Ok, character chapter number... Who cares. Chapter Nicole; Goddess of insane, dancing to invisible music and extreme happiness. Also winner of the longest title in the story. Anyway, very romantic chapter, though not in the way Lauren's was. Definitely not. Only need one friend like that. Re-editing has been done, though I'm sure there are still problems. Some things to know:
1) I have skewed the myth about Daphne and Apollo a bit.
2) Bellerophon: hero who killed the Chimera with the aid of Pegasus. I read a myth somewhere that says he got too cocky, tried to fly to Mount Olympus, and was thrown off of Pegasus' back, doomed to roam the earth a broken spirit. However, I now can find no evidence of this myth so if I'm totally off my rocker, I beg forgiveness.
3) Zeus' symbol is a lightning bolt. This may be useful information. Heh heh heh...
4) Aegean Sea: the sea that surrounds Greece. There's a myth behind it, but that's for another time.
5) Poseidon: God of the sea, earthquakes and horses. Not much else to say about him.
Ok! Enjoy!
Nicole awoke just before the sun had risen. She had been having a nice dream about her crush, when the feel of feathers drawing across her lips softly had woken her up. Yawning lazily, she scanned her room for signs of an intruder. As she glanced at the window, she saw a small flock of white doves cooing and ruffling their feathers. A look of horror grew on the brunette's face as she frantically checked herself for signs of bird poop. Nothing. Nicole breathed a sigh of relief and bounced out of bed. Unfortunately, she didn't bounce far enough, and her foot caught on the edge of her Persian rug, sending the goddess to the floor with a resounding thud. This caused the glass chandelier in her room to break loose and fall to the floor, along with a portion of her ceiling. As the goddess was recovering from the shock, the entire room started to rumble. In fact, the entire goddess complex began to shake. Before anyone new what was happening, the entire building came crashing down, goddesses and all.
"What the hell just happened?!" screamed Aubrey as she pulled herself out of the rubble.
Beats me, Colleen called, but could someone help me? I'm stuck under a gigantic pillow. As Lauren went over to help her, the rest of the goddesses stood up and dusted themselves off. Nicole looked sheepishly at the mess she had just created. Deciding it wasn't the time to admit her mistake, the bubbly goddess announced;
"Let's get breakfast."
By some miraculous coincidence, the dining area remained intact, and still offered an array of food. Nicole grabbed a plate, some food, and sat down on one of the now dusty chairs to eat. The conversation around her drifted lazily from clothes to monkeys to power to smiting guys to crushes. Nicole's ears perked up at this last topic and she unwittingly and unconsciously said "Oh yea, I've got a crush."
Lauren, Colleen and Aubrey immediately gasped and stared. "Who is it?" they demanded.
Nicole gave them her best glare. "Like I would tell you." she scoffed, "Apollo."
This time there was another gasp, but it came from Liz. Actually, it came from Liz's head, where Dirty Clarence was sitting and listening to the conversation. "You got your work cut out for you sista'!" he hooted, "That man was kissin' a TREE yesterday. I'd hate to see what other competition you have!"
Nicole looked shocked. Suddenly she leapt up and grabbed Liz by the neck. "Tell me everything." she demanded to Liz's forehead.
The goddess of extreme happiness wasn't so happy at the moment. In fact, she was pissed off. In a whirlwind of anger, Nicole stormed over to Apollo's place. She didn't stop to admire the huge sunflowers like usual, or to wiggle her tush for a second at the musical waterfall that by the flowers. Stomping up the spiral gold stairs and through the gauzy curtains, Nicole found herself inside. She took a few steps forward, and shouted.
"APOLLO!!!!!!!!"
The god of light came running from the roof where he had been, a look of panic on his face. Seeing Nicole's attempt at a dark glare, he rolled his eyes slightly. "All right Nikki, what is it. Did you botch up another power lesson?" Nicole's glare only became deeper at this. She didn't want to be reminded of the time when she had accidentally made Pegasus dance randomly as he was carrying Bellerophon up to Mount Olympus yesterday. The hero had lost his grip and plummeted to Earth. It wasn't her fault that stirrups hadn't been invented yet!
Apollo, seeing that he had made Nicole's mood worse, took a step back, smoothing out invisible wrinkles in his pale yellow toga awkwardly. His student eyes him suspiciously. "What is the deal with this tree nymph I've heard about; Daphne. Did you or did you not kiss her, and what about me?!" she demanded finally.
The sun god look stunned for a moment. Then he looked a little repulsed. Finally he threw back his head and laughed, his golden hair shaking with mirth. Nicole growled inaudibly and waited impatiently for him to finish. Finally he wiped away his tears. Still chuckling slightly, he took a step forward and engulfed Nicole in a consoling hug. The goddess resisted temporarily, but then gave herself up to his embrace. Looking into his deep blue eyes, she made a failed attempt to frown.
"Explain."
Taking a deep breath, Apollo began. "Well, a few years ago, Artemis and I got into a fight. She got so mad at me that she drugged me and then dropped me off in the middle of the woods. I would have been so lost except for the fact that a nymph happened to find me and help me. I told her that I couldn't thank her enough. She smiled and replied 'Someday, come back and give me a kiss.' Well, I'll be honest with you. She didn't get the good looks that most nymphs were born with. I put off returning as long as I could. Finally, I decided to fulfill my promise and give her the kiss she wanted. When I got there, it turns out that some hobo had been chasing her and she had asked her father, the river god, to turn her into a tree to save her. Well, I have no problem with kissing a tree and I didn't want to break my promise. So there you go. Are you still mad FuzzlePuff?" he asked flirtatiously, tweaking Nicole's nose.
Nicole blushed. Wrapping her arms tightly around Apollo, she snuggled closer to his muscular chest. "That's a sweet story. I would have had to hurt you if you said anything else." she said, her voice muffled by the rich fabric of her mans' toga. Apollo laughed again and kissed Nicole's head. "What say we go out for a lesson today?" he said.
"Fuzzle! Slow down!" Apollo called as the goddess's shape diminished into the distance. Nicole let out a giddy laugh and urged her swans faster. They squawked with exuberance, the little bells tied to their necks tinkling merrily in the wind. Nicole attempted to smooth out her pink dress, but nearly fell off her porcelain saddle. Righting herself, she once again grabbed the ribbon reins to her birds and awaited Apollo's arrival elegantly. Then they rode together happily, chatting about this and that with an occasional flirt thrown in.
Soon, the sounds of battle and death drowned out the immortal's conversation. Peering down from her seat, Nicole saw that they were now above a battle at Troy. Yes, it was still going on. "Ew!" squealed the brunette as a bloody arrow came flying up at her. Driving her swans farther into the sky, she surveyed the damage and chaos. "So you want me to do what now?" she accused Apollo.
The sun god grinned and began to reply. His explanation was cut short however, by a "What are YOU doing here?!" and a happy gasp. Whipping around, Nicole and Apollo came face to face with a miffed Ares. The happy gasp had come from Colleen, who stood grinning in her chariot next to her mentor. Ares scowled at her and stuck out his hand to Eep her into submission. She dodged his hand and flew over to Nicole, hovering stubbornly next to her fellow goddess. Ares then turned his scowl to Apollo, who returned it with a smirk.
Before either of the goddesses knew what had happened, the two gods were yelling at each other about possession of human torture and training. Then Ares took a swing at Apollo and the two started into a fistfight. Colleen looked at Nicole as strings of curses came following.
Guys are soooooo stupid
Nicole nodded sadly. Yea. It's a bleak and dismal existence for us goddesses.
The two goddesses turned away from their mentors and adjusted their gaze to the battle below. Colleen, having done this before, pointed to one helpless victim. He immediately started Eeping loudly, despite the five arrows that found their way into his stomach. Nicole grimaced slightly and blew a kiss at another warrior. He suddenly turned to the enemy behind him and gave him a huge hug. Another mortal began dancing insanely, all the while letting out shouts of "Eeklackawiki!", frightening away all that dared to harm him. Colleen and Nicole exchanged high-fives and began the routine all over again. This went on all morning, and so did the fight between Apollo and Ares.
"What are they fighting about anyway?" Nicole asked.
Colleen shrugged and grinned mischievously. "Lover's spat?"
Nicole glared at her. "Not MY man." she stated defiantly, and went back to making warriors dance insanely.
12121212
"Wow! That one was awesome!" Nicole cheered. The goddesses watched contently as their latest victim staggered across the battlefield, Eeping in tune to the invisible music he was dancing to, all while wearing an insane comical expression on his face. The two goddesses let out hoots of triumph. Suddenly their stomachs rumbled. "Lunch time!" Nicole yelled, releasing all of the mortals from her goddess hold. They sank to the ground, to tired and frightened to fight anymore.
"What are we going to do about THEM?" asked Colleen, jerking her head in the direction of the gods. Nicole wrinkled her nose in thought. "Let's just leave them." She said finally. And so the goddesses sped off to lunch, leaving their mentors in a catfight.
Since the new goddess complex hadn't been all the way rebuilt yet, the goddesses had been invited up to the grand hall on Mount Olympus to enjoy a feast. Nicole bade farewell to Colleen, dropped off her swans at the lake where they lived, and jogged lazily to the hall. As she entered through the rows of stars sewn into curtains, she saw that the ebony table had already been set with glistening white china dishes and goblets of garnet. Soft music played in the background as sunrays glistened above. Nicole sat down in one of the pale silk chairs. Megan, Sonomi, Katie and Lauren were already there, talking quietly so as to not disturb the atmosphere of the room. Colleen, Aubrey and Liz came bouncing in, but the hush fell on them as well, and they sat down, reserved, waiting for the food to arrive.
Soon impatience overrode the air of the hall, and the goddesses began to chat louder and more excitedly. Since no one had included her in a conversation yet, Nicole was content with inspecting her place setting. She was picking up her plate to examine to flowered rim, when her eyes fell on what was hiding underneath her dish. She gasped softly and made a guttural sound like a hamster in a meat grinder. Then, as a natural pause fell in the conversations around her, she spoke, very disturbed.
"Everyone look under their plates."
The goddesses turned to look at her, then shrugged and did as she obliged. Megan screamed. Liz and Katie dropped their plates on the floor. The rest of the immortals just stared in horror. Underneath each plate, put there inconspicuously, was a condom. Not just any condom, oh no. This one had a metallic lightning bolt on the front of it. Just as the goddesses were processing this terror, a knock was heard at the door. As all eyes swiveled in that direction, Zeus entered the room. His entrance could not have been more ill timed on his part. As eight faces darkened into glares, the thunder god took a step back in fear. "What?" he asked, feigning innocence.
Hera was walking past the grand hall when all of a sudden noises erupted from it. Screams of terror, pain and outrage were heard bouncing off the walls, along with quite a few Eeps and Mneihs of protest. Frozen to the spot in shock, Hera watched as the door swung open, spewing out chicken feathers, spiked bubbles, thunderclouds, miniature spears, steel-clad wombats, orange puff balls, and of course, Zeus himself. The god was dressed in a purple and orange leather mini-skirt, with a magenta tank top, a Kelly green feather boa, and black spike heels with pink fishnet tights. His hair was dyed blue, with the exception of large welts where Megan's branding iron had hit, and a purple teddy bear was still gnawing at his leg. "Don't ask." he said shakily to his annoyed wife. She didn't ask. She just slugged him across the jaw, leaving a large imprint from her five rings, and walked off in a huff, determined to tell every god and goddess she came across about this incident.
Megan took a deep breath and blew the smoke off her branding iron. The rest of the goddesses were in a similar state; slowly coming down from that fury high. Nicole sat back in her chair. "Ok, that was the strangest thing that has ever happened to me." she muttered. Everyone agreed. Suddenly Sonomi came to a realization.
"We still haven't had lunch."
As if on cue, new plates materialized, along with mountains of steaming food. The goddesses dug in hungrily. The rest of lunch was blissfully uneventful, save for extremely loud laughing coming from Mount Olympus. "I hope that Zeus getting laughed at." grumbled Megan to her peas. Everyone nodded hopefully and resumed eating.
As lunch ended, Nicole stood up. Bidding farewell to everyone, she casually strolled back over to her mentor's house. Apollo was already there this time, sporting a large black eye. Nevertheless, he grinned broadly as Nicole came in, showing off a few missing teeth. "I won." He announced gleefully, as his immortal blood slowly began to heal him. Nicole rolled her eyes, but gave him a kiss on his eye. Apollo twisted his head slightly, and met her lips. For a moment they just sat there, poised in the moment and the kiss. Finally Nicole drew back, eyelids fluttering.
"So what are we going to do this afternoon?" She breathed. Apollo stood up and clapped his hands. Instantly the two gods were transported into the large dance studio at the back of Apollo's castle. Nicole gasped like she always did when she entered here. It was so gorgeous! The wood floors had been polished and laminated with gold, the walls sparkled with millions of small crystals. From the invisible ceiling hung a huge chandelier of crystal flowers and butterflies. Both had been magicked so that the flower's pungent aroma filled the room, and the butterflies flitted about, the sun's ray hitting their wings like jewels. But the best part about this place was the view. Stretching as far as the eye could see was sapphire water dotted with small emerald islands. The Aegean Sea stretched on, like a cobalt ribbon, entrancing and beautiful. Nicole swayed and closed her eyes against the beauty of it all. "I take it we're going to have a lesson about dancing." she said.
Apollo nodded and took her hands. "Shall we waltz first?" He asked. Nicole blushed slightly and the duet whisked across the floor to the gay sounds of invisible music. So hard was she concentrating on the music, Nicole did not realize that Apollo was no longer at arms length, but pressed tightly against her own body, his blue eyes gazing down at her. Soon the tempo quickened and the pair intertwining to gavottes, tangos, even a spicy flamenco. Nicole tried her skills at Irish step-dancing as well, but that didn't involve being in Apollo's arms so she ended that quickly.
On and on the duo danced, matching perfectly in rhythm to the invisible music that captivated the room. The afternoon wore on without them noticing, and Nicole was very surprised to hear the cooing of a gray dove perched on the chandelier. She groaned slightly and pulled away from her dance partner. Apollo, nodded. Then he grinned. "I do believe you worked on extreme happiness this afternoon as well." He teased, " 'cause I'm certainly smiling." Nicole giggled and dusted his nose softly with her lips. Then she gathered up her skirts and skipped off to Hestia's.
As Nicole reached the door of the Hearth goddess's home, she tripped and fell flat on her face, tiara askew. Megan, who happened to just be entering as well, grabbed the doorframe and held on for dear life. "Phew!" she said, when no tremors were detected, "I was waiting for a repeat of this morning!" Nicole glared at her fellow goddess and pushed past her into the villa, ignoring the snickers Megan tried not to conceal.
Katie, Liz, Lauren and Sonomi were already in the villa when Nicole entered. She gave them a friendly wave and sat down. Suddenly the pillow she was on changed textures and became very damp. "Do you mind?!" came an offended voice behind her. Nicole squealed in surprise and jumped off of Lindsay's lap as she materialized.
"What happened to you?" Megan asked as she entered. Lindsay grimaced. "I fell into the ocean. Don't ask the details." she said curtly. Megan shrugged and asked no more as Colleen and Aubrey came in, completing the group. Hestia came into the room shortly after that, signaling the beginning of another meditation session. As everyone grew quiet and turned to her, the goddess began the instructions.
"Today is an interesting lesson." she began. Everyone let out a groan involuntarily, remembering her other "interesting" lessons. Hestia waited for the noise to subside, then continued. "You will each be given a colony of these," she said. Suddenly a small bubble filled with glowing fairies materialized before each goddess. The fairies didn't seem too happy about this situation, as they were glowing an angry orange and beating at the sides of their prison. Sonomi made cooing noises and stroked at the orange while the fairies put up little middle fingers. Hestia raised an eyebrow.
"These sprites are very temperamental." Hestia went on.
Big word complained Lauren, but no one heard her.
Hestia went over and took Nicole's bubble for demonstration. "If you can succeed in making these sprites green, then they are happy. Blue is even better. And to make this challenge even more fun, you are going to work in partners. No, not each other." Hestia said as random picking was going on. "-THESE are your choices."
On cue, the door to Hestia's villa opened. In walked Aphrodite, Hera, Hermes, Athena, Ares, Dionysus, Demeter, Artemis, and a man who looked like the older version of Zeus with deep blue hair and beard. He held a Trident in his hand and scowled fiercely. As Hestia introduced him as Poseidon, god of the sea, everyone backed away.
"Now," Hestia announced, "Pick a partner. It CANNOT be your mentor." Nicole made a beeline straight for Aphrodite. As she glanced about, she was extremely grateful that Apollo wasn't here as certain goddesses were looking for a cute immortal to pair with. The god swap settled down quickly. Liz was paired with Artemis, Lindsay with Hera, Lauren looking unhappy with Demeter, Colleen with Athena, Sonomi with Ares, Megan with Hermes, Aubrey with Poseidon, and Katie with Dionysus. Hestia overlooked this last pair as they were breaking the rule, and clapped her hands. Slowly a bubble formed around each group. "Anything you do to your sprites that displeases them," she explained, "Will happen to you. Good luck!"
Aphrodite turned to Nicole immediately. "I think we should dress them up in pink frills!" she said, squealing slightly. Nicole gave the goddess a high-five. "Oh yea!" she exclaimed, delighted to be working with someone who shared her views. Snapping her fingers, the goddess created little pink dresses that the sprites immediately pounced upon. Some of the fairies enjoyed their new clothes immensely, turning shades of pale green and teal, but a few stayed orange and screamed. Nicole and Aphrodite were suddenly clothed in the same pink frill as their charges. After squealing excitedly for a minute, the two goddesses stopped prancing around their bubble and went back to serious work.
Around them, most other pairs were fairing just as well or worse as the pink duet. Artemis and Liz were chatting happily as they jogged in their bubble, a result of the idea that exercise would help the sprites. Lindsay and Hera were completely ignoring the assignment; talking about life and what-not, while Megan and Hermes were having fun giving the pixies little swords and letting them duel it out themselves. Lauren was having a hard time because Demeter wouldn't say anything, so the blonde goddess had to do everything herself. She currently was being pelted with rice because she had decided that the little creatures were hungry. Demeter looked on in amusement, then turned to the sound of someone being smacked. It was Ares, being attacked by Sonomi over and over again. The sprites seemed to love this, as they were glowing a bright blue and cheering the duel on. Colleen and Athena looked up from their own attempts to feed the pixies (slightly more successful than Lauren's) and laughed. Katie and Dionysus were busy getting the little creatures drunk, which seemed to work very well, and Aubrey was just staring at them. Finally her partner twitched his staff and a small swimming pool appeared in the globe. The pixie squealed in glee and turned green to show their delight.
Nicole and Aphrodite had just managed to get all of their sprites happy (some preferred purple to pink) when Hestia announced that the lesson was over. Of all the goddess pairs, only four managed to make the pixies happy; Sonomi, Nicole, Katie and Megan, though many of Megan's pixies were a bit wounded. Hestia smiled and congratulated each immortal for their efforts. As the sun began to set, everyone filtered out of the villa and headed towards sleep.
The new goddess complex was finally done when the goddesses got there. Nicole gave a wistful sigh as the ebony cloak of night was cast upon the earth, twinkling mystically with millions of stars. A gentle breeze flowed in the east, caressing locks of hair and blowing kisses to bare arms and feet. Far off in the distance, an owl cried a soft mournful tone, completing the setting. The immortals stood there for a few minutes, letting the serenity soak through every pore. Then, silently, they went in to the tower.
Under her covers in her bed, Nicole was almost asleep. She would have been the next second if her lamp hadn't fallen off the ceiling again, causing a loud crash. The goddess held her breath fearfully, but no sounds of crumbling could be heard. As she breathed a sigh of relief and breathed a "good night" to her new pixie pets on her nightstand, Nicole's eyelids slowly closed and carried away to slumber.
Mhm! 'Noth chapter completed. Next will be Katie! Don't expect it anytime soon though, as that chapter will be almost as hard as Aubrey's.