Daughter of Wisdom

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

“It’s huge,” I gasped. He looked over at me and grinned,

“You bet it is. Just as many decedents of Gods and Goddesses here as there are people in Los Angeles.”

I felt my jaw pop as I stared at the city in astonishment,

“Nuh uh.”

“Yeah huh,” he laughed. “You might want to hold on again though, the landing can be a little more . . . surprising than the takeoff.”

I eyed the back of his head,

“What do you mean ‘surprising’?” I asked skeptically.

“Just hold on tight, okay?” his voice masked his hidden smile and he grabbed my arms again, wrapping them around his waist tight. “Hold on!” he yelled as we started to plummet towards Earth.

I couldn’t even scream. The air flew past me so fast that my ears popped and my breath caught in my throat. The earth kept coming closer and closer. I closed my eyes and death gripped Ryan’s waste.

“Woo!” he yelled, laughing. Suddenly I felt the air stop, but that didn’t stop me from holding so tight to Ryan that it who probably bruise any other guy who didn’t have his muscle equivalent.

I probably just got used to the feeling of the air passing, aka I am so not taking the chance of looking up.

“Hey, we landed,” he said in a quiet voice. I looked up quickly.

“Oh . . . um . . .” I immediately let go of his waste and sat up as straight as possible. The Pegasus now stood in a huge green field.

“This is where we land all the Pegasi,” Ryan explained. I nodded as he dismounted, making a quite audible thud as his feet hit the ground. I swung my leg over then just starred at the ground. “C’mon, it’s not that hard, I’ll catch you if you want.”

“Um, no, I’m fine . . . I think.” I gulped as I starred at the ground. I currently did not like heights right now. Not that I was afraid of them or anything, but after the dream I have been having, they seem more threating than usual. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I kept my eyes closed I slid from the horse and to the ground. I felt the air escape my lungs with an “oof” and my knees buckled. Strong arms caught and helped me up before I actually fell to the ground. I looked up into Ryan’s face. A smirk was playing at his lips and his eyes seemed to twinkle. I pursed my lips and looked down as I felt the heat rising into my cheeks. I steadied myself and brushed of my dark wash, nearly black skinny jeans.

Don’t look into his eyes. Don’t look into his eyes. Don’t look into his eyes.    

“Where are we?” I asked looking around. It was a beautiful meadow and Black Caller seemed to enjoy himself as he grazed.

“New Athens-”

“No, I know that, I mean, what state are we in? If we’re still even in the same country . . .” I muttered.

“We are still in Washington.”

“Then how do normal humans not know about this place? Is it like that “mist” thing in the Percy Jackson series?”

His eyebrows rose nearly to his hair line, not that I could see it of course.

“I don’t know who this Percy Jackson kid is, or what the “mist” stuff is either, but humans can’t see because New Athens is almost like an alternate dimension. The Gods had us built this for half-gods and their children and so on and then they surrounded it in this sort of bubble like thing so no ordinary human can see it. If you were to be on the ground on the outside of it and walked through, you would just appear on the other side of the barrier. Humans, obviously, can’t enter New Athens. Unless given permission by one of the Gods or Goddesses, or by  the leader of New Athens.”