by Simon Archer
“You can thank Tyche for that luck,” Ann scoffed, referring to the goddess of luck herself. “Your dogs are by the sheep pen, Cameron, waiting for you. I’m sure they know you’re here already.”
“Thanks, Ann,” I said, “and sorry again about the almost heart attack.”
“Glad you two are okay, that’s really what matters,” Ann said with a half-smile. “Now get going. You two can’t be late for the opening ceremony.”
“The what?” I asked, looking between the two of my companions.
“The opening… oh, that’s right!” Ann smacked her forehead. “You came in the middle of the semester. Well, you’re in for a treat. The opening ceremony kicks off the school year. It’s a grand ol’ feast. The kitchen goes all out.”
“It’s also when the first round of draft picks happens,” Hailey chimed in, seeming to have found her voice again.
My nervousness came back again in full force and ate away at my stomach. “Draft picks? Already?”
“Some students showed so much promise in their first year that branch leaders want to start training them right away,” Hailey said with a shrug as if this was a natural thing rather than something that made a surge of nerves jolt through my stomach.
The draft was the most important part of the second year at the Demigod Academy for the Elemental Military. During the course of this year, students were drafted into one of the four branches: Enka, Oura, Vreg, and Eda. Each branch was responsible for a different aspect of the Elemental Military and had an elemental base to them.
Enka soldiers focused on fire and were often the boots on the ground side of the military. They were also known to be the fiercest warriors, training in various fighting styles and weaponry. Oura handled all of the air power and resources. Eda oversaw groundwork, and they emphasized guarding and defending, especially in the various bases around the world. Finally, Vreg soldiers had a water base. They kept the waters safe for demigods to travel and upheld the notion of peace above all.
Once drafted, students spent their final two years at the Academy taking specialized classes with their fellow soldiers in their branch. Then, ideally, soldiers would graduate and serve the military in various ways.
However, the most terrifying part of this year was that not everyone got drafted. If a soldier wasn’t selected by any of the branches, then they would be kicked out of the school and have their memory erased. They would forget the existence of gods, demigods, and monsters altogether. That was the punishment for anyone who left the service of the military, particularly if their removal was involuntary.
Hailey was a member of the Enka branch, and I wanted to join her there. Considering my abilities to withstand heat and control Eternal Flame, it made sense. However, While I was adept at fighting and could hold my own, I wasn’t known at the Academy for being a fierce warrior. In fact, I still wasn’t prone to fighting at all. Despite the various battles I’d been in last year, I still preferred making weapons to wielding them. That trait alone made me more suitable for Vreg than Enka. I was afraid that if I couldn’t step up my game, I wouldn’t get drafted anywhere.
One of my biggest fears was losing my memories of this place. I had learned so much, even just in the first year, and I knew I still had a long way to go. In spite of all of the trials and tribulations of the first semester, the second one had gone smoothly, and I found a second home here. Plus, I needed to learn about my father.
Last year, the Elemental Officials told me that my father, Hephaestus, had gone missing for the last twenty years or so. Basically, for my entire existence, I wanted to find him and talk to him. I had so many questions, and I didn’t know how I would ever get through them all. Once, I’d tried to write them down, but my hand had cramped up from all of the pages.
So this year, I had to get drafted. While I wanted to be in Enka, I knew that I would accept any branch just to get to stay.
The idea that some of my fellow second years were going to get drafted tonight, on the very first day of classes, made my skin pimple with goosebumps. I shook out my hands to try to rid them of the nerves.
Ann moved to the horses to begin unhitching them from the chariot. I stepped up next to her. “Can I help?”
“No, no,” Ann said as she waved me off. “You two don’t want to be late. I’ve got this.”
“Ann,” I protested, but the farmer cut me off.
“Go,” she insisted. “I don’t mind. Just promise me you won't crash land into the fields again any time soon.” Her voice was exasperated, half-joking and half-serious.
I held my hand over my heart. “I promise.”
“Thanks, Ann,” Hailey said with a nod towards the farmer.
“Thank me by getting out of my hair,” Ann said, throwing in a wide grin for good measure.
The pair of us ventured down the hill in the direction of the paddocks. Hailey and I walked side by side to fetch Khryseos and Argyreos. We were silent again during this walk.
If I were honest with myself, what I really wanted to do was push her up against a nearby tree and run my hands all over her, while my tongue tasted--
“A penny for your thoughts,” Hailey said playfully.
“Uh…” I stalled. I didn’t voice my thoughts because I knew if I did, we would be late for the opening ceremony because she would decide to act out my daydreams. “Just nervous… for uh… the draft, you know.”
“You’ll get drafted,” she said with a surprising amount of confidence.
“You want to tell me how you know that?” I said with a smirk.
Hailey was the Enka branch leader on campus, after all. She must have some hand in the draft picks.
As if she could read my thoughts, Hailey said, “Just a gut feeling.”
“Is this one of those kinds of things where you can’t tell me, but you’re really telling me something important?” I asked, bouncing my eyebrows knowingly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hailey said as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “But if you think I have any say in the draft picks, you should know that I don’t.”
“What?” I balked. “I would have thought for sure you did.”
“All the Elemental Officials decide,” Hailey said, miserably failing at hiding the bitterness in her voice. “The three heads of each branch meet and evaluate all of the second years.”
“Right,” I said with a slow nod of my head.
Just then, Khryseos and Argyreos bounded up to me. The pair brought an instant smile to my face. However, a slight panic struck me when I reached down to pet each of them. If I didn’t get drafted, I had no idea if I would get to keep my dogs. I wouldn’t remember them or where they came from or who they came from. These two had been such a huge influence in my life, even just over the past year.
My hands slowed as I stroked their heads. Hailey must have noticed the change in my demeanor because she bent down next to me, putting one hand over mine.
It was such an intimate gesture. We were alone on this end of campus, which made sense, considering that everyone was heading for the opening ceremony.
Her deep green eyes bored into my blue ones. She stroked my knuckles with her thumb and pulled it off Khryseos’s head. Now Hailey held it, independent of anything else, with such a tenderness that made my heart race. Her expression was so serious that I felt as though I couldn’t look away, even if I tried.
“Cameron,” Hailey whispered my name. “You will get drafted. You won’t forget this. Us. Or anything. I promise.”
Her conviction was clear from the tone in her voice. It shook me and eradicated all of the nerves. My muscles relaxed, and the tension defused from me. While Hailey sometimes made my mind go blank, right now, she made the world dissolve away. I wanted to stay in this bubble with her and avoid the opening ceremony a little longer. I felt like I could stay here for the rest of the school year.
Sitting on the ground like we were, our knees were touching. The air was warm, breezy on a summer night. Twi
light colors streaked across the sky as the sun began its descent beyond the horizon. The environment was idyllic, romantic even. It would be so easy to just lean in and kiss her again…
A single, solid bark smashed through the moment like a battering ram. Hailey and I snapped towards the dogs. They sat together, identical statues on the edge of the path that led to the quad. The pair of them stared at me directly with expectant glares.
“Really, man?” they seemed to say.
Argyreos cocked his head to one side as if to say, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You know better,” Khryseos replied as he licked his nose.
I rolled my lips over my teeth. In one fluid motion, both Hailey and I peeled away from each other and rose to our feet. I rubbed my palms on my thighs and followed after my dogs with a sharp inhale.
I heard Hailey’s footsteps behind me as I made my way over to the dogs. I walked in between the pair of them, both of their heads following me as I went. Khryseos and Argyreos looked up, never deviating from their scolding gazes. I knew I was probably projecting their emotions onto them, but it still unnerved me.
I returned my arms to their crossed position and groaned. I bit my lip and looked up at the sky. It was a pastel rainbow of colors, inspiring nothing inside me despite its beauty.
“What’s on your mind, Cameron?” Hailey asked as she walked up beside me. Hands casually by her side.
I sighed, “Just wishing we had time before the opening ceremony.”
Hailey’s eyebrow rose as she glanced at me curiously, “For what?”
I let my eyes trail over Hailey’s body and then looked into her eyes innocently, “No reason.”
The blush that rose up to Hailey’s cheeks made me smirk as I knew the effect I had on her.
My lips curved into a smile as I thought back to our first kiss. It was passionate and heated, not just because Hailey was literally on fire.
Hailey coughed into a fist and whispered, “I think that we shouldn’t walk into the mess hall together.”
“Probably a good idea,” I said as my gaze roved over her again. If we were left alone together much longer, I couldn’t confirm that we would make it to the ceremony.
I felt her as Hailey walked past me. There was a moment, brief and tender, when she paused next to me. We were side by side, each looking in different directions, her towards the direction of the quad and me into the fields. We stood in the space together, breathing together. It lasted only a heartbeat and then passed.
In my head, I counted to sixty before I dared turn around. Hailey was gone, out of my line of sight. Khryseos and Argyreos were still nearby, this time giving me goofy grins, which I playfully rubbed their heads with a comment, “Smug bastards.” They just barked happily and licked my cheeks.
Standing, I jerked my head in the direction of the quad. “Come on, you two,” I said.
Both dogs got to their feet and stood next to me and leaned their bodies into my legs. The weight of them comforted me and warmed my heart.
Khryseos looked up at me with a goofy grin as if to say, “You have time to see her alone.”
“Yeah, besides you’ve got to spend time with us,” Argyreos agreed as his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth.
A soft smile spread across my lips. I reached down and scratched their necks. Each of them got a couple of pats until I felt good enough to walk into the heart of campus.
Because the dogs were right. I had time to see Hailey alone. To see her toned body slicked with sweat, shining in the light as she writhed underneath me. Moaning my name.
Same with Jade and Daniella. I could picture them now, heads thrown back in ecstasy as I pumped into them, driving them to the crest of pleasure.
A cold nose to my hand knocked me out of my fantasies, “Agh!”
I looked down at Khryseos and Argyreos who were giving me knowing looks.
I smiled and shook my head, “Yeah I know. Let’s get to the ceremony. I can daydream later.”
So I steeled myself by lifting my chin, thrusting my shoulders back, and heading confidently down the path towards the opening ceremony.
6
The Demigod Academy for the Elemental Military campus was lush and vibrant in the summer sunset. Green coated the trees with bright, thick leaves. The cobblestone paths seemed recently polished, shiny and new as if they were rocks at the bottom of a river. The old-fashioned street lamps burned with the light of the Eternal Flame.
This ancient fire was also known as the God’s Fire. It was a magical element that could never be extinguished. According to myths, it was the original flame that Prometheus gave to the humans against Zeus’s orders. The Eternal Flame was powerful and hella temperamental.
We had a love/hate relationship, the Eternal Flame and I. While yes, I had the ability to control it and withstand its intense heat, that didn’t mean the Flame always wanted to listen. It often had a mind of its own and had to be negotiated with. It made for a very volatile element to use and manipulate.
When I passed under one of the first street lamps, the single piece of Eternal Flame within the glass intensified and flickered, almost as if it was waving at me. I paused and looked up at it.
“Well, hello to you too,” I thought inside my head, projecting my thoughts out to the flame.
It was a weird experience, talking to the Flame. It never really spoke back to me, not verbally, at least. It responded directly to my gut, like an instinct. So it wasn’t always the easiest thing to read or decipher. At least when it changed externally, like glowing violent red or turning a calming blue, I could figure out what it was saying and how it was feeling.
The Flame surprised me with the gleeful greeting. There was a warmth in my belly, a comfortable feeling as though I were back at the hearth at home, curled up with a good book. It almost seemed to wish me luck, reassuring me that this year would be a good one.
I chuckled at the thought and gave the Eternal Flame another smile. “Thank you,” I thought, sending as many positive and grateful feelings into my message.
The Flame, satisfied, settled back to its normal stance, center of the street lamp, calm but bright. It swayed like one of those hula dancers on the dashboard of a car. The gesture made me laugh out loud, enjoying the image in my head.
“What’s so funny?” someone said from behind me.
I whirled around and let out a little chuckle at the sight of one of my best friends. Bethany stood a couple of feet from me, dressed in her all-black uniform. The new second-year sash, red with a black line down the middle, slung across her as elegant as the Miss America pageant sash. Her tan had evened out over the summer, and her black hair stuck up in a manicured, fashionable way. She would have actually had to use some product to get it to swoop like that. Beth’s face lit up with a wide smile, showing off straight and white teeth.
Without thinking about it, I dashed up to my friend and threw my arms around her. Beth caught me in her strong arms, though my momentum and strength caused her to teeter back a little. We laughed together, the joyful sound ringing in my ears, as I thought about how good it was to see her after such a long summer.
I pulled away and held her from me to examine her properly. “It’s so good to see you!”
“Same,” Beth said, her smile never leaving her face.
“What’s with this new look?” I asked, waving my hand up and down her body to indicate this refined Bethany. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like it, but we’re a long way from the flannel and the baseball cap.”
Beth shrugged like the transformation was no big deal. “I finally decided to stop hiding behind the tomboy and messy look.”
I cocked my head to the side, confused. “I don’t understand.”
“I came out to my family,” Beth said with a big inhale and a shy smile.
“Oh,” I said, reacting without thinking. “Wow, Beth, that’s awesome. I didn’t know that they didn’t know.”
“Yeah, well,” Bethany said with
another shrug. “When I came here, no one knew me. It was a fresh start where I could just be myself. I thought that here of all places would be accepting considering how fluid the gods are when it comes to their sexuality. And how a lot of them share the same sexual preference as me since we’re all girls. Though I think I’m more bisexual with a prefence to girls rather than a straight lesbian.” She paused and smirked at me, “Well, ninety nine percent of us are girls.”
I shook my head fondly at her, but replied, “Got that right,” I said as my thoughts ran through a series of sexual stories about the gods. They weren’t my favorite of the myths, preferring the conquests and adventurous tales to the adulterous ones.
“So I took that confidence home and told my dad and stepmom,” Beth said.
“From the smile on your face, I’m assuming it went well,” I guessed, my eyebrows rising up in a question.
“Better than I ever would have thought,” Beth said, the relief oozing from her voice. “Veronica gave me the biggest hug and told me I would always be her Benjita and Dad… well, he was mainly sad at first because he hated to think that I couldn’t tell him something like that.”
It surprised me when Beth sniffed a little, and the corners of her eyes went blurry as the beginnings of tears came. But none of them fell as Beth continued. “He was great, just great.”
“Aw Beth!” I said, pulling her into another violent hug. My friend let out a laugh that sounded filled with relief and excitement. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Me too.” She hugged me back, tight and fierce. “Do you think Daniella and Jade will think it’s weird that I’m bisexual? I know it’s irrational considering they’re with you and each other, but I still have fear.”
“Absolutely not!” I pulled back from her and took her hand in mine. “If anyone gives you any shit, you send them to me, and I’ll burn them alive.”
As if it heard me, the street lamp above our head flared. Bethany and I looked up at the over-eager Eternal Flame. It shook faster and turned a deep, blood red. The glass filled up with steam, and we could hear the hiss of the sizzle.
