Adriadna’s Divine Will

Chapter 7

This was beyond what I thought I could ever feel. My emotions were settling down and my mind was not racing. The wine and the dancing seemed to ease my mind. I was like the dancing female centaurs. I was finally carefree, with Leonidas hands gliding with mine. We swayed for awhile, just like in a soothing trance and let the music seep in.

By the time we removed our self from each other. Everyone was in a deep sleep scattered all over the ground. Some had wine cups still grasped in their hands. They all seemed so tame with their faces eased and relaxed. You would never think that these creatures were fierce.

"It's been a long day..." My eyes were already drooping with lack of energy. I could feel a new found determination of power though. It felt like shackles were released. Leonidas nodded his head in agreement and headed for the tent that he had built for himself. I smiled with sleepy glee and headed to the direction of my own tent, only to be interrupted by a booming voice.

"Adriadna, will you please grace me with a walk?" Chiron said with a stern voice like I was in trouble. I turned slowly trying to keep my face at ease but my voice betrayed me.

"Yes," I said in small voice. My mind was flying with all the possibility of why he would want to talk to me. Does he know I'm a spy? In an instant I turned back into my closed off self, as I remembered my mission. I felt the battle again brewing inside of me. I had to make Leonidas fall in love with me not I for him. It was my destiny!

He walked over to me and put his large brown hand on my shoulder and led me to the forest. I didn't say a word as we passed the dry withered olive trees. After a while he sighed.

"Adriadna, I have had a very tedious long journey in my life. I have seen many moons, smelled wonderful foreign spices and heard many last fading breaths as mortals left this earth... One thing that I have not seen til today was a proclamation to fight against the Gods. Leonidas gave a brave speech of why he fights... Men have a way of clouding the truth sometimes though, but women are emotional beings full of love and affection. I'm curious to understand what makes you different from any other women on this earth, why do you fight?" His eyes turned silver in the moonlight as he peered down at me. His forehead was crinkled from pure curiosity. I could feel the warmth of wisdom pouring from him which made me feel oddly relaxed.

"Chiron, I fight simply because of revenge. Nothing more." I said choosing my words carefully and looking straight ahead. It felt like there was a rock in the bottom of my stomach I couldn't tell him the same made up stories I told Leonidas.

Chiron stopped and lifted his face toward the moon as if searching for answers. You could see the strands of white in this long black mane.

"Revenge. A word filled with so much meaning, every man, creature, and God's weakness. My whole life, I have always wondered if revenge is worth it... You will feel it one day, Adriadna, everyone does. It determines destinies and either makes them divine or ordinary... " Chiron said to me, as he led me back to my tent. He bowed his head and raised my hand to his lips and kissed it gently. He smiled faintly and turned to walk back to the dry dead forest.

As I entered my tent and laid there on the sheep's skin bed combing my hands through it, I pondered what he had said, but I didn't fully understand. He knew... that I had no revenge in my heart and he didn't question my answer. I was fighting for Leonidas to stop his quest for revenge. I knew what revenge was, but I had never felt it before. I didn't want to believe him, revenge was a terrible thing I saw what it did to people. I hoped I would never feel such a thing.

With those thoughts pounding in my head I fell asleep only to be woken up by a tap on my head and Leonidas's big grin in my face. It couldn't be morning already. It felt like I had just laid my head down. I groaned and tried vigorously to wipe the sleep from my eyes with no prevail. I sat up and I felt like my world was spinning.

"Why does my head hurt so badly?" I asked Leonidas who was annoyingly standing there with his normal boyish grin.

"It seems we had a little too much fun merry making last night. I do remember dancing with you though. Let's say that you aren't the best dancer on earth but it was good to see you finally relax a bit." He said with a laugh and handed me a glass of water. I narrowed my eyes at him and grabbed the glass from him and drank with greediness.

"The sun is at its highest; we already slept half the day away. The centaurs are coming back with us to camp. We should be at the camp grounds by night fall if we leave soon." He continued and stepped out of the tent.

We managed to take down our tents and take what food we could find in no time and started the vigorous journey back to the camp site. The trip down hill seemed much easier and faster than the trudge up. Leonidas was right, by the time night fall came we could see the brown tents in the distant and smell the dinner that had been served. The rest of the way down I remembered when we left the camp site a couple of days ago that I had finally figured out where I had remembered seeing Ammon before. I was positive he was the unknown God on the door of the Holy Council.

How was I supposed to ask Ammon if he was a God or not? I couldn't just walk up to him and say, "I was wondering if you were a God?" That would have me kicked out in a instant. I needed Ammon's information. I wanted to know, why Ammon was helping Leoniadas fight against his own kind?

I thought hard about this as we entered the camp and passed a couple of large jugs of wine saved for special occasions. My mind finally gave me the answer, as if I was staring at the answer all along. I would get Ammon at his weakest moment. I smiled to myself... like Zeus had said "Women can be very convincing... let alone a seductive nymph."