Mythology Comes to Life
February, 2006
It was a chilly and overcast day at Wharton State Forest in New Jersey, but it didn't sway a young thirteen year old boy (his birthday being in March) from doing his favourite activity: hunting.
The young boy, named Lykos Alexander, was told by his father that he'll do his first hunt on his own without his guidance and help, feeling like his son was ready.
Lykos had a very striking appearance. His light brown hair was in a short crew cut, which was normal, but it was his eyes that stood out the most. They were a silver grey, which his father told him he inherited from his mother. And he wore outdoor clothing, partly because of how cold it was, being in February.
He always loved it whenever he and his father would go on hunting trips in and beyond New York State as it made him feel like he was truly in his element, tracking and hunting big game, whether it's bears, deer or rabbits. And the bow itself was like a natural extension of himself, like he was born for it, even though he first used a bow when he was just seven years old.
However, Lykos knew for most of his life that he wasn't what one would call normal. For as long as he could remember, he experienced things that some would say were just figments of his imagination. One time when he was six, he could've sworn he saw some mechanical creature walking down the street, but when he looked back, a garbage truck was there instead. Another time, when he was eight, he was being followed by a man in a trench coat that he was sure only had one eye.
Among all this, Lykos realised that he has abilities and traits that he knew for sure no one else had. For one, he is somehow able to see clearly in the dark, something that proves very handy when hunting at night. He also felt drawn to the moon, finding comfort in its light whenever it would out in the night sky and he was surprisingly fast whenever he ran, thinking that he could keep up with a cheetah.
Of course, he never even told his father about any of this, fearing he'd say it was just his imagination and that he wouldn't believe him. Even though he was the one who taught him of what these things came from: Greek mythology. Lykos didn't go to school like a lot of the other kids, instead he was homeschooled. And even though he was taught English and maths, English being a bit hard due to his dyslexia, also having ADHD, which wasn't too bad, the main subject he was taught was everything from Greek mythology, from the various gods, the titans and the numerous heroes, from Heracles/Hercules, Perseus and Achilles. Lykos didn't know why his father mainly prioritised him learning all this, but he didn't mind as he became a quick expert on all of the mythology, and would watch film adaptations like Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans and Troy. Though he never liked Disney's Hercules because of how inaccurate it was.
Of all the figures in the mythology, his favourite was easily the Goddess of the Hunt and the Moon, Artemis. He just felt a connection to her, he deduced that it was because of how they both like hunting and that they like the moon. And because they have a love for wolves, his name actually means wolf in Greek.
At the moment, Lykos was hunting down a deer that he's been tracking for nearly an hour and he was very patient, something he was taught by his father. To not rush head on and get game as quickly as possible, but to wait and be slow, needing to know that the moment to strike meant everything.
He was glad that he was upwind, as it meant the deer wouldn't catch his scent, making it easier to sneak up on it and take it down. He then looked at the ground, still seeing the tracks the deer left behind in the wet yet firm ground.
Lykos kept this up for a while longer, ignoring how the day was growing darker until he stopped dead in his tracks and spotted movement up ahead. He narrowed his eyes in concentration and saw that it was indeed the deer that he was hunting, which was now grazing on some greenery.
Going on his knees to keep himself steady, Lykos pulled an arrow out of his quiver and notched it on his bow. Taking a silent breath to keep his aim true, he then pulled the string and aimed directly at the deer's neck, all of which was second nature to him.
Then as he made sure his aim was true, he let go of the string and the arrow shot through the air in a blur, hitting the deer's neck and sticking out the other side.
The animal went wild for a bit, charging off into the forest, making Lykos run after it, catching up with ease due to his supernatural speed.
Upon catching up, it was bleeding heavily, moving on the spot woozily before it fell on its side. Even though Lykos enjoyed hunting, what he's about to do was always his least favourite part. He walked up to the animal, pulled out his hunting knife, looking down at the deer with sorrow.
"Please… put me out of my misery." A male voice said, sounding like it was in Lykos' head, full of pain and agony. This was another aspect of him that wasn't normal. Somehow, Lykos was able to understand and talk to animals, a fair amount of them treating him with respect.
"I'm so sorry." He told the deer before he knelt down and stabbed it where its heart would be and it instantly went limp.
After taking a moment to make a silent prayer for the deer, Lykos cleaned his knife and pulled the arrow out, also cleaning it. He then grabbed it and lifted it with ease onto his shoulder, making his way back to the cabin that he and his father were staying at.
With a quick jog, he made it back to the cabin within thirty minutes.
The cabin was a one storey building in a clearing with a bench out front and a green pick up truck parked right next to the left side of the cabin.
The front door opened up and out stepped his father, Pierce Alexander. He's well built and tall with short light brown hair and green eyes. Something that always baffled Lykos was the fact that his father never seemed to age at all. He was twenty six when Lykos was born and as he grew older, he saw that his father never seemed to grow any greys or have any wrinkles. It truly seemed as though he was eternally youthal, which is just ridiculous.
"I was able to track it and kill it with ease." Lykos told him, walking up to him and handing the deer to him.
"Well done, Lykos. You're going to be a great hunter. I know your mother would be proud." Pierce replied, placing his free hand on his son's shoulder, his free hand bearing his wedding ring.
Lykos sighed through his nose in annoyance. Apparently, his father fell in love and married his mother, getting pregnant with him shortly after their honeymoon. Yet she has never been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. All he could recall are a pair of silver grey eyes looking down at him. He asked why she never visits and all he gets in response is that she's away on family business.
"She'd never know since she's nowhere to be seen." He told his father, walking into the cabin, leaving a slightly stunned Pierce.
Lykos thought of how much he'd love to have a friend or two as he took his hunting clothes off and left his long sleeve grey shirt on, cleaning his hands.
Due to his strange qualities and him being home schooled, he never got any friends growing up. The closest he got having any friends whatsoever was when he was eight years old. When he and his father were on a hunting trip in early August, the two stumbled across three kids who said they were travelling to Long Island.
The trio consisted of a fourteen year old boy, a twelve year old girl and a seven year old girl. They were named Luke Castellan, Thalia Grace and Annabeth Chase. Upon learning they were low on food and water, Lykos and his father gave them food and water, as well as granting them shelter as they were tired from travelling on foot non stop.
The trio stayed with the father and son for three days and during that time, Lykos ended up bonding with the three with ease, which was impressive since they said they don't usually trust many they come across. Out of the three, Lykos formed the tightest bond with Thalia. She was just so cool with her leather jacket, short and spiky black hair and blue eyes. She just looked like a punk rock girl, but it worked on her. During those three days, Lykos ended up forming a huge crush on Thalia and so when the trio left, he was depressed as he may not see them again, but Thalia hoped that was the case and even kissed him on the cheek, promising as such.
After all these years, Lykos still hoped to meet those three, especially Thalia, as his feelings very slowly developed from a crush to affection, though nowhere near romantic as he only knew her for three days.
Later that night, after Pierce did the necessary things to the deer, he cooked their meal of a stew with deer meat and ate dinner at the dining table by a corner with windows, which showed that the night sky was clear with the moon providing light.
They were in a tense silence, due to earlier about Lykos' mother. Pierce decided to break this silence.
"Son, I know that you don't believe me, but there's a good reason your mother isn't with us. It's not my place to say it, but you'll understand once you know. And she does love you. Right when you were born and she had you in her arms, she called you her little cub."
"It's easy for you to say. I don't see any proof to back what you're saying. How do you even know that she isn't cheating on you with some other man?" Lykos snapped back, avoiding looking at his father while still eating.
"Trust me, she's not one to pursue a relationship except with me. I'm a special case." Pierce replied, a reminiscing smile on his face.
"Whatever." Lykos muttered as he rolled his eyes and was about to take another mouthful of his food when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement through the window. He looked and saw what looked like an all white wolf moving in the treeline past the cabin, which baffled him, since he knew that wolves aren't a part of this region.
"What's wrong?" Pierce asked, noticing his attention being elsewhere.
"I'm sure I saw an all white wolf out there. But there shouldn't be any in this part of the US." Lykos said, making Pierce frown slightly as he looked out the window as well.
"It probably travelled across the country." He told Lykos, who frowned at this suggestion. He knew wolves don't migrate, usually staying in one area only. And wolves are social creatures, always being in packs.
However, he didn't call him out, instead continuing his meal in silence.
Once dinner was over, Lykos went back outside to sit on the bench with a bottle of water to stargaze and bask in the moonlight while his father was inside the cabin, reading a book.
Lately, he's been thinking of his mother often, and just even thinking of her makes his blood boil. She has never been in his life, giving him any kind of attention and love, not even presents or cards on Christmas or his birthday. It's like his father is just blinded by his love for her that he can't accept the hard truth.
As he was shaking his head in annoyance, he heard something in the distance beyond the treeline in front of him. His head instantly snapped in direction to where the sound came from and scanned for any movement with his eyes, grateful he could see in the dark.
He slowly got up from the bench and stood next to it, just in case he needed to run.
As he continued scanning for movement, he finally spotted some: it looked like an abnormally large scorpion tail.
"DAD!" He yelled, not knowing why he did it, considering whatever this thing is, it ain't going to be friendly and be drawn to his voice.
He heard the door slam open and then his father's footsteps running up to him.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Over there!" Lykos pointed to where he saw the scorpion tail and grew worried when he saw that it was coming closer and was able to clearly see the outline of the creature it belonged to, looking like a slightly larger lion.
Then, now in the clearing, Lykos' eyes widened in shock and fear as he saw what he knew for sure was a manticore. He knew it had to be one. Because not only did it have a human face with both a brown and blue eye, it had the body of a lion with grey fur and a scorpion-like tail. This was just impossible. How could a creature from Greek mythology be in front of him and his father?
"Oh, no." Pierce said quietly, as though he wasn't as shocked as his son.
"Look at this, a godspawn and their weakling mortal parent. This will be easy." The manticore said with pure malice.
Somehow, Lykos was able to dodge a sudden attack from its tail by jumping to the side, as though it were a sixth sense, while his father ran back into the cabin, leaving him confused and downright feeling left behind.
But he couldn't focus on it too much, because he still had to avoid the manticore's attacks, both from its tail and from its talons, which he was able to narrowly avoid.
"Hey, ugly!" He heard his father yell before a bronze arrow flew in the air and struck the manticore in their back right leg, making it roar in pain, giving Lykos a chance to run around it, nearly being hit by spikes from the tail and reach his father, who had a bow in his hand with a quiver he never saw before, full of bronze arrows.
"Where the hell did they come from?!" He demanded his father to explain.
"Now is not the time, Lykos! You must take it down!" Pierce said, handing the bow and the quiver full of bronze arrows.
"It'll take more than a measly arrow to take me down, mortal!" The manticore roared, charging right at the father and son, making the latter shove his father with a surprising amount of strength, as Pierce was thrown back onto his back on the ground, while he himself ran around the manticore.
Deciding that his father was right, Lykos put the quiver on his back and he pulled an arrow out, noticing it had a faint golden glow, notching it against the bow and aimed quickly at the back left leg before releasing the string and the arrow shot directly into the leg, making the manticore roar again and Lykos noticed how there seemed to be gold dust trickling out from the wounds, as though it were bleeding.
The manticore shot more spikes, which he either dodged or blocked with his bow, somehow able to block with ease, like he's done this before and proceeded to shoot another arrow, this time, into the base of the monster's tail, which caused gold dust to gush out.
"I have had enough of your little arrows, godspawn!" The manticore raged before he decided to get back at Lykos by suddenly charging at Pierce, who tried to run out of the way, but it was too late. The manticore tackled him and swiped at him with his claws, making Pierce scream in agony.
"DAD!" Lykos yelled in fear, but mainly rage as all he now saw was red and charged at the manticore.
On instinct, he just launched himself onto the tail, bouncing off the arrow embedded in its tail and grabbed around the spiked end and stinger, using all his superstrength to rip the stinger off and then he proceeded to stab the manticore repeatedly in its back and then up to its neck and finally directly in the head.
The manticore roared one last time before its eyes rolled back and its whole body became nothing but gold dust, leaving behind the arrows that were embedded in it and Lykos fell to the ground, still holding the stinger.
Lykos, breathing heavily, looked over to his father and saw that he only had a scratch on his shoulder, which wasn't as severe as he feared.
Feeling utter relief, he walked over to him, seeing that he had gashes on his stomach. As though something told him to, he knelt next to his father, who was hissing in pain, and placed his hands over the wounds. Then his hands looked as though they were glowing silver and the wounds started to close back up and heal, the blood going back in.
He would've celebrated this, but he started feeling lightheaded and weak, falling to his side and losing consciousness.
Just as he blacked out, he heard his father's voice shouting, though he couldn't tell what he was saying.
He didn't know how much time had passed, but when Lykos gained consciousness, it seemed he was laying on something that wasn't grass and that whatever he laid on was bumpy. His hearing came back as he heard the distinct sound of cars driving and an engine working.
Getting a good idea of where he was, he was able to open his eyes and he found himself in the back of his dad's truck. His eyes stung as it was now daylight and after his eyes adjusted, he saw the large stinger on the floor underneath the passenger seat, confirming that what happened with the manticore did in fact happen, which he hoped wasn't the case.
He groaned and hissed as he moved to sit up, as his joints and muscles felt sore and he saw his father driving the truck.
"About time you woke up, you've been out for over twelve hours." He told him, driving down a road surrounded by farmland and trees.
"Where are we?" Lykos asked, confused.
"We're in Long Island. I'm taking you somewhere in Montauk."
"Why?"
"Because where I'm taking you is the only place to keep you safe from any more monsters from showing up." Pierce replied, leaving his son confused.
"What do you mean? I proved I can handle myself against a manticore of all things." He retorted.
"But what if a monster you can't defeat shows up? What will you do then? Fact is, I'm taking you somewhere that others like you can be safe. It's what your mother told me to do when the time's right."
"My mother? What is this place? And these others, are they troubled kids? Am I a troubled kid?" Lykos said, sounding pained, hurt and angry.
"No! You are not troubled. Same for the other kids at this place. Trust me, when you arrive there, you'll understand." Pierce assured him, though his final sentence made Lykos frown.
"Wait… are you not coming with me?" He asked.
"I can't. I'm not allowed to. Again, you'll understand once you get to where you need to be."
This left Lykos very depressed. Would this mean that he'd never see his father again? Pierce noticed his son's expression and tried to make him feel better.
"Hey, don't worry. This place won't be as bad as you think. It's actually a summer camp, but they take year rounders as well. We can still go on hunting trips when summer's over." He told him, which actually made Lykos feel a bit better as he made a slight grin.
After half an hour of silence later, Pierce stopped by a farm road that had a sign up that said 'Delphi Strawberry Service' on it, clearly a reference to the Oracle of Delphi, and both he and Lykos exited the truck. He held the manticore's stinger and was handed a grey travel bag.
"This has your clothes and some personal belongings you'll want with you. Just head for that large pine tree up there on the hill and you'll see the camp." Pierce said, pointing up at a large hill where a large pine tree stood prominently against the sky.
"Okay." Lykos said before he faced his father and hugged him tightly, as the full weight of this new change in his life, which made him shed a few tears.
"Hey… don't worry. Like I said earlier, we'll still go on hunting trips. When the summer's over, I'll come and pick you up, okay?" Pierce assured his son with a couple of pats on his back.
Lykos sniffled and nodded, parting with his father.
"Well, until then, goodbye, dad." He said, grabbing his bag and the stinger and walked off towards the large pine tree.
He heard his father get in the truck and then drive off, which was like the last piece to ensure Lykos is safe at this camp.
As he got closer to the pine tree, he sensed as though he was indeed making his way to somewhere safe.
Upon reaching the pine tree, Lykos froze and was left speechless at the sight before him.
He was seeing a large land full of architecture that resembles Ancient Greece, a forest, a beach, a lake, strawberry fields and a four storey farmhouse, where he saw a centaur standing on the porch that wrapped around the house.
Hello all, Happy New Year! I've decided that I'm replacing my Brandon Donner story with this one, mainly because I decided to start fresh as some new ideas came about as I started thinking about Percy Jackson thanks to the Disney+ show. And I should note that Chiron would resemble Pierce Brosnan, one of the very few good things about those god awful films.
Also, a user on here named .J decided to copy my fifth installment of my Arthur Pendergast story and apparently is even profiting off of it on . Make sure you let them know that this is just wrong.