward. All the days before he had stopped at every town he had passed through and asked if any had seen, “A tall woman, taller than most men. Armored and armed, with black hair and a scar upon her cheek, and very beautiful.” All these townspeople all said no. As he passed fields he called out to the farmers working in them, but they had not seen her either. Whenever he reached a city he cried to the guards that stood upon the walls above the gate and asked them this as well. None had seen her or could help him.

He had no idea where she was. She could be miles ahead of him. Or to the west or east. Or it was possible he had traveled past her in which case none would have seen her at all.

He was sick at heart and of mind. Deep darkness now surrounded his eyes.

As he jogged that road that took him even farther to the north of Greece, he spied a group of troops from a nearby city state marching toward him. As they neared he cried out to them, “I beg for your help! Have you seen a woman who is tall, taller than most men? Wearing armor and armed. With black hair and scar upon her cheek, and very beautiful!”

The soldiers laughed at this. They were upon this road, in duty, to protect this road’s travelers and merchants from bandits. Yet they were, in actuality, menacing and stealing money from those travelers and merchants themselves. And this fool-man was about to pay a “toll” as well, after they had a little fun with him.

“Taller than most men? Really? Is she taller than Bernedis here?” said one as he pointed to the tallest among them.

Clarestes gauged the man’s height and he said, “By a half a hand.”

The soldiers laughed and the one continued (Clarstes guessed he was their leader), “Well, she must be a giantess then! Have any of you seen a beautiful, armored and club-bearing giantess?” Then they all laughed.

Clarestes’s eyes narrowed as he started to realize who these men really were.

“Watch those eyes, boy,” said the leader to Clarestes. “Have some respect for your elders and the troops of King Lapinos who protect this road. We seek highwaymen and I see you are armed with a bow. You look very much like one bandit we seek. Give us your name, and then we will see how much stolen coin you possess.”

Clarestes said, “I am not a bandit. I am Clarestes, son of Arestes, and I have not a coin as I have spent them all in searching for the one I described.”

The men were silent for a moment, and then all broke out into wild laughter, including the leader.

When they finished laughing, the leader’s eyes narrowed, He leveled his spear and approached Clarestes. The other men fingered their weapons and approached him as well. The leader said, “That is a good one! You are Clarestes the Bold! Listen boy, we tolerate no lies, especially stupid ones. You have one last chance to give us your real name or suffer a beating and then are arrested, or worse.”

But the leader didn’t care if he got that name, for he suddenly thrust his spear viciously at Clarestes’ chest. Clarestes stepped aside and snatched the spear away from him. He quickly snapped it in half over his knee. Just as quickly he placed its broken halves back into the leaders’ hand. He clamped him (much as a friend would do to another) upon his arm so forcefully that the troop’s leader’s arm went numb and hung loose, and he feared Clarestes had broken it as well.

“I’m sorry, I did not like where that spear was going. But now that it is no longer being dangerously thrust at myself, here it is back safely to yourself,” Clarestes said as the leader’s jaw dropped as that had happened so fast.

The man to the leader’s right drew his dagger, but the moment it was clear of his sheath, Clarestes struck him with his hand in his throat. He took that “soldier’s” dagger as the man dropped to his knees gasping for breath.

Then that dagger that Clarestes held was at another soldier’s throat as he went for his sword, but when he felt that dagger upon his throat, the soldier’s hands left his sword and he raised them up in fear.

All the men stood still as Clarestes said, “Listen assholes, that was me half asleep. When the next of you goes for a weapon, I fully awaken and that man is dead. I am Clarestes, son of Arestes, but I am very much feeling like my father now, so beware!”

Clarestes’s eyes burned as he looked at each and every one of those men. Then he cried abruptly and harshly, “Tall! Taller than any of you! Armored and armed! Black hair! A scar upon her cheek! Very beautiful! Kind of want to find her! Any of you seen such?!”

All of the soldiers stood stone still and when they found their voices, they said no.

“I believe I have seen her,” said a man timidly from behind Clarestes. That man had stopped to watch the amoral shake down, and he was caught up in the drama of it all.

Clarestes held up the dagger and said to the soldiers, “Going to borrow this for a while.”

Clarestes turned and approached the man. He asked, “I beg you, please, tell me what you’ve seen and know.”

The man said, “On the eve of yesterday I stood upon the sea’s cliffs and there I saw someone far down upon the beach. Then, I thought he was a man, as he was too tall to think of as a woman. He was armored and carried a shield and spear. I could make out dark hair that fell down from beneath his helm. But now, in hearing what you say, I think it was she who you seek.”

Clarestes’ heart leapt at this and he cried, “Which way was she headed?”

“She walked to the north,” said the man.

Clarestes had it! She was making her way to Thrace by way of the coast!

He wheeled around and threw the dagger with all his might. It sunk into the left eye of a soldier who had slowly drawn an arrow from his quiver and notched it, to bring it up to use against him. The man dropped his bow and arrow. He rolled upon the ground as he moaned and clutched his face. Then he lay still.

“Promise made and promise kept. There is your dagger back,” said Clarestes and now his bow was in his hands with a notched arrow in it and trained upon the soldiers. “Let me give you a taste of what you deal out on a daily basis. Throw all your coins to me here, as I have spent all mine. Now! And I will not even bother to tell you to not reach for any more weapons, because I dare you to! I want you to! Do it! I challenge you!”

Those soldiers did not. They fearfully drew out all of their “tolls” that they had taken that day and threw them at Clarestes’s feet. The man next to Clarestes, terrified at what Clarestes had done, tried to slide away, but Clarestes whispered for him to hold, for some of these coins were to be his for his help, and given to him after the soldiers left

When the soldiers had thrown their coins at Clarestes’s feet, he yelled, “Now run! Run! Run for your lives!”

The men did so up the road. Clarestes was going to let them flee unhindered, but then he changed his mind and let his notched arrow fly where it struck the fleeing leader in his ass.

He bent down and retrieved the coins. He put some into his coin bag which was empty. Then he gave the rest, which was the lion’s share, to the man who stood next to him.

As Clarestes did so, that man’s knees slowly stopped shaking as his fear lessened. Eventually the man smiled inwardly as he recalled how many times those very soldiers had humiliated and stolen from him in years past.


Chapter 41 - “I am so sorry, but I will not go back with you.”

It took Clarestes not long to make it to the coast of Greece. Once there, he started to run northward, figuring and praying he was about a day behind Mera.

After about a half a day of this and in the afternoon, he saw something that made him joyous for the first time in many days. A single set of sandal prints in the sand. He broke into a beach pounding run.

Not soon after when he rounded a cliff, he saw far up the beach a person walking to the north. It was Mera.

He ran faster to catch her. His heart raced from the exertion, from joy, and anger.

Before he could reach her she turned and saw him. She started to run away from him.

Clarestes was all but mad now. He yelled out, “That’s right woman, just try to run! You’ll never outdistance me! Look at how skinny and weakened you are! I will run you down like a wolf does a sickened, stricken deer!”

Mera threw her spear aside and her shield, and then her helmet. Yet Clarestes was still closing upon her.

“Mera!” he yelled.

“Leave me alone!” she yelled in panic as she tried to run as fast as she could, but it was not enough. Now she could hear his footfalls upon the sand and she knew he was still gaining.

Closer and closer Clarestes drew until he was right behind Mera. Then he tackled her to the sand. She tried to fight her way from underneath him, but he quickly flipped her from her side and onto her stomach. He pulled her arms behind her and started to truss them with a rope.

“Leave me alone! What are you doing?” she cried out in shock and in fear.

“Bringing you home! Amazon style! Except the roles are being switched!”

Once her hands were firmly tied behind her back, he lifted her up and placed her in a sitting position upon the sand.

She jumped to her feet, but he quickly took her feet out from underneath her with a low, sweeping kick. He shouted, “I can tie those legs up as well!”

Then they looked upon one another and both of their heart’s broke.

Mera looked every bit as bad as she did when she carried water to their fields during the drought. She was even thinner now than she was then, and the angles of her bones in her arms and legs showed through.

When Mera looked at Clarestes, she saw with shock dark circles about his eyes. They were as bad as hers, no, even more so. And she had never seen him look so haggard. So she just looked at him for a time and she could not speak.

Clarestes chest heaved and his eyes were crazed. He shouted, “How could you do this to me? How?!”

Mera said nothing and she lowered her head.

Clarestes stood there for a time, then he sunk down and sat on the sands next to her with his back to her.

“You look terrible,” she said.

“I feel like I’ve gone out of my mind,” he said.

“I am sorry,” she wailed. “I am so sorry.”

She started to say this again and again. It hurt Clarestes’ heart to hear this from her and she sounded every bit as unbalanced and pathetic as he did.

Eventually she stopped saying this. She hung her head even lower. Then she whispered, “I am so sorry, but I will not go back with you.”

“Wrong!” he said. Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of her legs and it looked only slightly bigger around than as his arm.

He pulled his sack from off of his shoulder and his water skin as well. He brought his water skin to her mouth. He said, “Open.”

Mera just stared at him for a time. He commanded, “Open!” She opened her mouth and drank the water he poured into her mouth for a time.

He opened his sack and retrieved some food. He held some to her mouth and said, “Open.”

Mera said, “No, I can not eat.”

“I can cram it in there,” he said as he glared at her. Mera opened her mouth and then Clarestes put the food in it. He said, “Chew.”

They did this for a time and Clarestes got some food in her. Mera said, “If you untie my hands, I will feed myself.”

To this he laughed and laughed. He said, “No, I don’t think so. We will finish this way.”

Mera said, “I can not eat anymore. I feel as if I will puke what I’ve already eaten.”

“All right,” said Clarestes. He silently packed up his food. He slung his water skin and food sack. When done, he raised Mera and set her upon her feet.

“Walk,” he said.

Mera said, “No.”

He turned her shoulders so she faced south. He kicked her in her ass. “Walk,” he said.

“You are scaring me,” said Mera.

“Good,” he said. “Start walking.”

“No,” said Mera and she collapsed to the sand. She felt herself being picked up and thrown upon his shoulder. Then he started to trod down the beach to the south, pausing only to pick up her shield, helmet and spear as he went.


Chapter 42 - “She loses, Greece loses, and you lose. Everyone loses but me.”

About an hour later Mera spoke and she said, “How long do you think you can keep this up?”

Clarestes said, “You are nothing but a bony ass, arms and legs of twigs, a broken mind and a foul mouth. All those things weigh so little. I am not even winded yet. I’m figuring I can easily do this all the way home.”

Mera became frightened of this. “Your shoulder is digging into me,” she said. “It hurts.”

“Are you ready to walk?” he asked.

She said, “You think you can take me back against my will?”

He said, “Yes, why not? This is not Athens where democracy is the law. This is not Thrace where Amazons rule. This is Greece, where men are in charge.”

“I will leave you again, as soon as I am able,” she said.

“And go to your death,” he said. “So be it, Mera. I will keep you tied up for the rest of your life if I must.”


After about an hour he put Mera down.

“You can not do this much longer,” she said.

Clarestes said, “Do I look tired?” Mera looked at him and he did not.

He pulled out his water skin and told her, “Open.”

“No,” she said.

“Fine,” he said. He drank some himself and then capped his water skin. He hoisted her up, threw her once again over his shoulder. He started striding south again.

She started kicking, so he put her down. He started to pull more rope from his sack. She leapt to her feet, but again he quickly kicked her legs out from underneath her. She fell to the sand. As he started to tie her legs, he said, “Listen Mera, have to get moving here. Got into a little trouble, and close to here, so we need to clear these lands.”

“That’s your problem,” she said. Then she asked, “What kind of trouble?”

“You do not deserve one of my action-packed and riveting stories. Those are for good girls who behave,” he said tersely. Then what Mera did next shocked him.

She laughed.

When she did so she may as well stuck a dagger in his heart, because it was Mera’s laugh. It was so beautiful and musical that when he heard it, he cried for a time. He gave up on finishing to tie her legs. He sat down next to her.

Mera watched him silently and in fearful shock. When he was done shedding tears, he undid the rope about her legs and then he untied her hands as well.

He said, “Mera, this may be the wrong thing to do, as I know longer know what is right from wrong. I will force you to go back with me no longer. Now I will only plead with you. I beg you to go back with me, and I will try to guilt you to come back home as well, for know this - If you go to Thrace and to your death, then you are sending me into such grief you it will mean my death as well. You saved my life upon the pirates’ isle. Then you saved it again against the harpies. Now I ask you to save it once more. Make not your own death, but return to your home with me, and we both will but make our lives, together.” Then he sat upon the beach’s sand and he was quiet.

“How in Gaia could you possibly want me to go back with you now?”

“Because I love you, and like my father loved my mother, you are the only woman I have ever loved, and I know if you die, will ever love.”

Mera looked at him with his back turned to her. She said softly, “All right, I will return with you. I win.”

He froze stiff and tense. He asked, “Don’t you mean I win?”

“No, you lose. You are stuck with me. You will never have a woman who can give you children. And the Greeks lose as well, for they will never have your sons who would be to them as you are to them. And some green eyed, beautiful woman loses as well, as she will never have children with the best man upon Gaia. She loses, Greece loses, and you lose. Everyone loses but me. I win,” she said sadly. “Now, let’s go home.”

They both rose to their feet and Clarestes embraced her as he wept. Mera was alarmed by all this crying from him. She said, “Hera on high, you are a fucked up mess.”

Clarestes laughed and held her tight, but he still cried. He said, “I know. I know. Vow to me that you will not leave me again. And I ask you to marry me. Will you marry me as well?”

Mera held him silently for a time. Then she said quietly, “I suppose that might be the best thing to do, for if I am to hold you back and drag you down, I might as well do it for the rest of your life.”

Then she vowed to Clarestes that she would marry him. She said yes.


As they walked southward they ate and talked. Mera was still subdued, but she spoke to Clarestes and answered all the questions he asked of her, and she even asked some questions of him as well.

“What trouble did you get in around here?” she asked as she noted he kept scanning the beach, and the cliffs as well. He told her what occurred. She said, “Great Athena and Aphrodite, you really do love me don’t you! I can not believe you did all that. That was almost...wrong!” To this Clarestes nodded his head.

As they walked Mera was able to eat and drink more, and the food was making her feel better and stronger, and Mera’s presence was making Clarestes’ mind better settled as well.


Soon what Clarestes feared appeared. A troop of horsemen rode up the beach, crying out threats and curses to them. They were more troops of the King of Lapinos They sought revenge upon Clarestes and his head.

“You weren’t joking. Those guys sound super pissed,” Mera said as Clarestes strained, bent his father’s strong bow and slung the bowstring upon it.

“Listen, I hate to say this, but I’m a better shot with a bow than you are. Give me that, as two of those troops ride to us with their shields too low,” said Mera. Clarestes handed her the bow and his quiver of arrows.

As the horsemen charged, Mera took aim. Then she fired one arrow and then another. Those arrows flew long and far down the beach well beyond the range of any Greek archer. The first arrow speared a soldier through his neck and he toppled backwards off his horse. The second arrow struck a soldier in his breastplate where it bounced off harmlessly. All the men reigned their steeds to a halt, and they raised their shields high for protection

“Lost my touch a bit, as that second arrow should have gone through the other’s throat as well,” she said to Clarestes as she handed the bow back to him. “If you ever tell this story, lie, and say a gust of wind took my second shot. You take this as well,” she said as she handed him her spear. “Because you are way better with that than me.”

She drew her sword. Then she screamed at the horsemen, “Turn your mounts around and flee! Then lie to your king and say you never saw us! I’ll help you with your story, say your man fell off his steed and broke his neck!” Then she raised her sword aloft and she screamed, “Or don’t, and come get some, children who think they are men! Come for your deaths if you dare!” She started to walk toward them as a shocked Clarestes moved to join her.

The men talked upon their steeds far down the beach. Then to Clarestes’ surprise, one jumped off his mount and threw the slain man upon his horse. They turned their steeds around and galloped away.

Clarestes looked at Mera and he said, “That was amazing!”

She said with regret in her voice, “I can be diplomatic if I want, and as I found killing that man very saddening, I think I will try words of reason in the future more. And it wasn’t that amazing. It is not that hard to get men to be afraid or to lie. Those come so easily to you all, as they do to us women as well.”