บท 6: Titan's Fear
Chapter 6: Titan's fear
I thank Megapede for the Beta-work!
FINALLY, AN ACTUAL QUEST
31 March 2000
Fighting against Thalia was strange.
I knew it, she knew it, but I could never exactly put my finger on it.
I had taken lessons from the children of Ares in my first months at the camp, but the more we fought, the less their way of fighting stuck with me. Ares children were fearsome warriors, that was for sure, their manoeuvres, techniques, and moves were well polished and part of a bigger picture. When I forced myself, I could even copy some of them. Otherwise, in a semi-serious fight, like the one I was having with Thalia, their teachings tended to slide off me, leaving me with only my gut as a guide.
Instead of worsening my performance, I became much ...more: faster, stronger, less predictable. And Thalia was the same.
I had left behind staff, spear, shield, and sword, even if I was competent in the use of each one, to take up twin hatchets in their stead. My movements were wide, a surge of unrelenting attack and a deep breath in retreat, bringing myself into her guard and then out of her reach. Over her shield and behind her, like a waver rolling over a rock.
The blades of my one-handed axes were describing circular patterns in the air, from time to time, I used the wood of the handles as a hammer against Thalia's shield. Suddenly, I understood what was happening. My movements recalled the sea, the rhythm mimicking the up and down of the waves, alternating times in which I kept attacking to periods during which I stood on the defensive.
In that, I behaved like the tides, but during my attack-phase... oh it was glorious.
My right hand slid upwards on the wooden handle, bringing my knuckles under the blade of the bearded axe, and I punched in an upward swing at the tip of Thalia's spear, which sizzled less than three centimetres from my head, the wind rushing around it and pushing me back.
I rolled with it, twisting my torso as I let the momentum make my left hand slide down the handle of my other weapon, increasing my range and the strength of its impact against Thalia's raised shield. A low boom resonated in the arena as the demigoddess was forced to stumble and I brought both my arms together, adjusting my grip on my chosen weapons, and spun myself, bringing them again against her shield.
Thalia lowered her centre and tanked the blow from behind her shield, her spear skyrocketing against my shoulder from behind her defence.
Her head was hidden, meaning that it was a blind blow, but nonetheless, it was accurate.
I twisted once more, letting the wind brought with her spear guide my momentum, only to fall back when she charged me with her shield.
She pushed with the strength of a blizzard, my right bearded axe bit the edge of her shield and I pulled her in, guiding her momentum and essentially swapping our places.
Where on large scale my movements resembled either the sea during a storm or a whirlpool, the swiftness which I displayed as I avoided blows was akin to a small torrent coursing through rocks, Thalia's style switched between lighting fast strikes and the unrelenting pressure of a gale, while the air lightly slapped most of my blows off course. It was a subtle, subconscious thing, the air naturally coursing to counter my movements and to help hers.
I didn't mind, it kept me on a high, and forced me to adapt constantly to her movements.
We were deadly, fast, strong... powerful. I could imagine why the gods would be nervous about our existence.
Why am I so much aware of how she is using her power but she doesn't even realize it? I wondered.
"Let's... stop... for today." I panted after having delivered a powerful kick to her midriff, gaining myself some much-needed room to breathe.
"Why?... Are... You..." She didn't even have the breath to finish her taunt.
I hobbled toward the water bottles neatly stacked on one side of the arena and downing one over my head, feeling my sore muscles stop aching and my breath slowing down. Water healing magic powers are totally a cheat code.
Muscles tore down under great effort and regrew stronger than before after some time. Water in any shape or form let me completely bypass the 'time' factor.
Maybe I can feel how much the god in me affects my development because Hekate rules over magic. I speculated, before returning my attention to Thalia, who was downing her bottle of water, her eyes closed in bliss, and her chest heaving quickly.
My eyes stayed glued to her form for a couple of seconds more than strictly necessary, before sweeping over the other demigods in the arena or on the stands.
At 14 years old, Thalia had tackled puberty with determination, and as a fifteen years old male, it mattered little if I was a reincarnation or not, I stared.
The other demigods did the same, even if maybe they were still awed by our mock-duels, given the amount of attention I was receiving from both sexes.
"Too tired to continue, then?" her voice made me turn towards her.
I snorted: "Hardly, but I have to check in with David, we have a couple of projects going on..."
I eyed the two hatchets I had been using for the past month with a mixture of dissatisfaction and mistrust. They worked for me, but in the same measure, I could make everything work whenever I fought following my gut.
I had gotten better at it, at the point where I could almost foretell my next moves, and I was slowly forcing myself to incorporate kicks in my repertoire. For whatever reason, if I were to follow only my instincts, I would use my foot only to stomp over something.
"You can admit it, you know." Luke quipped from behind me.
FUCK YOU LUKE! I pretended that he didn't startle me with his sudden appearance: "Thalia clicks with shield and spear, you click with the sword, I'm looking for a weapon that clicks." I answered scrunching lightly my nose.
"Well, you've become dangerous with those things." Thalia conceded "You caught me flat-footed when you used one as brass knuckles."
I grinned at that: "They are versatile aren't they?"
"They're made to chop wood." Luke deadpanned.
"And they can chop arms just as easily." I overruled his objection, turning one upside down and trying to discern how it would work as a baton.
I started walking away without looking back, considering what kind of weapon would work better for me.
"I still don't know why he can't use a sword. Or two slightly shorter ones, a sword is perfect. It's the white weapon by definition, you know." I heard Luke protest behind my back.
I could imagine Thalia rolling her eyes at his well-practised rant in defence of his favourite weapon while I made my way through the camp towards the Haephestus' cabin's backyard. Which was a cross between a giant warehouse and a blacksmith wet dream. Forge, workbench, whetstones, engines half-broken apart, half turned in something else with animal-like features.
I dropped the two hatchets in a shed near the woods and walked to the workbench number 8, were a familiar demigod was hunched down, scribbling madly with a pencil over a nondescript piece of wood.
"You know that writing on paper is much easier, yes?" I introduced my presence while plopping down on an empty crate that I turned upside down.
The man rolled his eyes and dropped what he was doing after a couple of minutes that I spent watching him intently in complete silence.
"You do realize how unnerving it is having someone with mismatched eyes stare at you in complete silence, yes?" he snarked while rummaging through a pile of something behind the workbench.
I smiled earnestly at David, son of Hephaestus when he slid to me what I had stolen, bargained, and traded for.
I forgot to comment on his snark, busy as I was with taking in the box I helped design and create.
"Does it work?" I asked, carefully sliding my fingers over it.
The box was in celestial bronze, of a rectangular shape, 70x25x15 centimetres, and was covered in greek letters which could slide on several tracks, their inner workings beyond what one could discern with a simple look.
"Obviously, I finished the tests yesterday, it won't break, nor it will run out of power." David answered. "It's a pity we cannot market it with the mortals, otherwise we would be settled, but I have to admit that whatever shit you did with the runes made all the difference in the world."
"And about the other project?" I asked, distractedly trailing my hands over the beads and corks of my necklace.
"I just got started, it will take time to find the right materials and for the testing, but I like your designs." He grumbled as an answer.
"Is this... is this respect?" I asked, mocking his uncharacteristically serious tone.
When he tossed at me a scrap of bronze, I knew I had already overstayed my welcome, and hightailed out of their backyard.
I walked to the edge of the woods, and at a three-way crossroad where the paths lead respectively to the cabins, the arena, and the strawberry fields, I took the fourth road.
Not that anyone would have noticed it.
Crossroads may have been a mere symbol of free choice, but they still fell under my mother's domain, and that put them squarely under my thrall.
I walked slowly for twenty minutes, checking on the multitude of layers of mist that I had spun among the ash trees that lined the path, and occasionally undoing one that was unravelling only to place another one in its place.
I quickened my pace when I heard the waves, and after a couple of minutes, I reached my abode.
It was a lucky place on the coastline, the uncharacteristically rocky beach held enough dirt to allow trees to thrive. Thrive was maybe too big of a word, but they managed to survive well enough, even if they couldn't compare to the titans of my native forest.
I walked down toward the sea, rounding on a big ass rock and reaching the secluded spot where I had built my home, only a few meters above sea level. Again, 'home' may have been a bit of a stretch: my tent was pitched against one of the big rocks that stood tall in a semicircle, shielding me from both wind and sight.
I ducked in and dropped the contraption I had retrieved from David, before picking up a two-handed axe that somehow had made its way into my hands and a low pile of stainless pipes held together by strips of leather.
I made my way back into the forest, walking slightly uphill until I found a creek.
Once I was there, I started using the head of the celestial bronze axe to draw an almost perfectly straight line back to my home.
For the following four hours, I put to work every ounce of energy my body was capable of setting up a course for the pipes to follow.
The pipeline was one hundred and twelve meters long, and the water fell in a trickle over a side of my secluded place, like a bad imitation of a waterfall that somehow had managed to be pitied enough by the gods to be allowed to exist.
In that way, my home had potable water. It was cold, and the flow was a joke, but it was more than I had had in the morning, so I couldn't complain.
Looking with a grimace to my axe, I walked back into the forest, looking for the trees that I would need to build my... well, I had little hope that it would ever turn out as anything different from a hut.
10 July 2000
"Run that by me again." I repeated.
We were all sitting around on one of the free beds of cabin one, the loyal jukebox quietly playing Cherry Pie by the Warrant.
~ She's my cherry pie
Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise
Tastes so good, makes a grown man cry
Sweet Cherry Pie, yeah ~
"I met with my father." Luke repeated.
"I think he got that Luke." Thalia stage whispered, trying to joke. A pity I wasn't feeling like it.
"I don't. Not really." I retorted, gaining two surprised glances from the other two demigods.
"We've stolen shit before, Hades, we also did some awesome stuff with it!" I cursed.
"Remember the car racing?" Luke grinned to Thalia.
She turned her enthusiasm for the fond memory into a very likable virtuosic over the song:
~ If I think about baseball, I'll swing all night, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Swingin' in the living room, swingin' in the kitchen
Most folks don't 'cause they're too busy bitchin' ~
"Yeah like the totally illegal, underage car racing in Long Island." I nodded, remembering the crazy night with a smile. Gotta love the super reflexes that half godhood grants.
"But focus," I repeated, snapping my fingers: "gods don't appear out of the blue on their own, we all know that. So either he wanted something, or more likely, you called him."
Luke grimaced a bit at my bitter tone, we both ignored Thalia's blush along with her trilling:
~ Swingin' in there 'cause she wanted me to feed her
So I mixed up the batter and she licked the beater
I scream, you scream, we all scream for her
Don't even try 'cause you can't ignore her
She's my cherry pie
Cool drink of water, such a sweet surprise ~
And we both willfully entertained the double entendre with Thalia as a protagonist that naturally jumped to mind, the heaviness of the topic enough to ground us.
"Yeah, I ... kinda asked for a quest." He admitted.
And that stopped even the blushing Thalia, bringing a cute frown on her forehead: "You didn't tell us that part."
She still had a less than meaningful relationship with Zeus, and the idea of asking for something, or even worse, to cater to the whims of her father didn't hold any kind of appeal.
Luke grimaced: "Listen, not everybody is happy like you two. Thalia, you have this cabin for yourself and don't have to prove anything to anyone. Icarus, you somehow managed to find a house for yourself, don't think that nobody in the cabin noticed, and no offence, but you don't fucking care about anything beyond me, Thalia, and whatever shit you're building with David."
I frowned heavily and made to object when he went on: "For whatever reason, you refused to come to visit the Olympus on the winter solstice, and still you somehow got blessed by Mr. D, which sounds bad, but it means that the at least one god acknowledged you, I am not that lucky, okay? I got dropped and forgotten in my father's cabin along with forty other demigods!"
"Wow, Woah, slow down." I waved my hands in front of me in what I hoped was a placating gesture: "First of all Mr. D. didn't bless me, he likes me because I manage to get him drunk once a year without breaking the rules of his punishment. Second, I'll stay as far from the gods as I can, thank you very much."
After the thunder from outside and the snicker from Thalia had died down, I went on: "And... forgotten? Really? Half of the camp looks up to you, you're the most capable swordsman since forever, and..."
"Spare me." He cut my objection "That's not the point."
"It kind of is..." Thalia objected: "Why do you feel we forgot you? Why do you feel like you need... I dunno, more? And why asking a god? That's just... it doesn't make any sense!"
He grumbled something unintelligible before jumping down the bed and starting pacing, his arms straight down his sides and his hands opening and closing, like he was looking for something to strangle.
"It doesn't matter." He refused to answer.
Ah, teen angst, the great constant across the multiverse. My fingers drew small circles on my temples, and I took a breath to calm down.
Why does a random teen go all antsy-angsty without a reason? Oh yes, for problems that usually don't exist... They unleash random insecurity and the need to boast to overcome it, jealousy over nothing, fear of rejection, questioning self-worth when the truth is that nobody cares... I listed off in my head.
~ Tastes so good, make a grown man cry
Sweet cherry pie, oh yeah
She's my cherry pie
Put a smile on your face, ten miles wide
Looks so good, bring a tear to your eye
Sweet cherry pie, yeah ~
"The point is that I gotta steal a golden apple, and the Oracle said to go with only one companion, I asked Thalia, I leave in a week." Once that he had said his piece, he turned his back and bolted out of Cabin 1.
The revelation hit me like a mace: "He's jealous."
"What?" Thalia frowned.
I looked at the demigoddess and back to the now-closed door of Zeus' cabin.
"You're Zeus' child, I'm the son of nobody, I share his cabin and managed to distinguish myself throwing parties and organizing unofficial quests to bring stuff to the camp..." I reasoned.
"He's extraordinary with a sword, but we're both more powerful, if we actually let loose we could snap him like a twig." She frowned and followed my thoughts.
"You have spent a lot of time together before meeting me, relying on each other, and protecting Annabeth. Then since we came to the camp, you and I have spent more and more time together, either to train or to sing or whatnot." I concluded.
She snorted: "It would make sense, but Luke isn't like that."
"Isn't he?" I retorted: "Traditionally the quests go by teams of three, you and I are the most powerful demigods this place has seen in many years, and he asks only you?"
Thalia grimaced, distractedly biting her lower lip, and she fidgeted in her seated position.
"Shit!" She cursed and hopped down from the bed, pacing just like Luke did, only with her arms crossed and shooting me glance after a glance, only to shook her head and mutter stuff too quietly for me to hear.
"Jealous." She repeated.
Then she shook her head violently, her hair whipping against her flushed cheeks.
I rose from my seated position and walked over to her, tilting my head questioningly. I didn't say anything, she clearly had some kind of epiphany, to either reveal it or mull it over was her choice.
The fates know that I keep most of my thoughts to myself. I thought.
"I'll go with him." She told me.
Not that I doubted it, but it was clear that her thoughts had been rolling in a completely different direction.
The questions burned on my lips but I held them back.
You know what he is jealous about. Tell me.
"It was obvious." I deadpanned.
There is something wrong. Tell me.
"I'll leave you to your preparations then?"
She shook her head lightly before answering: "Yeah, it would be for the best."
I squeezed her shoulder and left the cabin: "If you want to talk, I'm game, you know?" I tossed over my shoulder.
There was something wrong in her reaction, but I couldn't read her mind, nor I was eager to spend more effort than strictly necessary dealing with whatever trouble had just come up, so I made my way to the beach where us, the over 12-year-old demigods, held our parties at the end of the summer.
It was almost time for the sun to drop below the horizon, my shadow stretched long on the ground, climbing over the little mounds of sand and dropping in the small holes left by seagulls in search of crabs and other potential food.
I felt the constant swaying of the waves soothe me, but still, I was perturbed, and not by Luke' mission, I remembered he had something to do near Mount Otri, but there was something... in the way Luke and Thalia had behaved, but also in the way they had looked at me, the son of Hermes like I had hurt him, and Thalia had suddenly discovered shyness.
I dropped on the sand, looking at the cloudy sky, trying to find a reason behind their strange actions.
After a while, something dropped on the side of my head, startling me and tossing grain of sand over my face.
I shot forward spluttering and staring confused at the leather canteen that had almost landed on my head, before raising my eyebrows toward the offender who had tossed it.
I did not expect him to be Dionysus.
"Well?" I asked.
"Beer dulls a memory, brandy sets it burning, but wine is the best for a sore heart's yearning." The plump god answered.
"What?" was my eloquent answer.
"I've been standing here for several minutes already, and you didn't notice. I hardly need to be a god to notice something is troubling you." The good of ritual madness quietly replied.
I grabbed the canteen and uncorked the top, sniffing at its contents: "Should I be surprised that your help cones in an alcoholic guise?"
"In my experience, there are two kinds of problems that can weigh down both immortals and mortals." the god sighed, "The problems that one can solve, and those that one can't. Drinking over the latter ofter lends a new perspective and makes them fall under the first category."
I blinked, confused: "I wasn't aware I had any problems."
After a second, I amended my answer: "Well, I don't know if its a problem or not, I just don't understand fully what's happening, that is all."
"That places the situation squarely under the second category." The little god laughed delighted: "Knock yourself out with that wine, the canteen will remain full until the end of the month."
My eyebrows skyrocketed, already thinking about how many barrels I could fill before selling them back to the other demigods when Dyonisus stopped me:
"And don't bother trying to pour the wine anywhere but in a thirsty mouth, it won't work in that case."
Party pooper god. I insulted him in the safe confines of my mind.
"I wouldn't have dreamt of it." I deadpanned out loud.
15 July 2000
I had chosen the rail-road, not that I feared Zeus, but it was obvious that we didn't like each other, and as such, I wanted to avoid crossing his domain without a damn good reason.
From New York to San Francisco it took me 3 days and a half.
A couple of runes on my carriage and I was left alone. No monsters and no people. It'd been... quiet, but after years among other kids, I enjoyed my break, music from the magic-jukebox built-in celestial bronze and wine, along with snacks of various kind. It had been oddly relaxing.
I thanked the mortal and paid with a handful of Mist, before walking towards a plaque.
Mount Tamalpais was protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park. It didn't look extremely impressive, and yet, to my sixth sense, it roared. With the side of my eye, I almost saw the clouds swirling in a column around the top.
I sighed and entered the park. I could understand why demigods wanted to go on quests, randomly exploring a place that held the chance of hiding a good battle was thrilling, even if I was wary of facing the promise of a horrible death that was Ladon.
Then I remembered, we wanted to enter the Hesperides' garden, and Ladon's only purpose was to keep guard on the tree of golden apples.
The beast, as well as my target, was likely in the middle of the garden. Now, how to know where to go?
I spent the following hours crossing the garden, looking behind every trunk, among every bush, all without success.
I shook my head, there was magic in the air, and a powerful one, that was unmistakable. And yet I felt there was something just behind the corner of my eyes, not a veil, only... something. It wasn't Mist, I could easily recognize it, but... I couldn't define it, I felt like being on the edge between oil poured over water, but that wasn't quite it.
I sighed, and looked once more to the overbearing mountain: "When in doubt, ask?" I wondered, looking at the Mount Tamalpais, which clearly had a second full-time job as the reincarnation of Mount Otri.
I trekked at a leisurely pace, I had rations in my sack, water, and nobody was running after me.
After thick layers of Mist that gave my talent in manipulating it a run for my money, I reached the top of the mountain. There were ruins, blocks of black granite and marble as big as houses. Broken columns. Statues of bronze that looked as though they'd been half-melted. I whistled slowly, wrapping the Mist tighter around me. It was a dreary place.
A few dozen meters ahead of me, gray clouds swirled in a heavy vortex, making a funnel cloud that almost touched the mountaintop, but instead rested on the shoulders of a man.
I had found out that Immortals were difficult to recognize unless they wanted to, however, there was no possible way to mistake Atlas.
In the middle of the small plateau, he had one knee rammed into the ground, which, surprisingly enough, didn't have a single fissure or crack, and yet few grains of sands seemed to climb one over the other, only to keep falling.
The titan's visible foot was twitching occasionally, minutely shifting the balance of the world's roof.
He had a single loincloth hiding his genitalia, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. He was bulky, not only that, he was chiselled, every single muscle contracting occasionally, his broad shoulders where something else, I could almost feel the unrelenting strength he was exercising.
"Who's there?" His voice rumbled, it was deep and overwhelming. Titan is too little a word to describe him...
I couldn't tell, but he was likely taller than 2 meters, his black curly hair was cut short and, since he was bent forward, they formed a curtain that hid his face.
I was thinking about how to ask him how to enter the Hesperids' garden, but nobody did anything for nothing. And I had honestly no idea what he could want.
When in doubt...
I let the Mist surrounding me fall apart, letting the being who was holding the sky to see me.
Immediately, the Titan rose his head, his eyes pinning me where I stood. He had regal features, a cross between elegant and sharp, which gifted him an aura of command that tried to ensnare me. His eyes were pitch black, no white, with occasional grey streaks flashing through.
I sat where I was, not trusting myself in going closer. I was sitting where the Sky wanted to shag the Earth, with a Titan in a loincloth stopping the two from obliterating the continent.
Why? Not only because I could, but most of all because I had been told I must stay away from another hero's quest. Like stealing shit for someone else was important, and like I did care about the gods' opinion about me.
I am a free man! I thought fiercely.
So... how to force an immortal titan able to hold back two primordial forces to surrender the information I need without getting myself killed? I reasoned.
"I heard names are extra important." I started, and I saw him narrow his eyes at my deceptively cheerful tone.
Maybe I should bullshit my way through. I reasoned, and once more I asked myself if bringing around Dionysus mark had made me somehow prone to madness.
"So you can call me... mmmm." I tapped my chin "Do you have a suggestion?"
The titan blinked: "You aren't even going to put in the effort to trick me for something?" His deep voice hid wonderfully the strain he was under, but couldn't mask his incredulity.
"Hey, it's not like I'll be the one to use my fake name to refer to myself, that would be just silly, wouldn't it?" I retorted.
Atlas eyebrows narrowed: "I tire quickly of this game, mortal."
I smiled as wide as I could: "Well, that's your fucking problem isn't it?"
The titan growled, the heaviness of his intent slamming on me like the sky itself.
Too bad he cannot move. I reassured myself. "You go too far mortal, you don't know what you're bringing on yourself." his voice was even, but nevertheless it carried the weight of his presence.
Yes, Dionysus definitely made me more prone to madness. I decided.
I dropped my elbow on my knee, resting my cheek against my palm, and stared at the titan holding the sky.
"Hey, you're the one who asked for my name, I just told you to make up one for me. I know who I am, and I know who you are. So I am comfortable in my position of advantage." I kept my cheerful tone.
"Even Heracles was warier when he came." Atlas muttered, "You want me to grab an apple for you, it can be arranged, nameless, just come over here and share a bit of my burden."
At that, I laughed. I got that immortals didn't actually change, but from being encased in time to never learning anything, the stretch was ridiculous.
"That's an old trick, Atlas." I spluttered among my laughs, and yet I felt his name heavy on my tongue, there was some magic tied to it, and it was... frankly beyond me. For now.
The face of the titan turned serious: "You won't use my name with impunity, you dare too much, without knowing what it will cost you."
"I know a lot of things." I grinned smartly, before changing my pose and sitting cross-legged, my palms resting on my knees, I bent forward a bit, like I wanted to get closer: "Clymene is the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, thus making her an Oceanid. She is the goddess of renown, fame, and infamy."
I watched as his eyes narrowed, before going on: "Iapetus is a Titan, son of Uranus..." I glanced at the impossible mass of the sky resting on Atlas' shoulders, before looking around his knee and foot: "... and Gaea, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius."
"Iapetus' name derives from the Greek word meaning 'to pierce', usually with a spear; therefore, Iapetus may have been considered as the god of craftsmanship, although most people cite him as the god of mortality."
I tilted my head, considering carefully Atlas' unchanging expression: "Your father was also considered the personification of one of the four pillars that held the heavens and the earth apart, a role that he later bequeathed to you. He represented the pillar of the west, the other three being represented by his brothers Crius, Coeus, and Hyperion. The four brothers actively played a role in the dethroning of your dearest grandfather." I watched again at the column of the sky a few meters from me."
I rolled my shoulders to free them from the stiffness: "As your father and his brothers were all in the four corners of the earth, they held the sky firmly in place while Cronus castrated him with a sickle."
Atlas' face remained perfectly still, not betraying anything: "You and your brothers are thought to have been the ancestors of humans, and that somehow you passed your flaws to my mortal brethren: so, although Prometheus was clever, he bequeathed scheming to mankind; Epimetheus, guileless as he was, passed down stupidity; Menoetius, an arrogant personality, bequeathed violence; and finally, you, Atlas, being powerful and patient, gave excessive daring."
I took off my sunglasses, it wasn't like I needed them, the whole place was hidden from the sun by the fucking sky itself: "So you see, I know a lot."
The titan was perfectly still, staring at me without betraying his thoughts. Seriously, I could swear that dyslexia was the gods' way to keep the demigods from learning about the world they are in. Hitting a random library would grant this info to anyone.
I smiled: "Of all the titans, you are by far one of the most interesting that I wanted to meet." And it was even the truth.
"And why is that?" Atlas looked at me.
I tilted my head again, rolling on the ground and coming to rest on my back, staring at the ominous celestial mass held back by the titan.
"Because you represent unending determination, unrelenting defiance, and acceptance of an ungrateful task for the sake of others." I started.
That surprised him, it was plain to see.
"The one that can destroy a resource, controls it. Why don't you just let go?"
"The sky must be willingly taken from me, it can't be left to fall. Otherwise, it would crush everything under its weight for thousands of kilometers in every direction, even I couldn't survive its fall. And there would be far-reaching consequences in the long term." the tenor voice of the titan rumbled again.
I narrowed my eyes and remembered some shit about the second set of Riordan's books, it was vague, but it gave me an edge.
"I take it that the sand didn't always try to climb over you to reach the sky?" I questioned with levity, ignoring the sudden heaviness of Atlas' eyes on me.
Then I grinned before smiling as wide as I could, my cheeks hurting.
"She is awaking, isn't she?" We both knew who I was referring to.
"Be quiet," Atlas ordered me.
Now that was interesting, why not? why not let the sky fall? I was reasonably sure that the multiverse theory was real, so everything that could happen happened in a different reality. So why not this?
I fingered the handle of one of the daggers on my belt. My smile turning bloodthirsty... "Why would you care?"
I unsheathed a dagger and rose from my seated position, taking a clue from all the shit I saw in my blurred lives, I liked the flat of the blade: "You're hardly having fun holding the sky all by your lonesome self..."
The titan looked... unsettled: "You would kill me? Why?"
I giggled: "Because I want to see what happens, why else? I'm booored."
And on the ruins of mount Othrys, Atlas, the son of Iapetus, grandson of Uranus, the Holder of the Sky, paled.
"You would cause your own death because you're bored?" he was scared or outraged, maybe both.
I was intrigued, Immortals don't really consider self-sacrifice unless it's for something really important, do they?
"I'm mortal, eventually I'll die anyway, and the world is honestly a dreary place. Humans actually like to think their lives have some kind of greater meaning when all goes back to doing something to prove to yourself your own existence. Even the gods die, Hell, in less than a billion years the sun will explode and engulf all the planets up to Saturn, the solar system will then crumble apart under the absence of gravity as a unifying factor and the slow entropic death of the universe..." I rolled my eyes "Besides, I think the Fates choose to give me this life as some part of a plan, and I honestly despise following other people's wishes unless there is a good reason, and the inevitability of the end of this reality denies the existence of such a reason." I concluded my nihilistic rant shrugging.
"You... could visit my daughters' garden, it's right down the side of the mountain, you can access it only at dusk, it's the most beautiful garden to ever blossom." He offered "I'm sure you've heard about the Hesperides, it would be difficult to be... bored..." I'm reasonably sure he would have shivered if the weight if the sky would have allowed it.
I huffed: "I know all about the garden and the golden apples, and Ladon, it's not like I can manage to steal a tooth from the dragon and take seventeen apples from the tree."
The titan blinked a couple of times, likely wondering about the number 17, before visibly shaking his head and wisely choosing to ignore it: "Why not facing Ladon? It would be a more interesting death than dying crushed under the sky." Atlas offered.
"Bah, being killed by a giant dragon sounds extremely boring," I tilted my head and watched again at the unending mass of clouds converging on the Titan's shoulders, it was marvelous, and I let my fascination show on my face, "At least in comparison with making the sky fall."
I walked over the Titan and trailed my fingers on the sky. It was cold, and slightly damp, and impossibly hard. I tapped it gently with my dagger, letting the surprisingly metallic 'clink' echo around.
"I wonder if there will be another generation of titans once Uranus falls on this mountain." I muttered, giggling quietly.
Then I bent over, staring unflinchingly into Atlas' eyes: "Have you ever considered how well English works as word-play with your anus and Uranus." I let the absurdity of the situation sink in.
Atlas was horrified by my blasé disregard of common decency and the value of life: "You're really planning on killing me and dying under the sky?"
I could hear... not fear, he simply could not understand how anybody, much less a mortal, could invite death on thousands of his kind because he was bored.
"I've died before." I stage whispered.
"And I am almost sure that every time I die I visit a new reality, the last one was a book I had read in the previous one." I shrugged.
"I've heard that death it's like a door." I continued conversationally, and in an act of madness, I cut away a dark curl of hair from the head of the titan holding the sky, "When one closes, another opens.".
"You know, I saw people transplanting eyes somewhere..." I trailed my dagger down from the Atlas' forehead to his completely black eye. The skin splitting open in a thin line despite the exaggerated pressure I was exercising, golden ichor trailed down his cheek and reached its chin falling on the ground in a single droplet.
And the titan responsible for holding the sky was afraid.
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