Chapter 5: The Council

“It’s amazing.” Was the only thing I managed to say, it’s huge black sails and the beautiful carvings that lined the ship’s mast and sails were breathtaking. It looked like a regular ship from the outside, but a lot bigger from the inside. “Oh, it’s a lot more things than amazing, dangerous too.” Horus continued, “This battleship has enough firepower to destroy the whole solar system! Isn’t it amazing?” He said eagerly. “Um, wow, I guess.” I didn’t know what to say. I could see the earth from here, but…. it’s flat. “The earth is flat?” “They didn’t teach you that at school?” asked Horus. “No, they told us it’s flat.” I said. “So that’s what they see,” Horus said thoughtfully, “The magic barrier that seals our world from the mortals’, showed them that.” If the world is flat, then why is my life going downhill? I thought, “OK, that’s it, the tour’s over, c’mon” He took me by the hand and down the same flight of stairs we took on our way up. “Whoa, wait there,” I shook my hand from his grip. “You can’t just snatch me up from society, fly me thousands of feet above the ground, hit me on the head so hard that I blacked out, and carry me to a battleship in the middle of outer space, and not let me at least take a look around.” I said. He considered it for a moment. “Nope,” he said at last. I can do anything I want because in case you haven’t noticed, I’m a god.” I crossed my arms in disapproval. “How long will I stay in this place.” I asked. “Depends,” He said, “If you don’t agree we’ll just erase your memory of this place and send you back home, if not, well, let’s just say that you’ll have the adventure of your life.” He smiled, “Agree on what?” I asked in frustration. “Kid, shut up, will you?” He said. We passed a couple of hallways and went down a flight of stairs. “Where are we going?” I asked. “To the place that might change your life forever.” He smiled wickedly. He laughed “Relax kid, I’m kidding.” I was not in the mood to relax, that guy had a seriously twisted sense of humor. “That’s it,” I said, stopping in my place, “I will not move from here until you explain to me what’s happening.” “Fine, you want to do it the hard way?” he said, he walked towards me and lifted me off my feet. “No, no!” I protested, “The last time you carried me didn’t go well. Put me down!” Horus just ignored me. As we walked through the hallways, I saw other people too, some were wearing Greek tunics, others were wearing roman armor, others were wearing what seemed like animal skin, some were also wearing clothes like Horus’s, white straps of linen tied around the waist with a belt. The ship definitely was way bigger than it looked. “Ok, here we are,” He put me down in front of a huge golden double door. “Good luck,” He said, “You’ll need it.” “What’s inside this room?” I asked cautiously, the room radiated power, I could feel it vibrating. Horus smiled, “The Council of Legends.” he said, throwing open the doors. I walked in after him. The room was majestic, the ceiling was at least fifty feet high, and the walls were gold decorated with drawings of heroes fighting monsters, I recognized the minotaur and a dragon. There were four giant chairs decorated and designed with different carvings, and smaller chairs around the room. On the four great chairs sat four people, they wore clothes like the people we saw outside, and they looked like normal people, aside from the fact that everybody in the room was at least twenty five feet tall, accept me and Horus. It looked like the four on the big chairs were leaders, one of them had a long beard and an eye patch, the other had a white beard and white hair, the third, however, didn’t have a beard, but had black hair, the last was wearing full body armor that covered everything except his face and hands. We walked to the middle of the room. Horus bowed before the council and gestured for me to do the same. Horus turned to me, squeezed my shoulder and whispered, “Good luck.” He walked and took a seat among the people sitting on the smaller chairs and left me standing like an idiot in the middle of the room. “Is that him?” The one with the white beard and white hair said. “He’s barely thirteen.” “Um, actually I’m fourteen.” I corrected, but he just ignored me. “Patience, Zeus.” Said the guy with the black hair. “We didn’t introduce ourselves yet.” He stood up. “I’m Ra, The sun god. And this here is Zeus” he pointed at the guy with a white hair and beard, Zeus just gave me a disgusted look. “This is Odin,” Ra continued, He pointed at the guy with the eye patch. Odin didn’t move a muscle, he looked like one of these old Kung-Fu masters in Chinese movies. “And last but not least, Jupiter.” The only one left was the guy in roman armor, he just grunted in reply, he didn’t look like a very friendly person. “We,” Ra continued, “Are the leaders of The Council of Legends, we represent our nations, the ancient kingdoms, Egypt, Rome, Greece, and ancient Denmark. We formed this council to protect humanity and the Whole universe from danger. But sometimes we cannot do it alone, not even with the help of our fellow gods here.” He pointed at the people sitting on the smaller chairs. I scanned the seats and saw Horus, now about the same height as the rest “That’s why you’re here today.” My throat was dry, I swallowed hard. Ra continued, “We will put the burden of a great quest on your shoulders, a quest that could save or destroy humanity. One that needs a great deal of courage and power. What say you?” I moistened my lips, this was all so absurd, gods, quest, humanity. I kept thinking for a while and ended up saying, “I need to go to the bathroom.” All this talk about supernatural stuff really stressed my excretory system. The head councilors looked at each other, I felt like an absolute idiot. “Very well.” Said Ra, I was led to the bathroom by a guard, the bathrooms were like any you’d see in the normal world, I must admit I was a bit disappointed. After I finished, I washed my hands and dried them. The same guard returned me to the great room. “Now that you’re here, can we hear your thoughts?” I straightened my pose, “What exactly do you need my help on? And why me? I’m not that strong or smart.” I said. They looked at each other, “Asmodeus,” said Ra, “The master of evil, the commander of the thirty-three damned legions, one of the ninety-nine fallen angels, is back, he’s emerging at the other end of the universe, but his emerging is still affecting our laws of nature, Vampires can come out in daylight, the prey is now the predator, everything is messed up, soon he will gather his army of the damned, and march on our world, only one thing can stop him. The lost souls.” “What’s that?” I asked quietly. “Four souls that hold in them the same power as you; destroying or saving humanity, they are the only ones who have the ability to control the four elements of nature. Your quest is to collect these souls from the four lords of the underworld and return them to us.” He paused and looked sorrowfully at the others. “Unfortunately, the four lords of the underworld, have joined the evil cause.” He kept his gaze fixed on the ground. “If you accept this fate, your quest won’t be easy, but you’d be doing it for the better cause, for humanity. But about your second question, you are stronger than you realize Cole, you have great power, but the key is to use it in good not evil.” There was a round of applause. “We won’t rush you, take your time to consider. If you don’t accept, the world won’t stand a chance.” As I was led out of the door, Odin called me, “Cole,” He said, that was the first time he spoke in the whole meeting. I turned to face him. “You might find an explanation for the thoughts that haunted you for so long,” He said, “The answers that concern the disappearance of your father.”