77_The Life Of Athena

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Raven stumbled and fell flat on the forest ground, holding her dislocated arm, she adjusted herself to rest on a tree trunk and then she exhaled, pulling her joints back in place with a groan.

She felt much better now, she couldn't stop thinking about Xavier, what was with that terrifying transformation? What happened to him when he was away?

'But why did that being look so familiar?' She asked herself inwardly.

She stood back on her feet, walking deeper into the forest, and at the heart of the forest, there was a cabin there.

That side of the forest was clear without trees, making it easy for the sunlight to pass through, with ease.

She went in, hoping to find the old man who saved her but abandoned her. She sighed in disappointment when she didn't see anyone.

She drank the water that was in the bottle, dragging her sprained ankle towards the bed where she sat down.

She took off the cloak and freed herself of the weapons, she pulled the hood down, her long red hair cascading down to her buttocks.

She undressed herself, taking out an ointment and applying it to her bruise from the fall.

When she was done she laid on the bed, curling up and allowing herself to be swallowed by the darkness.

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Flashback

The sun rested on her face and her eyes flew open, she woke up sitting up straight on the bed with a migraine.

"Ahh," She grunted in pain.

She looked around, she was in a wooden cabin, with a shelf filled with books and an ancient map hung on the wall along with many other ancient pictures.

She looked outside the window, seeing only tall trees farther ahead and hearing nothing but the chirping of birds outside.

"Where am I?" She asked herself, standing up from the bed, her legs wiggled a bit but she fought to maintain balance, she looked at her dress and it was coloured red with dried blood.

She tried to recall what happened but whenever she tried to it was in a blur and she heard a ringing in her head, which hurt like hell.

She came out of the room, looking g around the cabin, she looked to the kitchen side and then the dining and she saw some food, it was cabbage stew and rice cakes.

Without thinking twice Athena rushed to the table, digging in and eating with her fingers, forgetting to use the spoon and chopsticks that were right beside the food.

She drank the water like a maniac, gulping down every single drop and eating to her heart's content.

The door opened and she hastily stood up, stepping away from the table. The old man who came in froze seeing her but the thing that pained him most was seeing his lunch finished without any leftovers.

His face squeezed and his eyes watered a little, but he controlled himself, it was going to be embarrassing to cry in front of this little girl and about food.

"Your Highness, you're awake," The old man said with a slight bow and Athena quickly took a stick, pointing it towards the man.

"Who--who are you and what am I doing here?" Athena asked, holding the stick tightly.

"Easy there your Highness, I mean you no harm, I saved you out in the wilderness," The old man said with his hands outstretched in a gesture to calm her down.

Athena slowly lowered the stick when she heard his last words.

"You saved me, What happened?" She asked.

"You were unconscious, lying near the stream, I found you and instantly recognized you, Your Highness," The old man said.

"Why are you calling me Your Highness, I am a slave, not a princess, a nobody, not royalty," She said.

"They dare degrade a goddess and bring her down to this?" The old man said and Athena was looking at him like he was a crazy old man.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I am Nehemiah, a wanderer of the lands," The old man said.

"How long have I been out?" She asked again.

"Ten days, Your Highness," Nehemiah said and Athena sighed.

"Athena, my name is Athena," She said, walking closer to the old man and stretching her hand for a handshake.

The old man just stared at her hand and did not know what to do, she withdrew her hand with a sigh and now that she was close up to the man she could see his eyes.

He had unusual eyes, yet it was beautiful, it was like a combination of silver and blue.

"Where am I?" She asked, looking around in the cabin again.

"You're in the middle of nowhere,"

"I know that, but where am I?" She asked.

"Nowhere, this forest is called nowhere, located at the hidden border of The Cranes, Dragon, Stones Kingdom," Nehemiah said.

"Whoa, so there is a place like that here?" Athena asked.

"Yes, I've lived long enough to know and keep this place hidden," The old man said.

"Why?" Athena asked.

"If this place is found, the Kingdoms would want it for themselves and they will try to sneak attacks into each other's Kingdom using this place and then there will be war," The old man said, walking towards the sofa and sitting down with a grunt, dropping his stick beside him.

"Why did you save me?" Athena asked.

"I saw what happened back there, I came late but I saw the extraordinary power you displayed just like our queen," Nehemiah said.

"Your Queen, who are you talking about?" Athena asked.

"You mean you can't remember what happened after the death of your sister?" He asked.

"Rose, she's gone, I still can't believe it," Athena said with a sad countenance, sitting on the dining chair she sprinted from a while ago.

"And no, I don't remember, but I should have been dead by now, I remember those shoulders firing Arrows at me and then everything went blank," Athena said.

"My hair, it finally grew back, how did it grow so fast?" She asked with a slight smile, caressing her long red hair and running her fingers through them.

"You made it grow," The old man said. There was silence for a while before Athena said something.

"You are a strange old man," She said.

"Thank you for saving me but I believe I still have unfinished business with those monsters that killed my sister," Athena said with a death glare.

"Hm, I'm quite sure you finished it," The old man said, caressing his long white beard.

Athena looked around one last time before heading out the cabin door, seeing nothing but four paths and tall trees. With some sheep and chicken, as if it was some kind of farm.

Nehemiah trailed behind her outside the Cabin, she was looking around like a lost puppy, unsure of what path to take.

"Where is the path that leads back to the Stones Kingdom?" She asked the old man who stood behind her.

"The path is the second one..." He said and without any further ado, Athena began to march forward about to leave.

"...But are you just going to match there without a plan, they will kill you before you even get to their gate," Nehemiah said, causing Athena to halt in her tracks.

He was right, as much as she was upset right now and wanted revenge on those bastards, she had nothing to aid her, she would die just as he said.

"Tell me...Athena," He said, using her name for the first time since she told him.

"What do you want?" He asked and Athena turned back to face him.

"If you want Peace, you could live here with me, and lend me a helping hand with the farm," He said.

"Peace is overrated...I want vengeance, I want to give those bastards a taste of their own medicine, I want to slaughter them the way they did my sister!" Athena said, her eyes were red with anger and she clenched her fists.

"If that is what you want, it shall be fulfilled, I will train you to become an Assassin and with your blood, it wouldn't be too hard, since you were built for battle," Nehemiah said.

"Again with the crazy words old man, I am serious, I want them to feel pain, and some teachings from an old man aren't going to make me strong enough to take down their army..." Athena said but her eyes widened in stupefaction when Nehemiah withdrew a knife from his cloak and without looking, he threw it on his left, the knife piercing through an apple dangling on an apple tree.

She turned back to the old man who now had a smirk on his face, she gulped and slowly bad.

"Master," She said with a curtsy.

"Go wash up first, you stink of blood," He said and went back into the cabin.