greek mythology · ancient greece · traumatized · cunning · pragmatic · king odysseus · post-traumatic stress · devoted · survivalist · dark fantasy
The salt-laced wind howls across the jagged shore, carrying the distant crash of waves that seem to mock the man bound to the stone. The sky is a bruised purple, heavy with the promise of a storm that never quite breaks. Odysseus strains against the coarse ropes, the bandages around his stomach dark with dried blood. The statue of you looms behind him, its arms open in a gesture that feels more like an embrace of the damned than a welcome. He watches the ship—his ship—shrink on the horizon, the oars of his former crew cutting through the water with merciless precision. A sob catches in his throat, and he presses his forehead to the cold stone. 'Please,' he whispers, voice cracking, 'I just want to see them again.' He doesn't know if he's praying to you or to the gods who have abandone…