A Hero's beginning

Chapter 27

After a few months of advanced classes with Luke, Catherine, and Kayla, we were finally ready to take sail. The seven of us had been learning everything we needed to know about sailing, combat, and realm culture nonstop since we got back from winter break. The seven of us had barely hung out because of how busy we've been. So as we loaded our luggage onto the dock I looked around and noticed a large winged creature descending on us. It was falling extremely quickly and was headed straight for Anubis. "Look out!" I shouted and tackled Anubis right as Sunchaser rammed into the air where Anubis had been standing only a second before. "Thanks." Anubis grumbled. "No problem." I said as we stood up and dusted ourselves off. Sunchaser ran over and nuzzled my hand, most likely begging for food. "Sorry bud, I don't have any sugar cubes for you." I said and Sunchaser just laid down. Luke and Catherine stood at the edge of the dock speaking in hushed tones. Just then a huge Pirates-of-the-Caribbean type boat stopped at the end of the dock and dropped its anchor. It had dark brown wood making up the body of the ship and its pure white sails billowed in the wind. On the front of the vessel was a masthead shaped like a female angel with pure white wings, a blue gown, and flowing blonde hair. On the front port side of the hull, written in golden cursive letters was the words Dóxa Theón, which is Greek for Gods' Glory. Wooden boxes of supplies and our luggage were being flown onto the boat by invisible forces. "James!" Someone called and I turned towards the academy to see Kayla running down the dock, shoving past people, towards me. "You didn't think I was gonna let the seven of you leave without saying goodbye did you?" She said, then a thin, foot-long, black metal cylinder rolled across the dock and stopped as it ran into Kayla's foot. Kayla was about to reach down to pick it up but from a few feet away Anubis yelled "Don't touch that!" Then he ran over, snatched up the cylinder and stuffed it in his backpack. Then he walked away and onto the boat. Then Luke came over and handed me a circular badge with a Roman centurion's helmet over two crossed gladius' with the letters LA under it surrounded by a circle of laurels engraved on it. "A centurion badge? Why are you giving me this?" I asked. "Because a quest must be led by two people of centurion rank or higher." he said. "Wait, who's the other?" I asked. "Madelynn." He said. Just then, Madelynn walked over and sure enough, she had a centurion badge on. I clipped the badge to my shirt and said my goodbyes. The six of us boarded the ship and waved goodbye to our classmates and teachers as the ship set sail. We didn't know what to expect, but whatever happened, we would face it together, not just as classmates, but as a team.