Alexis of Troy (Book I)

ι′ - Deka

"Alexis, you don't owe me anything," he said. "I only wanted to make sure you were safe. I would put myself in harm's way a thousand times over to ensure your safety. I still don't understand what you are caught up in, but perhaps going with Chiron is your safest path."

Those buttery eyes were hard to resist, and when I shook my head, my heart was ready to burst.

"I'm not leaving you until I know you are safe," I said firmly. I glanced at the centaur, who was, surprisingly, non-plussed by the whole conversation. Melanippe was grazing again, also uninterested. "So, Chiron, you coming with or not?"

"I had been warned you were stubborn," Chiron muttered, "much like my student, Achilles. Whatever I say will obviously not convince you to stay with me, so let us journey to the shepherd's farm.

"Great," I grinned, clapping my hands, "let's get a move on. We're losing precious daylight."

"You're the one who had to argue the morning away," Chiron pointed out. He helped Paris onto the mare, and then did the same for me.

"Is that a trace of sarcasm from such a civilized and wise centaur?" I gasped, mockingly. "Chiron, tsk."

Chiron didn't take the bait. Instead, he placed a hand on his daughter's side. "Hold on tight. Melanippe is a careful mare, but she's fast."

I wrapped my arms around Paris, who clutched Melanippe's black mane. Chiron's magic salve had done its job swiftly. Even though Paris was still shaky, he was holding himself properly, his legs clenched behind the mare's shoulders. I balanced on her flank, my knees pressing into the soft of her stomach. The raven cawed once more before taking to the sky. It circled us once before moving in the direction we were headed.

With Chiron in the lead, we rode away from the gruesome camp. I wished I could leave the memories behind as well, but I was relieved to finally put the camp behind us.

****

"You understand that there is only so much I can teach you with Trojan prince so close," Chiron said, once we stopped for a rest. "It will still be easier for us if you departed his company."

We'd been riding for hours when the centaur called for a rest. He refused to push his daughter to exhaustion. We were still hours away from Paris' home. Dryope's territory was days away from Mount Ida. Troy, further still. Time was a funny concept, especially when I had lost track eons ago.

Paris was tending to Melanippe, feeding her an apple, while smoothing her hair. He muttered under his breath, revealing secrets to Melanippe only. He had a dreamy smile, the lids of his eyes heavy. It was the most relaxed I'd seen him since we first met.

"I know," I sighed. I rolled a grape between my fingers. "But he can't know who I really am, and I'm not leaving him." I plopped the grape in my mouth and winked at the centaur. "You'll just have to work around all the things you don't want him to know."

"Your flippant attitude towards your predicament is concerning," Chiron frowned.

"Flippant? No, I wouldn't call it that." I dug my toes into the earth, the cool dirt pleasant. "Humour is medicine, right? Well, I'm a hit at funerals. People pay to listen to my jokes—"

"Alexis," the centaur warned.

I rolled my eyes, kicking the dirt. "Point is, Chiron, this is what I do when I'm freaking the fuck out. I am so out of my comfort zone it stopped being funny three thousand years ago." I raked my hands through my hair. "If I start taking things "seriously" as you say, I'll go insane. So, sorry-not-sorry for my flippant attitude."

Paris now sat next to Melanippe, staring up at the sky. The air was so clean I was waiting for my lungs to go into shock. A raven circled above, searching for food. A deer and her baby grazed opposite from where we sat. It was alarmingly different from the night before. Peaceful. Perhaps being with Chiron and his daughter made everything better. No, not perhaps. It did. I hadn't even been that relaxed with Dryope.

Thinking of the dryad, I found the acorn and clutched it. An anchor in the storm that was now my life. I smiled.

"You remind me of Achilles," Chiron chuckled. "He too found light in even the darkest moments. And stubborn. I thought I had encountered such stubbornness only in Achilles. I guess my long life can still contain surprises."

I took that as a compliment, even if it felt more like a jibe. "He must be a Taurus too."

"You must not give up hope, Alexis," Chiron continued. He gave my shoulder a squeeze, the gesture comforting enough to make me tear up. "Your part to play in this story is still coming to fruition."

"No presh or anything," I sniffed as Paris approached us. "Thanks for the pep talk."

"I recognize this land," Paris grinned.

He was bouncing back well, his pink cheeks glowing with health. His eyes now shone with that naive curiosity I had missed. But they creased with concern when he saw my expression.

"Are you okay, Alexis?"

I scrubbed my eyes free of pesky tears. "Uh huh, allergies. Shitty timing. So, we're heading out?"

"Yes, we are close to your father," Chiron nodded.

He stroked his beard as he spoke. It was such a human gesture I almost forgot he was half horse. Chiron reminded me of a dad. I'm sure in the modern world, he'd be just as lame with his dad jokes too. Chiron seemed like a dad joke kind of guy.

My dad had been a dad joke kind of guy... He was ridiculously smart, always throwing out random facts, and he encouraged me and my siblings to read. Reading is the most important piece of society. It's how we grow, how we learn. Our stories fuel our world. It's how I fell into studying mythology. Connecting to the past by reading their stories.

Now I was smack dab in the middle of one of those stories.

I clutched Paris' robe as a fresh bout of homesickness hit me. Chiron had been mistaken about one thing. He thought I was giving up.

If anything, I was more determined than ever to get to my time.