The Fate of Apollo

Rainbows on a Crown?

They broke out of their stupor only when Percy started wheezing from all the ash tickling his airways. Will rushed to his aid but Apollo was entranced by the crown that was still abandoned as everyone else festered over Percy. He picked the golden structure up, feeling a strange aura coming out from it. It was well crafted, endowed with jewels gems but the sapphire and the ruby in the middle seemed suspicious. One was the color of sea water and if he focused, he could see the surging sea waves, the other was an orange one, replicating the sky at sunrise.

It was as if the stones were trying to draw closer but were separated by the rigid gold, encaging them. Realizing their further move had something to do with these gems, Apollo drew closer to the group of demigods where Percy was nearly stable once more after some treatment. The god asked Leo, "Do you have something to remove these two stones? I have a feeling they have a strange connection." At this everyone observed them, peering onto it till Leo fumbled about in his tool-belt, finally drawing a pair of tongs. With immense concentration, the son of Hephaestus lit his hand on fire and carefully extracted the two stones.

But as soon as they were out of their golden prison, the stones flew out of his hand to collide together and fused. Everyone watched with awe as within moments the fused lump turned so cold, yet fearfully hot at the same time, that Leo let go of them in shock. As finally it seemed to glow, the aura growing stronger, Apollo shouted to them to close their eyes, using his power to shield the demigods from the rays.

After a few minutes, they opened their eyes to find a bewildered Apollo and two other men chatting among themselves. Slight whispers reached them, but they didn't make any sense in the haze. They seemed to realize that the demigods had woken up and turned to them with grateful smiles and meek faces. Awkwardly they thanked the group, asking them to meet Vayuputra, who would be the able to help them. The Greek god coughed and introduced, "They are Varun and Mitra. Introduce yourselves."

A hilarious introduction and a shit ton of embarrassment later, our heroes came to know more about the two deities – Varun's main domain was water whereas Mitra was the God of friendship and morning sky. They had been captured by the Asuras who had ganged up with other monsters. It was generally the task of the Arishtanemi to fight such rebellions under the leadership of Karthikeya, but the army was not yet fully organized for this Yug. With a lot of grief in his voice, Mitra lamented, "We have been ostracized for ages but in the last few centuries, we have been neglected to the utmost. Our opinion is disregarded in most of the meetings just because we refused to submit to Indra's whims. Our king is up to something, something which will harm the very foundation of the Indian culture." He gripped tight the hand of his partner, sharing such an intimate comforting glance, that Apollo felt euphoric remembering the one-time Hyacinthus had calmed him down after his fight with Artemis.

They chatted some more but everyone had their own tasks to attend to, so Varun and Mitra left. Before leaving, Varun said, "When you meet the fated one, tell them that they are perfect the way they are." And then, the group was left alone, with the suggestion that they had to find Vayuputra, who was supposed to be somewhere in Ayodhya and thereon move to find the fated one.  

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Well it has been too long and I have not abandoned this story or any of mine as a matter of fact. It is just the I am having a tough time to deal with myself and my studies. 

Have a good day.

Signing off, 

Addie.