by Candy Crum
Athena stepped forward. “We may be able to gift enough of our power to help them, but still live. We would all fall right where we stand, but we would not die. We would be in something resembling a coma that a mortal may have. Alive, but unable to wake. In this state our spirits would not be completely tied to our bodies. It is possible we could speak to the children as they grow. I used to see humans do this sort of thing, especially on the battle field. In their final moments their spirits would release to tell their loved ones goodbye. Surely this is in our power.”
“It seems to me that we would have more power in that condition than the one we are in now,” Apollo said.
“Zeus,” Hera said. “You have been incredibly quiet. How do you feel about this?”
All eyes were on Zeus, waiting for the big battle. They were ready for Zeus to argue against everything they had said. They were ready for him to have some grand debate on why the humans did not deserve their help, especially at such a high cost to themselves.
“Does anyone object?” Zeus asked. “Step forward if you believe this to be the best course of action.”
Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Ares, Athena, Hermes, Hades, Hephaestus, Hestia, Apollo, and Artemis all stepped forward, each one of them with determination and certainty written all over their angelic faces.
“This will be a path of great sacrifice,” Zeus said. “Because of my choices, we have found ourselves here. We have abandoned the humans for too long at my request. Because of this, we have been forgotten, and our descendants have no idea who they are, or where they come from. I think it is time that the world remembered who we are. Prepare yourselves. This is going to bring more pain than you have ever felt before.”
“We cannot wait any longer,” Hera said. “The babies are crossing the threshold.”
The twelve gods gathered around the eternal flame of Olympus. They held hands and prepared for the one thing they all feared: losing everything that made them who they were.
Κεφάλαιο I
PRESENT DAY
SATURDAY
Los Angeles
Brittany calculated her steps, each one silent and sure. Her opponent was skilled, but not like Brittany. Brittany had trained for the majority of her life. Her parents put her through many self-defense courses, as well as several martial arts programs. Brittany was quite the warrior.
Her opponent struck, but Brittany had been studying her for far too long. The girl was tall, but uncomfortable in her height. Her nose was a bit crooked from a previous break. Brittany assumed that she had been too slow a time or two in the past. Her long dark hair was slung up in a messy ponytail, letting Brittany know that the girl did not prepare well. Her hair could fall at any moment, and she would be unable to see to defend herself. The girl was not as serious about training as Brittany was.
Brittany, however, was shorter. Her body strong; her position one of power: feet shoulder-width apart, her body angled to the side, knees bent. Her medium blonde hair was tied up in a tight bun, ensuring she would never lose visibility. Because her stature was unlike her opponent, she knew to use gravity to her advantage. Taller people that did not understand proper body mechanics were easier to take down. Within moments, Brittany had everything she needed to know in order to defeat her opponent.
The other girl’s movements were too obvious, and Brittany was able to easily move free. Brittany jumped back, missing the swipe at her head with a shinai. She ducked down and in fluid movements she was able to knock the other girl off her feet with a sweep kick to the back of her knees, twist around, and stand. She pounced forward, putting one of her feet on the girl’s chest and lowering the kendo stick to her throat. She had won that round.
Extending her hand to the girl on the floor, Brittany helped her stand.
“Great work,” the girl said.
“Thank you,” Brittany replied.
“How do you always do that?” the girl asked. “How do you always win?”
Brittany smiled. “I’ve been training since I was a kid. So I know how to truly watch my opponent and anticipate their movements. Maybe I can show you sometime. They teach it in here, but mostly I learned it from another instructor.”
“That would be awesome!” the girl exclaimed. “Thanks!”
“No problem,” Brittany said.
When class was dismissed, she left and headed out to her car. She pulled down her hair before putting it back into a normal ponytail. Soon after the car was started, the radio began to play. Brittany reached down to change it, but stopped when she heard the conversation.
“Mount Vesuvius…”
The name alone had her attention. It was a name she’d heard since childhood.
“For sixteen years now, it’s seemed like this thing is gonna blow. Constant quakes. Constant sputters. Still – nothing,” the male host said.
“I don’t understand how people are still living anywhere near that thing. It’s like they’ve just accepted it. Hello people! That thing took out Pompeii!” his female co-host replied.
Brittany rolled her eyes.
“Right!” he said. “BUT – now it looks like something is about to happen. For real this time.”
Brittany’s brows furrowed. She reached down to the volume control on the steering wheel and turned it up.
“Now, after sixteen years, Italian seismologists and volcanologists are saying that there are tiny rhythmic tremors happening. The people in the surrounding areas haven’t even been able to feel much because they are so small. They said that with the rate, and timing of these tremors, it is likely that Vesuvius will erupt within the next couple of weeks,” he said.
“All those people,” Brittany said out loud to herself.
“The world is just going crazy, I guess,” the female co-host said. “First with the storms over most of the U.S. For weeks most of the country has been in constant cloud cover, or storms. The entire country may as well be under a flood warning. Still, that’s normal compared to the other stuff going on. Those huge crazy eggs they found in Greece. They’d only recently been cracked open, suggesting that whatever was inside was just born. Scientists still have no idea what came out of them. They were the size of watermelons. That wild looking thing someone filmed underwater off the Italian coast. Now the volcano that could never make up its mind has finally decided, at least it looks that way. What exactly is going on?”
“If the four horseman of the apocalypse showed up at this point, I would not be surprised,” the male host said, laughing.
His co-host laughed as well. “Just take me now because I don’t want to see what’s next. Maybe some creepy monster will end up in my pool. Happens all the time in some of those ridiculous magazines.”
“Or your bird bath!” he said quickly, joining in on the goofy morning banter.
“Who knows?” she said.
Brittany turned off the radio as she rolled her eyes. She hated listening to those two anyway, but that morning they were even more annoying than usual.
“Idiots. They have no idea how devastating that volcano could be.”
No longer concerned with road etiquette, Brittany put her foot down on the gas. She moved in and out of lanes, rushing to get home. When she arrived, only her mother was home. It didn’t matter much to Brittany; she just needed to talk to one of them.
“Mom!” Brittany yelled when she walked in the front.
“In the kitchen!” her mother called back.
Her mother, Diane, was cutting up chicken to make for lunch. Brittany was homeschooled, and Diane made all of her lunches, though Brittany made all of the family dinners in return.
“What is it, Baby?” Diane asked as Brittany plopped her gym bag down on the kitchen table.
“Have you seen anything in the news lately? Or heard anything on the radio?” Brittany asked.
“No. I haven’t been watching much,” Diane replied.
“Maybe you should,” Brittany said.
Diane looked at her daughter with concern. �
�What is it?”
“Italian seismologists and volcanologists think Vesuvius is finally erupting. They said there are rhythmic tremors conducive with volcanic activity. Active activity. Not that crap it’s been doing for sixteen years,” Brittany replied.
“Where did you hear this?” Diane asked.
“I heard it on the radio on one of those stupid morning shows. Still… I think we need to look into it,” she replied.
“There has been a lot of strange things happening here in this country in the last couple of weeks. Small tremors in the Gulf of Mexico and storms over most of the country,” Diane said.
“They mentioned that on the radio, too. Along with huge eggs in Greece and a strange water creature off the coast of Italy.”
Diane’s eyes widened a little. “Okay, then. Maybe we should look into it. We need to not be so worked up, though. There were many times in my life that I became terrified the time had come. My father, too. For generation after generation; we have all waited for our time to come. It’s possible that it won’t ever happen in yours either. Let’s sit down to a nice lunch, relax, and talk calmly about all of this. Okay?”
Brittany nodded. “It’s just…” she said, pausing for a moment.
“It’s just what?” Diane asked.
“I’m the only one that knows, Mom. You know that. The other descendants quit telling their families after the gods were forgotten. They didn’t want to be seen as crazy. It’s left them all vulnerable and severely untrained and unprepared. If this is happening, I need to be able to tell them as soon as possible. They’re all sitting ducks. They don’t have a clue who they are, or what they are destined for.”
Diane nodded. “We were lucky. Athena passed to our ancestors a strong will. Each generation weighed the pros and cons of passing down this terrible burden. I’m honestly not even sure how many of them believed it. Still, somewhere down deep, there was something pushing them to train hard and teach their children anyway. That’s what I’ve done for you. I don’t believe in the gods. I believe there is something there, but I have no idea what. The Greek gods? I mean seriously… Our ancestor Athena was supposed to have sprung directly from the head of her father, Zeus. She was fully grown upon her birth and born in full armor. Does that sound even remotely realistic to you?”
Brittany shook her head. “No. There is nothing realistic about any of this. If you don’t believe, why didn’t you choose the same path that the other descendants did? Why didn’t you choose to ignore it all?”
Diane shrugged. “What if?” she said, pausing for a moment. “What if somewhere, in the vast greatness of possibilities, there truly was a Greek goddess named Athena? What if she really did pass her abilities on to her descendants and eventually down to me? What if there really was a war between a titan and humankind coming one day? What if that was in my generation? No… What if it was in my child’s? Or her child’s? What happens if all that is real, and I refused to believe it?” She paused again.
“You were afraid,” Brittany said.
Diane nodded. “As was my father, and his father, and his mother, and so on. We all made the same choice out of fear. What if it is true, but we make the wrong decision?”
“If you hadn’t made that choice, and all of these strange things that are happening are somehow connected to Cronus, then I wouldn’t know how to do any of the things that I do. I wouldn’t have the power to defend myself. I wouldn’t be able to teach the others if the time comes.”
“And that is why you will survive,” Diane said. “Sometimes it’s okay to give in to your fears. Everyone in our lineage did. We all accepted that fear and it allowed us to build ourselves up, and make ourselves stronger. We were able to make sure that if the worst were to happen, we were prepared.”
“We sound like Armageddon and zombie apocalypse survivalists,” Brittany said.
Diane smiled. “We kind of are.”
“If this is him… If it’s Cronus…” Brittany started.
“The story that I was told my entire life was that when Cronus rises, so will all of the ancient creatures that disappeared into nothingness. Magic will be restored,” Diane said.
“That doesn’t exactly sound like a bad thing,” Brittany said, stealing a piece of lettuce out of the large bowl her mother had sitting on the counter.
“There will be a war, Brittany. When Cronus rises, he will bring hell with him. He will be the most powerful thing the world has ever seen, and he will burn it all to the ground. Vesuvius erupted once before, in 79 A.D. I truly believe he tried to escape back then, when the gods were first growing very weak. That’s what I’ve always believed. We were always told to watch for signs of prophecy. He would rise from a deadly mountain. I would find it strange that he chose Vesuvius to come out of now, if that hadn’t been him back then. If it was him, then he completely obliterated Pompeii, and he didn’t even get a single hair on his head out of it. Imagine the devastation that he will bring when he finally emerges.”
“How am I supposed to stop something like that? I have no powers!” Brittany said.
Diane smiled. “Like I said, baby girl. If it happens, magic will return. You and the friends that you will make will be able to touch your abilities. There are good magical creatures of the world that have disappeared like the nymphs, gryphons, Pegasus, and more. They will all be reborn when Cronus rises. They are supposed to be able to fight in the war. They will help all of you. Unfortunately, the good magical creatures aren’t the only ones that will rise. The Hydra, Cerberus, and many other evil creatures will come back as well.”
“I haven’t experienced anything different. I wonder if any of the others have seen anything,” Brittany said.
“It’s hard to say,” Diane said. “We just have to be patient, and most importantly, stay calm. Let’s finish lunch and try to relax. We will do some more research.”
“Can we eat in the living room? I want to turn on some international news. See if anything is on there,” Brittany said.
Diane sighed, smiling at her daughter. “I obviously didn’t know Athena, but everything that has been passed down through the generations and from everything I have read, I swear you are more like her daughter than mine.”
The girls finished making lunch and headed into the living room as Brittany had requested. They sat on the floor, using the coffee table to eat from. They turned on the TV and spent twenty minutes searching through all news channels: local, national, and international. Brittany had only taken a few bites of her lunch.
“Stop,” Diane said suddenly. “Go back.”
Brittany stopped flipping and turned back a few channels.
“This one?” Brittany asked.
“Yes. I saw something about Vesuvius scroll across the bottom. Or, I thought I did anyway,” Diane said.
They watched for a few minutes, waiting for all the scrolling headlines to cross the bottom of the TV. Finally, they restarted.
BREAKING NEWS:
Mt. Vesuvius seems to be ready to erupt. The smoke rolling off has begun to thicken. There was a small 3.4 earthquake at 9:54 PM Naples time. Volcanologists say they will investigate further.
“This doesn’t look good,” Brittany said.
“Even if everything we’ve been told is wrong, this isn’t good for those people. That volcano has the potential to kill a lot of innocents,” Diane said. “Like I said, try to stay calm. Hopefully everything is just a myth. They call it Greek Mythology for a reason.”
Brittany sighed. “I just have a bad feeling, and I can’t shake it. I’ve heard about that volcano my whole life, and I’ve never thought much about it. Now when I think about it, it just makes sense. It started to erupt the night that I was born, and it hasn’t stopped since. I find that odd. Still, this is different. Something feels… off.”
“I know, Baby,” Diane said. “But we can’t live our lives in fear. Maybe you should lie down for a while and relax.”
Brittany opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly inter
rupted by the TV. She looked over to see video footage of a strange creature seen in a heavily wooded area in southern Indiana.
“What the heck is that?” Brittany asked. She watched, unable to see through the terrible footage.
“Is that a…” Diane started.
Brittany looked over to her mother to see that she was also squinting, trying to look through the footage.
“Shh,” Brittany said. “Listen.”
“Scientists are baffled by the footage seen here. The film has been verified legitimate. It doesn’t appear to have been tampered with at all. It’s hard to make out, but the hunters that shot this with an iPhone stated that it looked like some kind of hybrid animal. It was bigger than a Clydesdale horse and had a fifteen-foot wingspan,” the reporter said.
Diane’s eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open. “I… I don’t believe it.”
“What is it?” Brittany asked.
Diane sighed, her mouth closing. She looked to her daughter, lightly grabbing hold of her hand and giving a gentle squeeze.
“It’s a gryphon,” Diane replied.
“A… gryphon?” Brittany asked, shocked.
Diane nodded. “That is a magical creature. I think it’s time, sweetheart. There is no way that thing should exist. That means that the time has come. I think you have to go find the others.”
“Because of that gryphon?” Brittany asked. “What if I’m not ready? I know that I wanted to look more into this, but deep down I thought it would be nothing!”
“I know,” Diane said. “But remember what I told you in the kitchen? When Cronus rises, so will all of the magical creatures? That’s a gryphon. Part bird, part lion. It’s a mythical creature.”
“Is it a bad one?” Brittany asked.
Diane shook her head. “Things vary in reading, but I’ve always been told they are good creatures. They are guardians. That gryphon is searching. I’m willing to bet that if you went to Indiana, you’d probably find one of the other Fated.”
