Apollo the God... Compromised

“Are you alright?” I cracked my eyes open painfully, squinting up into the blaring sunlight. Someone was bent over me, hair tickling playfully at my face. I groaned and shifted my weight around a bit, trying to get myself up onto my elbows. Pain shot through my body in one searing pulse, and I cried out, letting myself fall back onto the hard ground. I closed my eyes again, drinking in the darkness, letting it fill me.



“Hey!” I heard the same, girlish voice again, and I felt the sunlight intensify as she straightened and left, calling out to someone in the distance. “I think he’s hurt! Somebody call an ambulance!”



My eyes flared open and for a moment I ignored the blinding white light that came with looking directly into the sun. I just stared at it, concentrating on the thoughts that filled my head.



An ambulance?



Like for humans?



Disgusted, I sat up quickly, wincing, and squeezing my eyes shut as my head swam, stars dancing behind closed eyelids.



How could they take me to a hospital? Those inferior humans. Didn’t they know who I was? I was a legend, I was—



Just then I caught sight of my legs. Scrawny, human legs. Trembling, I held my hands up in front of my face, examining my tanned, callused skin. Human hands. As my head stopped spinning, my eyes snapped out of focus in realization. I was a freaking human. I ran the thought through my head again, slowly beginning to process it. I was a frigging human?



This was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Examining my hands again, I felt my eyes widen in shock.



Damn. The understatement of the century. I was compromised. No, worse.



I was human.



I felt my face, my prodding fingers trailing over my features. The fair eyelashes, thick brows, delicate eyelids. Unmistakably human. I turned this new concept over and over in my mind as I sat, dazed, but it got no more familiar.



I wrestled myself to my knees, and collapsed forwards onto my hands, feeling stupid and weak, eyes staring blankly at the grass. Feeling as if I were about to vomit up my guts, I forced myself to my feet, head reeling painfully. I pushed my clenched fists into my temples, pressing my eyes shut as if to block out the waves of pain.



A human?



I sucked in a few deep breaths, willing my thoughts to straighten. They didn’t. Emotions banged around on the inside of my skull. Contempt. Fury. Betrayal. Distrust. I rubbed my knuckles up and down angrily, hearing the sickly grinding that comes with bone against bone.



The same worried voice came again from behind me, along with the sensation of a cool, tentative hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?” I turned quickly, finding myself face to face with a girl. A human…girl. And she wasn’t exactly the sore sight that I’d thought any human would be.



“Uh… Yeah,” I stuttered intelligently, letting show the greater being that I truly was. She looked at me intently, her deep blue eyes shimmering inquisitively, mousy brown hair hanging untidily around her face. Her mouth hung slightly open, encouraging me to speak.



“What happened?” she inquired, her hand whipping off my shoulder, and snaking up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.



I cocked an eyebrow to myself, wondering what I should say. The god Zeus cast me down from the heavens because I committed illegal thievery. I had a feeling that that wouldn’t go down too well, so I went for the “cool guy” thing. I ran my hand through my light hair, fingers running through down to the base of my neck, and resting there contentedly.



“Do you really want to know?” I cracked a wide grin, noting how completely, utterly cocky that had sounded. But it seemed to work. She broke into a grin of her own, sticking her hand out towards me.



I examined it curiously, fiddling uncomfortably with the thin hair at the base of my neck. “You.. shake it,” she said, matter-of-factly, her hand bobbing up and down in a shaking motion. I took her hand in mine, mirroring her motion.



“I’m Reagan,” she said, breaking into another one of those breathtaking smiles. I smiled lopsidedly at her, still gripping her hand tightly.



“I’m Apollo,” I said giddily, not thinking.



Then, Damn!