Awakening (Book One of the Eklektos Series)

Chapter Fourteen

Ancient History should have been fascinating. Growing up, Kali had always loved reading about Greek Mythology. Any mythology interested her, but something always resonated in her about the Ancient Greek legends. But sitting in another stuffy classroom, nothing the teacher said seemed completely true. Hades had mentioned that not all the myths were accurate, but it wasn't the differences that Kali found odd. It was the fact that in every tale the gods could do no wrong. It sounded like propaganda.

Most of the other students were just lapping it all up or weren't listening. But there were a few like Kali who thought that whoever had written this history had been wearing rose-tinted glasses. Jem and Carl were sitting with her and they seemed to be tired of listening to it. Jem was just staring at the wall ahead with a pen loosely in his hand and Carl seemed to be sketching some sort of weapon. Kali glanced at it for a moment but didn't want to make Carl uncomfortable, so she sighed and went back to listening to what the teacher was saying.

The half-truths and veiled lies were making Kali uncomfortable. The worst part was that the teacher, one of the librarians, didn't even seem to realise there was anything wrong with them. Which was probably why she was teaching the class. But Kali was sure that the truth had to be somewhere; they could teach the new generations what they liked but they must have preserved what happened. For the rest of the lesson, Kali tried and failed to pay attention.

When they got out, it was time for Horticulture with Demeter. The goddess of nature often took the lesson herself; she would have been in the greenhouses anyway. Demeter was the only one of the gods that Kali had met so far that looked dirty. She liked to do most of her work by hand, not from afar with her powers, and it showed. She had a smudge of soil on her nose and some small twigs in her earthy brown hair. Her beige dungarees were baggy and covered with mud. But her eyes sparkled pea green and her smile was infectious. When Kali got to the greenhouse with the others, the goddess strode over and shook her hand before steering her inside.

As soon as Kali was in the greenhouse, all the plants turned towards her and leaned in as she passed. She hesitated but Demeter took her arm and pulled her through them, stating "Don't mind them; they're not used to having so much sunlight so close."

Kali just looked at her, puzzled, and the goddess laughed and explained "Your father is the god of the Sun, among other things, Kali. They react even more to his presence here."

"But...plants have never done that around me before." She said uncertainly.

"These plants are so used to the presence of gods and demigods that they act as they should." Demeter replied, moving briskly through the rows of planters. "Understand?"

Kali bit her lip. "Not really."

"Good. Before we begin, I want to see how much you know about what some of my plants can be used for." Demeter smiled kindly and Kali found herself warming up to the goddess quite quickly.

"Oh...okay...I don't know much about horticulture." She warned her, not wanting to disappoint when everyone seemed to expect so much from her. She was already baffled, and she had only just arrived.

Demeter just smiled, her eyes twinkling, and stated "You will."

That class flew by quicker than any of the others. Kali didn't know she could learn so much in one hour. Instead of just carrying on as normal, Demeter had decided to recap everything they had learnt so far – many of the students seemed glad of this – so Kali took rushed notes and tried to keep up. By the end of the class her head was crammed with plant names and properties and formulas for all sorts of salves and potions. She knew she would have to copy up her notes while she still understood them otherwise she would never be able to decipher the messy scrawl.