Herculean

Κεφάλαιο I Μέρος I

The clear rivers of Mount Olympus sparkled at my feet like the rarest cut diamonds. Kneeling at the bank, I sifted the chilly water through my hands, splashing my face. My boots and gear were dirty, my feet were tired, and the trail was cold.

"Skata," I cursed, rising as I squinted up the valley, where the trees of the Living Forest loomed ahead. The kidnapper had stopped here, using the river as his path into the woods. He had made far faster time than I, which was out of the ordinary, but came as no surprise considering the well-sized footprints he left behind. His odd dimensions also explained how he made off from the village with six children at once.

Behind me, the north and southern suns were setting; ahead, the shadows stretched tall. It would be well past nightfall before I caught up–and that was only if I ran. 

Fuck running. It was time to fly.

I whistled through my fingers, searching the heavens for tell-tale signs. He never kept me waiting...

Pegasus burst through the cloud cover, a white speck growing larger against the backdrop of the gray sky. Descending at breakneck speed, his vast wings were spread to their full extent, beating the air in sweeping arcs. The last of his kind, the proud horse touched down with an impatient snort. Folding his bright wings, he trotted to my side and tossed his head, mane and tale flowing in the wind, white as his glossy coat.

"I didn't wait for you--I know, boy, I know. But there was no time to waste and there isn't any now." Mounting with fluid ease, I double-clicked through my teeth, urging him onward. "Let's go, Peg! To the forest! Yah!"

Headed for the trees, Pegasus took off in a gallop. His wings spread, his hooves left the ground, and there came that familiar sensation of my stomach dropping as our bodies rose in the air. Peg picked up speed, my arms gripping his strong neck as I leaned into the whistling wind.

Pegasus rose and dipped like the setting suns, hooves skimming the radiant stream as we used the last light to gain on the monster waiting in the forest.

Night had fallen.

The many moons were turning in an ink-black sky when Pegasus descended at a tree line dark and foreboding as the mouth of a cavern. Pegasus, excellent a tracker as any beast, had touched down right where the footsteps picked up.

Dismounting, I patted his head in fond thanks.

"Good, boy, very good. Now run home; tell old Imran to give you carrots. Then come back with a few friends, eh?"

Butting his head affectionately against my hand, Pegasus whinnied in agreement then set off the way he came. I watched him go, then turned back to the forest. Lightning crackled across my body as I unsheathed my sword - a silver bolt glowing at my hip.

A gift from Perseus himself, the divine sword, Harpe, once used against Medusa, was now my guide through the forest. Casting its blinding rays on any foul thing to show its evil face, it kept the darkness at bay as I drove deep into the heart of the woods, fighting the twisting vines and creeping roots of the Living Forest. The kidnapper wasn't difficult to track. His size and proportion had left behind a wide trail of destruction, the forest desperately repairing itself in his wake. Once I smelled wood-smoke, the ground shaking and rumbling in small quakes, I knew I was close.