Why? We all have listened to the old priestess of Athena and prayed to the goddess exactly as ordered. We all diligently prayed and if someone forgot, they were harshly punished for their disgrace, so then why? Why had all the men left us here alone? Why did they venture on the seas only to never return again?
A long time ago, we the women of Lemnos, always worshipped the goddess Aphrodite, to bring our men back home, excited to see their wives and families. And as long as we prayed to Aphrodite, they came back straight to our embrace. But many of them also did not return. Many of them, were claimed by the sea. It was always heartbreaking, to see some of my people crying their eyes out because of the sorrow.
Because of that, I prayed to Aphrodite more than ever. But even then, no answer was given to me, no sign. And my people continued to suffer because of that. But then an old priestess of Athena came to our island and told us to pray to her goddess and build a temple for Athena. We did so, and then men were suddenly returning from every voyage they took. None was missing and thus none of my people had to ever suffer the loss of a loved one.
But that was not to last forever. Eventually, our men became eager to bring other women as mistresses back from their raids. Yet it was always only a few of them. But then they started to enjoy more time with the other women and on the high seas. And then some of them never returned home. Not because they died or were taken down by the sea, no. They had no intention to return back to their families and wives. Such traitors!
And the treachery was not appreciated by several of the women. Some decided to get rid of their husbands' mistresses. Some could see that their husbands had no intention of ever returning home after their next sea adventure. So they gave them poisoned wine, to celebrate their victories. Surprisingly several of the captured women helped their captors' wives. All men became something to be hated and despised on our island, by most of my people.
Then we stopped praying to Athena. And our men were returning fewer and fewer from each raid. Until only a single crew of them remained. With my husband being their captain. But even they were now late to return home. Either the sea swallowed them or they just left for some other place, I would never know. With that, we truly killed all of our men, if not in body then in spirit.
Day after day I prayed to Aphrodite, like my mother and grandmother did, to return our men to our embrace. But men were gone, forever. And yet my prayers must have been heard. A crew of mostly young men arrived on our island two days ago. And many of my people did rejoice. None of the men were anyone's husbands or family, they were someone completely foreign to this island. And this was great. I did thank goddess Aphrodite for such a blessing and had the accommodation for the men prepared.
None of my people would have to be alone again. The island would not die with us. There would be more thanks to the goddess Aphrodite, who brought us these new men. I could see a glint of eagerness from many of my people. And had to calm some, who were too eager. I had to make sure that the men could not run away and that everyone, who wanted, would get their turn.
But before the trap could be sprung, one of the men managed to shake down the wine-inducted drowsiness and ushered the rest to the temple of Athena. It must have been that demand goddess who took our prey from us!
"Damn you Athena!"
Waking up to a burning sensation in my chest, which was suddenly followed by coughing up a tremendous amount of water from my lungs, I was assured of my survival. Certainly not thanks to Being X. If anything the sea current must have brought me to the island of Lemnos. It made me wonder if my supply bag was nearby. It contained Sappho's Ampechone and it would be clearly irresponsible on my part if I lost it. Sappho though might be disappointed with me, or laugh at me for losing it so soon. Then ask for something unreasonable. Nevertheless, I hoped to find my supply bag which, besides the Ampechone also contained most of my supplies. And unless I found my supplies and boat, I might be forced to interact with locals. Such interaction could only end in one of two ways. Either they run away in panic, or they try to kill me, once my real appearance is discovered.
Seeing nobody around, I decided to scout the perimeter in an attempt to find my boat. I pondered whether it would be better to stay on this island, given that there was a monster in the sea. I might have killed the one that attacked me, but there could be others of its kind. But there was a quite problem with staying on this island. I knew that island of Lemnos was significantly smaller, remembering maps from my previous lives, than Lesbos. Therefore meeting local humans was more likely to occur. Another problem was that I did not know if this island could sustain me. This led to the conclusion that I would have to continue my journey to the mainland and take the risk of encountering another sea monster. But the risk could be mitigated if I changed my route. Going eastward would bring me to the island of Imbros, which was closer than the mountain Athos, from there I could get to the mainland in the east, minimizing my time spent on the sea.
And then taking the long scenic route along the coastline of the mainland, since missing an opportunity to acquaint myself with another long-lived individual, would be infuriating. Meeting Medusa was the whole reason I left the island of Lesbos in the first place. If I wanted to stay on the island, I would have stayed in a place I knew well and where I had established a supply chain.
The initial plan was to try to find my boat and see if it was still intact or at least in a state where it could be easily repaired. If I was lucky, I would not need to come in contact with local humans at all. And even if my supplies were gone I could just hunt some big game. The mainland was not far from here, at most two days of sailing, none of the food should spoil too much in that time. However, losing Sappho's Ampechone would be a great loss. It was made of the finest spider silk and dyed in purple, as such it had significant value.
After walking a decent amount of distance, from the place I was washed ashore, I noticed that the whole island was rather flat compared to Lesbos. This could be problematic because any form of base I might build could be easily found by locals. Unless I found a suitable and remote place to build the base. And If I were to add traps for hunting the big game, I could be certainly found. Also, locals being tolerant of my presence here, just as much as the people of Lesbos were, was unlikely. On such a small island I would become too big of a competition for local hunters. And then they would probably try to hunt me.
This was not good and with more and more distance on the shore covered, the chances of me finding my boat were diminishing rapidly. If my ship was not found I would have to repeat my strategy from Lesbos. Scout out a suitable ship, and make something of value to exchange it for the boat, while also procuring supplies. Or risk getting in contact with locals and haggle for the supplies and boat.
Sometime after noon, I arrived at what looked like a harbor. Except harbors were usually connected to the city. But this oddity was not, neither there were any ships for that matter. So it might have been abandoned for some time. Which was to my advantage. If no people were going here I would be able to make the temporary base. It was also well covered by the nearby cliff, probably the first real cliff that I saw on this island. Despite all the visual evidence, it would be foolish to assume that there was no human presence here at all. As a precaution, in case of meeting possible island inhabitants, I applied illusion formulae on myself, which made me look like a normal human.
Going down on the beach near the water, to erase evidence of my real footsteps, I noticed foam forming on the shore. But the place where it was forming was strange. And so was the composition of the foam. It looked almost like a concentrated foam produced by soap, rather than the sea. A lot like the soap I made, a lot like the soap which was packed in my supplies. Very much like the soap I packed alongside Sappho's Ampechone. After a short dash, I managed to get to the foam on the shore and it was indeed a result of my soap product getting dissolved. Which means that I would have to make new soap in order to stay clean. But soap could be easily replaced, unlike the purple Ampechone, which was now completely covered in seawater and soap foam. It was intact and thanks to the soap also very clean.
The trek to the old harbor has been completely uneventful. They have spotted nothing out of place, no other ship or any suspicious people on their way there. At least the pomegranate was good. Just a few more meters and the old harbor would be visible in front of them. The old harbor has been hidden behind some rocks, so it was not visible directly from pretty much anywhere on the island. Which was the main reason why it was used by pirate crews.
Well, used to be used. Now there were no more pirate crews on the island of Lemnos. At least not pirates who were able to sail the seas. She and her comrades would be more than willing to continue their tradition of raiding and pillaging other islands and merchant ships. But none of them knew how to sail. She thought that it might have been deliberate, that none of the women was taught how to navigate. Probably because if they knew how to do so, they would not need the men at all.
But she was disrupted from her daydream of sailing the seas by an anomaly occurring in the old harbor. She instantly halted and ordered her comrades to stop and hide behind the rocks, because there was some activity going on the shore. Someone was there. Someone unknown!
This was certainly unexpected, but not unwelcomed. She could feel her heart pumping and she loved it. Finally some action! And if she and her comrades were lucky, it would be a man. They could present him to the queen and get a generous reward. Maybe even so generous that she could just stop working, as a guard, and enjoy her life? Maybe if she had enough free time, she could learn how to navigate the sea, somehow. It would probably take too long, but there was still a chance.
To make her dreams a reality, she needed to capture the person in the harbor first and they would have to be a man on top of it. But at least there was a chance. She collected her comrades and came up with a plan, on how to surround the stranger. She would lead the main charge while four of them would flank the stranger from both sides.
Once her four comrades split from the main group, she waited for a bit, letting her comrades get to their positions. And then they strike! Initially going softly, not letting the stranger know that they were there. Only once they were close enough she led the charge! The stranger looked almost not surprised at all.
And what was worse. The stranger was a woman. Admittedly she was a very, very beautiful woman. So beautiful in fact she looked almost otherwordly. The leader of the patrol felt some things, deep inside her heart, that she never felt before. Which surprised her, because she expected to be disappointed, the moment she found out that the stranger was a woman. But she was not disappointed at all. Strange... Anyway, she had her duty as a leader of the patrol and thus had to question the stranger.
"What are you doing here stranger?!" she questioned the unknown woman, in an authoritative voice.
Then she noticed the thing. The stranger was standing in the pool of foam. The beautiful stranger was standing in the middle of the pool of foam! In a place where no sea foam was usually forming! This must have been a sign from the goddess Aphrodite. Maybe the stranger was the Aphrodite herself. She was certainly very pretty. And her content smile was so beautiful. It would be nice if the stranger smiled at her, just as much she was smiling at the Ampechone the stranger held in her hands.