TAMING APOLLO | completed

22. into the jungle

22. into the jungle

G A Y L E

❝THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN a maze and a labyrinth? A maze has many paths to the centre, a labyrinth only has the one." Icarus elaborates as he leads us all through the tiny door he was guarding and into the metal dome.

We step into a narrow hallway with thick cement walls parting the labyrinth. The hallway branches out into four different openings, each leading to a different place.

There's light streaming in from the furthest opening, where if I squint hard enough I can see the makings of a beautiful garden in sunny weather.

The door next to it does not look as pleasant. Even from where I stand, I can see a streak of lightning behind the opening, and heavy rains pouring in the background. A few seconds pass us by and then thunder strikes, making it even less appealing.

There is darkness behind the opening next to that one. It's completely pitch black and there is no way to tell what lies behind the door.

There's a blinding white light streaming in from the final door. I have to avert my eyes because the light is too powerful, not even Icarus can keep his eyes on it.

"Normally, I would just fly over the entire thing.. but I can't carry all of you so we'll just have to go through." Icarus nods to each of the respective openings.

He turns back to us, folding his feathery wings back into his shoulder blades with ease. It's like they were never there in the first place, and now he was stood before us shirtless. "Put on a bloody shirt, Icarus." Hercules rolls his eyes, completely displeased with having to look at Icarus' chiseled chest.

Icarus rolls his eyes before snapping his fingers, a plain white t-shirt covers his chest within a nanosecond. This shuts Hercules up.

"There is only one path, but it changes. It shifts and folds in many ways to deter weary travelers. This labyrinth is not like any other. Falling into the wrong trail will subject you to the scrutiny of all kinds of beasts, and there are plentiful." His face remains hard as he speaks.

"Stay close to me, and this should go smoothly. Find yourself away from me, and die a most gruesome death."

"At least take me out on a date first." Hercules sighs sarcastically, clicking his boot against the cemented floor.

"Stop it." Thalia murmurs, shooting him a death glare.

Hercules lifts both of his palms and surrenders, returning his gaze to Icarus who seems less than impressed by his attitude.

Apollo just runs his fingers through his messy golden hair.

"The minotaur resides in the centre," Icarus turns to Apollo. "You will have to kill him to access your powers." Apollo's brow hikes up at his words, as if he'd expected this, some damning fine print to make this harder than it actually had to be.

"Remember that beasts like that minotaur... beasts and creatures in this world never stay dead. You kill it once it rises again hours later, so I would exercise caution if I were you." Icarus warns. "Prepare yourselves. We are going in."

I remove the backpack from behind me and put it down before me, sliding the zipper backwards to access all of our things.

The helmet sticks out like sore thumb within the confines of the tiny backpack, and I take it out. It glimmers in the dim lighting of the dome, making for a sparkly obsidian new hat.

I run my fingers over its harsh, metal outer and realise it'll weigh a ton on my head.

My fingers wander over a button on the side, not the one that turns it off but a completely different one.

"What does this do?" I mumble to myself before clicking on it. The helmet morphs into a small good ol' fashioned fedora, with the black band surrounding the middle.

It's lighter in my hands now and I slide it on with ease. Thalia, Hercules, Apollo and Icarus are all watching me with curious eyes, wondering what else the mystical object can do.

"Hey, guys! I'm Indiana Jones." I mumble with a stupid grin plastered on my face. Thalia is the only one who smirks at me with the cheerful roll of her eyes.

"Indiana Jones?" Apollo's brows furrow in heavy thought as he tries to figure out what I mean. "What in Hades is an Indiana Jones." He frowns in deep concentration, waiting patiently for me to answer him, there's genuine confusion flashing through his silver eyes.

Hercules and Icarus are also waiting for me to explain.

"I... well you know, Indiana Jones. Ah, never mind." My cheeks are suddenly burning up as three of them exchange a wayward glance as if to say to each other, do you know?

"Mortals..." Hercules murmurs to himself, pulling his sword out from its holster around his waist, he turns away from me and glances at Thalia, who'd been staring at him all along, when his gaze meets hers, she tears her eyes away from his and turns away from him.

Some unfamiliar emotion flashes through his eyes, breaking apart his normally nonchalant demeanor. But it's gone as soon as it came, and the normal Hercules is back to his old self.

I ignore the exchange, telling myself that I'll ask Thalia about it later when we aren't in the face of danger.

For now, I dig deeper into the backpack until my hand grips on the magical dagger Hades gave me. I pull it out, and finally get a good look at it for the first time.

The handle is obsidian, just as the helmet looked with little shining lights like glitter or stars over the blanket of the night sky. The blade smells like copper, but looks like silver. Either way it's sharp and dangerous.

There's an ancient rune scrawled on the hilt in gold, but I can't tell what it means. I grab onto it, grasping it tightly in my hands before asking Apollo if he'd like his bow and arrows now.

He shakes his head, refusing to make eye contact with me for a moment. My brow arches but I don't think much of it.

"Is everybody ready?" Icarus asks and the four of us exchange uneasy looks before Apollo nods.

"Born ready." He whispers, stalking closer to Icarus.

Icarus nods, pursing his lips nervously.

He takes a few steps towards the door leading to darkness and stops at the entrance of it, nodding for us to follow him through.

"Well, then. Welcome to the labyrinth."