Hermes continued leading Jack and I down the dusty road, hopefully to something that would be his version of ‘air-travel’. I hoped that it wouldn’t involve any creepy flying animals, but gods are unpredictable.
“So, here we are kiddies,” Hermes sighed, as we reached the halfway point on the road. “Buckle up for safety, and try not to die, even though you can’t.”
That gave me hope.
“So, Hermes,” I asked, smiling for no apparent reason. “How exactly are we going to fly?”
“Who said anything about flying?” Hermes asked, wearing an expression that I had seen once before in a dream involving Delia and himself.
“Well, you know, I just figured since it’s air travel-” I said, feeling stupid.
“I’m just joking, kid. I do have the most excellent shoes ever made, so yeah, we are flying,” Hermes smirked. A brown leather bag suddenly appeared slung over his shoulder. He pulled out a pair of socks- one for Jack and I. “Here.”
I took the socks, and stared stupidly.
“Socks?” Jack asked his dad, one of the first times he’s spoken. “These aren’t filled with dust from Tinkerbell, right? That would be a real downer.”
“No, son, never,” Hermes said, looking offended. “They’re socks that the I wove myself.” I looked at him skeptically. “Alright, fine, the Fates wove them.”
“Yeah, and that’s so much better,” Jack sighed.
“Anyway,” Hermes continued, “know that you two aren’t the only ones on Olympus. And put those socks on.”
Jack and I shuffled out of our sneakers and slipped our old socks off and replaced them with the new and improved pair. We held our shoes in our hands, waiting to find out what to do with them.
“Oh, just leave them here. They’ll be on Olympus by the time we get there.” Hermes sighed and pulled the leather jacket around him. “Okay, lesson one in Olympus Air: Never lose focus. Today, I’ll be your teacher and helper, Mr. Hermes-”
“Mr. Hermes?” Jack and I said under our breaths in unison. We tried not to laugh.
“-I heard that. Anyway, if you lose focus, you’re dead, so to speak. Not really, since you can’t die, but I’ll have to come back, give you a new pair, etcetera. Lesson two: Stay with me, and you won’t get knocked out of the sky with lightning bolts. That’s it, here we go, Peter and Wendy.”
Peter and Wendy? I called Peter Pan. Jack can be Wendy. Ha.
With a swift move, Hermes took us both by the elbow, and we started moving, or at least I think we were. We must have been moving so fast, because everything that passed us looked like it was in slow motion. Eventually, we broke through clouds, I guess, and could see the stars. We slowed down a bit, then.
Soon, I saw a huge white mass in front of us; it seemed to be crackling with lightning. As we flew closer, I noticed that we were coming to a runway, almost like in an airport, with two sentry towers on either side. The crackling was louder there, and I knew what Hermes meant by not getting shot out of the sky.
After we passed that, and we were going extremely fast, we came to huge, white marble steps. Hermes stopped abruptly, and I felt like I was going to be sick, but I felt stronger at the same time.
“Well,” Hermes said, taking a deep breath, “home sweet home.”
We were on Olympus. At last. Beneath the stairs were white clouds, the really fluffy kind, and we seemed to be floating mid-air. The three of us walked up the five or six huge marble slabs before coming to two gigantic golden doors, and across them was a mural of the gods and creatures of the ‘myths.’
Hermes, just being, well, Hermes, strode right up to the doors, and pushed them open, like Aragorn in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movie, when he goes to Rohan…yeah, like I said earlier, I watch a lot of movies.
Jack and I followed slowly, (I had just remembered that Jack was with me), and soon the doors closed by themselves. At first, I couldn’t find Hermes, the hall was so huge. It looked exactly like Olympus did in my dreams; but then I saw him talking to two girls, around my age (if I even had one anymore). Anyway, they looked around fourteen or fifteen.
With a wisp of golden dust, Hermes disappeared suddenly, and Jack and I were left, awkwardly, with the two girls. They beckoned us over.
“So, the Two Sons finally return, huh?” the first girl said.
“Yeah. It’s about time,” the second one said, snickering with the other one. I thought Jack would kill her if she kept laughing, because of the glare on his face.
“Sure. And, who are you? The Two Daughters of Welcoming?” I snapped, trying to sound friendly, but I knew it would come across badly.
“No,” said the first girl. I only know this because she stared at me, but her eyes were a kind of…green and gold, and silver, at the same time. “I guess you’re the Son of Hermes?”
“No, that’s Jack, here,” I said, trying to get her to stare at Jack instead. “I’m the Son of Apollo.”
“Hey, how’re you?” Jack said, not at all sounding as if he wanted to know how the two girls were.
Both girls ignored him.
“You’re not able to see your father and the other council members yet, I’m afraid,” the second girl said. “We’re supposed to show you your rooms.” She paused. “You really are the Two Sons, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” Jack and I said in unison.
“Oh,” said the first girl with the creepy eyes and staring habit.
“How can you…be here at the same time?” the second girl asked.
“We’ve known each other for a long time,” Jack snapped, his hand going to his pocket for his knife, only to realize that he’d put it in one of his bags. Hermes had left those on the road.
“Just because we’re supposed to be at war doesn’t mean we do that all the time,” I snapped. “Who are you two anyway?”
“Aurella LeMois,” the first girl said. What a name. “My mom’s Athena.” Ah, so she’s related to Zoë!
“Hailey Fox, my dad’s Poseidon,” the second girl said. Related to Kate! It’s one big family reunion.
YOU ARE READING
The Story of Paul Cooper: Book Two
AdventurePaul Cooper is a god. Literally. While he thought he was a demigod, he was proven wrong after a visit to the Garden of the Hesperides. He, in fact, is one of the Warring Sons of Olympus, along with friend and fellow god, Jack Mason. Now, they're on...
