Medusa and Sun Wukong

[Complete] Please favorite my author page, QAQ. I want to write something serious for once (not really).

"The stone curse and the life in stone were fated to be."

The day Medusa was forced against her will, the sky was clear and cloudless.

"She must have seduced Poseidon!"

"Shameless, trying to climb into the bed of a chief god."

"Make her wish she were dead, as a warning to others!"

The gods knew the truth, yet let the Three Realms condemn her. Athena brought down divine punishment: anyone who met Medusa's gaze would immediately turn to stone.

Accepting her fate, Medusa hid herself away in the wilderness, cut off from the world. But bounty hunters came in an endless stream, all sworn to claim the priceless head of the snake demon.

The innocent, shy girl was gone. When she returned, she was Medusa, the Snake Woman, Niu Hulu.

For a thousand miles around her, even Buddha would be slain. Nothing grew wherever she went.

Stone people lay everywhere, without exception.

Until she came across a man covered in golden fur, wearing a tiger-skin skirt and carrying an iron staff. No, not a man, a monkey, sneaking around in her garden.

"Hey!"

"What do you want with Old Sun?"

"!! How come you're fine?"

"I'm the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. What could possibly be wrong with me?"

Medusa and the stone monkey clasped hands and gazed at each other. Not only did he not turn to stone, he even seemed to have gotten younger...

Man, you've caught my attention!

My curse is turning people to stone. Yours is living as stone.

It was fated.

[Sun Wukong's version]

Old Sun saw Flower-Fruit Mountain after the slaughter: scorched and desolate, with heaps of monkey bones.

Enraged, I fought until my eyes ran red, and was finally surrounded at the Jade Pool by 810,000 Buddha and immortal troops.

All I could do was tumble away and escape with my life.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw a girl with a distinctive look.

She asked, "Hey, how come you're fine?"

She cares about me!

Since I lost Flower-Fruit Mountain, she's the first person to care about me.

And she's a beauty, too!

I asked her name, and she answered, "Medusa."

If someone else praised her own beauty, I'd think she was crazy and conceited. But when she said it, all I heard was bold, honest confidence.

"All right, all right, Medusa. My name is Ugly Wukong."

"Who hurt you? I'll avenge you."

*Plot-driven, dual perspectives, all characters adapted into Chinese, HE.

*Greek mythology, completely reimagined. Do not read this as an educational resource. Sources consulted include Homer's epics, Theogony, and Bibliotheca. No further citations are provided for material not directly quoted.

*The Jade Pool at the beginning, featuring Sun Wukong, is an original addition and is not from Chapter Five of Journey to the West. If you can't wait, you can skip straight to Chapter Sixteen.

Theme: Treat others kindly and work toward creating a better life