Chapter 5 – Blood and Water
The inside of the ark smelled of dried herbs, aged wood, and a faint hint of damp earth. Sunlight came through the narrow gaps I had deliberately left in the ceiling and the high walls, casting golden streaks across the half-darkness. I was leaning over a thick table of dark wood, one of the first pieces I'd built after Zeus's blessing made the ark impervious. The surface was marked by years of use: knife scratches, sap stains, dried remnants of crushed leaves.
Beside me, several crude books lay open. Sheets of beaten bark, stitched with thin tendon, filled with notes made in charcoal ink and sap. Mixtures. Proportions. Results. Failures and small successes. I had been recording everything with almost obsessive discipline. Every experiment, every combination of herbs, every observed reaction.
On the table, a live rabbit lay immobilized with strips of soft leather. I had caught it that morning. Its dark eyes looked at me without understanding, its small body warm beneath my hands. I picked up the sharpened stone blade I had chipped myself weeks before and made a clean, precise cut on its right hind leg. Blood began flowing immediately, bright red against the pale fur.
I didn't hesitate.
I picked up the salve I had prepared days earlier. A dense, greenish paste made from specific leaves I grew inside the ark itself, sap from a tree whose resin had astringent properties, and a bit of clean clay taken from the riverbank. I had mixed it all carefully, tested the texture, noted the proportions. Now was the time to see if it really worked.
I applied the salve to the cut with my thumb, pressing gently.
Within seconds the bleeding slowed. Then it stopped completely. The flesh around it was still red, but the flow had ceased.
I stared for a long moment, then picked up the piece of charcoal and wrote it all down in small, precise handwriting.
'It works. Faster than I expected. The combination of bitter leaves with the thick sap seems to create a natural barrier. The rabbit shows no signs of excessive pain. Good sign.'
I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. The smell of herbs was soaked into my hands, my hair, the very wood of the table. A slow smile formed on my lips.
'Maybe I've become history's first alchemist.'
The thought made me laugh quietly, an almost humorless sound in the silence of the ark. In another life I had read about medieval alchemists, men who spent decades trying to transmute metals and find the elixir of life. I was doing something similar, only millennia earlier, with the most primitive tools possible, and with no master to teach me.
I opened my eyes and looked at my own finger.
I'd wanted to test this for a while.
I picked up a small wooden pot I had carved myself months ago. Its surface was smooth, almost polished from constant use. Without hesitating, I pressed the stone blade against the skin of my left index finger and made a clean cut. The pain was quick and sharp. Blood welled up immediately.
Different.
Very different from my past life.
In my other existence my blood had been ordinary, dark red, opaque. Now it seemed... alive. The color was more intense, a bright gold-red that almost shimmered when light hit it. I tilted my finger and let the drops fall into the pot, one after another, watching how they flowed. Thick. Luminous.
'I've wanted to test all the properties of my blood for a while now.'
I kept letting it drip until I had a fair amount. The cut on my finger was already beginning to close on its own. I could feel the flesh reorganizing, the skin pulling the wound's edges together. Much faster than anything I'd experienced before. My body healed at an absurd rate compared to my previous life. That had contributed enormously to years of extreme physical training. I could hurt myself, push myself to exhaustion, and the next day my body was already ready to start again.
I looked at the blood in the pot, slowly turning the vessel. The light coming through the gaps made the surface gleam. Then I dipped my right index finger into the liquid and applied a small amount directly onto the rabbit's cut.
I waited.
Within seconds the flesh began to react. The wound, still open and red, started visibly closing. The edges drew together. A thin scab formed. I leaned in closer, almost holding my breath, watching every detail.
'Incredible...'
I wrote it all down again, my hand trembling slightly with contained excitement.
*'It works like a kind of Rh-null... or what in my other life they called golden blood. Clear healing properties. Significantly accelerates tissue regeneration. Need to test it on larger wounds in the future. And on myself, in a controlled way.'*
The blood left over in the pot I simply poured onto some plants I grew in makeshift pots beside the table. There was no special intention. Just disposal. The leaves received the red-gold liquid and I didn't bother to watch what would happen afterward. I already had enough information for today.
I closed the books one by one, stacking them carefully. I wiped the table with a damp cloth. I released the rabbit, which limped away slightly but no longer bleeding, and put it into an inner pen where other small animals were kept. Then I sat for a moment on the wooden bench, my hands still stained with blood and salve.
'I've spent too much time studying. Time for a bath.'
The thought came simple and direct. My body was dirty from work, the smell of herbs and blood soaked into my skin. I stood, grabbed a clean linen cloth, and left the ark.
The afternoon sun beat down strongly. I walked along the trail I had cleared myself, toward the waterfall. It wasn't far, hidden among tall rocks and dense trees. The water fell from a considerable height into a natural stone pool, deep enough to submerge completely. The surface was so crystalline it reflected the sky, the clouds, and the treetops like a perfect mirror.
I stood at the edge for a moment, just looking.
Then I slowly removed my tunic and left it on a rock. The air touched my bare skin. I entered the water.
The cold was immediate and good. The water rose up my calves, my thighs, my waist. I kept moving forward until the depth forced me to swim. I dove under. The noise of the world disappeared. I stayed submerged for a few seconds, my golden hair floating around my face, bubbles rising. Then I came back up, breaking the surface with a long breath.
I stood in the shallower part, the water hitting my waist. The waterfall fell behind me, creating a fine mist that wetted my hair and shoulders. I looked down at my own body, reflected in the still water in front of me.
It had changed.
After Aphrodite's blessing, my body hadn't stopped changing. I had noticed it over the days. The rest of my physique had transformed too. My shoulders were broader. My chest more defined, the muscles of my abdomen clearly outlined. My arms and legs showed the results of years of constant work — carrying wood, training to exhaustion, living with my body as my main tool.
My golden skin shone under the water and the sunlight. I ran a hand over my chest, feeling its firmness, then down to my stomach. The reflection in the water gave back the image of a man who was no longer merely androgynous and pretty.
I had become something at the peak of human beauty. Masculine. Defined. Intense.
I stayed there for a long while, just watching. The water ran down my chest, my stomach, my thighs. My wet hair stuck to the back of my neck and shoulders. I breathed deeply, feeling the cold of the waterfall contrast with the lingering warmth of my body.
'Good.'
'Very good.'
I dove again. This time I stayed under longer, letting the water carry away the smell of herbs, of blood, of work. When I came up, the sun was already a bit lower, tinting the water's surface gold.
I got out slowly. Water streamed down my whole body as I walked to the rock where I'd left the linen cloth. I dried my hair first, then my chest, arms, legs. I put the clean tunic on over my still-damp skin and started back.
The ark waited, silent and immense among the trees.
There were more experiments to run.
More notes to record.
And more plans to build.
I went through the great gate, my hair still dripping, and closed the wood behind me. The familiar smell of herbs and wood greeted me like an old companion.
I sat back down at the table, opened one of the books, and stared at the day's notes for a long while, the golden blood still fresh in my memory, my body clean and more aware than ever of its own strength.
The game continued.
And I was still only at the beginning.