Prime (Book 1 of the Godling Trilogy)

4- You've Got to fight for your Right to Parlay

After a few solid minutes of me staring blankly ahead with my jaw hanging open dumbly, the wet rag I was using on my cuts flopped to the ground with a nice 'muck' sound that startled me from my daze.

"My dad is Morpheus. Like that guy from the Matrix?" I asked, my brain trying to find some sort of anchor in all this chaotic information that was swamping me.

Henry snorted a brief laugh, "Not quite. I'm sorry to inform you that your father is nothing like Samuel L. Jackson as far as I know. Which is a bummer."

I had to laugh with him, in the midst of all this craziness that changed everything in my life my relationship with him had hardly even shifted. I wasn't mad at him for keeping it from me, I wasn't going to do the normal angsty teenage storm out of the room bit; it's just not my style. I kind of understood why, if I had known about this world I would've grown up paranoid and entitled. I would have been afraid of everything for fear of monsters but thinking myself better being that I'm the child of a freaking god.

"So, did my mom tell you or something? Or did you see my eyes?" I asked him.

"Well, I had my suspicions before I met you, just from what you're mother told me. But when we met and you stomped on my foot and looked up at me I just knew. You weren't old enough to have your eyes flash yet, but I could just feel it. When you were fourteen and crying in your room because Grandma died, that's the first time I saw the look," he explained. It all sort of made sense, well at least it did when he said it. When I thought about it to myself it was preposterous.

"How could you tell without meeting me?" I questioned, I was curious Henry was always a bright and inquisitive guy but I wanted to know how he came to the conclusion.

"Oh just the conditions surrounding your father. Like the fact that your mother actually never met him was a big tip off," he said nonchalantly waving his hand around as if it was no big deal.

"What? Mom! You never met my dad either? How does that work?" I spat.

My mom attempted a smile but just looked a little embarrassed, "I never met him in reality. I was a lucid dreamer and he was fascinated by my ability to control my dreams so he came and visited me one night. Soon, he and I were together in all of my dreams. And then one day I was pregnant."

"That totally screws with like all of sixth grade Sex Ed class," I shuddered, "I almost wish I didn't know that, but the alternative is just as disturbing."

She shot me a motherly look and I piped down.

"So, what now?" I asked, "What else do I need to know?"

"I'm going to make some phone calls," said my mother hollowly, she stood up and walked over to the phone dialing and then going into the dining room out of sight. She clearly didn't want me to eavesdrop.

Henry watched her intently as she left, "Okay, take this book with you. Pack it in your bags. I'll give you a few more bestiaries and the other demigods can help teach you while you're there."

"When I'm where?" I asked, he was talking like I was supposed to be leaving for vacation soon.

"Olympus," he replied.

"Like the mountain in Greece?" I inquired; he couldn't possibly be sending me to another continent.

"Oh gods no, they've moved to a more modern location, here in America."

I guess that made sense, America had become the epicenter of modern culture, so it was likely that gods would've followed the craziness to the western hemisphere.