Chapter Text
The crew rushed to close the bag, and within seconds after being closed again, the storm had thankfully subsided.
Suddenly the sea grew wild, the wind turned colder.
The crew were stood frozen on their fleet ship, Odysseus was stuck in a horrified expression, his eyes were fixated on a large funnel of water growing taller and taller.
It was until he saw an infamous weapon start to peak out of the plume of seawater, three sharp prongs.
A celestial bronze trident.
Voices of Odysseus’ terrified men were all he could hear, chanting out a name he had never thought he’d have the chance of hearing during his journey home.
A figure appeared standing seemingly on top of the water tube. Shoulder length, raven black hair flowed furiously in the wind, the water created dark blue clothes and ran off the stranger like a waterfall.
His razor sharp teeth were posed in an angry frown, almost disgusted.
The figure and name suddenly barreled into Odysseus’ head, all of it making sense, this was another god. No, not just any god, in fact one of the twelve Olympians, one of the big three.
“Poseidon.” Odysseus stuttered out terrified.
Poseidon seemed to revel in their terror, tearing into Odysseus for sparing his son and showing him an act of kindness instead of killing him to get by, which made the captain realise that the God was talking about the cyclops, the very one that killed many of his men, including his best friend.
But no matter the anger that Odysseus felt that this God cared more about a monster who killed a quarter of his men, he was still facing the wrath of an almighty and powerful God of The Seas.
The ocean became more rough, waves the size of houses, almost the size of temples, were crashing against them.
All of the ships were being toyed with, Odysseus grew more and more desperate to reason with this furious deity.
“Poseidon we meant no harm! We only hurt him to disarm him! We took no pleasure in his pain, we only wanted to escape!” The captain pleaded, the deity seemed to have pause.
The Sea God sighed angrily.
“The line between naivety and hopefulness is almost invisible, so close your heart, the world is dark and ruthlessness is mercy.” Poseidon declared, he gripped his trident and glared daggers into Odysseus.
“Die.” The deity spat, then with one thrust, his trident reached the skies and a monsoon began to fall, waves grew larger and larger.
The water churned as Odysseus watched in horror as his crew, his brothers had been forced into this deadly attack from the angry god.
Many of Odysseus’ ships were almost fully submerged under the water, he could hear his crew crying out to him for them to be saved, Odysseus couldn’t bear it any longer.
“WAIT! PLEASE WAIT! I HAVE AN OFFER FOR YOU!” The captain begged, in almost an instant, the waves grew quieter, and got smaller, the ships were still mostly intact, his men still alive.
Poseidon moved his water funnel closer to Odysseus, almost at the bow of the ship.
“Well? What is it you have to offer me? I’m right in the middle of inflicting my revenge on you.” The deity said darkly, Odysseus sighed contentedly and stared straight into the Sea God’s eyes.
“Spare my men and you may kill me yourself. But no one else gets harmed, you hear me?” The Captain bargained, his right hand man, Eurylicous hadn’t been a fan of this idea.
“Captain! What do you think you’re doing?! You have to come home for Penelope, for Telemachus! Everything you’ve worked so hard for!” The man insisted, Odysseus just put a gentle hand on his shoulder and looked at him with a soft expression and a calculated smile.
“It’s alright, as soon as he takes me underwater, use the Bag Of Winds and get away. Don’t worry about me, I’ll always remember my right hand man, my brother I could never do without.” He solemnly said, Eurylicous nodded and stepped back, a small tear seemed to have escaped.
Poseidon smirked and raised his trident again, a smaller flume of water raised out of the sea and wrapped itself around Odysseus, not giving him enough time to breathe, he was swept into the water.
Almost immediately, Poseidon joined him under the water, the winds above the water picked up again as the Deity along with Odysseus watched as all of the fleet ships got away thanks to the winds.
Odysseus could’ve laughed, but he remembered one thing. He was underwater, and he was about to die.
However, Poseidon looked…impressed.
“Well, I’ve been a God for as long as I remember, and I’ve never seen a mortal stand up to a God like myself once. Let alone sacrifice themselves for others. But don’t think I’ll be merciful. I will however let you live, but not quite freely.” He pointedly said, this made Odysseus nervous.
What could Poseidon possibly want with him? He had the chance to kill Odysseus right then and there, but he didn’t.
Unfortunately, Odysseus didn’t have much time to think about it, Poseidon rose his Godly weapon again and pointed it straight towards Odysseus.
All of a sudden, Odysseus was overcome with an intense pain.
His legs felt like they were being broken and awkwardly sewn back together, his rib cage had felt like it was being sliced open, and his insides felt like they were being changed too
And impossibly, Odysseus screamed painfully, underwater.
He couldn’t even register what had happened, because he had passed out from the pain, and the last thing he remembered was seeing dark, sea green eyes that looked at him hatefully.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Everything felt fuzzy, blurry, only the memories of what transpired remained.
His crew being tormented by the God of The Seas, Odysseus giving up his life for them, then eventually being taken underwater to await his punishment.
But something felt wrong, not right with him.
The captain jolted upwards and began taking deep breaths.
He looked around to see miles and miles of seaweed, almost a forest of green.
This made Odysseus confused, how could he even breathe, he was underwater.
With a sigh he sat up and put his hands on his knees.
Wait.
Something felt weird, but not just weird.
Strange, very strange and odd.
Odysseus slowly looked towards his hands, almost dreading what he might see, and what he saw made him yelp in shock.
A seven foot long, teal fish tail was in place of his legs, fins jotting out in every direction, it wrapped around him like a protective blanket.
Odysseus searched himself some more, that only made him more nervous.
Thin fins were placed delicately on his back, teal scales littered his shoulders and arms, and his bare chest had what looked like scars, but when he went to examine them…they moved on their own.
They were gills, that’s what helped him breathe so easily under the water.
Odysseus fought the urge to freak out, but as he rose his hands to stroke through his hair, he heard a small clink sound.
He looked closely at his wrists and saw silver cuffs, leather wrappings underneath both of them to stop chafing, that was good at least.
Each silver cuff had a long string of silver chains attached to them.
It looked long enough for swimming around, but no where near long enough to explore the whole area, let alone escape.
Another thing he noticed as he looked around, his eyes were still blurry, he thought that in this form his eyesight would improve.
But alas it was much worse.
He couldn’t quite see his hands or anything close to him clearly anymore, nothing would adjust.
A terrible truth came to him through words, those words were spoken by someone else.
“You’re blind, not terribly but still blind enough to not see much. You did get improved eyesight, but I just couldn’t resist returning the same pain you gave to my son.” The voice said menacingly.
As the figure got closer, Odysseus looked hard at him, the same colours from his encounter before indicated who this was.
“Poseidon. Why keep me here, change me into this form, chain me and then blind me? Just for your amusement?” Odysseus spat hatefully.
Poseidon laughed boisterously, which made the water around them make small currents.
“Not really, just as an act of revenge. But when I feel merciful, I’ll let you go back home when I say so. Which may be in an hour, tomorrow, next week, or months from now. Whenever I deem your punishment as completed.” The deity explained.
Odysseus felt like his heart got shattered all over again.
How could this have happened to him? He just wanted to get back home to his loving wife and his son, and now he was stuck seemingly forever at the bottom of the ocean.
Odysseus was still, he had nothing else to say to this God, he wished that Athena could come save him, but it would be fruitless.
Athena was Poseidon’s rival, she wouldn’t dare step foot in his domain.
“Well, anything else you have left to say?” Poseidon suddenly asked, looking at Odysseus pointedly.
The former captain only sighed and looked at the God.
“How long does this chain allow me to travel? I just want to know just in case I get hungry and have to catch my food.” He said defeated.
Poseidon sighed and poked at the chain.
“It will allow you to explore the kelp forest, but won’t let you get past it, and if I feel generous during your stay, I’ll add a link or two to give you more freedom.” The deity explained.
Odysseus rolled his eyes.
“Oh wow that’s so great, thank you almighty Poseidon for a full forest exploration.” He sarcastically expressed.
Poseidon pointed his trident at Odysseus’ neck, the prongs threatening to pierce him.
“Be thankful for the freedom you do have, I could still very well kill you for injuring my child.” The God said darkly.
All Odysseus offered was a single nod and Poseidon brought his trident back to his side.
Odysseus lowered his head, his mix of emotions subsiding slowly, he just sank into himself.
He brought his tail to the front of him, putting his head where his knees would be, sighing in defeat.
“If you’re done here, leave me alone.” Odysseus shallowly said to the deity.
Poseidon chuckled menacingly in response.
“With pleasure, I can’t stand the sight of you, but I will be back to make sure you haven’t escaped, my little pet.” The Olympian spat, waving his trident, disappearing in a mini tornado of bubbles.
The former captain hung his head low, not sure of what he could do now, he tried to keep his positive resolve.
But that was going to be hard at the bottom of the ocean.
All he had to do was wait, for what exactly? For Poseidon to grow bored of him, kill him, Odysseus only knew one thing for certain.
He had made a deal with an almighty god, and there was seemingly no escape.
His crew, without a captain.
His kingdom, without a king.
His son, without a father.
And most importantly, his wife, without a husband.
Odysseus began to cry, his tears disappearing into the sea water, he laid down on the makeshift seabed and eventually cried himself to sleep.
Dreams of what could be if he never made the deal came to him, making him hate his situation even more, he despised Poseidon for this.
He would escape from this nightmare, if that was the last thing he’d ever do.