A salt breeze blew through the air as the summer sun slowly baked the small, shoreside village to the southwest of Athens. Medusa sighed, her beautiful auburn hair blowing in the breeze. It had been a long day, and with the list of things she had to accomplish, it looked to be longer still. She had spent most of the morning turning away suitors, each eager to take the beautiful woman as their bride, and she had fervently declined every one of them. But for every one she turned away, another thirty seemed to take their place.
Medusa was known far and wide throughout the city-states for one thing: her impossible beauty. The flowing waves of her long, gorgeous hair, the smooth contours of her delicate cheeks, and her stunning malachite eyes were enough to captivate both man and woman alike, but her luscious pear-shaped figure regularly drove men to madness. She was immensely proud of her beauty, but that didn't make the ever-increasing parade of suitors easier to handle. Luckily, her next errand took her to the Temple of Athena, and men generally avoided such flirtation within its walls. The stories of how The Virgin Goddess reacted to such things was enough to frighten even the most foolhardy of admirers. She would make an offering, and then find respite within those hallowed walls for a time before venturing back out into the village...
It was quiet within the Temple that day, which wasn't uncommon. It was the middle of the day, so many of the priestesses had left to take a meal, and there weren't many offerings during that time. Even so, the silence made her uneasy. The air seemed heavier, as if the sea was slowly seeping into the temple, threatening to wash it away. Worried, Medusa moved to leave, only to run head first into a tall, broad, dripping-ly handsome man.
He seemed... impossible. He was remarkably tall, towering over Medusa as she looked up at him, with shoulders so broad they seemed to block out the light from the door of the temple. His thick black hair was slicked back, as what appeared to be salt water dripped down his face and onto his soaked tunic, itself practically pouring water onto the floor. Where had he come from? What was he doing here? Before she could utter a word, the stranger swept his arms behind her, pulled her close, and stole a deep, passionate kiss.
His arm had been quick and strong, and his kiss was passionate, so full of lust and power... she thought she might drown in it. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally drew away from her, the air rushing back into her lungs. She felt dizzy, had they really kissed for that long? She needed to stop for a moment, get her bearings, to understand what had just happened... but there was no time.