TEAMWORK
BY MAGGIE
She waited in the entrance to the cave, her eyes fixed on the two figures down below, speaking to each other. They clasped hands, exchanged grins, and then went their separate ways.
"Won't be long, Herc. I'll see you at Alcmene's ..."
The words drifted upwards on the wind. She smiled. Now the tall one would be alone, away from his little blond helper.
'Herc', the shorter one had called him. Hercules.
"Must kill Hercules ..."
She watched as he began to climb the cliff face, the jaunty smile still lingering on his face.
"Hercules?" A whisper of breath beside her.
"There. He comes. Be ready."
"I am ready. Hera shall be avenged. He comes; withdraw sister. Withdraw. I will bring him to you ..."
~
Hercules shook his head as he made his way up the cliff path to the top. Iolaus and his rabbits; those poor little suckers must be few and far between by now, surely, the amount of them his partner had caught and eaten over the last ... how long? Over twenty years now. He shook his head again, marvelling for a moment, over the time they had had together. It was a good day for rabbiting though; he had no doubt that whether the population be thinning out or not, Iolaus would still come walking in the front door with at least a half dozen of them, slung over his shoulder.
The day called to him as he climbed and he stopped for a moment to look around him and sniff the air. There was the scent of jasmine and lavendar on the breeze and he breathed deeply, pleasurably. The combined perfumes were a heady mix and he felt slightly intoxicated.
He looked around, trying to find the sources of the scents, but could see only lavendar. It was lining the top of the cliff, and he pushed on, determined to pick an armful to take back for his mother.
"Help! Please, help!"
Hearing the call, from somewhere over on his left hand side, Hercules directed his gaze to the cliff face. There was what looked like an old woman, dressed top to toe, in rags, and she was waving at him to get his attention. Leaving the path, Hercules scrambled across to where she was standing in the entrance to a cave let into the rockface.
"What is it?" He asked when he reached her, bending over the hunched figure of the woman. "How can I help you?"
"My neice," the old woman croaked. "Caught. Inside ..." and she gestured further into the darkness of the cave.
Hercules smiled down at the old woman and lightly squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll soon have her out of there."
Hunching down to keep from bumping his head on the rock above, Hercules made his way deeper into the cave. He thought to ask why the old lady's neice had gone into the cave in the first place, but then caught the scent of jasmine agiain in his nostrils, stronger this time. It filled his senses and he immediately realised the reason. No curious woman could resist the perfume. It didn't occur to him to wonder himself, what jasmine would be doing in a cave ...
"Help... Help me ..."
The words drifted towards him from seemingly much deeper in the cave, and looking around, Hercules made out an old torch, left primed with pitch, just waiting for a spark. This must have been an old mine shaft, well-used at one time, to be left so prepared for a journey deeper into the earth. Yelling out, "I'm coming!" he used his gauntlets to strike a spark for the torch, and then, once it was well-lit, continued further into the cave.
As he went along, all the time hearing the young woman calling faintly, for help, all the time calling out encouragingly to her, it seemed that the jasmine scent did get stronger. He almost didn't notice that the walls were getting narrower and the ceiling lower, until he bumped his forehead, and scraped some skin off one arm. That brought him up short for a moment.
"Woah! How far in did she go?" He turned around to look for the light at the entrance, but there was only darkness behind him now. He must've gone farther into the cave than he realised. In fact,as he looked around he saw that he wasn't in the cave any longer, but a tunnel that just went on before him, getting lower and narrower as it went. If he was to go any further in he would have to proceed on his hands and knees, if he was to continue to carry the torch.
The scent of Jasmine was almost overpowering now, and he shook his head, trying to clear it. However, with every breath that he took, the intoxicating perfume just filled his head again. Damn! This wasn't going to be easy. If he wasn't careful he could end up trapped just like the old lady's neice ...
~
'Worse than death, Hercules. Worse than death. No-one will know. '
Earth, using herself to fill in the tunnel behind the demi-god, leaving him no escape, was driven forward by the thoughts that Hera had given her, months ago. She was a secret legacy, she and her sister both, left by their wise creator, Hera. A legacy to Hercules, who had pushed her off Olympus into something worse than death.
"... Formed from the substance of life, from the breath of life, I instruct you both, to use the tricks and illusions that my sister, Hecate, will teach you, to entrap and entangle Hercules, the bastard son of my errant husband, into something far worse than death. Should any harm come to me at his hands, you will do this ..."
The words were a command. The only command, the substance and breath of their own existence. The only reason they had for being. Hera's hatred throbbed endlessly in both of them.
Air, with her perfume and her cries, drew him to his entanglement. Earth followed, closing the trap behind him, metre by metre ... mile by mile ...
She wanted to laugh, but he would hear her. Soon, however, he would be caught, held fast by Earth; Air his only breath, and she would torment him from the inside out. Trapped, unable to move, every breath an agony, he would slowly and surely, go mad.
Mad; and buried alive.
Then she could send him to Tartarus with her laughter.
Seven rabbits! Seven of them! Hot dog, but he was pleased with his haul. Maybe he ought to ease up on that particular area for the next few months. Give 'em time to make some more. Shouldn't take too long, Iolaus, no sirree. You know what rabbits are ...
A bubbling giggle punctuated the hunter's delight with the birthday present. Jason loved rabbits and they were so easy to cook, really. Seven rabbits should see him through, oh, at least the next coupla days. He couldn't wait to see the look on Herc's face when he walked in the door with his catch ...
The smoke from the hearth fire was drifting up through the vent in the roof and then dissipating slowly in the breeze coming up from the south; Iolaus grinned from ear to ear as he approached the top of the rise and saw it. He and Herc had just come from helping rebuild a village that had been devastated by fire - their first job together since Herc had come back from Olympus - but to Iolaus the smoke from the fire that he saw now would always mean security and happiness. Even with Alcmene gone now, Iolaus felt in his bones that it would still be just like she was still around.
With that thought he spared another for Herc's brother, Iphicles, away at sea when Alcmene had been taken from them. He was shut up in Corinth castle now, trying to bury himself in work. Not the right way to deal with his loss, but he also got his stubbornness from Alcmene, just like Herc did, and he had politely but firmly turned down the invite to Jason's birthday celebration, despite his, Iolaus' and Hercules' best efforts.
'Oh, well; he doesn't know what he's missing. Rabbit stew, onion and bay leaves, best food in Greece, here I come!' and Iolaus rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the coming feast.
As he came up over the brow of the hill and looked down on the cottage, Iolaus saw Jason out beyond the garden that Alcmene had spent so much time lovingly tending, looking up towards him. Once the older man had spotted him he gave a wave and started up the rise towards the hunter. However, when they met up, shaking hands as they always did in greeting, Jason still continued to look around, distractedly.
"Good to see you Iolaus; where's Hercules? Off rescuing someone ... again!?"
That wiped the smile off the hunter's face.
"Whaddaya mean, 'where is he?' Isn't he here? He should be ..." and with that, Iolaus joined Jason in the instinctive search of the surrounding area for any sign of the demigod.
"He came on ahead of you?"
"Well, yeah. I stopped off on the way to pick up these," and Iolaus hefted the stick of rabbits hanging over his shoulder. "He should've been here hours ago."
He caught Jason looking at him and became aware that he must be projecting worry over what could have held Hercules up for so long. "Hey, like you said, he's probably just rescuing someone from something. He'll be here before supper, guaranteed."
Jason clapped him on the back and took the string of rabbits from him. "These for me?"
"Nope," Iolaus told him with that tone of voice that said he was kidding, and his seriousness dissolved into laughter again. "Happy Birthday, Jason."
"Thanks, Iolaus. These will last me until the day after tomorrow, I guess," and he smacked his lips. "I just wish Alcmene could be here to tut over me eating them ..."
"She will be, Jason, you know that. In spirit."
"I guess so."
They walked over to the cottage and went inside, Jason chuckling to himself over the rabbits, and Iolaus stretching to work the kinks out of the shoulder that had been carrying them. "Speaking of Alcmene, I sure could use one of her shoulder rubs right now ..."
"Well, Iolaus, I'd oblige, but the neighbours might talk."
Iolaus cast a glance around the isolated building and spied a couple of doves, billing and cooing in a nearby tree. "Oh, yeah. The 'neighbours'. Right ..."
Patting him upside the head, Jason opened the door and held it wide. "Just get in here, willya?"
"Coming, mom."
~
He'd had to lose the torch ... when? A moment ago? Hours ago? He didn't know anymore... Couldn't even remember why he was ... wherever he was ...
Underground ... somewhere ...
He just had to keep on going, but it was getting so difficult now. Crawling along on his belly, feeling the space in front of him with his hands. Pushing back against the earth behind him with his feet ...
... it was like he was dreaming ... that sweet smell ... it reminded him of Deianeira, his lovely wife, lost, it seemed like a lifetime ago, destroyed by Hera ...
... his sweet Deianeira -
- he heard laughter. Cruel, heartless laughter.
Hera.
The sweet smell grew stronger still until suddenly it was too sweet. Sickeningly sweet. The taint of death itself. He drew breath to yell out, but nearly choked on the cloying scent.
Gods, where was he!!? He could barely move and it was so black that all he could see were faces and memories. Faces and memories that were not so pleasant, that began to crowd in on him, working with the stale air to stifle him. Suffocating his body, his heart and his mind.
"Deian - erhh - aahh ..."
Earth falling into his mouth as he cried out, caused him to cough, the word emerging as little more than a stifled croak. He had to get out of there!
He got a shock when he tried, inch by inch to move backwards, along the way he had come. The tunnel was gone. There was only solidly packed earth behind him. How in tartarus could that be!? He had come through that way only a moment ago. There had been no hissing slide of earth, he would have heard it. Wouldn't he?
Trying to still his rapidly beating heart, Hercules thought back to what had happened. He remembered coming into the cave after the woman, now. Remembered following her calls down a tunnel which was ever decreasing in size. He remembered the scent of jasmine ...
He had been tricked. This was a trap, and he had walked right into it. Now he had to find a way out. But how?
He stamped backwards as hard as he could to try to dislodge the earth against his feet, but he could barely manoeuvre, to get any leverage. In such a position his strength wasn't much use to him. He tried to arch his body to enlarge the space he was in, but again he couldn't get his knees or his elbows under him to push up. All he succeeded in doing was bringing more earth down around him. The only way out was forward. Biting down on the fear that was trying to close his throat, Hercules began to inch his way forward, feeling the space with his fingertips ...
... and came to a dead end. Panic swept through him and he desperately felt all around him, as much as he could, for some hole, some chink in what felt like the rock in front of him. He felt the whisper of a touch against his foot and he stamped back, in instinctive fear, thinking it some burrowing animal. Then, for a moment, his heart leapt. If there was a burrowing animal down here, then maybe he could find his way out after it ...
Nudging with his leg and boot, he tried to come into contact with whatever it was. As he did so, cold drenched his heart, as his senses informed him of what had really happened.
He had just managed to crawl forwards for a couple of inches, before he touched the rock ahead of him. That meant that there should have been a couple of inches of space behind his feet. The touch on his feet had been the earth filling up that space behind him.
He was right. There had been no earth slide; this was a trap and he suddenly knew who, and how.
"Earth ... and Air. Two left, huh, Hera? You left them behind, in case anything happened to you. Like an ace in the hole. Well, now I'm the ace in the hole, I guess ... oh, gods ... how do I get out of this? Hera, damn you, I won't go down like this, I won't, I won't ...!!"
But there was nothing he could do.
"ZEUS!! HELP ME!!" He almost choked again on the cloying air that he somehow dragged into his lungs to cry out.
All his cry achieved was a mouthful of earth. He wasn't even in his father's realm. To be technically correct, he was closer to Hades, than he was to Zeus, right now, and he took another cloying breath to call out to him, when a whispering voice froze the breath in his throat and the heart in his chest.
"They can't hear you, Hercules. Trapped by my sister and you can breathe only me. You're buried alive under the earth with only the air of death for company, and no-one will ever find you, Hercules. I'm going to hurt you; every breath is going to hurt like Tartarus and it will all you will ever know. It's going to be worse than death, Hercules. Much worse than death ..."
For the first time, Hercules believed his enemy. He had no other choice.
His mind screamed denial. His lungs tried to draw breath to echo it, but it was like breathing fire. His body began to twist and writhe in torment as he tried to breathe; fought futilely against it. He would die, surely, and no-one would know.
He would never see the sun again. Never feel the grass between his toes, never breathe fresh air again.
He would never see Iolaus again ...
'No. I can't do this. Please, I can't do this, please, I can't, I'll do anything, I'll get Hera out of Tartarus for you - oh, gods, I can't do that! - But I can't do THIS, please, PLEASE, gods, oh, please, just get me out of this! Please, PLEASE!!!'
"IOLAUS!!!"
Hercules twisting, writhing, shaking body, muffled pleas and sobs, and breaking mind went unheeded. Earth and Air just hugged him closer as they went to work ...
"Jason?"
The former leader of the Argonauts looked up from enjoying his stew, to see Iolaus, his stew abandoned, looking preoccupied. Actually, with his head cocked on one side like that, Jason could tell that he was listening.
"What is it, Iolaus? Do you hear Hercules coming?" Getting up, the older man went to the window to look out into the twilight for some sign of the demigod.
"I ... don't know. I thought I did - Jase, what time is it?" Without needing an answer, Iolaus could see that it was late, as he joined his friend to see the last of the westering sun disappear below the horizon. He shook his head. "He should be here by now. I ... I have to go look for him. If something's happened ..."
"I know," Jason agreed. "I'll come with you, just in case it needs two."
"No, Jase." Iolaus' hand on his arm brought him up short from gathering up a cloak to guard against the chill of the encroaching night. "You'd better stay here, in case it's nothing, and he's just been held up. That way, if he turns up, well ... he can track almost as well as I can, and I'm not going to be hiding my trail. He can catch up to me in no time. But with both of us gone, he won't know where to start ..."
Seeing the itch to get started in the nervy way Iolaus was restraining himself, Jason just nodded in agreement and put the cloak back in its place.
"I'll let you know if I need help," Iolaus called back as he sped out the door, knowing that Jason would want to know that.
"How?" Jason called after him, watching him go, from the doorstep. "There's not going to be anyone around here, not after dark!"
"I'll think of something!" came back to him. The hunter was already halfway up the hill, his scudding footsteps sounding too fast to be possible. Jason shook his head. When Iolaus really needed to be somewhere, he could almost outrun the wind; even now. "He's going to burn himself out one of these days," he murmured to himself.
Returning indoors, already beginning to pray that Hercules would turn up, safe and sound, any minute now, Jason was worried. There was a bond that was inexplicable between those two, and when Iolaus felt that something had happened to Hercules, he was usually right. Look at that whole deal with Serena; Jason had listened to Iolaus pouring his heart out over that, after Hercules had taken himself off for awhile to deal with her death. The hunter had told Hercules on more than one occasion that the thing was going to go bad ways. As usual, the demigod hadn't listened. And as usual, bad ways it had gone.
'I just hope Iolaus is wrong this time ...'
Jason poked the dying fire into reluctant life once more. As he had said when Alcmene had been dying: 'Hope for the best, but expect the worst.' He'd hoped he wouldn't have to be in that position again for a good long while. Looked like he was going to be disappointed.
~
Drawn by experience as much as instinct, Iolaus ran 'tartarus-for-leather' for the place where he and Hercules had split up. His best chance was to start tracking from there. Thank Selene there was an almost full moon tonight and little cloud to obscure it. The chances of tracking Hercules, though not perfect, were still good.
He pulled up short as he recognised the cliff on his right hand side. He and Herc had said goodbye by that little clump of bushes just ahead of him.
First off, Iolaus called out, on the off-chance that Hercules was somewhere nearby and able to hear him. He shouted several times in all directions; but there was nothing, so with his 'tracking head' firmly in gear, he began looking, listening and sniffing.
Some footstep-sized patches of grass more flattened than others; and his ears told him there was something missing about this place. He knew it quite well, from childhood. There was a cave where he used to hide out on the odd occasion when his dad was home, and in a bad mood. Whilst part of his mind went to work on what was missing, he sniffed the air repeatedly. Each person tended to have a unique odour to them. With Herc it was the oil that Alcmene used to painstakingly rub into those waffle-weave pants of his, to keep the leather from becoming too brittle, and soft, dressed lion-hide. And he used to wash his hair with tea tree oil, when he could get it, because his long, straight hair tended towards greasiness. The oil, when worked in, gave off a not-unpleasant balsamic scent.
Yes. Just faintly amongst the almost overpowering smell of lavendar, from up on the top of the cliff. And a whiff of ... what was that? Jasmine? What in the heck was Jasmine doing there? There wasn't any for miles in any direction.
Never mind his tracker's nose; his nose for trouble shot into high gear and he began to have a nasty crawly feeling, all up and down his spine.
Then it hit him; what was wrong with this place, that he could hear. With a hefty breeze going, like there was now, there ought to be a faint whistling moan coming from the cave mouth, where he used to hide, halfway up the cliff. It wasn't there.
He looked up and saw the deeper darkness where the cave was. The Herc-sized footsteps and the odd piece of bent brush which he came across as he moved further up the cliff path, were heading in the direction of the cliff top; but something told him that Herc hadn't made it that far. Keeping a closer eye on the ground before him, he found the place where the demigod had left the path, and begun to make his way across to the cave mouth. Still tracking, Iolaus followed the sign to the hollow in the cliff face.
He called out softly, as he peered in, then went further inside, trying to sense if there was anyone else in there. There wasn't. Hurriedly he returned to the entrance to see if there was any sign at all, that Hercules had left the cave and gone off in another direction; maybe down again, or onwards to the clifftop.
Nothing. The trail shorted out in the cave.
Gods, where was he!? Plunking himself down in the dirt, Iolaus ran his hands frustratedly through his hair, trying to think where his partner could have got to. It was too dark inside the cave to follow footsteps with his eyes.
Maybe his fingertips could do the same job, though ...
Moving forwards on his hands and knees, he scanned the dirt lightly enough not to disturb it and was eventually rewarded with a ridge surrounding dirt that was more hard packed than that around it. It was the size and shape of Herc's left boot. Moving forward very slowly, he felt around until he came across that of his right boot. Using this method he followed the footprints right to the back of the cave, where they dead ended again in the back wall.
Wait a second though. Hadn't there used to be a tunnel here, leading deeper underground? Iolaus could remember cheering himself up, when he was in there hiding from his father, by exploring the tunnel, deeper and deeper each time, proving to himself how brave he could be? He used to fantasize that there was a mighty dragon, asleep down there for hundreds of years, and that he would be the first person to find it.
Yeah, it was this cave. So where was the tunnel?
Iolaus went all around the back wall of the cave; no tunnel. Making his way back to where Herc's footprints had come to a sudden stop, he felt the back wall again. There was a place where the soil was more loosely packed and it smelt rich and damp, like it was a new fall. What if Herc had gone into the tunnel and there had been a cave-in?
That had to be it. Iolaus turned and went to make his way out of the cave as quickly as he could. He had to go back to the cottage to get Jason to help him dig Hercules out! The hunter turned around and began to make his way out of the cave, as quickly as he could, when something passed through him and froze the breath in his lungs and the heart in his chest. It was an age before he could breathe at all.
"Hercules?" It came out as a sob, and he had no idea why. All he knew, suddenly, was that he couldn't leave that place; that he had no time to go for Jason, or help of any kind. Hercules was in that tunnel somewhere and he was dying, right now!!
"Hercules! I'm coming, don't worry, buddy, I'll get you out of there!" He began scrabbling at the bare earth, pulling it away in handfuls and throwing it behind him. He had made himself a hole big enough to crawl into, and begun to pull himself in, when suddenly the earth around him squeezed itself around him and, as if giving birth, shot him back out into the cave. As he watched - almost dizzy from what had just happened - more earth fell to take the place of that which he had removed. It packed itself so tightly into the space that thereafter, he couldn't even get a finger in to try and remove it.
Something was determined that he should not get to Hercules. Something did not want him to save his friend.
"So what's earth got against Hercules!?" he wondered in shocked amazement.
Nothing, was the obvious answer. Since when did any of the elements hold a grudge against the son of ... Zeus ...
"Ah, DAMN! Not more enforcers?" Running dirt-stained fingers through his hair again, Iolaus took himself just outside of the cave. He needed fresh air to think. Something Hercules must be running out of. Fast, probably. His best friend was going to die, if he didn't do the right thing, quickly.
"Okay. What defeats earth?" He ran through the options quickly. "Fire scorches earth, water can move it. I don't have time to organise any of that though." He scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to push away unbidden images of what horrors Hercules might be going through. Remembering his expulsion from the entrance in the cave, he shivered. If the earth could squeeze him like that -
"No, don't go there, Iolaus. That's not gonna help get Herc outta there. And how far back down that tunnel did he go?"
Trying to keep the gnawing fear for the demigod at bay, he made himself go back in his memories, searching for the ones that would tell him just how far that tunnel went. The answer was evasive: he kept going around in circles; hit the point where the tunnel narrowed and then ... and then back to where the tunnel narrowed. He couldn't seem to get his memories to go any further.
"Damn it!" Plunking down on the rocky cliffside, he apologised, mentally, to the demigod for what he was about to do. "I'm sorry, Herc. I'm going to have to take a minute here, buddy, to try and break through a wall that's keeping me from what I need to know. Just hang on, Herc; please ..."
Hating to have to take the time necessary to put himself into a light trance, Iolaus nevertheless began to slow his breathing and his heart rate to the point where he could think himself past the fear that was keeping him from his answer.
... he was glad of the torch that he'd found at the entrance to the tunnel. Even gladderer that he'd brought his flint with him. He patted the inside pocket of his jerkin where the piece of rock stuck into him, a comforting presence. Something else his father would never learn about him now; that he was learning to take care of himself outdoors. He'd camped a whole three days in the Calydon forest with Herc, a month or so ago.
Hercules. Iolaus wished his friend was there now, so that they could share this adventure. Still, this whole thing was supposed to be about how brave *he* was. It was rather missing the point if Hercules was there with him. Much as Iolaus didn't want to admit it, the demigod was a very useful 'safety blanket' at times. He would have liked the company though ...
Anyway, that was neither here nor there, now. He was in the tunnel, and he was sure that he'd never been down this far before. In fact, wasn't the ceiling getting lower? And the walls seemed to be closing in ...
Sweat began to trickle down his face and neck. Small spaces didn't bother him all that much, but the idea of being crushed under all this weight of earth was something that would get to anyone. Biting his lip and summoning up his courage, Iolaus went on further, foot by foot, until he got to a place where there was only enough room for him to crawl.
The passage was angling downwards more and more, now, and with a thrill of excitement, Iolaus began to think about that sleeping dragon again. He'd heard tails from ever since he was little, hardly more than a baby, about such a thing in this area, and he could almost feel its presence below him somewhere. The more he looked at the crawlspace, the more sure he felt that he was so close to the mythical creature now. Just a bit further, and he would find the most wondrous thing in the whole world ...
His fear temporarily banished, and his heart thumping with excitement, Iolaus got down on his belly and began to crawl, pulling and pushing himself forward with his hands and feet.
"Nearly there, Iolaus, nearly there," he kept telling himself. "Just another coupla metres, and -"
Suddenly, and totally without any kind of warning, the earth began to tremble and Iolaus froze in absolute terror as the walls collapsed, the ceiling came down on him, and he was sure he was dead. He had just enough time to scream out Hercules' name, instinctively, as if by doing so, he could somehow be saved, before a gaping hole appeared under him and he fell, for what seemed like forever.
He ended up at the bottom of a huge, long slice of rock, that sunk deep into the earth, with suddenly and blessedly, the blue of the sky about thirty feet above him.
Gods, he had been so lucky!! He tried to begin climbing up the rock, to get himself out of the hole, but found that he was shaking too badly. He had to wait until he was found by a shepherd. The man had gone looking for one of his sheep which had gone running wildly off where he shouldn't, out of fear of the earth tremor, and it was a piece of luck that he had a length of rope with him, in case he needed to get down the cliff after his errant charge.
"How did you get down there?" the man called to him.
"Don't ... don't ask," the young Iolaus replied, grabbing onto the rope and slowly and painfully, beginning to pull himself up ...
Easing himself out of the memory, Iolaus found that he was shaking, in sympathy with the younger self that that horrific moment belonged to. Nevertheless, he knew what he had to do, now. He had no time to go back to the cottage for rope, and would just have to trust to luck and his common sense. Rising to his feet, Iolaus began to climb directly up, heading for the cliff top.
When he got there, he soon found what he was looking for: a long, winding dip in the land - not too noticeable, but enough that he could follow it, as he knew what he was looking for. He followed it, running as fast as he dared without losing its trail. He could see now where the rock stuck up at the sky, like an accusing finger, in the distance, and began to steer a little more towards it, trying to reach it as fast as possible, but still keep the dip within sight, in case there was any sign that Herc was trying to tunnel upwards, to the surface.
However, there was no sign and when he reached the rock, he discovered that instead of the gaping hole that he remembered, there was only smoothe earth. It looked as if the fissure, caused by the quake all those years ago, had never been there.
"Damn! It must've been filled in, to keep the kids out," he muttered irritably to himself. There was nothing for it; he would have to dig down until he hit the other end of the tunnel, hoping that not too much of it had collapsed.
Using his bare hands, Iolaus got to work.
All the time he was digging, his mind argued with him that this was probably hopeless. If the earth enforcer - if it really was such a thing that had done this to Hercules and was keeping Iolaus from his friend - could stop him from entering the tunnel at one end, she could surely keep him from entering at the other end. There was nothing to say that the tunnel hadn't collapsed along most of its length, and never been reopened. Also there was no reason to say that Hercules was anywhere near the rock. He might be just the other side of the tunnel entrance in the cave. Iolaus might have been within inches of him, before he was forcibly expelled by the earth.
Iolaus knew all this, but something bigger and deeper and stronger than any logic, kept him digging down the side of the rock, shovelling earth behind him, pushing it up, out onto the surface with his feet, down, down into the ground. Down towards the other end of that tunnel. The only thing that mattered was following the rock down until he found Hercules; and he knew he would.
Somehow, something even closer to him than his heart, told him that he would find him; and get him out alive.
When Iolaus finally found Hercules, the hunter could barely have been recognised by anyone. He was almost as black as the dirt he'd been digging through, and his fingers were little more than bloody claws.
When Iolaus finally found Hercules, he could barely bring himself to recognise the demigod.
He was stopped in his search, downwards, ever downwards, by striking his hand against the hide-covered back, the muscles in so solid a rictus, that they were like the rock beside him. It took Iolaus a moment to come out of his pattern - push, pull, thrust back, push, pull, thrust back - and realise that it wasn't rock that he had come into contact with.
"Her .. Hercules?" and he felt around to make sure. Yes, it was the familiar lionskin that his friend always wore, and Iolaus began frenziedly clearing more of the earth away from Hercules' back, searching desperately for his arms, making sure he was oriented right. Then he was clearing the dirt from around his head and face so that he could breathe. Shaking with exertion and fear, he twisted his friend's head gently up towards the air and almost pulled his hands away in shock. Even later, he couldn't find the words to describe how Hercules looked at that moment. Iolaus couldn't even tell if he were alive or dead. He didn't seem to be breathing.
"Hercules!? Oh, gods, lets get you out of there ..."
Putting his bloodied hands under Hercules'arms, Iolaus somehow managed to reverse his position, and pushing against the remains of the tunnel walls, he began hauling Hercules out of his horrific tomb. It wasn't until he had him back up on the surface that he even realised that there had been no more sign of the earth enforcer. She hadn't even stopped him from finding his friend. She must have been so sure, once he'd been unable to enter the tunnel from the cave, that there was nothing more that he could do ...
But there was no time for thinking about that. Hercules still wasn't breathing, so, making sure that all the grime and muck were clear of his best friend's mouth and nose, he began to resuscitate him.
Being heaved halfway across the field was a pretty good sign that Hercules was actually still in the land of the living. The demigod was lashing out, but seemed to have no idea where he was or even that he was out of his living grave. He looked like he thought he was drowning, and the croaking exclamations turned Iolaus' heart to ice as he heard them.
"CAN'T do this, CAN'T do this, oh, Zeus, oh GODS, NO, can't BREATHE, WON'T breathe her, WON'T, oh, GOD'S it hurts! It hurts ..."
Flinging himself back to Hercules' side, Iolaus caught hold of a flayling arm and yelled to him, trying to get him to awaken from his nightmare. "Hercules! HERCULES! it's ME, it's IOLAUS!! Open your eyes, you're out! I got you out, pal, please, just ... wake up! It's okay now ..."
Sudden, huge, gasping breaths told the hunter that perhaps he had gotten through to his partner, who was actually allowing himself to breathe now. His frenzied movements slowly calmed, although he shook, interminably. The black tartarus in his eyes began to recede, and for the first time, he seemed to recognise the hunter.
"I - Iolaus ...?"
"It's okay, Herc, I found you, you're gonna be okay, pal. She's gone, good riddance. C'mere, you're freezing," and despite the fact that Hercules had been held for hours in the loathsome embrace of the earth enforcer - trapped and a prisoner for her sister, Air, to torment - Hercules let himself be wrapped in the warm and safe embrace of his best friend's arms. He clung so hard to the hunter, that Iolaus wondered if he was going to be able to breathe himself, but he didn't care. He'd found Hercules; found him and gotten him out of that place. Kept him from suffering one more moment of living death. No wonder he'd had the mien of a madman when he'd found him. Not that 'madman' even began to cover the description.
"Oh, gods, Iolaus; you found me, you found me. I was going ... mad ... in there, I couldn't ... couldn't ..." but Hercules was unable to finish the sentence, his mind already shying from even trying to tell his friend what he'd been through.
"'T's okay, buddy. You're safe now, free of it. Come on, let's get you home."
Struggling to his feet, Iolaus waited until Hercules could sort out which way was up, and had painfully pulled himself upright.
"Which ... which way?"
Iolaus pointed North and putting an arm around him for support, began to steer the demigod in the direction of his mother's cottage.
'Gods, I hope Jason's got a good fire going, and there's some of that stew left. Herc's freezing!'
Walking as fast as he could and trying not to stumble under what he carried of Hercules' weight, Iolaus risked a glance away from the path and up into his face. "How're you doing, buddy?"
"C-c-cold ... Iolaus. S-so cold ..."
"Well, don't worry, pal. When we get back to the cottage, you can get warm in front of the fire and get a big bowl of rabbit stew inside you. Coupla days, you'll be as good as new; you see."
"Ra-rabbit s-stew? You ... c-caught ..."
"Yup. Seven of 'em."
"Zeus, I'm still dreaming, I'm still in the hole, oh, gods -"
Genuinely concerned by this outburst, Iolaus strengthened his hold on his best friend; tried to bring him out of it. "It's okay, Herc, really! I got you out of there, you're okay now and we're on the way home, I swear -"
"Y-you co-couldn't have caught s-seven, Iolaus ..."
It was only when he caught the wonderfully familiar gleam fighting to come through in Hercules' eyes, that Iolaus realised he'd been had. He squeezed his partner extra hard, joy rampaging through his heart once more.
"Welcome back, buddy. Thank the gods!"
"N-no, Iolaus; thanks to y-you! Now, c-can we go a bit f-faster here? M-my ever-everything's got f-frostbite!"
Grinning from ear to ear, and praying that they wouldn't end up in a barrel-roll, Iolaus urged his best friend and partner into a run ...
Epilogue.
Earth, with her sister Air, held safely inside her, pushed her way on down, down down. All the way down the roots of Olympus, down past the level of the Styx and the Elysian Fields. Down, down, down until she emerged finally, at the base of the abyss. The deepest abyss in the whole world. Down near the core of the Earth itself. There was heat and noise and the constant drip, drip, drip as the Lethe found its way through all the cracks and permeable rocks to this lowest of regions. It fell on the heads of its inhabitants continually, drip, drip, drip. They would have been driven mad by it if the Lethe were not the waters of Forgetfulness.
The Titans bounced themselves off of the walls all day. All night and all day, forever and ever. It was instinctive, the need for freedom, and as elemental as they were, their need became their all. Bounce, bounce, bounce. It would have driven Hera mad, if it were not for the Lethe. Like a fish, her mind went round in a circle, until she forgot who she was, or where she was, or why.
The enforcers barely recognised her. They had overlooked her twice, not believing that this quiet, pathetic creature could be the goddess who had created them, given them their reason for existence, fed them with her raging hatred.
"Who ... what ...?"
"We are your enforcers," they told her.
"We have trapped and entangled Hercules into a living death," said Earth.
"Tormented him into an unending madness," added Air.
They waited. Waited for the joyful smile, for the cries of jubilation which would tell them that they had fulfilled their existence; but there was nothing. Just a look of abstract bafflement.
"Hercules?" came the tentative enquiry. "Who is Hercules?"
Earth and Air looked at one another. It seemed that somehow they had failed in their duty. Their existence was incomplete; but they did not know how to complete it.
Then it did not matter anyway, as the Titan, Oceanus, ran straight into Air, on his unthinking path to the next bounce. She was dissipated and trapped for all eternity inside him, as thousands of air bubbles. Trapped for ever.
Helios, also, on his unnoticing journey to the next wall, passed through Earth, scorching every atom of her, leaving her a little pile of ash on the floor of the Abyss.
Hera, already forgetting the events of the past few moments, drifted on in her forgetfulness.
The End.
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