Meeting the Family

Thunderous claps sounded through the canyon, echoing off of the stone walls. The source of these claps are the three monsters known as the Hecatoncheires. Each of the brothers had their hundred hands, paired up together in clapping motions. Their palms clapping together in a synchronized fashion. They marched through the canyon in a one by three formation, feet stomping the ground on beet. Leading this formation was Gyges.

Gyges 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 idea was to lead his brothers in a simple and rhythmic activity to help them focus. Then gradually increase the complexity to help them get some effective practice in.

The plan seemed to work, as after only an hour, he had his brothers following him in rhythm almost perfectly. Their synchronous claps were thunderous, creating shock waves and kicking loose stones from the walls around them.

Gyges next step was going to be the most challenging for them. He was going to attempt to lead them in climbing up the cliff walls, same as he had. And so they marched on, following him towards the edge of the gorge.

And they continued to follow him, they followed him as he lead them to the cliff face, as he climbed once again, this time to their rhythm, and they followed him in example, as they tried again and again to climb as he did. Leaping from side to side with every beat.

When each of them reached the top, they were greeted by their brother, by the face of their mother.

"Welcome my sons, you have done well to reach the surface. While you have taken your time i am proud of your progress. I give you, second eldest of the three, the name Briareus, and to the third, the name Cottus. Your lives are now yours, live them as you wish."

Gaia faded back into the earth, leaving the brothers alone. Or they would be, but after days of causing such a cacophony, they eventually drew the attention of those who already lived in these lands.

The first to arrive were a set of three, mush like us. While mush shorter than us, they easily reached chest height with us, meeting eye to eyes with our lowest set heads.

We met each other with apprehension, they held concerns about us due to our size, and we held worries about them and their own appearances.

The three were cyclopes, having one large eye each, centered directly above their noses.

We told them of our names, and they told us of theirs.

Brontes was the eldest of the three, his name meaning thunder. The meaning was clear after we had

become familiar with one another. His blows came with shock waves and a loud roar whenever we fought. Capable of shaking even our enormous frames.

Steropes was the second of the trio, his name meaning lightning. From his fingers flew sparks, and form his palm, bolts that would melt stone.

Arges was the smallest of the three, his name meaning bright. While less combative than his brothers, he held a love for showmanship. With his fingers he created blinding flashes, capable of illuminating even the night sky.

Gyges took the lead on the next few conversations, since was more capable of it than his brothers, in maintaining the conversations course.

When they weren't sparing, they were talking. Talking about the world, the protogenos of the world, the creatures that lived on the land, and of their family.

" We have twelve other siblings." Brontes said.

" Oceanus is the eldest, he controls the waters. He seems more passive than our other brothers in that he didn't attack us. When we tried to talk he ignored us and said something about a cat surfing, and not wanting to miss it, before heading into the sea.

Hyperion is pretty much always covered in fire, pretty hard to look directly at and even harder to listen to. He's very self absorbed.

Iapetus didn't talk to us, nor did Koios.

Theia is our eldest sister, you can distinguish her because she is always covered in shiny metals and gems. Apparently they used to be just normal rocks until she made them shiny like that. She thought that Arges was interesting for a little bit, but apparently she prefers a more subtle gleam.

Themis was courteous to us, but obviously didn't want to talk to us that much.

We never found Phoebe.

Tethys also likes the water, and hangs out with Oceanus.

Mnemosyne was unforgettable.

Rhea was by far the nicest of our siblings, it seemed like she genuinely cared when talking to us. The only problem was that she was usually followed by Cronus.

Now Cronus has to be one of the worst of our siblings, just barely older than us, but as arrogant as they come. And since there is only about twenty people in the world, he basically defines the term."

"That was... informative?" said Gyges.

"Thank you." replied Brontes, with confidence.

Over the next several days, Gyges and his brothers were able to catch glimpses of their siblings' smaller figures. Moving around, trying to get glimpses from the distance without being noticed. A hard thing to do when they had eyes looking everywhere.

Their best guess was that their imposing sizes and strange forms either scared them off, if disturbed them from approaching.

This had some of his brothers upset, that they are in this world, and their family doesn't wish for their company. That their family who have lived so long in this world, want nothing to do with them.

" Why should we care about the thoughts of people who don't care enough to approach us?" Said Gyges in indignance.

" We have each other, ourselves, and this world to do with as we please. If they want nothing to do with us, that is on them. But what we do with these arms and strength of ours, is on us.

His brothers were pumped, they understood only half the meaning in Gyges' words, but that was better than Gyges, who only understood a third.

His goal was only to say a few semi-coherent words in order to boost the moral of his brothers. Hoping that maybe they could do something great if they had a direction to go. If he could use his past knowledge, they could make one of the best civilizations that would ever grace this world. It would take time and effort,but they were immortal, they were strong, and in time they could do...

The sky shook, and its colors swirled. Blues, blacks, the canvas of stars and clouds converged into a swirling mass. From the heavenly vortex emerged a mighty arm of the same canvas. Its size was immense, capable of fitting mountains within its palm. The same palm came hurtling down, seeking to grab them. They tried to run, to get out of the way, but they were not fast enough to escape its colossal grasp.

They all tried to fight back, but the arm's composition made it impossible. Whenever they struck, it was like hitting air, wisps of the arm moving out of the way. And yet where the hand grasped them, it felt as unyielding as diamond.

They were lifted up into the air, and they could see another arm at the edge of the horizon. The other arm was a mirror image of the one that had them within its grasp, and they could see that it too was reaching down, to grasp something, or multiple somethings. All whilst they were held up high in an unyielding grasp. Like how a toddler would hold onto a grape they forgot they were holding.

Soon they were moved, once more flying through the air at immense speeds, until they came together with the other hand. Both hands paused briefly, side by side in the air, allowing them to see the smaller figures sticking out from its grasp. Beneath them was an immense canyon, it's shape familiar as the one form which they had only recently emerged.

The hands were suddenly thrusted downward with great force. Like a mighty meteorite descending from the heavens. Soon the knuckles of the hands met the bottom of the canyon with a great force, and continued onward, without pause. Descending deeper, and deeper into the earth.

The arms eventually slowed to a halt, in the earths depths. The hands opened wide, dropping their load into the freshly made cavern, on the edge of the earth and the underworld.

Many arms of the people that were withing the celestial hands, attempted to hold on, to grasp the fingers and be pulled back out, but they once again, held a consistency like air, and provided no purchase.

The hands pulled back, ascending back onto the surface.

The eighteen individuals all thought of how they would escape through the hole left in the ceiling, until the great palms reached back onto the earth, and closed it, with them inside.