CHAPTER 11 - Noah

Noah woke up to pain. The moment he opened his eyes he screamed. It hurt so much. He couldn't move. Pain. So much pain. What happened? His vision was blurry, and he could just make out a few blurry shapes. So much pain. And he blacked out again.

The second time he woke up, the pain was gone. He opened his eyes slowly, cautiously. But no pain. No blurry eyes. It was night, and everything was dark. There was a campfire quite close to him, with dark bodies huddled round it.

"Guys…?" Noah managed to squeak. He couldn't feel his leg. His throat was dry. Someone walked over and handed him a bottle of water.

"Here, drink." It was Connor. He had a scar on his forehead now. Noah wondered if it was from the fight. Connor looked around, and he counted 7, including him. But there was supposed to be 8… Fay.

"Where's Fay?" Noah asked, worried. He remembered now, she was thrown into the sea by Hercules.

"We couldn't find her." Connor said, not meeting his eyes. "We looked until it got dark, and we couldn't find her. I don't know where she is…"

"She's a daughter of Poseidon. Water is her natural element. I'm sure she'll be alright, she's probably just healing and stuff." Noah said, trying to raise Connor's spirits. It worked, and Connor smiled, before sitting down next to him.

"Man, what a quest… Atlas is free, Hercules is rogue, and they're gods knows where. What do we even do now?" Connor said with a sigh. He looked genuinely lost.

"Have you been on many quests before?" Noah asked.

"A few. Not for a while though. This is the first major quest since the Prophecy of Seven." He replied. Noah had heard about that. A major quest that had happened a year ago, and the fate of the world was literally at stake. Obviously, they had succeeded.

"We can talk it over with the Romans tomorrow. I'm sure they're here for the same reason we are. The way I see it, our party has just gotten a lot stronger. When we find Fay, we'll think of something, don't sweat it." Noah replied, and Connor smiled again, and patted his shoulder.

"Alright. Well, I'm going to get some sleep. One of the Romans is taking watch." Connor says, and walks over to his own sleeping bag.

Noah sighed, and went to lie back down, thinking about where the god and Titan could possibly have gone.

He closed his eyes, and with his sleep came the dreams.

Noah was in the fight of his life. He was battling Atlas, sword-on-spear at the top of Mount Tam, and he was losing. After every swing, Atlas would counter and send him to the floor. Noah was trying and trying, but no matter how many times he tried, Atlas bested him easily. He couldn't split the spear for some reason, it would probably Titan magic or something, and Atlas was wise to the trick anyway. There was no hope. Noah couldn't win against a Titan. They were much stronger than the gods, much more powerful.

On the eighth knockdown, everything changed. The sky changed from grey to light blue, the sun shone brighter, forcing Atlas to cover his eyes. Noah started to glow. He looked at his hands aghast to see the Epirus bow in his hands. He felt warm, and he knew it was his father, blessing him. Even if it was a dream, he felt stronger, powerful. He took aim at Atlas with the bow, nocked an arrow, and fired - sending him over the side of the cliff. Noah smiled, and the world started to fade, and he woke up.

He woke up with a start, but he was fast enough to see the glow fading from his hands. He was speechless. That had actually happened? His dad had actually blessed him? He looked up at the sky and sent a silent thankyou to Apollo.

But the blessing wasn't finished yet. Noah stood up, and he was surprised to feel his leg again, the wound completely healed. He looked around to see a pack at the end of his bedroll, and he opened it to find a strange assortment inside. He found ambrosia cubes and a flask of nectar, a change of clothes, and some vials of red liquid. He had no idea what the vials were for, so he left them there, but took the clothes out to change. The clothes he was wearing at the moment were battered and torn, so it felt good to have a clean change.

A minute later and he felt fresh and new, ready for more adventuring. His friends and the other group still hadn't woken up yet, so he took the opportunity to walk around, to work out where he was. He knew he was in the clearing of a forest, but aside from that, he had no idea where he was.

It was early morning, and still dark, so he walked through the dark forest by himself, guided by nothing more than gut feeling. He ignored the creaking branches, the scurrying sounds of mice and other small animals, and he just kept walking. He left the forest and walked into the middle of an empty road. It was silent, and in the middle of the road, lying on the ground like it had been there for days, was the Epirus bow.

He walked up to it and picked it up. It was definitely the Epirus bow. It must have fallen here when Ladon knocked it off the mountain. Noah's luck was really picking up steam. He felt truly blessed - he had his powerful weapon back. He felt complete, and ready to kill some more monsters. He decided to keep the gladius - it's always good to have a backup weapon - a lesson he had learned.

He holstered the bow on his back, into the snug sheathe fitted into the quiver, and headed off back to their makeshift camp. He walked back through the forest, retracing his steps until he arrived back at the clearing. Everyone was awake.

"Man, there you are!" Connor said, sounding relieved. "We were just about to go looking for you. Where'd you go?"

"Oh, I just went for a walk," Noah replied with a smile, unholstering the Epirus bow. "And look what I found."

"Oh, you found it! That's so cool!" Connor high-fived Noah, who reholstered the bow. "Alright, we've got some talking to do - with those guys." Connor said, loosely gesturing to the Romans who were now standing in front of them. When Noah looked over, the boy in the middle nodded. They had removed their armour and looked alot more like normal teenagers. Granted, battle-hardened teenagers with weapons strapped to them.

They walked into the middle of the clearing, and sat down in a circle, and they began to talk.

/

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