33 The early bird gets the demigod
{1 month later}
{Mali Land of Birds, February 18th 2000}
"Yawn" I yawned as I left my makeup tent which I had built at the spot where Koussai and his tribesmen had said the Stymphalian Birds would fly over.
It had been almost a month since I had arrived here and I had seen no heads or tails of the man eating birds. Honestly the only thing that kept me from being bored were the almost daily rainbow calls I received from either Thalia or my dad.
Speaking of I couldn't help but think as a rainbow of Mist started forming in front of me and four figures appeared two girls, a boy and a beautiful goat (at least that is what she bleated).
"Hey Odysseus." The smallest of the girls, Annabeth who had joined Thalia's group a few weeks said excitedly as she saw me, she always seemed excited when it came to Iris messages.
"Hello Annabeth." I replied to the excited you girl who was actually only two years younger than me. "No birds yet?" Thalia asked probably noticing my slightly fallen expression.
"No sight of them." I sighed at her words. 'Don't worry dude I am sure you will spot them sooner or later." Luke said consicely, the boy who had previously annoyed me from his aura alone slowly growing on me though something about him still felt slightly off.
Our conversation continued on talking about frivolous things like what we had for dinner yesterday or how fucking cold the dessert got at night, after an hour I decided to end the call since Iris was probably stressing herself out keeping our message up for so long.
As the hours went by I continued doing my usual routine, basically eating pringles cans in my tent while reading some books I had grabbed before I had left from camp. Then at the edge of my sight I caught onto something huge birds with a wingspan spamming 4 meters, sharp claws and beaks.
I smiled at their approach and whispered at myself "Finally." I quickly left my tent, the tent then submerging into my shadow with everything inside it as well.
I sunk my hands inside my shadow grabbing two items, slowly I retrieved them my bow and my quiver filled with arrows. "Let's do this." I said in excitement as I strapped my quiver to my back while the impending flock approached.
I grabbed an arrow from my quiver and knocked it on my bow, I streamed drawing my bowstring slowly but surely while the flock approached, I reached full draw and with a final breath I angled my bow and released the arrow.
-WHOOSH-
The arrow sliced through the air, a silent harbinger of death for the Stymphalian Birds. The first bird fell, yet before it crashed into thes sandy floor it evaporated into thin air going back into Tartarus, a weird cracking sound echoing through my being.
The flock at the sudden death of one of its brethren squawked in anger and confusion, before they could attack me I knocked another arrow, it sliced through the air hitting another giant bird, again the same cracking echoed throughout my body.
The birds flapped their wings at me, a hurricane of metallic feathers falling from the sky, I quickly summoned my shadow tendrils from my own shadow blocking the metallic feathers aiming to kill me, I knocked another arrow and let it fly, another bird fell, once again the cracking sound rung.
The battle raged on, I continued shooting down birds with my arrows each time a cracking sound even louder echoing through my body, while I blocked their range attacks with the help of my tendrils and my hoodie which lit up to defend me when the feathers were able to overcome my tendrils.
The sound of breaking chains reverberated across my body as the sixth bird fell, its metallic feathers clattering to the ground, before disintegrating. In a moment of shock and confusion, my tendrils began to transform before my very eyes, shifting and twisting into unfamiliar shapes.
But there was no time for wonder as another barrage of razor-sharp feathers rained down upon me. With newfound instinct, I raise one of my tendrils, except it wasn't a tendril it was a shield construct made from my own shadow to protect myself.
Something remarkable happened my tendrils seem to have evolved in this chaotic battle, at this new power I couldn't help but think of the Calydonian Boar and the power I seemed to have developed in the midst of battle against it.
"This is awesome." I couldn't help but say as I said aloud. I started fidgeting with my newest powers in the distance of battle, they seemed to respond to my thoughts and desires, shifting and transforming at will.
When I needed defense, they became impenetrable shields; when I wanted to attack, they morphed into deadly spears with sharpened tips.
With a surge of determination, I commanded my shadows to attack independently for the first time ever. Without being tethered to my own body (shadow), they soared through the air, piercing through multiple Stymphalian Birds with ease. A sense of exhilaration overtook me as I realize the full extent of my newest power.
"You're cooked." I said with a wolffish grin as I saw with the ease with which my newly unlocked power killed these mythical beings.
The remaining members of the flock squalled at me in fury and resignation, but I just knocked an arrow onto my bow as I thought of spears forming from my shadow. Then I released my arrows and at the same time the shadowy giant spears flew from my sides impaling the giant birds.
I continued my barrage of arrows and shadow spears at the birds, slowly dwindling their numbers until only one was left, with a final grieving squawk the bird sent its metallic feathers at me as I let an arrow fly from my bow.
My arrow, flew true piercing the moving bird's eye, just as I was about to celebrate my victory I felt a cold, metallic feeling pass through my cheek, I slowly lifted my hand up to my cheek, and touched it.
While I couldn't see the color of blood, I could still feel the slice on my cheek and the bloch of darker liquid on my hand. "Okay Odysseus, that was close." I huffed.
As the final bird evaporated into the air, a drowsy feeling I had felt two times before started overcoming me, my eyes started closing and soon I fell unconscious onto the sandy ground.
{Odysseus Dreamscape, Time Unkown}
"Hello once again son." My godly parent Erebus spoke as the usual hundreds of eyes around vibrated slightly at his primordial voice.
"Yeah, hi father, let's get down to business what is my next labor?" I asked one of the bigger eyes around me.
"Well I would have liked to talk more to you, but if that is what you want." My father's voice rung out once again.
"For your third labor you will need to capture the Ceryneian Hind, a sacred deer of Artemis that can outrun an arrow. Your newest labor is based on a hunt of Actaeon." My father's voice reverberated across the infinite space.
"The dude who was turned into a deer by Artemis for peeping on her accidentally while she was bathing and was then eaten by his own wolves." I asked my father since I was starting to see a pattern on my labors.
"The very same." Erebus' replied, "Ok could you answer one of my questions are my labors just going to be repeats of labors previously done by students of Chiron." I asked my godly parent.
"Whaaaat! Noooo, you are definitely just reading way too much into it." My father spluttered. I looked at one of the bigger eyes suspiciously.
"Don't think about it too much, now onto your hint you will find Artemis' sacred deer in a European region where the red deer is located." My father said in a quick manner as if he were trying to change the subject from before.
"Ok, the hints you are giving me are getting worse every time, like with the Calydonian Boar I at least had a concrete clue of where it was but the red deer is almost in every region of Europe that isn't helpful." I whined slightly at my godly parent.
"I can't give you anymore clues, that is the most I can do for you." My father replied as I sunk into the shadowy floor, like I had a few times before.
{Mali Land of Birds, February 18th 2000}
My eyes sprung open from my newest 'talk' with my godly father. "Ok Odysseus think, let's think for a second." I said aloud as I started searching into my small amount of knowledge on Greek stories.
I started pacing back and forth recalling every story about Artemis and her sacred deers.
According to the most probable story the Ceryneian Hind was one of the five huge deers with golden antlers and bronze hooves, given to Artemis by the nymph Taygete given to her because Artemis saved the nymph from the pursuit of Zeus.
'That isn't much help.' I thought moving on to the next story. Not much is known from Actaeon's Hunt, but in Heracles' labor it is said that the hunt begun in Oenoë then to mount Artemisium in Argolis, and thence to the river Ladon in Arcadia, where in its exhaustion Heracles was finally able to capture it.
"Let's see Öenoe was a small island located in the northwest so in Europe what would be an island in the northwest which also has red deer." I said aloud. "
"England!" I exclaimed as the realization came to me.
"Ok onto the next part mount Artemisium in Argolis, was a place almost in the middle of Greece with a temple of Artemis at its summit, in Europe a place in the center that has a lot of wildlife and therefore a place where Artemis would be welcomed would be, France it has a lot of wildlife when it comes to wolves and is almost at the center." I concluded.
"Onto the final part of the story, the Ladon river in Arcadia. It was said to be located at the top of the mountaintops and slowly went down a slope into an eastern sea, a place in Europe located at the south with mountains and rivers that leads into the Mediterranean is the Pyrenees in Spain." I said a huge grin forming on my face as I finished my conclusion.
"Ok then that means I will have three main places to look through, England; France and Spain.Lets do this." I finished saying as I started following the Mist Road back to Abidjan.
[Greek Mythos Fact: Today's fact is the two beginnings of the universe to show how different information of the same pantheon can be.
Theogony: In this story the beginning of the world started from nothingness, from that nothingness Khaos was born and from it 5 primordials were born Gaia(Earth), Eros(Attraction), Tartarus, Nyx(Night), Erebus(Darkness). Ouranos(Sky) is a son of Gaia who is equal to her.
Orphic Traditions:From nothingness two beings were born Hydros(Water) and Gaia(Earth) from them two more primordials were born Ananke(Compulsion/Necessity) and Kronos(Time) these two beings who were both represented as winged serpents crushed the primal egg of creation dividing the universe into heaven, earth and sea. Ananke's and Kronos offspring are Khaos(Chaos), Aither(Aether) and Phanes(Creation).
If you guys wanna know more about this (like offspring of certain primordials) definitely ask any questions you have in their respective beginnings of the universe XD]
