The Festival of the Gods - Day 1

Just after Lady Rán and Elise’s arrival at the festival grounds, a loud call went up from an unseen horn. The sound traveled throughout the Realm. It brought wind to the still air and tickled the blades of grass. Caisey noticed that only he and Elise covered their ears with both hands at the long-lasting, echoing sound.

When it stopped, the ground started rumbling tremendously, as if a clan of dragons were trying to claw up through the center of the earth. Instead, when the land before Caisey and the others did crack open, it was the tip of a gargantuan, rugged slab of rock that poked through. It rose until the highest point seemed to pierce the sky, and it stretched out in diameter nearly the length of—perhaps—three godly palaces combined.

With his mouth hanging open, Caisey noticed that a hulking ring of stands were also quickly being erected around the gargantuan mountain and also, around the six of them standing nearby. It was clear to him that what had just been fashioned in the center of a previously barren stretch of grass was an imitation Mount Olympus and a makeshift Colosseum for the spectators.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” Elise said from her seat next to Caisey.

Caisey couldn’t agree more.

“Gods and goddesses of this mighty Realm,” a booming disembodied voice began, “now marks the beginning of our beloved Festival of the Gods.”

At this moment, figures began floating down from over the walls of the Colosseum and settling into the stone rows of open seats. Mystifying, it was, to see the gods in all their brilliance, in their flowing and colorful garments, in their shimmering golds or silvers and their auras, rain down into the stadium like flowers on the wind.

The seats were soon full and a loud cheer from the gods replaced the silence that had previously commanded the area.

Over the roaring cheers, the booming voice continued. “Today’s task was brought back by popular demand after thousands of years of ‘safer choices,’ boredom, uselessness, MEDIOCRITY—”

“Reel it in, brother. Keep it together.” A voice, which sounded like Zeus’ to Caisey, said.

“Oh, Uncle.” Rina mumbled to Caisey’s left. She had a palm resting against her face.

“Uncle?” Caisey asked, though his question was drowned out by the continuation of the ‘mystery god’s’ speech.

Caisey had a really bad feeling about this.

“Ahem. Today, we reintroduce the festival favorite, the challenging ‘Climb of Mount Olympus.’” The speaker paused for cheers. “Our dear Chosen Ones will race to the top of our mini Mount Olympus—”

“Mini?! How is that ‘mini’?” Elise cried.

“Exactly.” Said Caisey.

“—to claim the top spot in our Festival of the Gods! They must be higher than the other contender by the time the sand in our two-hour hourglass runs out.”

High in the air on the left side of the impromptu arena appeared a giant golden hourglass with skulls and three-headed dogs expertly engraved on it. Caisey was mildly alarmed by the engravings but let it go when he noticed three supremely godly figures seated upon thrones made of stone tucked into the uppermost level of the Colosseum. Caisey recognized the one seated to the left of the speaker as the King of the gods, Zeus. Beside the three gods sat three immensely imposing goddesses who were obviously queens.

Once the hourglass had been presented, the speaker then shouted, “Now, who’s ready to volunteer?”

In answer, at least twelve gods soared from their seats in the stands and took to either the air or the ground near the gargantuan mountain. Another ear-splitting cheer broke out among those in the stands, and Caisey felt his blood run cold.

“W-W-Why are they volunteering?! What need is there to volunteer?” He demanded, “Volunteering for what?!”

“Case, it’s no big deal.” Rina reassured him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Then, the speaker with the booming voice said, “Now that’s a line up I like to see! Honorably protecting our imitation Mount Olympus are: Lord Caelus, god of the skies; Her Lady Terra, goddess of the earth; Lady Bellona, goddess of war; Sir Apollo, god of the arts and archery; Sir Ares, god of war and bloodshed; Lady Clementia, goddess of forgiveness and mercy…”

Oh, thank GOD there’s at least one peaceful one! Caisey thought, horrified by the impossible list of protectors being introduced. He caught how the speaker announced Lady Clementia in the most unappreciative manner, though. He frowned and worried about the rest.

“Next, we have Lady Nox, goddess of night; Sir Hercules, god of strength; Lady Idun, goddess of spring and rejuvenation; Sir Loki, god of Mischief; Sir Thor, god of thunder; and last but not least, Lady Skadi, goddess of hunting and winter!”

With the introductions of the protecting gods finished, the arena was overtaken by an overwhelming bout of noise. The crowd was ready, their feet were stomping, and even animalistic sounds rang out from the stands from the less human-looking gods.

Meanwhile, Caisey and Elise were stunned into silence. By time Hercules’ announcement came, Caisey’s mind had gone numb. How in the world did anyone think the two of them were going to climb such an imposing mountain against protectors of this caliber?!

“Finally, let me introduce our contenders: The Chosen Ones!” Caisey wasn’t comforted by the ensuing onslaught of encouraging cheers in the least. “We have our lovely Lady Terpsichore, goddess of music and dance, her Chosen One, Caisey Legna, and his god of guidance, Sir Mimir.

“Going against them, we have our fierce Lady Rán, goddess of the sea, her Chosen One, Elise Reedy, and her goddess of guidance, Lady Themis!

“Now, I” the voice continued, “Hades—”

“HADES?!” Both Caisey and Elise exclaimed from their seats.

“—your beloved King of the Underworld, will be the one presiding over this exciting little event, since my brothers have grown too old and lazy to be bothered.” Hades dodged a sudden thunder bolt from Zeus on his left and a bullet-fast blast of water from Poseidon on his right.

Caisey said, “We’re going to die, Elise.” His far-away eyes took no notice of Rina’s heated glare as she heard Elise’s name roll off his tongue.

Elise, nodding with a paleness to her sun-kissed complexion, said, “Uh-huh. Definitely.”

Neither of them budged when firework cannons exploded, as did the cheers in the stands, and Hades yelled, “It’s time to get this PARTY STARTED!!!”

On his right, Lady Rán dragged Elise up by her limp arm and immediately dashed forward with the girl billowing behind like a cooked noodle and Lady Themis following closely, as the “party” commenced. For too many seconds, Caisey sat stalk still in his marble lawn chair.

Rina soon hopped up from the armrest and grabbed his hand, tugging him a little bit. “It’ll be alright, Case! Let’s go before they get too good of a head start.”

“‘Alright??’” Caisey repeated, “Rina, do you not see all of Hercules, Thor, Nox, Skadi, Loki, and several other masters of war and destruction out there ready to kill us?!”

“Hurry, get up!” Rina urged, tugging harder, “They won’t kill us—on purpose. Everything will be fine, I promise!”

As his body was lifting from the chair, Caisey continued to protest, “Hades is overseeing this competition. Hades! If we do die—”

“We won’t.”

“—then the God of the Underworld will do nothing to help us! In fact, he’ll be the one dragging us down to his version of Hell!”

“You might be right, but whatever. We’ll worry about that later. Come on!!” Rina said and stopped being gentle with Caisey. She tugged so hard that Caisey flew to his feet, and they were soon traveling across the grounds at an incredible speed. Caisey’s feet hadn’t even touched the ground again.

Oh gods, he was thinking, please have mercy on me, please have mercy on me, please. Please. Please! when Rina let go of his hand and he was sent spiraling horizontally into the rocky base of the “miniature” Mount Olympus.

“Ahhhh!” He screamed and mentally braced for impact, expecting to go ker-splat! against the hard surface. Instead, his body broke right through a tiny layer of rock, and he felt minimal aches and pains.

“Go!” Rina cried from behind him and, smiling, hopped and waved when he turned to look at her.

Despite the situation, he found himself smiling and his heart felt light as a feather. I can do literally anything as long as Rina’s by my side, he thought, and began to climb.

He climbed for what seemed to him was about nine solid minutes when he realized—one—he’d gone approximately nowhere, he was like a tiny cockroach on a journey to Antarctica—and two—not one deity had stepped in his path to stop him from climbing.

I must be doing this wrong, he thought. He felt an embarrassing blanket of eyes staring at his back, wondering how ‘this guy’ had gotten picked as a Chosen One.

“You have wings.” Said Sir Mimir’s voice close to his right, suddenly serving Caisey a dose of déjà vu.

“Ah!” Caisey screamed, and then he said, “Oh yeah…,” his cheeks reddening.

Caisey took a moment to pause, close his eyes, and breathe. He imagined himself popping his wings from his back and taking flight, racing up to the tip top of the mountain.

It worked quickly, and Caisey was propelled backwards by the force of his wings. He practiced beating his wings and felt himself lifting higher. He practiced maneuvering in different directions and tried out a mid-air flip.

A satisfied smile broke out on his lips before he could stop himself. “I can do this.” He said aloud and, without further hesitation, beat his wings hard against the air. He shot upwards and glanced down to ensure Sir Mimir was coming with him.

From below, Sir Mimir cried, “Look ahead, you fool!”

Caisey looked ahead.

And came face-to-face with the god of war.