Swimming

After weeks of training, the group of students were wearing swimming clothes in front of the Cocytus River while Geras gave the next orders.

“Water events are common in the Olympics, let's see what you can do.”

It didn't take long for the group to jump into the river. They were grateful to be in Cocytus, even though it was known as the river of lamentations, they did not imagine having that class on any of the other rivers.

If the group was already distracted normally, in the water concentrating became much more difficult. Momus threw water on the others until he was sunk by Angela, who had no difficulty dominating the boy's small body.

Hypnos floated the water with a peaceful smile on his face. Mac noticed Thanatos' irritation and tried to convince him to enjoy the river. Even Oizys, Ask and Mel were chatting amicably closer to the shore.

“Stop it already! Let's practice!” But the party could barely hear Geras on the bank. It was then that a new voice emerged from the river, calm and mature, startling the students.

“Come on, kids, it's time for class now.”

A man emerged from the middle of the river, bald and rotund. He wore a blue robe that seemed to melt with the water, had a huge smile and small eyes. Everyone swam away from the strange man.

“Cocytus?” asked Ask.

“But of course, after all I am the river. How are your parents, Ascalaphus?”

The river didn't seem to care about the group's reaction and kept showing its goofy smile.

“They are fine?”

“Wonderfull! So kids, are you ready to swim?”

Being next to this man was uncomfortable for the students, who stopped being distracted to focus on the class. They followed Geras' instructions, swimming in circles, always speeding up if Cocytus approached.

“These children are a blast” said the laughing river.

“They're spoiled brats! Do you think this will win the Olympics?”

Just like in the race, Thanatos, Angela and Mac were the best. Momus, despite his energy, was very easily distracted, and could not keep up with the three, while the rest were insufficient in their performances.

“I can make things more fun.”

As soon as the river spoke, the water began to swirl, trapping the students in a whirlpool.

“The challenge now is to swim to escape!” announced Cocytus, which made the students question the real reason for his smile.

The force of the water was greater than they could bear. Hypnos automatically gave up and spun around on his pillow-floater. Mac looked back and saw the difficulty everyone was having. In front of her, Thanatos and Angela seemed to advance little by little.

Mac didn't want to be left behind or lose to either of them, and she did her best to keep up. At the same time, she felt the enormous force of the river pulling her towards the center.

Her muscles were at the limit, even with divine blood that test proved too much for her skills and she ended up being taken as the duo in front of her escaped.

She clashed with the other students who had accepted their fate at the center of the whirlpool. Without much delay, the water calmed down and those who were pulled could barely balance in the water, feeling the world spin.

Thanatos and Angela swam side by side, both showing the tiredness of the activated one, but with a proud smile on their faces.

“Total disappointment! Do you think the other gods will be as pathetic as you are? You've been training for a month already! It's time to show results!”

Mac wasn't bothered by Geras' comments, she was just trying to understand Thanatos and Angela's conversation.

“I think we're going to have to include swimming in our training,” said Thanatos, “I almost didn't make it.”

“How can you say that if you were in front of me the whole time? But I agree, we can come here this weekend to swim.”

“What are you talking about?” Mac asked, trying not to look uncomfortable.

“We train on the weekends. We just ran actually,” Thanatos explained.

“And why wasn't I invited? We also train together here, I can get much better on the scythe with extra lessons.”

Angela was realizing the direction of the conversation, but her conscience was clear.

“I called you to participate, about three times. I don't think you even heard.”

The princess just hadn't accepted it because she didn't know that Thanatos was also participating, but she couldn't say it out loud and tried to be indifferent.

“So that's why you won in the swimming. Maybe it's good for me to participate.”

Although Angela liked more people participating, she felt that Mac was just bringing their problem into one of the few activities she had in peace.

Before the conversation continued, a bald head appeared in the center of their circle and Cocytus showed himself to the trio with his usual smile.

“Very good! Whenever you want to enjoy my waters, feel free to enter, and if you want to try to face the whirlpool again, just ask.”

The presence of the river bothered the three who swam to shore pretending to be for another reason.

On the ground, the others were dizzy and trying to recover as they received words of reproach from Geras.

“We only have three months of classes, you must try harder! And I don't remember telling anyone to get out of the water. You will swim from shore to shore until I say stop!”

With complaints, they returned to the water and, already without strength and morale, they did a terrible job. The ones who seemed to give more effort were Angela and Mac who competed with each other, even though they were both exhausted as well.

At the end of the day everyone was lying on the grass around the school, without strength for anything else.

“C- for you all. You need to get to at least an A- by the end of the season, do you hear me?”

Not even Momus could answer and Geras abandoned the students and returned to his residence.

Thanatos was the first to get up, looking at his team with some disappointment.

“I know Geras isn't delicate, but he's right, we need to improve a lot.”

“We're doing our best,” replied Angela, still lying down.

The god of death looked at his comrades and couldn't completely disagree. Although not everyone was giving their all, most of them tried to make an effort.

“That might not be a good thing, our best just isn't good enough.”

The group didn't immediately have an answer for Thanatos, until Momus stood up shaking his maracas.

“I think morale might help, we should rest this weekend, maybe do something together. I haven't seen explosions on the Phlegethon for a long time.”

Momus' music revived energy for his colleagues who seemed to appreciate a moment of relaxation.

“I was going to suggest just the opposite. We need to train on the weekend too. Me, Angela and Mac have already accepted, we need everyone together in this.”

Angela put her hand on Thanatos' shoulder trying to make him understand.

“I still want to train, but I agree that's all we've been doing lately. Maybe relaxing a little would be good for all of us... after we run.”

He wasn't happy with the decision.

“Let's do this: We're all going to train, when we finish we can camp on the banks of the Phlegeton to balance things out.”

“Yes! And then we'll all become great friends! Great idea,” replied Momus.

Hypnos, who was talking while lying on his floating pillow, did not look happy.

“Too much work, I function better resting in a dark place. I was thinking of seeing some movies this weekend.”

Oizys tried to speak louder than costume for them to listen.

“I do not want too…”

Thanatos was bothered by the duo's decision, but managed to convince the majority and decided that he would leave it at that.

“If you want, we can watch the movie together,” Hypnos said to Oizys, “if you don't have anything better to do.”

When she realized that everyone in the circle was looking at her, Oizys turned red instantly.”

“Ah… I don't know… I'll think…”

With each word her voice lowered until it became inaudible.

“Great, if this works out we can do it again in the next few weeks. A little training with a little relaxation.”

Despite the words, Thanatos was not completely satisfied with the situation and thus ended the group conversation.