Chapter 10-Thievery in Ares’ Chamber
As Alecto plodded down
the winding tunnel in front of him, he had a little bit of time to survey the
walls around him. The tunnel was lit by
the light cast from flickering torches on the wall. Strangely enough, the torches seemed very
old, as though they never burned out, and it looked as though the smoke which
should have blanketed the tunnel by now did not exist. Indeed from what Alecto could tell no smoke
emitted from them at all. Being as it
was the entrance to a god’s dwelling; however, he was not very surprised.
As he went deeper into
the mountain he began to notice some of the sharp corners had deep scars in
them. Alecto thought the grooves were
undoubtedly made by the two scythes sticking out of the wheels of the war chariot. A shiver ran down his spine as he thought how
vicious and unforgiving those scythes must be, to have the ability to carve
deeply in the cold stone around him.
As he ran onward, he felt
the air around him start to get warmer.
His heart started racing as he saw the formation of a large opening at
the end of the tunnel. As he approached,
he slowed down and crept warily towards the opening. Finally he reached the opening and gazed with
wonder upon a colossal ornate hall. He
gasped at the beautiful vista which opened before him.
Everything from the floor
to the roof was magnificently decorated.
The floor was hard as stone and yet it was a crimson red, a color which
Alecto had never seen in stone before.
Mighty marble pillars held the proud roof above him. The roof itself contained many warlike
pictures, although they did not in themselves appear gruesome, only heroic. But perhaps the most awe-inspiring object in
the whole hall was an enormous bronze statue of Ares, fully armored, with his
sword pointing up into the sky.
Alecto looked at this
monument and snorted as he tried to contain his laughter. “Now that’s when you know when you’ve become
an egotistical buffoon.” Alecto muttered
to himself. “When as a god, the largest
tribute to yourself is in your own home, where only you can see it. What can you do with it, pretend to worship yourself?”
After a few seconds of
staring into the great hall, and struggling to regain control of himself,
Alecto finally entered. He began walking
towards the far end of the hall, to inspect another doorway at the far
end. But as he walked he noticed, out of
the corner of his eyes, two doorways, one on either side of the great
hall. He stopped not knowing which way
to go, and then he remembered Poseidon’s advice.
“Trust your
instincts. They know more than either of
us can ever pretend to know.”
As he thought this, he
felt a strong desire to go towards the left door. So he did, after all it was time to trust his
instincts. He approached the door
confidently and found it to be a large field with stables. It seemed Ares had decided to keep his horses
here where he could protect them. Alecto
decided it was a wise choice, because otherwise he would most certainly have
come in the dead of night and purloined those fascinating animals. Next he felt the desire to approach the Iron
doors at the back of the hall.
He walked towards them
and went to give them a powerful shove only to discover that they swung open
easily. Inside was probably the most
gorgeous addition to the dwelling. It
looked as though it was a war museum.
Hundreds of weapons were showcased on ornate stands in the hall. Alecto examined the objects around him, but
suddenly at the end of the hall he saw something, which fixed his gaze. There, on a huge stand, was a beautifully
carved golden bow. Next to it was an
equally superb quiver of arrows. Alecto
did not need anyone to tell him what this was.
He knew this was the unmatchable bow of Apollo, but he could not understand
how Ares came to own it.
However, he decided
whatever the reason, if it was no longer in the care of the true owner of the
object, it was fair game to take. So he
ran, blatantly, straight up to the bow and lifted it from its “trophy mount”. He lovingly lowered the bow and quiver,
admiring their every feature. The draw
in the bow was unmatched. He had never
felt something so powerful and yet so easy to draw back in his life. He smiled with satisfaction, he was beginning
to really enjoy this “task”; demigods really did have more fun. He lifted the bow and quiver over his
shoulders and carried them with him as he surveyed the rest of the room.
He carefully scoured the
room, anxiously hoping that there would be something else of value, which he
could “reclaim” from its “mount”. He
walked quickly through the items noticing swords, shields, and spears galore,
but he already had a sword, and he felt shields and spears would only weigh him
down. Suddenly he felt his heart
stop. He gazed in astonishment at the
sight which met his eyes from the other end of the hall. He saw, at the other end of the hall, right
next to the door, a suit of golden armor.
He felt his heart beat start again as he stared longingly for the armor. He knew this armor, for all demi-gods are
told the tale of one of the greatest of their order. This was the golden armor of Achilles.
He strode forward and
reached for it with shaking hands, as gently as he could, he lifted the armor
off the pedestal and over his head, onto his brawny body. Quickly he secured the straps and bound the
shiny armor to himself. Then he lifted
up the fearsome helm, which not only had a plume but also wing-like carvings in
the side of it, and slid it over his slick black hair. Then he grabbed the bow and quiver and slung
them over his now iron body.
Alecto looked awestruck
at his new appearance. He could not
believe he was wearing Achilles’ armor.
He was incredulous at how light the armor was. He began to bend his arms and legs and began
to be overwhelmed at the dexterity he felt in this armor. Not only was it light, but it was
exceptionally flexible. He decided he
must keep these items. He left the iron
room, closing the doors behind him and began his trek towards the last
remaining door where the staff was sure to be.
As he approached the wide
opening before him, he began to hear the sounds of a faint snore. As he drew closer to the doorway it became
more and more pronounced. Finally he
reached the opening, and he peered cautiously inside.
This room was much
smaller than the other two rooms, although it was equally extravagant. Inside were two large sofas which were
definitely not of Greek make. It seemed
to Alecto that they were made out of some extremely fine, soft, smooth
material. In all reality they were silk,
and Ares had received them as a gift for helping in a Persian war, but not only
could Alecto not know that, but he was suddenly distracted by a huge movement
on the sofas. He watched, alarmed, as he
prepared for the worst, but nothing happened.
Instead the movement just rose and fell and then Alecto realized where
the snoring was coming from.
On the two sofas before
him were two of the largest men Alecto had ever seen. If he would have to classify them in terms of
size, he would have named them two monsters.
They were behemoths, the like of which he had never before seen. He stared, fascinated at the two gargantuan
rising and falling chests. It seemed
like every bit of the two brothers’ being was muscle. And here they were sprawled out on the sofa
in obvious disarray; they looked just as though they were two enormous piles of
muscle. Alecto stared in surprise at the
two of them. He had not expected such
enormous companions in the two brothers.
Surely they were sons of the god of war, but he did not think they were
sons of the god of strength. Indeed he
thought Atlas must appear quite microscopic in comparison with these two.
After a few moments like
this, he finally pushed his jaw closed (It had fallen open upon seeing the
brothers) and proceeded to creep into the room.
He had decided that he might as well get the dirty work accomplished
before the two brothers awoke. He snuck
stealthily towards them and peered apprehensively up at them. Now from this close angle he became surprised
that the large sofas could support such weight.
He watched as an extremely minute fly (At least in comparison with these
two) landed on a fat, large ear. Alecto
watched with a mirthful expression as the out of place, overly large ear began
to twitch rapidly, as though in an attempt to get rid of the itch the fly
created.
The thought occurred to
Alecto that if the brother’s woke up, and he tried to punch one of them. The one that had been punched might lean over
to the other and ask if a fly had just landed on him. It was not a happy thought, so therefore,
Alecto thought it an extremely high priority, now that he had seen the
brothers, to find the staff and get out as fast as possible.
He was now close enough to
the brothers to have their heavy breath leave traces of moisture on his
skin. Suddenly the brother with the fly
stirred. Alecto froze, clinging to the
idea that if the brothers woke up, he had one thing on his side and that was
speed. But the brother only rolled over
onto his belly and dangled his arm off the sofa. Idus began to breathe a sigh of relief but
before it came out, he saw something that made him gasp.
In front of him, under
where the brother had just lain, was the staff.
His heart almost leaped for joy at having found it so quickly. But now he felt a sudden pang of fear in his
stomach. The brother had obviously been
laying on it on purpose. He was
protecting it. Ares had suspected
Poseidon would try to recover it, and he had taken precautions, by giving it to
the brothers to keep safe.
Alecto thought to his
chagrin that if the weight of the brother didn’t crush the staff, surely there
was no safer place than underneath one of those massive bodies, and although
now he knew where it was. He was now
left with the problem of how to get it away unnoticed. He sat and pondered on how to remedy this
unforeseen problem. He could not just
jump up on the brother’s lap for he might wake up. He couldn’t just go to the back of the sofa
because it was too large. It stood at
least twenty feet in the air.
He kept thinking but try
as he might, no solution presented itself.
He had finally decided to resign himself to defeat, when all of a sudden
he had the idea that maybe, since the staff was made out of SEA wood, he could
control it. He thought that must be the
solution, but he did not know how to use his power to lift it. With a slight sigh he decided to once again
trust his instinct. He told himself he
wanted to pull the staff to him, and instantly the urge came to lift his arm
and say the word baen. Suddenly the staff rose into the air and flew
into Alecto’s outstretched hand.
Overjoyed he ran, not
heeding anything else, to the door of the room.
He just got outside when he noticed his footsteps were clanging in an
eerie silence. It was only then that he
realized the loud cosmic snoring had stopped.
Terrified, he made for the nearest bit of cover which just so happened
to be the statue of Ares.
“Phooobos!” A dull bellow issued from the room he had
just left. “The staff is gone, and I
just saw a glint of gold leaving the room.
There’s a thief in our house!!”
The voice echoed like a cannon shot in the great hall. Suddenly the ground shook beneath Alecto’s
feet as the two gargantuan brothers burst into the great hall. “Block the entrance. We’ll make this would be intruder pay.” Came the low fearsome roar of Deimos’
voice. Alecto had been wrong in two
things that night. The first was in
thinking that satisfying his insatiable greed would come to absolutely no harm,
and the second was in the thinking that he was faster than the two enormous
brothers. Indeed, now he realized it was
a good thing he had run for cover instead of trying to make a break for the
tunnel, because the brothers covered the entrance so quickly that he would have
had no chance to escape. Instead, he
found himself-trapped.
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