Helen Brave and The Sun Titan
Chapter 2: The Quail

Dinner passed delightfully fast and after a long goodbye, Amanda eventually left for home. The rest of the night passed normally for once and the next morning came way too quickly for my taste. Groaning, I opened my eyes and rubbed at my face, frowning when I found my service dog, a large husky named Harold, was attempting to lick my face. “Get off Harold,” I grumbled, shoving the dog’s muzzle out of my face. The dog barked once, then again before bouncing off and I sat up, rubbing my face roughly before slipping from bed. I quickly moved through my morning routine and headed downstairs, stumbling slightly as Harold bumped into my left leg. For being a service dog, he liked to get in my way a lot. I tossed him a glare before walking into the kitchen, where momma was cooking while ma followed her around like a lost puppy. I took my seat at the table before looking back as a knock came from the living room door. Ma wandered off to answer it while momma looked over her shoulder and grinned at me.

“I took the liberty of pulling you and Amanda out of class for the day and invited Amanda over for breakfast,” she said before turning back to the food. I blinked in shock then beamed and quickly got up. I rushed to the living room and stumbled to a stop when I found Amanda laughing and talking to ma, her parents were behind her. They were still supposed to be out of town for another day.

“Hey Amanda,” I said, watching as she looked to me and smiled wider.

“Hey Helen! We’re going to go do weird stuff in the garage,” she called before walking over and tugging me towards the door.

“G rated kids,” ma said before turning to Amanda’s parents and painting on a smile. I didn’t envy her at this moment; verbal sparring with Amanda’s father wasn’t fun. It sometimes made me wonder how Amanda could come out so normal with parents like hers. I felt Harold squeezed in behind us and looked over, grinning when he took his usual spot at the side of my worktable. I sat heavily in my rolling chair and Amanda collapsed onto the lone couch in the corner of the room, kicking up her feet like she owned it. She groaned softly, rubbed at her face, then looked to me while her pink and gold dove flew over and took residence on my shoulder.

“Mr. Kent called my parents after what happened and they got home as soon as possible to see me,” Amanda said while I pulled out my current invention and began to work on it.

“Want to talk about it?” I asked, grabbing a screwdriver and opening up the surprisingly fragile rolling alarm clock. I was trying to make a special one for ma’s birthday, but was met with mixed results. The last time I had turned it on; I found out I had accidently created a miniature EMP bomb and knocked out the power to the house. I was confident that this redesign was not a weapon in disguise and maybe it would actually work.

“I just don’t get how they can be sooo….” Amanda trailed off before groaning. I nodded along, not really understanding since my parents were much more relaxed and open minded than hers. Her parents pushed her to be the best in everything. To them, she needed perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect everything, but that was because they were trying to breed her to get her chosen by a god.

“Hey it’s alright. You’re going to be heading to Elysian and won’t have to deal with them,” I said softly before looking to her. She nodded and looked to me before frowning deeply.

“I kind of don’t want to go. You’re going to be here and have to deal with all the people at school,” she said before pushing herself off of the couch and walking over to my worktable. I shrugged and looked back down at the alarm clock, grinning slightly when she draped herself on me.

“Hey don’t talk like that. We can still get that apartment and stuff when you graduate,” I joked, taking the device apart with ease before narrowing my eyes.

“Ugh, who knows how long that will be. Elysian works different than normal schools, you know that. Enough Elysian talk, I want to talk about this. Didn’t this knock out the power in your house?” She teased. I let out a small laugh before beginning to switch some of the wires around, frowning a bit when I found the machine was now on.

“Well it’s on and not exploding so that has to be a good thing,” I said with a shrug. It was also supposed to be beeping, but I could only work one miracle at a time it seemed. She nodded against my head before humming lowly as I worked, my thoughts focused on what could be wrong and how I could have built a weapon instead of a stupid alarm clock in the first place. I was about to begin putting the machine back together when Amanda moved around me and took a seat in the chair to my right.

“So what makes this one different?” She asked. I looked up at her in pleasant surprise, since she didn’t ask about my inventions often, before smiling and rubbing my cheek.

“Well for one I had to redo the wiring, then I changed the motor for it out. I thought that the one before was going to be the best, but I think it cut a wire somewhere when it flipped on,” I said before rubbing my head. I was beginning to experience a mild headache like usual so I shook my head before looking at her. She looked interested so I began to explain the various other parts to the machine, grinning at the awed look that slowly began to appear on her face. Usually it was like trying to pull teeth when I talked about my inventions to anyone so this only spurred me on. I continued to speak almost rapidly about the device, eventually shutting my left eye as pain shot through my temple. The pain passed slowly leaving me blinking, my head snapping around when I heard fire exploding out of a fireplace. I frowned then turned back looking down at the machine and noticed that my hands were glowing a dull red and brown. “Whoa,” I mumbled, looking back at Amanda, who was beaming.

“Oh my god! Please be chosen!” She said weakly. I gave her a smile and patted her hand to calm her down before blinking rapidly when the pain in my head began to grow. I leaned forward and winced, placing my face in my hands before groaning softly.

“My head is pounding,” I said weakly, rubbing my eyes before closing them. I suddenly saw a forge and stiffened up before feeling myself slip sideways, dulling ignoring Amanda’s fear filled cry. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

‘That furnace looks beautiful’ was my first coherent thought. My next one was that I wasn’t in my garage anymore. The dim room was lit by a towering black furnace and a tinnier one at its side, which looked cute for some reason. I slowly walked over and froze when I noticed the man right next to it. He was scruffy looking with thick and wild salt and pepper hair on his head and around his mouth. His golden eyes were focused on something on his lap and a quirk was in his brow. He was dressed in messy and stained blue overalls and a tight white t-shirt that was stretched to the limit over his muscles. He was seated in a wheelchair and looked mildly annoyed about something so I veered over, looking down at him when he looked up at me.

“Hello child. Are you lost?” He asked kindly, placing the weapon on his lap off to the side.

“I don’t know. I kind of woke up here but those furnaces look really cool,” I said with a shrug. It seemed like the right thing to say. He nodded and hummed softly before giving me a warm smile. It was kind, almost fatherly, and I looked away awkwardly before looking back at him when he placed a gentle hand on my forearm.

“I know you’re probably very confused, but I have a question to ask you,” he said. I nodded, a little suspicious, and reluctantly followed after him as he rolled over to a table, waving to the tools that rested on the surface. “You seem like someone who is interested in creating things, mechanical marvels if you will,” he said, waving his hand and creating a tiny man made from metal. I gasped lowly and sat on the stool behind the table, grinning when the tiny man began to walk around in circles. “I’ve been watching you for a very…very long time Helen, trying to decide when the best moment would be for me to welcome you. You, like the others students I bring into my fold, are smart and you’re wasting your time in a normal school. So I’m here to ask. Would you like to come to Elysian?” He asked with a gentle smile. I felt my heart beat speed up and looked down at the tools before grinning at the tiny man.

“I would love that more than anything,” I said softly, looking up at him and smiling when he chuckled and winked.

“Well then Helen Brave, I look forward to seeing you very, very soon. I have a feeling you’ll fit in perfectly,” He said before frowning just ever so slightly. “Please remember that everything that happens to you when you arrive will be what is destined. I want you to know that I will do everything in my power to make sure that nothing and I mean nothing harms you. Alright?” He stressed, his eyes rolling over my face. I frowned deeply before slowly nodding and watching as he gave me a small smile. He suddenly waved his hand in a complicated and fast motion, causing the tiny man to disappear. After that everything got hazy and I found myself back in the garage, lying on the ground while my parents yelled at Amanda’s parents and Amanda sobbed into my chest.

“You know how long the process is Owl! She’ll be fine!” Amanda’s father snapped. I frowned in confusion, blinking rapidly to get my eyes to stop rolling, and swallowed to keep my nausea at bay. What was he talking about? Amanda was reaching hysterical sobbing mode while Harold whined and nudged my face with his nose. My head rolled to the side and I found ma and momma looked livid, momma advancing a bit which made Amanda’s parents retreat, fear flashing across both of their faces.

“You also know that none of us have been Hephaestus students. She hit her head when she fell! She might have a concussion!” Ma snapped before grabbing momma’s hand. “Love calm down you know what will happen if you get too angry,” she warned. Momma scoffed and snatched her hand from ma, spinning around and shoving her finger into Amanda’s father’s face, growling deeply in the back of her throat. I felt a shiver go up my spine at the look of death that she shot him and Amanda’s mother.

“You have a lot of nerve you stupid Aphrodite slut,” she snarled before ma roughly hauled her up then backwards.

“Love I’m serious! Ares isn’t going to…oh who am I kidding, he probably will support you if you decided to declare war on Alphonso again, but we should all be thinking about Helen and Amanda!” She said harshly before looking to me and relaxing. A happy smile appeared on her face and she almost dropped momma as she moved towards me. “Oh thank the gods,” she mumbled as she rushed over. “Sweetie? Are you okay?” She asked, kneeling then sitting me up and holding me as I groaned and rubbed at my face. Everything spun for a moment before I noticed some kind of one-legged bird on my lap. It was red and brown, the feathers puffing up as it looked to me and the tuff on its head seemed to be on fire.

“Why is there a bird on my lap?” I asked in confusion. Ma looked to it then raised an eyebrow before giving me a small proud looking smile.

“They say that whenever an Aphrodite student is chosen a Hephaestus student is chosen right after. It seems like they weren’t kidding,” she said gently, running a hand through my hair. I frowned then blinked in shock before giving her a small smile before wincing when her hand ran over part of my head.

“I think I hit my head,” I said weakly, grunting when Amanda hugged me tightly and sobbed into my shoulder. I hugged her automatically and she sniffled as she tightened her arms around me. I felt a bit of guilt for worrying her and gently rubbed her back in hopes of calming her down.

“I was so scared. You fell over and began twitching kind of and I thought you were having a seizure or something,” she said weakly. I tightened my arms around her in hopes of calming her down then watched as Amanda’s dove flew down and took residence on the back of the bird on my lap, which caused it to squawk slightly. I laughed then gave them a smile and looked up, watching as momma snarled out something about war to Amanda’s father, who paled.

“You can’t be serious Slice!” He snapped his voice tinted with fear. His blue eyes were now shifting about and his blond hair was becoming messy as he ran his hand through it for the millionth time. His wife had taken to using him as a shield, looking at momma in naked fear, her face pale and her body shaking slightly.

“I am! I’m at war with you and your plastic wife again! Amanda is fine in my books!” Momma snarled, her voice coming out with a hint of her accent.

“What’s she talking about?” I asked warily. I didn’t like when momma got angry. She was always so happy. Ma sighed before rubbing her face and shaking her head in what I assumed was exasperation.

“War…again. We…we never thought to mention it especially after the accident, but we graduated from Elysian as well. The reason you and Amanda are so close is because we used to be like…important I guess. Alphonso and his wife graduated the same year that we did. They were part of the Aphrodite house while I was from Athena’s house. Your momma was from Ares house,” she said before laughing when I shot her a look of shock and confusion. Momma and Ares? Momma who cried over rom-coms and knitted me scarfs every winter because she was afraid of me getting the flu? That was a lot to take in. A flash of light appeared above momma’s head and I looked over, watching in awe as Ares’ symbol of a vulture appeared above her head before it tried to swoop down and attack Amanda’s father.

“Damn it Slice!” He roared before running from the house with his wife chasing him.

“Damn it Francesca!” Ma groaned before standing and helping me up slowly. The dove and bird flew up and took residence on my worktable while Amanda fluttered nearby nervously.

“Are you going to be okay?” She asked. I nodded and patted Harold’s head, but ma and momma still ended up taking me to the emergency room, Harold and Amanda coming along for the ride. After a few boring hours for a quick check up, we headed back home and found Amanda’s father was on our front lawn glaring at us. His wife was hiding behind him, a wince appearing on her face when momma’s vulture returned and landed on momma’s head. Momma glared at them while ma rubbed her shoulder and shot her an unimpressed look. “Look let’s not fight,” she began. Amanda’s father glared at momma then looked to ma with a weird annoyed/fond look. I had seen it before and it still made me feel a little awkward.

“Fine. I’ll drop it if she does,” he said almost childishly. Ma gave momma a look and she huffed before nodding, the vulture slowly disappearing.

“You’re lucky I’ve mellowed out,” she grumbled. Amanda’s mother slowly came out from behind Amanda’s father and the group of adults stood awkwardly for a moment before ma gave us all a tense smile.

“Well now that no one is at war, we can probably all go out to dinner to celebrate!” She said with false cheer. After a round of nods, we headed out to one of the finer restaurants in town and to a private room in the back, the staff shaking ma’s hand excitedly. It wasn’t every day that the mayor and her family went out for dinner. We all took our seats and ma rolled their eyes when Amanda’s father opened the dinner discussion with, “So how is everything in office?”

“Alright. The city council is looking for another tax bill for some kind of food and I really don’t want to discuss work,” she said smoothly before giving momma a smile. “But if we are going to speak about work then how about we talk about the council? How is the council love?” She asked smoothly. Momma laughed and shook her head before taking a drink from a glass of water after our waiter placed at her side. Her eyes danced with warmth and I felt a smile appear on my face as she winked before shaking her head.

“Don’t push it Owl,” she said before giving me a motherly smile. “Are you excited to head to Elysian?” She asked. I shrugged and took a sip from my soda, awkwardly fiddling with the straw in it.

“Nervous about leaving. I’ve never been away from home for more than a week,” I said lightly. Momma and ma sobered up a bit before giving me a tender smile each.

“Sweetie, everything will be alright. You can call at any time and we’ll be down for Christmas!” Momma said in a soothing voice. I nodded and glanced at Amanda to see how she was holding up. It seemed that she was ignoring her parents, who were trying to hold a conversation with her. The rest of dinner passed quickly and after our goodbyes, we all headed back to our respective homes.

The next few days were a blur of activity, getting the transfers put in and finalized as well as getting in contact with Elysian. After everything was squared away, I soon found myself at the airport with ma and momma, both of them finding the time to join me on the trip to the school. They were going to stay in the parent dorms for a few days then head back home when I finished settling in. I was glad they were coming too and awkwardly huddled next to Amanda, seated in a wheelchair since my prosthetic was giving me issues. Ma and momma were to my left talking so I looked over to a group of other students, who were showing off their animals. Some had beautiful eagles while others had doves, a few had peacocks and a random stag was wandering around with a large tiger. Another tired looking student had a quail and I looked to Amanda, a little more interested in the other students. “Want to go over and make friends?” I suggested, watching as she shrugged. The two of us headed over while my parents were distracted by hers and I nervously smoothed down my clothes.

One of the students instantly noticed us and moved over, grinning and showing off a large proud looking eagle. “You guys heading to Elysian too?” He asked. I nodded and my quail appeared, giving him a look before settling on my lap while Amanda’s dove flew down to my lap and cuddled up to my quail. “Aphrodite and Hephaestus? Nice! I got chosen by Zeus!” He boasted while puffing up. I nodded and looked to Amanda, who looked bored with him before smirking a bit.

“That’s cool,” she drawled before focusing on another student and giving me a smile. “Hey I saw a student in the school uniform,” she said suddenly. I looked up and blinked in shock when I saw a tall and athletically built girl milling off to the side and checking a phone. She had bright bluish green eyes and dark brown skin, which made her look Native American. She was dressed in a white dress shirt, a thigh length royal blue skirt, black combat boots, a royal blue tie and a royal blue vest with two patches on it. She was wearing a headband and looked up before flashing me a bright smile, her mouth widening when I felt my cheeks begin to grow hot. She was really pretty. She suddenly started over and held out her hand for me to take when she got to my side.

“Hello. New student?” She asked, looking from me to Amanda. I blushed harder and nodded while Amanda gave her an award-winning smile.

“Yeah Helen and I are new students. I’m Aphrodite and she’s Hephaestus,” She said before tossing the girl a flirty wink. The girl grinned back before looking to me curiously and smiling wider.

“I’m Ginger from the Apollo dorms and my sister is wandering around some…oh there she is,” She said, suddenly looking up and beaming. I glanced back then up in surprise when an identical version of Ginger took the spot behind me. She was wearing the same thing, but her vest had a patch of a crescent moon and bow. She looked down at me then gave me a smile before looking to Ginger.

“Mixing with the newbies again?” She asked before walking around my chair and laughing when her sister nodded excitedly.

“You know I like hanging out with the newbies. This is Helen and Amanda,” She said, waving to us and ignoring the boy that was trying to get their attention. The other girl, Zoey, nodded to us before holding out her hand and grinning. “Zoey. Ginger and I are part of the student Pantheon and the heroines of our dorms, I’m Atalanta of the Artemis dorms and she’s called Theseus of the Apollo dorms,” she said before looking to Ginger. “Our plane is going to board soon. Are you going to join the others or do you want to mingle with the newbies?” She asked, shooting the Zeus boy a look when he grumbled something. The boy scurried off and she looked back at Ginger, who nodded.

“I want to hang out with Amanda and Helen, they’re special. I can tell,” she said excitedly. Zoey frowned a bit before shrugging and giving us a warm smile.

“Alright. I’ll tell Jason and the others to get on the plane without us,” she said before walking off.

“Jason?” Amanda asked, Ginger giving her a smile before waving off her question.

“He’s our “leader” of sorts, hero of Zeus,” she said before making a face. “He’s more so a self-centered jerk,” She grumbled before shaking her head and nodding towards the forming line of new students. “Let’s get you two into line and onto the plane. Zoey will probably end up joining us,” she said. We nodded and fell into line, an attendant accosting me before momma and ma headed over and eventually threatened her. The sour woman reluctantly accommodated me while momma grumbled behind us.

“Stupid staff. We checked with the company before heading here with her leg packed up,” momma mumbled as she led us to our seats. Ma nodded and carried me quickly over to my seat and sat me down before giving me a small smile.

“Sorry kiddo,” she said lowly. I shrugged and watched as Amanda walked over and took the seat to my right, Ginger and Zoey looking at my parents with something akin to awe. I frowned when they straightened out before extending out their hands in unison.

“You both were former Pantheon students right?” Zoey asked quickly. Ma looked to her then nodded before grinning and pointing at the chair patch on her uniform.

“You both are new Pantheon members? Nice. I’m Owl and my wife is Slice,” she said before taking her seat and reclining back. Momma nodded to them and took her seat behind me while Zoey and Ginger moved over to the free seats at my left.

“You both are famous! The former holders of the Achilles and Perseus chairs!” Ginger gushed, ma laughed while momma blinked at them tiredly. She was still probably irritated, but would warm up eventually.

“Thank you, but we aren’t that famous,” ma said before Zoey scoffed and waved her hand.

“You both united most of the council when it almost fell apart! They still praise your names!” She said excitedly. Ma blushed and momma grinned before giving Amanda’s father a look.

“Hear that Alphonso we’re still being praised!” She said happily before looking to the twins and grinning. “I like you two. Tell us more about what the Pantheon says about us,” she said before settling into her seat.

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