The Lyricist

The Hero's Call

Long ago Zeus, the ruler of all the greek gods and goddesses, slept with Mnemosyne the titan. They birthed nine beautiful daughters and one boy, Lyric. This boy was the twin of one of the daughters, specifically Euterpe, muse of song. These nine women became The Muses but the boy, when he was a toddler, was cursed to lose his memory every time he saw a god or titan. This was do to a birth defect caused by the strain from his godly twin during development. Mnemosyne had been raising him but since she could no longer do so she left him on earth. He grew up mostly on the streets but eventually when he was 17 he found work as a stableboy.

    Lyric was clearing horse crap as usual, ready to go back to his small camp. He had set up the camp permanently so he could do his job without walking too far. His camp was just upwind, for obvious reasons.

“Finally,” Lyric said as he finished and began walking towards his camp whilst bickering half heartedly, “clean the stables, they said, it’ll be easy, they said.”

“Wait. What is that sound?” Lyric thought to himself. He strained his ears to hear the faint noise but he could only hear the blood flowing through the veins in his ears and a faint voice talking.

“Strange, I’ve never had trouble hearing people before” he mentioned silently in his head, walking towards the direction of the voice. As the talking grew louder Lyric realized it was not talking, but singing. He quickened his pace, falling into a trance. As Lyric approached the origin of the song he saw a woman, long blond-brown hair, standing tall. She spoke in a melodic tone, breaking Lyric’s daze.

“I am Euterpe, the muse of song”

“Oh, Hi?” Lyric responded casually, forgetting to bow like most peasants would.

“Hello” Euterpe was bothered when people forgot to bow, but she had not expected her brother to bow so she wasn’t really mad.

“Do you want something or am I just in your way?” Looking at her, Lyric knew that there was no doubt about her musehood.

“There is a danger, and I need your help,” she commanded.

Lyric laughed, “why would you need my help? Need a godly stable sweeped?” It wasn’t an especially good joke, but it’s not like Lyric had one prepared for this situation.

Euterpe sighed annoyedly, “No. You are my twin brother, but every time you saw a god or titan you lost your memories. We need your help to stop a terrible beast,” Euterpe neglected to mention her unborn selves involvement.

“Wait though, then how can I be talking to you and still have my memories?”

“Because I'm a muse, now answer me”

“Oh, sure, why not. I mean no, obviously I can’t help you but at least I buy the story. Either way I could never fight anything.” He flexed his arm to show off his muscle, or lack thereof.

“Well then it’s a good thing you won’t need to punch anything, you can just use your powers.”

“Now I know you’ve got the wrong guy, I don’t have any powers. I think one of those horses would be more useful for your fight than me.”

“Maybe not yet, but I can help you train them. Assuming you’re not adverse to that.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna be busy or anything I just don’t want you wasting your time,” he informed her as he began walking back to his tent. I mean, he needs some sleep he can’t talk with her all night, he has work in the morning.

“I somehow doubt it will be a waste,” Euterpe responded to herself, though she knew that he heard her, whilst watching him leave.
One Training Montage Later

“I’ll tell you one thing, you’re definitely right about me being your brother. Although, if we are related I guess I should avoid saying that you are right at all costs,” Lyric chuckled to himself, he had prepared that joke for this occasion.

As he spoke, Lyric was floating up and down by pushing sound waves down at a certain intervals. He had clearly come along way in just a month.

“So what was it you were saying about a monster, don't we have to fight that, it's been a month.”

“I warned you with plenty of time to train. Now for a run through!”

Lyric’s control over sound waves basically allowed him to have telekinesis so as he landed on the ground he lifted dozens of swords at once. One sword’s hilt landed in Lyric’s hand as the rest of them launched into a large broken down concrete wall. Lyric launched himself up and landed directly in front of the wall, throwing the sword directly at the wall. The weak wall would have crumbled to pieces if he had not dispersed the molecules of the sword to pass directly through the wall. Euterpe picked it up, impressed.

“Hey, it finally worked, I told you that would work. Suck it Euterpe!” Lyric created the sound of a small applause for himself.

“So do you think I can go to Olympus now?” he asked, looking over the beautiful ocean opposite the crumbling wall.

“Have you forgotten that you can't see the gods without losing your memories?”

“Oh, I assumed you had an idea for that.”

“You know me too well already”

“I'm a quick learner,” Lyric said whilst turning to look at Euterpe, “you sh…”

A sharp pain in the eyes, darkness, he fell unconscious.