The God of Olympus (19 page)

             
Hercules nodded and moved away from Meg.  “I suppose you are right.”

             
Hercules returned to find Pegasus asleep on the grass against a tree.  Hercules had never seen Pegasus fall asleep so easily and in the middle of the day, but didn’t think much of it.

             
Hercules turned around to find that Meg had followed him.  “The great steed sleeps!” said Meg.  “You may wander freely in the garden.”  And so Hercules wandered for a while in the garden.  He looked around at the beautiful garden, but did not feel at peace.  Although he enjoyed being able to take a break from his heroic duties he did not feel it right.  He tried not to imagine what evil was now occurring in the outside world.

             
Throughout the day he found times to be with Meg and walk with her in the garden.  In these times she was very quiet but seemed happy.  However, as the sun began to descend her happiness seemed to fade.  She hung her shoulders low and kept her eyes peering down towards the ground.  Hercules wanted to say something, but he did not.

             
The time came that the sun was about to set and Meg brought Hercules up to her balcony on the top level of her palace.  “This is the grandest view of a sunset you have ever seen!”

             
As Hercules looked out over the setting sun he saw the brilliant sun shine against the waves of the sea.  Hercules didn’t seem impressed, although his words said otherwise.  “This is indeed magnificent.” 

             
“What is wrong?” asked Meg.

             
“Do you never desire to leave this island?” asked Hercules.  “It must be lonely here, all alone on this island.”

             
“Sometimes loneliness is better than anything else in the world,” replied Meg, as she looked over at the setting sun.  “Sometimes it is better than being among the evil world.”

“Here is great,” said Hercules as he looked out her balcony west.  “Here there is no pressure, competition, and well, evil.  It is simply you, the land, and the animals.  It is similar to an island I was on before, only, well, not cursed.”  They both laughed.  “It is just here Meg, here with you reminds me of what I am missing out there, out there in the real world.”

Meg smiled.  “What?  What are you missing?”

Hercules reached his hands towards her
s and looked up into her eyes.  “Love, I do not have love.  I mean I could have everything.  I could have all the money, power, and glamour that any hero could want.  But if I don’t have love it all seems meaningless.”

Meg suddenly seemed to shrink.  “It would surprise you what people can endure or live without,” said Meg.  “Hercules, you can do without
love.  I have for many long years.”

“Well, you certainly are stronger than me,” replied Hercules.  “I could never go without love for as long as you have.”

“I never had the benefit of privilege,” said Meg.  “I never had Gods as parents or super strength or speed.  All I had was my beauty, wit, and the passion to survive.  That is what is needed in this terrible world. Would you not agree Hercules?”

Hercules paused and was silent for several moments.  Then he spoke: “I suppose that much of what you say is true.  Yes, I have
Gods as parents, and yes, I have great physical abilities…and perhaps you are right about much of this world.  Perhaps much of this world is evil.  On my journey so far I have found that many people are evil and will do terrible things to get what they want, but I have also found that there are good people in the world—people worth saving.  And that is why I am on my hero mission, to help save those people who are worth saving.  I am separated from my home and in order for me to get back to it I must believe that this world can be made a better place, and more importantly, that I can be the one to change it.”

There was then a long moment of silence.  Meg stared at Hercules in wonder while Hercules stared out over the sea.  “Your thoughts dwell on your friends,” she said.  “I can tell.
”

Hercules nodded.  “I fear for Philoctetes, my trainer.  He still wears a cursed form.  I fear for Pericles, the ruler of Athens.  I fear for all of Greece for that matter.  Who knows what destruction does now come upon this land while I sit here and wait on this island?”

“You may leave you know,” said Meg.  She suddenly began feeling very guilty that he should stay any longer with her.  “You may leave now Hercules.  You may be free.”

Hercules had thought about it.  He thought about abandoning his mission before, leaving Meg alone of the island, but now his feelings for Meg meant that he certainly could not leave her.  “I cannot let you suffer and die on this island…please if there is anything about Hades you have not told me, tell me…”

Meg looked sad.  “Hades is smart, Hercules, far smarter than you suspect.  He is able to see much more than you are able to see.  He is able to do much more than you can do.  His presence is abroad, throughout the world, and not just in Greece.  You should fear him as much as I do.”

“Let me tell you this Meg,” said Hercules.  “I understand he is very smart.  I understand he is capable of great evil.  But I will not fear him.”

“What do you fear Hercules?” asked Meg, truly surprised that Hercules didn’t fear Hades.

Hercules sighed.  “I will tell you what I fear most, but you can’t laugh,” said Hercules.

Meg nodded.  “Okay.”

“That, after it is all over, after my heroic mission is complete, I am left all alone, with my loved o
nes all dead.  Having to go on without anyone I love—to have done all I needed to do and to be without the ones I love would make my life so empty.”

Meg nearly shed tears.  She had never heard of a fear so noble.  Meg knew that Hades always spoke of man’s universa
l fears as sin and death.  But Meg realized that Hercules did not truly fear these things.  He did not fear death, nor did he fear sin.

“Is there any weakness in you?” asked Meg.  “Or are you altogether super-human?  I know that I have many more fears than that.”

“Life is not about weakness, but about strength,” replied Hercules.  “Hades focuses on weaknesses and sure, if you look in the world of men, you will find weakness.  If I looked at everyone’s weaknesses in the world I wouldn’t want to save it.  But I have learned not to dwell on people’s weaknesses, for to do so would be certain death to the hero’s mission.”

Meg smiled as she looked into Hercules’ eyes.  Never before in her life had she met a man with so much courage and virtue.  At this moment Meg seemed to feel a glimmer of hope, a hope that perhaps there was good in people, and more especially in men.

“Do you really think you can do it—save all mankind against Hades?”

“Not alone, but with help I might,” said Hercules.  “And that hope is enough to keep me going.  You see, t
his is a task that was given to me by Zeus and Hera, my own parents, and so I cannot let them down.  I must believe I can do it.”

“Belief…” mumbled Meg.  “It is something that can always fail you and when it fail
s you it will hurt your heart.”

Hercules sighed.  “Does not everyone know failure and disappointment?”

Meg smiled.  “People like me yes, but people like you, it seems hardly within your vision.”

“No, I have suffered great failure and disappointment,” said Hercules.  “I was forced to hold my mortal parent’s dead bodies in my arm.  They died because of me, because I chose to return to them after the Olympic Games when above all else I should have remained in Athens.  It is just, I was so eager to tell them of my victory that I could not resist.  That is a mistake that I feel great pain for every day.”

“But people must die for the hero,” replied Meg.  “People must die for you.  Is that not what is required?”  Meg smiled and reached her hand down and clutched Hercules’ hand.  “Hercules, you are a wondrous man full of many gifts and talents, but if you could be known for one thing, what would that be?”

             
Hercules sighed.  “I suppose I would want to be known as a hero.  Not a God or a great mortal man, but a hero.  I want to give hope to all the common people—that they can, in fact, be a hero in their own way, for I truly believe that there would be no great heroes if there were no little ones.”

             
Meg smiled.  “Well you truly are wondrous!”  After Meg had said these words she looked, not happy, but very sad, as if by Hercules’ righteousness she felt all the more evil and miserable.  Hercules saw this and wanted to speak, but couldn’t.  Instead Meg said a few more words.  “Well, it is getting late Hercules.  This is where I will leave you.  I will eat something for dinner as I walk among my garden.  As for you, you may do what you please.”

             
Hercules then watched as Meg walked away from him, down the stairs.  He felt that something was wrong.  Something was different than from the first night in her palace.  Although they seemed to have grown closer that night she still seemed to him ever so distant.  The night previous she had offer Hercules a meal and the pleasure of her company, but now she offered neither.  She offered him only the freedom to do what he please.

             
Before he went to bed on the second night more thoughts drifted through his mind.  To be alone on an island as beautiful as this, and to be with a woman as beautiful as her seemed like paradise for any man, and yet he was not content.  He was torn between his heroic duty of saving the world and his love towards this woman.  The woman above all was no ordinary woman; this he was sure.  But he was not yet sure of what side she was on. Was she on Hades’ or Zeus’ side?  Right now she seemed like she was on nobody’s side.

             
He was again reminded of his obligation to Hades—his obligation to discover her weakness.  But he did not give into this obligation.  He was beginning to feel great feelings of love for this woman and he did not want to, in any way, betray her, but figure out how to save her
and
the world.  And it was this hope that plagued his soul that evening.

             
After he had eaten various fruits from the trees in the garden he sat down next to a tree.  There Pegasus tried to comfort him by running his face in front of him.  Hercules ran his hands along Pegasus’ head and neck.  “Yes Pegasus, I know you are my friend.

             
Hercules wished, in a way, that he could be like Pegasus—so carefree and automatically hopeful.  Pegasus seemed to not care whether or not they remained on the island or not.  All Pegasus seemed to care about was that he was with Hercules and this made Hercules feel good.

******

After the sun set on the second day and after Meg left Hercules in his room, she began to ponder the unfortunate situation she found herself in.  She only had one more day—one more day to enact Hades’ plan.  But she no longer was motivated to enact his plan.  In talking with Hercules and observing his behavior she began to realize that he was not a person deserving of betrayal.  He was not like the men that she dealt with so long ago.  No, Hercules began to appear to her as an angelic hero, someone who she began to believe could somehow free her from the pain, guilt and suffering she had known for so long.  She wanted to get to know this Hercules better, to see if he truly was everything he seemed to be.

Of course, by now she knew that she could accomplish her task tomorrow with ease.  She knew when a man had fallen for her and certainly Hercules had.  She knew that there was little that she had to do to win men’s hearts.
She possessed beauty far grand that most men would give them to her without even thinking.  And most men did.  Throughout her life all she had to do was walked down the street and she would garnish the attention of all the men present. 

That night,
once darkness had completely come upon them, Hercules could not sleep and while he sat up against a tree he noticed Meg wandering through the garden.

By now he knew that
Meg was not a normal woman.  At times he would see her seem bright and at peace with the world.  This was whenever she was in front of him. But then at times like this, times of solitude in the darkness, he would see her wandering through the elegant Greek garden with a mournful expression on her face. Her head would be tilted down and she would appear as one of Hades’ wraiths, so much more dark, transparent, and insecure than her normal self, as if light itself would pass through her.  And when the light did pass through her she seemed to mourn because of it.  This made Hercules all the more want to go to her, hold her, and give her all the joy and godliness that he possessed (even though it was now like a grain of sand in comparison to what it would be in the future).

“Oh Meg why do you sorrow so?” he thought.  He couldn’t imagine why such a beautiful woman, a woman made with Godlike beauty, would be so sad.  He knew that there was light in her and this light made her shine with beauty and virtue.  But Hercules could not bear to go to her, to distract her from these dark moments of accursed contemplation.  What was she thinking about?  He did not know, nor did he think to ask.

Hercules got up from the tree and secretly followed Meg as she walked back into the garden palace.  Hercules followed Meg until through the palace until he watched as she stepped out into the back courtyard.  There, he watched as she approached the fountain, whose water seemed to shine and glitter in the moonlight.