Started With A Dare - A POTHENA STORY ✔

Now There's An Unexpected Saviour

  I was shocked enough when I woke up with my wrists tied to two pine trees, my stomach ready to rip itself apart though Sinis himself held me down. I was even more surprised when Athena attempted to stand up to Sinis even though I, hopefully not we, stood no chance of survival. But never would I have thought the god in front of us would be the one to save us.

  Ares stood there, a cocky smirk on his face with his hands casually placed on his hips. You could tell he was on the brink of fuming and trying hard to keep his cool. I was ready to yell to Ares my gratefulness, but Sinis spoke first.

  "What...what are you doing here?" He sounded fearful but slightly suspicious and irritated. "Did I do something I should not be doing?"

  Ares didn't reply to his question. Or if better described, he answered the question with another question. "Tell me, Sinis, what were my requirements?"

  Sinis gritted his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows as if he had trouble remembering. "I could do anything I wanted to them as long as I could retrieve the items you asked for, and didn't hurt-"

  "Are you sure that's all?" Ares' voice became harsher. "I told you not to kill him. Why are you trying to kill him now? I know of your personal grudge, but I rewarded you by reviving you. You dare break the only rules I gave you?"

  My eyes widened. Ares was in on it? I gulped as I remembered Hermes' words: Ares might have something to do with it. I didn't know what would prompt him to help us so I didn't think much of his advice at the time, but it seems our enemies had a lot more secrets than we'd predicted. I glanced at Athena and saw that she was even more surprised.

  Sinis didn't reply. I pitied him just a little bit - he probably couldn't think of a valid response that wouldn't get his butt kicked. I suppose I didn't feel so much hatred towards him anymore as there was someone new who seemed to be in on this.

  Athena stood up. "Ares! You were in on this. Hermes told us and I did suspect it slightly, but I never thought it would actually be true. Why would you make us go through so much? All we needed was one damn prophecy!" (A/N: I'm so sorry for not using the 'dam' joke...I just cannot imagine Athena even attempting to make it.)

  Ares' eyes seemed to soften, but they returned to the cruel state they were in no time that I might've imagined the softening. He ignored Athena and glared dangerously at Sinis. "Untie him."

  Sinis looked towards me with evident vengeance in his eyes. He had me, the father of the man who had killed him with the same way he used to kill others, tied up and readied to be killed in his favourite way. He wasn't about to give in and let me go, not even if the war god ordered him to.

  "All due respect, my saviour god of war, but I have a better way of setting him free." My body froze. Not that I could move at all before, but my fear of death took things to another level.

  My vision blurred and I felt a strange wave of heat surround my head, making me nauseous. I could no longer feel a single part of my body - all I could imagine in my mind was the image of myself getting torn by the pine trees...then the pain came.

  I gasped for air to scream as the agony attacked me, but anything that was about to come out of my mouth stopped dead before it had a chance to escape. My lungs stopped functioning and there wasn't enough air. I got ready to see pitch darkness ahead of me...

  Then everything stopped.

  I heard muffled voices around me, one calm, one agitated, one desperate...it took almost half a minute before I completely regained consciousness and was aware of my surroundings. I crumbled to the floor with a terrible headache, my limbs gone limp and lying on the ground next to me as if they'd been detached from my body. Athena rushed towards me, her eyes full of concern as she whispered my name. She draped a sparkly piece of cloth over my head that I barely recognised as the Fleece.

  A miraculous sensation came over me - the Golden Fleece not only healed my physical wounds and fatigue, it also completely refreshed my mental state. I shut my eyes and let a short few seconds of euphoria take over me before I opened my eyes again.

  I carefully got up and sat properly in front of a kneeling Athena. "I'm alright," I told her, smiling as genuinely and as much as I could. The Golden Fleece didn't heal my mood, so the best I could do was to fake it.

  Athena didn't seem to buy it, but she let out a sigh of relief and turned away from me. I barely caught a wide smile on her face as she turned towards Ares. I followed her gaze and all I felt was shock when I realised Sinis had taken my place, completely tied to the tree behind him, struggling helplessly against Ares' godly strength as he held him down.

  I knew they probably shared a conversation, but I didn't want to hear it. I grabbed the Fleece and draped it over Athena to cure her minor wounds and let her experience the wonders I did. We helped each other up and grabbed Sinis' backpack, glad to find everything he'd taken from us back inside. We both gushed about how glad we were that the prophecy and weapons were still intact, but I suspected that she was more glad about the clothes sitting right there as that was how I felt.

  We got dressed back to back and turned back around to face each other, now finally able to do it without awkwardness and embarrassment. Knowing myself, though, I would always be awkward and embarrassed with Athena.

  She lead me to Ares so that we could clarify everything that happened, but the god's powerful voice stopped me dead in my tracks. "Poseidon, stop."

  Athena frowned at him and gave me a glance. "What's the problem?" She demanded.

  "I'll tell you everything. Poseidon should go back to camp." I could tell Athena wanted to protest, but against an invincible, immortal god of war, all she could do was keep quiet. I made sure the contents of the backpack were complete before nodding to them. Ares whisked me away with a snap of his fingers, and before I knew it, I was sitting at the feet of Peleus the dragon.

(A/N: We're very close to the end! This book took way longer than expected. You can expect a lot of cheesiness when it actually does end, but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank every one of you who'd made it this far and actually like this piece of crap I put together for you. I really enjoyed writing this even though I started it as a joke so I'm still contemplating if a sequel would be a good idea...but yeah, stay tuned for next week's chapter!)