Lost Love Found

Grabbing their individual packs, everyone heads outside to catch the bus to the outskirts of town. Each one sends silent prayers to their respective gods as they clamber aboard. Through the bus windows they watch all the familiar sights pass by: Nymphs selling fruits on the sidewalk, a minotaur putting on an apron as he walks into a butcher shop, and a small crowd gathering around a water fountain with a Naiad sitting at it’s center singing while strumming her lyre. After about half an hour’s drive they make it to the other side of town and step off the bus, walking the rest of the distance to the woods. Maegen finds the path that is all that remains of what used to be a road to the temple. They start along the dirt track, the sights and sounds of the town quickly disappearing to be replaced by the quiet of the forest. They walk in groggy silence for an hour or so before little conversations start up. Maegen and Danielle talk about their favorite actors, Greg, Adrian, and Luke discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the different kinds of magic. Maegen, while deeply involved in her conversation with Danielle, is the first to notice the disturbance in the forest.

Maegen pauses to listen. Danielle stoping suddenly by her side causes Greg to run into her knocking both of them to the ground. Luke, not paying attention, trips over the two of them and ends up smacking his head off of Greg’s. Adrian watches the whole thing happen and starts laughing as Luke gets up muttering profanities to himself. Greg, realizing that he’s laying on Danielle, jumps to his feet as if he’d suddenly caught fire. He offers his hand and, both blushing, pulls her to her feet before Maegen starts shushing everyone.

“Maegen wh…” Luke starts but Maegen slaps a hand over his mouth.

“Something is heading towards us.” She states, answering the unfinished question. She points to the left of the path and as they listen silently they can make out the faint snapping of a twig. In the quiet they notice that the animal sounds, the birds and cicadas, have gone silent. The group quickly arranges themselves into a circle facing outward, magic and weapons at the ready. Maegen gets an arrow nocked, Luke has his spear in hand, and Greg pulls out his dagger and uses his glamour to fade into the background. Danielle and Adrian stand at the ready with their respective magic.

What they don’t see is the Troll in the tree above them. With a wicked sneer for a grin it drops its short, heavily muscled body into the middle of the circle. It strikes out with its fist at Danielle, knocking her to the ground. Greg is the first to react as he stabs it in the arm making it shriek in pain and swing out with it’s club. Greg swiftly ducks by flinging himself backward to the ground. The Troll cries out in an incomprehensible language and three more appear from behind the trees. Maegen quickly looses an arrow shooting the closest one through the forehead. It’s dead before it even hits the ground. The other two rush at the group, deceptively fast for their appearance, giving Adrian barely enough time to shield himself with a hovering wall of flame. Luke places his spear in time for the second Troll to impale itself, but it dosn’t die quickly and takes a last swing at him with a gnarled tree root. Danielle conjures a shadow to slice the root preventing it from hiting Luke. He smiles and thanks her as he retrieves his spear from the Troll’s lifless body. Adrian makes a fiery lance shoot from his wall to stab into the last Troll. It’s consumed an eruption of flame as it starts to burn up. Danielle keeps the flames in check with her magic so as to not burn down the forest. Maegen pins the first Troll, who’s trying to sneak away, to a tree with an arrow through it’s uninjured arm.

“Why did you attack us?” Greg questions. The Troll just glares at him. “TELL ME!” Greg says lacing his words with magic.

“We were ordered to.” The Troll replies, then his eyes go wide as he realizes what he did.

“Lovespeak is a bitch isn’t it? Now tell me who ordered you to?” Greg pores even more magic into his words.

“Our king did.” The troll speaks haltingly, trying to resist Greg’s magic. “Stop! Please, no more!” it screams, terrified of being unable to control himself.

“Greg, let him go.” Danielle speaks quietly. “There’s nothing more we can get from him.”

“Danni, how can you be sure?” Greg asks, his voice grows soft as he speaks to her.

Danielle chuckles lightly. “My Goddess is Nyx, remember? She rules not only the Night, but has power over secrets as well. I’m able to pick up on the secrets of others if I try, except for demigods, or anyone with natural mental resistance.”

Greg sighs in relief knowing that she can’t pick up on his feelings for her. He fears her rejection greatly, so he keeps them hidden. “Okay Danni, I’ll let him go for you.” Greg says as he reaches over and pulls the arrow from the troll’s arm. As soon as he’s free of the tree the Troll speeds off into the forest and quickly fades out of sight.

“Well that was interesting.” Maegen says. “Only took us, what, an hour to be attacked?”

“About an hour and a half, yeah.” Adrian states. “Well we better get moving. By the way, Maegen, I forgot there are two small towns that deviate off the main path to the temple. It might be worth it to stop by them to resupply. What do you think?” He asks her while grasping Luke’s hand.

“It would probably be a good idea. I don’t want to have to hunt for all of our food. That would take more time then going out of our way to stop at those towns.” Maegen replies with some thought.

“Plus we can stay in a motel for a night instead of sleeping on the ground!” Luke says excitedly.

“Yeah, we can baby.” Adrian says with a smile giving Luke a peck on the lips causing Maegen and Danielle to ‘aw’. As Adrian walks he lightly swings the hand connecting him to Luke. Jealousy spikes through Greg at the little displays of their love. He wishes he had the courage to tell Danielle how he feels, but he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for her. She is perfect in his eyes, he simply isn’t.

They walk for several hours before stopping to take a break and eat. There is a stream near by and Greg walks over to “talk”, as he calls it, to the Naiads asking if they have permission to drink from their stream. Danielle’s hit by a pang of jealousy as Greg flirts with the Naiads. She wishes that for once he would talk to her the way he’s talking to the water spirits. While Greg and Danielle are distracted and Maegen’s scouting ahead, Luke grabs Adrian’s hand and pulls him off the path just out of sight of the others.

“Finally, a little alone time.” Luke says with a smile.

Adrian smiles back and speaks softly. “So what did you have in mind for this alone time, love?”

“Just this.” Luke says softly and brings his hand up to lightly brush the hair from Adrian’s face before pulling him in for a kiss. As Luke’s lips crash onto his Adrian pushes him against a tree while he kisses back. He grabs Luke’s lower lip with his teeth, gently biting it, making Luke let out a slight moan. Adrian takes the opportunity to slide his tongue into Luke’s mouth. He explores Luke’s mouth, sliding his tongue over every surface before Luke’s tongue pushes back to fight for dominance. As their tongues wrestle Adrian’s hand moves up to cup Luke’s cheek and Luke’s arms wrap around Adrian’s neck and he pulls Adrian to him, their bodies pressing close. Adrian’s tongue wins the battle for dominance and he feels his way around Luke’s mouth once again. Eventually they hear the others calling for them and break off the kiss.

“Guess we have to go back.” Luke says a little disappointed.

“Hey, its ok love. There’ll be more chances like this.” Adrian says giving Luke a peck on the nose making Luke blush and giggle. They walk hand in hand and notic the same grin that everyone has on their face when they get back. “What?”

“We know what you two were doing.” Danielle says with a giggle.

Luke’s cheeks flush as he asks “What makes you think we were doing anything?”

“Because I saw you two.” Maegen says no longer holding back her own giggles.

They both turn bright red, Luke suddenly becoming very interested in the ground. Adrian has a thought occur to him and turns toward Luke.

“Did it look like this?” Adrian questions before he lifts Luke’s chin and kisses him gently. Luke freezes in fear and embarrassment before he begins to kiss back. Danielle and Maegen giggle while Greg looks on in jealousy, once again wishing that he had even a small piece of what they have.

The group finally sits down to eat and discuss how they’re going to travel to the next town, unaware that Eris has a plan for them.