Immortal Beauty Read Free

very heart of their religion was untrue! She had to play the part of the new goddess ready to bring down vengeance upon their enemies. She decided to take the wet clay from around the perimeter of the pool and smear her face and hair with it. It would be far more dramatic if she looked the part. She reached for the torch with a wet hand and accidentally extinguished the flame. The only light now was from the hole in the cavern wall leading back to her world and back to her people. She trained her eyes on the light and crawled back away from the waters. There was no time to think. She would reason it all out later. Perhaps when she went to sleep this evening she would awaken a new goddess. Perhaps becoming a legend did not happen in an instant. She thought maybe she would have to sleep first and enchanted slumber to awaken a new and powerful creature. That must be it. She looked back towards the light which now hurt her eyes. She trained her gaze upon it and began to crawl away from the waters back to her world. The farther away from the pool she got the more frightened she felt. Suddenly a craving welled up in her belly and she knew she wanted more. She was more thirsty than she had ever been in her life and knew that there was only one thing that would satiate this ravenous craving. She turned back to the water and began drinking large mouthfuls of the stuff. It no longer seemed to burn and was wonderful to the taste. It was the earth and the moon and life itself. The magic was working in her now. She could feel it. There was no longer any need to put on a show for anyone. She was changing and she was changing rapidly. She had the sense that she had never drank anything before today. Finally all of her urgings and desires would be satiated. She poured the water over her head. She could not get enough. She could never get enough and the thought of leaving the cave was torturous. But she had to leave she knew this much. She was ready now to emerge victorious as she finally felt as if she may have gotten just enough water to last for at least a little while. She looked around for a bowl or some sort of pitcher in which to carry the water out with her. There was nothing but clay and water. She had to leave now before the urge became too great to stay beside the pool forever. She had to face the enemy now, an army that was already on its way back to Rome with the forbidden waters. It was up to her to retrieve them and destroy the ones who stole the god’s nectar. She clawed her way back to the hole where the lights and the sounds were coming from. The light now was brilliant like the sun and she found the pain in her eyes unbearable and all she wanted to do was cradle them in the cool darkness by the pool of Locium. She knew she had to leave the cavern even though every step away from the dripping of the pool was like torture for her. She knew that her people would seal up the entrance forever once she emerged from the mystery of mysteries. It did not matter to her now for she realized very quickly that she was no longer mortal. Nothing could hurt her now and nothing could stop her from getting more water if she wanted it. She would carve a tunnel herself with her bare hands for that is how powerful she felt now. This water gave her in an instant what a life time of searching had failed to provide and now this water was her very life. She and the pool were one and the same and she ran her fingers through her hair again to make herself look even more wild and primitive. She wanted to scare them all with her power. She wanted to show them all how right she had been, but most of all, she wanted to destroy the Romans one by one and rip apart their fragile bodies piece by piece. Her hatred fueled her new found power and she screamed as loudly as she could. Why didn’t she think of this before? They would talk about that scream for thousands of years and she would be alive to hear the stories. She could not stop smiling. A pang shot