Greek Times for a Future Girl

The Aetolian Amphora

The next few days were steady. And as much as I loved living in this world and having all these crazy adventures, things got really boring when it was that span of days or even weeks where nothing remotely interesting happened. And I was getting worried about it too. I only had a few more months left to complete my quest and find out more about my dad and that stupid secret the Fates told me about before I was going to be sent back home. I needed those answers sooner than ASAP, but like I said before: The Fates love screwing with me. Because on two particular nights, I couldn't get those answers.

Let me set the scene:

It was in the middle of the night in the Underworld. Everyone was fast asleep, and while I was snoozing peacefully in my bed -somehow dreaming about me teaching a lecture in a college class- I was rudely awoken by the sound of loud footsteps coming from outside of my room. I turned on my phone to see what the time was: 3:15 am. And as the footsteps kept walking back and forth from the hallway, I knew I had to see what it was.

"Ugh, Panic, you better not be sleepwalking again." I yawned in an annoyed way as I got out of bed to investigate. 

I lit up an oil lamp and left my room to see who was up at this time of night. There was no one in the hallway, but the footsteps sounded like they were pretty close. So, I went downstairs to check things out, hoping it was just a sleep-walking imp.

When I got downstairs, I froze when I could barely make out a tall dark figure standing near the entrance to the Lethe Pool carrying something in their arms. The small flame of the lamp couldn't make out the figure, but it did allow me to see what the figure was holding: A green amphora filled with Lethe water. This person was a thief, but I could care less about what they were planning to do with the water. They needed to be stopped.

"Oh, no you don't!" I said to them as I started running towards them to take back the amphora. 

But just as I got close to the thief, they slammed their heavy body right into me. I dropped my lamp and stumbled backwards, and I bumped my arm on one of the blue flame torches. Feeling a burning pain hit me just below my right wrist.

"OW!" I screamed as I cradled my injured arm.

Apparently, I screamed so loud, it woke up the imps, because the next thing I knew, I saw Pain and Panic running downstairs: Tired and a little angry about being woken up. The thief saw this opportunity to run past them and escape the Underworld, their footsteps sounding a little like a gallop of a horse

"What the Styx is going on?" Pain demanded as he stood with wide eyes as the thief ran off with the amphora.

Panic then took notice of me and my injured arm. "Aria!" 

He and Pain ran towards me to help me out. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Somebody broke in," I told them the obvious as I winced at my injury. "And I think I burnt my arm."

"We got you." Panic assured me as he gently held my arm steady so I wouldn't hurt it further. 

But just before the imps could help me upstairs to patch up my injury, we were stopped by Hades coming down the stairs, looking angry after hearing all the loud commotion that woke him up from his sleep.

"What did you three do?" he demanded an explanation.

"We didn't do anything. Somebody broke in the Underworld!" I snapped back.

"What!?" Hades yelled in disbelief.

"They somehow got past Cerberus. They attacked me when I came down here." I explained what happened. "I tried fighting back, but they were too strong for me to handle."