The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 22: Distractions

.

The rest of that afternoon was uneventful, and it passed by quickly. The next morning, the entire Olympian Council had a meeting near the edge of the forest to discuss the plans for the day. A few minutes later, we all went our separate ways to accomplish various tasks.

Connor, Camille and I headed back towards my house to hang out, while all of the other gods except for Haley and the crippled Shane headed into the woods. Since the three of us were all still in pain from our injuries, we couldn't exactly help the other gods fight off a band of bloodthirsty monsters that day. I suppose we could have asked Zach or someone else who wasn't physically damaged at the moment to accompany us, but I knew we would just make his job harder. Besides, I hated the feeling of having to be protected all the time and just being weak or insignificant in general. Therefore, the three of us gods mutually agreed that being injured sucked, especially during times of war when we would have much rather been in on the battles.

When Camille, Connor and I went inside my quiet, empty house, we collapsed on the couch in my living room and stared at the dark TV set. We were all too lazy to get up to find the remote, but unlike half of the other spoiled children in America, we could easily survive without visual electronics if we needed to. So, I slowly took my walkie-talkie off of my belt loop and set it on the coffee table in front of us before turning the volume all the way up. If we couldn't help fight in the war, at least we could stay informed.

Currently, Hermes was hanging out back at the army base camp, helping Pan teach the nymphs and satyrs some basic defense skills. Somewhere near the small meadow, Ares and Aphrodite had just taken out the minotaur and an undead warrior with their signature moves - Aphrodite using her beauty as a distraction, leaving room for Ares to suddenly attack from behind. Poseidon and Zeus also seemed unstoppable as they drenched a large dragon known as Python in seawater and then electrocuted it to death, killing it in record time. Meanwhile, Hera, Demeter and Dionysus were using guerrilla warfare techniques against a small troop of undead warriors.

I yawned, feeling restless, and leaned up against the old couch with a sigh. Artemis just snickered next to me and asked in Greek, "Is something bothering you?" Since neither of my parents were at home, it was safe to be our godly selves.

"Yes. I have a disease called pinus ponderosa deprivation," I answered her blandly, using scientific names just to sound even more intelligent than usual as I fixed my long, wavy hair, which was held up in my signature side ponytail.

The blonde twins exchanged confused glances, and then Apollo raised one eyebrow at me. "Do I even want to know what that is?"

I laughed. "Basically, it means I'm feeling deprived of our wonderful forest out there," I replied with a shrug. "But then again, I'm pretty sure I already spread the disease to you guys, so it doesn't really matter." The twins nodded in agreement, sharing an identical smirk.

"Want to go out back? I have an empty soda can begging to be shot up," I suggested after a few dull moments of idle silence. Apollo nodded eagerly and grabbed the black BB gun sitting by my back door, and he ran out into the yard without another word.

A few minutes later, Apollo and I were taking turns shooting at the can, sending it flying a few more feet backwards each time with a small pinging noise. Artemis was watching us from the porch, munching on a red apple she had stolen from the fruit basket on my kitchen table, and she was making guesses as to which one of us would be able to hit the soda can the most times. But Artemis was probably the second smartest out of all the gods (at least intellectually), so she picked the goddess of wisdom/war/skills and won the bet against herself. Apollo didn't seem to care that he was losing, since he knew he could have beaten me with a bow and a few arrows at any time or place.