Artemis......and Khonshu

"By giants?! I thought giants can't come the human…" Ron couldn't finish his sentence. His eyes grew heavy and his body just lost balance and dropped to the ground.

*********

Ron opened his eyes. And he could hear the birds cackling not so far in the trees. He was lying in the grass and by the looks of it, dusk had already happened and the sun was now beaming down and burning his eyes.

He pushed himself up. "Shit! When did I fall asleep?" He thought.

"Oh, you're awake," Ellen was the first one to notice him. She was holding a map in her right hand and a compass in her left hand.

"What happened, how long was I out?" Ron asked,

"Sadly, your human body can't handle that god strength of yours just yet," Ellen explained. "That's why you passed after hitting the wolf."

"Huh, really?" he thought while trying to squeeze his fists to see if he was okay.

"Oh, and Nathan where is he?" he remembered his roommate who had followed them.

Ellen chuckled, then pointed at the tree right behind him. Ron turned and was just shocked to see Nathan tied to a tree trunk with a rope and clothes stuffed in his mouth.

His eyes were closed so it was clear he was asleep.

"You've been asleep for five hours," she answered his other question as she continued looking through the map. "Meaning I have had five hours to try and figure out this map and I still have nothing." She said.

Ron didn't like the sound of that."Let me see that," he said. She handed over the piece of ancient paper and he started to look through it with the hope he might understand the map. Which of course he failed to do because it wasn't even written in Norse or English, but in Greek, and for some reason he couldn't understand Greek

"How come I can't read this map?"

"Because you don't come from there, god-wise or human-wise, I couldn't speak or understand Norse, but my parents helped me learn it, but what they didn't know is that I can also speak Greek fluently like it's my natural language," Ellen said,

It felt good being next to her when she wasn't serious. Ellen was a great person, he couldn't believe this. "Bro, you've only known her for a weekend and now you want to crush on her." his mind warned him.

Nathan opened his eyes and started to scream and struggle free even though there were clothes stuffed in his mouth and he was tied to a big tree.

~Ron quickly handed the map back to Ellen then ran up to him and pulled the clothes out of his mouth~

"You dam….., how dare you to tie me to a tree," he yelled angrily while looking at Ellen.

"Hey, relax I have trust issues, I don't trust men in particular," Ellen replied. "And mainly if they are god slayers," she muttered through that last sentence.

"Then what the hell are you?" Nathan now wanted to jump out of the ropes.

Ron could see this journey getting difficult because of the tension that was building up between Ellen and Nathan. He sighed, then undid the rope that had him tied to the tree.

"Thanks," Nathan said as he checked his wrists if he could even move.

"Um...Nathan, I need to know about Nightrise and everything you know about my father."

"We don't have time for storytelling, we have to get out of this place before we get lost. We are in the dark forest and you guys look like you are on a forest hike." Ellen complained,

"Can I see that map?" Nathan asked and put out his hand,

"It's in Greek and by the judge of things last time I checked you were from Asgard," Ellen smirked,

"Yes, am from Asgard, where we are taught almost all the languages in the nine realms and Greek is one of the basics," Nathan bragged,

Ellen accepted defeat, then handed the map over to Nathan, who gave it a quick look and nodded a few times like he knew what he was reading.

He faced them after about two minutes, "This map is useless." he said, I can't see the dark forest.

"Well, that's because…" Scarlet was about to shout at Nathan,

"Because the forest can't be shaped out on any map." an old man suddenly interrupted her as he walked out of the nearby bushes. "You thought it's so easy to go through the dark forest." he laughed

The three of them were frozen by the old man's uneventful arrival, he had given them quite a scare. He looked like he was in his early seventies, with gray curly hair, a very dry face, and silver-colored eyes almost like Artemis'. In his hand he was carrying a long staff wrapped around in bandages, it had a crescent shape on top, and the longer Ron looked at it the more it resembled a tiny crescent moon.

The old man gave him one look and smiled, "So you're the one Thera was talking about, aren't you like a century old?" he asked Ron after noticing the boyish face that was on him.

"No, am fourteen," Ron answered,

'Huh, I guess gods age differently, these days. My name is Khonshu, he said. "I was the god of the moon before I was banished from my family and replaced by Artemis," he cursed, then gave one look at Ellen and faintly grinned like it was so difficult to do.

"So you're a god?" Ron was surprised, "meaning there are gods that survived the massacre."

"Cowards survived," Ellen said,

"Cowards! Should I say the same about your brother, Apollo?" Khonshu objected to the term Ellen had used. But after he mentioned Apollo she stopped talking.

"As I thought," he responded to her silence. "Thera asked me to guide you three through the dark forest and I will do so because I owe her a favor," he said. "Follow me."

Khonshu tapped his staff down twice on the ground and pulled the bushes in front of him. He walked through first and they all followed after.

On the other side, they had been magically transported next to a highway.

"Wait, where are we…"

Khonshu had disappeared. He was nowhere to be seen.

"That Egyptian mother…"

"Ron! Ron! Ron!" A black raven appeared from nowhere and started squealing out his name. "A giant, a giant!" squealed even louder

"Do you guys see that?" Ron looked up and pointed at the Raven,

"What is it?" Ellen asked because she saw nothing to be exact.

"A raven, it's saying something about a giant."

"That's a messenger Raven ask it where the giant is," Nathan said,

"Where is the giant?"

"Mayfield," it replied, then vanished into a cloud of black smoke. Ron's heart skipped a beat on hearing that the giant was in his hometown. 'Mom' is what first hit his mind.

"The giant is in Mayfield, my mom is in danger. We need to hurry up…before,"

~The ground abruptly shook as if an earthquake had just happened~ a face made from earth then formed within the ground,

"Ron Carter, we have your mother. We will return her to you only when you deliver Odin's ring to Jotunheim, you have nine Midgard moons to do so, or else she shall perish," it said

"Those days are too little he can't cross Niflheim and Musphelheim in just nine days," Nathan complained, but the face just dissolved back into the ground without saying anything back.

Ron remained standing, frozen by the idea that his mom is in the captivity of giants because he left and now he had nine days to cross two worlds which he is not sure if they may even survive because the last time he remembered Musphelheim is made if fire.

"Don't overthink everything, you are not alone." Ellen pulled the map from her bag and all its ink started to move to create a different map, this time it was Norse.

"We need to first get to the world forge and get a train that will drop us off to the closest place near Niflheim the realm of mist," she explained pointing at the tiny figures that were forming on the map.

Ron didn't care what the world forge was all he knew is that he had nine days to save his mom's life and later save the realms from destruction.