Megan and the Cretan Bull ~ Part 4

I looked at the wall next to where we landed. A Blue triangle was one the wall, just like the one I saw my mother press in my dream.

I turned to my colleagues. They were off the floor. “Everyone ok? That was an odd fall.” I was anxious; the wings were flittering rapidly on my shoes. I heard whoops and hollers coming from the girls. “Julie, how about some light?”

She tapped an arrow and it began to glow. She sent it down the one direction of the hallway we could head. It was long and seemed to keep going straight for a long ways.

I closed my eyes and felt for the bull. “It’s a long ways off, but there’s only one direction to head right now.”

We started off, but fell over during the first few feet; we couldn’t help but laugh at our clumsiness. After that, we tried to keep the same pace so no one would fall.

The tunnel kept on going straight, no turns, no side tunnels, nothing. I could feel the need to go to the right, but there was no spot anywhere.

After what felt like countless hours of walking, we entered a room we thought could be a basement under a fine dining restaurant. There were a few crates of food, which were surprisingly still fresh. We sat in a circle, ate our fill and slept next to the empty crates. I took the first watch. I stared at the photograph of my mother when Amberly shook me from my thoughts.

“Hey.”

“Oh..Uh, hi?”

“Do you want to talk about anything?”

She could tell I was uneasy with everything. There was so much going on in my life. I had left everything behind to meet my mother in person, who immediately died. I didn’t want to go on some stupid quest for her when I had never really known her. Plus, I didn’t know how old she really was and that kept eating away at me, like I should know, but the pieces weren’t together yet. “You can open up to me. We’re sisters, that’s what sisters do.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You sure about this?” She nodded enthusiastically. “Ok then, where to start?”

“How about the shield, you said we would talk about that.”

I unclipped my shield from my waist and unfurled it from keychain mode to its full size. “You’ve seen the front and the back, what else is there to know about it?”

“This symbol.” She pointed to what I had carved into the back of my shield when I accepted my heritage. “What does it mean?”

“Oh, well, when I joined the legion, I was marked.” I removed an arm guard, slid up my sleeve and showed her my wrist. “I didn’t really understand it when I got it, but I could tell it wasn’t a caduceus, which is what all the kids of Mercury get, unless they are a legacy. I remembered seeing one kid who’s mark had a spear down the middle because his dad was a son of Mercury and his mom was a daughter of Mars, that’s Hermes and Ares to you Greeks. It’s different, but only slightly, like Mercury and Minerva wanted to cover up my past. See, it’s thread and not snakes.”

There was enough light that Amberly could barely see what I had meant. My fingers traced the symbol: a threaded needle with wings.

“After the Legion found out about my mother, there was one day when I got really mad. I scratched that into my shield as a reflection on myself that I can’t change what I am, that I will always be a daughter of Mercury and legacy of Athena.” I looked up into her eyes. “That I will never be truly accepted at either camp.”

I slid my arm guard back on. “Just don’t spread it around. Some Greeks know about me, but I don’t want the entire world to-”

I gasped for breath. I could hear them coming, six or seven of them, very strong, very fast. Amberly and I got everyone up and started racing down the hall.

“This way!”

I pulled everyone down the first available spot, the only one I’ve seen the entire time we’ve been down here. It was the wrong direction from the bull, but that was beside the point.

The girls behind me were out of breath. I told them to be quiet as I could hear a bunch of people run by in formation.

 “Hut, 2, 3, 4. Hut, 2, 3, 4.”

As the last one went past, I peered around the corner. Glowing purple beings went past and I could see a mark on the nearest one’s wrist.

I could see Amberly trying to go towards them, but I pulled her back at the last minute.

“What are they?”

The beings turned toward us and several more came from the walls. We were surrounded in seconds.

“Lares, fallen legionaries.” I alerted the girls not to walk through them and tried to move over to the one I presumed was the leader. It’s the most disgusting feeling, like trying to walk through a brick wall and coming out feeling winded and purple.

“I am Megan Miller, Daughter of Mercury, Legion 12 veteran.” I revealed my own mark.

“You disrupted our training.”

“My companions and I give you our regards, if you would just let us pass.”

The one I had spoken to raised his hand. “I cannot let you do that.”

“And why not?” The girls agreed with me.

“Your friends don’t smell like Romans. We cannot let you pass without judgment. Follow.”

The lares led us away. There weren’t very many of them, just a couple dozen, but enough that we had no chance of escape. We walked down the side hall and entered a room like the senate hall back in New Rome.

I could see lares fall in from every direction. There was only a cohort or so of them, but that’s still a lot.

The leader of the patrol who found us introduced us to the group. “These girls thought they could disrupt our trainings! Is that what we want?”

There was a chorus of No’s and Boo’s coming from across the room.

I was pushed a bit further forward. “Tell us who you are and why you were trespassing, and perhaps we shall show mercy on you.”

I gave my companions a wink. “I am Megan Miller, Daughter of Mercury. These are my sisters-in-arms: Julie Morgan, daughter of Apollo; Morgan Black, daughter of Oceanus; Lily Kole, daughter of Trivia; Holiday Jinxens, daughter of Mars; and Amberly Dieb, daughter of Mercury.” I gestured to each of them in turn. “We seek to pass through your realm on our quest.”

“And what is this quest?”

“We are seeking the Cretan Bull.”

The lares didn’t seem entirely convinced that was our plan, but if it meant getting that beast away from them, they were all for it. They pushed us the rest of the way through their territory and told us never to head this way again.

“Well, that could have gone better.” The other girls seemed to like what Lily said, but I was staring at the room we were thrown into.

It was much smaller than the last one and it was in the shape of a dodecagon with a doorway between each of the walls. There were murals on the walls, but they were so far faded, we could barely see them.

There were twelve in all, but we listed off what we could see:
-A man fighting a large cat.
-A beast with five or so heads.
-The hind quarters of a horse-like animal.
-A great bull.
-And a tree with golden apples.