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Abandoned Chariots Raegan Linster “Dad, look out behind you!” Eros yelled, right as my back was pierced with a shortsword. Foolish mistake. I whirled around, a twister of elegance and glinting armour, and impaled my enemy in the neck with my spear. The young man began to gurgle, flailing and holding onto his neck in an attempt to detach himself from my blade, with no such luck. My side felt a small tickle, and I looked over to see Harmonia, my daughter, taking hold of the sword still embedded in my ribs. She gave a small tug, and it slid right out, dripping a luminescent, sticky gold liquid- ichor, the blood of the gods. I turned back to the fledgling still pathetically attempting to escape, and raised him up to eye level. He opened his mouth to speak, but only sprayed blood, a disgusting scarlet mess that splattered all over my helmet. “Next time, know who you are fighting first. Stabbing a god? Not the best idea.” I smiled grimly, soaking up the man’s evident agony. Then, in one quick movement, I shook him from my spear. His body hit the ground with a dull thud. He twitched a few more times, then finally lay still. I took off my helmet and wiped the blood from my face. It’s a good thing I chose to wear the red plume today- if my white one had gotten dirty, I would have been ticked. Harmonia tossed the man’s shortsword next to his body, putting a hand on her hip. “You always have to make such a mess, Ares. Why do you need revenge for every little thing?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. If I weren’t mistaken, she looked almost sad. “Harm, you saw what he did. He stabbed me! And beyond that, in the back! Where’s the honor?” “Where’s the honor in torturing and killing him immediately after he does so? Don’t you ever get tired of all this bloodshed? This isn’t what I signed up for.” Heat began to rise in my cheeks. I clenched Oracle 2019-2020 25 my fist, and Eros grabbed my arm, noticing my warning signs. “I think we all just need to take a beat here. And, no more messing with Hades. He’ll just keep finding more people with vendettas to come after you. Even if they are human, it’s not worth it.” Harmonia narrowed her eyes, clearly unsatisfied. “Whatever. Until Ares gets a hold on his anger, I’m done.” She snapped her fingers, and was gone. Just like that. “What’s her problem today? Think she’s close to her time of the century?” I laughed, but Eros did not join me. Instead, he looked very sober, which was completely unlike his usual comical, silky Cupid self. Eros sighed, and grabbed his bow from a nearby rock. His heart-shaped arrows rattled in their quiver as he bent down. “She has a point, Dad. You can’t just kill every person who slightly inconveniences you. It doesn’t matter who you are- god of war or other, that doesn’t give you the right to treat everyone else like they are expendable.” My jaw dropped. I couldn’t help it, it was just too unbelievable what I was hearing. Eros awkwardly stepped over the body still lying on the ground, and half-hugged me. “Listen. I love you, and I always will, but I’m with Harm on this. You gotta make some changes. I’m tired of standing up for you, just to end up in yet another fight. Let us know when you change your mind.” And just like that, he, too, was gone. Both of my children, abandoning me in my greatest time of need. I had never felt more betrayed. Anger filled me once again. It felt like an ocean churning inside me, getting ready to consume me. Steam began to pipe out of my ears. Yes, I mean that literally. It’s not like I needed them anyways. I’m the freaking god of war. I don’t need anyone else but me. But still, I had to admit, some small part of me was hurt by it. I didn’t understand. They’d never seemed bothered by my lifestyle before. Why now? Was there really something so wrong with loving revenge and a good beatdown? Still stewing over all this, I poofed! back to Mount Olympus. Or, so I thought. I knew I was in the wrong place the moment I opened my eyes to approximately thirteen homemade spears pointed at my face. The tips were arrowhead rocks with dull points, but when used with enough force they do the job. And frankly, I was not up for another tickle-fest of my midsection. “Well, this is certainly not Mount Olympus. Oops.” The people holding the spears semi-threateningly jumped when I spoke. Upon taking a closer look, I saw that they all possessed lovely tanned skin, long dark hair, and many shades of colorful paint streaks along their faces. Oracle 2019-2020 26 Though I was entertained by this new crowd, all I wanted was to go back home and beat up some of my servants until Eros and Harmonia came back to their senses. I tried to snap! my fingers together once again, as is the usual teleportation method back above the clouds, but nothing happened. “Damn Hera,” I muttered cursedly. My evil stepmother was the only reason anyone was ever locked out of Olympus, and clearly she was up to some sort of game again, of which I was in no mood for. Right at that moment, I again remembered that I was currently surrounded by a group of weapon-wielding people. As I looked around once again at my audience, they all tightened their grips on their spears, looking uneasy yet angry. Since I was stuck for the time being, I supposed I had better try and defuse the situation. To show them that I meant no harm (at the current moment), I tried to raise my hands in a peace offering. For a god of war, this was an extremely generous gesture. The warrior people did not seem to agree so much. An especially large man to the right of me poked my shoulder with the tip of his spear, and to my great shock, it stung. I glanced at my arm to see that he had successfully cut me, and instead of my normal golden ichor streaming out, there was bright red blood, the color of freshly picked strawberries. “What the- how did you-?” “ARUGULA!” The man cut me off, yelling savagely. “ARUGULA! ARUGULA! ARUGULA!” All of the others followed the man’s cry, chanting incessantly and pumping their spears in the air. For a split second, I was completely disoriented, until I realized that they were not yelling about the English term arugula, meaning the disgusting leafy green. They were speaking another language. I searched through my godly brain’s database tirelessly until I finally found the right translation: “SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE!” Uh oh. That was not good. Especially since for some unknown reason, I was bleeding like any regular old human. “You sit on ancestors’ sacred ground, forbidden to all but the great elder, I!” The big man spoke up, prodding me again with his weapon. “Ouch! Would you watch where you poke that thing!” I rubbed my arm, where there were now two open cuts. How did humans deal with this? “You trespass on sacred ground, you become sacrifice.” There was a collective “oooh” from the Oracle 2019-2020 27 rest of the group after the man, apparently the ‘great elder’, said this. “SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE! SACRIFICE!” Suddenly, the warriors stopped their chant and began closing in. Two dozen hands grabbed at me and began to tie me up. I tried to fight, but there were too many of them, and my godly strength was seemingly nowhere to be found. Oh, gods, what had Hera gotten me into? Now let me tell you, hanging upside down from a pole by your hands and feet is about the least comfortable position in the world, no exaggeration necessary. I felt like a sloth that had accidentally glued himself to a branch. At some point during my hanging out, all the blood must have rushed to my head and caused me to pass out. Because when I came to, we were suddenly at the top of a freaking volcano, and my leg hairs had sizzled off from my proximity to the lava. This was definitely not my day. The great elder was seated criss-cross applesauce a few yards away from me. When he saw I was awake, he pointed towards me. “Trespass on sacred ground, need sacrifice to appease ancestors!” Now, I totally understand the whole sacrifice thing. People make sacrifices to me often, hoping I’ll destroy their enemies (or that annoying in-law no one likes). Most of the time I don’t help them, but this is besides the point- sacrificing me, Ares god of war, because I “trespassed” on some dumb holy ground? That was just plain ridiculous. It was totally ungrounded (no pun intended), and didn’t make sense. My life didn’t need to be sacrificed just because I had upset their ancestors. I didn’t even do anything wrong except teleport to the wrong place! There was no justice in this! “Hey, uh, Great and Powerful Elder sir, do you really need to sacrifice me?” I tried to smile nicely at the man, but as I was looking at him upside down, I probably looked more like an idiot than anything else.
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