Chapter 31 Water

While Jakob was fighting off the Furies, Andrmeda snuck by wearing Annabeth's cap that turned her invisible. However, she wasn't just going to leave her friends to handle things and knew they needed to get off the bus. Looking around, she soon spotted the emergency handle brake and pulled it.

The bus screeching, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees, throwing many off their feet. Jakob slammed into a window, and the two Furies collided with the seats before falling down. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.

The two Furies regained their balance, but Jakob kicked one in the face, swung his axe and drove it into the chest of the other Fury who shrieked and dissolved into golden dust afterwards.

Suddenly thunder rumbled in the sky, causing Jakob to glance up, feeling the familiar feeling of lightning coming... and it wasn't because of him.

'Dammit Zeus!' Jakob cursed silently before looking at his companions. "Get off the bus! Now!"

Annabeth and Grover rushed past him, joining up with Andromeda and they jumped off the bus. Jakob swung the axe and took out Mrs. Dodds, making her dissolve into gold dust as well. Hooking the back on his back, Jakob grabbed Mimir's head and his backpack before running and jumped out the bus just in time before a huge lightning bolt came down and struck the bus, blowing it up in a huge explosion.

"You'd think Zeus would be all happy we're trying to find his toy... but he just tried to kill us!" Mimir shouted, hoping Zeus heard.

Jakob just shook his head and clipped Mimir to the back of his hip and shouldered his backpack. "Let's move."

The questers rushed into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind them, nothing but darkness ahead. As they ran, Mrs. Dodds' words rang through Jakob's head.

"Where is it?! Where?!"

'If Hades has the Master Bolt, why would he send his chief torturers searching for it. I doubt he's misplaced it. Unless... he doesn't have the Bolt but has lost something else.' Jakob thought with narrowed eyes in thought. 'There's something going on and it's not just a simple thievery and threat of war between the Gods...'

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In a way, it's nice to know there are Gods out there, because you have someone to blame when things go wrong.

For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monsters and struck by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some divine force really is trying to mess up your day.

So there they were, Jakob, Annabeth, Grover and Andromeda, walking through the woods along the New Jersey riverbank. Jakob led the way for them, eyes glancing around for signs of any other threats.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Andromeda was pretty much in shock herself. The explosion of bus windows still ringing in her ears. But Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on! The farther we get, the better."

"All our money was back there," Andromeda reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"My pack contains money and everything else, we'll be fine." Jakob said firmly, cutting the conversation short before it could get going.

"How about a story to pass the time?" Mimir suggested, causing Annabeth, Grover and Andromeda to look at him. "I'm the Smartest Man Alive, and I've been around for a long time. I can tell stories and events involving the Gods, the Giants, and all creatures of the Nine Realms."

Annabeth smiled. "I'm okay with that. I'd like to hear more about the Norse pantheon."

"if it gets our mind off this quest for a bit, that's alright." Andromeda nodded in agreement.

"Right then." Mimir chuckled. "So what would you like to know first about the Norse?"

"Hmm..." Annabeth thought for a moment before she looked at him. "The Giants."

"Ah, starting off with the best then." Mimir smiled. "Then I'll begin with how it all came to be, how Ymir the First Giant came to be. In the beginning there was Ginnungagap, the great void. There were no realms yet, only primordial forces. There was Fire, and there was Ice, and there in the Void they met, and they produced..."

"Water?" Andromeda guessed.

"More than water—the mystic life blood of something entirely new. From this water, Ymir took form, and became a being of pure creation and chaos, mother and father to all that came after." Mimir explained.

"Even the Aesir?" Annabeth asked with eyes full of curiosity and awe.

"Aye, every god, man, and beast came first from Ymir's flesh. Though it was the Aesir who thought themselves so superior that they should hold dominion over the rest of creation. It was Odin who took arms against his creator, and spilled Ymir's life-blood with his spear. A necessary evil, he would say, to bring Order to the realms. From Ymir's torn flesh, Odin would fashion the realm of Migard for his own. Called himself "Allfather"—as if he was the creator, and not the creator's destroyer. A small… covetous…Tyrant…"

The two Greek demigods and Satyr shared a look with each other at Mimir's words full of disdain aimed at Odin.

"But... Chaos is the one that formed everything." Annabeth said, recalling the first Primordial who created everything.

"Every pantheon has their own version of how things began, how everything was crated and came to be." Mimir told her. "Truth is, there is truth to every story in the creation of the Universe. But Odin... Odin would rather make himself out to be creator of all."

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