Rebecca Miller's

Prologue.

Hello, I am Luke son of Zeus; I am finishing the story first told by Roxanna daughter of Poseidon (Roxanna prefers to be called Rox or Roxy). This tale was then continued by my least favourite cousin Xanthe daughter of Hades.

Xanthe is reading over my shoulder as I write and is now yelling at me to stop being such a cheesecake, a habit with which she has recently become obsessed. Although, I doubt even my father knows why she chose cheesecake.

Our other companion is Katriona daughter of Athena. Katriona prefers to be known as Kat. If you try to call her Katriona she will probably try to rip your head off.

One more thing. Upon occasion in this book Rox and Xanthe will have extracts from their own thoughts and feelings at times they find important.

********

Luke:

Chapter 1.

Why are some gods so annoying?

“So let me get this straight,” I said, “you want me to ask Apollo where the hell we need to go, stuff like that and then go with you”

“Yes” Rox smiled at me, I smiled my half smile back at her and winked for good measure, okay so I like her. Dude, get over it people.

“Okay, I’m sure I can manage that.

“Thank you Luke!” squealed Rox I think I blushed, I’m not sure. Well whatever I did Xanthe smirked. I wondered idly how angry my dad not to mention her dad would be if I slapped her. Very was the answer.

“Can we wait till the end of the party though, it won’t help if the birthday boy vanishes,” I said.

“I suppose so,” grumbled Xanthe.

I got up, went over to Rox  “in that case” I said, “May I have the honour of this dance?”

“Ooh” she squeaked “yes, I suppose so” from the huffing coming from Xanthe’s general direction I guessed that this was not her normal behaviour. Awesome!!! She probably liked me too!!! Forget I ever said that or die.

I took her hand and led her onto the dace floor. Metaphorically smiling I placed one hand on her waist, took her hand with my other and we began a graceful waltz. She was a good dancer, better than anyone else I’d danced with yet. Her sea-green eyes were about a foot below mine (making her about five foot six) they were entrancingly beautiful and matched her face perfectly as we danced her long blonde hair fell in a perfect waterfall down her back.

It was it my imagination or did she pull herself closer? I certainly felt her hand on my back increase in pressure.

I danced on in a dream-like stupor but all to soon the dance came to an end and the other two I managed to get soon did too.

The chorus of happy birthday was brief and I quickly cut the cake, it seemed years until the first guests took their leave, but finally they were all gone. My watch from Rox was on my wrist, the gold glinting in the light from the chandelier.

“Luke” came my father’s voice “come” I went over to him.

“Apollo is here”

“Thanks dad”

“Hey Luke! How are ya dude?” came Apollo’s voice.

“I’m fine how ‘bout you”

“Bored” he said, “now I hear you want my help”

“Yep” I made a popping noise on the ‘p’.

“Okay, first question. You gotta go to Kaiafas Beach in Greece. Second question you got one week. You gotta travel fast. Third question ‘cause I’m the god of prophecies that’s how.

“How did you know what I was gonna ask?” I said somewhat belatedly

“I just told ya. Man some people are so dense” he laughed at the look on my face.

“Apollo” I said exasperated.

“Ooh! Gotta go!” he said and promptly vanished.

********

Chapter 2.

My favourite birthday present

I heard my name being called. I turned to face my father.

“Yes dad?”

“I have something for you” he whistled and an eagle came flying through the window, closely followed by Pegasus.

Woofie had gotten back to his normal size and was happily eating what looked like the worlds biggest dog biscuit.

Roxy ran over and hugged Pegasus. Interesting, that was a generous gift, even by Olympian standards.

“Luke, this is one of my sacred birds from mount Olympus. Care for it, it can grow large enough to carry three grown men when it wants to, so be very careful” my father said.

“Does the bird have a name?”

“Yes, it is called Horus after the ancient Egyptian god.”

“Thank you father,” I said

“Oh yes, Katriona,’ Kat winced at the sound of her full name

“Your mother asked me to give you this” in his palm there sat a tiny pair of silver wings “if,” he continued “you press these wings between your shoulder blades they shall grow to a larger size and carry you wherever you wish to go”

“Thank you sir” Kat took the wings from him and put them in her bag.

Finally I was able to go and change, I put on the clothes my father had given me for a present, they were impervious to dirt and would change their appearance and material at my will; that meant armour too.

I willed the clothes to be a green short sleeved t-shirt and grey jeans I put on the watch from Rox and filed the hipflask with diluted nectar (the drink of the gods).

As I walked back into the hall I saw that the girls were changed, Xanthe in her usual black, Kat in a pink top and blue jeans and Rox in a green t-shirt and grey jeans. As we noticed each other’s outfits we laughed, we matched.

“Oh brother” grumbled Xanthe. “Rox he so fancies you”

I ignored her and walked over to Rox.

“When do we leave?” I asked.

“Tomorrow, at dawn.” She replied, “We need some sleep first”

“Okay”

I showed them to rooms and settled down into my room.

********

Chapter 3.

Well that didn’t take long

As the sun rose I woke up, I didn’t have to change, only will my clothes into the same ones I’d worn the night before.

When we met in the dining room for breakfast Rox was wearing the same things she had been the night before too. We both noticed and laughed Xanthe repeated her comment from the previous night. This time I did tell her to shut it.

I sat down at the oak table with some hot buttered toast when Rox came and sat next to me, I smiled to myself. As we ate our toast I could hear various snide remarks coming from Xanthe’s general direction, I tried and unusually succeeded to ignore her. It probably had something to do with the person sat next to me.

Three minutes later Horus was growing at an alarming rate and soon he was big enough to carry me, he didn’t stop there though, he carried on until he was big enough to carry two people. I guessed he knew my mind.

“Xanthe, get Woofie to shrink then ride Pegasus, it’ll be quicker if we’re all flying.”

“Fine, but what about you?”

“I’ll ride with Luke”

“Oh my gods Rox! You so fancy him!” Xanthe smirked

“Shut up Xanthe!” we shouted together

Four or five days later we were almost at the beach. Our progress was sped up by the fact that we could fly. Our only problem was that we’d gone to the wrong beach and were several hundred miles from the beach we were supposed to be, anyhow on day five things started to go right finally.

I climbed up onto Horus’ back and helped Roxy up in front of me; I hooked one arm about her waist and pulled her closer. She caught my other hand and held it there, tilting her head back against my chest. Horus took off smoothly and quickly, powering us away from Xanthe and Kat.

Twisting herself around and pulling my head down she kissed me softly on the mouth. Triumph soared in my chest and I held her at arms length away from me. She must’ve misunderstood me ‘cause she ducked her head and blushed.

“Sorry” she muttered

“Don’t be, I love you” saying the words aloud shocked me, made me realise the truth of that statement I did love her and I would never love anyone else.

“Then kiss me”

I did, it was quite a long kiss and was only interrupted by a need to breathe.

“Now all we have to do is make sure Xanthe doesn’t find out.”

“That’ll be hard. I don’t think I can stand not kissing you for five minutes let alone all evening.” She replied.

********

Chapter 4.

Some birds are extremely irritating

Especially the metal ones

As we flew on making the most of our time together I felt Roxy stiffen in my arms.

“No…” she hissed

“what is it Roxy?”

“stymphalian birds. We have to go back and help. They’re being overwhelmed”

Horus? I thought tentatively

Yo boss.

We gotta help.

Cool.

Roxy smiled as she felt Horus turn around and speed back in the opposite direction.

“Thanks honey” she said

“It is my pleasure I assure you” my formal manner of speech (blame Athena) was evidently hilarious to her. I knew that because she laughed when I said things like that.

What felt like thirty seconds later we were with the others. Kat and Xanthe had shields. Kat had gone for the practical approach and was firing arrows at the stymphalian birds. Xanthe in her rue unpractical manner was trying to chop them in half with her sword.

Roxy:

I can’t believe Luke loves me. It’s incredible. After the moment when he kissed me I was in shock until Pegasus told me the most horrid thing!  He, Kat and Xanthe were under attack from stymphalian birds. Luke got Horus turned around and we were there in about a minute though it felt like less.

I saw Xanthe sword and shield in hand attempting to hack the birds out of the sky. Kat was alternately firing arrows and hiding behind a shield that she’d gotten from only the gods know where. I then noticed that Kat was on Pegasus and Xanthe was wearing Kat’s wings. That didn’t half surprise me I can tell you.

I  looked at Luke. He was calmly assessing the situation. He took Horus over to Pegasus and Kat who was riding him helped me down to sit in font of her.

To my astonishment he then quite calmly proceeded to jump off Horus.

That was the last thing I saw. Apparently I fainted.

Luke:

The jump was exact, precisely calibrated and it worked. Okay, before I tell you why I jumped off the back of a giant eagle mid-flight  I expect I need to explain this. As you should all know by now my father is Zeus. As you should also know from history lessons Zeus’s symbol of power is a bolt of lightning. Now I, being his son can run an electric current all over my body. Hence the jump.

Now if by now you have not at least guessed my plan then you are rather dim no offence meant there by the way, anyway my falling body was an easy target for the birds so they all dived for me. Only once they were all over me did I change my clothing to armour and concentrated. The birds were now dust and ash falling to earth.

********

Chapter 5.

The thing at the top of my

things-I-never-thought-

I’d- hear-myself-say list.

Horus flew underneath me and caught me at the same time two things happened.

Number one- my clothes changed back to normal

and

Number two- I heard Xanthe scream

The birds had worked the wings loose until they had come off entirely and Xanthe was left in a wild free fall to land five hundred feet below on the grassy area directly beneath us.

we landed on the grass by Xanthe’s body. Roxy arranged her in a position that was more dignified and stood back. I however rushed forward in something midway between a leap and a plunge and crouched by her side.

I took her hand it was deathly cold.

“Please, please, please don’t be dead”

Then her eyes opened

Xanthe:

My head hurt. I concentrated on clearing it and I heard the sound of Luke’s voice pleading with me not to die.

I opened my eyes.

“Never thought I’d hear you of all people says that”

“Thank the gods! You’re alive”

“Not really. Technically speaking I’m dead because I have no heartbeat or pulse. But in the sense that I have not left this life and gone to the underworld then yes I am alive.”

“How come you have no pulse?” asked Rox

“Comes from my dad’s side of the family,” I said with a grin.

“Ah. Xanthe how old are you?” the look on Roxy’s face was curious and wary

“Five thousand, two hundred and one”

“Seriously?”

“No I’m only one hundred and twenty nine really”

“Okay…”

“ Ignore her love” Luke said and then kissed her

I felt so crazy jealous then I wished that I’d not made that deal with Aphrodite. Ah well. What’s done is done and cannot be undone.

Luke:

Okay. So I don’t hate Xanthe after all. In fact she’s probably my second favourite cousin after Rox of course. But never tell her I said that, I’d never hear the end of it. All the same I was glad she wasn’t dead

********

Chapter 6.

Chicks in armour.

Okay. The short story is that we got to the beach without further incident in just two days. The only problem – the beach would be full of people tomorrow. That was very bad news. How could we fight if the beach as full of innocent people?

We found a solution. Rob (a son of Ares) was in the neighbourhood. He was a government official and was able to order the beach to be closed. Meanwhile the children of Iris would use their power to create an illusion of the government officials enjoying a day on the beach.

Now to the point, the children of all the Olympians and the occasional minor deity were fighting the battle. The children of Athena would be planning the attack. That is to say they would be telling all the units to go to the various places they needed to be in when they had to be there.

The day of the battle came. Before dawn the whole army rose and put on their armour, everyone that is apart from me, Rox, Xanthe and Kat.

We made our way to the equipment tent.  Aaron was in charge; evidently he’d gotten bored of driving his mother around in a fancy limousine. And I hope she never reads that.

Anyhow we went in and found Aaron collecting three parcels from a stack at the back of the tent. He looked the same as ever.

“Perfect timing guys” he said

“Cheers” I said

“Now as it happens I have your armour here.”

“Whose armour?”

“Okay” Aaron said “Xanthe this is yours. Your dad reckoned you might want it so he sent it up from the… well from his house”

To my complete and utter astonishment Xanthe smiled. I almost fainted in shock.

“Awesome, cheers Aaron” taking the bundle she disappeared to change behind the screen.

“Okay,” Aaron continued “Roxy this is yours. It was made for you by the Cyclopes I think it’s a metal only found in the deepest part of the ocean around your father’s palace.

“Wow, cool” Rox gasped she then disappeared behind the screen just as Xanthe came out in a black stygian chain body and plateskirt, her black hair was pinned up and was in a spiky style, in it where two throwing knives that I guessed weren’t just for decoration.

When Rox reappeared she was dressed almost identically to Xanthe but her armour was made of some strange green metal, and her beautiful blonde hair was spilling down her back.

I knew that Aaron knew that I didn’t need any armour. In fact I had to show off a bit by changing it right in front of them. My clothes shimmered and changed to gold and silver armour.

Rox gasped

“Okay people. You should have everything now” Aaron said

“Then what is that?” I pointed at the last bundle in Aaron’s hands

“Oh, these are your swords”

I took the swords from Aaron and unwrapped them. I examined them; the tips were pointed, sharp, the hilt was gold, the steel blade polished to perfection and as I concentrated I realised they were specially designed to help me channel electricity along the blades.

“Awesome” I said “but what about Kat?”

“Oh I’m staying here, I’m helping with tending the wounded…” she smiled.

That surprised me. Kat did not seem to be the sort of person to sit idly by during a battle. Then she completed the sentence “…in between commanding the archers, directing the next bit of the battle and all that jazz”

********

Chapter 7.

Well that was fun.

Okay part one of the plan: Xanthe, Rox and I were to take five thousand of our ten thousand men, which for the dumber people out there is half.

I was a little annoyed that Rox had insisted on going. I’d hoped to convince her that she was needed somewhere less dangerous because we were about to do the stupidest thing in the whole entire history of stupid things. We were going to attack the army of Kronos the titan lord with just five thousand men. Now if that isn’t stupid then the next bit will convince you, we were going to ‘flank’ them. ‘Flanking’ is when your army divides into two, half attacks from one side and half from the other side. Sounds simple enough but its actually really goddamn complicated. I mean we haven’t got any way to coordinate our movements.

Step two: the other demigods would lead the rest of the army in from the front and back hopefully really distracting them so enabling us to win emphasis on the hopefully part.

So now you know what we were supposed to do I suppose I’d better tell you how it went.

Dawn came and Rox and I were crouched behind a sand dune watching, waiting, and praying. Rox peeked over the dune and gasped.

“What is it babes?” I whispered

“The army is here and there’s about twenty thousand of them”

“Well, my dad has pissed off a lot of people honey”

“Yeah I’d noticed”

I looked behind me, the two-and-a-half-thousand-men we had were twitching and rustling. I prayed Xanthe would notice that we’d charged so she could bring her two-and-a-half-thousand-men over and hep us beat the crap out of Kronos and co.

“Ready boys and girls?” I said

The army grinned.

“Then lets go and kill some monsters.”

They grinned again

“CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!” I shouted. I hoped Xanthe noticed

I heard a corresponding shout of ‘charge’ from Xanthe and we all piled in.

Things started to go wrong almost immediately. I saw two children of Dionysus weaving iron tight vines around a manticore be squished by a giant spider.

I heard a scream, on the plus side the other half of our army had joined the battle on the down side Rox had a huge cut down her forearm, she’d gotten distracted by having half an army plough into us.

“Get out of here, Apollo is over there. He’ll heal you,” I shouted

“Okay, I’ll come straight back” she said, and then she screamed again. An arrow protruded from her shoulder.

“I’ll carry you,” I yelled. I scooped Rox up in to my arms and pegged it over to Apollo

“Can you heal her?” I asked

“Yes, now get back out there.”

********

Chapter 8.

From bad to worse.

Things got really, really bad really, really fast and proceeded to go firmly downhill from there. We’d lost about five hundred people already.

Ten minutes later it was a lot worse, demigods were falling left right and centre, Xanthe’d taken down about one thousand men on her own, her stygian sword flashed in an arc slicing monsters to pieces all over the place and her black and silver shield blocked all blows swung at her, for the first time in my life I was scared of her.

I saw Rox running back to the fight, trident gleaming, arm perfectly normal. Monsters fell at her hand; they could not touch her as the swift movements of her shield blocked all their attempts to harm her. I noticed that at my hand too many monsters fell, my swords swung and slashed at various things that I can’t even begin to describe.

The fight was slowly headed towards the sea, and I noticed the Kronos’ army was shying away from the water and trying not to go near it. Roxy could control the water she had to soak them.

As I watched the others fight I saw Xanthe dash off towards the way off the beach. I let her go without complaint she at least might survive.

Then she really surprised me by coming running back followed by an awful lot of spirits. At their head was one I recognised all too well it was Zach, Xanthe’s dead twin brother. I think I said something very rude as they then proceeded to liquidize the enemy.

We stood there, Xanthe, Rox, one or two hundred of our soldiers, a great host of dead and I and most of us watched as Xanthe dismissed all the spirits but one, tat one was Zach.

Then things went from bad to worse; Kronos arrived.

“Well little demigods you have done well, but can you defeat the lord of the titans himself? Can you defeat Kronos?”

“You ******* *******” I shouted. Kronos laughed then walked out onto the beach.

“Well what d’you know, I agree with Luke,” said Xanthe in mild surprise

“Insolent mortal”

“Hate to burst your bubble love but I ain’t mortal”

“Your brother was little demigod”

“Now that made me mad” she hissed

“And me. Don’t forget me” Zach said

“Your army is gone Kronos, you have no power and I shall prove it by killing you myself” I started when I realised that against all odds it was Kat who had spoken

“I’d like to see you try”

“Suits me,” she growled

“NO KAT, PLEASE, YOU CAN’T DO IT OR…” Xanthe choked off at the end of the sentence.

And Kat jumped at Kronos, she flew up and plunged a little dagger right into his eye. He roared with rage and pain before flinging Kat away from him and onto the rocks at the edge of the sea then Kronos crumpled.

“I’m not dead yet”

Then I had an idea. “Girls, stand back”

They actually did as I asked and I stepped forward and thrust my swords into each of Kronos’ eyes then I concentrated on my power, summoned all the electrical energy I could and channelled it down my swords into Kronos he exploded. I grinned, then I heard a scream.

********

Chapter 9.

Sure as hell didn’t see that coming.

I turned, saw the water gently placing Kat on the ground and sprinted over to her. Rox knelt by her side and Xanthe who had hated Kat was crying and spluttering apologies to her, Xanthe has asked permission to tell this part of the tale in her own way so I thought I’d let her.

Xanthe:

Okay so I guess I owe you an explanation so here it is:

I was horrid to Kat because she had numbered heartbeats. She had only one month left from the day I met her and I knew it, my attempt to prevent her from doing what amounted to committing suicide was totally pointless, she didn’t even listen.

“Kat?” I whispered

“Yes…” her voice was faint

“I’m so sorry”

“Don’t be, I understood…”

“Xanthe, can you ease her passing?” asked Rox

“Yes, I can” I whispered

I collected my thoughts and tried to remember the necessary words, they came all to easily, as though they had been lurking in the back of my mind and waiting to be said.

“Go now friend of the children of Hades, rest in peace on the isles of the blest, may your soul find eternal peace in that place and be able to stay there until you wish otherwise, go now friend of Xanthe princess of death” I choked up on the last words, announcing my name and my title.

Then I felt Kat die, I reached out and shut her staring eyes.

“Goodbye my friend” I whispered

Luke:

Around half an hour later the festivities began. The children of Apollo had been working overtime to heal all those with injuries that really needed healing and had time to do those that weren’t so serious.

Xanthe was still wearing armour and her shield was propped up against one wall, I examined it, I had an ever-changing inscription engraved upon it above the sliver skull that dominated the shield.

“Xanthe what does this say?”

“It says; I am she that does not live yet need not fear death for death is my kin. I am Xanthe princess of death”

“Wow”

“What are you wondering?”

“I was wondering how you got all that out of three runes”

Then everything got a little bit embarrassing, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades all materialised in the middle of the room.

“Well done my son” my father intoned

“You too my girl” said Hades

“Congratulations Roxy” said Poseidon

“We have decided to give you all a gift each.” Zeus said “Luke what do you want?”

“ I want to be able to spend a long and happy life with Roxy,” I said nervously

“It shall be so”

“Roxy, what would you like?” asked Poseidon

“I would like you and mum to live together until she dies”

“I will make that happen for you my girl”

“And finally, Xanthe what do you want?” asked Hades

“I want Zach back, I miss him and he was the best brother anyone could ever have, besides he deserves a chance to kill Luke.”

“Okay, just make sure Zeus knows it’s not my fault.”

Before our eyes the spirit of Zach solidified and turned into a real living person. Xanthe hugged him.

“Thank you father,” she said.

********

Epilogue.

Finally we have come to the end of our story so it’s goodbye from Roxy and me. But a short word from the girls and Zach first, oh wait Zach is a girl. Dude, I’m joking, you can put the sword away.

Roxy:

I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone who has read this story through to the very end and goodbye.

Xanthe:

I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone who put up with my ramblings and to Luke for agreeing to let my brother and I (please note the correct grammar there) have a short say in this epilogue an now you can have a word from Zach. Oh and Luke is a cheesecake.

Zach:

Hi people, I’m not a girl, its just Luke being stupid.

Anyway I wanted to say well done for putting up with my sister, she’s just about the most annoying person I know (joke) I’m actually really, really grateful to her for choosing to bring me back from death, and I hope she realises that. Anyway goodbye.  And I’m not going to kill Luke… much.

Oh and I really like Kat, she’s cute and I’m not sure how to handle her, any advice would be useful.

Luke:

Goodbye again. And I wanted the satisfaction of writing this:

The End

Finally

Sky’s Son