I made a promise and I intended to keep it. I had a rule for myself ever since 4th grade when I borrowed someone's pencil and promised to give it back, but I broke it and I broke the promise I had made. Ever since then I made a rule to never make promises. In a way I made a promise to never make promises, which doesn't really make sense, but I followed it. I never said 'I will.' I always said 'I will try to' or 'I will try to remember.' It was a very non-committal way to live.
Since I got rid of that rule, who knew what else would go to the wayside in my transformation into a semi-mature human being. Maybe I'd get a haircut and start drinking coffee. Maybe eat balanced meals. No, that was pretty unlikely. Jillian and Walker trained me for a little while. I burned through two or three swords and a spear before we stopped for a break. I wasn't sure what it was that made me destroy these swords, but they were gone. They didn't melt and they didn't just fall apart. They turned to dust.
"We are going to run out of weapons." Walker said, looking down at the small dust pile that had once been a perfectly good knife. "Can you not break all of our weapons?" I sighed and sat down, taking my slingshot out of my pocket and shooting a few pellets at random spots.
"So, since this quest needs to go perfectly, how about we strategize?" I offer, glancing around at Jillian and Walker. They shrugged and sat down with me.
"Well, we'll leave tomorrow. You can pick your pegasus tomorrow morning." Jillian said with a nod.
"Awesome." I say with a deep breath. "Where are we going then?" I asked, realizing that I really had no idea.
"We had a discussion with Chiron and we talked about this and we'll be heading to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky." Jillian said with a nod. "We're assuming that's the mentioned 'elephant's den.'"
"And the enemies are… who? Or what?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"The gods tend to piss of a lot of people, so there are a lot of possibilities." Walker said, leaning back on his hands. "Giants, titans, other gods, ancient mortals, monsters, dogs, cats, small rodents, supporters of HDDVDs, Walt Disney, Herman Melville, Fortune teller or soothsayers from any generation, Ludwig Von—"
"Really?" I said, narrowing my eyes at Walker. "The gods had a hand in the blu-ray v. HDDVD war?"
"Focus, gentlemen. Odds are Herman Melville and Walt Disney aren't going to make some sort of attack toward the gods" Jillian said, putting a toothpick in her mouth.
"I thought the titans were all dead." I said, finally focusing in, though I made a mental note to get the story of the rest of those later.
"Well, not really. The titans are immortals and in effect can't die, but they can be scattered in Tartarus. Hyperion, Krios, Kronos, Prometheus, and some others have been seen and the majority have been defeated and sent back to Tartarus, but really almost anyone could free them if they found a way in and out of Tartarus."
"Well, a portal has been found." I said, quoting the prophecy. "Is it possible that someone is breaking the titans out?"
"Well, we don't know, but it sure looks like someone is breaking something out." Jillian said, leaning forward a little bit. "Though, I'm not sure who would want to break anything out of Tartarus."
"HDDVD supporters…" I say quietly. She punches me in the arm, but laughs a little bit. Just then my stomach growls loudly.
"Wow. Let's do a little bit more training before we go to dinner." Jillian said, standing up.
I went to dinner feeling a little tired that night. I had done a lot of training, but a little bit more training meant an hour and a half of parrying technique. I was pretty sure at that point that if I got into a sword fight, the only thing I would know how to do is parry. I had sparred with Jillian after that while Walker went to dinner and I won 3 times. It was out of 20 matches and one was counted as a tie because my sword broke again. After that we called it a night and headed to dinner.
"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early." She said, putting her hand near my shoulder and punching my arm. I stood there for a moment and then nodded.
"See you tomorrow. I'll nudge ya." I said with a chuckle. She didn't laugh, but only stared at me.
"You're such a dork." She said, heading into the mess hall.
"I prefer lovably eccentric wunderkind." I say, following her in line.
"No. Stop it." She said, putting a hand in my face. "We are not going to banter." She gathered her food and then turned toward her table. I blinked and then laughed a little, watching her go. I gathered my food and then headed to Hecate table, a spot clearing for me at the end of the table. I smiled at everyone, nodding to them as they stared in horror like I had a human head on my tray instead of barbecue and I was fully prepared to sink my teeth into it.
"Hey, Aarón. Carl. Maddison. Sophie." I said with a wave. They all simply sat there for a moment before Carl cleared his throat.
"Hey, Peter." He said, with a wave. He waved and his hand glowed with a small blue flame which he looked at a moment and it grew to a bright orange flame. I smiled in slight surprise.
"Whoa, Carl…" I say, reaching over and giving him a high five, both our hands on fire.
"It was a really simple spell." He said quietly, looking down at his food and then around at his siblings who were all in shock and dismay at what Carl had just done. Like I had shared my human head with him and we were now fighting over who gets the first bite of the frontal lobe.
"Know any other simple spells?" I ask, eating my food.
"Well, there's…" He snapped his fingers and my food was jell-o, again. He snapped them again, turning it back to normal, but once again my jell-o became a strawberry.
"How do you do it?" I say, tilting my head as I take a bite of barbecue.
"Well, a lot of spells are a word or phrase, really. Most of it comes from Latin. Other spells are small runes that we keep on us." He said, reaching into his shirt and pulling out a necklace full of beads, in the middle were three round ones with small pictures on them and the rest were flatter and had small etchings in them. "The more powerful the spell or the stronger you want it to be, the larger and more stable the rune has to be." He explains, showing me one of his beads. "A lot of these are protection spells, but—"
"That's enough, Carl." Aarón said quietly. Carl looked over at him and then slouched down in his seat, turning back to his food. I glanced at Aarón who looked at me and then went back to his food. I cleared my throat and was about to speak when I noticed Carl writing something on a napkin with barbecue sauce. He glanced up at me and then nodded toward Aarón. I noticed that it was similar to one of the beads on his necklace. I stared at it for a long moment and then imagined it in my head. I felt like this was what I was supposed to do. I looked at Aarón and snapped my fingers and suddenly all his food was jell-o.
I'm not sure how long I laughed at the look on his face, but it was a while. I practiced my new trick on my own food a few more times, getting the hang of being a magic user. It was the only spell I knew and I was ecstatic to have it. I left dinner, feeling a little bit better about being included in Hecate cabin. It made me wonder why she hadn't claimed me yet. I was of age. I slept in her cabin and sat at her table. I could obviously do magic. Why couldn't she just slap her name on me and move on? I thought to myself as I grabbed my backpack, putting some of my things inside in preparation for the quest. I grabbed some clothes and then leaned my backpack against my bed.
I wasn't sure what to bring on the quest. I mean, it's not like a camping trip or a family vacation. What do you bring the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky in the middle of Spring to stop some unknown entity from potentially raising magical beasts and beings from the dead, so that they can attack Ancient deities from the Mediterranean? I don't know either. I grabbed some extra clothes and some socks which seemed like a given. I eventually packed a canteen of water and then snuck some apples from the cafeteria. I felt ready, but I was more anxious than I've ever been.
The next morning did not come quickly, gently, or any other adverb. It simply arrived, bluntly reminding me that I had to go save the world. I had only slept for two or three hours, but to call what I did sleep was just incorrect. My eyes were closed, but I wasn't sleeping. Panicking was closer. My mind was constantly flooding with worries and problems and nightmares and it kept me awake for most of the night. I finally opened my eyes and swung my legs off the bed, to find that I was in the corner of the cabin, my bed having been moved while I was sleeping and my bags packed and moved to the door. I rubbed my eyes.
"Not now, please…" I said, running my fingers through my hair then standing and moving my clothes and my bunk back. I got dressed in a pair of shorts and a plaid shirt. I really only wore this shirt when I was either working or trying to look tough. It never really helped at all, but I still wore it and I deemed today especially appropriate for this shirt.
I grabbed my backpack and slipped it over my shoulders then headed out the door. I grabbed an apple out of my bag as I walked, taking a bite out of it. I knew that I wasn't going to really be up for a full breakfast. On top of that, I had never ridden a horse before and didn't even know that flying horses really existed until the day before. I didn't trust my stomach on the back of one just yet. When I got to the stables, Jillian and Walker were already there, their horses ready to go.
"There you are. We were starting to get worried." Walker said with a chuckle.
"Good morning, Peter." Jillian said, offering me a gentle smile. It was nice. "Go ahead and pick out a horse." She said before turning her attention to a dark grey horse. Walker was standing next to a plain white Pegasus. As I approached it looked at me and then reared back whinnying loudly. I took another step and it seemed like the rest of the horses did the same, shaking the doors on their stalls.
"What's going on? Am I doing something wrong?" I say, freezing in position. "Should I have…bowed first or something? Like in Harry Potter?"
"No, I've never seen them act like this." Jillian said, heading into the stables. I cautiously followed her in and she eventually got all the horses calmed down, but they still seemed uneasy as I looked them over. I took another bite of my apple and one of the horses, a light clay-colored one, reaches over his gate for my apple which I take back at first, but on closer inspection, I realize that this horse is for me. I let it finish my apple and then carefully climb onto its back, grabbing a handful of its mane as I walk it out of the stables.
"I shall name her Epona." I say with a big smile, petting its neck. Epona neighed loudly and then bucked a few times, snorting angrily.
"That's definitely a male pegasus." Walker said, moving in front of Epona to calm her-well, him- down. Epona finally relaxed, but turned her neck to look at me. I didn't speak horse, but if I had to guess some of what he was saying was not nice.
"Well, that's a great way to build a long lasting and powerful relationship between a steed and his rider." I say, feeling a little embarrassed.
"Well, we'll have time to form a human-animal bond later. We've got a quest to…quest." Jillian said, climbing on the back of her Pegasus.
"Quest to quest?" I ask. She put her hand up to stop me.
"We will not banter, Peter. I swear to the gods." She said, but she smiled anyway. She finally took off and Walker followed. I gripped Epona's and looked up at Jillian and Walker.
"Epona, yip yip." I said, pulling on his mane. He didn't move and instead, snorted at me. I sigh. "I'll give you another apple." He lit up a little bit at the word apple and finally took off, but he still didn't look very happy to be carrying me. That was fine. I wasn't happy to have him when I went off to defend Hyrule. Dumb horse.