The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 4: The Rest of the Gods

This is the last chapter of them as kids. The rest of the book  will have a little more romance since they will be teens, but don't worry, it will still be cool! Just so you know...

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Zach, Connor, Luke, Alicia, Shane, Camille, and I continued trudging through the forest along the narrow paths covered with dead leaves and thick tree roots. We were now heading west towards the rushing river to introduce Alicia, Shane and Camille to Pan. I was interested to see how they would react to meeting him, since he would be the first mythical creature they would meet, besides the oracle, if you counted her.

Eventually we walked out onto the damp riverbank, and we followed the river north for a ways, until it flowed around a bend and suddenly dropped off at a small waterfall, where the water collected in a small, deep pool, before slowly continuing on its course. This was the only place in which the river had almost no current, so it was a popular swimming area for water nymphs, as well as Pan's preferred hangout.

We then stumbled down the steep hill and the waterfall and turned to face the pool. There were currently two nymphs, wearing bikinis made of leaves and long blades of grass, swimming lazily through the cool water, with their long, brown hair flowing out behind them. I could tell that they were both water nymphs because of the slight blue tinges to their skin color. Tree nymphs, on the other hand, tended to have very light, greenish tinges.

Meanwhile, Pan was eating grapes and sitting on a makeshift throne made of large rocks covered with soft, bright green moss that he had collected from nearby pine trees. The way Pan was splayed out across all of the rocks made it look as if he were tanning his bare chest, but it was actually pretty dark because the pool was so well covered by trees that formed a sort of shade tent, catching the rays of sunlight before they could reach us.

When the seven of us stopped, both of the nymphs and Pan looked up, curiously staring at us in surprise. Although seeing Zach, Luke, Connor, and I there was definitely not uncommon, seeing three new people was.

It was silent for a moment as Pan stroked his chin, carefully studying Camille, Alicia and Shane one at a time. Then, without even looking at them, he ordered the nymphs, "Leave us." Quickly, the two nymphs heaved themselves up and out of the water, and then they walked away barefooted, trying to wring the water out of their long hair. Even though Pan was younger than most nymphs and some satyrs, they all knew who he was and who we were.

"Let me guess," Pan started again, and he pushed himself off his rock throne and brushed bits of moss off of his hairy goat legs. Then he pointed in turn to Shane, Camille and Alicia, "Hephaestus, Artemis...and Hera." When Zach nodded to show that the guesses were right, Pan stuck out his hand to each of them. "Pan, god of the wild, at your service." He even did a little bow. Although he was, indeed, a god, Pan was only a minor god; he did not sit on the Olympian Council of the twelve most powerful ones.

I watched Camille, Shane and Alicia closely as they shook Pan's rough hand in mild shock. They were all staring at his goat legs, slightly bewildered. I smirked, remembering how it felt meeting Pan for the first time. Then I did a small cough to get Zach's attention and nodded toward Pan.

"Oh, right," he said. "So, we were on our way over here and suddenly the Oracle of Delphi shows up and-"

Zach was interrupted by Pan, "Ah, she finally told you the prophecy. Yeah, she told it to me after you four first showed up in the forest." He looked at Zach, Connor, Luke and I in confusion before asking, "You've really never met her before?" We shook our heads and Pan shrugged, not worried at all. "Oh well, anything else?" We all shook our heads again, and Pan checked his wrist, as if there were a watch, then said chuckling, "Well, I have to go catch up with those nymphs again. Come back when you find more gods." With that, Pan winked at us and trotted off in the direction that the two nymphs had gone. A lot of help he was. Not.