ATN 3: THE JAR IN THE MAZE

THE WAR OF DOOM BEGINS

Okay, now, to a quick recap. I, my cousins and my friends are demigods of Greek godly descent, if you didn't know already. We live in Atlantis. A year and a month ago, I, Tina, and my cousins had gone to collect the elements of beauty for Aphrodite, and had fought two gigantes in a war that left Atlantis ruler-less. We had also gotten to know that there was an impostor among us (this isn't the game). Now, fast forward a year later. We found out that the Fates, who had gone into isolation when the giants started rising, came out of it, and contacted the gods, which prompted Apollo to give a prophecy, who told us beforehand to go to Delphi and get it. We crossed the dangerous Path of Odysseus, and finally got the prophecy. There were certain revelations, including Jared Wilson, son of Demeter, being the reason why we have a war at hand, Viraj, our friend, being the traitor, Tina and my feelings for each other, and all of us finding the true levels of our powers. We fought five giants, two of them in Delphi, and three in Atlantis. In the end, we won, but at the cost of one of our dearest friends. And now, we had no idea what the future held for us.

We reached the hotel and found Ms. Roy in the restaurant. "Saw Dad." Tina announced first thing.

"Wow!" Ms. Roy said. She looked down. I figured she wasn't comfortable talking about Ares. I signaled Tina to not say anything more. So, Tina went on to narrate how we saved that girl from the jerks and smartly skipped the divine intervention. It is better to not touch a nerve. Gods move on easy, we humans don't.

Anyway, I returned home to my family. Eight people in the same house. My dream of having a joint family was complete for now. I looked around to see people around me. Dad was reading the newspaper, Aunt Kia was checking her phone, Uncle Sankalp was on a call, Dadai and Abhro were playing FIFA on play-station, Riya was rotating her trident in her hand, while Hiya was creating arrows. Over the month, she had gotten superb at it. She could make an arrow within minutes. I entered and Riya went, "The love bird returns." And everyone looked at me.

"Trident down." I said, "You'll break stuff here."

"Okay." Riya turned her trident away, giggling.

"I had it." Abhro said, putting his play-station controller down, "Come on. You knew I had it."

"Your Real Madrid bottled a 3-0 lead." Dadai said, "To Schalke. This is embarrassing."

"I have some interesting news." I said, and told them about our adventure with the bullies. Dad patted me on the shoulder and gave me the 'proud Daddy' look. Aunt Kia brushed my hair. Uncle Sankalp showed me a thumbs up, and continued talking on the phone.

And just then, the door bell rang.

I opened the door and said, "Woah!"

Iris stood in front of me, in a white shirt, jeans and a grey blazer. "Its time, children."

We invited her in. Not everyday does a goddess come to our house as our guest. The five of us hugged her tightly, before she sent me on duty for making her a cup of coffee. She asked Riya to call Tina and her Mom to inform them about it. Then, she opened a portal and the two women walked in. Then, she sent Tina to help me, while she sat with the parents to talk. All this, in a matter of two minutes.

While we made her coffee, she talked to our parents about her plans. We were supposed to go to Atlantis, where all the demigods and werewolves would start for the other demigod land, Themiscyra. She said that our wagon that held at least twenty five people was ready, and the carrier was also in Atlantis. All that was left was to put him in. I asked her who the carrier was, but she said, "All in good time, my boy."

She gave us two hours to mentally prepare ourselves and pack. We started packing, and after two hours, we got ready to go. We hugged our parents, as Iris prepared the portal. Aunt Kia's eyes went moist. I turned to my family and said, "Don't worry, all of you. We will be coming back. I promise, we will be here in a month."

"Or two." Iris said.

"Or two. But we will be back." I said.

"Always the leader." Iris smiled at me, and turned to Dad, "I am telling you, Rohit. This boy is such a great leader."

"Second born boys in our family always goes places. Its kind of a heredity thing." Dad said, looking at Uncle Sankalp. Fair enough. The man ran a successful business while taking care of two kids all by himself. He was mentally tougher than many people I had seen. Like my Dad or Aunt Kia, Uncle Sankalp inspired me in his own way, with his grit and determination. Aunt Kia's cool head inspired me, while Dad's organization inspired me most. And when you see it, they have made me what I am today.

After we picked up our stuff and bid a tearful farewell, we went through the portal and landed in Atlantis. Abhro asked Iris, "When you could open portals for Atlantis, why do we have to travel on plane?"

"Normally, that's a rule made by the Council. They made an exception for this one time." Iris said.

We had landed right in the Throne Room, in front of the hearth. All the other demigods were sitting there, on the floor. I had always asked Iris about the rest of the seats in the room, alongside the Throne. She had said that it was for the for the ruler's family. But since Queen Anastasia had none left, so the rest remained empty.

We exchanged greetings and hugs. Aya Kawashima, Lucy Bennington, Rahul Sinha, Trent Butcher, Rhian Allan and the others welcomed us with great ordeal. Rahul and Hiya exchanged handshakes. Rahul announced to us, "Its ready."

The five above mentioned demigods looked different now. Lucy, with her green eyes, had a new purple strand on her hair. Trent had actually started to keep his hair upto his shoulder. Rhian had put a tattoo on his right bicep, while Rahul looked thinner than before. No wonder how tirelessly he had marked. Dadai asked, "When did you guys get here?" Only Aya looked similar as always.

"Most of us did last night." Trent said, "Rahul was here. Aya came back this morning. Iris has been at it. She hasn't slept all night." Here is the time I mention that it was nearly noon in Atlantis, unlike Gurgaon where it must have been six in the evening.

"Do gods need sleep?" Tina asked.

"Well," Iris said, "I do. I don't know about your great parents, but I do."

There was a laugh at it. Iris was surely the coolest goddess we had ever met. Apparently she wasn't always like this. She was a spoiled brat goddess before. But ever since she was sent here, she said that she understood humanity so well that she wanted to behave like them: sleep, eat, study, work, have fun, just not die. 

Then, Rahul got up, addressed to the five of us, and said, "Come and see what I made." Rhian got up and added, "Also see what I got."

"These two have been at it since morning." Lucy said, "Whoever comes, these two take them to see the chariot."

"Do whatever you want. We are leaving at sundown." Iris said. Then, she did something interesting. She whistled at the windows, and Danny, our Atlantean phoenix came flying, and sat on Iris's shoulder. She patted it on the head and said, "Hello Danny boy. Send this message to the werewolves." She tied a small note on Danny's feet. Danny yelped, and vanished in fire.

"He can teleport himself." Iris said.

"Iris," Hiya said, holding a laugh, "You made Danny into a pigeon."

"Oh he is pigeon. He would rather be that than be like an eagle." Iris said, "Lazy little bird."

We all laughed at this, and the six of us followed Rahul and Rhian to see our transportation to Themiscyra.