Chereads / Prince of Olympus / Chapter 5 - The beginning of the End

Chapter 5 - The beginning of the End

(7 years later...)

"SKY!!!!!!!" Yelled an angry shop owner in the beggars district, behind him a large group of soldiers prepared to charge forwards.

"Sorry Mr. Haj…!" Twelve year old Sky yelled as he grabbed one of the small, wooden frames holding up the tan, cloth roof of the stall, and pulled himself upwards.

He landed on it easily then started running forwards, making sure each foot landed on another frame and not the cloth.

He still wore tattered and worn out blue pants, and a white, heavily used t-shirt but instead of a cloak, he had on a brown jacket. There was no point in hiding his face anymore, after seven years of stealing, eventually people would start to recognize you. His white hair looked more messy yet organized as it all sweeped to the right. His red eyes glistened with enjoyment as he laughed. In his right hand he tightly held onto a basket, weaved from a heavily straw full of freshly made and steaming bread.

SLINK! SLINK! SLINK! Arrows whizzed past his head, as the guards below tried to get him down.

He smiled, in the past few years the number of guards had increased substantially, making it harder to navigate on the ground. Just as that started to happen he had also noticed a slight change in his body. There would be times when it would become a lot lighter, making it easy to jump higher, or navigate through tough obstacles.

He turned his attention forwards, seeing that the stall line was coming to an end as he entered Cedric's Circle. Guards stood at each of the four entrances to the circle, making sure that he wouldn't be able to make his escape this time. Once he had reached the last frame he put all his strength into his right leg and leaped forwards, spreading his arms to control his trajectory.

The commanding officer with the red feather stuck his sword upwards. "FIRE!!!!" He yelled, his voice followed by a sea of arrows, nearly three times the size of what his group of soldiers used to be.

Sky opened his left hand and danced around the arrows. Some randomly changed their trajectory as they reached him while others bounced off what seemed like an invisible wall. He flew over the center of the circle, the same place where, seven years ago, the Kronos incident, which is what they called it, took place.

THUMP! Sky landed on the frame of a stall across the circle and smiled at the grumbling guards as they resumed the chase. Sky decided that this was enough fun for one day and ran towards the wall to his left and effortlessly scaled it, reaching the top of the building and disappearing from the line of sight of the guards.

"A few more minutes and they'll stop looking for me..." He sighed as he walked forwards and slumped down, looking up at the sky.

For some reason, it calmed him, looking at the vast and deep blue that sat above him, decorated with white wisps. It erased all the tension from his body, no matter where he was or what situation he was in. When he had emerged from his train of thought he realized that enough time had passed and ran along the rooftop, looking for an alley.

After finding one he leaped down, landing with a loud THUD! Waking the hungover bandits civilians that lay there. Eventually he made his way back home, a misshapen tent slung along a wall in the alley that led out to the south street that fed back to Cedrics Circle. It was held up by two thick wooden frames, pushed deep into the ground, a dark, muddy green fabric was laid over it. Two of it's corners were nailed into the wall while the other two were tightly tied to the frames. The fabric fell down to the sides and front where Sky had cut a hole in it and fashioned a makeshift zipper door. Along the ground, Sky had found nails and, like the wooden frames, he had nailed the fabric down, giving them their own personal tent.

Sky smiled. "No place like home..." He said at his handiwork.

He reached for the zipper and saw that it wasn't in the same place as when he left. "Mama, I'm home!" He said as he opened the flap and headed inside.