The Festival of the Gods - Day 1 (pt. 3/3)

The darkness came immediately, as if Lady Nox had sucked the sun right out of the sky. She erected no moon to shine light down on the arena. Everywhere anyone looked, there was a pitch-blackness through which only sounds could penetrate.

Those sounds were shouts of protest coming from both the stands and the gods on the field.

Everything from, “Damnit, LADY NOX! You’ve blinded us!” to “Don’t blame me if you get shot by one of my arrows, Lady Nox, you idiot,” was aimed at the goddess of night.

On the contrary, Caisey marked twenty seconds in his mind, remembering the deal he made with the goddess, and instantly raised his voice to reach Lady Nox. “Lady Nox? Tell me what you think of my joke—

"When I was a kid, I once stayed up all night to see where the sun went… Then, it dawned on me.”

After a few beats, Lady Nox responded with a scoff and, “Is that it? Pitiful.”

Caisey smirked. As he had expected, the goddess had moved several paces away from her original location. Her voice was now far above him. Caisey carefully flew upward while telling his next joke.

“How about this one, Lady Nox? I once asked my dad, ‘Dad, do you know why it’s so dark at night?’ He replied, ‘No sun.’ … Get it?!” Caisey cried, cringing at himself. He hoped to high hell that Rina wasn't hearing any of these corny jokes. He wouldn't be able to live it down!

“… That was incredibly stupid.” came Lady Nox’s reply.

She’s to my right. We're close! I’ve got ten seconds left. Caisey could feel himself sweating now. Hurriedly, he threw out another horrible joke.

“This time, you’ve gotta answer my question! What do you call a turtle that’s only awake at night?” Caisey asked. He could feel himself close to her now, but didn’t know how close he was, so he continuously inched forward at a careful pace.

“I’m not sure?” Lady Nox answered, then sighed, “If your idea was to get me to lose focus by laughing, you’ve failed miserably, Chosen One. You suck atrociously and your time is—”

“A noc-turtle.” Caisey said just as he jammed his thumb and pointer finger into the squishy flesh of her side. He twisted, pinching hard, and grinned when he heard a sharp yelp burst from her mouth.

“OUCH!!” Lady Nox yelled, jerking violently away from Caisey’s reach. Within a flash, the blanket of darkness was gone, the arena was bursting with light once more, and Lady Nox’s face was two shades redder. “You pinched me!” She cried, and Caisey couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“I’m—pfft—I’m s-sorRY! Hahahaha!” Caisey was surprised that a goddess could make a face like the one Lady Nox was sporting. She looked totally embarrassed and human; her cheeks were flushed, her bottom lip jutted outward like a toddler fed up with their parents’ shenanigans. She was cute.

She reminded Caisey, just a little, of—

“Oh, Lady Terpsichore.” Lady Nox said, effectively snapping Caisey’s head to the left.

“R-Rin—I mean, Lady Terpsich—”

“I’m sorry, I thought I heard something about a pinch?” Rina asked. Caisey could see her eyes analyzing the situation like an android. He imagined himself being scanned with a strange beam of light and swallowed the ball of nerves locked in his throat.

He drifted a few centimeters away from Lady Nox as he waved his hand in a careless motion. “Ah, yeah. Just a friendly pinch to go along with my plan.”

I shouldn’t have said ‘friendly,’ he thought instantly afterwards and watched Rina work through that word in her mind.

Apparently, Lady Nox had been working the word through her mind, too. Though, when Caisey looked at her, she obviously had something devilish wheeling around that he knew shouldn’t be there. “Friendly?!” Lady Nox exclaimed, her usual low and dangerous voice suddenly missing in action. In a ridiculously fake helpless voice, she added, “Not the way you just pinched me…”

Then, she tensed her body up in a way that suggested she was covering areas to protect her modesty. Caisey reeled in surprise. W-W-Where is she touching!?!? He cried internally and didn’t even bother to look in Rina’s direction to gauge her reaction—because he felt it in the sudden change in the air around him.

He ran.

Caisey flew upward faster than he had those few times before. He felt like a bullet shot from a rifle, a missile deployed from an aircraft. He felt like he was losing his freaking hair and face to the wind the way it pushed against him, he was flying so fast. Rina was right on his tail.

“She’s obviously lying!” Caisey called behind him. “A friendly pinch. FRIENDLY. That’s all it was!”

“If you wanna pinch someone, pinch me!” Rina yelled back.

Caisey paused, “How is that your logic?!”

Just then, Caisey caught the blinding gleam of metal out the corner of his right eye. Everything that happened next seemed to happen within a hair of a second. It was the glint of Lady Bellona, goddess of war’s, sword which miraculously drew Caisey’s attention to a singing arrow shot at him by Sir Apollo, god of music and archery.

Rina, of course, had caught up with him and would be in the arrow’s path by the time it reached Caisey.

Rina! was Caisey’s singular thought as he grabbed the goddess by both shoulders and used the power of his right wing to rotate their bodies clockwise, so that now his back was in the path of Sir Apollo’s arrow in place of Rina. He hugged her tight to his body while the god’s shining arrow dug into him from behind.

This immense pressure was settled right between Caisey’s wings. It hurt so bad, he thought he might actually be dying. With an attack this powerful, Caisey and Rina were shoved forward like they were a couple of playthings, and despite Rina’s best efforts on the safer end, she couldn’t stop or slow their momentum.

She twirled her feet, calling forth a singing whirlwind of blue from below, trying to spin them out of the arrow's push. It was useless. Caisey watched through squinted eyes and thought, She's strong, but she's only a Muse. Compared to Apollo, there's no contest.

They were headed right for the stands of the makeshift Colosseum.

“Can’t… breathe!” Caisey heaved, trying to shift his posture but to no avail. His chest was starting to hurt. His eyes were losing focus. He could see that Rina, her teeth gritted with passionate effort, had tears in her eyes.

She knew they were going to lose.

Just before they blasted into the stands where the roaring spectators sat, Caisey, feeling defeated and sorry, passed out cold.