i got a freaking A+ on this
the cringe is cringy
It was the day that the gods were holding a celebration that the shape shifting demigod zoltan had been born, he was born in a small cottage at the foot of mount olympus in the town thessaly, zoltan had only found out about his powers when he was five and he learned how to use them when he became ten. Each day zoltan would turn into an animal and walk or fly about the villages listening to the chatter and talking of people and even sometimes interacting with the young children as a playful cat or dog, after all, the children loved animals. Sometimes to praise the gods he would turn into an animal that symbolized the gods, like for zeus he would turn into an eagle or for ares a venomous snake, sometimes he would even turn into a grey cerebus and would sit on a pedestal pretending to be a statue, even sometimes he would wink when someone was watching to be funny. One fateful day however zeus the king of the gods himself came down to the city and boomed "i wish to see zoltan!!" who immediately turned back into a human and walked towards zeus "zoltan the gods would like to see you atop mount olympus!!" zeus boomed as pegasus flew a chariot down.
After the quick ride to the top of olympus zoltan walked into a grand temple and as he thought zeus and the rest of the gods were there, waiting for him "zoltan you may not have known this but the beast named the hydra has been killed by my son hercules" zeus boomed and his voice made the temple shake "but the hydra guarded a pathway the the underworld preventing anyone to leave but hades himself." he continued "we need a new guard for the underworld and since you can shapeshift your the perfect one for the job." hera said "after all, you seem to enjoy pretending to be a cerberus statue a lot" she continued and laughed "you will be payed a great amount of money and we will allow you to only have to guard the months when persephone is away, for she had snuck out of that side, anyway do you agree to the task zoltan?!" zeus boomed and shook the temple again zoltan thought for a moment while he could be outside in the nice summer days and play with the children and trick townsfolk, but during the cold winters stay in front of a cave and watch for intruders but, he would get payed a large amount "i agree to this task" zoltan finally said, it was still summer and he was allowed to stay in the village during these months "excellent!!" zeus shouted "i shall inform hades immediately!!" he boomed. The summer was warm and sunny it was at this time of year that zoltan was happy but, during the cold winter zoltan had to stand alone guarding the caves of the underworld the only time he was happy during this season is when it snowed because he could close up the cave with a rock and roam the inside borders to keep warm the only other time was when he was given breaks or food, the form he usually stayed in was a fire-breathing dragon because hades wasn't aware that zoltan was actually just a shapeshifter he thought that zoltan was just a dragon.
One fateful snowy day zoltan had fallen ill, it was easy to remain a dragon while sick but it was not easy to fly or guard the underworld so he started to keep the boulder in front of the cave and stay inside, hades became outraged at the beasts laziness and decided to punish the creature. Hades walked up to zoltan and hit him with the side of his sword zoltan woke up and yawned "you lazy beast if you slip up again i will hit you much harder!!" hades boomed, zoltan whimpered sadly and lay back down "I SAID NO SLIP UPS!!!" hades yelled so loud that the people atop mount olympus could hear, hades sliced zoltan in the eye and zoltan howled and roared in pain as he pushed the boulder out of the way and flew off, zoltan flew to the top of mount olympus and roared in pain, apollo heard his painful and weak cries and rushed to the beast who whimpered in pain and agony "you poor thing let me help you real quick and send you back to hades!" he said proudly and healed zoltans eye leaving a scar where it was, his illness was gone as well. Zoltan flew back to the cave and immediately went over to hades angrily, hades handed zoltan a golden chestplate for a challenge "this is the legendary chestplate giving a mortal the power of the gods i want you to guard it if you can i will give you a reward" hades said smiling evilly the truth was, he was going to trick the beast.
Zoltan was finally free for the summer had come, he brought persephone home and flew to his town "finally i'm away from that dreaded place" he sighed as he turned into a dog and romped about town "would ya look at that" said a voice "a fella from another country!" it continued "S'il vous plaît ne me faites pas de mal je voulais juste échanger avec cet homme gentil" another man said, zoltan looked around and found the men one was french and the other was the town bully gangs leader flipius "are you making fun of me!?" flipius yelled obviously not understanding the french man "Pourquoi pas bien sûr!!" the french man yelled "oh so you are ya little punk i'll deal with you!!" flipius yelled angrily "PAS DE NE PAS ME BLESSER!!!" the french man yelled and he backed away quickly out of fear "heh scared are we you didn't seem to scared before i was about to knock your head off you shoulders." flipius said menacingly "S'il vous plaît ne m'attaquez pas jeune homme, je voulais dire aucun mal pour vous, attendez est ce sur ma langue s'il vous plaît je m'excuse si c'est mais je ne comprends pas tout ce que vous dites!" the french man said shaking. Out of nowhere suddenly zoltan turned into a cerebus when no one was looking "STEP AWAY FROM HIM!!" zoltan angrily yelled, lunging at flipius he bit his arm and with a satisfying crack the arm broke, flipius yelped in pain running off with several others following "AND STAY OUT!!" zoltan roared suddenly he was surrounded by fifty people with swords and torches "monster!!" they yelled angrily "BACK AWAY OR I WILL HURT YOU!!!" zoltan warned. Several people backed away dropping their weapons out of fear, after everyone who had backed off there were ten people who stayed to fight left most were just teenagers trying to look tough but, a few were warriors who had gone to battle "halt you horrible beast!" a teenager said trying to look brave "LAST CHANCE, BACK AWAY OR YOU WILL SUFFER!!!" zoltan roared turning into a dragon before the people's eyes. "Sorcery." an old grey bearded warrior said in shock "kill the beast!!" he suddenly yelled with rage, zoltan spread his wings and flew off he knew exactly where he was going,
The underworld.
When he made it to the underworld he discovered something, he was able to protect the chestplate for the winter and would be given his reward, zoltan roared with pleasure to inform hades that he was there "aahh my friend you want your reward don't you?" hades asked the beast when he got there zoltan roared happily flapped his wings. Hades snapped his fingers and out came a large bowl filled with a purple liquid, what zoltan didn't know, was that the liquid would leave him to be a dragon for the rest of his life. "it's a delicious juice made from the finest of fruits." hades said, zoltan drank all but one drop which had fallen off out of the bowl, this allowed him to transform into a human but that was it. Suddenly zoltan fell to the ground angrily realizing he had been tricked he blew flames at hades, who dodged with ease but when he glanced back where zoltan once stood he saw nothing there but an empty bowl with one drop of a purple liquid. Zoltan flew all the way to mount olympus and sat on a pedestal realizing that he should cherish his power and not use it to trick people, zeus found him and decided to give him a spot as the protector of mount olympus, zoltan learned a lesson that day, never try to take something that wasn't worth it.
