The Tartessian Snake Charmer

Eleventh Story of History of the Twelve, previous Story The Two-Headed Giant of Erytheia.

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"Next, I suppose, would be my story." Hesperides said. "That, probably won't meet your expectations either."

"What do you mean by that?" Thoth asked.

"I saw that look on your face while I was telling you Geryon's story." she replied. "You don't approve of his pride, the thing that drove his decission to join."

"Are you telling me that you joined out of pride as well?" Thoth asked. Hesperides shook her head.

"No, but my reasons to become a part of The Dodekathlon weren't noble either."

"You let me be the judge of that." Thoth sighed. "And you just start at the beginning."

"Very well. I grew up in a town called Tartessos, it is on the boarder of Iceberg and Pergrande Kingdom up by the mountains." she began. "My family were well known gardeners and snake charmers. As such we were always well off, between selling our apples or through...less than legal means."

"Assassinations?" Thoth asked.

"With the snakes, yes." Hesperides replied. "Anyways, my family was getting ready to disown me. I showed no promise in gardening and I had no luck in being a snake charmer. The only reason I hadn't been disowned before that was my ability to go unnoticed everywhere I went."

"So they kept you around simply to be an assassin, even without a snake?" Thoth sighed. Again Hesperides nodded.

"Then I was given one last chance to successfully charm a snake and was told that if I failed again I would be disowned and killed." she said.

"Killed?"

"They can't have someone who knows were all the bodies are buried, can identify all the skelotons in the closets." Hesperides shrugged. "So to save my own life I went to the one place even my family of snake charmers feared to go. I entered a place called 'Ladon's Swamp' where it was rumored the most powerful and dangerous snake, Ladon, lived."

"Not very creative with the name of the swamp, huh?" Thoth asked.

"Not the point." Hesperides said. Thoth apologized and she continued. "Ladon had never been successfully charmed by anyone before and anyone who had tried was killed by the snake."

"So how did you manage to charm Ladon?" Thoth interrupted.

"I really don't remember." Hesperides replied. "I remember entering Ladon's Swamp and walking for what seemed like hours. Then, after I found Ladon, nothing until I walked out of the swamp and seeing my family slaughtered and the town burning."

"Cerberus arrived?" Thoth asked. Hesperides nodded again.

"He had just finished killing the last of my family and didn't even seem to have noticed me." she continued. "Then he began to walk away and I followed."

"You...followed?"

"Yes, I followed. Almost half way to where the others were before he finally acknowledged that I was even there." Hesperides said. "He asked me if I wanted to avenge my family. I told him I didn't, since they were ready to disown and kill me anyways. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him I didn't know. Cerberus then offered to give me direction, since he could sense that I had a very powerful ally just waiting for me to call and then he admitted even he had trouble sensing me to begin with. Cerberus told me that if I joined him and The Dodekathlon I could do anything I wanted."

"So what did you want to do?" Thoth asked.

"Travel, live and do whatever Cerberus required of me so I could continue doing so." Hesperides replied. "I became 'The Hell Hound's Shadow' as Lion called me and the rest is known...mostly."

"Mostly?"

"All those rich people and high government officials that died from snake bites after Tertessos was destroyed. All of them were killed by me." Hesperides said. "Though there were several Dark Guilds that claimed to be behind them."

"How many?" Thoth asked.

"Did I kill, or Dark Guilds that took credit?" Hesperides asked. "Either way, I killed 3000 people all over Earth Land and Dark Guilds claimed credit for 2900 of them."

Thoth sighed as Hesperides finished.

"Last you'll want Cerberus' story." Hesperides said. "But for that you'll need to talk to someone else. None of us of The Dodekathlon know about him before he came and recruited us."

"Then my business here is over with." Thoth said as he began to limp away.

"Good bye, Mage of Life."

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Continued in Tainaron's Dog