Off in the distance, a shoreline dotted with Cyprus trees beckoned. Al had steered Charlie in the direction that the captain had indicated and they had traveled for around 3 hours, which was actually a very swift trip according to what Penelope had told him.
As they neared land, Al directed Charlie to turn away from the brightly colored, tiled roofs, the rush of cars and people in the town and rode the current a little ways alongshore, looking for a suitable place to make a landing.
Not too far along, a long, rocky, beach, filled with pebbles smoothed by eons of waves came into view. It seemed the perfect spot, not too far away from civilization, but far enough away that he wouldn't be spotted.
Al urged Charlie onward, and he threw his huge body ashore, it's scales scraping against the rocks beneath him. As he crunched ashore, the pebbles on the beach cascaded down the slope and into the gently breaking waves, sounding like thousands marbles clacking together.
"Oi, kid! Why did you bring us here? The town from before would have been fine!" Captain Boulas shouted, clambering down from the head he had ridden on, slipping a little as soon as his boots met earth. As soon as he righted himself, he put as much distance between him and the hydra as he could, apparently remembering that it was a dangerous monster.
"Well, somehow, bringing a hydra into a heavily populated city didn't seem like the best of ideas," Al shouted back, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Al hopped off himself, sliding a hand against the smooth green scales of the hydra and landing easily on the beach. He reached up and offered another hand to the lieutenant, who took it and dropped besides him.
"Thanks," Penelope said, watching as the rest of the police dismounted.
"No problem, just try not to kill me again," Al replied, enjoying watching her expression flush.
"You still need to accompany us to the station, to explain yourself," Captain Boulas said, before she could reply.
He had stopped next to them, his arms crossed and standing besides Al in an attempt to intimidate him with his size, apparently regaining the courage to get near the hydra.
"I'm going to have to pass on that," Al said cooly, eyeing the captain's blustery demeanor.
"You!- that was not a request," the Captain growled, grabbing a pair of handcuffs from his belt and stepping towards him.
Before he could take another step, all 9 of the hydra heads growled swirled to stare at him.
"Here's how this is going to go, Captain," Al said, patting one of the heads fondly.
"You and your men are going to thank your lucky stars that you survived, and that I dropped you off on land, we'll go our separate ways, and you're going to forget we ever met."
The captain's eyes bulged and his mouth opened and closed like a fish, making no sound.
"Or," Al continued, "you and I will have a problem, and Charlie here is very protective of me. You see, he hates it when I have a problem."
Just to make his intentions perfectly clear, Al summoned a ring fire above him as well, for good measure.
The captain grit his teeth, a vein popping out in his forehead.
"Fine."
He slammed the cuffs back onto his belt and joined the rest of his men, glaring at Al.
Al nodded at him, not expecting anything else, and extinguished the flames with a thought.
"Good luck with him," Al added to the Penelope, jerking his head at the sulking Commanding Officer.
"I'm used to it," she replied, though she bit her lip imagining the lectures that were to come when they returned.
"I need to head out now, do you know which way Mt. Olympus is from here?"
"From here? Vaguely."
Penelope sheilded her eyes from the sun with her hand and looked back in the direction of the town.
"If the town we saw earlier is the town I'm thinking of, you just need to head north-east from here. It'd probably take about an hour or two by car."
"An hour or two by car?" Al repeated, releasing a breath. "Well, I guess I get to stretch my legs after the long ride.
"I'd offer you a ride if we had cars and, y'know, if you weren't a wanted man. I'm already breaking regulations by doing this much."
"Don't worry about it," Al said, smiling at the her. "I appreciate what you've already done."
She was quite the woman, it was a shame he couldn't get to know her more. From the way she acted, he felt like the young woman might like him, an experience that was both new and exciting to him. He hadn't been interested in romance before, the only options being the vapid teenage girls at his high highschool, constantly blabbing about the latest trend or who had fucked whom.
"Well," Al said, focusing on the task at hand. "I've got to get going, I have a long walk."
"Okay, well, um, if you're ever in the area, come say hi," The woman said, kicking herself inside for being so awkward.
"Will do," Al replied, thinking that it was unlikely that he would ever return to a place where he was wanted, dead or alive.
"What will you do with the Hydra?" She asked.
"The Hydra?"
He had forgotten that Charlie couldn't follow him on land. It was as much a part of him as his own hands and feet now, the idea that it couldn't follow was as foreign an idea to him as having to leave his own feet behind to go somewhere.
The hydra coiled a head around Al's body and vibrated deeply, looking one of its reptilian eyes into his. He felt the Hydra's consciousness emit a warm feeling of happiness. No, he definitely couldn't leave him.
"If I may, Albert, you can simply absorb the body into yourself. You will be able to summon him back out at a later date." Myrin suggested.
"Abs-What? How the hell do I do that?"
"Your soul and numen pools are already connected, from there, merging of the flesh is an easy task. Here, let me guide you, as it is confusing the first time."
Myrin had begun sending out numen towards the hydra's body before Al could even respond and, seconds later, the massive beast had disappeared and left Al's body feeling as if he had a thin layer of film surrounding it.
"How-what-I don't know if I can even be surprised by you anymore," Penelope said, mouth hanging open.
"Hey, I'm as surprised as you are," Al said, to which she responded with a quizzical look. He simply shrugged and turned away from the woman and towards the two-lane road that he saw a little ways above the beach.
"Well, I'm off," Al said, and began the long walk to Mt. Olympus.
---
For the first hour or so, Albert was lost in thought, pondering about the future.
He had to get to Mt. Olympus and meet with the clan there. And then... Then what? Ever since he had found himself in that monster filled hell-hole and met Myrin, his only goal was to survive. What next? Would he bargain with the sect to try and find a way home?
He had to be honest with himself. His parents were probably worried to death about him and, as much as he was loathe to admit it, he did miss them. But, to go back home to...what? Go to school? Go back to day after day of that grey, empty, existence for the sole reason that he cared for his family?
Now that he had seen the hidden part of the world that was missing from him, he wasn't sure he could force himself to go back to that.
He stopped at a fork in the road, avoiding a car that rumbled past him, and checked the words printed on a blue road-sign.
'Mt. Olypus, 2km'
"Well, I know where I'm going now, at least," Al thought to himself and followed the sign.
--
After an hour and a half of walking under the pounding Greek sun, Albert was soaked and exhausted.
"Don't you have some spell or something that can get us there sooner?" Al asked Myrin, who was much more talkative now that they were away from people.
"A traveling spell? Of course, I have myriads of them."
"And? Can you TEACH ME one?"
"While it's certainly possible to teach you, you wouldn't be able to use any of them. They require an experienced hand at controlling numen. Normally an initiate of your level wouldn't even have enough energy to make the spell work, but due to your abundance of Numen, you could but with your lack of control, you'd be more likely to kill yourself."
"Lovely!" Al spat onto the asphalt, tasting a tinge of iron in his saliva.
"I don't suppose you have an air conditioning spell or something even remotely useful, do you?"
"Air conditioning? What is- ah, I'm accessing the memory now... I see! How ingenious! I would never have believed it possible to do all this without using numen."
Al scowled. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of Myrin being able to access his thoughts and memories as easily as he could search the web on his phone.
"Yes, a spell to regulate the temperature around you is much easier than a travel spell. It'd also serve as excellent method to acclimate your body to the massive amount of numen you house and practice in controlling it, as well."
An image appeared in Al's mind as Myrin explained, as if illustrating his words.
"You simply need to form a bubble around your body with your numen, like-so, and then you will need to slow or speed the air within it using your will. By doing so, the temperature will change. But be careful to allow the excess energy you remove from the air to escape, or the spell will come undone."
Image still in mind, Al sent out several tendrils of numen, and wrapped them around himself, almost 'weaving' a bubble around him. That part wasn't too hard, he had gotten a lot of practice manipulating numen like this on his escape.
The temperature regulation, however, didn't prove so easy. He had to split his focus on keeping the bubble in shape and either hastening or slowing the air inside it based on how hot or cold it was getting. Several times he managed to forget about maintaining the bubble and the spell unravelled, creating a whirlwind of cool air that spiraling out around him and kicked up a large cloud of dust from the dry earth beneath his feet.
This was his routine for the rest of the day. He lost track of his surroundings as they dissolved into a blur, though he wasn't sure if that was because of the dust clouds or the intense concentration that was required to maintain the bubble around him.
5 hours later, with the sun dipping over the horizon, Al collapsed, panting, onto the ground, releasing the bubble which whisked itself away in the wind created by his closed environment escaping. As the surroundings came back into view in the fading light, he found that, at some point, he had left the road.
He was in a grassy valley, with no roads or buildings in sight. All around him, was a sea of dry grass that was painted in the reds and pinks of the sky and the occasional bush or tree. Nearby, a copse of olive trees were a welcome sight for Al. Groaning in exhaustion, he crawled over to them for shelter.
Above him, several dark silhouettes circled the area, contrasting heavily with the vibrant sky. Vultures, Al realized, seemingly hoping for him to drop dead for a quick meal. The contrast of the beautiful sunset and the ominous sight of the vultures struck him as oddly beautiful, and with that thought, he passed out into a deep sleep under the gnarled trunk of an olive tree.
--
Al awoke feeling like a different person. His body felt as if he were on the moon, weightless. He could launch himself into the air with the slightest of touches. His senses felt as if they had been put into overdrive, he could smell the pollen, musk and dirt on the slightest breeze. He became aware of a colony of bees nearby due to the sweet scent of honey on the breeze and, now that he focused on it, he could hear the hive buzzing with activity, though he couldn't tell where exactly it was.
Furthermore, could see farther and clearer than if he had used binoculars. The vultures, still circling, now were thrown into relief. He could see the contours of their feathers, down their back and the slight twitches that the birds made to adjust themselves in the air.
Lastly, though the sun was now high in the sky, he seemed to have over slept, he didn't feel hot. On the contrary, he felt as if he had been using the bubble to keep himself warm.
In the now, not-so far, distance, he could see heavily wooded slopes that led up to a set of mountains, hewn from off-white stone, towering over the valley and woods. Al could understand why the ancient Greeks would have thought that this proud mountain could be the home of the gods.
"I'm assuming that's Olympus, then?" Al asked Myrin, though he didn't really need to. He could feel it. There was something about the area ahead that was, magical, for lack of a better word.
"That's Olympus," Myrin agreed.
--