The Anomaly

I walked over to him.

“I should say this. Calvin may never hear what the Oracle says. It is for only you to hear,” Apollo whispered. Calvin was talking to a girl a little taller than he was. She was beautiful, gorgeous and was sitting on her shell throne.

[ii]Aphrodite, I thought, He better not be trying to flirt with her.

“I understand, Lord Apollo.”

“We can leave and return in minutes. Let’s go.” Calvin was having a nice conversation with Aphrodite.

Apollo took me to his chariot in the front of the clouds above Mount Olympus. It was elegant. It was painted red and the design was similar to a fire ball. It was amazing. It was pulled by the sun so it would bring us to Earth a little quicker.

“Wow.”

“Neat huh?” A sly smile came across his face.

“Yes my lord.” He helped me in and told me to grip the sides. He climbed himself in and grabbed the reins.

“Close your eyes and don’t let go. It’s a long way down.”

“No problem.” I obeyed. My eyes closed themselves and I clenched onto the chariot. In a matter of moments, the chariot had started. I was interested to see what it was like but I think I know what would happen if I open my eyes. I would become blind.

We finally stopped and he laid a hand on my shoulder.

“You can look now, Zoë.”

I opened my eyes to the wonders in front of me. We had arrived to a temple. He helped me out and I thanked him. The temple was pillar shaped. Edged a little around the bottom. When we walked in, it looked pretty deserted. We walked up stairs to a door.

“I’ll wait right here. Tell me when you are done.” He leaned against the wall.

I walked into the Oracle’s room with my head held high. I was ready for anything. There was a girl sitting on some pillows. She had white hair and looked very young. A little prettier than Aphrodite. Perfect face and body. At a glance, I would think of her as a really young gymnast. Quite athletic looking.

“Come Seeker. What are you seeking,” I voice said in my head. It was a sweet voice. It was gentle and soothing. A voice I didn’t want to trust.

“I seek what destiny is mine.”

Her voice echoed into my head. “You will go to times of great depression, find all the crystals and make them your possession. If you fail, you will lose a lot more than a future, a brother will come with a torture. A father can not keep thy safe, as he can not help himself, your fate will be decided when light is taking darkness itself. You will save a future but return to nothing, since you will become the biggest “what if” thing.”

“What do you mean my brother will some with a torture? And my father can not help me? Why?”

“Your destiny has been prophesied. Some prophecies can come in ways you’ve never thought possible.” She said, “I must sleep now.” She sat still, her white eyes open and her breathing sounded like she was letting her body die.

I sighed. “Great. My life is torture enough.” I muttered to myself. I walked out of the Oracle’s room.

Apollo was still leaning against the wall when I walked through the doors. The wind seemed to have entered the hall.

“Well, how’d it go?” He looked tired and I looked at him, then he knew. “That bad, huh?” I nodded. I guess he knew that some prophecies can be bad. “What did she tell you? This is important.”

“She said, ‘You will go to times of great depression.’”

“Yep, You will be going through those times. I’m sorry. Please continue.”

“‘Find all the crystals and make them my possession. If you fail, you will lose more than a future, a brother will come with a torture…’” I kept the rest to myself except the part about my fate.

“I’m terribly sorry Zoë,” He said as he walked over to me. Taking my silence as that it was all of the prophecy.

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

“You’ll die if you change the future and I know that you are holding back a part of your prophecy. It will indefinitely find you. But your fate, it will be a better future but you won’t be able to see how beautiful it is. You’ll definitely need help.” He put his hand on my shoulder, “We best be off.”
* * *

I crawled back into the chariot, still thinking about what the Oracle had said. It was squeezing my brain as I closed my eyes and Apollo set off. My mind was spinning and I couldn’t figure out why. As we came in for a landing, I didn’t notice a difference of if we were still flying or just sitting on thin air.

We walked back into the Council of Gods. The problem. They were all gone and so was Calvin.

“This can not be good.” We walked right to the center of the U.

“They have gone down to Earth. Probably to Hephaestus’ workshop. Let’s get going.” He sighed and snapped his fingers. The temperature seemed to rise as we spun.

It felt like way over a 100 degrees. Then I noticed, after all the spinning, that we were inside a volcano.

“Welcome to Hephaestus’ workshop, Zoë.” Apollo announced and turned me to see the workshop.

Okay. Now that I have seen Daedalus’ workshop, that was what I thought Hephaestus’ workshop would look like. I was wrong. Completely. Yes. Hephaestus had a table, a kiln and a window but he had other resources. Lave, tools, and water. We were in a volcano and he had water. Weird. A very hot, lava flowing volcano. The gods were talking to Calvin.

“It’s almost done,” a very gravelly said. A misshapen face showed. He had a long beard and looked crippled. He was leaning on his side and looked pretty beaten up. That man was Hephaestus. He was forging something but was having a little trouble. Ares, who I thought was a really bad guy at times, was amazingly helping Hephaestus.

“Ah Zoë.” A girl about my age, with auburn hair and silver eyes came to me. She was wearing the same dresses as the other goddess who were down here but her dress had animal and hunt prints on it.

“Zoë. This is my twin sister Artemis.”

What, I thought, That can’t be Artemis. She’s way to young.

Think again, my mind said, Gods can take many appearances.

I bowed. “Nice to meet you, Lady Artemis.”

She kneeled in front of me and picked up my chin. “You deserve a bow from a goddess, Zoë. You do not need to bow to anyone,” Artemis said as she brought me up to stand, “Calvin is getting gifts from the gods. You deserve gifts from the goddesses.”

Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, a elderly woman in a floral dress (I’ll take a guess and say Demeter) and a young woman in a dress that had a fire print on it (Another guess would be Hestia) came. Hera with her shadow green eyes decided to bestow her gift to me first. Now that I got a closer look at her face, it was no wonder she tortured a lot of people. Her face was mean and scary. Intimidating to me. Her nose was pointy and her face wrinkled a bit when she handed me a box.

“Use it wisely. Not for personal gain.” Her voice even sounded like she resented me. The box was small and wooden. It felt light. “Well. Open it.” She was a little impatient too.

I was a little…how should I put it…wary of what might be in the box. I opened it slowly. Inside there was a velvet bottom and gold lining all over the edges of the lid. In the center was a necklace. It looked like the ancient necklaces. The chain was pure gold and the pendent was magnificent. It was a ring with a gem in the center and angelic wings on the sides. It was…

“The Necklace of Confucius,” Hera had completed my thought, “It is the necklace of life. It can only be used once and then it explodes. Use it wisely, Zoë. You can choose. Your fate or the fate of the rest.” She stepped back and turned away from me.

I muttered a thank you and she nodded her head.

Athena was next. Her gift was a bracelet. It had a variety of colored sand. Rainbow was a better description. It was shiny and beautiful. “This is going to help you a lot after you leave this time.” Her spotted owl hooted and Athena replied as if she knew what the owl was saying. “Oh yes. I will call him.” She handed me a glove. “You’ll be needing this as well.” She gave a high-pitched whistle.

A dark figure came into the top of the volcano. It was hovering, looking for a place to land. I quickly put on the glove on and extended my hand out for the figure to perch on. It did one quick turn and then landed on my left hand. It was a brown feathered, small hawk.

“You’re not Athena. Where is she and who are you?” A voice said in my head. It was weird when you hear voices that seem human and aren’t.

“I’m Zoë. Uh…Athena is right there.” I gestured to Athena in front of me with her owl perched on her shoulder. They looked menacing.

“My Lady,” the hawk said as he bowed his head, “How may I serve you?”

“Alex,” Athena bowed back as if the hawk was some kind of king, “You are not serving me anymore. You have to help Zoë on an important mission. She’ll fill in the details. After this adventure, you’ll be free.” And of course. I missed what was going on.

“Yes ma’am.”

Athena nodded and let Demeter (Still guessing) bestow her gift.

“I can’t give you anything as spectacular,” Demeter sighed. She gave me a whole pack of fresh food and water.

“This is going to help a lot. Thank you, Lady Demeter.” Demeter smiled. Hestia came next. I was thinking her present would be a little bit weird. But she proved me wrong.

She handed me two knapsacks and gave me some advice. “Do not dwell on prophecies, Zoë,” she said, “Not all of them come true till the end of a lifetime.”

She smiled back and I tried to smile. Hestia was sure I wasn’t going to die. Yet.

Aphrodite came next and handed me a mirror. “This is definitely going to help you.” I didn’t know how. I wasn’t that mush into looking at myself. But I knew better than to reject a gift from a goddess.

Artemis decided to go last. She gave me a quiver of arrows. “They will refill if you go out of arrows. They don’t kill. They just give off an odor that causes a rest. The arrow tips are filled with the gas. All you have to do is aim as the person a little bit higher to get it to work well. The quiver of arrows will be invisible until it is needed.”

“But I don’t have a bow, Lady Artemis,” I said honestly. I was not a great fighter unless I use it for self defense. She took a pin out of her hair.

“You do now.” She put the pin into my hair. Pinned my bangs on the right side of face up. “All you have to do is squeeze the pin and it will turn into a bow.” She put her left hand on my right shoulder, “I wish you luck, Zoë. Don’t think you can change the prophecy. Be grateful as well. You have gifts and they have helped you this far,” her silver eyes looked deep into mine, “I know you have lost your memory. Your brother and Dot are fine.”

She said it as if nothing has ever happened to me. By the time the goddesses were done praying for me and saying last farewells, the gods were done with Calvin. Calvin didn’t even look like himself. He was dressed like a sailor from ancient times. Like a pirate. He was wearing a white linen long sleeve shirt with a deep green vest. He had black, baggy pants with leather boots. He had a red piece of cloth that went across his forehead and another that went around his waist. Over that was a belt with a holder for his sword.

He shoved the sword back into the scarab and walked toward me. I was still in the Xena looking outfit. (Dang it) He had the same bracelet as me. Everything I got, I put into my sack. I knew we would need every bit of it.

“You look ready for a sailing trip,” I snickered. I handed him a sack.

“I don’t know how I will be sailing in these clothes.” He grabbed the sack and tossed it over his shoulder.

The god’s made a U and we said our goodbyes and good lucks.