ATN 3: THE JAR IN THE MAZE

RECRUITMENT PART-2

As we plunged into darkness, we walked down, and down. The walls around us changed from simple cave walls, to walls made by professionals. Soon, the ceiling went low, and we had to bend to get past. And finally, when the ceiling got higher again, we came to a water body. 

A very narrow stream of water flowed in front of us, and across that, by the wall, there was a small wooden platform that was at a slight height. There was a small hole on the wall, which we could slide through. I jumped over the stream. So did Tina. I jumped on the platform, and figured the trap. It was loose, and two people standing on it would break it, and we would never be able to get through the hole. This was Tomb Raider stuff! I felt so excited, that I squealed slightly.

I signed for Tina to wait, and told her about the platform's condition. She asked me slide through, and she would follow. I did. I slid through, and jumped down. Sadly, the soil was mud, so I slipped. My T-shirt, that Mom had given me for my birthday, got dirty. Then, I looked up. What I saw ran a chill through my spines.

The beast in front of me looked like a horse. It's legs, head, body, everything seemed like that of a horse. Even the tail. But it's size was not that of a horse. I had seen elephants as big as that. And it had horns. Three horns, two from two sides, and one from the middle. 

Tina landed beside me, while I remembered where I had read of this creature. "What, what the hell is that?" Tina said, pointing fingers at it. The horse puffed, nickered, and shot at us. Since it was huge, it was slow. We moved away, and hid behind a rock.

"This is the Odontotyrranos." I said.

"Never heard of that in any of the myths." Tina said.

"Because it is not Greek. Alexander faced it on his way to Porus's kingdom."

"It's Indian?"

"I think so. How did it get here?"

Behind us, the Odontotyrranos...I'll just call it OT. The OT attacked the rock, and broke it. But by then, we had gotten on our armor, weapons out. "Leave how it got here. How do we fight it?"

"Only if I knew." I said, "Run!"

So, we ran. We kept running and running. Tina wasn't exactly thrilled about that idea. Children of Ares don't run from a fight. But what could we do? None of us knew how to fight that thing.

We ran through tunnels, the floor changing from mud to solid soil, the sound of the horse's hooves booming behind us. While we entered a tunnel, we found a lot of fabric blocking the entrance. Tina sliced the fabric down on the ground, while I summoned fire and burned it. I expected that maybe, this would keep the OT away for a while and put us a foot ahead. But to our shock, he just walked through the fire. I was running, and trying to remember something that wasn't exactly Greek. And that's when I saw five creatures standing side by side. 

Alright. A giant horse with horns was behind us already, and now these creatures stood ahead of us. Crocodile in the water, tiger on the land. Superb.

The creatures in front of us wore war armors without helmets. They had vicious spears in their hands. They had horns too, two coming out of two sides of the head (the way it normally does). They had fangs for teeth. Their physical features were very similar to Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, except for these creatures were a little muscular, and the horns, and the fangs.

They stood side by side, lifted their hands, and hurled their spears at us. I held Tina's hands tightly. I almost went for a protective shield, when both of us realized that the spears were not meant for us. They flew away behind us, and resulted in a loud cry of pain. We turned to see that  all the five spears had pierced the body of the OT. It made sounds in pain, fell over shaking the ground. Then, it turned to sand. Fitting. Not Greek, not turning to smoke.

Tina turned to the creatures. She lowered her swords and moved forward. I tried to stop her, but she signaled me to wait. She looked at the creatures with intent and said, "I know you. You are daemons."

"Yes, daughter of Ares." One of the daemons said, "But aren't regular daemons. We are the spirits of war, the Machai. We accompany your father in battles sometimes. We felt that a blood of Ares was in danger. We jumped in to help."

"Thank you." Tina said, as I joined her by her side.

"We have a request though, to both of you."

"Yes?" Tina asked. I stayed quiet. Tina had understood the delicacy of the situation with the empousai, and had stayed quiet. So, I decided to do exactly that (Learn something, other boyfriends! *bragging smirk*).

"We heard that your friend here has recruited the empousai."

"He has."

"We want in too. No blood of Ares is worth spilling. That wretched son of Demeter has an army equal to the population of the great land. You will need more than just the empousai."

"You have seen the army?" Tina asked.

"Yes, my lady. That's why. We will summon all the Machai. We will fight by your side, by the side of Lord Ares. Please, let us in."

Tina looked at me and made eye contact, asking me what to do. I raised my shoulder, indicating her to do what she wanted. She gave me a blunt look, and said to the Machai, "You're in, Machai. We would need as big an army as we can get, if opponent's one is that big."

"Thank you, my lady."

And the Machai disappeared, leaving a little golden smoke. Tina turned to me and asked, "Why did you raise your shoulder as if you didn't know what to do?"

"Because," I said, "I wanted you to do what you felt was the right thing, just like I did with the empousai."

"Right." She said.

"Come on, the room ahead might be our destination. I can smell the food." I said. I can always smell the food.