Estella travelled for two rather uneventful days before she met her first trial. She had sought cover on the edge of a forest to spend her second night of travelling. While she slept, unaware, a huge serpent wound it's way towards her through the trees. She opened her hazel eyes and saw a pair of red ones staring back at her. It was all over in less than a minute. Without a second's hesitation, she reached for the bow that she had been given and flung an arrow through the snake, pinning the creature to the tree behind it. Another arrow and the monster lay crumpled at the base of the tree.
Severely shaken, Estella gathered her things and fled through the forest. It was in this state, frightened and starved for sleep, that Estella encountered her next threat.
Tripping over tree roots in the darkened forest, Estë, as she was growing to like being called, was overcome with uneasiness. The wind blew through the trees, creating an eerie, ghostly noise that punctured the deathly silence every few minutes. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. She stepped into a small clearing and saw a satyr directly in front of her. Within seconds she was surrounded by five or six satyrs, who were taunting her and tugging at her clothes. Estë had to think quickly.
"Look! A nymph!" she cried, pointing deep into the forest. The satyrs all turned and looked then scampered off in that direction.
Estella breathed a sigh of relief and hurried on down the path, knowing they would soon discover that there was no nymph.
She reached the edge of the forest around mid-morning and stopped for a moment to wipe away tears of happiness at leaving the gloomy forest. Pulling a slice of bread and a handful of berries out of her bag, she ate while she walked, knowing it was unsafe to border the forest very long.
Estella had been stumbling over outcroppings of rock when she came upon her next predator. Her eyes were on her feet, struggling to stay awake when suddenly the sound of voices made her head snap up and her eyes fly open.
She didn't have to search far for the source of the disturbance. Directly in front of her, just beyond a narrow river, stood about a dozen centaurs. Knowing the centaurs' brutality from Clio's gift of history, Estella knew that, unless she could find a way to avoid them, she was in very real danger. For a moment she stood frozen, not knowing what to do, then instinct took over and she flung herself behind a large boulder. All at once, a thought struck her. On the edge of the river there were many small stones that could fit easily in her palm. She grabbed a couple, took careful aim, and launched one at a random centaur. It struck him hard in the back. He let out a most effeminine scream and turned to the centaur next to him.
"Tobey! What d'you think you're doin'!"
"I'm not doing nothin'!" Tobey replied, bewildered.
"Sure yer not." The original centaur said sarcastically.
"Enough you two!" called the leader of the herd.
Estella waited a moment, then threw the next stone at Tobey. It collided with the back of his head.
"Signus! What the hell was that for!" he yelled at the centaur who had accused him.
"I didn' do nothing!" Signus replied indignantly.
"Yeah right." Sarcasm dripped from Tobey's voice. It appears sarcasm was big with the centaurs.
"Really, I sw-" at this point Signus interrupted himself with "Oof!" as Tobey tackled him.
"Now really, that's enou-!" the leader had come over to break up the fight and was knocked off his feet by the grappling pair. Within seconds he was on top of them and the small wrestling bout had become a full-fledged riot.
Peering around her protective boulder, Estella could see the centaurs in their battle. They started to drift away, still fighting as they went, leaving a clear path towards the cliffs for Estella. As soon as she saw the cliff Estë's eyes widened in horror, then filled with tears. The path through the mountains was blocked and the only other way was over them, up a sheer rock wall, impossible to climb. There was no other way. There was nothing for it, she had failed. Her legs gave out from under her and she crumpled to the ground, sobbing hysterically.
"Father," she called, "Apollo, I've failed you! I'm so sorry. I tried as hard as I could…" A fresh wave of tears came over her then, and her next words were drowned out. She cried herself to sleep in the warm sunlight, hoping to wake up and find this was all a dream.
She was lying on her back in the soft grass next to the cliff when a man stepped in front of her, blocking the sun. She sat up to listen to what he had to say.
"I am Mercury, messenger-god, sent by Apollo. I can't stay long, Apollo has me delivering many messages today, but he told me to come to you first. I have a gift for you. Or rather, Minerva, goddess of wisdom, has a gift for you."
He bent and placed a pair of sandals at her feet. But they were not ordinary sandals, for they were not only made of fine leather, but also of glittering silver wings. Estella voiced her awe. Mercury smiled.
"If memory serves me right, Minerva also made a pair for Perseus on his quest to defeat Medusa. I hope they give as much aid to you as they did to him. Be safe, my dear."
