Continuing with the tour, they went towards the stables.
“Aeron, I have to warn you about this next girl. She is as pretty as can be on the outside, but she is the most competitive person you’ll ever meet.” Jack warned him. “She’s nice one minute and cruel the next. Stay away from her if you know what’s good for you.”
“Ok, I get it. Look, don’t touch. Actually, avoid looking if you can.” he said.
“That’s right!” Jack said, clapping him on the shoulder.
Continuing their trek to the stables, Jack started describing the creatures that were kept in the stables. “For the most part, all we have are griffins in there. Griffins are our main mode of transportation. As a matter of fact, we are taking the griffins out for a trip in just a couple of weeks on a trip to partially clear out a nest of giant spiders called Arachnates.”
“Wait, why partially?”
“So that—” he stopped, they had just arrived at the stables. “I’ll tell you later.”
Heading into the stables, they were greeted by a skinny girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sharp, angular face.
“Hello, Jack and…” She paused, searching, “I don’t know you.”
Speaking up, Jack introduced them. “Lacy, this is Aeron Paterson. Aeron, this is Lacy Crewel.”
“Hello, nice to meet you, Lacy,” he said, extending his hand.
She sniffed disdainfully at the proffered hand, and turning her head up, said: “I don’t shake hands with dogs.”
His eyes widening, he quickly retracted his hand.
“Well, I’ll be going now. I have to practice.” She said. “You both should practice too because I don’t to be on a losing team three years in a row, and especially not on our home turf.”
After she pranced out of the stables Aeron turned towards Jack and started asking his questions “What were you saying outside? Who are her godly relations? What is she even doing here if she is so competitive? And what was that about a losing team?”
“Whoa whoa whoa!! Slow down. Now, we partially clear them out so that we can do it regularly as a practical exercise. Her mother is Aphrodite and she is descended from Nemesis, Goddess of Revenge, and Nike, Goddess of Victory. She was here to care for her griffin because she’s made even that into a challenge. As for the team, she was talking about The Tournament of the Gods. It is happening next year, between all the schools for demigods, and we have been chosen to host it.”
“What’s so special about the Tournament of the Gods?”
“Well, The winners get to participate in the Tournament of Pantheons. The people competing in the arena can’t die either, to make sure that we don’t drive ourselves extinct. There is also the fact that the champions from both tournaments have the right to ask the gods for one reasonable favor. Plus, you get bragging rights. The Egyptians have won the last four tournaments, and no-one wants them to win again this year.”
“Pantheons?”
“Yes, the world was divided among the different pantheons. North America went to the Greek Pantheon, South America to the Native Americans, Europe to the Irish, Australia to the Aborigines, Africa to the Egyptians, Antarctica to the Norse, and Asia has all of the others, due to them being mostly dormant.”
“Ok, next stop, Treasury.”
It turned out that the treasury was hidden in the mine.
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At the treasury, they met the next teacher.
It was a middle-aged man who was moving the gold around, completely without touching it.
Hearing them enter, he turned around, revealing eyes that appeared to be made of solid gold. With a wide smile, he introduced himself. “Hi, I’m John Aurea, but you can call me John. Or really anything but Mr. Aurea” he said with no small amount of enthusiasm. Continuing in a conspiratorial whisper, he said, “I’m a demigod son of Chrysus, the spirit of gold.”
“Oookay. I’m Aeron Paterson, and who knows who I’m descended from.” Aeron responded.
“Is Tim here?” Jake asked.
“Oh, yes,” John said, waving to create a path through the gold. “He’s in the back.”
“Tim is the son of Harpocrates, the god of silence,” Jack told him.
“Nobody knows his last name, owing to the fact that he is almost always completely sil—” Jack’s voice cut off, though his mouth kept on moving. Actually, all sound had stopped
Surprised, Aeron turned toward the end of the passage. Standing there was a young boy who was about seven years old, standing next to another boy who looked to be about 20 years old. The older boy walked over and lead them back down the passageway until they reached a point where sound returned.
“Hi, I’m Sam Young.”
“This is Aeron,” Jack interjected. “Aeron, you are currently looking at the oldest human on the planet. Sam is approaching his 150th birthday.”
“And yet, I still have around a hundred years left in me,” Sam said.
“H-How?”
“I’m a son of Hebe, God of Youth. It means that I have more life in me and that I will never appear to be older than 30.” Sam responded.
“The last person to meet is Draco. He’ll probably be at the archery range with Orthrin, our dog.”
As they approached the archery range, a small, black, two-headed dog came running up to them, holding an arrow in each mouth.
Dropping to a knee, Jack opened his arms to catch the dog. “Hi, Orithin!”
“Orithin is a… miniature poodle?”
“Yes,” Jack said, standing up holding Orithin.
“And why is he carrying arrows?”
“Archery practice. We shoot the arrows and Orithin retrieves them, sometimes even catching them out of the air.” Jack replied, continuing to lead them towards the archery range.
They arrived just in time to see three arrows hit three different targets in the bullseye, one after another.
Looking for the archers, the only person that he saw was a buff looking guy who looked to be about 17 years old and was holding a darkly colored metal bow that seemed to almost attract shadows to it.
Seeing them, the older boy walked over.
“Hey, here for some archery practice?” the boy asked.
“Aeron, Draco Archer. Draco, Aeron Paterson.” Jack quickly introduced them.
“Sure, I’ll try my hand at some archery,” he said, eyeing the bow curiously.
Seeing his interest, Draco explained it “My grandfather, Apollo, wanted to give me a glowing golden bow, but my great-grandfather on the other side of the family, Ares, protested and insisted that it would be too obvious at night, so he gave me a bow made of primordial iron and shadow steel, along with two-dozen dragon bone arrows with phoenix feather fletching and arrowheads made with the shavings of dark unicorn horns.”
“What’s special about the arrows and bow?” Aeron asked as he went to retrieve a bow.
“The arrows are able to turn whatever they hit into a boiling liquid, and the bow imbues the arrows that it shoots with chaotic energies so that they rip reality apart where they land,” Draco replied.
Choosing a bow that was listed to have a twenty-pound draw weight, he picked a random set of arrows as he puzzled over how safe those arrows could really be
His concern must have shown on his face, because Draco laughed, saying, “Don’t worry, reality repairs itself instantly!”
Jack took this time to dismiss himself, saying that he needed to practice at the main arena.
Bringing the bow and arrows that he had chosen to the shooting line, he tried to figure out how to shoot.
Coming over, Draco stopped him, “Whoa, slow down, you haven’t even gotten a wrist and finger guard.” He said, bringing him over to two tubs near where he got his bow.
Retrieving what looked like a pair of leather gauntlets from one of the bins, Draco had him try them on.
“The long leather piece along the wrist protects you from the string as it whips forward, and the fingertips are reinforced to allow you to pull the string back all the way,” he explained.
Once they reached the shooting line, Draco demonstrated how to hold the bow and what stance to have. He also learned how far to pull the string, how soon to release, and how best to aim.
He ended up spending the rest of the day there, and by the end of the day, he was able to hit the two-foot target 4 out of 5 times.
After they packed up the archery equipment, Draco called after him, “Hey, meet me at the arena tomorrow and we’ll see how quickly you can pick up sword fighting!”
When he got back to his apartment, he had barely enough time to realize that a book had appeared on his previously empty shelves before he crashed in the bed.