The God of Gravity part 2: Olympus

Children of the Desert

-

*

"Can you teach me how to fight, big-sister?" asked a little girl in her mind.

The voice is as clear as water. She saw her sister pulling her clothes and her with eyes are as shiny as pearls and irises as dark as a lightless sky. She wore a yukata that resembled the cherry blossom that only grows in the mountains of the Taiyo Region and they grow mostly around their home: The Miyamoto Castle wherein the spring, pink petals of the blossoms take a flight with the cold wind coming from the snowy summits of the mountain, and fly down the valley where commoners or humans feel secure under the protection of the strong Clan.

"When you're big enough," said Shizuku. "I will teach you to become the bravest warrior of the Clan."

"No!" she stomped the ground while pouting her lips and folding her arms. "I want to get strong as you... now!"

Shizuku knelt and held her sister's arms but she frowned and looked to the side, feeling unsatisfaction and disappointment. Her big-sister couldn't help but smile because of her adorable anger.

"Okay," said Shizuku. "as a start, how about this: I will teach you meditation at the waterfall."

Then the teeth of her sister showed and glimmered as she smiled. "Yay!" she celebrated then hugged her.

Shizuku giggled feeling the warmth of her small sister's hug and smelling her fragrant hair that even a million different flowers that have existed can never overcome. She closed her eyes but all she could smell now is the sand. She opened it again and came back to reality as Sayuri, the Goddess of Blades and the goddess who seeks vengeance.

Anfisa looked with her concerned eyes at the goddess as she stirred. She nodded and the boys celebrated with cries of "Yeah!", "Cool!" and "Awesome!"

She made them practice with sticks and showed them how to properly swing a sword. They lined themselves in front of her and they watched how she does it with her own wooden sword. She didn't talk but only showed them. With nods and shake of her head, she shows them how it's done when they are doing it wrong. Then they eventually got bored and stopped swinging their wooden swords.

"This is boring!" complained a boy. "I want to learn awesome moves!"

She stopped and looked at each of their faces of tiredness and disappointment. They look like her sister so it gave her the motivation to keep them motivated. Anfisa is still swinging her sword with full focus, unlike the rest.

Sayuri stepped back a couple of meters to a distance and it is out of the shade from the hot sun. They figured out that she doesn't want to teach them anymore so the boys turned and walked away except Anfisa. The goddess stood while closing her eyes and breathed slowly. She imagined that she's sparring with her mother, Akio, the Great Goddess of Archery, and the strongest deity in their clan. She's a versatile warrior not only because of her absolute dominant skill in archery but also her ways of the sword. All of Sayuri's skills came from her teachings. They are surrounded by the members of the Clan as they sit at the edges of the mat and spectated.

Shizuku lunged her sword forward but Akio parried and counter-attacked with a swing coming from above. It got blocked and Shizuku went to strike her mother's knee. Akio pulled her knee and attacked in a forward lunge. Shizuku dodged to her right and parried the sword of Akio, following an attack at the shoulder but Akio dodged by stepping back calmly.

"Good attempts but too slow!" she lectured her daughter. "Faster!"

"That was already fast," murmured a spectating god to his comrade beside him. "faster than any of us."

"I know but Lady Akio has a great standard for her daughter. After all, Lady Shizuku is the heir of the Clan."

"Right...."

Shizuku nodded once and attacked as she watched out for the possible moves that Akio will act upon her. She swung from the left but Akio blocked it but then made it slide down to go for her foot. Akio stepped back and gave ground so Shizuku advanced after parrying an attack from her left all the while she got closer to Akio and with the hilt of her wooden sword, pushed her it in an attempt to hit her mother in the stomach. Then Shizuku fell prone on the ground after Akio hit her with the hilt of her wooden sword.

"Almost but nicely done," said Akio. "my daughter."

Shizuku rolled to the side to see the face of her mother. Akio smiled and like a feeling of the sun after the cold dawn, warmed the heart of her daughter. Shizuku closed her eyes while lying on the ground and answered with a smile, just to open it with the eyes of the one who sought revenge.

Sayuri opened her eyes after the display with a stance that supposedly the other way for the duel could've ended if she won. It is a strike from the left and into the right side of the body of her imaginary opponent. Then she saw the gaping mouths of the boys after witnessing her skill.

She walked to them and said, "Awesomeness comes after basics."

They hurriedly lined up side by side and started to swing their swords vigorously. At the distance, behind them, are Hiroki on crutches, Jasper frowning in pain, and Jack folding his metal arms as they watched their goddess interacting with the children in her own way. They sat on a long chair except for Jasper because he has a pain on his butt cheeks. Hiroki has this unremovable faint smile on his face as he felt the warmth of kindness from his goddess. Jasper can't express the feeling of gladness because of his suffering. Jack is smiling as Hiroki is doing. They looked at each other and assumed that they are feeling the same way. Then back to look at her.

Sayuri and the children went on practicing and other children joined them too. A playful practice of few children became a class for the goddess. They surrounded her and she's got nowhere to go. She just has this pale look on her face with no emotion but didn't stop the children from getting close to her. They like her skin and hair and her sword.

"Lady," said a proud boy with his left arm behind his back and showing his right hand to her while bowing. He's outside the group of children that surrounded her so he stands out well. She is taller than any of them, so he saw him smiled in a grin and said, "Marry me."

The children around her were surprised and then looked at her as they waited for her answer. She said with a pale tone, "No."

The word broke the boy's heart as he knelt and hit the sand with his fist. The children laughed at him. Her three comrades at the distance laughed too. Sayuri went through the crowd of children and approached the boy as he acted as if his dignity has been utterly destroyed by a single word.

He noticed that she is already in front of him as she cast a shadow. He said, "Nothing hurts more than a word of no from the most beautiful lady I have ever seen!"

"Man," said Jasper while laughing. "this kid sure has a silver tongue! But he's got no chance because he's just a boy, a human, obviously acting, and too naive. Even I, the wise and great God of Trickery haven't-" he stopped talking when he saw her hugging the boy. "Wait, that can't be right... Is that an illusion in the desert? A mirage?"

"No, Jasper," said Hiroki.

"Now that's just... Ugh!" he cried in pain after his butt throbbed in pain.

The boy has his face on Sayuri's belly as they hugged and then he looked up at the goddess as she said, "If you become a capable man when I come back, I will."

"What?!!!" exclaimed the children.

"No, lady!"

"He's not worthy of you!"

"He's a jerk!"

"He teases us, girls, all the time!"

"I will make sure of it, beautiful lady!" said the boy before kissing the back of her hand.

Jasper got his jaw dropping and frowned as he put up a fist. "That's unfair!" he spat then Hiroki and Jack laughed.

"Face it, Jasper," said Hiroki. "there's a boy that can beat your old-school approach with women."

"No!" he repulsively denied. "It is because our lady is kind! That's all there is! There's no way a boy like that can beat me. He has to live a thousand years to match my expertise on approaching women!"

"Then why is that boy hugging our lady once more while you are here with jealousy carved on your face?"

"I am not jealous!" he asserted while folding his arms. Jack and Hiroki laughed.

A few minutes later, Jack prepared a single camel that carried their small provision because they have lost all of their stuff after they have been attacked by that snake. The camels who carried them were never found and they didn't wonder where they might be even though all of the technology and stuff that are important to Hiroki was in his huge bag on the camel. His laptop and 3D printer were also in it. He felt sad about it after the day of the incident but moved on after a day.

Now, he is walking with the help of desert crutches that have pads under them so that they wouldn't sink in the sand. Jack helped him get on the camel because he's the disabled one. Jasper only has an injury on his butt and it didn't disable him to walk upright. Although he walks in short strides so that it won't stretch and hurt.

Sayuri is waiting for them at the edge of the village in the east. She is deep in her thoughts as always and the boy who proposed to her approached her from behind.

"Lady!" he said while sticking his fist on his chest as a sign of sadness. His eyes were glittering because of the tears. "Don't go, stay with me and let's live a life together!"

She turned around to face him and he walked close to her and took her hand again. He pouted his lips and she slapped his face.

"Ouch!" he cried in pain.

"Do you want me to slice off your manhood, Jasper?"

He widened his eyes but then closed it as he frowned out of regret and feeling of deep trouble as he transformed back into himself. "I'm sorry, my lady," he said in submission and bowing his head. She slapped him again but this time at the other side of his face. He retreated and apologized some more.

Jack and Hiroki on the camel caught up to them and the children watched them from the distance. The real boy that proposed to Sayuri cried with real tears flowing from his eyes as he watched her go on a journey.

"I will wait for you, my love!"

"Boo!" booed the other children around him.

"You're disgusting!"

"She's too beautiful for you!"

But then he said, "Ha! Say what you want, I know that she will come back to me and we will get married!"

"In your dreams, ya dork."

"What happened to your face?" asked Jack to Jasper while they walked eastward with Hiroki leading the way, followed by Sayuri then the two of them.

Jasper's cheeks were red and swelling after he got slapped two times by the goddess. He said, "Bees stung my cheeks."

"There are bees in the desert?"

"Of course, they live in date palm trees."

"Oh..."

After they treaded on the sand for over a couple of miles, they climbed a tall rocky hill and Hiroki stopped as they reached the summit so his comrades stopped walking. From a mile, they saw the vast field with hundreds of oil rigs with thousands of soldiers of Olympus surrounding the area.

"Get down!" cried Jack as a jet engine roared in the sky.

*

-