Chapter 27: Second Labor
{Odysseus' Dreamscape, Unkown time}
I opened my eyes and realized I was once again in a dream with my godly parent at least if the thousands of giant eyes surrounding me where any indication.
A deep primordial voice suddenly started reverbating across the infinite space, "Hello son, you did a good job completing your first labor."
Before the voice of my godly father could continue I interrupted him and said, "Wait, one second, you are Erebus, aren't you?"
My father's voice stayed quiet for a moment, and then replied "Indeed, I am."
"Well at least I got that figured out, I mean I already had my suspicions but Alcyoneus saying I was his cousin only confirmed it, since he is a child of Gaia and Tartarus, while the only other three Primordials who are at their levels is Erebus, Eros and Nysx, and since I have shadow and darkness based powers it is the most rational guess." I said while slightly scratching the back of my head.
"You know you could have just asked right? I wasn't keeping it a secret." Erebus said while his eyes slightly closed as if he was laughing. At his words I coulsn't help but slighlty shrink back in shame since I hadn't thought of that funnily enough. Trying to change the subject I asked also intrigued, "Can you tell me about my mother?"
"Your mother, huh." Erebus replied. "Her name was Edna Atonal, she was a demigod, a daughter of Aphrodite, but weirdly enough she didn't act like one." My father continued.
"Wait my mom, was a daughter of Aphrodite, that means I am part of their cabin." I said while slightly shivering as my ming thought of Emma and the rest of Aphrodite kids who always pinched my cheeks.
"Ha,ha,ha." Erebus laughed, "You really act like your mother sometimes you know." "Father, what happened to my mother?" I couldn't help but ask the primordial entity of darkness and shadows.
"Well when you were born..." My father started saying, but suddenly before he could continue the space we where in started shaking profusely. "This was a good chat, Odysseus, pretty good name by the way although not what I would have gone for." Erebus said but the space continued shaking even more.
"You're next labor will be to slay the Stymphalian birds, a flock of man-eating birds with bronze beaks and mettalic feathers that can shot like an arrows, based on Hercales' sixth labor. The hint for this labor is that they follow the flight path of Black Kites." Just as my godly father finished explaining my next labor I sunk into the ground and the space around me shattered.
{Motel in Alaska, November 28th}
"How the hell should I know the black kite's migration path." I said slighlty frustrated at my newest labor.
Trying to take my mind of the labor for a few minutes since I was pretty tired after I had killed the Calydonian Boar yesterday.
I started gathering Mist in front of me forming something similar to a rainbow, I then grabbed a golden drachma from my shadow and prayed in ancient greek,"Ω Ἶρις, θεά τοῦ Ἰριδος, παραδέξου τὴν προσφοράν μου. (Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering.)"
I thought of Thalia and Amalthea, the divine goat, slolwy a picture started forming in front of me, a city, a slighlty bigger goat than usual, at her side a girl around 11 years old and on the side of the girl was a boy with short spiky hair with an intense orange aura around him, as I looked at the boy at Thalia's side I coudn't help but feel weird at the sight of the boy.
"Hey Thalia." I said towards the picture, Thalia seemed to jump in surpirse and turned around a smile forming on her face, "Hey Ozzy!" She said excitedly while Amalthea berated in a happy tune as soon as she saw me.
"So, how's your quest going?" I asked Thalia and her companions, before she could answer me the boy around 13 years old who stood at her side asked suspiciously, "Who are you?"
I looked at the boy for a few moments and replied "I am Odysseus, though my friends call me Ozzy. Has Thalia never mentioned me?" I asked towards the boy, "Oh that Odysseus yeah, Thalia has mentioned you a few times." The boy said.
"And who might you be?" I asked "After all it is rude to ask for someone's name without giving yours."
Before he could answer, Thalia seemed to notice the slight tension in the air (or rainbow in this case) and said quickly, "He is Luke Castellan one of the companions for my quest. But tell us how your quest has been going?"
"Well I finished my first labor, so that's cool, got this sweet fur sweater." I said while slightly pulling on the sweater I got from the Calydonian boar. "Aside from that I fought a giant a few weeks ago that almost killed me but he suddenly disappeared when I lost consciousness."
"Wait you almost died!" Thalia yelled berating me, "Yeah, but don't think about that look at this sweet sweater." I said trying to calm her down.
After some more berating from Thalia and promising her that I'd be more careful, I ended the Iris message, I then grabbed another golden drachma from my shadow and threw it at the rainbow.
I chanted the hymn and thought of my father, an image of my dad in his study reading a book formed. "Hey Dad." I said a little awkwardly, my dad took his eyes of the book and looked through the rainbow projection.
"Hello Odysseus." He said in his iconic soothing voice, "Sorry for calling you so soon I know that we talked less than a week ago about the giant I fought." I said to my dad.
"Don't worry about it, son it is always good to hear from you." My dad replied while slightly smiling at me. "Well I wanted to ask you two dad." I said.
"Sure son, shoot, as you young kids say." My dad said, and I couldn't help but slightly grabbed my head at his antics.
"Well the first thing is since you are so knowledgeable I wanted to ask do you know the migration path of Black Kites?" I asked somewhat awkwardly since I had absolutely no information on the subject.
My dad started scratching his beard and replied "I mean I know some of the basics on it, they are the most numerous species of raptors in the world so they have a lot of different migration paths, the most common one would probably be from Nigeria, then through west Africa, then through Spain and into Chezchia."
My face looked slightly dumbfounded at the dump of information my dad just unloaded on me, but then a huge smile formed on my face and I said enthusiastically "Thanks dad! You're the best!"
As I was about to hang up the call since I got the information I needed my dad suddenly asked me "Didn't you have a second question?" While he smiled lightly, "Oh yeah, do you remember a camper by the name Edna Atonal, she was a child of Aphrodite." I questioned my dad.
"Edna Atonal, hmm." My dad started scratching his beard and closed his eyes as if in thought, after half a minute of silence he opened his eyes and said, "Yeah, I remember her now, Edna Atonal, she came to camp for the first time when she was 12, got chosen for a quest when she was 16, and left camp like all half-bloods do when she reached 20 years of age, does that answer your question." My dad stated.
"Yeah, thanks dad, you really are the best centaur ever." I stated as I cut the call. "Well I got a few answers to my questions and I guess I have my next destination in mind, Nigeria."
*Author Note: Hoped you liked this chapter a little longer than yesterday's at 1330 words without this obviously, Odysseus does get slightly jealous over Luke, lol, and he also asked Chiron about the eagle he found, but he said he knew nothing. Just wanted to add two more things I have an auxiliary chapter where I explain Odysseus' powers and equipment also for Odysseus male parents I will use dad for Chiron and father or godly parent for Erebus since he still and always will consider Chiron his true father.*