The archaeological team had only found the village ruins by the time of 9:35 at night, so by the time they would have had everything set up to investigate, the night was already on them severely enough to limit the scope of their findings. So rather than stumble around in the dark in the Greek countryside, the team decided to pitch their tents and set up for the night - which after a long time spent in the hills, mountains, and valleys was probably preferably to spending the long night investigating a potentially fragile location considering the apparent age.
What they came here for was apparently a village associated with the Greek supposed myth of the Amazon Warrior Women. Powerfully muscled warrior women of some dubious origin who always terrified the Greeks whenever they rode into the scene. There had never been any evidence for their existence outside of comic books and legends...until now. Well. Prior existence. They were ancient, and the village found reflected that.
No inhabitants, and a surrounding wooded area full of odd little pathways.
Before long, the valley outside of the village was dotted with a variety of tents, the field researchers setting up locations for their findings, storage for any artifacts they might need to take back to a lab, and tents for personal residency during the length of their stay. The accommodations were spartan - funny enough - consisting of a roll up bed, a couple backpacks full of essentials, and whatever else the archaeologists and their accompanying interns wanted to bring along.
Leading the expedition was James Hallister II, a 65 year old veteran in the field - though age had not yet fully dulled the edge of this older man. His hair was still a majority blond though mixed with silvery grey, and he kept his facial hair trimmed all the way off. His was a line of athletes, going down to his intern and grandson. Even at 65, James boasted a powerfully built body, biceps close to 20 inches in size, a wide, powerful chest, abdominals that seemed like cobblestones, and a set of strong legs that carried him on. Dressed in a brown jacket, a tight white shirt, and heavy jeans, James was far from on his first rodeo. Though weathered and with his fair share of crows' feet and fine wrinkles, most agreed at Wistron University - though some begrudgingly - that James remained a handsome man in his age.
While James defied any notion of beauty denoting a lacking of brainpower, his grandson Timothy "Tim" Hallister - his intern - adhered almost pitifully to those notions. A high school and college football star, he signed on to intern for the trip mostly just so he could go to Greece and "go for the hot Greek babes". Thick, wavy blond hair connected him to James, and they also shared the same slate gray / blue eyes. Tim dressed in a heavy coat, a sleeveless white shirt underneath, and tight jeans. Both Hallister men were tall, James stood six foot five, and Tim just a bit shorter at six foot two. Timothy rippled with the same sort of muscled build, just with the advantage of youth making him seem supple and smooth.
The closest person in the general command structure to the Hallister Men was Zeke Marlow, a 32 year old former athlete with the college and current anthropologist. He was just young enough to seem approachable to Tim, and in fact Tim seemed to regard the muscular, attractive Zeke as his wingman whenever Tim wanted to go for any young women. Zeke wasn't as big as James, and only just barely edged out by Tim in size, though he seemed to prioritize his legs more than his upper body. Zeke shaved his head bald, mostly because he started losing hair early, and his bright green eyes were a strong feature.
As James and Tim set up the command tent, James mostly having to direct Tim in what to do and how to do it, the Greek Cultural expert entered the tent, announcing, "I'd like to request leading the first expedition into the---"
"Later, Nathan, we're setting up here, but I understand." James answered.
Nathaniel Adamos was a 35 year old scientist - greener than a few, but older than others - famously impatient and rather eager to make his mark. Something James tried to have patience for, but sometimes it just came off the wrong way. On Nathan's part, James just came off as too cautious. The cultural expert was shorter than the Hallisters, at about five foot eleven, and where the leader and his son were more rippling examples of masculinity, Nathaniel was stocky - still powerfully built, but lacking any tone in it, and lugging around a hefty belly. Still, there was a sort of dorky kind of handsome to the stocky Nathan. His bronze hair was trimmed short, and his green eyes glimmered bright.
Dressed in a pair of cargo shorts, a long shirt, and a jacket, Nathan had come prepared for trudging through the mountains and hilltops with heavy duty shoes and plenty of back-up supplies of water and food.
For his part as he left the tent to set up his personal tent some more, he looked back at Tim briefly, and blushed once he turned away again. Nathan mostly liked women - he'd spent his younger years in university partying just as well as studying, with all the coitus that might entail. But it seemed out of nowhere that a new yearning exclusively targeting Tim sprung up in Nathan. He couldn't place where it came from. Just that he felt a desire for the 21 year old jock that was far outside the realm of heterosexuality that Nathan was familiar with.
"Fuck..." Nathan looked down at the bulge at the front of his shorts. He didn't even get it. Tim probably didn't have a single complex thought in the entirety of his day. But here he was - horned up for the intern that got the job due to James wanting to try and teach Tim something.
As Nathan walked past another tent, Sarah Ramos poked her head out. The expert in dating technology, she could pinpoint exactly when something was made, and how old the surrounding soil was when it got there. Another kind of dating however bothered 32 year old Sarah. Somewhat mousy but cute in a nerdish way, she hoped to get the attention of the older of the Hallisters. James and his wife Natalie had "amicably separated" due to his preference for field work, so she felt she had a shot. Dressed in a white blouse, a red skirt, and carrying a backpack, Sarah admitted she...had always had a thing for older men. But even then, few older men had the kind of build James Hallister the second had.
Once Timothy got done with helping in the command tent, he eagerly went off to his own private tent to enjoy a night's relaxation before he went ahead tomorrow helping his grandfather in whatever way needed. To be quite honest, he'd only signed on to get to visit Greece. He knew it was terrible to the other prospective interns but...well, Tim Hallister did as Tim Hallister wanted. The blond sportsman peeled off a shirt absolutely drenched in sweat from a long day, thinking about the other members of the team.
He caught how Adamos looked at him sometimes. You don't live the Frat life without knowing when some homoeroticism is a joke, and other times, it's not. Honestly, Tim was admittedly a tease - when Garth from back in the frat came out as gay, Tim went ahead showing off his marvelously muscled body, suited for athleticism, as much as possible. And so when he thought he heard someone walking around outside his tent, Tim went ahead and disguised his preening as stretching as he settled in.
That Sarah girl would be pretty hot if she cleaned herself up a bit, Tim thought with an impish smile as he sat on his roll out bed. Probably wouldn't give BJs as good as Chanel from Delta Delta Phi, but few people could! "Hope we can go back to that port town we passed through on our way here...some of the girls there were checking me out..." Tim was a simple man. Banging, partying and having a good time were just his thing. He didn't see any need to complicate a good arrangement.
Though it might've been that weird local guide Theo Alexopolous - the lean, tanned slightly older man with curly dark blond hair seemed to like trying to talk to Tim about sex - the local girls, prior experiences, so on. But on Tim's part, talking to a 42 year old guy about that just reeked of desperation on his part. Theo seemed like he'd only really gotten lean and strong in the last years or so. Honestly, Tim humored him, but he didn't particularly enjoy their raunchy little talks.
A poke at his tent. A snide smile spread across Tim's face.
Maybe it was one of the local girls. Trying to get his attention!
But when Tim opened up his tent, he saw nothing out the side of the tent except the surroundings cloaked in darkness. No hint of any girl who wanted to see if all of Tim was quite so big. He looked around one more time - and then he saw something. A rustling little bush and---huh. That looked like...
It seemed to be a path leading out into the wooded areas. Tim's curiosity was piqued. He found himself clambering out of his tent, not even putting his shirt back on, and began exploring the side path. He knew it was probably not smart to go on a solo investigation. Least of all investigating a noise like a poke at his tent. But the fact was this was something to do here not related to sleeping, eating or investigating the ruins.
Trodding down the path, Tim could hear sloshing, like the ground was a little bit wet under his feet. He guessed it was some sort of---of---fuck. He wasn't a geology major! Sure he took rocks for jocks at school, but that didn't mean he remembered everything from it! But this probably meant that there was like---some kind of water source nearby. Maybe a lake. Oh, lake sounded fun.
Maybe he could swim, or even skinny dip!
But as he kept walking, he became more alert to his surroundings.
The area he was proceeding to looked like it had a bunch of old pillars laying around. Some still standing, others toppled over. They seemed to be arranged like they once held something up. Probably knocked over and demolished with time. Further down the line of the pillars, Tim saw what looked like shattered pottery jugs laying about in some places nearby, along with some segments of a wall. It looked like there was indeed more to this structure before.
Tim kept on, noting the sloshing feeling under his boots had passed. Now he was walking down stone with some grassy outgrowing. The area outside seemed dark and really intimidating, but somehow the path inside the general "building" area seemed a little more well lit despite there being no lights here...
Then Tim found something that made him outright step back in shock.
Furthest into the building, there was a large, intact wall though with the murals all eroded away. At the base of the wall was a perpetually flowing spring of some sort, the waters too deep to see the bottom, even! It seemed like some sort of holy spring of some sort. And even as Tim pulled out his phone to get a better look with the flashlight feature, he saw that the water looked...clean. It outright sparkled with a vibrant allure.
Still, Tim was not in fact that much of an idiot. He knew better than to just drink from some random spring of water... even though he was feeling really thirsty. Really, truly, utterly thirsty. He panted a little and glanced at the way back. It was...longer than he thought it was. Even though his tent had quite a supply of water bottles, Tim was surprised by just how thirsty he was - a desperate sort of thirst. He breathed, and he could feel his breath seeming so dry. His throat just...
He didn't consider if there might be something else going on. He just knew he needed this aching sensation in his throat relieved. And the water was...it was clean. It sure looked clean. Tim went ahead and bent down, scooping up a handful of water from the spring - purely to alleviate his thirst...
And then when he drank it down, the thirst more or less disintegrated instantly, and Tim was taken away by the sheer crisp delight of the water. He never knew water could have a good taste before. He just drank anything down from tap or from bottle, but this just seemed...purer. Better. Not that he'd do that again but---
"Oh? Ohh..." Tim suddenly felt a tingling sensation, and he instantly wondered if he should regret his decision.
But then he looked down, and his eyes widened as he saw his biceps pulsing, his shoulders seeming to twinge and flex outside his control. Tim glanced further at his abs, seeing his rock solid midsection seeming to tense along the sides, the obliques growing tighter, his abs etching into a sterner, stronger relief still. Half an inch added to already powerfully built arms as Tim grunted with the sensation. His arms felt like---it was like a muscular spasm, and then the biceps just got a bit bigger.
Not that Tim noticed something else. As he flexed and chuckled and checked himself out, he didn't notice the light stubble across his face become just a bit lighter still. The hairs retracting and pulling back into his skin, ultimately dissolving. But then, that was it for the limited exposure.
And his shoulders too, they looked bigger by a little. "What did---what did that water do to me?" Tim considered what to do next. While he wouldn't deny that it tasted good, and it looked amazing, he didn't want to fuck with it any further. He wasn't thirsty any more, and he was just thinking he should really tell the others about it. Get them to investigate it. Maybe find out what was going on.
With that, Tim started to trek back to the site. He'd have to go to his grandpa about it. And sure he'd have to lie about touching the pool. But hey. What was one little white lie?
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As Tim left the area to return, the murals briefly returned to prominence on the walls, an inscrutable series of blue carved lines and hands and symbols. The more that someone was exposed to the waters, the more they would change - the more they would become a powerful Amazon that would let this ancient now nameless deity in the mural once again have its many gargantuan warrior women.
Tim barely tapped the surface level. It was interested in seeing if it could entice him and others back to the pool. Indulge their desires. After all, why wouldn't growing bigger feel good?