The Wish Box

by Nate Van Dyke

  I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until that moment. Our practice hadn’t felt very long, but when I looked up, the sun was high in the sky. I was surprised at how exhausted and drenched in sweat I was. Even through his armor, I could hear Garrett’s stomach rumble. My stomach ached like I had missed a few meals. I was very much looking forward to lunch.

  Nyka led the way out of the Arena, with Garrett and me following behind. Her armor disappeared as she walked. Before I could even ask, my armor disappeared as well. I looked over at Garrett and could see the grin on his face at the prospects of having lunch. Or maybe it was who we were having lunch with. I smiled as well until Nyka looked back at us to make sure we were keeping up. Both of us dropped the smiles and looked away in perfect synchronization.

  In a tone dripping of sarcasm, the voice in the back of my head said, You two are definitely related. Bravo, she probably didn’t even notice! Oh, shut up! I responded. No really, she probably thought you were looking at birds. Or planes. Or—.

  “Shut up!” Garrett and I said aloud in unison. Garrett was looking a bit red around the face. I think his spirit was beating me to the teasing. Nyka kept walking as if nothing happened. Then, glancing over her shoulder, she said, “Sometimes it would be really nice if they had a mute button, right?”

  Garrett and I both laughed. Garrett, still chuckling, said, “Good, I thought I was the only one that was beginning to get annoyed by it. By the way, who is your spirit? Doesn’t that book thingy tell you?”

  “Yep! It usually takes a couple of hours after you arrive, but when it finishes, it will have a whole genealogy map of everyone that has ever been inhabited by the spirit. There are too many spirits in existence to try and keep track of all the names, so it’s usually easiest to identify them by who they have inhabited before. There were so many in the Trojan conflict; usually there is a name from that time that is recognizable. Otherwise, you’re stuck digging through history books to see what kind of person your spirit is interested in.”

  She paused to greet a couple of people as we passed. It seemed like she knew everyone in Argos since people kept smiling or waving at her as we walked past. She looked back at us and gestured to a building to our right. “We have an excellent library here for that very purpose. I know some people who really have a knack for doing genealogy research if you decide to do that. As for who my spirit is, that’s sort of a secret. Well, not a secret, but I don’t really like to talk about it.”

  She stepped to the side of the street so that we were out of the way and turned towards us. She chewed on her lip like she was trying to decide how much to tell us. I have to admit I was curious. She finally made up her mind, “Are you familiar with Greek Mythology at all?” She waited for both of us to nod and continued, “You must have heard of the most famous woman hero than? Her name was Atalanta. We shared the spirit, and supposedly I am her great times-a-hundred granddaughter.”

  “That’s awesome!” Garrett said. “But why would you keep that a secret?”

  Her expression didn’t change at all, but her face betrayed her and turned a little bit red, which I didn’t understand. “Well, according to the myths, she was the most beautiful woman in the world during her time. She was incredibly athletic, a great warrior and hunter, but she was known most for her incredible beauty. Lots of men wanted to marry her. I just don’t like the attention I get from it, so I keep it a secret.”

  “Oh…” Garrett said awkwardly. “Well, it’s still cool!”

  “Thanks.” She said, looking a bit uncomfortable. “I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t mention that to anyone. Now, let’s go grab a table and get some food.” She turned towards a building across the street and walked to the door.

  As I walked through the door, a flurry of smells invaded my nose. There were some really incredible ones, some of which I couldn’t even identify. Looking around the room, I saw more than a dozen tables with six or seven chairs around each. Each plate had a rectangular brown package on it. I noticed that the ones that weren’t occupied had a little toothpick flag sort of thing sticking out of the package. As I looked closer, I saw that there were names scrawled across the flags. The one closest to me said “James.”

  Nyka started to walk around the room, looking at the little name signs on each one. Garrett and I did the same, following her lead. It didn’t take us long to find our spots, or for Nyka to find our spots anyway. They were next to a guy named Donovan, whoever that was. Garrett and I sat right next to each other, with Nyka to our right and Donovan’s seat to our left. Garrett was right next to Nyka, and I was trying as hard as I possibly could not to comment on that.

  Nyka pulled the flag out of her brown package, opened it, and reached inside, pulling out a steaming bowl of soup. I had no idea how it fit in there, but I was too hungry to ask. I opened my package and poured out fries and a hamburger! The food looked incredible. My plate was loaded with my favorite curly fries and a giant burger that had me salivating just looking at it.

  Garrett’s was the same, except his had tomatoes and mine didn’t. I hate tomatoes, and I was wondering how the cooks knew that. Really? Of all the things you could possibly be surprised by, you choose the lack of tomatoes on your burger? I ignored this intrusion, preparing to eat my delicious meal. Before I dug in, I looked around and saw that nobody else was eating. They almost looked like they were waiting for something.

  I jabbed Garrett in the ribs as he reached for his burger. He looked around and probably came to the same conclusion that I did. He opened his mouth to ask Nyka a question, but Vienna stood up across the room before he could get the first word out.

  “Hello everyone!” she said in a voice brimming with confidence. “Before we eat our delicious meals, I have an announcement to make. We have two new Argonauts among us that were retrieved yesterday. Garrett and Kamaron Kipler, please stand.”

  I flinched at the sound of my whole name, which was usually only used when I was in deep trouble. Argowhats? I thought to myself. Garrett stood almost immediately, but I hesitated for a second before I did.

  When both of us were standing, Vienna continued. “These two have already shown their worth, working together with an incredible amount of courage and skill to defeat the Bakshazani that hunted them. Please join me in welcoming them to Argos!”

  I expected them to clap at that, but instead, everyone bowed their heads in our direction. It didn’t look like a welcoming gesture at all; more like something you would do at a funeral. It was almost like they were praying for us or something. The dead silence that came with it was almost unbearable. Finally, Vienna sat down, which was the cue for us to do the same.

  Everybody dug in after that, and loud talk and laughter soon followed. I glanced over at the soup that Nyka was eating, which looked like some sort of vegetable and noodle concoction. It looked pretty good! Garrett and I demolished our burgers and polished off our fries long before anyone else was finished. Our mom always used to complain that we would finish eating and be out the door before she took her first bite.

  The thought of my mom made me wince, but I pushed the thought away. I couldn’t lose it right in the middle of the dining hall with all of these people around. She would have told me to keep pushing forward and not to let anything distract me.

  Garrett interrupted my thoughts with a question, “What did Vienna mean when she said we were the new Argonauts?”

  Nyka swallowed a spoonful of soup, and then said, “We call ourselves the Argonauts. In Greek Mythology, there was a hero named Jason that led a group of heroes called the Argonauts. The historians of that time thought the Argonauts were blessed by the gods and that’s how they explained their success. In reality, almost all of the Argonauts had spirits. There were a few that didn’t, but any of the big names had them. Anyway, the running theory around here is that the Argonauts were the first group like this to join together to keep the world safe. So, that’s why we call ourselves the Argonauts and this city is called Argos.”

&nb
sp; “So how does the whole mythology thing work? Is all of it true?”

  She chuckled and took another bite before replying, “To the best of my knowledge, none of the Greek and Roman gods are real. A lot of the monsters and creatures are real, and the mythological creatures are usually loosely based on real ones. A lot of the heroes were real too, just not quite the same as how they were portrayed. There are bits and pieces in almost all mythology that are true, while the rest is just fiction.”

  That seemed to answer a lot of the questions we had, so we let Nyka finish her soup. I noticed a lot of people throwing glances at Donovan’s empty seat. All of the other seats were filled except for his. Even though I had no idea who he was, I hoped he was okay.

  Nyka finally finished her soup and we got up to leave. I didn’t realize until then how eager I was to get back to the Arena. Even though we kept getting beat up, it was still really fun! Even the worst adrenaline junkie would be more than satisfied by a little bit of arena combat. “Are we going back for more practice?” I said eagerly.

  Nyka smiled. “Only if you guys want to get beat up on a little more. There should be some more people around that we can battle with, so we can probably have a group fight.” She walked out the door and began to jog down the street. Garrett and I followed with twin smiles on our faces.

  5

  A Truck Named Albert

  GARRETT

  Before I pick up where Kam left off, I want to say something about his extremely biased comments! First off, I do not have a crush on Nyka! Beautiful girls tend to leave me tongue-tied, primarily because I don’t get to meet them that often. Is she pretty? Yes, she is. Do I have a crush on her? Absolutely not. Don’t believe him when he talks about that. Now that that’s over with, I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

  Nyka led us into the Arena, where more than a dozen people were practicing. Even though I got super beat up before, I was really excited to fight again. The adrenaline rush is insane! Imagine the tallest roller coaster you have ever been on. It was about twice as adrenaline filled. At any second you might die, but you also might win.

  We caught the attention of everyone in the Arena, and the majority of them came over to introduce themselves. The names all blurred together; there was no possible way I was going to remember them all. The ones I do remember were a big black kid named Albert, a blonde haired girl named Angie, and a guy in armor named James. The rest of them I couldn’t remember, partly because I am terrible with names, partly because there were just too many.

  Once we finished introductions, we paired up and fought. It was fun, but I realized really quickly how easy Nyka had been going on us. These guys didn’t hold back, almost like I truly was their worst enemy. I was very thankful for the shield and heavy armor that protected me from some of the bigger blows. I felt bad for Kam; with his minimal armor, he must have been getting beat up pretty bad. I felt like I was holding my own though, or at least I was until Albert pancaked me with his war hammer.

  Alberts hammer was basically a long staff with a carved piece of granite the size of my head on one end. He swung it around like it weighed nothing, but it still impacted hard. I had just knocked away his hammer and was about to slash at him when I learned this the hard way. Instead of trying to stop his hammer and bring it back for another attack, Albert used the momentum to swing it around the other way. Before I realized my mistake, his hammer hit me right in the chest with a bone-rattling crunch! I wasn’t sure what made the noise, but I had a feeling it came from inside my body.

  I hit the ground spread eagled, unable to brace myself. My sword slipped out of my hand, but I was not about to get up and grab it. Albert leaned over me, and with a booming laugh, he said, “You got overconfident my friend! For heavy armor like yours, you always have to keep a low center of gravity or else you become too top heavy!”

  He offered a hand up, but I didn’t take it. I just stayed laying there, trying to get my breath back. Concern crossed Albert’s face, and he reached over to take my helmet off. He didn’t like what he saw. There was blood gurgling from my mouth, and I am pretty sure my nose was bleeding.

  This caught the attention of a couple of other fighters, including Kam. He walked over just in time to hear Albert say, “We have to get him to the infirmary!” Albert picked me up and started to walk out of the Arena. All of my armor disappeared as soon as he touched me. He carried me in his arms as if I was a baby.

  A few of the fighters followed us, while the rest went back to fighting like this was normal. I heard one of the fighters trailing behind, maybe James, commented, “Geez Albert! How hard did you hit him?”

  Albert ignored this and continued to walk towards a pale blue building just across from the Arena. We all walked through the door (except for me of course), and from what I could see through my blurry vision, this was definitely the infirmary. I could make out two rows of beds with white sheets and pillows. There was an office of sorts in the back-left corner of the room. Nyka, who had followed us all the way from the Arena, cursed loudly. She ran over to the office and grabbed some sort of first aid kit.

  “Of course!” She said with a surprising amount of anger. “You have to get hurt on your first day! Not only your first day but the day I am training you! And on top of that, I just so happen to be the medic on hand for that week!” She said all this as she cut my shirt open and examined my rib cage. I couldn’t lift my head up to see, but Kam told me later that there was already an ugly purple bruise covering the left half of my chest.

  Nyka felt around on my chest until I winced. “One, maybe two ribs broken,” she diagnosed. “They’ll be healed in a day or so, but no more training for you until then.”

  A day or two? Broken ribs healed in a day or two? Do I even want to know? The voice in my head, which had been pretty quiet for a while, finally spoke up. I heal you much quicker than a normal human would heal. You can shrug off anything that isn’t life-threatening in a week or less. By the way, I must say this first date of yours is going absolutely excellent. Seriously, it’s like having Kam inside my head. Just give me the information that I need and then SHUT UP!

  While I was having this conversation, Nyka put soft padding on the injured area and wrapped it up. She also gave me two pills to swallow, which I figured were painkillers. Before I knew it, the pain was fading and my eyes began to close. Before I was fully asleep, I saw most of the Argonauts trickle out of the room, leaving Kam and Nyka behind. Unable to delay it any longer, I finally fell into a fitful sleep.

  Ἀργοναῦται

  I woke up a couple of hours later, or so I guessed. It was starting to grow dark outside from what I could see through the windows. The pains meds had apparently worn off, but my chest didn’t ache too badly. I looked around the room and saw Nyka sitting in the office working on something. I opened my mouth to call out to her but changed my mind when I saw the dark circles under her eyes. She looked absolutely exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days. I guess I didn’t realize before how much responsibility she had. Now that I think about it, she was probably Vienna’s right-hand man. Or right-hand woman, rather. Cory told her that she was the only one Vienna trusted to do the orientation. That amount of responsibility must be draining.

  I rolled over on the opposite side of the broken ribs and tried to sleep again. I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t manage to fall asleep. I shifted around, trying to get more comfortable. The movement caught the attention of Nyka. I cursed silently as I heard her footsteps coming closer.

  “How do you feel?” She said with genuine concern in her voice. She knelt next to me, gently touching the bandage around my ribs.

  “Like I got hit by a truck named Albert.” Nyka laughed, flashing a dazzling smile. That smile instantly made me feel better. She had some of the most perfect white teeth I had ever seen. Before you get any ideas though, that does not mean I like her!

  “Yeah, Albert is like a big puppy that doesn’t realize its own strength. He is really nice
though. He is also the most loyal person I know. He was the first to befriend me when I got here. He even defended me when…” Her voice fell away, like she had almost drifted into a dangerous memory. “Anyway, he is a really good guy. I hope you end up with him as your barracks leader.”

  I was curious about what she was avoiding, but another question pushed forward. “What do you mean barracks leader? And where is Kam?” I suspected the second question had a similar answer to the first.

  Nyka thought for a moment, then answered, “Kam is at the choosing ceremony. It happens at dinner the day after the new Argonauts arrive. You obviously couldn’t make it because of your injury, but since you and Kamaron are a bonded pair, you will go where he does. At the choosing ceremony, Kam will look in his Edict to find out which barracks he can go into. At that point, the barracks leaders offer him a place in their battle groups. Whichever one he chooses will become your new home and your fellow Argonauts will become your battle brothers and sisters.”

  As always, I was confused. “Wait, so then we are split into separate groups?”

  Nyka smiled patiently. “Well, all armies have smaller groups within them, right? Like platoons, squads, etc. It’s like that. As the Argonauts, we are an army. Your battle group will be like your squad. The barracks is just the location where you meet and sleep and the barracks leader is like your squad leader. Even though there is no official Argonaut leader, barracks leaders report to Vienna. She is kind of like the Jason of Argos. Does that make sense?”