Demigod Tales

Prologue

I live in a world where anything, I mean literally anything could happen at any moment. Even now, as I'm speaking, I could be struck by lightning and reduced to ashes; the earth could crumble beneath me, leading me to the fieriest pits of Hell itself, or a huge vortex could suck me up and sweep me away right to the center of oceans. I live in a world in which people wake up to the sound of Centaurs galloping, to the smell of wine and ambrosia, or to the touch of the warm feathers of Cait Sith ( that is a winged black cat. ) I live in a world in which most of us have special abilities inherited by their god parent, and in which us humans, or demigods, actually appreciate and cherish all kinds of other humans and creatures.
That world isn't way too far from the world you already know, but it does seem way too distant. Let's keep it this way. I mean there isn't anything we can do to change that, but believe me, you're better off in your world. I'm not going to overwhelm you with all the reasons why, but mark my words; I will tell you one day, or you might even find out for yourself.
Hospitium is where I live. It's a Latin word for "Refuge". It is a beautiful place, the best for us, and if normal human beings ever came across our barriers they would only see vast and long valleys. By the time they got too close, they would remember they have "something important" to do and turn back. Hospitium is divided into sections. First, there is the Village, where each family owns a modest house, its dimensions based on the number of members it will have to give shelter to. It is a safe community. We are family; we sleep with our front doors open. That's not weird; ever since Zeus and the rest of the Olympians made a pact with Hades to keep all horrible kinds of evil creatures away from our world, any sort of a threat has been erased from our memory. The grass is always greener here, and the wind is always warm. Anyway. Section 2 is the armory and the training center. That's where young people, well, train. (That was useless, I know.) It's a place where you enjoy bringing yourself to an edge. Half of the training center is outside, next to the river, and there's sort of everything. Weights, bows and arrows, swords, katanas, daggers. I'll introduce the people in here later, now let's focus on the place. Section 3 is the Infirmary. I could say that's the section in which miracles happen, but it's not. Section 4 is. That's where all the families gather up at night around a huge bonfire. Legends and myths from all around the world are told, the fire takes the shape of easily anything, and the shadows dance behind your figure. This section is not only to be visited at night; that's also where all kinds of celebrations take place, in addition to meetings and urgent manners of business. The colors here vary from green and white to burgundy and gold, or even orange and black. The place was an ancient greek city so it is marked by ancient greek monuments; temples and statues and fountains. This could easily be a world passionate people would dream of; and at least now you know that not everything you were taught was a complete mess and loss of time. You will have to gather everything you have once learnt about all of this and listen to what I've got to tell you. That, I'll start later.
I think I'll cut the chase here. You know already enough about the place. Now it's time you took a closer look to my life.

I was born in Hospitium. That is my home. You might think it is just a greek town in ruins, but it is way more than that. It is all what you don't know it is. It has passages to underground towns and shacks, locked rooms and prophecy rooms, gardens and fields. I spent my seventeen years on this Earth exploring every aspect of nature and monuments, so I know my way around here better than most. There is a forest nearby where I like to train on my own, and where I hang out, most of my time.
Enough of that; I am a demigod. Yes, that means I have a god as a parent. Athena is my mother. My name is Priam, and I value myself with the wisdom and courage I have inherited from my mom; and also with my need for justice. I am a just person, and I can't stand anything that is unfair (which is sort of everything in our world) but whatever. My father died when I was pretty young, so I grew up on my own; and everything I know, I learnt from my big brother, Alec. Same mom, same dad. He's not my half brother. Don't confuse things. He's a year older than me, but it doesn't really show. We have so much in common; and sometimes it feels like we have direct access to each other's mind. Maybe we do, maybe it's just a link uniting two demigod brothers, I don't know.
I've only seen my mother once or twice in my whole life. We aren't supposed to meet our god parent, but, well, you can't impose rules on Athena. She came to me on my 5th birthday, telling me she loved me, and that there will come a day when I will understand. Alec was there too. But she talked to him privately. Second time was on my fifteenth birthday. She said she was proud of what I was becoming, and that everything was falling into place. What? Yes. That's what she told me. Alec tells me to wait and see. He has always been -distant, when it came to gods. He says they're too impartial, too indifferent towards us humans, when they have no reason to be. He might be right, at some point. But well, I don't know. She's beautiful, young, and fills the air with a stunning, dizzying smell of olives mixed with some sort of vanilla and strawberry. She can submerge you in an utter feeling of confidence and self-pride, as well as an irrefutable passion for wisdom and knowledge.
They say that every demigod has inherited something, some power that comes from their god parent. I still haven't discovered my powers. Alec has, though. He can master any weapon he takes hold of; he can decrypt maps and solve mysteries in seconds. He has both an amazing willpower and physical strength that I admire. He really is an inspiration to me. As I said before, anyone can be trusted here; but I'd rather keep my circle small. This reduces the risk for me to be disappointed, or even worse, to be the one disappointing them. My circle is made of a bunch of other demigods: Andel, son of Hermes, Sanem, daughter of Aphrodite, and well, Alec. The thing about Alec is that he has his own circle that mainly group sons and daughters of Ares and Athena; but can still manage to be on both sides of the plate. It's been a while since I last saw him, but he's supposed to come back tonight from a mission he had chosen to go on.
As for the leader of Hospitium, he is way too old to be alive (with all due respect): he seems to find his longevity in phoenix ashes mixed with stuff and stuff and I don't know what other stuff. He is a real hero; and no matter how much we glorify him, nothing will ever make up for everything he's ever done to our world. Pantelis is his name; and he's the wisest of all. And I can see him walking towards me from the other side of home's gates.
Now he's close enough; I wave to him, he smiles back.
"Good day, my young boy. How is it going?"
-"Thank you, sir. Everything's fine. What brings you here?"
-"I want to ask about your brother. Is he back?"
-"Alec? He's not back yet. He should be there tonight."
-"Alright. What do you say we organize a big party in his name?"
-"Voluntarily, sir, but why would we do such a thing?"
-"Your brother came back. For you, that's what matters."
Then he turns his back and starts walking away.
From all the years I've lived with the counsel of Pantelis, I learnt to never be abashed by what he has to say. He is a secretive man and believes in the power of the instant discoveries. But there isn't much time left till dusk, so I follow his footsteps, where grayish stepping stones lead towards the arch-door to Section 4.

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Hey readers! I hope you liked the prologue. It gets better, though it's for you to judge. Just thought I'd let you know I'll be posting new chapters every monday, wednesday and friday. Stay tuned, and let me know what you think! :)