Island of Myths

So we followed her, but the second I walked outside the pod, I wanted to run back in. Waiting outside the door was an enormous ogre, about five times my size. Julie was shaking in fear, and Jonny was trying to reassure her (unsuccessfully I might add) that he was a nice ogre. Lianna was absolutely frozen in fear, just like I was, only Jason was there smiling like we were being totally absurd. And as for Amy, what the heck was she thinking! She was staring in awe rather than fear, as crazy as ever.
That was when Jason said “This is Norman, the ogre, he’s sort of like our butler.” Wow. Could this day get any weirder? Yeah, it probably could. “Norman these are our friends Natalie, Amy, Julie, and Lianna.”
“Hello,” Norman replied in a British accent. Yep, it just got weirder. “Please forgive me for frightening you, I fully understand. You being new to the world of mythology, I presume?” He cast a sidelong glance towards Veronica, and she nodded at him. “I also presume that you are going to start their training today?” She nodded again. “As ruthless as ever, Miss Hackly,” He joked.
“Yes, well, they must be ready at all times.” She smiled. “Now we must continue with the rest of our tour.” Norman moved out of the way and that is when we saw the whole room, for he had been blocking it.
There were so many mythical creatures I didn’t know where to start. There were goblins running around; nymphs dancing, skipping, and laughing; elves and gnomes talking and joking. But those were only some of the creatures that were on the ground. There were phoenixes, small dragons, and some other things I couldn’t even name were flying around.
What looked like a huge eagle was zooming around, but it looked like it was covered in lightning. At first, I didn’t know what it was, until it landed right in front of us. That’s when I realized it was a thunderbird. It swooped by us, then turned and landed gracefully on the ground. The lightning disappeared as it slowed down and I saw what it really looked like. It was two times the size of David, with the feathers on its head and the back of its neck sticking up, making it look spiky. The best thing I can compare it to is some kind of a giant yellow falcon.
“Whoa,” was all that I could manage. It was amazing.
“Cool,” Lianna said.
Jason laughed “This is Atrayu, he is a...”
“Thunderbird,” I finished for him.
“I can tell that you know a bit of mythology,” Veronica said.
“I like mythology; I study it all the time.” I told her; knowing it made me sound somewhat like a nerd, but I didn’t really care.
“What are your favorite myths?” She asked.
“Greek myths are the best in my opinion.”
“Same here,” Jason agreed. “But don’t worry, the Minotaur’s here are nice,” He joked. Atrayu let out a noise that sounded almost like thunder (hence the name), probably trying to remind us that he was still there.
“Don’t worry,” Jonny said as he walked up and began to pet him, “we didn’t forget you.” Atrayu bowed his head as Jonny pet him. Then he began flapping his wings, but only hovered slightly off the ground. Then without any warning, bolted (and I do mean bolted) over to us in less than half a second. I stumbled backwards in surprise, nearly falling, but fortunately Jason caught me. He bowed his head as a sign of peace, so I reached my hand out very slowly to pet him.
“I think he likes you,” Jason laughed. Atrayu let out another loud noise, only this one sounded a little like laughing.
“Can he understand us?” Julie asked. She had been so quiet I had almost forgotten that she was there. That was a good question, but I don’t see how he could. Though that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
“We don’t really know,” Rose said thoughtfully, “sometimes he acts like he can, but other times it seems like he can’t. It is really quite odd.”
“But let’s not dwell on that,” David added quickly. “We must hurry if we want to start training today. Now come along,” he said as he began walking across the room. Everyone except Jason and I followed him because Atrayu wouldn’t let us.
“Spoil sport,” Rose muttered under her breath.
“I heard that,” David commented. Atrayu still wasn’t letting us go past. Every time we would try he would move in front of us.
“Come on Atrayu,” Jason yelled, “let us go.” Like that would do much. Then I had an idea. I went for the old fake-out. I started to go one way, but then turned and ran the other way. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as dumb as I had thought. He flapped his wings in front of me, and the wind was so strong that it knocked me off my feet. I was pushed back onto the floor.
“Having some trouble?” Rose asked as she suddenly appeared behind us. “I think I know what he wants.”
“What?” I asked angrily, “Because I’m stumped,” I said as I got up and brushed off my pants.
“I think he wants you to ride him, right Atrayu?” She asked, and with that, he flapped his wings and let out another thundering caw that seemed it could leave people deaf. “I’ll go ahead and take that as a yes. Just meet us at the stables at the edge of the forest.” Then she faded away to join the rest of the group before I even had time to argue. Atrayu turned his side to us and lay down.
“Well, this ought to be fun,” I commented dubiously as I stared up at the magnificent creature.
“What’s wrong?” He asked as he climbed onto Atrayu’s back. “You scared?”
“No, well... kind of, I don’t really like heights.” I explained. It was embarrassing, but true. I was afraid of heights. Emphasis on was.
“Its fine,” he assured me. “I promise that I won’t let you fall. Cross my heart and hope to die.” Then he smiled and held out his hand. I still stood there, unwavering, so he stared at me with a look in his deep blue eyes that I couldn’t resist. I reluctantly took his hand and he pulled me up onto the thunderbirds back. He grabbed my hand and rapped my arms around his waist. “Hold on!” And without any hesitation Atrayu took off.
We flew up towards the ceiling, and at first I thought that we were going to crash. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that we wouldn’t. Like a train crash I couldn’t help but open my eyes and look, and at the last moment a skylight appeared. Once we were out I made the mistake of looking down, and saw just how high we were above the island. I instinctively closed my eyes (Again? Wow was I a coward) and tightened my grip around Jason’s waist.
“It’s okay; you’re not going to fall. I won’t let you,” he told me. “Just open your eyes.” So I opened my eyes and saw that he was smiling at me. I smiled back weakly. With a shaky breath I looked down to see where we were. We were above the forest now, and I could see the stables on the other side, although I couldn’t see what was inside. That is, until we began to descend. I couldn’t really tell what it was, but it kind of looked like something was on fire in one of the stables, but there wasn’t any smoke. Another one looked like there were a bunch of weeds in it. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was, and just how weird it was. After about a minute or so more of flying we swooped down and landed with ease behind the stables. Atrayu let out a loud and happy screech as Jason jumped off his back.
“That was actually kind of fun,” I told Jason as he helped me down.
“I told you it would be.”
“Where is everyone else?”
“They should be here in five, four, three, two...” I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and when I turned to look I saw everybody walking out of a tree trunk. Out of all of my friends Lianna was the only one smiling. Amy and Julie looked as though they were about to throw up.
“That was so fun!” Lianna shouted. “It was like a roller coaster.”
“Speak for yourself,” Julie complained.
“Come on girls, I have something to show you.” Veronica announced after Julie and Amy regained their balance. She began walking around to the front of the stables, and we all followed. The instant I saw what was in the stables I gasped in awe.
There were horses in the stable, but these were not just horses. These were elemental horses. Dark, earth, water, fire, light and a few others were occupying the stables. But the one that really caught my eye was the horse of darkness.
“Now, I will let the horses out one by one, and they will choose their riders. Now line up.” Veronica explained and we did as she said.
The first one she let out was the fire horse. It was a reddish brown color, and its mane and tale were made of fire. (How is that even possible?) It slowly came up to each of us, then went back to Lianna and stopped. “Then let it be so. Your horse is the horse of Fire.”
“Cool!” Lianna exclaimed. “I think I’ll name it Blaze.” That was a fitting name.
Next she let out the Water horse. It was a dark blue/black color, with a mane and tail of water. And again it came up to each of us (this one was a little less shy). It made its decision and went to Julie.
“Then let it be so. You have the horse of Water.”
“I’m gonna call her... Misty.” She announced proudly. Of course the mermaid ends up with the water horse. Should I really have expected anything else? I swear that out of the corner of my eye I saw Jonny crack a smile.
Somebody has a cru-ush
Somebody has a cru-ush
I sang in my head. I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit. Julie never really found herself as pretty, even though she was probably the prettiest one out of the four of us. If he wanted her to find out without actually telling her, then he would have to be pretty unsubtle.
Next she let out the horse of darkness. It was gorgeous, and I almost was afraid that he wouldn’t choose me. His coat was jet black, and his mane and tail looked like smoke. But the smoke wasn’t gray; it was the color of night, the color of darkness. It came up to each of us, and then stopped at Amy. I held my breath. It sniffed her once, twice, but finally it turned and walked away from her. It stopped right in front of me, sniffed me, and then turned to stand next to me.
“Then let it be so,” was all she said. I smiled and pet my new companion. He whinnied in delight.
“I think he likes you,” Jason commented with a short laugh. “So what are you going to name him?”
“Blackjack,” I replied immediately. It was automatic, as if I had known the name forever. It even surprised me for a second.
“Blackjack,” He repeated. “I like it. It suits him.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. I don’t know what it was about him, (and I’m not sure if anybody else noticed this) but it was just so hard not to like him. I mean he was cute, don’t get me wrong, but it was more than that. It’s hard to explain. There was just something about him that made him really likeable.
Before I knew it Veronica had let out the next horse. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the weirdest thing I had ever seen. It had brown fur, and I couldn’t tell whether it was meant to be the color of dirt or tree bark. The mane and tail were vines, leaves and all. The horse instantly went to Amy, and I am guessing it was mainly due to the fact that she was the only one without a horse.
“Then let it be so.”
“You know,” Amy said to the horse, “You kinda remind me of a tree.” She giggled a bit. Then her face lit up. She had the same expression as when she had good idea. “I got it! I will name you Willow. Do you like that name?” The horse whinnied in delight. You could probably tell by the names that we weren’t the most creative bunch. “I’m gonna go ahead and take that as a yes.” Then we all laughed. Amy had that affect on people. It seemed like no matter how sad or angry someone was, she could cheer them up. It was impossible to not be happy around her.
“Now then girls, these horses will be your familiars. They will come to you when you need them. All you must do is call out there names and they will come to you. Once they learn to recognize your voice you can just whistle if you want to, and they will come.” Veronica told us.
Then a thought occurred to me. “Where are your horses?” I asked Jason and Jonny. They just looked at each other and smiled. Jason whistled as loud as he could. Out of nowhere a small vortex opened up in the distance, and at first I thought it was just a regular grey horse that trotted out of it (in mid-air, might I add), until it came closer. My jaw dropped when I saw it. It was a skeleton with smoky, transparent, white mist forming a body, mane, and tail. I couldn’t even think of a word to describe it.
“This is spirit,” Jason laughed as Spirit ran up to him and started nuzzling him affectionately. He pet the undead horse and laughed. “None of us are really sure whether he is a ghost or an undead horse.”
“I vote ghost,” I suggested. “If it were undead, wouldn’t it have rotting flesh or something?”
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter anyway.” Jason said.
“What about you? Where’s your horse?” Amy asked Jonny.
“I don’t have a horse,” he replied, “but I do have a griffin.” He smiled. “Hephaestus!” He looked up at the sky and our eyes followed until we saw the huge creature. I love griffins. They have the head and front legs of a bird, the body and back legs of a lion, and its tail is a snake. They are obedient, kind, and loyal creatures, and they only attack if you give them a reason. You never want to tick off a griffin. It landed swiftly and gracefully on the ground in front of Jonny. It started rubbing its head against him, wanting to be pet, like a cat.
“Hey there, buddy. What up?” Jonny laughed as he began ruffling the playful creatures’ feathers. Jason fearlessly walked up to Hephaestus and patted him on the head. He really was a cute griffin, and he even had puppy eyes. It was actually kind of funny, until he saw us.
He darted over to us in about two seconds and instantly was mad. He didn’t know us, and I didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but it was probably something like “I have to protect my master from these strangers.” The first person he went after was Julie, and I was not going to stand there and let him trample her. Hephaestus went up on his back legs and was about ready to attack when I (and I don’t know how I did this) shot a huge ball of glowing white energy at him. It hit him right in the chest, but didn’t do anything but make him angrier. He turned all of that anger on me.
He let out a cry that felt like it nearly shattered my ear drums. I looked behind him at Veronica, Jonny, and Jason, and saw that they were all merely standing there. Then I realized that as much as the guys wanted to help, Veronica was holding them back, smiling. I didn’t have time to wonder why because Hephaestus was in front of me, scratching his front claws on the ground, getting ready to charge. Then I had an idea. I stood there, waiting for him to charge, and when he did, boy did he get a surprise! The instant I saw him start to run at me, I conjured up the same ball of glowing, white energy that I did last time. The only difference this time was that I used both hands to make it as big as I possibly could, and I hurled it at him with all of the strength I could manage.
The second it hit him, the huge bird-like creature was flung backwards, skidding on the ground as he went. When the dust cleared, I saw him lying on the ground, with a look of defeat. Everyone else was looking at me with a look of awe, everyone except Veronica that is. She was just smiling at me. I probably had somewhat of a stunned look on my face because even I didn’t know how I had managed to make that attack that strong. I had only expected it to push him a few feet, or knock him down at the most! Everyone was staring at me, and it made me uncomfortable.
Finally Veronica began clapping and walking in my direction. “Very good, very good,” she said. “That was excellent. I have never seen anyone so new to this world manage an attack so powerful. You will grow to become a very powerful witch someday, “she forewarned. “Now that we are through with that, we should get to the training center. You girls need to start your training if you’re going to fight.”
“Great, awesome, but this time can we not take some crazy fast tunnel shoot thing?” Julie asked. She hated roller coasters, and those ‘tunnel shoot things’ were a little too similar for her taste.
“Sure, you can ride you’re horses there. Just let me call Glory.” She said right before she let out an earsplitting whistle, and a beautiful dragon descended from the sky. It was the most elegant, gorgeous thing I had ever seen. It had silver and red scales, huge wings, and emerald green eyes. It landed so lightly that it barely made a sound. I stood there, in awe of the beautiful dragon standing a mere few yards away from me. Veronica mounted the great creature, looked at Hephaestus, and with a wave of her hand he began to stand up, looking good as new. “Now you can ride your little griffin with them. Maybe you can give them a few tips. Everyone else, mount your horses and get ready for a ride.” She just smiled as Jonny got on the healed griffin, and her and Glory sped off at the speed of light before we could even think about getting on our horses.
“Yeah, don’t wait for us or anything!” I called, making my friends laugh. I went to get on Blackjack, but realized that there was no saddle. That was going to make it difficult to get on. When Jason noticed my conundrum he waved his hands and I slowly levitated onto the horse. “Oh, my God! How did you do that?” I was completely astonished.
“Lots of practice,” he laughed as he levitated himself onto Spirit.
“Oh please! That’s nothing!” Jonny scoffed, and with a wave of his hands he levitated everyone else (himself included) onto their horses. I had a feeling it was just to impress Julie.
“Show off,” Jason muttered. I laughed. “I’m glad you find that so amusing.” He was being sarcastic, of course, but he still smiled.
“I have an idea...” I smiled my daring smile that my friends knew well, and I thought it was funny when they had the “oh, no” looks on their faces. “Let’s race,” I said and Jason, Jonny, Julie, and Jade were all for the idea, but Lianna just shook her head. She never had any fun. “Okay, ready, set, GO!!!” I shouted and Blackjack took off at the speed of light. I was momentarily disoriented, but when I was back to normal I looked around to see where everyone else was. I was in first, Jason was right behind me, next was Jade and Julie tied for third, and Jonny was nowhere to be seen. That is, until he zoomed past me so fast that I almost fell off of Blackjack. When I looked ahead I saw that he was already pretty far away, but I was not going to let him beat me.
I leaned over even farther than I was before, and tapped my heels on Blackjacks side to make him speed up. He only went a little faster than he had been going before, but it was enough to start to catch up with Jonny and Hephaestus. I realized that I had to be a little tougher on him if I wanted him to go faster so I tapped my heels even harder, and he sped up even more. We were catching up to Jonny!
“Come on Blackjack, you can do it,” I encouraged and focused all of my energy into winning. Apparently I focused so much that the reins where I was holding them began glowing, and Blackjack quickly gained speed. I realized that I was transferring energy into him, and that was probably the only way I was going to win this race. I focused all of my energy through my hands, through the reins, and into Blackjack. He instantly went faster, and we passed Jonny, startling him. After a few seconds I looked back and saw him way far behind us. Everyone else was so far back that they were only little dots of color, but I had a feeling they were laughing.
We were coming up on the entrance to the mountain, and I had to steer Blackjack toward it now or we would be diving in at a complete downward angle, so I pulled the reins down and steered him down into the mountain. Once we were inside I could see everything. We soared above everyone, and I saw that the inside of the mountain was bigger than I had first thought it was. I also saw that there were more monsters than I had first realized a lot of them I couldn’t even name. Then I noticed Veronica and Glory sitting by a big metal door, and I steered Blackjack towards them. We flew at the speed of light, and managed to land swiftly but gracefully in front of them.
“Very nice landing. I see you figured out Jonny’s not-so-secret way of winning. It’s amazing that you managed to beat him on you first try,” She said as I dismounted. Then her eyes wondered to the ceiling, “Speaking of Jonny, here he comes now.” I turned around just in time to see Jonny swoop over our heads, make a U turn, and come to a stop on the ground a few feet away from us. I could have sworn that for an instant when he landed he was glaring at me, but he changed it to a joking expression so quickly that I wasn’t entirely sure.
He dismounted Hephaestus, and as he walked over to us he said, “The others will probably be here in a few minutes. They were pretty far behind when I dove in.”
“Really? I think that it is simply amazing that Natalie wasn’t one of the ones ‘pretty far behind’” Veronica smiled, but I had a feeling that behind the smile she was really testing Jonny’s patience and trying to see if I would brag or not. She was subtly trying to find out more about our personalities. I could already tell she was clever, a lot more clever than any of us.
Jonny just smiled (a small fake smile, might I add) and mumbled, “Yeah.” That was when we heard a grand war whoop coming from none other than Julie. We all turned to see Julie, Jason, Amy, and Lianna coming through the mountaintop in that order. They saw us and flew towards us, but unfortunately for Julie, Jason saw us first and got ahead of her. Amy and Lianna were neck-and-neck, so obviously Lianna had decided to join the fun. Jason landed first, with Julie not far behind, and Lianna just barely made it before Amy by about a foot. Jason got off Spirit and ran over to me in absolute awe.
“That was so awesome! I can’t believe you actually beat Jonny! I have been trying to beat him for years and you did it on your first try! That was unbelievable!” I mumbled thanks as I blushed and looked at the ground. Everyone else was walking over now, smiling and congratulating me.
“Yes, yes. That was very good, but we must hurry to training. Come along now,” Veronica told us as she pressed in the code to the giant metal doors. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but I watched as she punched in the numbers. 2152843. I don’t know why, but I felt I should memorize those numbers. The doors slid open with a deafening squeal to reveal a big metal room with a huge window that revealed an even bigger room. David was standing in the room, obviously waiting for us. We walked into the chamber with awe, gazing mostly at the huge white room behind the glass. “This is where most of your training will take place.” She said as she gestured toward the big white room behind the glass. Jonny and I, though we had been the first to get here, had been last in line to go through the door. He waited until everyone else was in the room then grabbed me and pinned me to the wall next to the entrance.
“Look, I’m the best here and I’m not going to let some newbie come in and ruin everything. You got me?” He asked angrily. My instincts told me to start running my mouth and backtalk in my usual sarcastic smart-ass ways, but I wasn’t going to get in a fight today, so I just nodded my head in false fear. “Good,” and with that he let go of me and began walking into the room, but stopped just short of the entrance. “Oh, and one more thing: mention this to anyone and I will make certain you regret it.” Then he walked into the room with me following not-so-close behind.
“What are we supposed to do? Shoot at the wall?” Lianna asked sarcastically. Apparently nobody had noticed our minute of absence.
“Why don’t you step through this door and find out?” Veronica walked over to a door on the wall next to the one with a window and opened it. I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t joking.
Lianna had no reply, and just stood there, reluctant to go in.
“Are you sure? I was really hoping one of you would go in and try it out first. Do any of you girls want to be the first to try?” She looked at us and I still saw no sign of a joke. Since I saw no one else volunteering I decided to be an idiot, raise my hand, and say:
“I’ll go,” in a nonchalant tone as I stepped forward.
“Okay then,” she shrugged and gestured toward the open door, “Just step right through here.”
I went to step forward, but Jason grabbed my arm and warned “You don’t have to do this.” He gave me a look almost like he was worried about me. As if.
“But I want to,” I smiled what I knew was a mischievous smile, though I tried my best to hide it.
“Just know that if something happens she won’t let us go in to help you until it’s almost too late. She will force you to try to save yourself no matter what happens.” His expression changed to a look of “please don’t”, but that just made me want to prove I could more.
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” I told him and I turned, forcing him to let go of my arm, and walked through the door.
“Just wait in the corridor and I will give you directions.” Veronica directed and she closed the door. A light popped on right as the door closed and I realized that I was standing in a short curving hallway. I turned the corner and saw that it ended there, guessing that it probably led to the white room. All of the sudden Veronica’s voice began talking as if from a speaker, though I didn’t see one anywhere.
“I hope you’re prepared because this will not be a walk in the park. When you go through that door, you will find yourself in a forest. Your mission is to travel through the forest and look for the coins. There are four. Purple, red, green, and blue, and if you find them you will automatically be transported back where you are now. Got it?”
I thought about it. “It’s just like a video game,” I said to myself.
“Yes, precisely.” her voice agreed, causing me to jump. I looked around for a camera, stunned. “Yes we can hear everything you say, and while you are in there we will be watching you closely, but don’t look for a camera there either. We will be following you using magic. So, once again, are you ready?”
“Yep.”
“Good. Oh and one more thing, there will be monsters coming after you, so please try to stay alive. You may now enter through the door. Good luck,” and with that the speaker cut off and I was left to fend for myself as I walked through the door.