Olympus

by Cate Ryan

  “I did it,” she squealed grabbing Isaac in a tight hug as the smoke dissipated.

  “Good. You’ll need that later. We should get going. I want to get there while it’s still light.”

  “Can we take Mack?”

  Isaac nodded. “He’s been hanging out with the guards all morning. He’s near the gate.”

  As they were heading towards the gate a second message flashed before her.

  [Skill improvement (Block). 15 XP awarded]

  [25 XP until next level]

  Taysia smiled.

  “I just got XP for learning to block.”

  “Yeah. Sometimes it’s a little delayed.”

  “Mack!” She caught sight of the tiny Minotaur wandering aimlessly around the courtyard.

  “Oh, there you are. I went to the training field because someone said you were there, but I couldn’t find you.”

  The little guy squeaked.

  “We’re done training for the day. Isaac is going to take us to Athens.”

  Isaac looked to Mack as if he couldn’t believe that the Minotaur was following Taysia around. Taysia looked to the fluffy gray guy and back to Isaac. She wondered whether he had a companion creature somewhere.

  Chapter 7

  “So, what are we doing in Athens?” Taysia turned to Isaac.

  “Well, I was hoping to find you some nice easy quests that don’t involve training with Racquel and get you leveled up a bit. It’s even more important for us to level up than it is for the casual folk.”

  “What do you mean, folk like us?” Taysia searched Isaac’s eyes for an answer.

  “You know.” He gestured between them and Taysia shook her head confused.

  He tried again. “You made a character yesterday, started playing. Did anyone come and visit you after that?”

  “Oh.” Taysia looked to Isaac understanding suddenly why he’d been so kind to her.

  “The first days are the hardest.”

  Taysia’s breath caught in her throat. “Don’t think I’ll ever get used to this. It’s just too weird. I mean, my boyfriend plays this game. My sister doesn’t neither do my parents,” Taysia paused, gulping, “Oh my god, my parents don’t even remember me. My sister doesn’t remember me. What about my boyfriend? If I run in to him, he won’t remember me either.”

  Isaac pressed a hand around her shoulders. “I don’t know what to tell you. But yeah, that’s all true.”

  “Have you seen anyone from your old life?”

  Isaac shrugged. “Not for ages.”

  Taysia focused her attention on the ground beneath her feet. It felt so real. It wasn’t, but it felt it. At least that was good, if she’d been trapped in Shizuku Tani for the rest of her life that would have been a disaster. Everything there was colored unnaturally, and the textures were all wrong. It sounded like a nightmare.

  “So, you have seen someone from your past then?”

  Isaac shifted uncomfortably. “My brother. A long time ago now. I thought for a second that he recognized me, then he just wandered up started in on me, all ‘how did you get so high level so quick.’ It was pretty obvious he had no idea who I was.”

  Taysia pressed a hand against Isaac’s the warmth from his skin spreading to hers. “It must have been awful.”

  Isaac didn’t answer. Taysia found she didn’t mind the silence. It gave her a moment to think. This sucked, she couldn’t see her family again. Could never speak to anyone she knew. That effectively meant the only people she knew in the world were Isaac and Racquel, and of course Mack.

  The Minotaur had stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation but now he pressed his head to her hand, little horns cool and solid to her touch. “You still have me,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah, you’re all right Mack. In fact, I wouldn’t have you at all if it weren’t for this.”

  She tried to remember that he wasn’t real but reaching a hand to stroke the thick gray fur on his head he felt more real than anything else in her life.

  “Mack, are you any good at fighting or anything?”

  The question came from Isaac.

  Mack answered eagerly, “I’m really good at martial arts actually. And puzzles. Puzzles are my favorite.”

  Isaac smiled. “Wanna show me some of your skills?”

  Mack looked to Taysia for a moment as if asking for permission, she nodded, and he pulled away from her.

  Before Isaac had time to react the little Minotaur charged towards him barreling head first, horns at the ready and smashing his full force into Isaac’s chest. Isaac stumbled back but as Taysia watched, his health bar barely changed.

  Isaac laughed. “Those horns will be quite the weapon once you grow up.”

  He turned to Taysia. “I’ve not been able to find out much about companions in the wiki except that they’re incredibly rare. Which makes me a little worried actually. It’s going to make you a bit of a target when people realize you’ve got one,” Isaac paused, “What I did find out, is that Mack should level along with you. As you get stronger so will he. In his case that will also mean growing up. If you check out his stats right now, they’re pretty low and I would probably keep him out of combat as much as possible. But, I reckon once he’s leveled up a bit he’s going to be nearly unstoppable with those horns.”

  Taysia nodded. “Hear that Mackie, you’ll be unstoppable.”

  The Minotaur’s smiled a toothy grin, tongue lolling to one side as he licked the full length of her arm affectionately.

  “We should go and do some leveling then. I wanna be stronger like my dad.”

  That caused Taysia to pause. “You have a father?”

  Taysia hadn’t considered that the Minotaur had been implanted with a history that included a father figure but of course it made sense. They’d been very thorough.

  “Everybody does,” Mack reminded her.

  “Yes, of course. You have a mother too then?”

  “I did,” Mack admitted. “I don’t remember her.”

  “Well, I’m so sorry Mack.”

  “It’s okay, I’ve got you now.” Taysia smiled and they fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

  Taysia turned to Isaac.

  “Who are we going to see in Athens? What’s this quest you have for me?”

  Isaac grinned from ear to ear. “We’re going to see Aristotle.”

  “What. Wait. The Aristotle? That famous philosopher dude?”

  “The one and only. A bunch of historical folk are hanging out in the game. Well, what the developer’s thought they’d be like I guess. They’ve done a pretty good job though. Aristotle is a pretty fun guy. Usually find him in the tavern and he’s got one of those nice easy ‘take X thing to Y place and get XP for it.’”

  “Sweet.” Taysia nodded. “Sounds like my kind of quest. No Racquel sending fireballs at me. No picking things in the garden. Though actually, I didn’t mind that one.” There was a lightness to her step being away from Rolling Wave Headquarters and heading to a brand-new place despite everything that had happened.

  “We should be there soon. You’ll get your first look at Athens around this bend.”

  Taysia sped up eager to get to Athens and eager to start her easy leveling quest.

  Taysia halted when Athens came into view, her gaze fixed on the city in the distance. It was not what Taysia would’ve expected from the ancient city of the gods. It was smaller than she’d thought it would be for one. Though they were still some distance from it. She saw zero fortifications surrounding it and honestly it looked more like a small village than a city of the gods.

  “Um, that’s it? That’s the great Athens everyone always talks about? Shouldn’t it be, you know, bigger?”

  Isaac laughed. “It’s bigger than it looks. You’ll see. We should hurry though. I’d like to get there before the sun goes down.”

  [New Location Discovered – Athens. 15 XP awarded]

  [10 XP until next level]

  Chapter 8

  “Isa
ac, how do I get better gear. Can you like, buy it here? Or do I just find it around the place?” The question had been on her mind all day. Racquel was obviously much higher level, but she was decked out in amazing gear, or so it seemed to Taysia.

  Isaac stopped. “You don’t have any gear yet? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

  “What do you mean?” She looked to Mack, but he just shrugged.

  “Well, haven’t you fought anything on the way to the headquarters or come across any chests?”

  “I mean, I did one tiny quest for some farmer.” She shuddered, remembering the rats in his basement.

  “Okay. But nothing else?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, we’ll go see Aristotle, but on the way home I’ll make sure I find you something easy to fight so we can find you some stuff. You should’ve got a starter set from the Headquarters when you got there, but it must have been missed. Anyway, you can find stuff all over the place. I’m surprised you didn’t get anything from the farmer at least. There are quests like that all over the place and most of them give at least one or two basic items.”

  Taysia nodded. “Well, I only got money and XP.”

  “This way.” Isaac cut the conversation short and steered her down an alley way where there fewer people wandered about.

  Athens was definitely bigger once Taysia got closer. It was more like a small city than the tiny town it had looked like from the road. There were hundreds if not thousands of players and NPC’s wandering the streets. Many of them were lower levels like her, all different races and classes. She tried to keep track of them as Isaac led her through the streets, but it was impossible. She saw a few obviously higher-level players decked out in clothes that looked out of place in rural Greece, fancy golden chest plates, ornate leg guards. Taysia felt jealousy bubbling up. In Shizuku Tani, everybody had looked up to her. Not anymore. Now nobody knew her name, she had no money and just her starter gear to her name. And Mack of course.

  “Tavern’s a couple of minutes’ walk this way.”

  Taysia wondered if Aristotle would like her. Maybe they could be best friends.

  As if reading her mind Isaac added, “He’s not what you think. Bit of a drunk really. He spends too much time in the tavern chatting to drinkers and telling them his theories about aether, or whatever it is, but he drinks while he’s doing it so he’s always a little on the tipsy side.”

  Great. Her day involved wandering a fake world to get a quest from a drunk Greek philosopher. Fantastic.

  Isaac stopped in front of what looked like a boring wooden door, no sign, just a wooden door. It was quiet. It wasn’t what Taysia expected, nothing about Athens had been so far.

  “Through here.”

  It must have been a great door because as soon as Isaac pushed on the wooden handle a raucous atmosphere that rivaled her older brother’s football games wafted into the alley way. She took a deep breath then wished she hadn’t for the air felt stale and had a faint odor of beer and sweat to it. She sighed. Well sure. She’d always imagined philosopher’s hanging out on rolling green hills, chatting on cobblestone streets in the open air not in some dingy tavern filled with gamers.

  Isaac weaved through the patrons leading her to the bar. They found Aristotle standing at the bar, a drink in either hand. He gestured wildly sloshing ale to the floor as he explained something to those around him. Suddenly he slammed his flagons onto the bar and grabbed an olive from a little bowl. Waving his arms around he began to demonstrate something using the olive as a prop. As they got closer Taysia heard him tell the crowd ‘See, there’s two types of motion. There’s natural motion which is as simple as an object falling to the ground like this.’ He dropped the olive and it bounced onto the bar. A few people nodded their understanding.

  One NPC looked utterly confused. “But it didn’t hit the ground, it hit the bar.” Isaac laughed behind her. Taysia groaned.

  Aristotle ignored the interruption and continued his explanation, “The other type of motion is violent. Watch this.” He threw the olive across the bar, it landed a few feet from an empty glass. Taysia couldn’t tell if he’d been aiming for the glass or not, but she hoped not, since the olive landed so far off.

  Most people looked confused now ‘See, as soon as I threw it, the olive began to drop to the ground. It could only stay in motion while I touched it.’

  Again, the same NPC who posed a question, “But, it fell for ages after you stopped touching it. That’s just like the first one.” This time it was Taysia who laughed, she actually thought he had a point. Aristotle’s logic was completely flawed.

  Aristotle sighed. “Let’s try another example. So, a violent motion would be like this.” He placed the object on the bar and began to push it with his hand along the surface. “As long as I’m pushing it the olive will move. But look what happens when I stop.” He pulled his hand away, the olive stayed still. “It stops moving,” he concluded.

  Several people clapped, the NPC still looked confused. Isaac took that as their chance to introduce themselves.

  Isaac waved him over. “Sir, it’s good to see you again. I’ve brought a friend along. I wondered if you might have a little task for her to complete?”

  “Ah yes!” Taysia detected only a slight slur to the philosopher’s speech. He turned to face them and promptly dropped his drink spilling beer on his chest and the floor in front of them.

  “Holy smokes! Get that damned creature out of here. How did that sneak in?”

  Taysia realized that the man was talking about Mack.

  “You better wait outside,” she whispered hoping to avoid a scene.

  But Aristotle had other ideas. “Is that the Minotaur?” Ignoring his spilled beer, he inched closer to the creature. Mack stood lifeless waiting for instruction from Taysia. She didn’t know what to do.

  “Smaller than I thought it would be actually.”

  “The stories always have it at near on eight feet. But this is just a tiny thing.” Aristotle approached so close that his breath moved the furs on Mack’s fuzzy face. Bent slightly to get a better look at the creature.

  “It is a Minotaur, horns, fur, but human like, stands on two feet. I never thought.” By now the rest of the patrons had realized something was happening. Gamers and NPC’s alike stopped to look at the little group.

  “Excuse me?” Taysia readied a bolt of energy in her hand. She was prepared for this to get ugly. Isaac pulled her back. But it was half-hearted.

  “You heard what I said, young wench. This creature is an abomination. Born from a union between a woman and a bull. It shouldn’t exist. It doesn’t exist. But here it is standing in front of me,” Aristotle trailed off, “Curious that.”

  “I think, you owe my friend Mack and apology for calling him that.”

  Aristotle turned to Taysia as if noticing her for the first time, his face questioned her sanity.

  “Have you not heard the story of the Minos?” Aristotle didn’t wait for an answer but launched into the story, his eyes darting back to the Minotaur every so often. “King Minos of Crete prayed to Poseidon, the sea god. He asked him to send a show of support. A white bull. Minos had to sacrifice the bull to honor Poseidon,” Aristotle paused to take a sip from his ale before continuing, “he didn’t do it. Instead he sacrificed his own bull, hoping Poseidon wouldn’t know. But Poseidon is a god. He punished Minos by making his wife Pasiphaë fall deeply in love with the white bull.” There were gasps from others listening to the story.

  Aristotle continued, “In desperation, she went to a craftsman, Dedalus and begged him to make her a hollow wooden cow. Once complete, she climbed inside and allowed the white bull to inseminate her.” He took another sip of his drink, satisfied that all eyes were on him.

  “From this union a terrible beast came in to the world, half bull, half man. The Minotaur. Pasiphaë nursed the Minotaur who grew ever more ferocious. There was no natural way for him to gain nourishment. People disappeared. Dedalus
was asked to build a maze for the Minotaur, a great labyrinth so that he could never escape. From then on, any who trespassed on Crete were fed to the Minotaur. That labyrinth still stands on Crete today.”

  He looked to Mack again who stood at four-foot-tall, covered with fuzzy tufts of gray fur. ‘That my friends, is where this monstrous beast of a child came from. He will do the same to us if we let him.

  “Well, that’s utterly ridiculous. You’re not like that Minotaur are you Mack?”

  Taysia turned to Mack, the bolt of energy still nestled on her palm. It should have burnt her skin, instead it tingled slightly under her touch. She wiggled her fingers against it waiting for an answer from her new companion.

  He was silent. “Is that where I came from?”

  Taysia tossed a glare at Aristotle. “No of course not, you told us you knew your father and your mother died. Was she a human? Was your father trapped in a maze? Of course not. So that can’t be where you came from. And I’ve never seen you eat a human. Granted, I’ve only known you a day.”

  Mack sniffled, nuzzling into Taysia’s side. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

  Aristotle chose that moment to chime in, “Nevertheless, I think we should dispense with the creature immediately, it’s definitely the safest course of action. I’m sure we can all agree,” Aristotle paused, looking out to the onlookers. “Whoever can bring me the Minotaur’s head shall receive a great reward.”

  A quest popped up immediately.

  [New Quest – Defend Mack from the patrons of the Athens Tavern

  Reward – 50 XP]

  Isaac sighed.

  “We should get out of here.” He looked around the tavern where nearly 30 people had begun readying various weapons all pointed at them. Taysia remembered Isaac’s words from earlier. Mack wasn’t very strong yet. They needed to get out of there.

  “Quick. Through the kitchen.”

  She had no idea if an exit laid that way, but she hoped it would be like it always happened in movies, there would be a chase through the kitchen, and they’d get out the back door. She threw the bolt of lightning in her hand at the nearest of the pursuers hoping to deter them. The man, a human, his health bar dropped an inch. He kept following, pulling out an axe as he did so.