Defying Fate

Chapter 12 p1

Polites was lying in his hammock when Odysseus came down the steps. His arm had been splinted with two straight staves of wood, and his head had been bandaged, right where his headband usually rested. The cut pieces of the band hung on the beam near his head, the edges fraying a little.

"Captain..." he croaked as Odysseus approached, reaching out with his good hand.

"Polites," Odysseus took the hand in both of his, his eyes filling with tears of relief.

"Were you worried about me, captain?" Polites asked, his eyes surprisingly focused despite the blow to his head.

"No," Odysseus quickly dashed the tears away before they spilled down his cheeks. "Why would I be worried? You're tough as old leather, always have been." He forced a laugh and was pleased to see Polites smile back.

"I'm not going to be much good to you for a while," he said, waving the splinted arm feebly.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're more than a match for anything we might encounter, even with one hand tied behind your back."

"Captain, I'm sorry—the lotus eaters gave us bad directions, and I blundered us right into a trap."

"Shh, don't blame yourself. You had no way of knowing. Besides, we got out of there, and we got enough food to last the trip home. You did good, Polites. In fact, you might have earned yourself an extra share for being such a good distraction."

Just then, the trunk beneath Polites' hammock rattled as if it were possessed.

"By Athena, what was that?" Odysseus swore before he could stop himself. Polites looked guilty, but he made no move to stop Odysseus as he knelt to open the box.

He had barely cracked the lid of the chest when the entire deck filled with mist, which issued from inside it. Odysseus leapt back, but the mist cleared quickly, to reveal three tiny creatures that settled on Polites' lap. Roughly the size of large rabbits—that's what they most closely resembled to Odysseus—Grey-furred and fluffy, they had 'ears' on top of their heads, and large dark eyes, but there was an intelligence behind their vacant expressions. Their bodies were furry, but, bipedal. They sat upright in Polites' lap.

"What are those?" Odysseus leaned in to inspect one of the creatures. It stared back at him and opened its mouth wide in a smile. It had no teeth.

"They insisted on coming along," Polites said, putting his good arm protectively around the creatures, though they quickly squirmed out of his grasp.

The one that had smiled at Odysseus immediately went toward him, half falling, half floating into his arms. Odysseus caught the creature instinctively and heard a small voice,

"Hi," it said, climbing up his chest and onto his head. It weighed almost nothing.

"Gah!" Eurylochus exclaimed, he had come back down the passage only to be intercepted by another of the creatures. "What is this thing?!"

Odysseus laughed, as Eurylochus stood, tense as a bowstring as the creature swirled around him.

"They're lotus-eaters," Polites explained as the one that had stayed in his lap drifted to the cut pieces of his headband. "Well, ex-lotus-eaters. They helped me care for you when we were on the island," he met Odysseus' eyes, then quickly looked away again. "When Cassandra came and rescued us, they insisted on coming with."

"And you've hidden them for two days?" Eurylochus had a hand up, and his lotus-eater was running into it repeatedly, vanishing into mist, then recombining, while uttering a chirping noise, unlike anything Odysseus had heard before.

Polites laughed and winced, it must have hurt, but he kept smiling. "He likes you, Eurylochus," he said. "That one's Mando," he pointed at Odysseus', which was tugging gently at a lock of his hair. "That's Bombom," and, he rubbed the ear-tufts of the one close to him, which had now taken up the cut headband and was holding it to its own forehead. "This one's Stookie."

"Odd names," Eurylochus said, looking skeptical. "They don't seem to mean anything."

"Bombom..." Odysseus tried the syllables out, and the little creature squeaked and hung down over his forehead, looking at him upside down.

"Hi," it said again.

Odysseus reached up and lifted Bombom from its perch. It didn't feel like mist, it felt solid, and soft, like it was made from the lightest of down feathers. He held it carefully, and it squirmed in his grasp, before turning into mist again and floating free.

"They're wind spirits," he concluded. "Companions of Aeolus. How did they end up on an island way out here?"

Polites shrugged, and Odysseus got the feeling he wasn't sharing everything. He reached out and took his friend by the shoulder. "Get some rest," he insisted. "You'll be up and moving here in no time."

Polites smiled tiredly, and settled obediently into his hammock, wincing a little as his arm was jostled.

The little lotus eater by Polites had finished tying the headband pieces around its head and sat proudly on Polites' chest. It resembled him in a way Odysseus couldn't quite place, but, he let it slide, stepping back down the passage, and back toward the upper deck.