Chapter 15
I stood there for a second, observing the possible threats in front of me.
The man seemed surprised to see me, but quickly gained his composure.
"Who are you, and what are you'd ping here!" Said he man.
Before I could say anything the hellhound rushed at me at crazy speeds. I raised my weapon to deter it the beast but nothing stopped its charge.
The beast leaped towards me, pushing past my weapon and landing on top of me. I don't know why I didn't swing it even try to stop it. Despite all that happened, was I still scared?
I prepared to have my face being chewed off, but instead I was hit with a cold and wet object.
"A tongue?!" I thought. I opened my eyes and surely enough, I was getting licked. I held the dogs face, trying to get it to stop.
After looking for a moment I felt some familiarity. "Betsy?" I dared to ask.
She replied by giving a happy bark and continually licking me.
I laughed despite myself. "Good to see you girl, but I need to get up." I said. She was crushing my lungs with all this love.
She seemed to realize I was during and hoped off with another happy bark. I stood up and dusted my self off.
"Ahem." Coughed the man in front of me. "It appears that your already well acquainted with Mrs. O'Leary"
"You mean Betsy? If so than, yeah, I did meet her just a couple days ago." I said.
"Betsy? Hmm I knew that she was friendly but I didn't expect her to already have a name." He said.
"Oh, if your taking care of her then call her what you want. Betsy was just the name given to her by her old monster master."
"Very well, then I'll guess I'll stick with Mrs. O'Leary." He said. "With that settled, I beg to question how you've found yourself in this cave." He said.
"Oh, my bad for intruding, I was just on a hunt and I found myself here. And for some reason I felt the need to open that door. I didn't know someone lived here." I said.
"I see. It's fine, it's an easy mistake." Replied the man. "But it would nice if you were a bit more quiet while in this cave."
"Of course." I said. "Won't happen again."
"Now that that's settled, we'll be going. Thanks for understanding." said the man, sheathing his sword." Ok Mrs. O'Leary, it's time to go. Don't wanna be late for dinner."
"Uhm actually" I started. "I kind of gave up following my hunt because I felt I could get help here and I need to catch it before sundown. So... I was wondering if maybe you could help?" I said to him.
The man seemed to think for a second. He looked at Mrs O'Leary and back at me, before deciding on what to say.
"Seeing as how Mrs O'Leary seems to like you. I myself am quite busy at the time, but I will let you take Mrs O'Leary accompany you. She should be able to find the beast long before sundown." He said.
"Thank you!...uhhh" I said, realizing I didn't know his name.
"Quintus." He said.
"Thank you, Quintus. I'll make sure Mrs O'Leary will be back before sundown, I promise." I told him.
"I don't doubt you will. Good luck on your hunt, young one. But I must be going. Be good Mrs O'Leary." He said as he went back into the cave.
The door instantly shut behind, the boom echoing through the cave.
"Ok Mrs O'Leary, lets get going." I said .
She barked in response.
We made our way out the cave to see the sun on its way down. I couldn't have had more than an hour left.
"Ok Mrs O'Leary, you smell any boars around?" I asked hopefully.
Mrs O'Leary sniffed the air a a couple times before peeking up. She barked a couple times before booting across the clearing.
"Woah!" I said, completely unprepared. I chased after her as fast as I fouled. For such a big beast, she sure was fast.
I followed her as best as I could as she climbed up the mountain. "Wait girl, hold up." I yelled forward.
Mrs O'Leary immediately stopped to sniff the air again. I couldn't stop myself from bumping into her, but she didn't even notice.
Once she picked up the scent, instead of running she crouched down and stalked forward. "We're getting close" I assumed.
I followed the hellhound slowly, my weapon in spear fork, ready for action.
We made our way to a little ridge, and below us laid the sleeping boar.
Being this close to both creatures, I determined that the boar must have probably had more mass but Mrs O'Leary was definitely quicker. I liked out chances in a fight.
But then I remembered something, we had to bring this back alive. "One problem at a time." I reminded myself. I decided that we had to take advantage of the fact the boar was sleeping.
"Ok Mrs Leary, you stay here while I get into position all right. And once I signal, come out and trap the boar." I said. Based on her response I didn't know if she actually understood me or not.
But I had to trust her. So I made my way around the boar, slowly and carefully , until I was right across from Mrs O'Leary.
"Ok girl. Three, two, one...NOW!" I yelled.
Immediately we both jumped forward and closed in on the boar. I'm a heartbeat the boar was awake and up on its feet, fast er than I expected.
The beast noticed Mrs O'Leary first and attempted to run away but stopped once it saw me pointing my spear at it. Realizing it was cornered the beast started to panic.
It bucked you and down, its three feet tusk coming dangerously close. Seeing an opening, Mrs O'Leary leapt forward and swiped the beasts back.
The boar whipped around to counterattack but Mrs O'Leary had already jumped back.
The second it turned its back i lunged forward and deeply stabbed my spear in its back. I decided it was the best place since it would kill it, just cause it to halt.
The beast squealed out in pain before falling on its side. It got back up, then fell back down. Knowing it was defeated it gave up, and prepared for its fate.
"Sorry buddy. It just ad to happen." I told the pig. "But don't worry, you'll be spared."
Wether it understood my words or not, the boar stopped his squirming due to y soothing tone.
"So how do we take this guy back?" I said to Mrs O'Leary. I looked up to see that the hellhound was nowhere to be found.
"Damn. Well I guess I did say she would return before sundown witch was only minutes away." I thought to myself.
"Now, how am I supposed to do this." I said aloud. As if answering my prayers, I heard a loud screech from above.
As if descending from the heavens was Wylo, my favorite eagle horse.
"You couldn't have come at a better time." I told her.
She seeming purred in response. "I know it's a lot to ask but you think you could carry that big guy?" I asked hopefully.
In response Wylo bent down for me to hop on. As I did she grabbed the boar with her front legs and took off. I had heard of eagles carrying baby goats, but this was on the mythological level.
The boar seemed distressed at first but realized that he wasn't firing just yet.
Wylo soared through the air at an impressive speed considering the fact she was carrying such a big creature.
I didn't know if we were going to make it in time when I noticed the diner in the distance. "There girl." I yelled, pointing at the parking lot.
Wylo immediately dived full speed towards the parking lot. At the very last second, she pulled up, narrowly crashing.
Wylo dropped the boar before landing herself.
As soon as we touched ground I ran full speed to the door. I bursted through the entrance making a scene, thankfully though, there was no one really there.
I looked to my left, though, to see Ares sitting their, toothpick in his mouth and a smug smile in his face.
"Look who made it back with just enough time." He said.
"Cut the crap." I replied. "I did what you asked, now just help me and I'll be on my way."
"Straight to the point, huh? Well I guess it befits underworld spawn. Though I'm surprised someone like you has a hippogriff."
"What are you talking about.?" I asked.
"Nothin much, just weird to see a child of darkness to have a mount of Apollo the sun god. But that's not important right now, don't you have your little quest to worry about."
"Yeah, is instead of small chat can you actually help me now?" I asked irritated.
"Yeah yeah, I get it. So tell me, demigod, what do you want to know."
"You know what I want. Tell me who stole the stone of souls and where they are."
"What makes you think I know." He replied.
"Ares, you told me that you would tell me what I wanted to know." I said.
"Guess I did say that. Well sit down and I'll explain."
I looked at him suspiciously before deciding to sit down. This was the only chance I had.
"Just hurry up and explain."
Ares sighed before talking. "Any other day kid, and you'd me dead. But whatever." He said.
"Since you wanna know so bad I'll tell you, but this is something that no other god knows."
"Then how do you know?" I questioned.
"I'll get to to that, just wait and listen kid." He said. "You know, it's pretty obvious when you stop to think about it, it's just most gods are too dumb to pay attention."
"And your not." I couldn't stop myself.
Ares simply grunted before continuing. "Whatever kid. It's probably too much for your demigod brain to understand, but it's clear what god would gain from stealing the stone."
"If it's so obvious than spit it out already!" I demanded.
"Some kids'll never learn huh." He said unfazed. "But anyways kid, does Orcus ring a bell in that tiny head of yours."
"What? What's an orcus." I asked
"Oh well, didn't expect you to know anyway. Orcus is the god of death." He said. "The true god of death."
"What do you mean 'true god of death'" I asked.
"The god of death that existed way before your dad. More specifically the god of brutal deaths. He was sealed away long time ago, during the Titan war. Zeus thought it would be a good idea to uphold peace. And that's when Thanatos took over and became known as the god of death around the world." He stated.
"Ok?" I said, slightly confused by all this information. "So what your saying is that this Orcus guy stole the stone to get revenge? How could he do that while locked away?"
"Kid, Orcus is a god. Not as great as one like myself, but still powerful. Even while chained parts of his consciousness roams free." He explained.
"So where is this Orcus chained up? Who would let him steal something so important?" I asked.
"In the underworld, of course. Zeus may have ordered him to be prisoned but Hades wouldn't let him keep a being from the underworld in Olympus."
"Your telling me he stole the stone right under Hades nose?! Is Hades blind?"
Ares chuckled a bit at my statement. "I told you didn't I, gods egos quite often get in the way. But I suggest you get going west and make your way down to the underworld. It's time for me to get going." Ares said, getting up.
"Wait , how do I get to the underworld?" I asked.
"Figure it out, death spawn!" He said walking out the door. He clicked his fingers and instantly a motor bike appeared. Ares hopped on, revved it a bit, and sped away recklessly into the streets.
"Damn him..." I said under my breath. But he was the least of my problems. Somehow I had to go west, find a god of death, and defeat him in one day.
"But once I retrieve the stone, I can trade it for my mom." I reminded myself. Motivated by the though, I made my way outside and prepared to set off.
Besides I had t settle things with Hades and Thanatos for lying to me. "Wylo!" I yelled out. After a moment of waiting Wylo flew to me at full speed, gracefully landing on the pavement.
"Cmon girl." I said. "We don't have time to waste, hope you got your rest." I said hoping on.
Once I was safely on, Wylo ascended into the air with graceful flaps of her wings.
"Aight girl, straight west, to the underworld!"