The Forest Gods' Fight

by Alexandria Hook

  Zach said there was always something slightly melancholy about me; there had been ever since I had heard the entire prophecy six years earlier. He once admitted with great relief, however, that it seemed to disappear from my face whenever we went into the forest, and I believed him, for I knew exactly what caused it. But now, due to Alec ceaselessly following the gods around and due to the war finally beginning, the forest alone, with its promise of freedom and power that fueled the gods, could no longer peel that melancholy off of me, off of my spirit. Only the true end of the war would allow me to shed the itchy skin that was my biggest secret, though writing was a good start.

  “Did you just ask me to pick out clothes for you? Are you all right?” Alec’s concerned voice came from behind, but I waved him off, starting to write furiously, my blue pen flying across the page. “Okay . . . well, don’t blame me if I pick out the wrong outfit for you or something.” I just ignored him and mumbled to myself as I continued to scrawl swiftly on the piece of paper. Anyway, my wardrobe consisted mainly of jeans and a random collection of T-shirts, meaning he shouldn’t have had too much trouble.

  “Oh my gods! Is this a bra?” Alec exclaimed about a second later, and I whirled around in my seat to see him fling a white bra onto my bed like it was a snake or perhaps the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. You would have never guessed that he killed monsters almost every day, but then again, he probably wouldn’t have minded the bra so much if he had been flinging it off of me instead.

  I just rolled my eyes. “Yes. Now grow up and finish packing for me,” I ordered, my voice harsher than I meant for it to sound as I turned around and started to write again. When I had finished a few minutes later, I stuffed the paper into the inside pocket of my leather jacket and leaped out of the chair, my mind still whirling around what I had written and my hands shaking from stress. Clenching and unclenching my fists to get the blood flowing normally again, I raced downstairs with Alec back into the kitchen, where my dad was still leaning on the counter and nursing his beer bottle.

  “Back again?” my father mused lightly.

  “You should really stop drinking,” I muttered to him in a much more serious tone as I opened the wooden door to the cupboard and Alec started to help me grab some food from off of the shelves. Neither of us was really paying attention to what we were taking, but it didn’t matter. We were trying to feed the troops just enough for them to stay strong; they didn’t need a five-star meal, even though they probably deserved one. And if my father thought we were taking an awful lot of food for just the Monster Watch plus Alec, he didn’t say anything about it.

  I heard a soft clank and turned around to see my father set his bottle back on the granite countertop, his eyebrows raised. I had never actually told him to stop drinking before and I could see that he was slightly perturbed. “All right . . .” his voice trailed off, unsure of what to say next. After a silent moment of thought, he put his hand on my shoulder and forced me into the living room, where he could talk to me privately. I could tell I was in trouble now.

  “Is he the reason you didn’t want to go out with Cole?” my father asked me in a low voice, jerking his thumb over at Alec, who was still throwing food into the backpack.

  I winced and wrinkled my nose at the strong stench of beer that bombarded me as soon as it escaped my father’s mouth. Sighing, I admitted to him, “There were a lot of reasons, but yes, he was the main one.”

  I watched as my father nodded quietly and strode back into the kitchen. He tapped Alec on the shoulder, and the dark-haired boy quickly whirled around, his eyes wide. It looked to me like Alec was afraid my father was going to yell at him about taking too much food or something like that, but Alec was happily surprised when my father only muttered something into his ear. Then it was my turn to widen my eyes when the lanky drunk took his right hand and placed it on Alec’s right shoulder, his left shoulder, and finally his head. It was a motion that resembled all too closely my naming the boy a true Greek hero.

  “Dad!” I exclaimed, appalled and rather stunned. “Are you knighting him?” The only responses I received were a shrug from my father and a huge, goofy grin from Alec. I knew my parents had been obsessed with the medieval time period for a while because of all the junk in the antique shop, but my dad had just taken this fixation to a whole new level.

  Deciding that it was best for Alec and I to leave before my father could embarrass me any further, I commanded, “Alec, let’s go.” Every minute’s delay was another minute lost to the war and to Hades.

  Alec shrugged and made his way toward the front door as I took one last glance into the kitchen, where my father had just tossed his beer bottle into the small, blue recycle bin. I fought back a proud smile, settling instead for a simple nod of approval. “Well, bye,” I quietly bid him farewell, zipping up the backpack and flinging it over my shoulder, just as if I were heading off to a normal day at school.

  “Alec, take care of my daughter!” my father shouted as Alec and I raced through the screen door. Not once did I look back. I wanted to let him have this moment to internally revel in his personal “calm before the storm.”

  “I will, sir!” Alec yelled over his shoulder enthusiastically, and together we raced down the road. Turning his head toward me, he winked and whispered lightly, “Now I’m your hero and your knight in shining armor. You, Athena, are one lucky girl. Sir Alec, first official hero of Mount Olympus of the twenty-first century and knight of the Woods—I think that has a nice ring to it, don’t you?”

  I just rolled my eyes and frowned ungratefully as we continued to jog, our feet loudly slapping the damp pavement. “ Unofficial knight,” I corrected him gravely, not in the mood for jokes. “My dad doesn’t have the proper authority to make you a real one.”

  Noticing my tone, Alec lapsed into a state of tense silence as we crossed the tree line and were plunged into darkness because the weak daylight failed to penetrate the thick cover of leaves and branches. When we finally slowed to a walk near the part of the forest where our armor was hidden, he stopped me by placing a hand firmly on my shoulder. “Are you going to tell me what you wrote on that paper? Because, whatever it was, it put you in a terrible mood,” he whispered, switching back to Greek.

  Looking Alec straight in the eye, I sighed and said honestly, “I promise I’ll tell you in a couple of days, but not right now. Just know that it has to do with the prophecy.” He crossed his arms and gave me a very annoyed look, but I just rolled my eyes at him again. “Hey, I don’t like this any more than you do.”

  Alec looked like he was about to say something else, but we were unexpectedly interrupted by a loud bang or an explosion from the east—most likely around Main Street—followed by the flapping of wings as a large flock of black birds hidden in the trees swiftly took to the skies for safety. Alec and I snapped our heads up as we pulled our rocks out of our pockets, completely alert once again and ready to attack.

  “What the hell was that?” Alec wondered aloud, his brow furrowed. “Hades?”

  “Maybe,” I said in a low voice. “But it was definitely a distraction of some sort.”

  Another bang sounded, though this one was not nearly as loud as the first. When Alec gulped nervously, I continued darkly, gripping his arm to keep his attention focused on me, “Alec, I want you to run back to the army camp as fast as you can. If a battle breaks out, you’re leading it. I’ll send more gods to help once I find out what’s going on.”

  He nodded and I whirled around, about to start running out of the forest when Alec grabbed my hand and pulled me back. “Wait. Just in case I die out there . . .” he whispered as he turned me around, and I didn’t even have time to prepare myself before he pressed his soft lips against my cheek, making my heartbeat flutter nervously. My mind was suddenly reeling from the blow to my pride, so gentle but so rough at the same time. I was only thankful that he hadn’t actually kissed me on the lips, which showed just how much respect he had for me, and I was desperately hoping th
at he wouldn’t die out there, wouldn’t leave me wanting more.

  “Good luck,” he added as he reluctantly let me go.

  “And don’t die,” I replied under my breath, and he smirked as he started to back away from me. “Wait! Don’t forget your armor!” I shouted just as he disappeared into the thick, green undergrowth, but then he was back a moment later, pulling his bronze chest-plate out of a hollow log and blushing as he fumbled with the leather straps. We exchanged a solemn high five and briefly interlocked our fingers before splitting up, Alec heading west and me heading east out of the woods.

  As soon as I ran back into the open air and toward Main Street, I felt my heart drop to my stomach. I was not in view of any of the old shops yet, but thick, black smoke billowing up into the low cloud cover was clearly visible from over the tops of the trees. As I sprinted faster and faster, I could only cling to the hope that the fire wasn’t in the Fire Pit or my mother’s treasured antique shop next to it. For a second, I thought about radioing the other gods via walkie-talkie to tell them what was going on, but as I rounded the sharp corner onto Main Street, I saw that they were already there. Actually, the entire town was there to see the terrible spectacle since things like this didn’t happen every day in the Woods. Or even every ten years, for that matter.

  Dozens of people stood in a giant yet loose circle around a single burning car in the middle of the street. Dozens of people standing with their arms held out to shield their faces from the dark smoke and heat of the bright orange flames. There were dozens of people, but no one was doing anything to put out the fire that was eating up the mangled vehicle, the fire that could have quite easily spread to the homey shops behind it. They were all too busy shouting and pointing and taking pictures with their cell phones, apparently oblivious to the true danger at hand. I was probably biased, but sometimes I thought things were better in ancient times, without technology that affected people’s judgment. In that moment, I was far too angry and confused to be thankful that none of the beloved shops were caught in the flames.

  People continued to cry out in shock and anguish and my eyes were stinging with hot smoke. Curiosity overcame me, however, and as I rubbed my watering eyes with the cool sleeve of my leather jacket, I pushed my way toward the inner ring of the circle that was closest to the fire while waves of sickening heat and worry began to wash over me. For the first time, I was able to get a close look at the destroyed bunch of metal and, to my dismay, saw that it was a black SUV— the one that belonged to Cole’s mother.

  “Luke!” I tried desperately to shout above all of the other anxious voices, but I could not continue because a strong gust of wind blew a black cloud of smoke into my face, leaving me coughing and sputtering. Beginning to hyperventilate, I wildly looked around the crowd for the rest of the Monster Watch until I felt a hand firmly grab my left shoulder.

  “It’s going to be okay, Ash. The fire department is on the way,” Zach whispered into my ear in English, and I whirled around to meet his worried expression as well as Connor’s and Luke’s. From the tiny beads of sweat sliding slowly down their faces and from their soaked shirts, I could tell that the three of them had been standing there quite a while. They had probably been inside the Fire Pit when the fire first started.

  Tugging at my ponytail in anguish, I hissed at them, “We’re in the middle of nowhere! It’s going to be at least ten minutes before the firemen get here! Luke, you have to do something.” With an exasperated sigh, Zach wiped his brow as he and Connor fanned themselves in a halfhearted effort to cool off although it wasn’t really helping since we were only a few feet away from the flames. Luke, however, just rolled his sea-green eyes at me and crossed his tan arms over his chest, his expression unreadable.

  “Athena,” he started in a low voice in Greek. “You know as well as I do that it would look awfully strange if the fire hydrant over there conveniently exploded and the water just happened to fall right onto the burning car.” Poseidon paused to gesture pointedly at the bright yellow hydrant in front of his human parents’ restaurant, the only fire hydrant in our tiny town.

  “Besides,” Zeus cut in seriously, smoothing back his dark golden hair, “Hestia has it covered. She can’t put out the flames, but she’s keeping them confined.”

  Zeus pointed to the other side of the circle, and I could just barely make out Hestia’s petite silhouette through the wispy smoke as she subtly clenched her fists and stretched her fingers out by her sides, the tips of the bright flames seeming to mimic her every move. Her long, light brown hair and short, purple dress flowed out behind her in the slight breeze, not bothering her at all and somehow making her appear as if she were at a photo shoot. The sight of Hestia silently concentrating on controlling the fire comforted me only a little bit, however.

  “What about the people who were in the car?” I questioned, my gray eyes narrowed dubiously. “Are they okay?”

  “Yeah, Cole’s mom got out just in time,” Apollo chipped in, motioning to the sorrowful woman sitting on the curb in front of the Fire Pit, her clothes charred and tears streaming down her face. She was surrounded by at least five sympathetic people who were trying to comfort her by handing her endless amounts of tissues and softly patting her back. But there was still one person missing from the whole mess, one person who should have been by her side no matter what.

  “Has anyone seen Cole lately?” I asked in a hushed voice, already beginning to panic. My hope dissolved completely when I was met with only silence from the three boys.

  “You don’t think . . .” Apollo gulped, trailing off midsentence, but he didn’t need to finish because we all understood what he was proposing. I had already known the fire would be a distraction from something happening at that exact moment in the forest, but I honestly never imagined that Hades would do anything as horrifyingly misguided as this. I took a deep breath, trying to prevent myself from losing my head over the fact that Cole, who had absolutely nothing to do with the war, was now a helpless prisoner in a world he didn’t understand. I was beginning to think that the rest of the gods and I had made a big mistake in underestimating the lord of the Underworld.

  Zeus quickly grabbed his black walkie-talkie off his belt loop and muttered in Greek, “This is Zeus, calling in an emergency situation. Repeat: emergency situation. Cole has possibly been kidnapped by Hades.” Immediately, there was a small surge toward the woods on the other side of the street, made by the other gods hidden amongst the crowd. For a moment, Hestia lost control of the flames and they roared and cackled, stretching up like arms to embrace the darkening sky.

  “Wait,” I said into my own radio, and the gods all stopped dead in their tracks, the hot flames starting to die down again as Hestia regained her composure. “We can’t all go in there; it will look suspicious.” A low grumble of reluctant agreement floated through the crowd and faded away.

  However, another wave of worry passed through the gods when the walkie-talkies burst to life, but this time the speaker wasn’t in the vicinity of the burning car. “This is Pan. Your emergency has been acknowledged, but we have one of our own. Alec and the troops are greatly outnumbered at the small meadow, and the centaurs are outnumbered in their territory as well. The rest of the Knowing troops are almost here, but they’ve run into a blockade near the north edge of the forest. Over.”

  I exchanged worried glances with the rest of the Monster Watch and was sure that the other gods were doing the same. The day just kept getting worse and worse.

  “Situation acknowledged. We’ll be there as soon as we can,” Poseidon solemnly muttered to Pan via his walkie-talkie while rubbing his forehead.

  “Okay,” Zeus continued quietly. “Hestia stays here to control the fire. Hermes and Hephaestus stay, too. When the firemen finish investigating, I want a full report of what caused this. I mean, it obviously wasn’t a real crash. There aren’t even any other cars around.”

  The rest of the Monster Watch and I made eye contact with Hermes, who was standing n
ear Hestia and nodded obediently, just as the wailing sirens of the county fire truck made their way into earshot. I glanced north down Main Street, the only street that led directly out of the Woods, and squinted through the haze from the heat of the fire to see the bright red, flashing lights inching closer and closer.

  “Everyone else goes into the forest. Stagger your entrances. Quickly, now. We don’t have much time,” Zeus ordered firmly, motioning in turn to each of the gods. “Hestia, give us some cover.”

  Hestia responded instantly by snapping her fingers, and the SUV exploded on cue, creating an expanding fireball accompanied by a loud bang. Tiny, sharp bits of debris were sent flying everywhere, and the boom temporarily made us deaf. I bit down hard on my lower lip as I felt flames lick at my now blistering skin. A few slivers of metal sliced painfully into my sides, but I simply sprinted faster into the trees with the rest of the Monster Watch, Demeter, Dionysus, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, and Artemis while the public was distracted. There was no time to let pain bother us.

  We paused only long enough to wipe the sweat off our brows and to carefully throw on our bronze armor over our newest areas of raw, opened skin. I slowly reached into the pocket of my leather jacket and was relieved to find that the important piece of paper was still safe and unburnt. When Zeus raised his eyebrows at me questioningly, I just shrugged and stuffed the letter back into my pocket. Within another minute, the ten of us had regained the ability to hear correctly and were racing west through the thorny bushes and branches of tall pine trees slapping and stinging our faces. All the while, our armor scratched our sides, inflaming the new wounds from the explosion.

  We trampled over bushes, branches, rocks, logs, and anything else in our path like a herd of stampeding elephants, not caring if any monsters heard us coming or if we kept to the narrow path. I heard the loud rolling of thunder from above us and looked to my left to see Zeus muttering darkly to himself. His normally sky blue eyes had turned a cloudy, stormy gray color like mine. I could sense that buckets of rain were about to spill down from the heavens and that the strong stench of death hung heavily in the air, a looming reminder of those who had already fallen and those who had yet to fall. Gulping, I peered ahead through the thick foliage, some of which had blood—golden and red—smeared across the large leaves and dripping into tiny pools in the soil. I couldn’t help but think yet again that the woods had never before seemed so cold and dark.