Disclaimer: The usual stuff...This story was written just for fun and is not an attempt to make money or infringe on any copyrights or trademarks and so on and so forth...I don't have any claim on YHerc or his crew. Cemia is my invention.
~~~~~ Chapter 1: The Pond ~~~~~
Hercules was walking along the path to Corinth towards a pond that was on the way there. Herc had woken with a strange urge to swim today, and since all three of his best friends were busy, he had decided to take off.
It wasn't their fault, he mused as he walked. It was just that having your three best friends be a busy king, a never-learned-how-to-swim-er, and a female cadet...It didn't help you improve your backstroke.
As he was thinking, he arrived at the lake. The wind was still, and the surface of the lake was as smooth as steel. He was about to strip to his bathing suit and jump in, when he spotted another swimmer. It appeared to be a teenage girl floating face down in the middle of the lake. His alarm grew as he squinted to see her better.
::She's not breathing!:: was the thought that ran through Herc's mind as he stood there. Her long blond hair fanned out around her. She just bobbed there semi underwater, and he knew there was no way she could still be alive and not be making ripples on the surface. Herc thought that her family wouldn't want her left floating in the lake without a decient funeral pyre, so he decided to swim out and tow the poor girl's body to shore.
~~~~~
Cemia floated, becoming almost one with the water. By the gods, she loved being sourounded by water, just as much as she loved running with the wind.
She guessed that one reason she loved the wind and the water so much was because of all they could tell you, if you knew how to listen. For instance, Cemia heard splashing below her, which meant there was a school of fish swimming around.
Another kind of splashing caught her attention. Cemia listened. She guessed from the sounds of breathing, and of water splashing around, that it almost had to be a teenage boy. By the speed of which she heard him getting closer, she knew he was strong, but he probably hadn't swum much recently.
She knew that there was an Academy nearby, so she wasn't surprised when she felt the stranger guy grab her arm and start towing her to shore. ::More than likely some cadet trying to be a hero:: she thought to herself, ::Well, I'll let him think he's saving me until we reach the shore, or else I might scare him to death::
So she let her body go limp, a little smile on her mouth.
~~~~~
Hercules towed the girl to shore and set her on the grass, then knelt beside her. He checked for a pulse, knowing that there wouldn't be one. He was almost knocked off his knees by how strong it was. He stared at her chest, and saw it barely rise, as if the girl was pretending to have drowned. "Give it up." he said, sitting cross-legged at the girl's side. "Why don't you open your eyes and come back to the realm of the living?"
He watched as a tiny smile formed on the girl's mouth. "What? And ruin your noble rescue?" she said in a mock-shocked voice. "I wouldn't think it!"
Herc snorted in response and the girl laughed as she sat up, and began wringing water from her hair. Her eyes were still closed, so Herc used this chance to study the girl. She was deeply tanned, with long blond hair that she weaved into a loose, thick braid which reached her waist. She was wearing a pale yellow leather halter-top with a matching skirt. Her sandals were slightly worn, but in good condition. On her left leg from her knee to her ankle was a large tattoo that looked like a piece of seaweed wrapped around her calf.
Herc realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet, so said, "Hi. I'm Hercules." and waited with a slight feeling of dread for the usual response. Something like: Oh! Hercules! I know you! You're the son of Zeus! You did such and such... He was always a little embarressed whenever someone had heard of him. He never knew how to react.
Herc waited, but the girl just quietly wrung water out of her braid with her eyes closed. Herc stared at her, as if by sheer will he could learn where she came from. ::Could she actually have never heard of me?:: he wondered.
~~~~~
::Well:: Cemia though to herself ::I've been 'rescued' by the heroic Hercules. Wouldn't the mergirls back in the clan be jealous...But the minstrels didn't sing about his rudeness and how over-inflated his ego was. He's been staring at me for a whole minute!:: Cemia grinned mischievously in her mind. She would just have to bring hero-boy's ego down a notch.
~~~~~
Herc watched as the girl turned towards him, opening her pale green eyes. "What did you expect me to do?" she said sarcastically, "Salute and sing 'Hail, the Conquering Hero?'"
Herc blushed slightly in embarrassment. That wasn't what he was expecting, but...her hand patting his knee snapped him back to attention.
"It's okay." she was saying. "It's hard for those whom minstrels sing about. Everyone thinks they know you." a slightly bitter note tinged her voice, "Anybody who believes a minstrel is a fool."
"Not really." Herc replied, "If you believe every word a minstrel says, that's foolish, but there are some truths in the songs."
"Yeah?" she asked him skeptically, "How are you supposed to know if what the minstrel sings is truth or fiction?"
"Well," Herc answered, "First you have to decide if you really *want* to know whether it's true or not. I mean, some people might be happy not knowing. But if you did want to know, you caound start by using common sense. Or you can ask someone who was involved to find out what happened. You see?"
"Oh ha ha." the girl said sarcastically. "You're so funny. A riot."
Having no idea what she was talking about, Herc decided to change the topic with a compliment. "That's a nice tattoo on your leg."
~~~~~
::Tattoo?:: Cemia thought, ::what tattoo? I don't have a...:: She ran her fingers over her leg, then smiled. "It's not a tattoo."
"Then what is it?" Hero-boy asked.
Cemia grinned as she peeled the lakeweed off of her leg. "It's a piece of kelp that stuck to my leg when you pulled me out."
She tore a section off of the kelp and popped it in her mouth. She offered another piece to Hercules, "Want some?"
~~~~~
Hercules accepted the offered kelp and put it in his mouth. Why not? Cheiron often said how important it was to try new foods..."Eww!" Herc exclaimed, barely keeping himself from spiting out the vile substance. It tasted horrible! The sour salty taste was so powerful it almost made him gag.
"I know." the girl said as she popped another bite in her mouth. "It's so bland compared to seakelp, but it does okay for a snack now and then."
It was strange. Herc saw that the girl's clear green eyes were open and looking towards him, but she wasn't quite looking at him. She seemed to be gazing at something over his shoulder. Herc flashed a glance over his shoulder, but couldn't figure out what the girl was looking at.
He turned his attention back to the present while she said, "I guess it's not really their fault. It's just that they never include all the details." It took Herc a moment to figure out that the girl was talking about minstrels again.
"Details?" Herc said as he tried to swallow the awful gunk in his mouth.
He succeded. The girl replied, "Have you ever heard the tale of Mertari and Tauron?"
"Yeah." Herc said, nodding. "The tale of the mermaid and the centaur falling in love." Feducious had assigned them to write a scroll about it last year. As the tale went, there was a war brewing between the mermaids and the centaurs almost two decades ago, when one of each species fell in love with the other. Mertari the mermaid and Tauron the centaur were banished from their clans when their family learned of their love, but the war dissolved as an indirect result of it. It was said that the Ares, who was quite angry with them for ruining his war, eventually tracked the lovebirds down and killed them. It was one more reason to add to all the others of why Herc didn't like his half-brother. "It's a good story."
"It's not just a story." The girl replied, her voice laced with bitter sadness. "They were my parents. I'm Cemia, daughter of Mertari and Tauron. My friends call me Mia, at least they would if I had any friends."
~~~~~
Herc was about to say something really lame, like 'I'll be your friend.', but stopped himself just in time. Cemia looked so angry and sad that he had the weird feeling that she would punch him if he said something like that. Herc frowned, absorbing what she had said. ::Man:: he thought, ::I'm bummed at Zeus for not being there, and here Mia has been living without either of her parents:: Herc was about to ask her more, but as he watched her stewing angrily, popping bits of kelp into her mouth, another mystery popped into his mind. He puzzeled outloud, "There's no kelp in this pond."
~~~~~
Cemia was completely caught off guard. She had expected hero-boy to say something really lame, like, 'I'll be your friend', and she was ready to sock him one when he did. But changing the topic back to lakeweed? It was so unexpected Mia had to laugh. "Yeah, there's a small patch down on the lake floor."
She could feel him looking at her strangely as he said slowly, "There's no floor to this pond. It's bottomless."
Cemia smiled, "It has a bottom. It's about twenty leagues down...not very far to swim."
~~~~~
"Not very far?" Herc exclaimed. "Nobody can hold their breath for twenty leagues down and back. What are you talking about?"
Cemia shook her head. "You're not very observant, are you?"
It was Herc's turn to be caught off guard. "Observant?"
Mia lowered her head and pulled her ear forward. Herc leaned over, and saw what looked like gills behind her ears. He leaned back, thinking. "It that all you got from your mom's side of the family?"
Cemia grinned, "As if. Watch." She stretched out her legs and propped herself on her elbows.
Herc didn't dare blink as he watched Mia's legs fuse together, while growing paler and rougher. Her sandals were fusing to her feet and both were growing bigger and thinner. It only took moments and the change was complete, and there was a mermaid reclining in the grass in front of Herc. He noted that her tail was made of scales the yellowish of what her leather skirt had been, and she still wore her leather halter shirt. But she still hadn't looked straight at him. She was still gazing at something over his shoulder.
"Cool, huh?" Mia said.
"Yeah." Herc replied as Mia's fin turned back into human legs. "And you can turn into a centaur, too? That must be fun."
"Yeah, sure. A blast." said Mia, the bitter note entering her voice again. "Tons of fun being stuck between the land and the sea, with no place for me anywhere."
Hercules was struck by a major wave of deja vu. Those were simaler to the words he had said to his mother over a couple years ago. Then she sent him to Cheiron's, and his opinion of his life changed. "Maybe you should come to Cheiron at the academy. He might help you see your way."
"Oh hardy har har. You really like to make cracks about it, don't you?" Mia snapped.
"What?" Herc exclaimed as he stood up defensively.
~~~~~
Cemia frowned as she stood up and faced him. Although it had been almost a decade of living with her 'disability', the topic was still a sore spot for her. "Don't play dumb with me. I don't like being teased about it."
"About what?" she heard hero-boy reply, sincerely confused.
::Can he really not tell?:: "By the gods. You really aren't observant if you can't see it," she said.
~~~~~
"See what?" Herc was getting tired of this game. He couldn't tell what this girl was talking about. The only thing that he didn't understand was why she didn't look at him. There was nothing else...
Her hands at his cheek jolted him back to the present. He looked at her. Cemia had placed both her hands on his head, one on either side of his face. He wrinkled his brow as she seemed to correct her line of sight. It was really weird. They were so close that she should have been looking straight into his eyes. Herc looked into her eyes, but they just gazed blankly back at him. Suddenly, he knew what was wrong, what she was talking about. "You're blind, aren't you?"
Cemia broke away from him, murmuring, "Hero-boy gets a clue." A long pause developed between them. Cemia sighed, "I'm guessing this is the part where you take back your offer to visit the Academy." Before Hercules could correct her, she continued, "Don't feel bad. You aren't the first to change your mind. I doubt a blind girl would do very good there, anyway."
"Quite the contrary!" Herc exclaimed, "You'd be automatically ahead of all the other new cadets."
Even without any emotion showing in her blank eyes, her body language conveyed that she didn't believe the demigod. "Explain." She asked suspiciously.
"Part of being a new cadet is learning how to use the weapons. Once you master that, then you have to learn it all over again with a blindfold."
She grinned, "You're right. I would be ahead of the game. Maybe checking out your academy wouldn't be so bad." She shrugged, "Maybe I will go and talk to this Cheiron guy, and go from there." she walked away from him for a couple steps, then turned towards him again. "Do you want a ride?"
"A ride?" Herc thought he might as well be Echo since most of the conversation was him repeating Mia's last words.
"Yeah. You can show me where Cheiron's is, and we'll both get there faster."
Herc was once again confused. He hadn't seen a chariot parked nearby, and besides...how would she have driven it, being blind and all? "Okayyyy...where's the chariot?"
"Who needs a chariot?" She asked, grinning. As Herc watched, a yellowish glow appeared behind her, which grew brighter and bigger and more solid as Mia's legs grew hairy and her feet grew smaller and smooth and harder. Within moments, the change was complete and Herc was looking at a female centaur. Her horse half looked like a pinto, with yellow hair and a long blond tail. As Herc began shaking his head no, Mia asked, "This is much faster. So, do you want a ride?"
Herc hit himself in the head with his palm ::of course she can't see you shaking your head. She's blind!:: "No, that's okay." Herc said instead, "I can walk."
"Like Tartarus you're walking." Mia snorted. "And here's a few reasons why. One, you're soaking wet. Two, think of it as a free ride for 'saving' me from getting all pruny." Hercules had to smile at that. "Three, With your help we can both get there faster and you can keep me from running into other travilers on the road. And four," he had to lean forward to hear as she mumbled, "I would like the company." she raised her voice to the normal volume. "So stop fooling around and lets go."she finished, prancing a little towards the direction the Academy was.
"I'm not fool...Hey, wait." Herc said. "How do you know where the academy is?"
Cemia shrugged, "My father told me stories about Cheiron and directions to get to it. And besides," she replied, "I can smell it." she clawed the ground with a fore hoof, and then said, "So, you coming?"
Herc smiled. It was no use to argue with her, so he walked over and mounted her horseback and Mia took off.
~~~~~ Chapter 1: The Pond ~~~~~
Hercules was walking along the path to Corinth towards a pond that was on the way there. Herc had woken with a strange urge to swim today, and since all three of his best friends were busy, he had decided to take off.
It wasn't their fault, he mused as he walked. It was just that having your three best friends be a busy king, a never-learned-how-to-swim-er, and a female cadet...It didn't help you improve your backstroke.
As he was thinking, he arrived at the lake. The wind was still, and the surface of the lake was as smooth as steel. He was about to strip to his bathing suit and jump in, when he spotted another swimmer. It appeared to be a teenage girl floating face down in the middle of the lake. His alarm grew as he squinted to see her better.
::She's not breathing!:: was the thought that ran through Herc's mind as he stood there. Her long blond hair fanned out around her. She just bobbed there semi underwater, and he knew there was no way she could still be alive and not be making ripples on the surface. Herc thought that her family wouldn't want her left floating in the lake without a decient funeral pyre, so he decided to swim out and tow the poor girl's body to shore.
~~~~~
Cemia floated, becoming almost one with the water. By the gods, she loved being sourounded by water, just as much as she loved running with the wind.
She guessed that one reason she loved the wind and the water so much was because of all they could tell you, if you knew how to listen. For instance, Cemia heard splashing below her, which meant there was a school of fish swimming around.
Another kind of splashing caught her attention. Cemia listened. She guessed from the sounds of breathing, and of water splashing around, that it almost had to be a teenage boy. By the speed of which she heard him getting closer, she knew he was strong, but he probably hadn't swum much recently.
She knew that there was an Academy nearby, so she wasn't surprised when she felt the stranger guy grab her arm and start towing her to shore. ::More than likely some cadet trying to be a hero:: she thought to herself, ::Well, I'll let him think he's saving me until we reach the shore, or else I might scare him to death::
So she let her body go limp, a little smile on her mouth.
~~~~~
Hercules towed the girl to shore and set her on the grass, then knelt beside her. He checked for a pulse, knowing that there wouldn't be one. He was almost knocked off his knees by how strong it was. He stared at her chest, and saw it barely rise, as if the girl was pretending to have drowned. "Give it up." he said, sitting cross-legged at the girl's side. "Why don't you open your eyes and come back to the realm of the living?"
He watched as a tiny smile formed on the girl's mouth. "What? And ruin your noble rescue?" she said in a mock-shocked voice. "I wouldn't think it!"
Herc snorted in response and the girl laughed as she sat up, and began wringing water from her hair. Her eyes were still closed, so Herc used this chance to study the girl. She was deeply tanned, with long blond hair that she weaved into a loose, thick braid which reached her waist. She was wearing a pale yellow leather halter-top with a matching skirt. Her sandals were slightly worn, but in good condition. On her left leg from her knee to her ankle was a large tattoo that looked like a piece of seaweed wrapped around her calf.
Herc realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet, so said, "Hi. I'm Hercules." and waited with a slight feeling of dread for the usual response. Something like: Oh! Hercules! I know you! You're the son of Zeus! You did such and such... He was always a little embarressed whenever someone had heard of him. He never knew how to react.
Herc waited, but the girl just quietly wrung water out of her braid with her eyes closed. Herc stared at her, as if by sheer will he could learn where she came from. ::Could she actually have never heard of me?:: he wondered.
~~~~~
::Well:: Cemia though to herself ::I've been 'rescued' by the heroic Hercules. Wouldn't the mergirls back in the clan be jealous...But the minstrels didn't sing about his rudeness and how over-inflated his ego was. He's been staring at me for a whole minute!:: Cemia grinned mischievously in her mind. She would just have to bring hero-boy's ego down a notch.
~~~~~
Herc watched as the girl turned towards him, opening her pale green eyes. "What did you expect me to do?" she said sarcastically, "Salute and sing 'Hail, the Conquering Hero?'"
Herc blushed slightly in embarrassment. That wasn't what he was expecting, but...her hand patting his knee snapped him back to attention.
"It's okay." she was saying. "It's hard for those whom minstrels sing about. Everyone thinks they know you." a slightly bitter note tinged her voice, "Anybody who believes a minstrel is a fool."
"Not really." Herc replied, "If you believe every word a minstrel says, that's foolish, but there are some truths in the songs."
"Yeah?" she asked him skeptically, "How are you supposed to know if what the minstrel sings is truth or fiction?"
"Well," Herc answered, "First you have to decide if you really *want* to know whether it's true or not. I mean, some people might be happy not knowing. But if you did want to know, you caound start by using common sense. Or you can ask someone who was involved to find out what happened. You see?"
"Oh ha ha." the girl said sarcastically. "You're so funny. A riot."
Having no idea what she was talking about, Herc decided to change the topic with a compliment. "That's a nice tattoo on your leg."
~~~~~
::Tattoo?:: Cemia thought, ::what tattoo? I don't have a...:: She ran her fingers over her leg, then smiled. "It's not a tattoo."
"Then what is it?" Hero-boy asked.
Cemia grinned as she peeled the lakeweed off of her leg. "It's a piece of kelp that stuck to my leg when you pulled me out."
She tore a section off of the kelp and popped it in her mouth. She offered another piece to Hercules, "Want some?"
~~~~~
Hercules accepted the offered kelp and put it in his mouth. Why not? Cheiron often said how important it was to try new foods..."Eww!" Herc exclaimed, barely keeping himself from spiting out the vile substance. It tasted horrible! The sour salty taste was so powerful it almost made him gag.
"I know." the girl said as she popped another bite in her mouth. "It's so bland compared to seakelp, but it does okay for a snack now and then."
It was strange. Herc saw that the girl's clear green eyes were open and looking towards him, but she wasn't quite looking at him. She seemed to be gazing at something over his shoulder. Herc flashed a glance over his shoulder, but couldn't figure out what the girl was looking at.
He turned his attention back to the present while she said, "I guess it's not really their fault. It's just that they never include all the details." It took Herc a moment to figure out that the girl was talking about minstrels again.
"Details?" Herc said as he tried to swallow the awful gunk in his mouth.
He succeded. The girl replied, "Have you ever heard the tale of Mertari and Tauron?"
"Yeah." Herc said, nodding. "The tale of the mermaid and the centaur falling in love." Feducious had assigned them to write a scroll about it last year. As the tale went, there was a war brewing between the mermaids and the centaurs almost two decades ago, when one of each species fell in love with the other. Mertari the mermaid and Tauron the centaur were banished from their clans when their family learned of their love, but the war dissolved as an indirect result of it. It was said that the Ares, who was quite angry with them for ruining his war, eventually tracked the lovebirds down and killed them. It was one more reason to add to all the others of why Herc didn't like his half-brother. "It's a good story."
"It's not just a story." The girl replied, her voice laced with bitter sadness. "They were my parents. I'm Cemia, daughter of Mertari and Tauron. My friends call me Mia, at least they would if I had any friends."
~~~~~
Herc was about to say something really lame, like 'I'll be your friend.', but stopped himself just in time. Cemia looked so angry and sad that he had the weird feeling that she would punch him if he said something like that. Herc frowned, absorbing what she had said. ::Man:: he thought, ::I'm bummed at Zeus for not being there, and here Mia has been living without either of her parents:: Herc was about to ask her more, but as he watched her stewing angrily, popping bits of kelp into her mouth, another mystery popped into his mind. He puzzeled outloud, "There's no kelp in this pond."
~~~~~
Cemia was completely caught off guard. She had expected hero-boy to say something really lame, like, 'I'll be your friend', and she was ready to sock him one when he did. But changing the topic back to lakeweed? It was so unexpected Mia had to laugh. "Yeah, there's a small patch down on the lake floor."
She could feel him looking at her strangely as he said slowly, "There's no floor to this pond. It's bottomless."
Cemia smiled, "It has a bottom. It's about twenty leagues down...not very far to swim."
~~~~~
"Not very far?" Herc exclaimed. "Nobody can hold their breath for twenty leagues down and back. What are you talking about?"
Cemia shook her head. "You're not very observant, are you?"
It was Herc's turn to be caught off guard. "Observant?"
Mia lowered her head and pulled her ear forward. Herc leaned over, and saw what looked like gills behind her ears. He leaned back, thinking. "It that all you got from your mom's side of the family?"
Cemia grinned, "As if. Watch." She stretched out her legs and propped herself on her elbows.
Herc didn't dare blink as he watched Mia's legs fuse together, while growing paler and rougher. Her sandals were fusing to her feet and both were growing bigger and thinner. It only took moments and the change was complete, and there was a mermaid reclining in the grass in front of Herc. He noted that her tail was made of scales the yellowish of what her leather skirt had been, and she still wore her leather halter shirt. But she still hadn't looked straight at him. She was still gazing at something over his shoulder.
"Cool, huh?" Mia said.
"Yeah." Herc replied as Mia's fin turned back into human legs. "And you can turn into a centaur, too? That must be fun."
"Yeah, sure. A blast." said Mia, the bitter note entering her voice again. "Tons of fun being stuck between the land and the sea, with no place for me anywhere."
Hercules was struck by a major wave of deja vu. Those were simaler to the words he had said to his mother over a couple years ago. Then she sent him to Cheiron's, and his opinion of his life changed. "Maybe you should come to Cheiron at the academy. He might help you see your way."
"Oh hardy har har. You really like to make cracks about it, don't you?" Mia snapped.
"What?" Herc exclaimed as he stood up defensively.
~~~~~
Cemia frowned as she stood up and faced him. Although it had been almost a decade of living with her 'disability', the topic was still a sore spot for her. "Don't play dumb with me. I don't like being teased about it."
"About what?" she heard hero-boy reply, sincerely confused.
::Can he really not tell?:: "By the gods. You really aren't observant if you can't see it," she said.
~~~~~
"See what?" Herc was getting tired of this game. He couldn't tell what this girl was talking about. The only thing that he didn't understand was why she didn't look at him. There was nothing else...
Her hands at his cheek jolted him back to the present. He looked at her. Cemia had placed both her hands on his head, one on either side of his face. He wrinkled his brow as she seemed to correct her line of sight. It was really weird. They were so close that she should have been looking straight into his eyes. Herc looked into her eyes, but they just gazed blankly back at him. Suddenly, he knew what was wrong, what she was talking about. "You're blind, aren't you?"
Cemia broke away from him, murmuring, "Hero-boy gets a clue." A long pause developed between them. Cemia sighed, "I'm guessing this is the part where you take back your offer to visit the Academy." Before Hercules could correct her, she continued, "Don't feel bad. You aren't the first to change your mind. I doubt a blind girl would do very good there, anyway."
"Quite the contrary!" Herc exclaimed, "You'd be automatically ahead of all the other new cadets."
Even without any emotion showing in her blank eyes, her body language conveyed that she didn't believe the demigod. "Explain." She asked suspiciously.
"Part of being a new cadet is learning how to use the weapons. Once you master that, then you have to learn it all over again with a blindfold."
She grinned, "You're right. I would be ahead of the game. Maybe checking out your academy wouldn't be so bad." She shrugged, "Maybe I will go and talk to this Cheiron guy, and go from there." she walked away from him for a couple steps, then turned towards him again. "Do you want a ride?"
"A ride?" Herc thought he might as well be Echo since most of the conversation was him repeating Mia's last words.
"Yeah. You can show me where Cheiron's is, and we'll both get there faster."
Herc was once again confused. He hadn't seen a chariot parked nearby, and besides...how would she have driven it, being blind and all? "Okayyyy...where's the chariot?"
"Who needs a chariot?" She asked, grinning. As Herc watched, a yellowish glow appeared behind her, which grew brighter and bigger and more solid as Mia's legs grew hairy and her feet grew smaller and smooth and harder. Within moments, the change was complete and Herc was looking at a female centaur. Her horse half looked like a pinto, with yellow hair and a long blond tail. As Herc began shaking his head no, Mia asked, "This is much faster. So, do you want a ride?"
Herc hit himself in the head with his palm ::of course she can't see you shaking your head. She's blind!:: "No, that's okay." Herc said instead, "I can walk."
"Like Tartarus you're walking." Mia snorted. "And here's a few reasons why. One, you're soaking wet. Two, think of it as a free ride for 'saving' me from getting all pruny." Hercules had to smile at that. "Three, With your help we can both get there faster and you can keep me from running into other travilers on the road. And four," he had to lean forward to hear as she mumbled, "I would like the company." she raised her voice to the normal volume. "So stop fooling around and lets go."she finished, prancing a little towards the direction the Academy was.
"I'm not fool...Hey, wait." Herc said. "How do you know where the academy is?"
Cemia shrugged, "My father told me stories about Cheiron and directions to get to it. And besides," she replied, "I can smell it." she clawed the ground with a fore hoof, and then said, "So, you coming?"
Herc smiled. It was no use to argue with her, so he walked over and mounted her horseback and Mia took off.