The Heir of Olympus and the Forest Realm

by Zachary Howe

  “Well, he didn’t know that!” Atalo jabbed a finger at Gordie who burst out laughing. Atalo snagged a fig that sat in a patch of morning sunlight on the table from the skylight above and popped it in his mouth, munching in a huff.

  The sound of Chiron’s hooves grew as he entered at the far end of the room from the corridor that led out into the world.

  “Good morning, all.” He waved as he approached the table. “I trust Gordon has informed you of your little excursion today?”

  “Yes indeed,” piped Atalo.

  “Very good. We shall depart whenever you are ready.”

  “Are you sure you’re comfortable carrying us?” Ellie asked.

  “Absolutely, my dear! Not a problem at all.”

  “Well, I’m good to go.” Gordie rose to his feet and shouldered his bat.

  “Gordon, I think it is best if you leave that here.” Chiron nodded toward the weapon.

  “Wha- why? What if I need it?”

  “I do not pretend to understand your human culture, but I would imagine people may find it alarming to see an individual carrying a club around. Besides, you will not need it. Whom do you expect to meet?”

  “I don’t know . . . another werewolf?”

  “Remember, they do not exist in this realm, and cannot,” Chiron said. “But it would be prudent to practice hand to hand combat. We will add this to our regimen. It does not do to rely too heavily upon any one weapon.”

  “I guess . . .” Gordie shrugged and leaned his bat against a chair.

  “Now that that’s settled, why don’t we get a move on, eh?” Atalo stood up and clapped his hands.

  “Mom, do you have a phone charger?” Gordie fingered the dead cell phone in his pocket. “I wanted to see if we could find a café or something to charge my phone. I feel naked without it.”

  “Got it.” Ellie pulled a charger out of her purse. “With an adaptor and everything.”

  “Sweet! Nice work, Mom.” Gordie patted her on the shoulder as he walked towards the exit.

  “Yes, I have succeeded as a parent.” She rolled her eyes and followed her son out of the hall.

  Soon the family was walking into early morning sunlight. Gordie looked out over the trees and smiled, suddenly very excited to be on his way to civilization. He had been so busy in the last couple weeks that he hadn’t realized how much he missed normality. Certainly, his life had become anything but mundane without technology or interaction with other humans, but he was ready to dive back into a connected world, if only for a day.

  “All right, Gordon.” Chiron’s slow drawl brought him out of his reverie. “We are heading to the village of Portaria. It is approximately fifteen kilometers southwest of this point. Do you see it?”

  “Wait. I thought we were going to a city called Volos?” Gordie knit his eyebrows together.

  “Volos has many outlying communities it seems.” Chiron looked away from Gordie and out into the trees. Gordie thought he looked troubled. “I have been walking in my forest and found many villages quite nearer than I had anticipated. I stumbled across Portaria early this morning. It would not do for me to go as far as Volos. I wish for my presence here to remain discreet.”

  “That’s fine, Gordie,” Ellie chimed in. “I’m sure we can take a bus to the city if you want. Let’s give this village a chance, though . . . sounds nice.” Gordie had been looking forward to spending time in a city, not a village, but he supposed his mom was right.

  “Indeed,” Chiron said. “Now, do you see the village?”

  Gordie located the sun and looked in the opposite direction, then trained his eye toward the sea.

  “I do see it!” He hadn’t noticed it before—or maybe it had never been so crystal clear outside since his arrival to Mount Pelion as today—but he now saw a thinning of the trees far below and in the distance, beyond which he saw a cropping of buildings. “No way! Look at that!”

  “Yes, well, that is where we will be going,” Chiron repeated. “As I have said, I would be remiss if I missed an opportunity to work you on this day, so I challenge you to a race. You are at an advantage as I will be carrying your progenitors, not to mention your abundance of speed and strength. However, you may find that brute strength and blazing speed can only take you so far.” Chiron knelt down and helped Gordie’s mother onto his back, followed by his grandfather.

  “You’re on!” Gordie broke into a wide smile, certain that this would be a cakewalk despite Chiron’s warnings.

  “Very well. Begin!” Ellie and Atalo squealed in unison as the massive horse-man reared and charged down the sloped path leading away from the cave. Gordie was caught off-guard and stunned by the centaur’s speed despite his load. He quickly recovered from his shock and chased after.

  A football field ahead of him, Chiron disappeared into the undergrowth, and Gordie realized he would have to find his own path to civilization. His sneakers pounded the dusty trail as he made for the entrance to the wood where he resolved to head straight southwest regardless of which way the trail carried him. Sure enough, as he expected from his last foray into the wilderness, the trail took a hairpin turn once inside the forest, which he realized would send him straight north. He stopped just inside the tree line, breathed in the fresh scent of pine, and crashed into the underbrush.

  Branches whipped him as he plowed ahead, laughing at how innocuous the puny limbs felt as he broke through them. Twigs cracked beneath his feet, bushes rustled as creatures scurried out of his path, and he flew through the trees, picking his way, unflinching as various shrubberies pelted him in the legs, torso, and face.

  He ran with a broad grin plastered on his face as he was chastised by birds, squirrels, and other manner of creatures, displeased with his unceremonious trespassing of their territories. After ten minutes, he stopped by a large pine tree (not so large as one in which he had recently met a werewolf) and tested a branch before he began to climb through the prickly boughs.

  He laughed out loud as he swung from limb to limb and rose through the evergreen. As the needles became denser and the branches became shorter, he poked his head out of the pine to look out over the expanse of forest. His smile faded.

  He looked around to locate the city he had eyed from his perch on Chiron’s mount, but it was not in the direction he had thought. He looked back over his shoulder to find the sun and then straight down where he spotted the mouth of Chiron’s cave. Somehow he had turned northwest without realizing. Voicing his displeasure by calling himself an idiot (in a few more words), he then turned to search southwest again. He scanned the coast until he saw the quiet town—now almost directly south of him—and berated himself again, as he appeared to be further from his goal than when he set out.

  Sitting there for a moment, he stared in the direction of the town, trying to determine how he could get there without losing his way. As he gazed in that direction, searching for a solution, he noticed a small group of trees shaking violently. He squinted and saw that it was a series of trees that were swaying to and fro. Following the apparent line of the trees, he was not surprised to see that it appeared to be leading towards the city.

  “Chiron,” he growled. The tree tops sloped downward in the direction of the city. He racked his brain for a way to navigate the forest without heading in the wrong direction. And he smiled again.

  An idea came to him that only a sixteen-year-old who believes himself to be invincible could concoct. He hugged the top of the tree like an angel on Christmas and began to rock back and forth . . . away from the city, back toward the city. As he swayed, the tree’s bend became more and more pronounced. He smacked into other trees, shaking his head as he emerged from their boughs as if he were coming up from under water. As the severity of the sway became more prominent, the impact of the others became at least moderately irritating, but he persisted. Finally, when the tree was almost parallel to the ground on its back swing, Gordie shifted into a crouched position and rode the pine upward with eager anticipation.


  Just before it reached the top of its arc, he released and sprung into the air. Like a circus performer shot out of a canon he tucked his arms and took the shape of a human missile as he rocketed through the great blue yonder.

  “Woo hoo hoo!” he hollered as he pelted over the forest. When his descent began, he started to realize he did not have an endgame. His arms flailed and he swore, hurtling towards the canopy at breakneck speed. The tip of a prominent pine stood waiting expectantly as he crashed towards it. He closed his eyes right before being blinded by the defensive needles as he hugged the tree top and held on for dear life. The tree bowed forward, and for a second he thought it might uproot from the earth, but it bounced backward, rocking violently.

  Panting as he clung to the top of the tree until it came to a rest, at which point he opened his eyes and looked around. Fear melted as excitement grew and he realized he was miles closer to the city than he had been preflight. He followed a line northeast away from the rooftops until he saw that same disturbance of the trees that marked the centaur’s route, now much nearer than it had been when he first spotted it.

  “Got ya.” He smirked, as he began to rock the tree once again. The next flight he was less fortunate as he was hurled into a bald spot on the forest floor. Every inch of him ached as he bounced off the earth and a couple tree trunks before he came skidding to a halt at the foot of another pine. He stood up and dusted himself off, dazed from his second attempt at flight. Shaking the cobwebs away, he waited a few minutes until he was coherent enough to begin his climb once again.

  After his third flight, he could see the bustling port city of Volos. He could even hear the sounds of cars honking and boats bellowing their air horns. He let the clamor wash over him like the song of the sea, which he stared at in wonder, until another outcropping of red roofs caught his eye much nearer. A little town sat on the slopes of the mountainous terrain, its many terraces visible from his vantage point. Then Gordie realized that this must be their true destination, Portaria. All in all, he thought it looked like a cool town, so he looked to complete his race. He watched the trees part for Chiron less than a mile ahead of him just short of the forest’s edge and smiled, knowing that his next flight would lead him to victory.

  Once again, he rocked a great pine and shot into the air. Laughing as he rapidly approached the last few trees of the forest, which bent in the wake of his four-legged mentor. Below he saw Chiron emerge from the forest with his mother and grandfather riding on his back, and seconds later he surpassed them as he plummeted toward a patch of dirt. The screams he heard were both his own as well as his mother’s.

  Gordie wrapped his arms around his head as he crashed into the unforgiving earth, a plume of dust swallowing him before he bounced out of the cloud, only to make a smaller one a few yards ahead. Ricocheting and tumbling for forty feet, he finally came to rest in a pile of gritty, rocky soil. He lay on his back, looking up at the bright-blue morning sky, body aching and mind slowly returning from a daze. His mother swam into view above him, then his grandfather, followed by Chiron.

  “Are you all right, Gordie?” Ellie asked.

  He tried to speak, but the words came out in an unintelligible cough.

  “What?” she asked. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “I win,” he said with great effort, as a drunken smile spread across his face.

  “What?!” Ellie stood up, her eyes blazing. “You did this to yourself? You moron! You could have gotten yourself killed!” Now Atalo was holding his daughter back as she tried to get at her son.

  Gordie slowly sat up, then pulled himself to his feet before dusting off. His mom still struggled against her father, who looked bewildered, and Chiron stood behind the pair looking equally puzzled.

  “I should like to know how you have learned to fly, Gordon,” he said.

  “Magic.” Gordie grinned and made a gesture like a magician who just cut a woman in half.

  “I think not. Did you harm any of the trees?” Chiron asked, and Gordie faltered.

  “I-I don’t think so.” His grin faded.

  “Because I heard the forest, I heard creatures you displaced and I heard the trees screaming under your tyranny.” He stared at Gordie with his unwavering eyes.

  “Tyranny? You heard the forest? Wha—”

  “Did you destroy any trees?” Chiron’s eyes burned into him.

  “No! I mean, I just used them like . . . like catapults, but none of them broke or anything!”

  “Catapults?!” Ellie broke in. Atalo just smiled.

  “I see.” Chiron’s glare softened. “It was not a very conscientious approach, but it was certainly innovative. In the future I would ask you to please treat nature with more respect.”

  “I will.” Gordie put his head down in a show of contrition.

  “Good. I may not approve of your methods, but I cannot deny that you are the victor. Well done, in that regard.” Gordie wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard a hint of bitterness in Chiron’s concession, which tickled him all the more.

  “Great! Yes! Good job!” Gordie looked back at his mom who had her hands on her hips and daggers in her eyes. She walked over to him and snapped his shirt. “Now look at you! You’re covered in dirt and I have to walk around with my heathen son looking like a hobo!”

  “I’m fine!” Gordie threw up his hands. “Remember, it’s one of my strong days.”

  “Don’t call it a ‘strong day.’” She made air quotes with a snarl on her face. “You sound like an idiot.”

  “Okay, jeez. I’m sorry! We can buy new clothes when we get to town!” He realized this was the wrong thing to say the second he said it.

  “Oh, we can, can we?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air. “Because you buy all your own clothes, right?”

  “All right! All right! I’m sorry!” he said again. “I’ll just wear this, its fine.”

  She rolled her eyes and started swatting him all over in an attempt to get the dirt off, but probably harder than was required.

  “Whatever, let’s just go.” She brushed past him and he turned to see where she was headed. He hadn’t noticed before, but nearby there was a windy, single-lane highway with a railing running alongside it where it appeared to drop off a cliff. He looked back at his grandpa and Chiron. Atalo shrugged, still smiling, and followed his daughter.

  “I will wait for you just inside the forest,” Chiron said. “I think it would be best if you returned before nightfall.”

  “Will do,” Gordie said with a grin.

  “Goodbye then.” Chiron nodded, before he turned and started sauntering back to the tree line.

  “See ya,” Gordie called, before turning the opposite way to follow his family.

  Gordie caught up with his mom and grandfather who were now walking on the side of the empty highway. He had expected the slope on the other side of the road to drop right into the sea, but he could now see that it just rolled off into a sporadically foliated hill with other roadways below, and even houses sprinkled here and there. As the landscape fell away, it finally met the water, but that appeared to be miles from where they were. The town ahead lay in the midst of this hilly terrain.

  They walked in silence, save for the scrape of feet on grit. His mom walked a few feet ahead of Gordie and his grandfather, and he could see by the tenseness of her shoulders that she was still grumpy.

  “Beautiful day!” Gordie called to no one in particular. He looked sideways at his grandpa, who did the same back at him, and they both grinned. Ellie made no response.

  “You can really smell the ocean, huh?” Gordie said, trying to coax his mother back to good spirits.

  “Sea,” she spat, and kept walking.

  “Yeah, you can see it too!” Gordie agreed. His mother wheeled around to face him.

  “No. That. Is. The. Sea.” She jabbed her finger towards the water with each word. “The ocean is that way.” She pointed behind her towards the city that lay in wait, red roofs lit ablaze in the mornin
g sun.

  “I hate to correct you dear, but that’s actually the gulf.” Atalo pointed towards the water. A second later he faltered under her stern gaze.

  “Whatever, it goes to the sea!” She spun around and resumed her fervent pace. Again, the two boys looked at each other and stifled laughter before they followed.

  The sun tickled the nape of Gordie’s neck as they approached the waking village. Within minutes they passed a sign reading:

  Πορταριά.

  “What do you suppose that says?” Gordie asked. His mother wheeled around again and his eyes widened. “I mean, why don’t I try to read it,” he suggested, with a quivering smile. He walked up to the board and stared at the Greek symbols. Some part of him felt that if he could get this right, it might put him back in his mother’s good graces. After all, there’s no better way to please a teacher than to show them you’ve learned something.

  He stared at the letters and wanted to pronounce it ‘Hoptoppia,’ but knew that was not correct because the Greek ‘P’ is ‘π,’ like in math class. Those little ‘ρ’s in the middle were really throwing him off, though. Then a dawning realization came to him, and he rolled his eyes at his own stupidity.

  “It says Portaria!” He tried to sound bright and proud. “But it’s all Greek to me, am I right, Grandpa?” He nudged his grandfather with his elbow and guffawed.

  “Nice work, doofus.” Ellie tried to sound grumpy, but he saw her lip curl at the corner, and he knew her bad mood was melting away.

  “Thanks! Hey, do you think they have Cinnabon here?” Gordie asked.

  “Seriously?” Ellie rolled her eyes and turned back toward the nearby town.

  “What?!”

  “No Cinnabon, Gordo,” his grandpa said, chuckling. “But I’m sure we can get some baklava. Come on.” Gordie mouthed the word ‘Baklava’ with an eyebrow raised, then shrugged before falling in step with his family.

  As they walked the main road, which led into the village, the white center lane disappeared, and to Gordie this meant they had reached the city-proper. Clusters of mortared buildings with red tile roofs lined the side of the winding and descending main drag. They passed little side-streets where the asphalt vanished and was replaced by flagstone. People milled around on these. Gordie craned his neck to search the crowd for notable individuals—namely sixteen-year-old girls.