Hippolyta and her Army

Alcippe was standing two steps ahead of Byron, and she said without turning back.

"We call it the Gateway!"

Like her, Byron was staring at the sky, his mouth wide open in awe.

The river ran past them, travelled at least 200 meters before it ascended into the air, going further into the clouds where a wide shimmering circle made of lighting and mists hovered like a portal to hell.

"So, that's where I came from?" he found himself asking.

She turned to look at him then, nodding her head.

"uh-huh!"

"Do you think the water comes from the lake where I drowned?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Then it means we can leave this world if we want."

She burst out laughing. "Are you crazy? How do you expect to fly that high? And if one did reach the circle, what makes you think he won't drown again? How do you expect to pass through those lightning currents?"

Maybe she was right. Maybe he was being crazy. But he was from the modern era. From a moment in time where flying wasn't just something reserved only for birds and imaginary beasts like dragons.

Planes...

Or hot-air balloons.

He could make a hot-air balloon and fly there. As for the currents, he would see what would happen.

"I have an idea of how we can fly there," he said.

Alcippe just stared at him and didn't say anything. It was as if she took him for a stupid boy who was trying to impress her by empty promises.

"I'm not bluffing!" he hurried to say, trying to convince her that he had a way to fly to the Gateway. "There's this thing called hot-air... "

"Listen," she interrupted him. "Hera sent us here. She hung the Gateway over us as some kind of torture. She knows we can't reach it. Or that if we reach it, we can't pass through it. Plus, she's still the Queen of Olympus. They're worse ways to punish us. We don't want to get on her radar again lest we want to end up like Leto or Io."

Alcippe wasn't basically the type whose voice was full of joy, but neither was it full of sadness.

However, right now, her voice was cracking, emotional. Byron figured the best thing he could do was leave the topic.

"Thanks for bringing me here," he said, taking a few steps to stand shoulder to shoulder with her.

He looked her in the eyes as he continued, "You were right. I've never seen anything like it before. I've never even imagined something like it could be possible."

She smiled at him, resting her head on his shoulders.

They both stared at the Gateway in silence.

He would understand if the water just plummeted straight from Gateway. Gravity. He would have said.

But this one was literally just slightly descending, like it was going down an invisible mountain. Who could have thought?

Just then, Alcippe burst out laughing.

'Was this a prank?' he wondered, thinking it might have been some kind of an illusion Alcippe had created to toy with him, but no. Nothing had changed.

Then why was she suddenly laughing like a maniac? She even bent and almost rolled to the ground with laughter.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I... Haha... I forgot... Haha!"

Byron almost joined her in laughing, but suppressed it. "Forgot what?" he pressed.

"I forget we can't even go past that rock, let alone fly to the Gateway. Sorry I made you waste your breath on our argument. Sorry that you wasted your time trying to look for ways to fly to the Gateway."

His eyebrows arched in confusion. "What do you mean we can't go past that rock? Do some magical arrows start flying at you when you go past it?"

Alcippe, still laughing, gestured for the rock. "Why don't you go and find out for yourself?"

Byron knew she could not send him if it was dangerous, so of course he was going to go. Not before she begged him though.

"Nah! I'm good! I'm allergic to arrows!"

"Don't be silly! They're no magical flying arrows. Just you go and see. Perhaps it doesn't affect men. Who knows?"

He approached.

Curiosity got better of him as he stepped over the normal looking rock, the size of three basketball balls combined.

One step.

Two.

Three.

...

It happened on the seventh step.

Suddenly, the air became thin and he felt dizzy. The next second his world was spinning, and he didn't know when fell unconscious.

After what-god-knows how many minutes had passed, he regained his consciousness. Alcippe was staring down at him, and he deduced his head was resting on her lap.

"I told you," she said, laughing. "No one goes past the rock."

"You didn't tell me I was going to lose it and smash my head on the ground. You could have at least warned me about the fall."

He was angry, his head throbbing.

She gave him a chuckle-smile.

"And where's the fun in that?"

"Bitch!

She laughed.

Minutes later, he got off her soft and warm lap and descended the stairs behind her.

The sun was above their heads when they reached the bottom of the cliff and their horses were still there, tied but glazing on the grass around them.

She jumped onto hers first.

He followed her lead.

"Wanna race?" he asked as he pulled the reins harder and sent his white stallion into a gallop.

Her brown mare doubled its speed as if to give him an answer, and he knew then that the race had begun.

As expected, she was a good rider. She put in a pretty long interval between them and she looked like she was about to win until Byron played one of his cunning cards.

He tested the limit of his stallion, slowed down to make her think she had already won, then when she slowed down, shouting back to mock him, he whipped his stallion so hard that it whooshed past her mare.

Byron announced the end of the race directly afterwards.

"I win!" he shouted with joy.

"No! That's not fair!" she complained. "The race ends when we reach home."

"Haha! Who said so? I'm the one who proposed the race. I'm the one who should determine when to end it. It was so stupid of you to jump in it without knowing all the details."

"You son of a..."

Byron waited for bitch, but it never came. She had suddenly stopped talking and her mare had come to a halt.

"What's wrong!"

She immediately put a finger to her lips. "Shhh! Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"Listen!"

Hooves... Lots of them... Horses running and girls shouting at them as they whip them.

"Are those Penth and the others?" he asked.

"No! They went to hunt the South. We're North. Besides, who hunts by scaring off the prey?"

"What does it mean then?"

She jumped off her horse and answered as she walked toward the top of the hill.

"It means that we're under attack!"

He was about to say something in doubt of her when she came back running, her face in shock. "It's Hippolyta and her army!" she announced.