The Wrath of Gaia pt 2
Introduction:
So I have decided to post a few more parts, and if the reviews are lack luster, I will end it there. For the time being, I will try to post a new part every other day so as to give myself time to write them out. I would also like to point out since this will be brought up that I will not stay historically accurate with the gods abilities, so if you are going to complain about that, please know that you have been fair warned.
“Where are you taking me? Why are you doing this? Who is the council? What did I do? What is this we are riding?…..HOW ARE WE IN THE AIR?!” I have no idea why that seemed to come out last, but as soon as I said it, the panic returned, but this finally broke her statue-like form as I hear her chuckle softly at my reaction. She still says nothing to me and continues to stare in front of her, but as I follow her gaze, I start to see what it is she is looking at. A set of large, Golden-clad gates stand firm on what seems to be only clouds, and beyond the gates seems to lie a world of all its own. The wolf continues its lackadaisical trot while seemingly running on thin air as it continues on right over the top of the gates; however as we cross I feel a pulling sensation come across my body that would have made me fall off, if not for her arm still holding me. The pulling sensation behind us I now start to look forward again, only to be shocked to find an enormous altar-like castle directly in front of us, even though it was not there before the pulling sensation. The castle is magnificent, standing well over 100 feet tall, with the walls made of ivory with gold plating and stainless steel windows adorning every side. Every window seems to depict a different god in triumph in some way, and as I move closer I can even make out one that shows somewhat looking just like the girl who has brought me here. As we reach the steps, the wolf stops and lowers his head, allowing the girl to drop off his left side, before suddenly shaking me off rather violently. I hit the ground hard on my side, but understand very clearly that this will not be the worst of my treatment, so I suck it up and stand slowly before staring at the girl. She offers no signs of compassion of sympathy, merely grabbing the chord holding my hands together and pushes me toward the large doors from behind. As I reach the front of the doors, they seem to open of their own accord, allowing us to walk in. The interior is set much like an altar would, with seating in rows in front of the doorway and a large opening in the center, but instead of a statue for a god, there Is a circular table, at which are seated 6 of the most intimidating people I have ever before laid eyes upon. 3 women and 3 men all dressed in various colored robes, except one who is dressed very similarly to the girl escorting me here with what seems to be wolf pelt armor. Sitting on a higher chair than the rest is a man with a light beard and an all white robe, but he is the one with the strongest presence of them all, to the point of even avoiding looking at him. As I approach the circle, even though I have done nothing wrong, the sheer presence of these six is so powerful that I can feel my legs ready to give out under the pressure they exert, but I manage to hold it together and keep my head low. As we reach the middle, I suddenly feel the back of my knees give out as the girl swiftly forces me to kneel before pinning a diamond nail through the chord into the ground, thus locking me in place on my knees with my hands near my feet. As I look back at her, she walks toward one of the males before dropping to one knee and presenting the wreath the woman had given me earlier that day. I start to put things together in my head as I realize that the wreath had been stolen and I had been made a martyr for an unknown cause, but what could I do? I had no proof of this fact besides my own words, and I these people are very serious about this wreath. The man takes the wreath from her hands, before quickly putting it on, and it is now that I finally hear one of them speak.
“Thank you Catarsus, you are a strong tracker, and a stronger niece”, Cartasus, the girl who brought me here, simply bows her head farther before backing away to behind me once again, but this time it is her to speak.
“My lords, I have brought to you, after a perilous search, the thief of Lord Apollo’s golden wreath. I have brought him here today to have a decision be made for the consequence of said action, that will be enacted by my hand as the prosecutor of his crimes.” My eyes widen as I recognize the name of Apollo as being one of the gods worshipped by most. One of the gods that I didn’t believe to exist. Without missing a beat, the woman dressed similar to Catarsus starts to click her fingers against the table in agitation.
“The answer to this is painfully obvious, he should be killed for having even thought of stealing from a god, let alone my own brother. The sheer thought that he would dare disrespect my bloodline like that infuriates me to no end.” Watching her fingers click against the table makes me fear that she might break it with just her fingertips as she stares daggers through my chest. Across from her another woman starts to speak.
“Artemis you are acting purely off of emotions, please calm yourself down or we can find another lord to replace you, probably one with more wisdom”, the woman said with a large amount of venom in her words. This did not sit well with Artemis as she quickly stood to her feet, slamming her fist onto the table hard enough for even I to feel the shake on the ground.
“If you would like to go another round Athena, I will break that fabled shield of yours, impenetrable or not, Do not temp me.” Watching her speak reminded me almost of a wild animal preparing to strike and I naturally started to lean back so as to not get involved with this, only to be pushed forward again by Catarsus.
“Don’t give me another reason to kill you human.” I hadn’t noticed up until now, but Catarsus seemed to be the most frightening of all, her gaze enough to make truly feel just how hopeless I was in this situation. I looked back at towards the problem at hand to see a third person standing between the two. A man with a long, curly black beard stood between them with his hands extended trying to calm them down.
“This council shall not adjourn without resolving this issue and there shall be no fighting. Artemis, this issue may involve your blood, but that doesn’t allow you to make an executive decision on it and I’d like you to remember that this council will not order a death without proper cause. Athena, just because your area of expertise lies within wisdom does not mean you should throw it in everyone’s faces and I would like to remind you that Aegis is not yours alone so it will not always be there to protect you. If I have to stop you two from fighting like sniveling humans, then I will end your arguments for good, now be seated so that we may continue.” The man spoke with such an elegance that I was mesmerized to the point of almost not noticing the amount of water flowing into the temple from seemed like nowhere as he continued to speak. It only continued until he finally chose to sit down, at which point the water left as quickly as it had come, leaving the floor as dry as if it hadn’t had water mere seconds before covering it. The tension in here was only mounting and I was worried that that anger was now going to focused solely on me. It is at this point that Apollo stands and begins to speak.
“Athena, you cling so strongly to claim of being goddess of wisdom and intellect, yet you have failed to even note key facts in proving that Artemis’s decision is not needed.” The look of confusion on Athena’s face makes Artemis mockingly chuckle before being stopped by a gaze from Apollo. As he starts to continue, he walks very slowly toward me, and as he does I can feel an unknown pressure building around the area of my neck, forcing my head towards the ground in a position of bowing. “How is it that this boy stole my wreath?” He asks quizzically looking over to Artemis.
“He broke in and took it from you in your sleep, you said you woke up to find it missing so that’s the only time he could’ve taken it” This response was expected from Apollo as he smiles softly at his sister.
“Then why is it that he can not even raise his head in my presence?” He looks over to Athena only to see her eyes narrow in as realization sets in. “Yes, he had my wreath, but I’m afraid we have yet to find the real thief. I have already determined this, but this still leaves a question behind in my mind. Why is he willing to die for this?” He moves towards me once again, but before he reaches me I feel the pressure on my neck starts to lift. I quickly move my head back up so that I may look at what is going on, but as I do so I am brought face to face with Apollo himself, and the look on his face can be described as nothing else than pure bloodlust. He quickly grabs hold of my short hair, pulling back so that my neck is exposed before saying, “Tell me, how long do you think it would take for you to die after I have ripped out your throat? I like to think itll be faster than the clean up afterwards personally. How dare you touch my wreath you stupid human, do you know how many people would kill to even stand in my presence, and here you sit with that dumbfounded look on your face as if you are watching a play reveal before your eyes. Before you die, you will tell me who stole my wreath, of that I can assure yo-” Apollo is stopped abruptly by a hand wrapped firmly around his own throat from behind.
I am frozen in place and can only watch as the man from the highest chair slowly pulls Apollo away from me almost effortlessly before saying in a soft, calm voice,” It is not polite to threaten guests, or have I raised you poorly Apollo.” His voice grew to a thundering roar as he continued. “If you are to disrespect my temple once more, I will make you all feel the wrath of my lightning bolts, you insolent, bickering children.” As quickly as it began, his voice returned to normal and he moved his gaze to me. “Now that that is out of the way, please tell your story, but mind you that if you lie, I shall know.” It takes me a moment to register that I am actually being asked to speak, and I have to stop to take a deep breath before starting out of fear of my voice shaking. I start to recount the incident of going to get wood for the orphanage and running into the woman, but certain parts are jumbled up from the blow to head I received. With it being as unbelievable as it already is, adding missing parts to it guaranteed that None of them would believe me, but still the one from the high chair sat there pondering what I said as if he actually believed me. finally he raised his hand to stop the light chatter going on amongst the five others and started to speak.
“Catarsus, please escort him to one of the holding rooms while he decide what shall happen to him and how we will move forward. Make sure he his secured down as well so that if his accomplice returns, it will be difficult to rescue him.” The gods all circled around this man as Catarsus pried the nail from the ground and started to push me towards a side door. My head still hurts, but one sentence seems to sit just on the tip of my tongue but I can’t seem to come up with it. Right before we reach the doors, it suddenly hits me and I stop where I am.
“At the strike of 12, the equal will come to power.” I said it out loud, but I heard it as if she had just said it. As the final words left my lips, a sudden gust of wind swept across the room, and all the gods turned quickly towards me. It is the strongest one to react first, quickly moving towards me to find an answer to what just happened. I look up and quickly try to explain. “The…The woman, she said that before she left.”
“Is that exactly what she said? Word for word?” I could actually see a hint of fear on his face I nodded, suddenly I heard the soft chuckle of the woman from the river sweep across the wind in the room, only lasting for a few seconds before leaving, but doing enough none the less. As it died down, Hermes burst through the doors flying quickly towards him in a panic.”
“Zeus we have a problem, Cronus was released!” At this exclamation, an audible gasp can be heard from the sixth and final god in the room.
“The titans, they are being freed! It will be the Titanomachy all over again!” Panic set in amongst them all as they started to move about trying to decide how to react to this, but it is Catarsus who is the one to act first. She quickly grabs me, throwing me against the wall, before pinning me there and looking me over. It is what she says that truly confuses me.
“Who ARE you?”
Yes I understand its another short one, I needed these two to pave the path for the future, so I hope you can bear with it for the time being. I will say that the parts will get longer, but I just don’t want to end a part in the middle of one. Even if it may seem like I am ending one without tying up loose ends, I can promise it is done because new information is coming up quickly after, so please do understand and I hope you enjoyed this second installment of The Wrath of Gaia.
