The Fate of Apollo

Taking Refuge in a Bathroom!

APOLLO:

We resumed our journey, hoping that there won’t be many distractions. Time was tight and the person had instructed us to reach the river Mandakini. Now, we had a bigger challenge in front of us. Which is the river Mandakini?

After an hour long searching on books and Google, we came to the conclusion that the river Ganga is also known as Mandakini when she is being released from the locks of Shiva, who is also known as the destroyer of creation according to Hindu mythology.

We were all set to find Lord Shiva’s abode when Nico asked, “Do you know where this god lives?” Now, that was something I had never thought about. Again, we resorted to Google which informed us that Shiva is believed to live on the Kailash Mountain near Manas Sarovar. The journey was quite a long one and the sky was darkening by the time we reached the foot of the mountain. As expected, there was a barrier around it. The alarms blared as soon as Leo touched the barrier. The poor demigod was thrown away by a good 5 feet.

Will and I checked him for any injuries but he didn’t seem to sustain any, except the fact that he was going cold. It was happening to everyone as a blizzard started all of a sudden. Percy shouted over the howling of the wind, “Apollo, the snow is not responding to my wish. What should we do?” My greatest fear was coming true. I had guessed that our powers would weaken on entering foreign land but we should not grow so weak. Fuck! How are we even going to fight monsters like this?

I shouted back, “Everyone come close. You would not like to die of hypothermia.” We huddled close to each other and tried to find shelter. After a while, Travis said, his voice giddy with excitement, “Look, there’s a cave over there.” We took shelter in that cave. Well, if anyone had thought that our quest was strange, it only grew stranger. Inside the cave, there was a sauna which could rival the ones in the best hotels of NYC. Still, it felt homely.

Inside the cave the temperature was still very cold and the hot water spring with all kinds of toiletries tempted us to take a bath to remove the grime and dirt that covered all of us. Percy asked, “Hey, Apollo, don’t you think we should take a bath? See, it is even large enough for all of us.” He tried his baby seal eyes too but I knew better. From the extravagancy and homeliness, I guessed that we had taken shelter in the private sauna of some Indian God or Goddess.

I was amazed by my power to refuse seven pairs of begging eyes and used some of my powers to clean the demigods. It was not a difficult task at all but it drained much of my powers, to my horror. We had dinner with whatever food we had like biscuits and cheese and to Will’s great disappointment we all devoured the unhealthy food like we had starved for days.

Suddenly we all felt the tiredness seeping through our bones. Our eyelids grew heavier with every passing second and within minutes we all passed out. I woke up to see a lady holding a trident to my neck. Well, to say that it was not comfortable would be my safest bet. Power seemed to ooze out of the lady as she spoke, “WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY BATHROOM?” The trident pressed even closer to Apollo’s jugular and he could feel a faint trail of ichor dripping to soak his shirt. Only then did he realize that the question was not dedicated to him. It was Percy and Nico who were being glared at by the woman.

All the demigods were in ropes except the children of the big three. Percy seemed to freaking out on the inside but did a good job of keeping a mostly cold exterior. Nico other hand seemed alright. He got up and a few ghosts materialized but they seemed a bit uncomfortable. Like they were not sure whether to attack him or obey him. The son of Hades said with a stone cold voice, “We had no intention of spending our night in your bathroom. Had we any other alternative than freezing out in the blizzard and dying before completing our quest, we would not have trespassed.”

The woman took back the trident from my throat and I felt that I could finally breathe again. She contemplated something, “My Lord is worried with the asuras who have escaped from hell. I expect you are some Greek Godlings. Actually it’s been a long time I caught up with Void. How are they doing anyways?” We all gaped at her. We were before a being who was friends with Lord Void himself. She introduced herself joining her hands, “I am Devi Parvati. I am also known as Devi Adyashakti. I am the Hindu manifestation of Void. And I am not gender fluid like him. My pronouns are she and her.” It felt a tad bit weird to have an ancient goddess talking in the modern way.

We all gave her our introduction. She offered, “I’ll flash you to Mandakini but you need to do something for me.” Good, we were already short of time and now got a new task to accomplish. We nodded, urging her to continue on. “Well, I want you to find me an ancient ring. The worst is yet to come. The Hindu deities have all chosen a representative to fight against the evil. The same girl helping you will be the one carrying the ring. Find the ring and give it to her.” We all were astonished once more. How in the fucking hell did she know that we need help from a girl?

She looked smug. “I can read your mind you fucking morons. Any Indian deity can as long as you are within the Indian territory. And here you are sitting in my bathroom. Well, would you like a healthy meal before setting on your journey? It’s the least I can offer you.” Well, the prospect of having a home cooked meal did sound appealing. We all agreed and she flashed us to some plain dining space in a field. On a simple table, lay the food in brass plates. But it was oddly yellow and there were no spoons even. Seeing our confusion, she face-palmed, “Huh, they don’t teach these to Western children. I seriously need to talk to their God of education.”

The goddess instructed, “Wash your hands properly. Today I am gonna teach you to eat with your hands. In India it is a custom to eat by hand.” We all obeyed though the idea of eating by hand seemed gross. “Now, use your fingers to pick the food up and use your thumb to push the food into your mouth. Yes, you are doing well boys.” After a lot of training, I finally managed to have some of that food. When I asked about its name, the Goddess told that it was khichdi, a porridge kind of mixture of veggies, rice and pulses along with turmeric and ginger. After we finished, we washed our hands and were all ready to set out.

“Head northeast and you will meet the sage who will show you the direction for the ring”, the Goddess said before leaving us with a flask of water that was labelled “Water” and a tiffin box labelled “Dessert”.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

My exams are gonna start very soon. My update schedule will be a bit too jumbled up. Please don't give up on me. If you have any doubts regarding any information on Hindu Mythology that I have mentioned here, please do not refer to Google. I am very sorry to say that half of the information there is wrong. You can ask me any doubts in comments.

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Until next time. Hope to upload soon.