Another Class on Hindu Myths?

Nothing special happened for the rest of the day. I spent the day fooling around with Cally and Olivia. I had them exempted from their normal tasks by using the special privileges I received after begging Chiron. We went for a short picnic along with Artemis, then had both of them train a bit under me and Artemis. Artemis, being Apollo's sister, was able to guide Cally's powers and her archery skills.

We started with Cally's archery skills. Artemis made her shoot arrows towards a moving target, aka me. I was supposed to move randomly while she tried to shoot me, while also using her foresight ability. She was often given breaks from this in which she used her healing ability to heal all the shots that hit me.

While Cally was practising archery, I made sure, Olivia had something to do as well. I was thinking of making Olivia do what Luke made me do when I was a newbie but I decided on some new upgrades. I called upon Mrs O'Leary to act as a pseudo spar buddy for Olivia.

Once we decided it was time for Olivia to rest, I switched to Olivia. We took her to the lake. We went for a swim. Cally and Artemis stayed on the creak, while I took Olivia way deeper. I figured it would be best that she practices the powers of Poseidon underwater to maximise efficiency. We practised for a couple of hours and when we came back to the surface, Artemis and Cally were already out of the lake.

For the final practice, we decided it was best to just pit them against Mrs O'Leary. I wanted to fight them myself but Artemis said it would just depreciate their morale considering I was in the Leagues of Gods at this point.

It surprised me to see that together they paired surprisingly well. Cally provided excellent range support to Olivia who had natural melee prowess. Olivia was managing to avoid hits from the hellhound while also making sure the agro stayed on her while she kept attacking. Once Cally felt it was time, she used her light skills to create images of Olivia, which confused the dog and allowed Olivia to land the finishing blow.

Since both of them were tired, Artemis sent them off to wash up. "Their growth rate is amazing. They would be considered prodigies," Artemis remarked. I nodded. "Even though they were using wooden weapons, they dealt quite some damage to Old Mrs O'Leary," I said, patting the tank sized dog after I finished healing her. "Off you go, buddy. Give my hi to Nico in the underworld."

As the hellhound left, Artemis and I walked towards the camp, hand in hand. "I wish this would all come to an end." I sighed. "I finally had a somewhat stable and happy life. I even had people to call a family. Then that bastard Chaos decided to show up. He took my parents, and now we are stuck in this stupid mess."

Artemis hit her head. "Oh no! I forgot about your parents, how are you not worried about them?" She asked frantically. I smiled a bit and patted her. "It's normal that you might have forgotten about them, I barely mention them or their disappearance. And along with all the weird stuff that has been going on these days, things like that would easily escape the thought."

Artemis pulled me into a hug, "Still, sorry." I hugged her back. We walked to the Big House, we saw a couple of figures waiting for us. There was Chiron, Vishnu and Brahma standing. Those two Gods are always working, aren't they? I wondered. I wish our gods would also be at least half this hardworking.

"You are forgetting that for the two Gods who work tirelessly, Hindu Gods also have hundreds of gods who are chilling around with the rest of the Greeks" Artemis defended, reading my mind. I flushed.

"Did we make you wait long?" Artemis asked, still smirking slightly from earlier. Vishnu shook his head, "we weren't here long and we saw you children practising so we decided to sit around for some tea with Old Chiron and share memories." Did I mention that even though they look like they are in their late twenties, they are still old or older than the Gaia?

"Anyway, children, come in we need to give you some data about India before you go," Brahma said waving towards the big house.

Once we settled in, Vishnu started explaining. "You see, as we have told you before, we have no idea where Hanuman is. He has been underground ever since Kaliyuga started. None of us has seen him or found any traces of him."

"Could you at least tell me who Hanuman is and why is it so necessary to find him first?" I asked, completely perplexed.

"We'll explain everything." Brahma nodded with all four of his heads.

"Hanuman is considered an avatar or incarnation of Lord Shiva's Rudra form," Brahma started. "Yes, yes, Rudra has been manipulated to Chaos' side, but that is all the more reason to have Hanuman on our side. He is, after all, the General of the vanara army."

I am so confused. What's the vanara army? Why has Hanuman not defected? Why is Hindu mythology so confusing? My confusion could probably be seen on my face because Vishnu quickly started clearing all my doubts.

"You met my incarnation, Ram, didn't you? He descended onto Earth back in the Treta Yuga. He was the embodiment of the perfect Man. He didn't lie, he didn't cheat, and he was a good son, a good husband and a good king. Because he was a good son, he accepted his father's words for fourteen years of exile because his father was manipulated by his stepmother. During that exile, Ravana, the rakshasa king of Lanka, abducted his wife in hopes to make her his own. To save his wife, Ram travelled to the south, which is Lanka or as you might know it, Sri Lanka, to save his wife. During this period, he met Sugreeva, the king of the Vanaras and Hanuman, the general of the Vanara army. Hanuman is the son of the wind god Vayu and is immortal. He was also the biggest devotee of Rama. When Rama decided it was time to leave the Bhu-Loka or the Earth, Hanuman decided to go into hiding and has been hiding since." Vishnu sighed. "Well he was seen twice after that couple millennia later during the events of Mahabharata, but that is more or less it."

I rubbed my forehead. I had just been given too much information at once. Artemis patted my shoulder then looked at the two gods, "But could you perhaps explain what a vanara is?"

Brahma nodded. "You see, Vanara is something pretty hard to explain to someone who hasn't seen one. The best we could do is tell you what Vanara means literally. Vanara when translated from Sanskrit translates to monkey or forest-dwellers. You could say they look similar to that."

"But you said two things, similar to which one?" I questioned.

"Yes."

"What?" What in the world is that supposed to mean.

"You'll know when you see it," Brahma smiled. "Now let me tell you details about the current problem."

Artemis and I nodded.

"As we said, Hanuman has been missing for several millennia, but that doesn't mean we'll ask you to search the entire country. I would suggest you look for him where I, as Rama, found him. In Kishkindha," Vishnu started. "But no point looking at a map because of course, Kishkindha no longer exists on the map, but you should look around its original location around the river Tungabhadra. It's down in the south in the state of Karnataka."

Brahma then gave the final words. "We would have sent you via a ship because it would have been convenient for you, but considering the recent events and how less time we have, it would be better to just take the plane on this one. We can't teleport you there as that would just mean declaring your location to Chaos and Kali. Take at least four more people with you, and try to pick people you trust this time, as this time not only do you have to be careful, but you also need to pose as a tourist family from the USA."

I looked at him questioning look. "Oh don't worry, if you go as a tourist you'll basically be treated like Gods," Vishnu said winking at me. "Also remember the monkeys."

With that, the gods shook hands with Chiron and took their leave, leaving me a little puzzled about what Vishnu meant.