Chapter 24 ~ Elektra
They were almost at the borders of Georgia now, which was next to Florida. Nethrys was driving now, so Elektra went to the bunks to do hang out with the others. "Hey Katherine, look at this" Scarlett said brightly, flouncing into the room.
"Katerina," The Godling in question corrected.
"Sorry, Katrina."
"Katerina, get it right," Katerina frowned and turned away, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Hey- wait! Kat, look," Scarlett carried on - "Katerina!". Elektra huffed in annoyance, and sat down on her bunk, opening and studying her book on herbs and medicine. Scarlett was rambling about something to Katerina, who didn't even seem to be listening to what she was talking about. Elektra didn't see what was so bad about Scarlett - she was sweet, pretty and even funny at some times, as long as you give her enough attention. But still, everyone has their own opinion, I guess. She skimmed through the pages of information she already knew about, simple sickness cures, antidotes to basic poisons, etc.
She flipped to the back and saw some recipes and formulas she has never seen before in her studies of herbology. She peered more closely at the page, making out the tiny, cramped writing. It was a set of instructions for a potion, a potion that she had never heard of:
Ingredients: aloe vera, buckthorn bark and berries, cascara sagrada bark. saw palmetto, valerian, kava (which is banned in most countries, especially in Europe), khat, betel nut and the restricted herb Ephedra and Guarana.
She gaped at the ingredients list - most of these were so rarely used or restricted. This doesn't make sense, you normally can't get any of these ingredients. This textbook she was reading was either out of date or the author was crazy. But she checked the published date at the front of the book, and it only read six years ago. She recalled taking it from her father's medicine cabinet at home when she was messing around a few years ago. She flipped back to the end again, but all that was after the crazy ingredients list were instructions and warnings about the potion. She closed the book and slipped it into her bag then climbed down her bunk and made her way to the driver's seat next to her brother, who had relieved Nethrys from his shift and just taken the wheel.
"Hey," Elektra greeted his brother, opening up the map that was tucked into the compartment.
"We're right about in Georgia right now," Enryx reported, "We passed the state border about ten minutes ago."
"Good, I think we're on schedule. If we keep going at this pace, we'll easily be finished by the deadline," Elektra made the calculations, "We've spent about a month and a week, which leaves us about a little under two months. It'll take us some time to actually find Phobos, of course, and not to mention defeating him-"
"Don't," Enryx cut her off, shaking his head violently, "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Wimp," She muttered, but her brother heard her and scowled, pulling a face at her, "But seriously, we should really start contemplating our choices. I mean, would it be quicker if we split up or-"
"No!" Enryx exclaimed, "No way! It's too dangerous... Hey, what's that?" There was a shadow flitting in and out of sight next to their window.
"I'll go check." She replied, "You keep driving," Elektra got out of her seat to go peer closer at the shadow. It- he? was running - no, flying. And then she saw him- he looked like he was in his mid-forties. He had 'salt and pepper' hair, and was wearing a bronze helmet with wings on either side and carrying what looked to be a a staff with two snakes wound around it and wings coming from the top. He seemed to flying or sprinting mid-air, his traditional greek tunic catching in the wind. He was wearing sandals with wings spreading from each boot.
Enryx pulled over on the road to stop the car. Both of them went outside, where the others were gathered at the door, which was knocking consistently. A few warily raised their weapons, but Elektra opened the door, revealing the mysterious visitor. Hermes? The God of Thieves waved cheerfully at Elektra as they made brief eye contact. Not knowing what else to do, she returned it tentatively.
"Uh...Rosie, I think there's someone here you should see," Elektra paused awkwardly. Rosamynd stepped out van, her hair in a high ponytail and in her flannel pajama pants and her green 'treehugger' shirt with a thin, washed out blue cardigan over it.
"Who is-?" She started to say to Elektra, but she cut herself with a gasp, "Dad!?"
"Rosamynd, is that you?"
"Well, of course it's me- what? You don't remember your own daughter?" Rosamynd retorted, her normally happy face going red.
Hermes either didn't hear her, or he chose to ignore her. "I haven't seen you in so long, sweetheart."
"Don't 'sweetheart' me, Hermes," Rosamynd scoffed in annoyance.
"Rosamynd? There is something I'm missing here - why are you mad at me?"
"Why am I mad at you? Seriously, dad- I thought you could do better that that."
You want to know why I'm mad at you? Well, how about the fact that you abandoned me, for starters, and you just used me, dad. How could you?" She stared at him in shock, tears starting to brim in her eyes.
"Sweetie, I didn't abandon you! I had a job to do, and taking care of children just isn't my expertise."
"I know I haven't been the best but I'm so sorry, Rosamynd," Hermes said, and Rosamynd looked away from her dad. Elektra watched them bicker, and tutted to herself - I would never act like that to my mother, Luna, even though she left us. Rosamynd rolled her eyes and stepped back into the caravan, slamming the door.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hermes, we'll get her to co-operate," Enryx apologized, as Elektra turned to frown at Rosamynd's direction, though sh was blocked by the walls of the caravan.
"It's alright, everything she said is true anyway," Hermes sighed, "I have something for you guys - It's the another part of the prophecy.
"Another part?" Enryx gawked at the God, an expression of shock and disbelief.
"Yes, another part," Hermes handed them a scroll with a golden ribbon tied around it to prevent it from rolling open. Enryx began to open it up, but Elektra batted his hand away.
"Wait till everyone is here - we'll show them all later," She said in response to his confused face, then to Hermes, "Thank you so much, sir - and we promise we'll make Rosamynd understand your side of the story." Hermes nodded in response.
Elektra and her brother walked back to the caravan as Hermes ran off to deliver his many other messages. Rosamynd was sitting on her bunk, arms wrapped around her legs, head down. Elektra swore she could hear her crying, but when Rosamynd put her head up, any evidence of tears were hidden.
"Hey Rosamynd, you ok?" Elektra sat down next to her as Enryx went off the start the caravan again.
"I guess so. I mean, it wasn't like Hermes was close to me. I grew up with my mom, Hebe, so he wasn't that important to me."
"Oh, but he's still your father. You should try to talk to him."
"He had a million chances to talk," She sniffed, "No reason for him to start now, is there?" It was phrased like a question, but it came out as a statement.
Elektra nodded and decided to leave Rosamynd in peace; she didn't want to pester her about Hermes or her family. She woke everybody else who were still asleep- it took forever to wake up Adrian but he finally did- with a bad temper.
Elektra asked Enryx to park the car again so they could finally open up the scroll and everyone could read another part -hopefully the final part- of the prophecy.
When everyone finally crowded round, Enryx began. "Ahem. Okay guys, hi. So this morning, just about half an hour ago. Hermes visited us," He shot a nervous glance at Rosamynd, who was deliberately staring at the carpeted floor. "And he gave Elektra and I another part of the prophecy."
"Well, we think it is the last part," Elektra said, grimly.
"And, yeah. So we're going to, er, open it up and read it now."
Elektra stared at the unscrolled piece of parchment and gazed at the four lines of the alarming foreboding poem. She passed it on to Enryx, who showed the same worried look on his face.
"One shall give life for the greater good,
One will give in, as darkness should.
From the unexpected, the quest completed
Eleven united, should fear be diminished."
"So, on the 2nd line, one of us are gonna do that scary fear landscape thing, right?" Scarlett said.
"Wait, what's this about the Eleven United, there are only ten of us including Scarlett- and I don't think a mortal can help us fight stuff!" Trudy exclaimed, pointing out the error. Scarlett frowned at her, offended, but Trudy just ignored her.
"Um, yeah, that part doesn't make sense at all," Nethrys peered uncertainly at the parchment, as if hoping it would jump up and yell 'April Fools!'.
"Of course it does," Vytoni snapped, "Another will join us." The two of them started bickering back and forth again, making Elektra sigh and rub her temples. Why can't they just get along? They were fine for a while and then... Oh. Scarlett.
"But who?" Katerina asked. Adrian groaned in the corner, half-asleep with his eyelids barely open. Katerina playfully whacked him on the head. It look like it hurt, but Elektra was pretty sure it didn't.
"Hey!" Adrian bolted up, frowning at Katerina and rubbing the spot where she hit him.
"What?- you were half asleep," Kat said innocently.
"Am I the only one terrified by the first line?" Rosamynd piped up, her voice trembling slightly.
"Nope- I'm right here," Scarlett said, shooting her hand up.
"I think we understand that this 'fear' thing that keeps getting repeated- the same thing that happened to Kyle," Lysandra concluded, adding that to her notebook.
"It mentioned something about that in the first stanza of the Prophecy," Elektra informed, piecing together the prophecy stanzas in her head.
"So I guess we ought to seek out this new member of this team as quickly as possible if we want to get this quest done," Nethrys resolved, scanning the prophecy again for any hidden meanings.
"Yeah, well - do you know any other Godlings?" Vytoni countered.
"It doesn't have to be a Godling," Scarlett frowned, "I mean, I'm a mortal."
"We don't know where to start. We have no clue who he or she might be or if they are," Enryx made a lame attempt to break up the concealed fight.
"How about the girl and boy I saw in my dream?" Elektra offered, her mind racing back to the memory of the dream trying to remember everything about the boy and girl.
"Yeah - do you remember their names?" Adrian asked.
"Sure, but I don't think they have any relevance to any of this, it was probably just the movie I watched," Elektra frowned in confusion, "But, I remember a Will, Leo and another girl that's name wasn't mentioned, but she was pretty tall and has black, curly hair."
Everyone dispersed after their brief meeting about the last piece of prophecy, and Elektra went back to the kitchen in hopes of cooking a good meal to take her friends -and hers- mind's off things. Katerina helped her in the kitchen, teaching her one of Persephone's kitchen delights of pomegranate tart. They worked in comfortable, friendly silence - until Scarlett waltzed in, making Katerina leave. Elektra sighed and finished making brunch herself.
Soon the tart was ready and they served it to the other eight who were either drooling in anticipation or playing with their food absentmindedly, obviously mulling over the prophecy. Elektra cut the tart into twelve even slices, planning to give one extra one to Adrian and save the last piece in the fridge for the newcomer when he or she arrives.
She sat down and started to devour the deep purple-red, glossy pomegranate tart. It was a mix between a sweet and sour taste, and very - well, tart. But definitely not as good as the cranberry juice Apollo used to make for them. The seeds for the pomegranate were sweet and juicy and bursting with flavour. She was just going to open her mouth to grill Katerina for the recipe when -surprise- a growling was heard outside the caravan.
Everyone tensed, drawing their weapons, bracing themselves for the upcoming fight.
~ END OF CHAPTER 24 ~