Odysseus... please... ...Don't go... don't leave us here... ...it's not fair.... ...why do you get to live...
...why would you let the cyclops live?
Breathe, he couldn't breathe, water surrounded him, everything was wet, he couldn't breathe. "Hee hee hee..." what? Who is that? It was distant and muffled "Aren't the two of you supposed to be off cleaning the school today?" The voice asked, Odysseus was desperately trying to get closer to it, yet he felt stuck, he could feel hands grabbing him. "Mmmmm...Nngh... Five more minutes, Ma..." he knew that voice, who is that? The king couldn't move, it was so cold, water slowly filled his mouth and all he could see is black.
A loud scream broke whatever silence was still in the room, Odysseus shot up out of the old torn bedding, he was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. It caused the, who he now recognised as one of the souls from yesterday, being trying to wake them up to greatly flinch back and the animal sleeping on the end of the bed to jump up. Odysseus took three long breaths and relaxed his muscles, calming down a small amount and evening his heartbeat, as the king did this the two other souls appeared, likely curious about the loud sound that he produced seconds prior. The original soul that was in the bedroom chuckled slightly, "Well, that's one way to wake up", the words seemed to break the Grim out of his frazzled silence when he realised what they were surrounded by. "Myah! These ghosts again! Up and at 'em Ody, they're looking for trouble!"
The Greek gently grabbed the monster after it jumped up, "Calm down, we've been dead asleep for awhile, if they were going to do something they would have done so." He explained calmly, but there definitely was a tiredness to his voice as he spoke, then he looked up to the smiling souls "You may have heard yesterday that we will be staying here for the foreseeable future, I hope you won't be trying to kill us for awhile" he told them, slightly tensing again. The soul laughed again "Hope you like pranks as much as we do! Hay ha ha!" Then the beings disappeared again, but not before blowing some dust at them. Odysseus was stroking the Grim's fur to try to get it to calm down, proving somewhat effective as tension in the animal left.
The last night had been rather eventful even after Crowley had explained more about the job position then left the dorm, Odysseus had finally gotten something to eat with the food the man had come to drop off. Though he didn't understand what some of it was and almost blacked out with how much flavour was in, what he was told by Crowley, beef 'noodles'. He had ended up sharing most of the beef with the Grim because there was no tuna available for him. Odysseus had also managed to convince the Grim to explain the lighting and the 'clocks' that were on the walls, without actually giving away that he didn't know what they were. It made some sense but he also didn't understand many of the terms and words the animal used, it was enough to gain an understanding. He managed to find cleaning supplies but it was rather late considering what he could read on the 'clock', but he'd got to clean a bedroom before he deemed it was time to sleep. However, to give credit where credit's due, he had gotten the Grim to help him clean up with only minor threatening.
Shortly after the souls left another, alive, presence entered the room, causing the Grim to jump out of his arms. Odysseus took the opportunity to stand up out of the bed and saw that the new visitor was only Crowley "Good morning, Odysseus. Did you sleep well?" the man asked politely. The Grim stood up atop the mattress and groaned "Not at all! When I sprawled out on the bed, the mattress fell right through the frame!" it forgot to mention how Odysseus had specially warned that would happen and that he had asked the animal to wait for him to check the stability of the bed frame, which it did not. "Exactly how ramshackle IS this dorm?" the monster asked rhetorically "And worse yet, we got woken up by ghosts!" it exclaimed. The Greek was tempted to laugh at that, glad that the Grim didn't realise he was the one that woke it up, but instead he turned and answered Crowley with "It wasn't too bad, at least not physically." Odysseus doesn't know why he felt the need to include that last part but it wasn't the worst thing to give away.
The feathered man smiled at his answer however, "I am delighted to hear that you've adjusted so well, despite being sent to another world!" the Grim's eyes flickered over to Odysseus for a moment after hearing that, but it didn't say anything. "Now, speaking of moving on, let us discuss your assignment for today." Crowley had then placed a bag onto the bed "I've gotten you another pair of clothing just to hold out until you get your first paycheck but I had to guess with the sizes, it seems my kindness knows no bounds" he happily explained then turned to the door then finished with "Come down to the parlour once you change and we'll talk more, Ta!" The Grim looked between Odysseus and Crowley before following the headmage out to give the king privacy.
Being left alone Odysseus let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes, with physically well rested the man already felt mentally tired. He couldn't quite remember the nightmare but the words stood out distinctly in his mind, it was the same words he heard in the Underworld and in all dreams since. He forcibly pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked into the bag that Crowley had brought. Inside was a simple, white, short-sleeved shirt, strange undergarments with what seemed like long-sleeves for your legs, they were the same ones that came with the robes but brown (brown pants), and dark brown leather boots. They were a lot more simple than what came with the robes. He struggled to get out of the constricting fabric, they were even harder to remove than his sisters dresses, which if you were to ask he'd addemintly deny doing, they were kids and it made no sense how she remembered it for so long. Removing the outer layer was rather easy, it was very similar design wise to casual dresses from Greece, the inner layer was where he struggled, it was tight and stuffy with many buttons and buckles. However after confusion and many random guesses he finally got the clothes off (keeping socks and underwear), he then turned to the unused set of clothing and sighed.
It was easier to get into the new garments given all he learned with the ceremonial robes, and the fact that they were looser. The shirt and pants fit somewhat well but they were a bit tight around his chest and thighs but nothing too constricting. The boots were also not difficult, they fit well and he tied the laces with a simple knot. After he finally finished changing Odysseus headed downstairs, he glanced at the 'clock' on the wall and assumed he'd been changing for around 30 minutes. Once the man arrived in the parlour he saw Crowley waiting with his arms crossed by the entrance of the building and the Grim sitting atop one of the couches eating what Odysseus assumed was 'canned' tuna, it had a fish smell that gave it away.
Crowley looked up at him as the Greek moved in front of him, the animal also getting up from the seat and going to stand next to Odysseus, "Well, your job today is to clean the campus. That said, the campus is vast, and without magic, it'd be quite a Herculean task to clean it all." The Greek slightly froze at the term 'Herculean', he didn't think Greece would exist here given Ithaca didn't but it could just be that Ithaca was the only thing that didn't exist because of the headmage's mention of a Greek Hero, it greatly confused Odysseus but he couldn't think to deeply about it before Crowley continued. "Therefore, today I'll have you focus on the area spanning from the front gates to the library. Now, Odysseus..." the feathered man gently pulled the king closer, away from the Grim, and whispered "I do expect that you'll keep a close eye on Grim, lest he cause another incident like yesterday." However, judging by the animal deadpan expression when Crowley did this, it could tell what he was telling him. "Understood, I'll do all humanly possible to avoid that" Odysseus responded to him, while he did agree to it the man made sure to add the 'humanly possible' part as insurance in case anything did go awry during the day. The headmage smiled at that, letting go of Odysseus' shoulders, "Do not fail me. You may take your lunch in the cafeteria. I eagerly await the fruits of your labour."
The Grim huffed behind them, making Odysseus snap his head over to it, he had forgotten it was there for a moment, "Hrmph. I ain't cleanin' nothin'! I'm here to study magic so I can be blastin' off spells left and right!" It shouted, then jumped onto the coffee table while failing its arms around, "Like BAM! POW! FWOOM!" Odysseus smiled at this, slightly wondering if this was how he looked to Athena when he was a child, "Well, do you know the most important part of being a sorcerer?" He asked the creature, causing both it and Crowley to look at him confused, he continued while picking the Grim up in his hands "Patience. And the best way to become patient is cleaning, so let's head over to the front gate and go from there."
YOU ARE READING
The King of Ithaca Falls Into A Twisted Reality
FanfictionRight after the events in Thunder Bringer, Odysseus is left sinking in the water. But is then offered a deal by a certain God of the Underworld, in which he has to help another realm to achieve a little bit of safety. After agreeing he is sent to a...