(5) Henry

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*Henry*

I saw her obsessively read it over and scanned the crowd for me, I slid back into the shadows, it was one of my many talents, and I watched her sigh and her eyes slide down to the note again. The boy sitting across from her was trying to capture her attention, but she ignored him and kept reading my note. I remember her small episode and it irked me in the back of my mind, she wasn’t a human – or an immortal. What irked me was: what was she if she wasn’t a human or god—like me—and why hadn’t I figured it out.

I had thought in circles and I was out of ideas. I glimpsed her face one last time; I saw her re-reading the note and glancing hopelessly around for me, again. I wanted to reveal myself, to walk over to her and throw my arms around her, to run my hand through her hair and trailing my fingers over her arms, embedding her features into my brain, to get her perfume forever stuck in my nostrils. And to kick the shifter out of the cafeteria.

                I held myself back, I couldn’t, I had to go see my father, and I had to know about her. I looked outside, it was a perfectly sunny day, but not after I would be through with it. I stepped outside of the cafeteria, where the overhang shaded me from the brilliant sun. I raised my hand to the sky; I slipped into a mental state, where I could taste, smell, and feel the rain drops in the air.

The water was moving towards the west, I followed and found a large collection of clouds waiting to drop all their water. I called to the clouds and they broke apart and moved slowly but surely towards me. When the clouds finally came, they crowded over the sun and my shadow disappeared. Rain started falling and I lowered my hand as students crowded around the glass windows of the cafeteria. These humans seemed so stupid, it was just rain, and I could see the disappointment on all of their faces. As I started walking around the school into the rain to the back, I smiled with myself, and I felt static building in the storm clouds. I looked around for any rouge students, when there weren’t any I walked out into the storm as a bolt of lightning came down and struck my body. I was going to visit my father.

I was transported about a quarter mile from the gates of Olympus. The gates were golden and had a misty haze over the speared tops. The seasons were standing outside of the gates. Fall, a tall woman with a stern and stiff face, she had a beak nose and golden orange eyes. She wore a long draped brown, orange, red and yellow dress that trailed down to her long slim legs.

Summer was a black muscular man, wearing almost nothing at all, all he wore was a helmet of gold, with shimmering flames streaking down the sides and a small cloth wrapped around his pelvic section. He had a loose face, smiling at me, he was my favorite season, and he like was a second father to me.

Old Man Winter was standing slightly to the right of Ms. Fall. He had a long white beard and a blue sparkled robe, tied at his small hips. He held a staff with a ball of swirling snow. His sagging face screamed age and weariness.

Spring was a bubbling slender woman. She was still young and fresh. She had taken over the job of spring from her mother, who had passed the legacy to her daughter. She had flaming red hair and red full lips. The curls of her hair curved around her oval face, though she held no lust for me, just a sisterly love, she couldn’t help but try. I walked over to them, Summer punched me on the shoulder, Fall pet my hair, Old Man Winter shook my hand and Spring merely just pushed her hair back, smiled and waved. I entered Olympus and I whistled.

 A magnificent horse with wings like an albino eagle flew to my side. Pegasus had been with me since birth, since he was a half mortal, immortal creature like me, we would both be born and die at the same moment. He was a birth present from my ‘uncle’ Poseidon. I patted his neck and rubbed his soft muzzle, he whinnied a greeting at me and I climbed aboard and he took off running. His muscles rolled and flexed under me. He seemed to be enjoying my presence and the running. He jumped and unfurled his large wings, they caught the wind and carried him up and up until we were a mile up in the clouds. I saw Hermes to my left, his small wings looked worn and weary. He waved to me, and I waved back. We followed him to my father’s temple. Gold and white marble were his main preferences. I saw my best friend Siegbert, a Satyr. Satyrs are half man, half goat, their legs short and bent like goats, yet their torsos just as built as humans.

 Siegbert tended to my father’s garden— and he did love those darned plants. We landed on a patch of green and I dismounted. While Siegbert was taking Pegasus I patted him on the back and he ran a hand through his curly brown and he got back to work. I gave him three drachmas and he smiled at me. I walked through the doors and I saw my father’s servants, more Satyrs. They quivered at the sight of me, I ignored them and I asked the enchanted painting of a mermaid. She had no top on, but her hair was strewn across her breasts, and her long black tail was playing with a human skull that was painted on the rock she was sitting on. She giggled a high pitched shriek, and pointed down the hall. My father was in his study she told me in a high screeched voice, like nails on a chalkboard. I gritted my teeth and I nodded as pleasantly as I could. I walked down the long hallway until I could hear my father; before I came in I knocked.

                My father’s deep husky voice rung through the study as he said

                “Come in,”

                As I walked in I was surrounded by books, my father had a large collection of books, scrolls, and many other oddities. Women were surrounded around him, some holding large fruit bowls, wine bottles and glasses, others were holding more books and scrolls. I swatted them away as they offered me wine and food. They scampered off as my father dismissed them. My father was a tall man, a white short cut beard and long white hair, pulled back into a pony tail. His eyes were yellow like a cat, like lightning. He was wearing normal clothes, like me. He was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and some faded blue jeans with some converse. His shoulders were broad and he had muscles, muscles that rippled under his skin as he walked, muscles that made a giant look weak. He smiled at me and I said

                “Hey dad,”

                He pulled me into a vice tight hug and patted me on the shoulder as he spoke again,

                “It has been a long time since we have last met. Hercules,”

                I gritted my teeth at my Greek name, and I asked him, through my teeth

                “I have some questions, about a girl, could you help me?”

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