The Legends Still Live On

Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn

Kapitel Zwei: Vorbereitungen

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It was as quiet as could be expected in St Gloriana High School's library. That meant that conversations were held to whisper levels wherever possible, to not be so impolite as to interrupt somebody's attempts to study with disturbing chit-chat.

That suited Orange Pekoe well as she strode through the aisles of shelves with purpose. She was looking for a very specific book that she had heard was to arrive that very day in the library. That was why she was presently at the 'New Releases' shelves in the library.

"Now where are you, you little bugger…" she muttered to herself as she passed book after book in the shelves, skimming each one very briefly to determine if it was what she was looking for. "They said it would be here today, so where is it…"

After skimming past several dozen books, Orange Pekoe found one thick book with the title of 'Ultra Compilation of Adages.' "Jackpot!" she quietly cheered upon finding the book. "The latest collection of adages. I better read through this before Darjeeling gets a hold of it…"

Orange Pekoe then reached to grasp the book, but another hand quickly rushed out to grab the book first. The ginger Englishwoman grew momentarily surprised before turning to where the hand had retracted to.

Staring back at her, with that confident, aristocratic grin, was Darjeeling.

'Oh, you must be sodding me…' Orange Pekoe thought in disbelief. But the deed was done, and Darjeeling had beaten her to the book of adages, so the ginger did her best to put on a pleasantly surprised look and greeted Darjeeling, "Oh, Darjeeling! What a pleasant surprise!" She also did her best to not look like she had only just been reaching for the same book. "What brings you to the library?"

Darjeeling grew a more excitable grin as she walked down the aisles with Orange Pekoe in tow beside her. "I heard that the newest book of sayings was here, so I just had to find it," she revealed.

"Ah, how interesting…" Orange Pekoe politely replied while silently cursing whatever deities that be for her bad luck. 'If I had only been just a few seconds quicker…' she begrudgingly thought.

Eventually, the two found a large table to sit at. "Good morrow, mates," Darjeeling announced hers and Orange Pekoe's presence to the table's present inhabitants as the two took their seats.

The table was nearly completely covered up with several thick books, courtesy of Arthur, Assam, Douglas, and Dennis, who were already there.

"Hey," Assam, Douglas, and Dennis replied, not paying much attention to anything outside of the books.

"How do you do," Arthur replied simultaneously. He was similarly paying his attentions to the books rather than greeting the two girls.

As all of them were clearly busy scouring the books, Darjeeling decided to leave them be and got a seat at the table alongside Orange Pekoe. She then opened the Ultra Compilation of Adages to begin reading with the ginger Englishwoman.

"Hey, did you know this saying?" Darjeeling periodically spoke up to the ginger beside her whenever she found an interesting saying. "'I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.'"

"I just learned it…" Orange Pekoe deadpanned in the most polite way possible.

Arthur snorted in amusement, having overheard the quote, and spoke up, "Really, Darjeeling?" The Spitfire pilot looked to the blonde Englishwoman, momentarily tearing away from his books. "Quoting Winston Churchill again?"

Darjeeling looked up to face Arthur. "Why, of course," she answered. She then finally decided to ask what was bugging her mind ever since she arrived at the table. "But what on Earth are you blokes up to with all your thick, heavy books?"

"Class assignment," the Spitfire pilot answered as he turned back to his large book. "We have to pick a myth and explain its potential meanings."

"And the bloody instructor just had to forbid the usage of Celtic and Scottish mythology like a true arsehole," Douglas lamented as he flipped a page in his book.

"Ah," Darjeeling nodded, now intrigued by what everyone else was doing as she leaned forward. "And which branches of mythology did you all pick?"

"I picked Greek," Arthur responded. "Dennis picked to do Japanese mythology, and Douglas picked Egyptian. And Assam…" The Spitfire pilot broke into a few chuckles before finally continuing. "God help us, Assam chose to do Norse mythology."

Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe both raised an eyebrow at how amused Arthur was about Assam picking a Norse myth. Neither of them knew why he was. But they decided to drop it, as Orange Pekoe carried on the conversation, "So which of the Egyptian myths did you pick, Douglas?"

"I chose one that talks about the journey of the sun, in this case represented by the god Ra," Douglas answered whilst still scouring his book.

"And what's it about?" Darjeeling asked.

"It's said that Ra, the sun god, passes over the sky and brings light to the Earth, helping bring life to everything on its surface," Douglas began, not interrupting his scouring of his book. "He reaches the peak of his strength at noon and then begins to age as the afternoon goes on. At sunset, he spits out all the other deities he swallowed at sunrise and is supposedly swallowed by the sky goddess Nut, and when the night is upon the world he meets the god of the afterlife, Osiris. The two merge into a single being, with Osiris being always static and Ra living in a constant cycle. After Ra regains all his energy, he then emerges at dawn via Nut who gives birth to him after having swallowed him the previous day. He is effectively a child again, and he swallows the stars again to absorb their power. And that cycle occurred every single day."

"Huh, well that's something…" Darjeeling noted with intrigue. "Though it sounds a bit… I don't know, but it sounds a bit weird for some reason."

Douglas shrugged, "Well, the Egyptian myths were never consistent with each other. In some retellings, Ra is reborn at sunrise as the scarab beetle god Khepri."

"Hm," Orange Pekoe hummed in acknowledgement. She then turned to Dennis. "And what about you, Dennis? What did you pick from the Japanese?"

"I chose the myth of Amaterasu and Susanoo," Dennis answered with a polite smile. Unlike Douglas, he was showing common courtesy and actually holding eye contact with Orange Pekoe whilst answering.

"And what was that one about?" the ginger-haired Englishwoman prompted.

"It deals with the feud between Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and Susanoo, the storm god," the Northern Irishman politely informed. "The two were siblings, both stemming from different body parts of Izanagi, one of the originators of all life. But moving on, Susanoo's wicked behavior had finally gotten to Izanagi, and Izanagi banished him to Yomi, the land of the dead. Susanoo wasn't happy with that, but accepted it anyway. He first decided to take care of some unfinished business before carrying out his exile, so he went to Takamagahara, what they called heaven, to bid farewell to his sister, Amaterasu."

"Now," Dennis continued as he shifted himself in his seat to get more comfortable. "Amaterasu knew that her brother was preparing some kind of mischief, so she commanded him to explain why he came to her. Susanoo said that he wished to say farewell, but Amaterasu didn't believe him and challenged him to try and prove his good faith. The challenge was to see who could create more noble and divine children. Amaterasu created three women from Susanoo's sword, while Susanoo made five men from Amaterasu's ornament chain."

"But both gods had declared themselves the victor," Dennis continued on, getting more into the role of story-telling. "Amaterasu was so insistent in her victory that it drove Susanoo to lash out at her, hurling a half-flayed pony into her weaving hall and killing one of her attendants."

"A half-flayed pony?" Darjeeling interrupted to ask, confused.

"It was an animal that was sacred to Amaterasu," Dennis explained. "But moving on, Amaterasu was angered by the display and disappeared into the cave Iwayado. When she did that, darkness enveloped the world. Knowing that the world couldn't suffer through eternal darkness, all the other gods and goddesses tried to coax Amaterasu into coming out, but she ignored them all and continued to sulk. Eventually, Ame-no-Uzume, the kami of mirth, came up with a plan to get Amaterasu out. It consisted of placing a large bronze mirror on a tree, facing Amaterasu's cave, while Uzume clothed herself in flowers and leaves. She then overturned a tub and began dancing on it. Eventually, she shed the leaves and flowers and continued to dance stark naked."

Arthur snorted heavily at that point, to which Dennis stopped to glare at him for a second before he continued on, "And, as Arthur was likely to do, all of the male gods laughed their arses off at Uzume's nude dancing, which caused Amaterasu to grow curious of the commotion. She peeked outside, and after a ray of light called 'dawn' escaped, Amaterasu was blinded by the beautiful goddess she had seen. That goddess was herself, being her reflection in the mirror against the tree. Then Ameno-Tajikarawo, another god, pulled her from the cave, and the cave itself was sealed off with a shimenawa. Amaterasu's depression disappeared after she was surrounded by the merriment that surfaced from Uzume's dancing, and the sun goddess then decided to return with her light. After then, Uzume was known as the kami of dawn as well as the kami of mirth."

"Wow…" Darjeeling noted, very much intrigued by the myth.

"What a unique interpretation," Orange Pekoe complimented with a polite smile. She then turned to Arthur. "Now what about you, Arthur? Which of the famous Greek myths did you pick?"

The English Spitfire pilot shrugged lazily. "I just went with the series of family betrayals that dominated the Greek creation myths," he said without any flare, like it was nothing special. He then counted the instances of family betrayal on his hand as he went through them, starting with one. "Gaia convinced her son Cronus to castrate Uranus, his father, after Uranus threw Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires into Tartarus."

Arthur held up another finger to bring the number of fingers he held up to two, "Cronus ate all the children Rhea birthed out of fear of them betraying him like he had done to his own father Uranus, leading to Rhea hiding Zeus and wrapping up a stone in a blanket, which Cronus ate, thinking it was Rhea's newest child. That led to Zeus drugging Cronus, leading him to vomit up the rest of Rhea's children and the stone he had eaten thinking it was Zeus. Zeus then challenged and defeated Cronus in war, throwing Cronus and the rest of the Titans down into Tartarus."

Arthur held up yet another finger, making it three he now held up, "Then Zeus saw a prophecy of the first child of his first wife Metis being even greater than he was, which led to Zeus swallowing Metis to try and prevent the prophecy from passing. But Metis had already conceived, and after some time Zeus grew a massive headache. So one of the gods then cleaved his head with a double-headed Minoan axe, which resulted in Athena leaping from Zeus's head, fully grown, armed, and with a shout of courage."

"Ah, the Greeks…" Orange Pekoe sighed in remembrance of the Greek myths. "In my opinion, Zeus deserved that pain. He was a real arse."

Arthur merely shrugged. "What else to expect from the one who sleeps with literally everybody?" he retorted. "In that light, it's easy to see why-"

"UGH!" Assam interrupted with a disgusted shriek, shoving her book forward like it was on fire. "UGH! UGH!" She then brought her hands to her face and started shaking her head. "Make me forget, somebody!"

"Assam?" Darjeeling asked with a raised eyebrow. In fact, everyone had raised eyebrows, not at all understanding.

Except for Arthur, who was now chuckling heartily and not surprised one bit. "Ah, yes, and then we have the Norse," the Englishman spoke up, now calmed from his chuckle fest. "From the way Assam reacted, I think I can guess which myth she read."

"And that myth was…?" Orange Pekoe prompted, curious as to what myth was responsible for making her friend shriek in such a disgusted manner. It wasn't like Assam to act that way.

"Alright, alright, but beware," Arthur relented, but grew momentarily serious. "You've been warned." He then returned to his usual relaxed, confident attitude as he began the Norse myth. "Now, we have ourselves a story from the beginning of the gods' settlement, when the Æsir had established Midgard, or Earth, and Valhalla, one of the honorable afterlives for those that had been slain in battle."

"Just get on with it already," Douglas impatiently interrupted, leaning against his arm propped up on the table.

"Anyway," Arthur rolled his eyes before continuing with gusto. "There was a builder who offered to build a large wall for the Æsir, but he asked for a very weighty form of payment: the Vanr Freyja, the goddess of beauty; the Ásynja Sól, the sun goddess; and the Ás Máni, the moon god."

"Now," the Englishman brought his hands together, getting very much into the retelling. "Some debating went on back and forth between the gods, but eventually they agreed on the builder's price. However," he was quick to say, bringing in the suspense. "In return, the gods placed restrictions on the builder, the most prominent of which was that he had to complete the wall within three seasons without the help of a single man."

"The builder agreed to those restrictions, but he made one last request," Arthur continued, raising a finger at the time he revealed there was one last request. "He wished to have help from his stallion Svadilfari. Due to the influence of the Jötunn Loki, the god of mischief, that wish was granted."

"But soon enough, the Æsir were kicking themselves for that," Arthur continued on with an amused smile. "Svadilfari proved himself to be at least twice as strong as the builder, easily hauling enormous rocks and setting a fast pace for the progress of the wall's construction. Indeed, the wall was nearly completed three days before the deadline, set for the first day of summer."

"So the gods held an emergency meeting," the Englishman leaned back in his chair and placed his folded hands under his chin. "And through that meeting they tried to figure out who was responsible for this perilous situation. Eventually, they all unanimously agreed that, as with most instances of trouble, this instance was the fault of Loki. So in response, the gods all threatened Loki with a horrible death if he wasn't able to find a way to get the builder to lose their wager."

"And so the god of mischief, understandably valuing his life, swore that he would find a way to get the builder to lose the wager, at any cost necessary," Arthur continued on. He held up a finger. "That in particular is important to note: 'any cost necessary.'" He let his hand drop back down and continued. "Moving on, that night, the builder went out to fetch another rock with Svadilfari, but out from the woods came a mare. The mare neighed at the stallion Svadilfari, and upon realizing what the mare was communicating to him, the stallion became overcome with lust, tearing away from the builder and running off to the mare. The mare ran into the woods, leading Svadilfari to chase after her, and the builder chased after the both of them."

"But the builder could not catch them, and the two horses ran around all night long, halting the builder's progress dead in its tracks," the Englishman continued on, now leaning forth onto the table with his elbows. "So the builder flew into a rage in frustration, and that's when the Æsir realized that he was a Jötunn, their sworn enemy. In that light, they abandoned their previous oaths with the builder and called for the Ás Thor, the thunder god."

"And, well, I think you know how that turned out," Arthur carried on with a foreboding grin. "Thor arrived and smashed the builder's skull with his hammer Mjölnir, killing him instantly. But!" Arthur held up a finger. "Now comes what is perhaps the best part."

The others besides Assam, who already knew what the Englishman was about to divulge, leaned forth, well into the myth.

"The mare that Svadilfari chased after was actually Loki," Arthur revealed after a pause with a grin. At the furrowing of several eyebrows, he quickly added on. "One of his known abilities was that of a shapeshifter. But anyway, the way Loki stalled Svadilfari through the deadline was by rutting with the stallion." Arthur's grin grew even wider with his next statement. "And some time later, still in mare form, Loki birthed the eight-legged horse Sleipnir, the best horse among gods and men."

Assam stood up abruptly, sending her chair screeching back, and immediately walked away from the area as quick as she could. Having to hear that part of the myth again left her wanting to wretch.

Meanwhile, Dennis, Douglas, Orange Pekoe, and even Darjeeling were stunned into silence after hearing the end of the myth. Simply put, they were rendered speechless, particularly by the very quirky ending.

Arthur, however, was enjoying every second of his friends' brains being broken. "Ah, I love the Norse," he remarked in satisfaction. "They were so unbelievably screwed up."

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Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.

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The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer" or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. Any references made belong to their respective owners.

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