Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Two: I Have Little to No Clue What's Happening Right Now

After the homeless guy dissolved, Brian picked up the sword that I had dropped, then offered me his hand. "Need a lift?" he asked, out of breath. I took his hand, and he helped me off the ground.

As soon as I stood up, I felt sick. I hunched over to try to process everything. A million questions raced through my mind. Who the hell was this giant, ocularly impaired homeless guy? Why did he attack us? Why did he vaporize into gold dust? Where did Brian come from? What was the deal with his furry legs? Why the hell did he have a sword?

My thoughts were interrupted when Brian asked "You okay, bro?" I straightened my back and asked him angrily "Okay, who are you, and how the hell did you find me here?"

"I'm Brian." he began. "Well, actually my real name is Briar, I just go by Brian cuz that name is a bit more common. And I followed you cuz if you hadn't noticed yet, you're in serious danger!"

"Okay, fine." I panted. "And what's going on with your...?" I asked, gesturing to his furry lower half.

"Oh, yeah," he said, as if just noticing that he had the legs of a creature that wasn't human. "I'm a satyr," he said. "Half man, half goat" He craned his neck downwards, so I could see the nubs of two tiny horns growing out of his coarse, black hair.

He looked up. "Are you familiar with Greek mythology? Gods, goddesses, monsters, heroes?" he asked earnestly.

"Yeah" I said, nervously. When my mom still cared about my well-being, she used to read this book to me, with a bunch of stories about all the Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes. I remembered that satyrs were creatures tied to the wild that often helped the heroes. "What about it?"

"Well all that shit is real, man." Brian said. "And what's more is that we gotta get outta here, man. There's plenty more monsters closing in." he said, glancing all around him again.

"Hang on, what?" I asked

"What do you mean 'what'? What the hell do you think that thing was?" he asked, gesturing to the ratty pile of clothes on the ground next to us.

"Just some crazy homeless guy..." I said, my voice faltering because I knew that couldn't be true with the way he vaporized into golden dust.

"I know that you saw he only had one eye in the center of his forehead." Briar said pointing to his own forehead. "That was a cyclops. One of hundreds of monsters that can smell you and will be coming after you if we don't get outta here," he said urgently. He turned to walk away.

"Is that why he vaporized?" I asked.

"What?" Briar said, turning back around, looking confused.

"The cyclops is a monster, is that why he vaporized when you stabbed him?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah" said Briar. "That gold dust you saw is the monster's essence. It sinks into the ground where that cyclops will eventually re-form in the underworld, and make its way back into the surface again."

"Is that what the sword is for?" I asked, pointing to his sword. It was clearly made of bronze, with a straight blade about three feet long, and a leather grip.

"Yeah," he said holding it up so I could see it better. "Celestial bronze sword. Best monster-killing weapon there is."

"Why 'celestial bronze'?" I asked "What even is that?"

"It's a rare metal with magical properties. It's the only metal that can kill monsters. It's harmless to humans, but demigods and heroes use it to slay monsters." said Briar, looking straight into my eyes, like I was supposed to be one of the Greek heroes he was talking about. He glanced all around himself again, super nervously this time. He turned back to me and said "Listen, man. You know even less than I thought, and we gotta get moving or else we're gonna be monster food real soon"