I stood tall, my entire form rigid and stone still. A black cloak hung around my shoulders, covering most of the armor I wore. A bow and quiver were also hidden by the black cloak, and a freshly sharpened sword hung in its elegant sheath at my hip.
In this place of darkness, this hole in the ground, I was raised by the lord of the Underworld himself. He had trained me to be the very best, nothing less. I am fluent in at least 15 different languages, and know ledged in most others. Only a few days ago, Pluto had told me that I had become what I was meant to become.
Now I stand in the throne room and wait. What am I waiting for? For him, the one who had taught and trained me. Waiting for he who is now to give me the most difficult quest which, when completed, will repay all that he has done for me.
I hadn't been waiting long when the door blew open with a loud bang. I did not turn to greet him. No, that is not how I was trained. I was trained to be a statue, emotionless and unfeeling, cold and hard.
He walked forward slowly, watching me with every step, his eyes unmoving and unblinking. In moments, he stood before me, his long black hair seeming to float around him. His pale face is hard as stone, just like mine, and his blue eyes are like ice stinging my own, but I refuse to blink.
His gaze lingers on mine for only a moment before he turns and sits on his throne, obsidian in color. Once he is seated, he looks at me once more, and I can see the tiniest flicker of pride in his cold eyes, but it must be my imagination.
"I have decided on your quest," he says, his voice flowing like a ribbon on water. "There is an item that I have been missing for some time, and I would like to have it back. This item is a helmet. Whoever wears this helmet becomes invisible at their own will." He pauses.
"Your job is to retrieve this helmet for me, no more and no less. Once you have completed this task, if you complete it, your debts will be repaid." He had emphasized the word 'if' as though he believed it to be likely that I would perish in my attempts.
I was confused, but did not let such a thing show. This was supposed to be the most difficult mission ever, and he has given to me something so simple as to retrieve a magical trinket? However, something did not feel right about this. He would not have given this to me if it was as simple as it seems now.
He stands once more, a sigh passing his lips as he steps forward towards me. "I have one final gift for you before you go, though." He turns to a human seeming male standing by the obsidian double doors he had come through only moments ago and nods his head ever so slightly. The man opens the doors to show the creature that stood behind them.
"I would like for you to meet Beaucephisus," he says as I turn to see the white hippogriff, her wings extended at her sides. She walks towards me, her elegant head held high, and she stops just before me. "She is the most intelligent of her kind and will watch your back. I know you will treat her well.
"Now, you will leave in only a few moments to begin your quest. Once Charon has taken you across the River Styx and you have left the Underworld, you will be on your own." Now that he is finished speaking, he turns and, without another word, his form collapses into a cloud of black smoke.
I now stand at the edge of the River Styx with Beaucephisus standing next to me. We are waiting for Charon to come back to this side. Cerberus is standing guard over the gate to Hades just behind us, barking at the several souls that managed to cross by means other than Charon's boat. His barking is making Beaucephisus irritable, and she paws at the ground beneath her bird-like fore feet.
Now I grow impatient. 'We will just fly across,' I say to myself before I turn to Beaucephisus and pull myself with ease onto her back. As if to know what I am thinking, she unfurls her beautiful wings and launches into the air, her muscles rippling beneath me.
As the small torch light grows ever smaller behind us, a new light grows larger at our destination. I can see Charon's boat and passengers not far below us, and he looks up at me, a boney hand raised in greeting for he knows me. I have crossed on his boat many times.
Once we are to the other side of the River Styx, Beaucephisus landed lightly near the river, and I slid off. The shore is crowded with souls waiting to cross on Charon's boat, but Beaucephisus and I pass right through them. Their arms reach for us, begging to go with us, but it does them no good. They are like ghosts, their limbs passing through ours as if they are not really even there. I ignore them, and so does Beaucephisus.
We are at the division point between the living world and the underworld now. More souls are coming through the portal with every passing moment. The portal is a simple black hole, a swirling mass of jet black shadows. We don't wait long before stepping into the portal and allowing it to pull us to the world above, the world of the living.
And here is where the hunt begins…