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Peter
An old city under the ice... At least we’re back to the adventure side of things. I can dig into that.
Lindsey is pacing quickly across the giant lens while Gabriel is looking out over the ancient city standing below us. Carla and I are just sitting on the edge of the lens. We’re all waiting for Lindsey to form a hypothesis or something.
“She’s been at it for a while.” Carla says to me.
“I know. You think they’d be mad if I flew down ahead?” I ask Carla.
She almost looks offended, “Without me? Yeah, I’d be mad. Let’s give her a few more minutes.”
Thankfully, it isn’t too much longer before Lindsey says, “Ah-ha! I’ve got something!”
Excited to get moving, Carla and I turn around. Lindsey opens her mouth when suddenly we hear a bird squawk. A crow lands on the edge of the lens. The crow and Lindsey stare at each other for almost a full thirty seconds before it flies away. Lindsey gets an odd look on her face. She goes back to her pacing and is mumbling fast.
I groan, “Ughhhhhh. Come on, Lindsey! Just tell us what you were about to say! I’m ready to get moving!”
She turns and points at me defiantly, “Impatient, are we? Have you never been on a research expedition before? We can’t go barging into ancient ruins without a plan!”
I tilt my head, “Research expedition? This is a rescue mission, or did you forget?”
Lindsey stares at me blankly, “Rescue? Rescue...OH! Luke! Oops. I think my excitement made me lose focus of our objective. Sorry about that. Fine, we can go.”
“You can still tell us what you had thought of before.” Carla says quietly.
She claps her prosthetic fist into her other palm, “Oh right! Where is my head today? So, I only got far enough to theorize the layout of this place. Agartha is an ancient, fabled city that was said to be deep underground. Hollow earth theories and all that. This place is called Agartha which makes it likely this is said fabled city. Since the name is known by the world, I want to say this place was around for a long time. In fact, I would go so far as to say that someone created this ice shell around the city to protect it from someone or something.”
“So, you think the entire North Pole was created around Agartha to protect it?” Gabriel asks skeptically.
“Exactly! The crow threw me off though. It’s not the fact that it exists here per se that confuses me. More like I’m surprised that it didn’t develop differently considering its very separate environment. I mean it looked like your average crow to me. I suppose I’ll learn more when we descend to the city.” Lindsey refocuses her goggles to view below us.
My head is spinning, “Uhhh... I didn’t get any of that, but if it means we can get moving, sounds great to me!”
Lindsey rubs her forehead, “You’re not really the brains of the operation, are you?”
“Nope! I leave the thinking to people like you, Luke, and Kaleb. I don’t need to know the little things.” I say unfazed.
Lindsey chuckles, “Being a son of the wind suits you. You just go wherever the breeze takes you. I can see the appeal. Regardless, we’ll drop down straight below and make our way to the defensive stone wall.”
I stand on the edge of the lens. It’s a pretty far drop. I wasn’t expecting it, but Carla puts her arm around me. Since we are only descending, I should be able to handle us both. I wrap my left arm around her, and we jump off the lens.
I wait until about halfway through our fall before I begin to slow our descent. Wind blows from my feet and my right arm. I underestimated how fast we were falling with our combined weight. I hoist Carla up higher with my left arm and blast wind out with my full power. I barely noticed in time.
We land safe enough, but the ground below us is left with a small crater. The symbol of my power is glowing through my clothing. That usually happens when I overexert myself. Lindsey lands beside us. Her cord zips back into her prosthetic. She’s giving me an odd look.
“Your mark...the symbol on it looks like it is trying to extend farther. Interesting... Gabriel, have you ever seen this before?” She asks as Gabriel lands beside us.
I look down at my chest. My symbol is a W with lines to symbolize wind below it. At the edges of my symbol, black lines are stretching from it. Suddenly they retreat back into the symbol, and my mark fades.
“Hmmm...I can’t say that I have. I don’t actually know that much about demigod’s symbols of power. There is an expert on the field back on Olympus though. He’s an angel we call Haniel, the record keeper. I would ask him about it next time we are on Olympus.” Gabriel says.
Lindsey suddenly looks perplexed, so Gabriel asks her, “What is it?”
“I was just thinking that Luke should visit him after this as well. Haniel can recognize the scents of most angels, demons, or gods. He could probably figure out Luke’s heritage for him, or at the very least his other sealed being’s identity. I don’t know why his counsel wasn’t already sought after.” She says.
Gabriel says quietly, “Oh...yes...that would have been a good idea.”
“Would have been?” Lindsey asks.
Gabriel says almost startled, “Huh? Oh, I mean that is a good idea. I was just pondering why Elijah, Paean, and I didn’t think of that.”
“Yes, that is rather odd. I know the court views Haniel as a loon, but Master Paean at least should have mentioned it at some point. He must have been too distracted by Luke’s condition. Ah well.” She turns and marches to the stone wall, “Let’s be off, shall we?”
On our way up to the ancient city, a grizzly bear is the only other animal we see. It only watches us as we pass. I may not be the most observant, but it almost felt intentional.
We stop at the main gate to the city. There are vines growing on the walls, but otherwise the stones are in good shape. I think this place is making me paranoid because I swear that I saw a vine move. Gabriel seems like he is heavily on guard too.
Lindsey is intently inspecting the stone gate, “Amazing! To think that something so old could be kept in such pristine condition. Is it the atmosphere in the ice shell? I can’t wait to see the actual buildings.”
Lindsey goes bounding through the gate, and we follow behind. As soon as we enter, a shadow is cast on us from the sky above. Gabriel pushes us to the ground.
“Watch out!” Gabriel’s bow forms in his hand.
The gate has been blasted to pieces behind us. It’s a harpy much larger than the ones that were attacking the base. I don’t even see how it was hiding in the city. We should have seen it from on top of the lens. Gabriel is even stunned. I don’t know how we can fight something like that. I think it is giving off some sort of aura too because the world around us looks purple.
“It’s time.” Gabriel says. His body glows brightly, “I try not to use this very often, but we don’t have any other options.” Gabriel’s usual white cloak is replaced with a golden armor. He begins to grow as large as the gods usually are when they sit on their thrones. Four more wings grow from Gabriel’s back which gives him six in total.
“That must be his archangel form. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Lindsey says.
“Wh-what’s coming from the ground?!” Carla yells.
The ground is shaking below us. Decayed arms shoot out from the earth and grab for our feet. I jump back.
Lindsey screams and uses the grapple gun in her prosthetic to climb a roof, “Nope! Nope! I don’t do undead things. That’s like my one thing. You guys will have to take it from here.”
“Really, Lindsey?” Carla says as she jumps away from another arm, “You could have at least brought me with you!”
“Is anyone else’s vision turning more purple?” I ask.
“Yeah! Mine is too. It’s getting hard to see.” Carla says. Lindsey nods before hiding further on the roof.
Gabriel’s voice thunders, “So...it isn’t just mine. It can’t be...” The air around Gabriel becomes more violent, “Dionysus! Release us at once!”
A voice hiccups then slurs very closely to my ears, “Orrrrr what? Why don’t hic...why don’t you do it yourself? Mr. big hic big bad archangel.”
Gabriel’s voice is furious, “DO YOU REALLY WANT THAT?”
The voice pauses, “Oh hic fine. I’ll pull you to your senses.”
The purple fades from my sight. I suddenly fall to the ground. My body has been covered in vines. Those vines at the gate did move! Gabriel never transformed into that large form. The gate behind us was never destroyed. Everything is normal. Just all of us were wrapped in vines.
Lindsey shakes her head, “A mass hallucination?”
The voice from before hiccups again, “Pretty much. Little known fact, I’m not just the god of winemaking, but hic madness is in that title somewhere too hic. Now tell me hic. Why exactly have you come to my hidey hole?”
Gabriel looks around, “We only came here looking for a soul fragment. We aren’t here to disturb or fight you.” Lindsey opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything.
A vine stretches and almost seems to look Gabriel in the face, “Hmmmm.... hic a soul fragment, huh? Something like that did crash through the ice a couple weeks ago. What do you think, Pan?”
A crow lands on my shoulder. I think it’s the one from before, “Caw! Way to give me away. I’ve been watching them since they arrived. I don’t believe they are like our last intruder. Caw!”
Gabriel says with surprise, “Pan?! You’re supposed to be dead?” The crow leaves my shoulder and shifts into a man with legs and horns like a goat...no way.
“He’s a satyr?! How come we haven’t seen any on Olympus?!” I ask excitedly.
His voice sounds Scottish, and he points a pan flute at me, “I’m much more than that, laddie. Also, you haven’t seen them because they don’t normally rest around Olympus, but most are in the great plains beyond.” He turns to Gabriel, “Oi. My death has been exaggerated just a wee bit.”
One of the vines grows larger until a slender sized man buds out on the end. His face is red, but he is smiling widely. A large goblet is in one hand while a wand wrapped in vines with a pinecone on the tip is in the other. He sits on the ground and hiccups.
“I’ll say. The rumors of your death were well over centuries ago. Now what is this about another intruder?” Gabriel asks.
“Yeah, we’ll get to that. Hold on a second. All, the coast is clear!” Pan yells.
People and satyrs come out of the ancient buildings all around the city. Most give us odd looks, but they go about their lives. Pan and Dionysus were only protecting the village. I’m relieved that we don’t have to fight them.
I’m too in awe to fight anyways, “There are so many satyrs here!”
Pan chuckles, “Well, I never said they only lived in the plains beyond Olympus.”
“The other intruder...was it an angry sounding guy in a lab coat?” Lindsey asks.
Dionysus drinks from his goblet, “I wouldn’t know. I never heard his voice. His face was covered with a white mask. One red stripe ran down the left eye on his mask. He was also cloaked but heavily armed. He fought against me and didn’t get a scratch on him. He used some kind of power to manipulate his body like a piece of technology.”
Gabriel mumbles something under his breath. It almost sounded like, “Him again.”
“That doesn’t sound like Cal. His powers do help him use computers faster, but that’s about it. He never mentioned a satyr colony down here either. Listen, I’m actually here for separate reasons than them. There’s an herb that grows here. If possible, I would like to take some samples to study and grow more.” Lindsey explains to them.
Pan’s eyes narrow, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible, lassie. I know the herb that ye speak of. It’s an incredibly important part of the culture here. They use it for their ceremonies.”
Lindsey walks closer to him, “I am here under specific orders from Master Paean. That herb can be used to counteract Lilith’s indoctrination serum. It would save countless lives!”
Pan strokes his long goatee, “It’s that important, eh?” He turns and shrugs, “It’s out of my control, lass. I’ve been here as a guest all these years. I’m no ally of Olympus any longer. I won’t stop ye from taking some, but I can promise the locals won’t be fond o’it.”
Gabriel raises a brow, “Didn’t you come to the North Pole secretly, Lindsey? Regardless, these people have been living under the ice all this time?”
“Aye, the townspeople were here long before me. Shortly after my own arrival, satyrs began to gravitate towards my presence. I don’t mind it much, but I’m always worried about them leaving and telling Olympus. I’ve liked my peace away from the war.”
“That’s why you were a crow when we first met.” I say.
Pan nods and grins, “And a bear later too.” He turns to Gabriel, “Look mate, I’ll take you to where I know this soul thing is. All I ask in return is that none of ye tell the court I’m alive and well.”
Dionysus hiccups, “Don’t tell them I’m here either. I’m sick of dad constantly pressuring me to vote with him. I don’t agree with everything the man says.”
“You both would rather hide away from Olympus than work to change it?” Gabriel asks annoyed.
Pan and Dionysus look at each other then at Gabriel. They both say at the same time, “Yes!” Then Dionysus burps.
Gabriel rubs his forehead, “Unbelievable. This is why nothing ever changes. Everyone would rather run from our problems.”
Dionysus raises his finger and puffs up his chest like he’s about to say something important, “And hide!” Gabriel gives him an angry look, so he says, “Look, I didn’t judge you when you handed your entire archangel status over to help one mortal.” That’s the first I’ve ever heard of it.
Gabriel grunts, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Pan and Dionysus lead us to a temple in the city. That’s where Luke’s soul piece is supposed to be. Lindsey runs off on her own. She said she had an idea on how to get what she wanted, but that’s all she said. Gabriel didn’t seem happy about it. I get the feeling that Lindsey isn’t really known for being subtle, but I’m not either.
We still get a lot of strange looks from the townspeople. I guess company is a rare sight for them. Some even look afraid of us.
A couple of kids were playing with a ragged ball. They lose control of it, and it hits Carla in the arm. Carla picks up the ball. All of the kids that were playing run away except for one. Carla walks up to the little girl. The girl backs away at first.
Carla says quietly to the girl, “Wanna see something cool?”
The girl looks at Carla confused. Pan says, “They don’t speak English, lass.”
“We heard you say something to them earlier.” I say.
Pan shrugs, “I was speaking two languages at the same time, laddie. You couldn’t have picked up on it.”
“But I did.” Gabriel says. He walks to me and places his finger on my forehead then to Carla, “They should be able to understand you now. I probably should have done the same thing to Lindsey before she ran off. Oh, well.”
Carla tries again with the little girl, “Hi there. Do you want to see something fun?”
The girl takes another step back but nods her head. Carla takes a pyramid shaped prism out of her bag. She lays it down and angles it to where a rainbow stretches out. She touches the rainbow. As soon as she touched the rainbow, her body and eyes began to glow and constantly change colors. She rapidly pulls her finger away. The rainbow takes a more solid form and follows her finger. It continuously stretches and follows Carla as she moves around.
She grabs ahold of the solid rainbow with both hands and pulls it apart. Rainbow streamers spread out across the area. The little girl looks at all of this with awe.
The rest of the children slowly wander back to us. Carla takes pieces of the rainbow and forms different clothing items for them. The first girl gets a scarf that Carla wraps around her. It shines brightly. The whole mood of the town seems to have shifted. No one is giving us dirty or scared looks anymore.
Carla turns to me and smiles cutely. She holds out a bandlike bracelet made of the rainbows. She giggles and says in her sing-song voice, “I tried to think of something youu wouldn’t lose with all that flying around you do. I know you probably will someehoow thooughh.”
When she hands me the bracelet, I grab her hand, “I never will.”
I feel bad whenever she has to fight because I know that isn’t where her heart is. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She’s also grown so much on the inside. She honestly used to be a good bit spoiled back when we were in our lives before all of this. She didn’t consider other people’s feelings most of the time but now? Now she can change a whole town with her presence.
After the attack on our lunchroom, her traumatized change in personality had me worried. I didn’t know how to help her. I didn’t know how to help any of them... I wasn’t fazed at all, so I just did the only things that I knew how. Laugh, smile, and try to cheer them up. Still, Carla pulled through in the end and became stronger for it. She really is amazing. I learn that more all the time.
Dionysus and Pan continue to lead us to the large stone temple. The stone steps leading to its peak are a straight shot but a long way up. It was easily a ten-minute walk. The top of the temple is flat, but there are stone doors in the floor on the opposite side of us. I guess those lead in. The only other thing is that someone is standing guard outside.
It’s a guy with frizzled black hair. He’s sitting on the ground cross legged. His eyes were closed, but open when we all reach the top. He is looking at us curiously.
“Father...what are you doing bringing outsiders here? Did the last intruder not leave us all with enough caution?” The guy asks.
“Drake my boy, I’ve cleared these people. They aren’t here for anything except for that odd artifact that fell through the ice.” Pan explains.
I wouldn’t have expected him to be Pan’s son. He doesn’t look anything like a satyr. He stands up and grins.
“Still, you know I can’t just let anyone pass. If they want to travel through our holy ground, they will have to prove their worth to the guard on duty.” He points his thumb to himself, “That means me.”
Pan strokes his beard, “Oh, please, laddie. You’re only invoking that rule because you want to have a little fun. We haven’t enforced it in years.”
Drake laughs loudly, “Maybe so. I’ll let them all come at me at once if they want.”
Pan walks up to Drake and bonks him on the head lightly with his hand, “I don’t think I taught ye to be so arrogant, boy. The outside world is a hugely different place than here. I can assure you of that.”
Gabriel lies down on the stone floor, “Go ahead, Peter. I’ll let you handle it.”
“Got it, Gabriel!” I grin and strap my wind cannons onto my hands, “I don’t want to hurt you, but my buddy is waiting on me to bring him back.”
Drake jumps to a stand, “Are you saying your buddy just so happens to be in our treasure room? That would be a rather wild tale to believe.”
Then, he charges at me. He isn’t holding a weapon, so I guess he plans to do this with his fists. I point one finger at him. Wind blasts to him, but he narrowly dodges. He readies to punch me. Before I can try and grab his fist, his body disappears right in front of me. My legs are suddenly squeezed together.
I look down, and a large anaconda has wrapped around my legs. It hisses at me while wrapping around more of my body. Is that Drake? It must be. I saw Pan do almost the same thing after all.
I’m wearing clothes under my winter gear, so I slide out of my snow pants before the snake tightens too hard. As soon as I do, I blow the snake away with a large gust of wind. In the air, Drake changes into a...griffin!? This has been a day of seeing some interesting things. Harpies, griffins, Gabriel’s archangel form. If this weren’t a fight, I would be asking so many questions right now.
Oops. Almost got clawed in the face. I should probably focus a little better. I propel myself in the air. Drake tries to stab me with the beak of his hawk head. I point two fingers at him. The speed of the wind is too fast for him to dodge. It knocks him back.
I shoot wind even harder through my feet to propel myself right over Drake before he can recover. I point two fingers at him again with my other hand. My wind blows him to the ground. His body shrinks right before he crashes into the stone floor.
He had turned into a large tortoise right before the impact. His shell still ended up cracked. He turns back into his human form and is panting hard.
“You...were right...dad. I...didn’t stand a chance.” He coughs.
I land on the ground and hold out my hand, “Your powers are really cool though! What is it like to turn into a griffin? Also, where can I find griffins? I would really like to meet some!” Carla giggles behind me.
Drake takes my hand, and I help him up. He says, “Transforming into a griffin is one of my favorite things. I get the freedom of flight while having the inner courage of a lion. We have a few here. Maybe you can see them before you go.”
“I would like that!” I say enthusiastically.
Gabriel stands, “So, I take it that proves our worth enough, right?”
Drake rubs the back of his head, “Y-yeah. I’ll escort you to the treasure room.”
He walks to the stone doors embedded into the floor. He says something that I can’t hear from here, and the doors rumble open. A staircase is revealed on the other side that leads into the temple. Luke, we’re almost there.
When he said treasure room, I definitely didn’t expect what we walked into. There are mountains of gold coins and jewels. Gold suits of armor and weapons are mounted up on the walls. In one of the walls, some words are carved. I can only make out a partial word which is Fafn-. Hmm...
Drake turns into a ferret and crawls across the various piles of gold coins. He says in a squeaky voice, “Give me a moment. It couldn’t have made it too far away. We just added it to the vault not long ago.”
Something resonates to me in the far-left corner of the room. I walk in that direction. The feeling grows with every step that I take. All I see is gold coins. I reach my hand in and feel something in them. I pull it out. It’s a white orb. I can feel power coming from it. I’m fairly sure it’s Luke’s power.
Drake pops his head out from over one of the piles of coins, “Woah. Okay, it might have taken me a little bit before I made it over there.”
Drake jumps into the air and begins to transform to his human form. He stops mid-transformation in the air. I look around, and everyone else seems to be frozen in time too. Even Dionysus and Pan. I walk up to Gabriel and poke him. Nothing. Weird. I hear an odd noise behind me.
A random door has appeared from thin air. I look around it. It doesn’t look connected to anything. When I look on the front again, words are appearing on the door. It says, “Would the one closest to Luke step through, please.” The door then opens. It looks like it is going to a very different kind of place.
Well, that’s cool! Sure, why not? It’s not like I have anything better to do since everybody is frozen in place and everything. Don’t worry, bud. I got this.
I walk up to Carla first. I grab her hand, “Wait just a bit for me. I’ll be back soon!” I bound off towards the door. I feel the orb leave my hand as I step through.
