Finding Athena

Athena vs Ares

Artemis shoved open the door to the gym/training room/arena, and grabbed my wrist, dragging me to a room off the side which was full of weapons. And I mean full. There was everything from spears and maces, bows and crossbows down to your standard sword and shield. For about the millionth time that day I stood with my mouth open, gaping at the sheer awesome-ness of this school. Despite Apollo’s angry view, I was beginning to think that this was a pretty cool destiny to have. I thought the idea of not being able to see your mortal parents and guardians was pretty shitty still, but maybe I could talk to Gaia about having a parent’s day. Like at a boarding school, where once a year the parents could come and see us, reminding us of our ties to the mortal world, and allowing our families to see what we do. I made a mental note to see Gaia tomorrow. A man strode into the weapon room then, and beamed when he saw me

“Ah Athena!” he cried “I have waited a long time to see this day. I am Enyalius, your combat instructor, and you and I are going to spend a lot of time together.” He bowed formally, and then put one arm round my shoulders, while throwing the other out to encompass the whole of the weapon wall. “Where do you want to start your training Athena? Sword combat? I would like to see you train with every weapon to see your amazing skill, but that will take a few lessons, and maybe some extra training if you are willing” He then turned to Artemis and Aphrodite “Artemis, archery as usual. You’ll find the target has shrunk again” she nodded and grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows off the wall. “Aphrodite, you’ll be crossing swords with Hermes today. One handed combat with a light shield.” She too nodded and collected the correct equipment before heading into the arena with Artemis. 

Enyalius then pulled his arm away from me and crossed them, surveying the wall. “Do you mind being thrown into the deep end Athena?” he asked wryly

I snorted “I wasn’t exactly eased into this life Sir. What does it matter from here on out?”

Enyalius nodded “Good.” He then strode over to the wall (I was under the impression Enyalius strode everywhere. He was definitely a man with a purpose) and grabbed a massive sword and huge heavy shield.

“You want me to use those?!” I said incredulously. I hugged my torso fiercely, reminding myself of the fact that I was definitely slim. Great for when Ava drags you to parties in revealing clothes. Not so great when you’re hefting huge swords and shields around and then expected to train with them.

“Of course.” Enyalius raised an eyebrow at me. “You didn’t think that this would be easy did you? Goddess of War or not, you haven’t trained for 17 years – and no, the occasional fitness class doesn’t count I’m afraid – and the Aegis is as heavy as it is pretty. If this is too much for you to bear right now, we’ll use something a little lighter, but I want you trained in this as soon as possible, so you can go on to bigger and better things, using your other abilities.”

He held the weapons out, and I took them, sighing heavily. My arms immediately dropped, my muscles straining with the effort of holding the shield especially, but I gritted my teeth, determined to prove myself in this. Even though it was only my first day, I was the Goddess of War, and I knew that Ares would have excelled in this on his first day. I had a thing about proving that I was as good as, if not better than guys. It was sort of another reason why I’d gone to Ava’s fitness classes. Beating up guys was fun. I centred myself and lifted the shield up and in front of my torso instinctively.

 “Yes!” Enyalius cried “lesson one down. I knew you would be good at this.” He had a grin plastered from ear to ear, but I wasn’t reassured. I knew that he was going to push me to be the best, and that meant I was going to be crawling out of the arena when training was over, and I’d be hurting all over tomorrow morning.