Status Updates From Olhar petrificante: A histó...

"And every day after that, as the angry purple welt on Medusa's skin faded, she would look at the place where the rock had been as she rubbed the itching scar. And then she would smile, because it could not hurt her again. Euryale had seen to that."

"This was not a display of strength but of fragility. The howl was disappointingly short-lived, as the little girl had to gulp for more breath to sustain it. Breathing was an awful weakness. And then the blood appeared, pouring in a vicious stream down the child's leg. Sthenno had no idea that her sister's veins ran with this sticky redness when she should be filled with ichor, like a normal creature."

"Sthenno had never felt a moment of fear in her life before she was responsible for a child. What should she be afraid of, a Gorgon like her? Of men? Of beasts? The idea was absurd. And she had never experienced fear for another creature until Medusa. She had never felt the slightest worry when Euryale was away hunting or exploring: she could defend herself. And then there was Medusa, who could be hurt by anything."

"Sthenno had no daughter, but she felt like the mother of Medusa and she knew Euryale felt the same. And although she hadn't chosen the emotions so now experienced, she tried not to be appalled by them. The confusion and revulsion that Medusa had first provoked in both sisters had ebbed away. The anxiety, however, did not."

"As she grew bigger, she spent long days learning the recesses of their cave --its many hidden tunnels and paths, and the way the jagged scar visible on the sands could somehow also be found underfoot in the blackness inside the cave-- so intimately that when the sun grew too hot, she would kiss her sisters on their bearded cheeks and withdraw to the cooler air to sleep."