Aug and Mnemosyne walked Alexa out to their front door, onto a ledge looking out over the Olympic range. The two immortals surprised Alexa by giving her a hug.
"Stay safe." Mnemosyne whispered.
"You'll do great!" Aug assured her.
"Ook!" Emily said from the cave's opening, standing there with the rest of her troop. Alexa smiled at her.
"I'll miss you too! If you're ever in the New York area…" Emily nodded before she could finish and puckered her lips as if she were kissing the air. Then without another word she and her troop headed down the mountain.
Alexa made sure Luna was ready to go, checked that she still had the gifts from both of her new friends, then she and the metal dog took off again for parts unknown.
The Gargareans weren't exactly hard to find if you knew what to look for. Down near the base of The Brothers was what looked like a shack made entirely of concrete and steel. It was a small building, but every inch of it had been tagged with graffiti. The door was completely steel and looked to Alexa as if it had been stolen from a ship. She felt a pang of longing. It looked like Cabin 9's door!
"Think that's the place?" Alexa muttered, unnecessarily.
"Woof…" Luna answered, before clack an additional message.
"Yeah...take it slow and no matter what they do, be careful." Alexa agreed. They descended gradually. No one came out with bows or swords drawn to meet them so they landed a few feet from the door. Alexa was pleased to see Luna's abilities working just as well as ever. She had been worried during take off that the lead had done some additional damage. She'd have to put some thought into where that gunk had come from.
The young woman made her way towards the door, Luna by her side. She glanced and the winged canine, the dog tilted her head as if to say, "Heck if I know. Go for it!"
Alexa raised a fist and knocked on the door, giving it a nice solid thud. It took a moment for the sounds of movement to reach her ears. The door's wheel lock turned and it swung inward. Almost at the same time the tip of a spear sprung outward and poked into her neck.
The guy on the other side, the one holding the spear, was in his late teens, possible college age, with a scruffy looking hairdo and beard. He wore a muscle shirt, showing off the fact that he did indeed have a bit of muscle to him, and a pair of ripped blue jeans. Behind him was a pair of two more males, crammed into the shack at the top of a circular staircase.
"Well looky what we got here! A little girl out walking with her puppy! What brings you by, little girl?" The guy in front of her jeered. Alexa thought that was rather rich, given the guy only came up to her armpit, but she ignored her urge to slug him. The condescending attitude at least hinted that she was in the right place.
"I'm here to see the King of the Gargareans." Alexa said evenly. This got a laugh out of the one still holding his spear at her throat. It looked to be
Celestial Bronze, another good sign.
"Oh the little girl wants to see the king. You hear that Austin?" Spear boy laughed.
"I hear her, Chad." Laughed the boy on his left. "I think we should give the little miss what she wants, what do you think Ed?"
Ed, she presumed, just laughed a dimwitted sort of guffaw. Chad, the boy with the spear, motioned her closer, barely retracting the point an inch. Jazz's advice from years ago floated back to her.
"If you're ever surrounded, and they have a numbers and arms advantage, bluff until you can turn the tide." Jazz had said earnestly. "You can scream and rage all you want if there's nothing else you can do, but an army doesn't respect fire like that. Cold and confident, that's how you set them on edge. The cooler you keep your head around a big crowd, the more unnerving you are! Fake it until you make it!"
So with that in mind Alexa cultivated a stony expression, and followed the three boys down the spiral staircase with Luna hot at her heels.
The place she found herself in looked like a cross between a bomb shelter and every teenage boy's fantasy. The place was massive, but compartmentalized by thick concrete walls. In one alcove an arcade with everything from Pac-Man to virtual reality Donkey Kong, a bit further a gym complete with an American Gladiators style obstacle course and arena. There was a pizza parlor and burger joint, and even an indoor skate park on either side of an aisle leading up to an ornate throne.
The place was populated mostly by boys, ranging in age from 13 to well into their twenties. That wasn't to say there weren't any females in the mix. They were all in their late teens or older, working all sorts of jobs from waitresses in the burger place, to janitors in the arcade. What made Alexa's blood boil, however, was how they were dressed.
There was only three similarities she could see in each woman's outward appearance ; a metal band wrapped around their arms at the wrist, the sort of tired and exasperated expression that Alexa most associated with some of the mounted police horses who had clearly signed up to serve in a more exciting capacity, and the sheer amount of skin their clothing showed. Everything the women were wearing would've been right at home in either a nightclub or in the women's section of a Halloween store! The waitresses wore powder blue dresses with high cut skirts and low cut tops that looked one tumble away from exposing everything, the ones wandering around the arcade with sodas wore fishnet stockings, a one piece swimsuit, and bunny ears, and she could spot one young woman holding up a large cardboard number six, going through the ring in the gym in what could very generously be called a bikini.
She couldn't see Chad, since he was right behind her but she did hear the snort and see the grins from the other two chaperones on either side of her. Reigning in her anger, she allowed just a touch of it to show on her face as they reached the throne.
On either side were two more guards, both standing at attention with spears in hand, but resting upon it was a man...who looked like a cross between a human being, a Cheeto, and a balloon animal. He was in his mid thirties, his blonde hair was spiked, his skin hosted the worst fake tan Alexa had ever seen in her life, and every single muscle in his body rippled and bulged against his skin as if they had been puffed up with air.
He sprawled on his throne in little more than a speedo that Alexa desperately wished left more to the imagination. He grinned a lazy sort of grin at Alexa and the three boys as they entered.
"Ahh, I see you brought me a new toy, with a shiny toy of her own." The man said with a light chuckle.
"Yes my king!" Chad said immediately. "We caught her skulking around the front entrance!"
"I knocked." Alexa said flatly. This got a laugh out of the king.
"And she speaks! Good! Then if you knocked on our front door, you must have a reason!" He leaned forward to better look at Alexa. Alexa cleared her throat.
"I'm here to ask to borrow your signet ring." She began to explain. The king cut her off by laughing in her face. This got the rest of the men to laugh. Alexa frowned but said nothing, choosing instead to let the mirth pass.
"And what will you give me for payment?" The king finally asked with clear amusement "You can't expect me to give you something for nothing, and my ring is a symbol of my office. What price would you be willing to pay?"
Luna growled a warning, but Alexa silenced her with a gentle hand on her side.
"What would you want? I travel pretty light, but if you want something forged I know my way around an anvil." Another laugh, this one even more derisive.
"A girl! Working the forge!" A few snorted in the crowd. "Ridiculous!" "Imagine the chipped nails!"
"No." Said their leader. "I want you. I have a few brides already, but I think someone as young as you could make a good servant. There's always housework and...other things."
Alexa allowed her composure to slip enough to gag.
"That's not going to be possible. I have other plans and my patron isn't exactly the type to approve of me staying here to be the kind of servant you'd want." Alexa said coolly.
"And why should I care about a girl's plans?" The king asked.
"Because they're backed by Hera herself. I'm here at her request." Alexa said
"And why should I care about a girl's plans?" The king asked again. Alexa half expected Hera to turn him into a banana slug for that insult, but he remained as bulgy and grotesquely human as ever.
"We are men, and this is a man's world." He continued with a sneer. "Maybe outside, the men are more generous to girls, but the Gargareans do things properly! You will be married, one way or another. If not to me, then one of my tribe. It's as simple as that."
"I don't think so." Alexa said, forcing her voice to remain steady. "I'm not going to marry, if that's what you like to call it, anyone here, and I'm not leaving without the ring."
All at once, Alexa felt something moving behind her. It took far more effort than she would like to admit, but she kept herself contained and stone faced as Chad slapped a hand onto her backside. He groped her, kneading the flesh under his fingers, much to the hooting delight of the other Gargareans. The king beamed a proud smile.
"We're Gargareans, girl." Chad laughed. "We take what we want!"
Alexa sucked in a deep breath and let it out through her nose.
"Then, you're going to have to be prepared for the consequences." She said, locking eyes with the king as she spoke. "Anything that touches me, you better be prepared to lose."
Without breaking eye contact she reached down with one hand and grabbed a hold of Chad's hand. She squeezed, hard and fast, feeling bones snapping under the pressure before he even had time to scream. When she let go Chad did cry out, clutching his ruined left hand.
At first there was stunned silence, then the king let out a bark of laughter.
"The boy had his hand crushed by a girl!" This, in turn, got everyone else laughing. Chad looked up and whimpered.
"Father!" That half strangled gasp of surprise and pain only made the men laugh all the harder.
"Take the boy to get medical attention!" The king ordered, this time of putting so much disdain on the word boy that Alexa couldn't help but notice. "And take the girl and her pet to the holding cells. We'll let her sit for a while until she's better behaved."
The group parted, letting four more men, each one armed, to circle Alexa.
"Oh," The king continued with a chuckle, "and be sure not to touch her! We wouldn't want to lose something that actually has value!"