Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, ideas, or places that Rick Riordan used in his varied series. I'm just putting this out there for my own enjoyment. I am doing this only for my enjoyment and no money.
The Twilight of Gods: Scions of Olympus
My name is Xander Troy. I thought I was normal. I walked to my classes at the university. I took my first Spanish exam of the semester, and I even knew how to write the essay on how I spent my summer vacation. My boss even stopped himself from yelling at me, mostly because he actually saw my co-worker make the lopsided crusts instead of just seeing me make a pizza on them. My day seemed normal, until a monster destroyed my favorite coffee shop.
It started in my myth and lit class. I sat next to my Grover Underwood as I usually did. He was only eighteen, but he seemed to know everything about what Professor Brunner happened to teach us. We couldn't go to the bars together, but the two of us spent hours studying for the first test, and I thought we were on our way to becoming good friends.
Professor Brunner sat in his wheelchair next to the mahogany desk at the front of the classroom. He kept his brown beard trimmed, but pulled back his matching-wavy hair into a ponytail. The white board listed the twelve Olympian gods in blue marker and the five Egyptian gods born during what Brunner called the Demon Days in red. "So class, can you tell me the difference between Thoth and Hermes?"
Grover actually nudged me in the ribs. I might have been falling asleep, but I still felt it was uncalled for. The Professor zeroed in on me as soon as I jumped up, "Yes, Mr. Troy?"
"Xander," I stated easily as I looked up at him from my resting position on the desk, "What was the question?"
"What are the differences between the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth?" The Professor's brow furrowed as he looked at me. His brows were prominent and hid his brown eyes in shadows. He rolled over in his wheelchair to look at me closer, "Do you know the answer?"
Letting out a deep sigh, I bit my lower lip looking over at the board for answers. Neither of those names were listed. "Thoth was the god of knowledge and magic. Hermes was the god of merchants, thieves, harlots, and athletes. Although they are different…" I turned my answer into a question, "Wait, didn't the Egyptians or someone renamed Thoth's city Hermopolis?"
"Not the Egyptians, but the Greeks. You were right, mostly," Professor Brunner once again seemed to glare at me. If he had glasses, I knew he would be glaring over the top of them. He didn't, which for me, was probably for the best. "Khemnu was renamed Hermopolis by the Greeks. Both deities were gods of writing and magic in Greek and Egyptian culture. As the Greeks normally did when the conquered a people, they wrapped that culture into their own blending them together." Professor Brunner looked up at the clock letting out a sigh. He didn't get through his three-hour lecture in the allotted one hour, "That is all we have time for today. We'll continue with the similarities between the two cultures and beliefs on Monday."
Normally, I would have had the answer. I enjoyed Brunner's class. I actually searched Grover out to help me study. He knew the material from what he said studying it in High School. He answered more of Brunner's questions than any other student in the room. I just stopped Grover one day after class and asked him to help. That day, I actually felt bad about not knowing the answer to his question. Brunner pushed me, like he seemed to do all his students. His glare made me feel inadequate, which meant I needed to study more.
"Professor Brunner," Everyone else seemed to already be out the door as I finished shoving the texts into my bag. Professor Brunner was probably the best English Professor I've had. I usually walked with him back to the English Department, but I needed to hurry and rush off to work. "Why did the Greeks try and take out the Egyptian culture like that? I mean, were they trying to break-up their culture, or was it something else?"
"You've taken Western Civilization haven't you?" The question was rhetorical, so he went on, "It's very similar to what the Catholic Church did with the various pagan religions. It was about assimilation of the people. It was easier to assimilate if they believed nothing had changed but the names. Of course, it never worked like that. Old traditions always keep going. Old gods never really die out. They already had a life of their own long before the Greeks tried to abolish them." The way he spoke of the past seemed almost like he reminisced a memory.
Grover finished putting his books into his own bag as he listened to the conversation. Grover was a handsome kid, and I looked to him as Brunner started talking. He had a dark brown goatee and matching curly hair. Teenage acne still scarred his face, but he didn't seem to mind it so much. He wore a woven rainbow hat and matching tie-dyed t-shirt, like some of the neo-hippies that hung out at my favorite coffee shop. He used the table to stabilize himself as he stood up from his chair.
I gave them both a short smile as I pulled my backpack over my shoulders. I looked once more up at the clock. It was already two o'clock. That gave me a half hour to walk to work. "I've got to get going. I have to work at the Pizza Shack."
"Get going, I believe Mr. Underwood has a few questions." Brunner looked over at Grover. He was just standing up straight a bit uneasily.
Grover had a muscular disease that made walking complicated for him. He told me he refused to use crutches. It made him look weak. I had seen the way the kid ran to a buffet. When food was involved, I don't think the pain bothered him as badly, or maybe food was just more important. I never talked to him about his disease after our initial conversation; I thought it would be rude. "Goodbye, Xand." Grover hollered as I made my way towards the door.
"Yes, Goodbye, Mr. Troy." I didn't try to correct the Professor again as I made my way out of the classroom.
Everything went well throughout the rest of the day. The incident with my co-worker and boss brightened my day. I stopped at my favorite of the nine coffee shops in town, Beans and Brews. I locked my bike up on the bike rack making sure it was secure before I made my way inside. The shop's layout felt informal with a wide variety of mix-matched old couches, each seeming to have another's cushions. A few tables sat in the middle for those who needed a more formal setting to study. Beans and Brews was primarily the hangout for college students and professors, although the stray high school kid made their way in from time to time.
As soon as I looked at the current barista, my stomach clenched. I hated Laura. It wasn't that she was unattractive. I'm not that shallow. She had long red hair with green eyes that seemed to sparkle. She was pale, like most gingers, but didn't have the unusual freckles throughout her face and arms. She always treated me poorly, as if she needed to settle a score.
One time Grover and I met at the coffee shop to study. I talked to him as Laura made our coffees. Grover's was fine. When I got mine, it tasted like scalding milk with a hint of espresso. That would be fine, if that's what I ordered. She forgot to put in the liquid white chocolate goodness that made the drink a White Chocolate Mocha. Another time, she forgot the espresso. I wanted something to keep me awake, not something that my mom would give me during the winter. The worst time was when she forgot to put on the lid firmly. I spilled it all over some girl when she bumped into me at the counter. Laura didn't offer to make me another one, nor did she help clean it up. I was stuck giving the girl money to clean her shirt, wiping up the mess on the floor, and no coffee to make me happy.
"Hey Laura." Giving her a smile that she didn't return, I sat three-dollar bills and three quarters on the counter giving her the exact change she would want for my beverage.
She reached her hand across the money shuffling it off the edge and into her hands. She recounted each bill and quarter as she tossed them into the drawer. The fake smile looked like a serpent with a thin slit. "No tip?"
Digging into my pocket, I shoved the last of my change into the tip jar. My semi-sincere smile turned into my best 'I Hope You Die' glare. "There." She slithered off, and for a second I could almost swear underneath her skirt I saw something writhe. I did not mind tipping my baristas, but when they forced me to do so, I wasn't happy.
I turned to check out the shops crowd. I wouldn't pretend to make polite conversation, and just watched a regular prop open the door. If I was ten minutes later, I could have had good coffee. The wind blew a few newspapers from their spot on a small rack by the door. I spun back around just as Laura made her way to the counter with my coffee. Tendrils of my coffee dripped down the side and the lid was only half on the cup. The only thought lingering in my mind as I saw that cup was 'How could she not have been fired?'
Laura tripped. The milky white liquid flew from her hands. I don't remember what happened next. I opened my eyes only to find myself three feet to the left of where I formerly stood. After a second of silence, the people of the shop began to talk.
"The air seemed to…"
"There and then… he moved."
The coffee splattered on the floor creating an inkblot of brownish white liquid on the wood floor. I looked over to Laura for some sort of answer and she just looked at me with her same sneer. Her lips created only a slit. Her eyes looked different; golden, instead of green. "We need to talk, Lysander Troy." The way she said my name felt like nails on a chalkboard creating waves of dissonance down my spine. The sound of her words startled me, but the fact she knew my full name made me even more uneasy.
I took a step back watching her. "Laura?" Almost as if she uncoiled from her standing position, she grew about a foot taller. I finally noticed that she did not actually have legs below the waist. A diamond backs tail complete with a rattle slithered where her legs should have been. When I looked back towards her eyes, they were golden with a small almond horizontal in the center like a snake. Her skin looked paler and held small diamond scales. If I touched it, I'm sure it would have felt like the grainy texture of snakeskin.
People scurried behind me towards the door. None of them looked back. I heard chairs slam against the ground. I even felt a splash of what smelled like tea hit the back of my t-shirt. Looking around quickly, I noticed the place was empty, except for me and the snake-lady Laura. "Uh…" I really did not know what to say as she looked at me. "You're a snake." I backed up against one of the few tables left standing.
The creature pressed what now looked like a talon against the counter and crouched down sending the snake tail and the rest of her body pole vaulting across. She landed in front of me, "Don't pretend, godling." Her voice caught in the back of her throat, giving it a deep resonance as she spoke. She sounded more like a man than a girl.
A tipped over chair sat right next to my foot. I kicked it upward grabbing the backrest with my right hand and breaking the chair across her face. Shards of the chair splintered back in my direction, but I followed through and kept my eyes closed. I still felt a couple pieces penetrate my skin. I would deal with those later. Her body flew to my left blocking a path to the door, so I made my way towards the shop's back room. There was an employee exit into the alley.
Laura followed me. I jogged about twenty feet in front of her, but somehow her tail whipped out and tripped me. I turned around to see the monster in her full glory. She shucked off her clothes somewhere inside revealing a stomach and chest of the same white color as any normal serpent. I wondered if the guys would still have thought she was hot now. Fangs sputtered her words, "You cannot run from us. We'll find you… and get back what you've stolen…"
"Stolen, I haven't stolen anything…" I stood in the middle of the alley. Behind me, I heard what sounded like a wheelchair coming down the way. I turned to see Professor Brunner sitting there. "Get out of here, Professor…"
"Lies of the godling…" She leaped towards me. Her rattle shaking wildly.
"Xander!" Brunner threw me what looked like a lighter. My hand leapt up to grab a hold of it. "Light it."
I did as I was told. A flame did not sputter as soon as my thumb flicked the silver coil. Instead, the entire thing seemed to elongate into a large sword. The sword glistened gold as I swung the blade at the monster cutting through the tissue of the beast's neck just as she came towards me. The demon vanished as bronze dust cascading around me vanishing before it ever touched the ground.
The empty alley way echoed with the sounds of cop cars coming to the disaster at the coffee shop. I ran to the south end of the alley looking both ways. The Professor could not have made it to either corner in a few seconds. It wasn't possible.
For a second, I thought about turning around and going back to the coffee shop. There would be police, spectators, and maybe some sort of hazmat team from the government to pick up the weird thing that attacked me. I made my decision. I ran to my apartment, hoping no one saw me at the coffee shop. I did not need to be questioned. I hardly had the answers. All I knew is that I needed to get away. She said she knew where to find me. If she wasn't lying, other could find me too.
I was going to run.