The Life of an Olympian

15 | Sage

Sage's POV

1010 words

Talk about boring car rides. Abrax didn't speak. Alex stared out the window. Cleo fiddled with anything—nails, clothes, hair. And I sat there bouncing my leg. Is this what quests are like?

I got my answer soon enough. Abrax suddenly pulled over to the side and slammed on the breaks. The three of us in the back were jolted from our absentmindedness. We could see these four little goblin-looking creatures standing where the car would have driven through had Abrax not veered off course. They wore dirty clothes and a mischievous smile. I felt like I should know what they were, but my mind kept coming up blank.

We got out and took in our surroundings. Abrax had pulled into a fairly empty parking lot. To what, I wasn't sure. But we were only a few blocks from the Avengers tower.

The biggest of the goblin quartet spoke first. "Look what we have here! The master's child and their little friends!"

The smallest one let out an impish laugh that promised trouble.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

All four laughed this time. Each took turns speaking.

"The bastard child wishes to know who we are!"

"Let's show them!"

"They can't escape the pranks of the Kobalos!"

"The mortals can have their rest while we show these demigods some fun!"

"Kobalos?" Cleo said, scrunching her eyebrows and tapping her chin in thought. "Oh! I remember! You're companions of Dionysus! You're known for tricking and frightening mortals!"

Alex voiced the question we were all thinking. "If you're with Dionysus, then why are you attacking us? Sage is with us."

"We have no loyalty to that god anymore!" one of the Kobalos shouted. "Dionysus abandoned us over the years! He grew tired of our tricks, preferring parties over pranks. We can't take revenge against him. But his descendant will do nicely." The creepy smile they all gave me was unnerving.

Surprisingly, it was Abrax who stood up to them first. "These heroes are on a quest. Do not interfere."

The smallest one cackled. "We know of their quest. Our patron sent us to stop them. We will not disappoint her!"

"Who's your patron?" I questioned.

They sneered at me. "Lady Manea, of course! Goddess of insanity and madness! You will tremble in her presence."

"No," the biggest one interjected, "they will not make it to her in the lone land. Their journey ends here!"

"Yes!" a third declared. "Our Lady resides in the star state! She will rise to power and destroy the minds of mortals!"

At this point, all four of us drew our weapons. Alex had a sword made of a sea serpent tooth. Cleo chose to fight with dual stilettos—needlepoint daggers. Usually, people use one stiletto in quick assassinations or basic self-defense, but Cleo didn't use many conventional methods. Stilettos were easily concealed and sharp enough to pierce through armor which made them perfect for both offense and defense. Her set, however, was slightly longer than their traditional style and made so strong from celestial bronze that a simple thrust could cut through steel like butter—a little more force and it could punch through celestial bronze or imperial gold. Abrax pulled out a kopis sword somehow made of coral. And I used a classic, celestial bronze xiphos blade.

We pressed forward and prepared to take them down quickly. But the little shits moved too fast. We ran all over trying to catch them, but they kept climbing the sides of buildings and lampposts and railings. Unable to keep up, we tried to regroup and form a plan. But before we could even start conversing, I was pulled into the air. I could feel the rope around me, though, I wasn't sure how it got there so quickly. Over to my right, I saw that Alex was in a similar position. Our hands were pinned firmly to our sides, unable to use our weapons to break free. Abrax was below us and securely tied to a railing. He was struggling against the rope, but it became evident he couldn't escape either.

It seemed as though Cleo managed to cut her restraints but not before it lifted her in the air, which meant she fell a couple of feet onto her ankle. I could tell by the way she was limping that she had an unpleasant landing.

Alex and I struggled, but we also knew that if we did escape, it would be a twenty-foot free fall to the hard pavement below. I will never look at lampposts the same. Eventually, I saw that we were suspended by weighted sandbags on a pulley system. If the bags were cut just enough, we'd be let down safely.

"Cleo!" I screamed. She looked up as she jumped over one of the Kobalos. Gesturing my head to the left as best I could, I yelled, "The bags!"

Thankfully, she understood what I meant. She dashed over to the sandbags, fought her way past the Kobalos, and stuck her daggers into the bottom of each. The sand started pouring out slowly. Alex and I were lowered down, but not fast enough to help Cleo. In the middle of fighting, she managed to cut Abrax's bonds and he jumped in to help her.

We were still a good seven feet off the ground when Alex's bag split open wider. He tucked into a roll at the last second and took most of the force in his left shoulder. I couldn't tell if it was dislocated or just severely bruised. The Kobalos had pushed Abrax and Cleo away from us, so Alex still wasn't free. The rope didn't loosen as he reached the ground, so he was still effectively tied up.

In what felt like hours, I finally reached the ground too. I was heading over to Alex so we could try to untie each other when my vision suddenly went dark. I slipped on something sticky and was soon covered by the stuff. The taste was disgustingly metallic. Almost like... blood.