The Blood Of The Beast

5. The Oracle of Delphi

(02/07/2016 - 06/07/2016)
[Edited: 09/07/2016]

I sat there, trying to understand what had happened while Kiara, Archie, Mary, and the man stared at me. Then it hit me. There was nothing to understand! This is all some big joke they were pulling on me to get me to do something I didn't want to!

It was actually pretty good! I mean, they must have needed some pretty high-tech equipment do it. Floating water taking shape to tell a story. Seeing weird visions from the 'past' in 'ancient Greece'. The man was probably to help put everything in action! It was really cool.

I started laughing, ''You guys know this isn't the first of April, right?"

Miss Mary and he others shared a look. "We aren't kidding around, Alex."

I stared at Mary. "Come on, Miss Mary! Just let it go! The joke is out! There is no way this can be real." I yell in exasperation.

This was getting tiring. I always felt as if jokes were only funny once, then, they just got old.

Mary looked almost as exasperated as I felt. She turned to my aunt and uncle, "Why must you have raised him to be such a man of science and proof! It's only making the process more difficult than it already is!"

Mr. Mafia finally speaks up. "See. I told you we should have raised him with the truth this entire time. It's the boy's legacy. He should have been told before."

Wait. He knew me since I was born? Then how come I've never seen him before in my life? They can't be still joking, can they?

"Be quiet, Apollo! No one wants to hear from you what should or shouldn't have been done! His upbringing wasn't set in stone! The Fates permitted us to decide!" Aunt Kiara shrieks at him.

Apollo? Fates? Set in stone? This definitely wasn't funny anymore. It was getting frustrating.

Uncle Archie, always the pacifist, attempted to stop the three other grown ups from arguing.

"Guys, calm down. This isn't about was said or should have been done. This is about Alex, the prophecy, and the dragons."

It didn't work. It just seemed to get them even more fired up about it.

"ENOUGH! This isn't funny anymore and I would like everyone to please stop arguing!"

And as I shouted the last word, a dark shadow swallowed the room and took me with it.

···

I opened my eyes to find myself in a small room full of people forming a circle around something. They were dressed in light, loose clothes and sandals, and the women were cloths in their heads.

It had pillars holding animals that were stuffed and covered in medallions, and jugs full of oil and incense.

All of this, especially the clothing, reminded me of the large man I had met on the olive grove outside of Athens.

No Alex, stop being stupid. This is all just another part of the joke. Just go along with it.

A column of blue and purple smole smoke raised in the air, its source still unknown as the people surrounded it.

I felt someone lightly tap my back. I turned around to find a woman in her mid-thirties smiling at me

"How wond'rful to seeth one of the gods owneth knights, especially one from wise Athens, h're to protecteth our sacr'd temple in Delphi." the woman smiled at me as I struggled to comprehd what she said in her dialect.

I paused, she called me a knight from Athens. I looked at her and she looked back at me expectantly. I decided to play along with her game.

"How do you know that I am a knight from Athens, miss?"

"Wherefore m'lord. Thee wears carefully crafted arm'r and in the center if 't be true thy chest is an olive tree and an bird of the night. Thy sword's hilt holds engravings of bawbling birds with large eyes; birds of the night. And in the center if 't be true thy shield is a gorgon; a replica of medusa's headeth. Mine own husband wast a knight himself and he did teach me how to find these certain things."

Armour? Sword? Shield? I look down to find myself with silver chainmail armour, with an olive tree and an owl in the center just like she said. I also had the sword, full of engravings and jewels on the leather hilt, with gave way for a silver blade.

And on my left hand I held a silver shield, like the one we learned in history class that Athena would carry.

"How can this be?" I whisper in horror and fear.

My face reflected back at me from the silver blade, an it showed a large scar running tragically from my left eyebrow to my right ear.

"Come here, Alexander." A female voice called out from the middle of the crowd as the room went silent. Unlike the woman, her English wasn't Shakespearean.

The people made way for me so I would walk to the center, were a woman wearing finery and wreaths sat in a stool with snake rising around her.

She looks up and stares at me in the eye. "Alexander, you are destined for greatness, chosen by the Fates themselves, yet... you don believe.

Your prophecy was given long ago from in a time of fear and hardships. This time. But it is not my place to give you your future. You have to find it yourself. So believe, because the sake of the past present and future depend on you. You can stop the beasts, or you can humanity become the dragons' slaves."

A large dragon of dust and smoke appeared above her and blew smoke at me as if it was fire. And out of the smoke, came a weathered piece of paper.

The woman, no, the oracle caught the paper and handed it to me. "Good luck, Alexander."

And smoke surrounded me in a whirling typhoon.

As it cleared, I appeared once again in Miss Mary's house. And I believed in the prophecy, because I still wore my armour and I had a thousand year old piece of paper weathering in my hand.

Not to mention a fire breathing lizard in front of me. No way this was a trick.