CHAPTER THREE:
"What are you doing? Get your filthy mitts of me, you cad!" cried the salmon
as Iolaus handled it firmly. He couldn't believe his luck, He managed to get
right behind the fish and as it did a reckless flip Iolaus was there to
catch it in mid air.
"You're a girl!" Iolaus was so surprised he nearly dropped her.
"Yes, I'm a girl. Now, do you mind?"
"You're a girl-fish!" Iolaus further exclaimed.
"No, bachaai-dung for brains! I'm a girl. I'm human. I was cursed by the
Graiae because I, accidentally mind you, came upon them whilst they were
conjuring magic."
"They told me it's their eyeball that's enchanted you. It's what's making
you speak."
"And you believed them?"
Iolaus glanced over his shoulder at the sisters. They stood there, attentive
but not seeing a thing. As far as he could tell they couldn't hear them
either. "*Why* did they curse you?"
"Well, one ... or *six* of their scrolls, with a few insignificant magic
tricks, may have came up missing ..."
"You're a thief."
"No, I'm not. *I* am a beautiful princess. My father is the King of Scapia,
a small but powerful kingdom just east of here." Then, less boastful: "I've
been gone for quite sometime. He's probably worried sick. Mother too." she
paused, then: "Hey, if you can turn me back into myself he'll reward you ...
and you'll be called a hero."
Iolaus paused, thinking about this. "Those sisters have something that
belongs to me. I want it back and the only thing I can do ..." He then
paused as something she said hit home, "You're beautiful? Really?"
The girl-fish turned coyly away, "In my original form, sure. That's what
they always told me, anyway."
Torn, Iolaus closed his eyes and opened them again. Beautiful girl. Hero.
Eyeball. Earring. What was a guy to do? "Okay, we'll play it your way. What
now?"
"Let me go."
"Let you go?"
"The curse can only be broken if I approach the witches on my own, without
the aid of mortal hands."
"What will happen?"
"You'll see."
With a shrug, knowing something was wrong, but not quite knowing what, he
laid the large fish gently in the water and watched as it at first slowly
moved to shore then unexpectedly veered quickly and started to head up
river."
"Hey, wait!" Iolaus shouted, racing through the water, kicking up a mighty
splash, to catch up to the escaping salmon.
"What's going on, boy?!" Deino shouted.
"Do you have the fish?" Pephredo chimed in.
"What about our eye?"
"Patience, ladies!" Iolaus gasped, "I'm working on it!"
*****
"You know, they're going to be here any minute." Iolaus reminded as the
she-fish paused in her purposeful laps, "And I don't see anything, well,
coming up, Pinky."
Again the salmon poked her head out of the water. This time she stared at
him and if a fish's lower lip could tremble Pinky's was doing that now. "I
don't feel anything moving around, either way." she stated calmly then
wailed, "Oh Iolaus, what am I going to do? I don't want to be flayed! Life
as a fish wasn't so bad ... Swimming up stream was actually kind of
challenging! Oh gods, I'm doomed!"
"Sh!" Iolaus put a finger to his lips then looked over his shoulder, "Look,
there *is* a way out of this. There has to be. You said to break the spell
you had to approach the sister without the aid of mortal hands. Is that
true?"
"Yes. I have to go to them and have them touch me. But no one can just carry
me to them. I have to do it on my own."
"But how? You can't spend much time out of the water and if they see you
coming ..."
"If they *see* me coming." Pinky repeated.
Iolaus understood where she was going but, "That still tough. After a few
seconds they'd hear you wheezing. They'll know something's up."
"Boy, boy are you here?" came a voice from a short distance away.
Standing, Iolaus saw the three sisters crawling over the nearest dune.
"We heard you ... Where are you, Shaggy?"
"Oh no." Iolaus whispered, unaware he was repeating himself. Upset and
indecisive, he suddenly bent down, picked up the heavy, over-sized salmon as
he might a baby, and began to run down river. 'No,' he thought, '*This* is
the stupidest thing I've ever done.', "Pinky, you better expel that thing
quick or neither of us are coming out of this mess as humans. I won't do
well as a chicken. I hate worms and laying eggs goes against my nature!"
"Try avoiding a male salmon sometimes." Pinky began to wheeze, "Especially
when he's hoping you're about to lay eggs."
"You can run but you can't hide!" The Graiae cried, "We're coming for you my
pretty, and your little fish too!"
******
CHAPTER FOUR:
"We know you're around her somewhere, Shaggy! Give us what we want and no
one gets hurt!" The Graiae called.
"For three old blind women they're relentless!" Iolaus murmured as he ran.
"They have the advantage of witchcraft." Pinky offered. Her breaths were
coming out in small, painful gasps now.
"I've got to get you in water." Iolaus stopped, looked down at the paling
salmon, then turned to the river. Gently, he deposited her into the water,
"Go now." he said, "Swim away and don't come back. You're better off in
there than out here, especially when The Witch Sisters catch up to me."
Pinky poked her head out of the water, "But Iolaus, without the eye you're
doomed! I can't just ..."
"GO!" he shouted and all at once felt his feet sinking in the dirt and sand
on the river's edge. He couldn't move. Magically, he was being held in one
place and sinking further and further.
Then Iolaus heard their cackle.
"Enough of this nonsense!" Pephredo exclaimed as she and her sisters closed
in on Iolaus, "Where is our eye!?"
"Where you'll never find it." Iolaus announced bravely, now up to his knees
in damp muck. "Guess you'll just have to turn me into a chicken."
"The fish escaped?" Enyo barked, perturbed.
"Never send a mortal in to do an immortal's job." Deino replied.
"I let her go." Iolaus proclaimed, "I couldn't murder Pinky just to retrieve
your eye."
"Fish means that much to you?" Deino asked, puzzled.
"You named it *Pinky*?" Pephredo chimed in.
"She's not a fish. She's a human being and you changed her into a salmon!"
The dawning of knowledge appeared very suddenly in the ladies expressions.
Thoughtfully, they gathered themselves in a circle.
"He's talking about that homely little princess." Enyo recalled.
"The drab one who stole our conjuration scrolls? I forgot about her."
"It's been about a season, hasn't it?"
"We do have *copies* of those scrolls. It's not as if she damaged us ... "
"Hey!" Iolaus, now up to his waist in quicksand, sounded desperate."Are you
going to turn me into a chicken or what?!"
The Graiae broke apart and turned in his direction.
"Here's the deal." Pephredo said, "If you give us the fish, we'll turn her
back into the plain human mortal she is but *you* have to figure out a way
to get us back our eye before sundown."
Plain? Drab? Homely? Iolaus winced. Well, beauty really was in the eye of
the beholder, he thought. Iolaus frowned at the unintentional pun. He shook
the thought from his head. It didn't matter. "What will happen if I *can't*
get the eye from her before sundown?" he asked, now up to his neck in sand.
"She's a fish sandwhich and you, Shaggy, will learn to cockadoodledoo."
"It's a deal!" Pinky, who had been listening, bounced herself out of the
water and flipped over and over until she got to Deino's feet.
"No!" Iolaus shouted, fearful of the outcome.
A single touch against the witch's slipper caused an explosion of purple
light. Then, there before them stood a young girl, in her late teens, slim,
with long, dark hair. She wore a gown of forest green.
Up to his nose in quicksand, Iolaus eyes grew wide. She hadn't lied. She was
beautiful.
"Quick!" Pinky shouted, excited. "Get him out of there before he
suffocates!"
"Oh dear," Enyo lamented, "Without our vision we can't see and ...Girl, are
you okay?"
Pinky began to cough and gasp.
Iolaus, after a hand wave in his general direction, found himself on solid
ground again. He was dusty but in working order. His happiness at escaping
sure death was short lived, however, when he saw the princess doubled over.
His first instinct was to run to her and he did, "Water? Do you need water?"
Then to the Graiae he shouted, "You forgot to take her fishiness away! She
can't breath ..."
Crucially, Pinky waved her arms in front of Iolaus and stamped her feet. She
pointed to her mouth, then to her left eye in a bizarre imitation of
"charades". She then put hands on her throat and slowly collapsed to her
knees."
"The eye! She's choking on the eye!!" Iolaus, without a single thought other
than he had to do something to save her, jumped behind the girl, put his
arms around her mid section and pushed up quickly.
With a very unladylike "Bleeech!" the eyeball burst out of the princess'
mouth, popped Deino on the forehead and landed on a grassy mound at Iolaus'
feet.
"Is she okay?" Enyo asked, "She didn't die, did she?"
A hand to her shoulder, noting an exhausted smile as the princess looked up
at him, Iolaus determined Pinky would be fine. He picked up the eyeball at
his feet and grimaced, "Eww." he said with a shiver then put the eye in
Pephredo's out-stretched claw-hand, "Here."
"Oh my!" the witch exclaimed. "We're back in action, sisters!"
"Let me see!"
"No, let me see first!"
Without so much as a backward glance, the Graiae turned and walked up the
mound, back to wherever it was they came from.
"They didn't even say 'thank you'." Pinky pouted, accepting the hand Iolaus
offered to help her stand on her shaky feet.
Iolaus reached up to touch his ear and felt the smooth ring that hung there.
He smiled. "In a way they did." Then, more satisfied: "At least you're back
to normal."
"Yes, I am." she looked down at her human hands, nearly unbelieving. "My
poor mother and father ... I've got to go home!" She then softly bit a full
lower lip and her expression turned hopeful, "Come to the palace with me,
Iolaus. My father will throw a feast in your honor."
Tempted, Iolaus looked into her lovely brown eyes then glanced upward at the
darkening sky. "I can't." he said, regretfully. "As it is I'm not going to
get to the academy until tomorrow morning. Then I'll just make it to my
first class."
"So conscientious and such a hero. Your Mom and Dad must be so proud of
you." she spoke dreamily.
Iolaus shrugged, thinking of Skouros. "I'm not a hero. Not yet, anyway."
"Iolaus, if it wasn't for your heroics I would still be swimming around in
that river." Then, slyly she smiled, "Let me show *my* appreciation." Pinky
stepped gently forward and leaned in to kiss Iolaus on the lips.
Unexpectedly, she was thwarted when he backed up a little. "What's wrong?"
"Um ... er ... I'm sorry but it's the smell. It's pretty bad."
The princess, appalled, breathed into her hand. "Fish?" she asked.
"No." Iolaus grinned, "Eyeball breath."
THE END
December
2001
Beckers@att.net
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