Chapter 11
Waking the dead would have probably been easier than getting Sander out of bed at the break of dawn, Vasos had tried clapping near his ear, yelling in it even hitting the swords together while screaming for help, still Sander snored peacefully in the hay of the barn they had slept in for the night. Finally he figured drastic measures were called for, picking him up Vasos carried him back in to town in the main square where a fountain stood, with a good throw he tossed him into it head first.
With speed that defied description Sander hopped up out of the water. “Curse you and the ground you walk on!”
Laughing so hard his sides began to hurt Vasos tries to catch his breath at the sight of his dripping friend.
“That was definitely worth carrying you all the way here.”
“Hilarious, you know you could have just gently tapped me.” He complains.
“I tried, I tried damn near everything to wake you, and for a minute I thought that Hypnos himself had put you to sleep.” He jokes.
“Doubtful, I don’t sleep that deeply.”
“You do when you’re drunk, now come on we’re already running behind.” He says shortly.
“What’s the hurry it’s not like Rhodes won’t be there if we don’t leave right now.”
“Maybe not but I wanna get out of here before Ares sends something or someone else after us.”
“Wait, what? Why would Ares be sending anything after us? I thought this quest was given to us by Zeus himself, why would he interfere?”
“He’s a little angry at me for killing his son that’s all.” He sighs walking back towards the barn.
“You did what?!”
“I avenged myself, his son deserved what he got!” He snaps.
“And I get to deal with the consequences?! Are you serious right now?”
“By all means if you don’t want to deal with my little problem run along with your little flask and brave the wrath of the gods.” He states emphatically while walking away from him.
“I really don’t like you, just so you know.” Sighs Sander following slowly behind him while taking a long drink from his flask.
Without turning back towards him “Must you always be drunk?”
“My father’s the god of wine what did you expect, a sober working class man? What did you do before this quest?”
“I was training to be a soldier in Sparta and what I expected was a fighter.”
“A fighter huh? So correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t I save your Spartan butt yesterday?” He smirks.
Stopping to face him Vasos just stares for a moment sizing him up again. “Fair enough.” He smiles.
“That’s right.” Smiles Sander clearly pleased with himself until he falls backward while taking a large celebratory drink.
With a laugh Vasos begins to help him to his feet. “Truly the gods have blessed me with some wonderful help.”
“Yeah, yeah, so where are we headed to first?”
“We must travel to Rhodes, once there I will fight Chrysaor. I will need you to handle his pirates while I do this. But there are many places we will have to stop on our journey the first will be Mantinea.”
“Our first quest is to take on the son of Medusa and Poseidon? I have to say it’ll be a little tuff to take care of his pirates if I’m stone.”
“First off relax and have another drink, secondly he doesn’t have the power to turn people to stone.” He says picking up the pace.
“Well that’s a relief.” Says Sander matching his speed.
After a moment of silence Vasos says “He’s just nine feet tall and has power over the water and people say his face is so disfigured that the shock of seeing it holds you in fear.”
“Oh is that all?” He questions rhetorically.
“That’s it, besides what are you worried about? You’re not the one facing him I am.”
“And when you fall to him I’ll be left trying to save your bacon again.”
“Please, like you’re that good now come on let’s get our bags out of here and head to the forest.” He retorts.
The two of them enter the barn to find all their supplies thrown all over the place and their bags hanging from the ceiling of barn.
Looking from their things then at each other Sander simply says. “Huh.”
“Welcome to the world of the weird.” Says Vasos beginning to pick up the scattered things.
“That’s it? You’re not wondering what the heck is going on?”
“Of course I’m wondering what happened here but what else can we do? I’m not about to launch a full investigation into this when we have a quest to get to.”
“Fine, is anything missing?” Asks Sander clearly annoyed.
“Not that I can tell.”
Vasos bends over picking up some more things when from nowhere his bag falls from the ceiling landing on his head covering his vision in darkness for the moment. Grabbing at the bag, suddenly he finds himself falling forward from a hard kick to his butt.
Pulling his head free Vasos turns fiercely, stomping towards Sander who is laughing at him.
“Are you suicidal?” He yells point blank. “Putting the bag on my head is one thing but kicking me in the rear afterwards, that’s the nail in the coffin for you.”
Putting up his hands defensively while still laughing “Whoa big fella, I didn’t do any of that. I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Yeah right, someone just magically came in and did it right?”
“How should I know? Maybe you’re just a klutz.”
Unexpectedly the other bag falls from the ceiling falling on Sanders head but instead of being empty the whole thing is filled with raw eggs.
“Nice.” Laughs Vasos.
Pulling off the bag Sander just stares at Vasos through the egg dripping down his face. “You have got to be joking.”
“I don’t know how that happened but man that was classic.”
“You’re a jerk.”
“Maybe chicken boy but I’m a jerk without egg covering me. Now, cluck your way over to the rest of the stuff on the floor and let’s get going.” He laughs returning to picking things up.
“What? You’re still not curious about what is going on here?”
“Of course I am but like I said we need to get moving, once were on the road it won’t matter what happened.” He sighs.
“Gods you’re so damn annoying.”
“Whatever, now get going.” He barks back at him.
A few short minutes later the two of them are done gathering their things and are ready to leave.
“We’ll stop at the fountain on the way out of town so you can clean up.” Vasos snickers walking towards the door.
Sander just snorts in response until Vasos runs face first into the door when it won’t open.
“Now that is classic.” Laughs Sander slapping him on the back.
“Hope it’s still funny when you’re holding your broken nose.”
“Oh it’s okay to laugh at me when something happens but Mr. Personality here has a problem when the shoes on the other foot.”
“Okay, okay, let’s just get this door open.” He groans rubbing his head.
“I can make some vine grow and pull the door apart.” Suggests Sander.
“That could work or I could just use my axe.”
“Either way, I don’t care which one we do just let me know when you decide.” He yawns.
“Wait what’s that sound?” Questions Vasos placing his ear to the barn door.
“The sound of time slipping away from us maybe.” He answers sarcastically.
“Funny, no it almost sounds like…”
Without finishing his sentence Vasos turns grabbing Sander pulling him to the back of them barn at a run until they reach a ladder leading to the loft.
“Quickly get up the ladder!” He yells at Sander half pushing him up.
Climbing as quickly as he can with Vasos close behind he questions “What’s wrong? What did you hear?�
��
“It sounded like…”
Before he can finish the front of the barn explodes as a stampede of cattle burst through it at full speed. Vasos grabs the bottom board of the loft just as the cows destroy the ladder he was climbing leaving him dangling in the air hanging from the edge just above the herd.
“Hang on!” Shouts Sander over the noise of the stampede.
Immediately vines sprout from his arms wrapping around Vasos’ arm securing that he will not fall at the same moment vines shoot from Sander’s back wrapping around the high beams of the ceiling instantly beginning to pull them both to safety.
Flopping on the floor of the loft gasping for air from the excitement Sander stares at Vasos. “Still not interested in what’s going on?”
Vasos turns his head towards Sander to answer but instead of answering he stares past him with a gaping mouth.
“What?” Questions Sander confused.
Pointing to the corner Vasos remains silent staring intently.
Turning to look at the corner Sander’s mouth drops in surprise as well when he finds a kobaloi sitting in the corner of the ceiling laughing uncontrollably, the kobaloi are ugly little creatures that are a foot tall with an almond shaped head, long pointed ears, yellow eyes, jagged teeth and a beak shaped nose. Its long arms and legs have claw like hands perfect for tearing things apart and climbing pretty much everything in sight, their long tails are hard and they love using them as a whip. They are the pranksters of the Greek world causing mischief to anyone they meet.
“La,la,la. I wrote a song would you care to hear it?” The creature questions in his shrill voice while rocking back and forth and holding his feet.
“There’s your answer to what’s been going on Sander.” Sighs Vasos getting to his feet.
“Here are two little men from Olympians who wanted to get to the forest, what a joke, the cows made them croak. Now they’re acting like women.” It sings.
“Let’s get out of here, just ignore the little creep.” Says Vasos jumping down from the loft.
Lowering himself gingerly to the ground with a few vines Sander never takes his eyes off of the kobaloi which is in the corner just smiling at them.
“What about the kobaloi?”
“Like I said ignore it, they thrive off of people reacting to the jokes they play, it’s best if we just get out of here as quickly as possible.” Vasos says grabbing their trampled bags and heading out of the broken door.
Sander begins jogging to catch up with Vasos but before he can get out of the barn the kobaloi appears in front of him with ten others blocking his way.
“You know we don’t like being ignored.” The head kobaloi smiles evilly walking towards Sander.
“Hey who does? And you know what I think? I think you should go and find the guy I was with and teach him a good lesson.”
“Why play chase after him when we have you to play with instead?”
“Because you are good little pranksters who will do what’s right?” He questions hopefully.
“Mmmm, I don’t think so.” It laughs.
“Be still.” Comes Vasos insistent voice.
Sander’s brow furrows for a moment at the sound, it’s Vasos’ voice without a doubt but it’s somehow different. There’s a charge in it that fills and vibrates the air when he speaks, Sander can tell that the kobaloi are feeling it too turning slowly and dreamily to stare at Vasos.
“We are all friends here aren’t we?” Vasos questions intently.
Nodding their heads slowly in agreement the creatures stare calmly at him eagerly waiting his next words, without realizing it Sander is already nodding along with them. Shaking his head to try and clear the fog he stares blankly at Vasos who motions for him to join him. Slowly he walks past the kobaloi standing by Vasos who is slowly backing out of the barn.
“All of you are frozen in place aren’t you?” He says as his voice becomes even deeper and more magical.
After a few more steps Vasos notices that Sander isn’t moving either, with a sigh he leans over whispering in his ear.
“Snap out of it Sander, my siren call won’t hold them forever.”
With a distant look in his eyes Sander just stares blankly for a moment at Vasos. “What?”
Whispering again in his ear Vasos charges his voice. “Wake!”
Sander blinks his eyes for a moment in confusion. “What happened? What did you do to me?”
“I’ll tell you later we have to get out of here before they wake up.”
“How long will your little trick last?” He questions backing away again.
“I’m not sure, it depends on the strength of their will power, let’s just make sure we’re gone before they do.”
Finally out of sight the two of them begin running as fast as their feet will carry them, after a few minutes they have cleared the town and are heading across the small field to the forest when they hear the sound of little creatures shrieking in delight at the sight of them.
Risking a glance back Sander can see at least forty kobaloi running full speed after them and gaining ground on them.
“We’re not going to make it to the forest in time.” Sander states frantically coming to an abrupt stop.
“Are you insane let’s get out of here?!”
“No, it’s time for my little trick.” He wheezes out of breath.
The kobaloi get closer with every second as Sander and Vasos just watch.
“Whatever you’re going to do now would be the time.” Vasos says drawing his sword and changing it into an axe.
Without answering Sander stares keenly at the creatures, unexpectedly the entire group of creatures comes to a halt a few feet from the two men. For a moment everything is completely silent as Sander stares into their eyes and they into his.
The quiet standoff lasts a minute longer before abruptly the kobaloi burst into dance completely ignoring Vasos and Sander as they are caught in the rapture of what they’re feeling.
“That was a nice trick.” Smiles Vasos patting him on the back.
“Yeah well like yours it won’t last forever, let’s get moving while we still can.”
Immortals Children Of The Gods Page 11