Play a Little Longer
So, now I'm onto the seventh chapter and it's actually up and you can read it!
I must apologize IMMENSLY for taking so long to update this story. I hope that you can all forgive me and still enjoy the story as well as the others that I updated. I only got to write, like I had thought I would, on weekends or when classes just were not hectic. I am still very sorry for not updating before this.
From my last chapter, I must thank those who read my chapters and gave me their feedback. My deepest thanks goes out to: Sakura123 and Monarth. Thank you so much for your support, I do appreciate it. I also hope that all your lurkers and previous fans do review! I honestly do admit that when you review more, it makes me want to update faster because then I know you still like the story…
Anyhow, hope you enjoy this chapter just like how you liked the others.
Notes: Okay, so I better add in a little disclaimer for a scene I'm going to do with Rowen. Most of you might think it looks a little like LotR: RotK, but I swear it isn't! I actually had the idea long before I saw the movie, but I figure in case there is some fanatic out there, I better give all rights to Peter Jackson and whoever else came up with the touching moment between Arwen and her future son. I don't claim rights to something like that!
Also, Hestia is known as the goddess of the hearth and home, like I stated in a chapter previous. However, I am taking a little liberal change that I possess as author to the mythology and claim she has a crystal to watch over each home…that's a lot o' diamonds!!!
…. Kidding, kidding…please, just humor me and REVIEW to the story
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Mia's Mansion, A Month After the gods Woke UpSage sighed heavily as he looked out his window and down onto the grounds of the Koji manor. After he had seen Aphrodite's child brought into this world, he had felt happy for the first time since he had realized he might not have another chance with Rowen. However, this happy moment was not to last as the baby was pronounced stillborn and Sage wasn't allowed to see the child's face.
The baby had been buried the next morning in a secluded spot on the estate's grounds, in a beautiful clearing that often had deer and other animals visit it. It had also been one of Sage's three favorite meditative spots. Two days after the small funeral, Aphrodite had to leave, claiming it was time now to return to Greece. In a final moment together, she had embraced Sage and told him that she would always watch over him from above.
Sage sighed heavily again, sinking a little more into the depression that had come to engulf him. He wasn't aware that four pairs of eyes watched him from his bedroom door that was only halfway open.
"He's been like that ever since Aphrodite left…do you think there might have been something between them?" Cye asked softly as he was pushed aside a little so Kento could take a look at their friend and fifth trooper.
Rowen, who was standing by the railing and trying not to look interested in the topics about Sage, stiffened at the thought. Ryo, who had been standing closer to Rowen than anyone else, noticed the subtle change in the blue-haired warrior and softly asked if he was all right.
"I just need to go take a walk." Rowen replied stiffly and quietly enough for only Ryo to hear. Without another word, Rowen took off. The slamming of the front door startled Kento and Cye out of their small discussion about what to do to get Sage out of his depression.
"Hey, Ryo…where did Rowen go?" Cye asked softly, joining his leader by the railing. Ryo didn't answer, his eyes fixed on the door that finally stopped vibrating from the force that Rowen had slammed it shut with. "Ryo?"
"What?" Ryo asked quickly, turning back to Cye with a bewildered look.
Cye sighed. "I asked if you knew where Rowen had gone off to." Cye asked, knowing as soon as Rowen's name was mentioned, the fire warrior had lost all attention for the question. "Ryo!"
"I think I'm going to go talk with Rowen…" Ryo stated softly, not turning to face Cye's wrath for ignoring the water warrior. Ryo didn't wait long as he took off after the blue-haired warrior, shutting the door softly behind him.
"If it makes you feel any better, Cye, I'm left as much in the dark as you are about our current situation." Kento supplied to Cye softly as the two headed downstairs, leaving Sage alone.
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Mount OlympusZeus starred at the crystal that hung as if by a thread in the middle of the room in which he sat. Hera, who had returned only a few days ago, sat on his left side, showing he was still displeased by her. However, the couple was entertained for now as the watched the crystal Hestia had loaned them so the could witness the events happening at the home of the Ronin Warriors.
"This bores me." Zeus finally spoke up and with a wave of his hand, sent the crystal back to Hestia's dwelling.
"What do you wish to do instead, husband?" Hera asked softly, keeping her eyes lowered. She was secretly hoping that if she played the good little girl for a while, she would be able to convince Zeus to let her see her child that was in the care of Athena…and if that were to happen, even the king of the gods would not be able to stop her from taking what was hers to raise on her own.
Zeus was silent for a minute as he thought about the request before lurching out of the throne and leaving his home. Hera, who decided since she had not been commanded to follow him, would stay behind until he had need of her.
Zeus, meanwhile, made his way to Hephaestus's forge and went inside after a brief rap on the door. Zeus squinted at the extra heat that always came from Hephaestus's forge as he posed his question for his brother/nephew/cousin…Zeus let the mental tirade of how screwed up the lineage of the gods was slip away as he posed his question.
"Hephaestus, you said once that we would come back to view the greatest moment that the armors have ever faced. A month has passed since our awakening and still we see no mark of the armors or glint of the magical metal. We only know the nine men that we have found are even related to the armors because of the weak connection that still exists between some of the mighty and the armors. Tell me when we shall see the armors!"
Hephaestus barely looked up from a new type of thunderbolt he was trying to create for Zeus before he went back to work. Before Zeus had a chance to explode with anger at being ignored, though, Hephaestus put aside his tool for a moment and attempted to wipe some of the permanent black soot stain from his hands off and onto his shirt. Then, he turned to Zeus and told the King of the Gods what he knew.
"O Father Zeus, how am I to know when we shall see the
armors again or not? I only created the armors and poured some of my power into
one. If you wish to consult matters of the future, you should consult a seeress
or a fortune teller…"
"Don't be ridiculous, that can't work in this day and age." Zeus interrupted Hephaestus. He felt very strongly about this event and often reproached anyone for bringing it up. Since it had been brought up in innocent conversation, he only paced around Hephaestus's dwelling while he continued to mutter. "The people of Earth have only changed in one thing since we went to sleep, and that is the fact that immortal beings like us, or Isis with her court or even that Pele, Cernunnos, or Odin[1] ever existed and that the new Hebrew God is the best one to save them from damnation!![2] None of the self-proclaimed fortunetellers of today have any magic in them and can only tell the future of someone by the stealing of personal information, lies or by possibly guessing their way through certain events!"
"Father Zeus, I must put forth a question."
Zeus stopped in his condemning of today's religious culture and looked to Hephaestus, implying that he could go on with what the god of forge and fire wished to say.
"If we have come out of our long sleep for a time being, it should seem that the wise Graiae would also have awoken with us. They may not be wise, but it was prophesized that they could look into the future. Might you question them?"
Zeus was silent for a few moments as he considered the complications and the answers that could be hidden with the Graiae. He also considered the dangers that were even present for an immortal god when facing the Graiae. In the end, he disappeared from Hephaestus's forge, curiosity getting the best of him.
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A section of Mia's landRowen finally leaned against a younger oak tree after having run for the last thirty minutes. He had covered a good chunk of Mia's land. He was able to avoid Ryo many times by using some secret paths that Sage had once shown him…
Rowen immediately dropped the train of thought and let his head hit the tree softly. Every single time he thought of Sage, he could only envision the night he had seen the young blond with Aphrodite, consoling her over the loss of the child…then claiming he would have taken the child as his own even if it had survived.
Rowen figured he should have let Sage know how he felt about him before this. If he had, he might have been able to understand the point of the conversation he had heard better (there was still a wriggling doubt in his mind that there was more to the story than he knew about…than what he might EVER know about). He should have told the blond how he felt, and then things might not have gotten out of hand…
"Dammit, why didn't I just tell him?!" Rowen cried out, thinking of all the times that he had the opportunity to say it now, knowing what was done was done and that, in a sort of premonition, he could see the gap that would grow between them…and it would all be because he had not spoken up.
Rowen turned around, angry with himself and with the world and decided to take his feelings out on the young oak. He hit a hard knoll in the center of the trunk, then again with his other hand. He continued this tireless exercise until his knuckles were bruised and starting to bleed…and until he heard a twig snap behind him, signaling the arrival of someone.
Half guessing it would be Ryo, he turned around to greet his brother-in-arms and friend, trying to hide his bruised hands behind his back.
What stared back at him was a young vixen fox, no more than a few months old. Rowen smiled when it yapped at him playfully, but did not try to encourage the pup's playful antics. The last thing he needed was for a protective mother vixen to come charging at him if she thought he might harm or steal her baby.
The vixen looked startled suddenly as its gaze traveled just off to Rowen's right. The pup stiffened and in the next instant, had vanished into the bushes with barely a sound.
Confused, Rowen looked over his right shoulder to see what might have startled the pup…he hadn't heard anyone approaching, something he could normally pick out in such a quiet setting as what this forest provided him with. So it was quiet a surprise when Rowen looked over his shoulder to see a young toddler sitting amongst the brush, playing with multi-colored stones that were set out on the skin of a bear for her.
Rowen slowly approached the young child, quite certain that he hadn't seen her before. And she was too young to have dragged the bearskin as well as a backpack full of stones with her. So where did she come from? A quick scan of the forest with Rowen's sharp eyes didn't reveal parents hiding anywhere, so he knelt down next to the child.
The child seemed undisturbed, as if she couldn't see him. Light changed suddenly and a bright shaft fell down on top of the toddler's head, highlighting each little curl of the hair and the…blue highlights?
Rowen bent his head so he could see the child's face and was quite startled to see a chubby, feminine version of himself concentrating on the rocks and stacking them in a pile. But he didn't remember having a child, so who did this child belong to? It certainly couldn't be his…
The toddler looked up suddenly and broke into a large grin, stretching her chubby little arms up, as if trying to get Rowen to pick her up. Rowen, startled even at his own actions, bent to oblige the little one…only to have his hands go right through her.
Another's set of arms picked her up and Rowen looked to his left to see a woman with long, blond hair tied up in a ponytail nuzzling with the child, a smile lightening features that seemed to be too stern half the time. Her skin was pale, but one thing that really caught his attention was that her eyes were stormy gray, just like Sage's were sometimes.
The realization of the likeness between the two made Rowen's jaw drop and he couldn't stop staring even when the child turned to him and waved goodbye as the obvious mother of the child walked away with her still in her arms. When they reached a stand of Northern Elms a few feet away, the woman walked through them with the child and vanished.
That was how Ryo found him, a few minutes later, staring open-mouthed at a stand of elms.
"Careful, Ro, don't let flies buzz into your mouth!" Ryo said softly, startling the blue-haired archer out of his daze. Rowen snapped his mouth shut at the comment immediately and turned away from the stand of the trees.
"What do you want Ryo?" Rowen asked, clearing his throat a little. He licked his dry lips as he sat down on a protruding stone, looking around discreetly for the bearskin and multicolored rocks. Neither was anywhere to be found.
"Well, I wanted to talk about you and Sage. You two have really distanced each other over the past month. Is there anything you want to talk about?"
Rowen, instead of answering, saw a glint of blue and green by his foot. He bent down, ignoring the last of Ryo's question to pick it up…it had been one of the stones the little toddler had been playing with.
"Ro?" Ryo asked, snapping Rowen's attention away from the solid, cold rock he held in his hand now.
"I'm sorry, what?" Rowen asked, looking into Ryo's blue eyes.
"Is there anything you need to tell me?" Ryo asked again, forcing Rowen to pay attention with his tone.
"Not that I can think of, why?" Rowen asked as he pocketed the stone to think about later. For now, he decided to talk with Ryo for a little and keep his mind off the mysterious little girl and Sage's strange comment to Aphrodite.
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Meanwhile, Somewhere on the Coast of TurkeyZeus walked along the wet beach, not letting the surf get to him even as it weighed down his toga. For an immortal, such things were of no consequence…he could dry it when he wished to, but for now, his concentration was focused on the cliffs that bordered the beach. This was the last place he had known the Graiae to reside and hoped enough of the cave opening would still exist that he could enter and find out what he needed to know.
Suddenly spying an opening amongst the constant gray of the cliff walls, he made his way to the wall and peered into the opening.
It was dark, wet and cold inside, but this did not deter the King of the Gods as he bent down and squeezed into what appeared were the remains of the Graiae's lair. A shiver down the King's back warned him that he was not alone…
Zeus turned, springing out of the way at the same time to avoid whatever was there. In the darkness, he could barely make out one of the Gray sisters, her cheeks drawn thin in starvation and both eyes blank, for the magical eye that the three sisters normally shared between them was not present with this one.
"Is someone there?" The Gray Woman said, her voice harsh and worn with disuse, one hand reaching out to search for whoever had entered her domain. She took a stumbling step forward and paused once again, her arm waving as if to search for Zeus.
"It is I, Zeus, who comes to your dwelling, Graiae. Tell me what I need to know!" Zeus commanded of the woman in front of him, taking into account her appearance. Zeus doubted there would be any way that she could refuse his request…without her sisters, the Graiae were weak. "Where are your sisters, Graiae?"
"Gone." The woman replied; the answer cut off shortly with rage at not being able to see or control her guest. "They both died centuries ago…we didn't fade like the mighty on Olympus did, oh no. We were able to survive, but the ocean…oh, Great Poseidon's ocean, it is a curse! As long as it continues to approach my cave, no humans now search for any answers. The great water, it drives them away…and the legendary story of an evil monster that haunts these cliffs." A wicked smile flickered across her lips at the story part, a dry tongue darting out to wet her dry lips as she thought about the succulent humans that she and her sisters had used to dine upon.
"Well, it's hardly any less than you deserve. Feeding upon humans definitely gives them a fear of what dwells within these cliffs." Zeus paused, as he looked the woman up and down again, taking into account this time that she did not have in her possession the mystical eye that was normally shared between the three. "Where is your eye, old hag?"
"My eye? Gone! In an earthquake! I was minding my own business, washing some of the dirt off the eye after my second sister died…and then the ocean shook with a new fury, something I hadn't felt for a millennia! And it fell, to Poseidon's great depths." The Graiae responded, poking around some fallen stones in the cave.
A bird chirped near the hole that Zeus had stepped in from and with lightning fast movement, the Graiae had launched herself across the rocks and snagged the bird. She shoved the whole thing in her mouth while it still whistled at her to be free and once she had swallowed the bird, only then did she bother to spit its feather out at her feet.
"I thought you couldn't see with your great eye."
"Amazing what can happen to one's other senses when one doesn't have the ability they used to rely on!" The Graiae snapped, patting the stones around the entrance, possibly looking for more stray birds or fish that she might be able to stuff into her mouth.
Zeus grimaced at the thought before demanding what he wanted to know. "The Mighty on Olympus have been brought back to life for a time. You know of this, old hag. You were the one to predict it to me that millennia ago when I came to ask you after the first few fell asleep. Tell me, will I be able to see the mystical armor that calls to me in my dreams even?"
The Graiae glanced over her shoulder at him as if she could see, but only gave a nasty smile.
"You want my help? Well too bad. I'm not in the mood to help anyone, including the king of the gods. Unless…" The Graiae paused, putting a thin finger to her lips as if she had to consider something. "Unless the King does something for me first, I shall not do anything for you." She turned back to patting down stones, searching for food or water that might linger for her.
"What would it be that you want?" Zeus asked, mainly asking the question to stop the wet slapping that distracted him, but helped the Graiae search for food. He grimaced as she sucked on her fingers after finding a slight amount of dirty water trickling down the rocks.
"My eye." The Graiae said softly before she went back to patting the stones.
[1] Isis was the goddess of fertility and one of many of the Ancient Egyptian gods/goddesses; Pele is a fire goddess from Polynesia and represents a whole slew of mythological beings from the Pacific Islands; Cernunnos is a Celtic god that protected horned animals from the Celtic mythology; Odin is a one-eyed god from Norse (Teutonic) Mythology and was considered to be the strongest and sometimes the king of the gods
[2] No, I'm not an Atheist or anything like that, so please don't flame me for that comment…just trying to keep my mind open to different possibilities. Sorry if I insulted anyone, Jewish or Christian alike, I didn't mean to. And just because I left out the other religions doesn't mean that I'm ignorant of them. If I knew more information about them, I would have included them too, I swear. I'd rather exclude something than get information wrong…