I smiled and nodded my head. “Victor taught me early to read and write.”
“He’s skilled enough to read most of the history, but you might have to explain some words to him since I have not fully completed his education yet,” Victor said.
Chronos nodded his head. “I expected as much. Go to sleep for now, Sotare. Tomorrow you will begin your education.”
“I will return in the morning,” Victor said.
“Happy hunting,” I said as I laid out the bedroll that I had brought with me.
He rested his hand on top of my head and whispered, “Stay safe.”
I lay down and went to sleep. I was ready to start this training and ready to get to start traveling. I already had a few dates and places picked out that I wanted to visit so I was prepared to train hard to begin my travels.
Before I had a chance to really sleep Chronos was waking me up and shoving a book into my chest. “Time is wasting away,” he said, “Seriously.”
I rubbed my sleep heavy eyes and sat up. “What time is it?”
“Never ask a time traveler that,” Victor said with a yawn, “You’ll get a long lecture about time and the wobbliness of it.”
“Here he goes quoting an old TV show again,” Chronos grumbled.
“There was a TV show about time travelers?” I asked. I wanted to watch that!
“It’s garbage,” Chronos growled, “Dumb British show.”
“It was a good show for its time,” Victor argued, “It had a huge following.”
“So did all those idiotic reality shows which were completely staged,” Chronos said with a smirk.
Victor rolled his eyes. “Sure, throw that in my face.”
“Just because it has a following does not make it good,” Chronos continued.
“Just because you think you’re the authority on time travel doesn’t mean a show about it isn’t good,” Victor countered.
“I am the authority on time travel,” Chronos said loudly.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen Victor have a conversation with someone like this. How long had it been since he had had a civilized conversation with someone besides me? One where he could talk and smile and not think about all those who had died?
“Remember when Koda was obsessed with it?” Victor asked with a laugh.
“He would carry around that trinket one of them used to fix everything and pretend it worked,” Chronos said with a laugh.
“Yeah, until Selene spelled it to start doing random things and he made the books start flying around the room,” Victor said with a laugh. His smile slowly slipped away and he whispered, “I do miss that crazy wolf and his Mohawks.”
Chronos patted his shoulder and said, “We miss everyone, but in time it will be set right.”
I giggled and they looked at me strangely. “He made a pun,” I explained, “‘In time it will be set right’. Literally.”
Victor and Chronos laughed for a moment and then the seriousness returned. I opened the book in front of me and started reading. I had a feeling I was going to be reading for a LONG time.
* * *
2 YEARS LATER
“Are you sure about this?” Chronos asked me. “You do know the consequences if you change anything, right?”
“Yes, Chronos,” I said for the millionth time, “I could end up erasing myself from existence. I have been planning this trip down to the last possible outcome. I know what can happen.”
He frowned, his brow furrowing into several deep lines. “Alright. Just be careful.”
I could tell that he wanted to go with me, but unfortunately he was not strong enough to time travel often. The traveling we had done when I first came to him had used up most of the energy he had had and recently the only thing he would do was sit in his chair and lecture me. I smiled brightly and said, “I’ll see you soon.”
He laughed and sat down in his chair to wait for my return. For him it would only be an instance while it would be however long I spent in the past. At one point I had spent an entire week in the past before returning.
I closed my eyes and focused on the exact day I wanted to travel to. This trip I would be going and visiting my father. I would not speak to him, but I would be able to see him and watch him from afar. It was the best I could hope for. The world blurred around me and images of days past swirled by me in a stream. Before they had just seemed a jumbled mess to me, but now that I had been doing my research they were actually useful markers which told me how far I was traveling. If for some reason I got lost I could use them to make my way to the time period I was aiming for. Today’s trip I did not need that assistance and I released my magic, materializing in the Roman Era when Caesar had been in charge. I made sure that I materialized where no one would see me on the outskirts of town and next to a pile of clothes I had gathered on short trips to help with this specific one. I could have just made the journey the first time, but I wanted to spend time in the middle of a crowd and to do that I needed appropriate period clothing. I changed clothes and then headed towards the main road and the sound of cheers and fighting. Today at the coliseum there were several gladiators fighting. I admit I was a bit soft hearted for a predator and I did not particularly like watching fighting, but today was a special day. Today my father would step into the arena and the people would declare him a god.
I put a hood over my head to hide my face from my father should he try to see me and looked down as I walked to keep people from seeing my face. The town was pretty empty as I made my way, which made sense because who would want to miss the fights?! I hurried to the coliseum and into the stands, taking a seat in the middle of all of the humans to make myself less conspicuous to my father. I was also hoping that being among so many humans would help to mask my scent. The individuals fighting in the arena at the moment were two human slaves and their opponents were two tigers. It always angered me when animals were forced to defend themselves against humans, but I was not here to change that and I knew that such a change would dramatically alter our future and probably not for the better despite my good intentions.
I avoided the fight, but each time the crowd cheered I could not help to glance and see what they were cheering about. The fight finally ended with one human left standing. He raised his spear triumphantly and the crowd cheered and whistled and screamed for him. Idiots.
The arena was cleared and a hush fell over the crowd as Caesar stood and prepared to speak. I ignored his speech because the gate into the arena opened from underneath the stands and a man with muscles that glistened in the sun, hair the same color as mine and a face so eerily similar to mine that it left no doubt that we were related walked into the arena. Father. He walked proudly, his every move that of a predator and showing the grace he seemed natural with. He looked so at home in the bloody arena that it seemed impossible that he could also have been the same man to hold my mother’s lifeless body on a battlefield and cry without reservation even though his troops and pack all stood around him.
He looked around the stands and despite knowing better I hoped he would lock eyes with me. He scanned over me and the humans and then bowed to Caesar. Two giant men entered the arena, along with a platoon of soldiers. The crowd began murmuring and several smiled with bloodlust in their eyes. I had no doubt that there would be bloodshed, but not from the person they thought. Father carried two swords and several people commented how stupid it was to enter the arena without a shield. I smiled happily and knew that there was no need for a shield since he was too fast to be hit by these mere humans.
The giant men pounded their clubs against their shields and charged towards father. He stood perfectly still, a smile lighting up his face, a smile of pure enjoyment and then his blades spun in silver flashes and the giant men fell to the ground in several different pieces. Father wiped his blades on their tunics and then turned towards the platoon of soldiers while the crowd screamed at the top of their lungs. Four men charged him at once and he made quick work of them. Some
of the crowd booed, not wanting the fight to end too quickly. What did they think would happen when they put my father in the arena? Did they think these humans could hold up against him?
He charged forward and slowed his movements to match a human’s speed, fighting the rest of the soldiers as these onlookers wanted. It did not matter and soon all of them were dead as well. The crowd was silent as the stared at him in shock. He raised his words in the air and yelled, “Are you not entertained?!”
Two lions were released into the arena and they charged across the sand towards father. The crowd cheered and began rooting for either the lions or father. He set his swords on the ground and that excited everyone even more. As the lions grew closer I could tell he was hiding his true self so the lions would not know that he was a predator as well and they did not slow. He leapt over the top of one, landed to the side and grabbed it by the nape of its neck, slamming it to the ground. The lion roared in pain and surprise and then father looked into its eye. The lion held perfectly still and seemed to stop breathing. The second lion swiped its giant paw at his head and father batted it away like it was a child attempting to hit him. The lion hissed and moved forward to attack. Father stood up and released the hold he had over himself. The power of his presence, the sheer dominance he possessed was staggering. I felt myself cower in the stands right along with the humans and the lion in front of him did not know what to do with itself. It dropped to the ground and then slowly backed away from him as it avoided eye contact.
Father looked up into the stands and smiled victoriously. He was truly magnificent and I could see the amber of his wolf’s eyes on his face. He met my gaze a brief moment, shock slipping over his proud mask and then the crowd erupted in applause and cheers, blocking me from his sight.
“Ares, the God of War!” someone yelled.
I disappeared from the stands and hurried out of town to change and then return to the current time and Chronos. I wished I could stay longer, but I had already pressed my luck for the day. I returned and Chronos barely looked up.
“So, how was it?” he asked.
I sat down and the biggest smile I had ever smiled split my face. “It was amazing! He was amazing! The way he moved, the grace, the power, the amount of authority he possessed!”
Chronos smiled and asked, “Did anything go wrong?”
I shook my head. “I changed nothing.”
He nodded his head happily. “Good. Why don’t you tell me what you saw while I cook lunch?”
I told him everything that I had witnessed and reenacted a few moves father had done while fighting. Chronos listened and even seemed to get a bit teary eyed. When I finished he recounted other stories for me of my father’s incredible fights. I wanted to see others, but most had been on the battlefield and there was not a safe way to really travel to witness that without altering something. I wanted to go back and watch it all again, but Chronos reminded me of the possibilities of seeing myself there and creating some type of time warp or hole or something. Plus I did not have as much power yet and traveling so far back in time did make me sleepy.
I dreamt that night of my father and fighting alongside him in the arena. It was a good dream.
* * *
8 YEARS LATER
“I’m telling you that I can do it. I know you have never heard of such an ability, but I have it,” I argued with Victor and Chronos.
“There is no possible way for such a thing to exist,” Victor said for the tenth time.
“Why not? You said yourself that my mother could sense evil,” I disputed.
“Yes, but sensing evil and abolishing it are two very different things,” Chronos said.
“I can prove it to you,” I stated.
They looked at each other and then at me. Victor asked, “Have you been experimenting?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Of course I have. How else would I have known about my abilities.”
“You are too young and naïve to understand the consequences of such experimentations,” Victor bellowed.
It was rare to see him angry, even rarer for him to be angry at me, but I did not back down. “I am more intelligent and understanding of the world than you think. You’ve been away more than here so you haven’t seen my progress.”
“Show us then,” Chronos said.
I teleported to one of the nearby vampire buildings, snatched one of them and teleported back. The vampire hissed and tried to escape, but I was stronger than him. When he saw Victor he tried even harder to escape.
“How do you know he is evil?” Victor asked, “Just because he is a vampire does not mean…”
“I’m well aware that not all vampires are evil. This one reeks of it though. And this one has a thing for torturing and killing children.”
The vampire smiled and said, “They’re more fun than even the young human women.”
“Are you satisfied that he is evil? You should be able to sense it from him anyways,” I said.
Victor and Chronos nodded their heads. I took a deep breath, held it a moment and then latched onto the evil man with my power. I opened the gate in my mind and sent him to the abyss where I had sent the others. The man disappeared from this world and from our sight. Victor and Chronos stared at the empty space and Chronos asked, “Where did you send him?”
“The abyss,” I whispered.
“How did you find out about that?” Chronos asked in shock.
“What is it? What is the abyss?” Victor asked.
Chronos flailed his hands around a moment and said, “It’s nothing. It is literally a place of nothingness. Some call it the void. It’s the place where there is no air, no space, no beings, no light. Very few are aware of its existence and how to open it. How did you find out?”
I pointed to one of the books on the bookshelf. “Research.” I waited a moment and then said, “I told you I could do it.”
“You’re right,” Victor said with a sigh, “I am sorry that I doubted you.”
“This makes his plan of getting rid of your father a lot easier,” Chronos mumbled, “He could use this power to send him to the abyss and he would never be able to harm Artemis.”
“Do they live in this abyss? Would he live there forever?” Victor asked.
Chronos shook his head. “He would disintegrate, or so we are told. Only one person traveled to and from the abyss and so we have only his experiments to go on.”
“Is there a way back from the abyss?” Victor asked.
Chronos shook his head. “Only a time traveler with the ability to locate the abyss can access it. Your father would not be able to escape from there.”
Victor sighed and said, “You will need more practice before you execute this on my father. You have to be sure that you can do it under any circumstances or all will be lost.”
“I understand,” I said seriously. “I will practice every day.”
Victor patted my shoulder and said, “I am sorry we must place such a burden on your shoulders. Gods help us, I would not wish this on anyone.”
I hugged him and said, “I will make you proud and I will save them all.”
* * *
2 YEARS LATER
I was exhausted and yet so incredibly happy. I had mastered my abilities and now could move freely through time and could use the void as I needed. Tomorrow I would go to Maurice and end this time line to allow my parents to live. Today I would watch my mother during one of her happier times in her life to help me relax. I traveled back in time to before my mother had started having the dreams about wolves, father or anything else. I hid myself among the trees and watched her as she walked in the forest, running her hands along the trees and humming quietly. She did not know it, but some of her power was already there and the forest responded to her. She walked slowly, but with no fear or worry. I had seen her in later times where she walked stiffly and constantly surveying her surroundings for potential threats. She stopped and watched a deer dart across her path and then resumed walking again.
“Artemis!” a male voice called.
She stopped and her fingers dug into the bark of the tree next to her. “Hey,” she said with a smile at the boy jogging up to her.
“What’s up Chicky?” he asked with a genuine smile for her.
“Just talking a walk,” she said, resuming her walk, but without humming.
“Wanna go get some ice cream?” he asked. “It’s pretty hot and I know how much you love sugary treats.”
“I do love sugary things, but I’m not really in an ice cream mood,” she said, “it’s so nice today that I just want to stay outside.”
“What about a swim?” he asked.
She laughed. “No, thank you. I want to stay dry for a few hours of my day.”
“Oh come on, I didn’t mean to splash you with the hose.”
She laughed again and turned to face him. “Yes you did! You deliberately sprayed me.”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t help it. You were dry and the car was all wet so I thought you should match.”
“I’ll get you back,” she teased him.
He walked next to her and smirked. “You’ll try.” She punched his arm and he winced. “Ow.”
“Baby.”
“Brute,” he said mockingly and then nudged her shoulder with his.
This world was so calm and although I could feel evil, it was nothing compared to my time. My mother looked so young and vibrant. She must have been something to reckon with once she unleashed her powers. I could see why people fell in love with her too. She had a very calming aura.
They walked along in companionable silence and then she sat and leaned against a tree with her eyes closed. “Can you imagine how awful it would be to live in the city?” she asked him in a whisper. “All that noise and pollution.”
“Oh I don’t know,” he said, “It might not be so bad. They’ve got lots of fun things to do, unlike this place.”
Taming Darkness: Artemis Lupine #4 Page 14