This choice: "Ooh, it's my great aunt, Circe!" • Go Back... "Oh, it's my great aunt, Circe!"
"Circe... isn't that the sorceress who turns people into swine in the Odyssey?" Ashley asked, a bit confused. "Pardon me for not having the full context of Greek Myth, but if I recall right she's just the ruler of an island right?"
"It's a common misconception." Argonaut corrected, as she put the note down for a moment. "Circe's actually a goddess of magic herself... well, technically she's half-god and half-nymph, but ascended to the mantle of a full on minor deity through her magical prowess. And yes, while it is true she's a bit of the transformative sort it's mainly her just acting out in bad relationships, not really cause of any inward malice like in Hecate's case."
"Huh. So the Odyssey..."
"Yeah, resist her advances and she turns you into a pig. Or a woodpecker. Anyhow..."
With that question answered, the Argonaut picked the note right back up and got to reading the context of the message delivered to her.
___
"Dear All Descendants of Me, the Greatest and Brightest Witch in all of Greece."
I am Circe. Polypharmakos. Enchanter. As of today rivals with Hecate, good old flabby Ammy and the Cherub for title of strongest mage on the entire planet... though if you ask me I don't exactly consider divine magic to be true magic, even if that last bitch gets her good stuff from the Judeo-Christian God. Oh, and I guess the ruler of Aeaea, for all that's worth. I mean, with global warming all that's above water is my castle itself so it's not really that great an achievement anymore now is it?
Now, where was I... oh yes. The entire mage community is in an absolute uproar.
I'll admit, I'm not one to be normally concerned about stuff like this. I mean, I'm barely even touchable myself in my castle, lest that person wanting to touch me likes being a chunky hog for me to feed my oats and grains to. Or I guess a hog to be fed sweet fattening foods to if I find their face attractive. Either way though, this is different. After all, it's not every day a Grand Magus of the Earth suddenly kicks the bucket.
And before you ask, yes he really is dead this time. Damn Faustus, he really likes making people think he is dead when he's just hiding in exile... but for real, I have confirmed this with actual gods of death from multiple religions. He's dead for real, and his soul is currently awaiting his respective afterlife. Considering what his main field of magical expertise was though... I'm expecting he's having a hell of a time using pitchforks on sinners with Satan, Lucifer or whatever that damn demon king prefers calling himself that day.
Of course, with him dead now is the time to find a brand new Grand Magus of the Earth. Unfortunately for me, gods are not allowed and I absolutely don't want some "holier than thou" fatphobic beanpole getting her hands on that title. So I'm sending out this letter en masse to anyone of my bloodline. Consider it a sort of summons, as I'm calling out every single one of my descendants to get their asses over to Aeaea immediately.
And in case you are thinking that you are too busy, anyone who reads this letter or listens to someone reading this letter has 72 hours. Don't arrive by that, and the glyphs hidden in this text will turn you into a pig. And unlike most of my other times I've turned people into animals, you'll not retain your sentience. You'll just be some flaccid hog serving duty on the farm.
So yeah. Get your butts over to Aeaea as fast as possible. And just to make it a bit easier, I've already let the Atlantean Empire know not to open fire on y'all. Just show the sigil on the back of this paper to the ships roaming the waters and they'll let you pass by.
Best of luck,
Circe
P.S. for Medea. The one raised in modern times, not the one who earned the ire of the Furies all those years ago for kinslaying and is currently locked up in Tartarus. Sorry for how this letter is being delivered. I didn't know where you lived, so had to get creative and asked for your great grandpa to send it to ya. Hope I didn't interrupt anything important you may have planned, though I promise I'll make up for it. Unless you get turned into a pig cause of the letter. That'll take... a long time to get fixed.
Uh... good luck.
___
As soon as the Argonaut finished reading the message, Ashley stood there stunned for a good few minutes. She had plans already, but now because of this message she was going to get turned into a pig with no way of changing things! It wasn't like she could travel all the way across the ocean when she had so many heroes and goons who needed care...
"Well, I guess that's it..."
Pulling out a chair from the closet, Ashley sat down and contemplated her life up to this moment with a grim expression in her eyes. It was then that the Argonaut hovered up from her seat close to Ashley, patting the doctor's back in a time of great hardship for the medical official.
"Hey, you're not going to get turned into a pig. Neither of us are. I'll get both of us to that island, and you won't have to worry about becoming something porcine for a while."
"Porcine?" Ashley questioned, her expression softening up a bit from Argonaut's reassurance.
"It means pig-like."
"Oh."
"Anyhow, I'd suggest finish taking care of the rest of the people here tonight, and then first thing in the morning drive this clinic to the beach. We'll set sail from there."
"Set sail?" At that, Ashley soured up a bit on the idea of sailing over an entire ocean in two days. "Sailing the Atlantic would take weeks, not days. We'd never even get close to getting there in time..."
At this, Argonaut paused for a bit in contemplation, before getting a surge of inspiration. "There's always using magic! I've once seen the hero Cherub use magic to soup up a small boat to travel down the Pacific Coast in a short period of time, so presumably there'll be a spell that can boost a ship's speed even faster than that if I can just focus hard enough!"
"Huh... Okay, I can see that maybe working. But just one more issue... I don't know where Aeaea is."
"Oh, I do." With a snap, Argonaut opened up a compartment on Talos, revealing a book of the Odyssey. Opening it up, she'd flip to a map contained in every copy of Ancient Greece, showcasing the islands Odysseus traveled to during his voyage home from the Trojan War. "It's just south of Rome, the capital of Atlantean Italy. It'll be a bit rough getting there considering it's in range of the queen's sights, but not impossible thanks to the letter."
"Okay... well, thank you." Rising up from her seat, Ashley picked up the Argonaut from in the air before placing her in Talos's arms. "At the least that cast isn't affecting your spellcasting. With that in mind, you should be okay so long as you don't force your weight onto that leg by walking. I'll see you tomorrow."
"I'll see you tomorrow too, Ashley."
As Argonaut walked out, Ashley's day resumed only now with the knowledge that her life was going to be at risk of becoming that of a pig's life if things did not go well for her or Argonaut's. While she did not share it with her other patients for the night such as the Owl, Razz or a vacationing Lone Bullet she still knew that these patients were possibly her last and as such did her absolute effort in making sure that they were fixed as perfectly as possible.
By the time she closed up for the night, she drove on her way to the beaches of Florida, parking her clinic down on the sands as she rested away. In her sleep, she had nightmares about her unfortunate fate, growing a pig tail and plumping up more and more until she was just one big, immobile hog rolling around in the mud. She couldn't tell whether it was from her anxieties or from the letter's magic affecting her dreams, but it still left her frightened.
By the time dawn broke, she could see a motorboat resting on the open sea with the Argonaut sitting on a lawn chair that rested on deck. It was somewhat large for what was needed, with a dedicated crew of five operating the ship alongside a small buffet on the deck.
"Hey, you ready?" Rising up from her rested position, Argonaut snapped her fingers, causing Ashley to hover off the ground and land right next to her. "Mentally prepared and all that?"
"...Yeah." Not wanting to admit to her about the nightmares, Ashley sat down on the chair next to the spellcasting hero. "Atlantean Italy, here we come..."
"Never thought I'd say that..." Argonaut admitted, sighing a bit. "But here we are. Hope this works..."
Looking down on her arm, Argonaut focused on the series of glyphs she had created on it, connected to the glyphs now resting on the boat's back. With a few careful taps of the glyphs, the boat rocketed forward at a rapid speed faster than any boat either of them had seen. For a brief moment, they had even broken the sound barrier as they rocketed away from the States, as the coasts of Florida faded and eventually vanished from the horizon.
Goodbye the United States, next stop Aeaea!  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2024 Keroro04 (UN: keroro04 at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Keroro04 has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author