"Curse you Aphrodite! I know you helped them" Limos speaks.
she is standing on a boat looking at the Hydra whose skins is burn to crisp, the Hydra wails in pain, the sharp shrieking sound of pain signals that we have succeeded and that Limos is almost closing our gap.
Limos suddenly shifts her look to her back.
"I can sense you! Nicholas this time immortality and time won't be your friend anymore!" she announced.
Limos is upset, I can tell by the glow of her eyes how she looked at me where I imaginary stands - the goddess of starvation is pissed and by all means we need to travel faster, I don't know but I can tell that Aphrodite's blessing is fading maybe because Limos is catching up?!.
"Nicholas!" a familiar voice of a woman, mom?!
"Indeed Child - you know that the hydra is only one of the three guardians of the sea, stop her awakening, even with Zeus's power we can't possibly defeat her, escape Scylla or Charybdis by choosing properly!" Themis's voice suddenly fades.
wrong time to wake up, I'm hearing Mike and Celine talking, well more like arguing, I guess we're back to normal, I know nothing is normal but I'll take this one as a Normal - I tried to peek at them, without them noticing, they are talking about something but my senses are drawn by the sunrise.
the warm heat of the sun, the salty breeze of the ocean and the calming sound of the waves crashing to the side of our boat - how I miss witnessing this things, living a life of an immortal Demigod - change is really constant and traumatic, so having something that won't change, something that I can call constant is very important.
they both stop talking I think they noticed that I was looking at the open ocean. so I decided to shut my eyes, I want to savour this peaceful moment even though we don't have the leisure of time.
when they thought that I just shifted position they talked loudly again, this kids made this journey less stressful, specially Mike and his sarcasms.
my eyes are shut but my mother's warning on choosing properly who to face - we either go with Scylla or Charybdis, and if my memory serves me well there are no good option.
suddenly the two kids stopped talking, but I overheard Mike.
"Should we wake him up or wait for him to wake up?" Mike said.
"Delaying our journey will only lead to our demise, go wake him" Celine said.
before even mike can touch me I stood up and finally saw what they were seeing, the fog is divided into two paths, it was just like before on the hydra, the fog is somehow not touching a clear path to our demise but this time we have to choose our poison.
"Ahmm Nicholas you're awake, ahmm what should we do?" Mike said.
"Both are lethal but choosing properly will maybe, maybe save us from being either digested alive or torn alive" I said.
"Aren't those two choices only leads to one thing? end up dying?" Mike said
I nodded at him.
"so Who do we choose now Nicholas? that Scylla or that Charybdis?" Mike asked me.
"Hide the apple inside the satchel, make sure to cover it up with something" I ordered them and they followed my order right away.
"Ill steer the boat" I steered the boat to the right path.
"so you were choosing her then?" Celine said.
"Who did he chose? Celine who?"Mike Nervously asked.
"I had no choice, we need to bargain, if I choose left there's no reasoning involved on that realm, only death awaits but maybe just maybe we can bargain with the former Nymph, maybe she had a mind left out there, just make sure she wont sense that we have the golden apple" I said said.
"who is that he has chosen?" Mike said.
"Genius aren't you listening to me all night?" Celine said.
"Scylla, she is our poison, I just prayed for the Gods that she still has a mind left for us to talk to her so she can give us a safe passage instead of sudden painful ending on this quest of ours" I said.
"Scylla the Hybrid thingy that got cursed by Circe a Goddess right?" Mike said.
Celine and I nodded.
"If my memory was right she is as bad as that hydra, but who again is Circe?" Mike said.
"Never told you who she is last night? I must've forgotten, to formally tell you she is The Goddess of Magic, so cursing someone is no problem for her, the All Powerful Goddess of Magic Circe" Celine said.
"And Why did she cursed Scylla again? I know she is a Nymph but other than I dont know the reason behind" Mike asked again while we carefully cruising the Poison wall of Fog.
"That's is the only reason why Circe cursed her" I said.
"For being a Nymph?" Mike asked.
Celine Nods.
"Circe, though she did bear the Title of a Goddess but she has no Olympian Ichor on her veins or rather no Olympian God Ichor, she instead had a Titan's Ichor - you see his father is Helios the Titan of the Sun and a Nymph named Perse - so originally Circe was born as a Nymph a very powerful Nymph turned into a Witch and now Praised as a Goddess due to apparently having a divine heritage, Circe cursed Scylla cause as a Powerful Nymph you can just removed the competition anytime you want, and that what she did, Scylla is being praised as the most beautiful Nymph, and hearing that Circe is disgusted or jealous maybe of her she decided to enchant her to be the monster she is now, which made Circe a very Dangerous Goddess to anger - Her magic is limitless, her vast knowledge on creating Potions and Elixirs as well as Herbs that aren't meant for cooking but for cursing is what makes her a Goddess that you don't want to pissed" I said.
"I see so another Goddess we should worry about, but you said she didn't bear the Title of the Goddess of Magic, means she is not the original and she is half Nymph right?" Mike asked again.
I nodded "Yes the real Bearer of the title is the Goddess Hecate" right after I said her Name I realized what we have to do.
Celine notices my awkward silence.
"What is it Nicholas, you were about to introduce yet another history topic to Genius here, what made you stop?!" Celine said.
"I may have devised a plan to bargain with Scylla, though more like tricking her" I said.
"Lets hear it out" Mike said.
"We give her what she desired the most" I said.
"You mean the apple? the golden apple?" Mike said "Are you crazy Nicholas, if what you said about the apple is true which is by the way maybe only half of it I can imagine, we are good as dead as well - Earth to Nicholas Scylla is a bad guy a monster we can't just hand it over to her" Mike added.
I'm shocked to what he just said and I can't help but chuckle so as Celine.
"Now you just confirmed it to me that we are on a suicide mission right now" Mike worriedly said.
"Of course not Mike, I won't do that - I rather Gave up my immortality than giving her this thing" Picked up the satchel that is resting on the floor of the boat.
"what I mean is by giving her what she wants is..-" Celine interrupted me.
"Revenge" Celine said and I nod.
"We will promise her the thing she desired the most" I said.
"Oh, I Haven't thought of that" Mike scratches his head.
"good plan but Nicholas how can we possibly do that?" Celine said.
"With this as collateral" I picked up the Kalisté.
"I knew it you will give it to her!" Mike said.
"No Mike! I won't do that just like what you said - Its a suicide mission in the making" I said "Okay I'll detail things out to the both of you" I added.
"okay seems like we had a plan, but what is our back up if things don't work as planned?" Celine said.
"That's what I need you for Celine what do you think we can do for her to be convinced or for us to get out there alive?" I said.
"sheer luck is what we need, we'll just hope and pray that she will took the bait" Celine said "Cause to be honest there are no plan B's on this one" she added.
"that made me nervous Celine speaking things like "No Plan B's" Celine the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom and Strategies, it only means that this time we really are in danger" Mike said.
"I dont want to make things worst but guys" I said and they both looked at me "Limos is not far behind us, I saw her on my dreams and she is furious not only by the long chase but also on happened to the hydra" I added.
"that's not good indeed" Celine said.
"now we got really no where to run this time we got enemies in all direction" Mike said.
"that only means that by all means we need to trust our plan and pray that it will work the same way it worked on the hydra" I said.
Celine and Mike nodded - both of them started preparing for our upcoming victory or demise.