The Forest Gods' Reign [Published]

Chapter 5: Persephone

PART 2: THE KNOWING

*****6 YEARS LATER***** (they are 15 years old now)

Clang! Ares grunted as his thick sword blade hit the golden Medusa head on my shield as I raised it up to block his swing. Taking advantage of his open position, I swung my spear down and to the left, and the tip caught in Ares's heavy armor as he stumbled backwards, just out of my reach.

Suddenly, I heard a high-pitched whinny come from somewhere above me and looked up to the dark, cloudy sky to see Zeus, atop the gleaming white horse Pegasus, spiraling down towards the small meadow, wings outstretched. In one of Zeus's rough hands was a lightning bolt, shining so white hot that it almost looked blue. His perfectly-toned muscles rippled as he threw the bolt towards the ground, aiming at no one in particular.

My vision turned completely white for a couple of seconds due to the blinding lightning, but when color finally returned, I saw Ares running straight at me again, his reddening face twisted in anger. I thought quickly and prayed silently to Zeus as I pointed my spear at Ares's chest. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning erupted from the sharp, metal tip of my spear, hitting Ares right where I had aimed. As he was blown at least thirty feet backwards, I caught sight of Poseidon on the other side of the meadow, his golden trident raised above his head, ready to bring it down any second now.

Then, as the trident's blunt end hit the ground, the earth gave a tremendous shake, and I somersaulted into the trees for cover, hoping none would fall on me. I paused, waiting for the world to stop shaking, and hid behind a tree while I caught my breath and looked around.

A battle was currently ensuing between Poseidon and Zeus, and all I could see were bright flashes of light as I felt multiple small tremors in the ground, one after another. Meanwhile, a few yards away from me, Demeter placed her arm out in front of her, her hand clenched in a fist, and a thick vine shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around Hera, squeezing her tighter and tighter, like a snake would to a mouse. All of a sudden, a flash of purple light blinded me, and when my vision cleared, I looked up to see Hera standing free again, the charred remains of the vine lying at her feet.

From across the way, Apollo shot an arrow at Aphrodite, who was standing alone out in the open, cleaning of her small dagger with the bottom of her designer work-out jacket. She ducked her pretty little head at the last second, and the arrow missed her by mere inches. "Hey! Watch the hair!" Aphrodite yelped as she smoothed down her golden locks. I rolled my eyes to myself and saw Apollo do the same.

Throughout all of this action, Hermes was running circles around the rest of the gods so fast that I could barely see him; he was just a colored blur. His battle strategy was usually to run circles around the opposition until he or she just gave up the fight.  Although I was in awe, I simply shook my head to refocus and continued surveying my opponents, but at the other side of the meadow, I saw a small flash of movement from way up in one of the tall pine trees. I recognized Artemis's blond head and grinned, certain about what she was planning to do. Sure enough, a slim wooden arrow shot out of the tree from where she was positioned and hit Hermes right on his heel, and he went tumbling to the ground. He finally stopped rolling in front of Dionysus, who tripped and fell down next to him, cursing like a sailor.

Once Dionysus had pushed himself off of the poor messenger god and moved on to join the fight against Demeter, Hermes began struggling to pull the arrow out of his dirt-covered winged shoe, even though the arrow had a pink suction cup at the tip, instead of metal or rock. We were only practicing, after all - well, all of us gods except for Hestia and Hephaestus, who usually opted not to fight. And no one was ever supposed to get seriously injured.