Journal Entry One - The Start of an Epic

Journal Entry One                                                                                             
March 15, 400 BCE

         I stared dumbfounded at Priest Dorcus. I knew my mouth was hanging open in a shameful way but I couldn’t really do anything about it at the moment since I was too numb with shock at what was happening. I saw Dorcus raise his eyes to the heavens, exasperation etched on his face. He brought both hands up and rubbed impatiently at his smooth, bare head. Brown eyes locked back onto mine.
         “Eleni,” he began again, talking slowly as if to a small child. I grew a little agitated at that. “The vault of high esteemed goddess Athena has been plundered. Do you understand me?”
         I had enough thought to nod my head, even though the action made me wince with pain.
          “Good, good,” he said, rubbing his wrists in agitation. When I looked closer at his face I could see that Dorcus had deep shadows under his eyes and the whites of them were blood shot. “Now, I need to tell me exactly what happened last night. It’s of great importance.”
         At his nod, the guards holding me upright by my upper arms let go. I slumped to the floor, my legs unable to support me. I glared at the guards as I rubbed at my aching upper arms. They only stared straight ahead, the silver of their helmets gleaming slightly in the early morning light. I shook my head a bit to clear the last vestiges of fuzziness from my mind. I glanced up at Dorcus through the fringe of brown bangs that covered my forehead. His mouth was turned down in a tight frown and I could see he was getting agitated with my dawdling.
         I cleared my throat. “Well,” I started, staring back up at Dorcus and then at the guards. “I had the night shift last night and I was doing my duties, cleaning the alter and all,” I left out the part where I snuck into the kitchen to get a few loafs of bread and goats milk, which probably wouldn’t help my cause since I left the alter room for more than ten minutes. “When I heard a strange noise by the back windows, you know, the ones behind the statue.” I paused and looked back up at Dorcus, the skin where his eyebrows were supposed to be wrinkled into a frown.
          “Continue,” he demanded, his impatience sliding into the one uttered command.
         I looked back between Priest Dorcus and the guards. Rubbing my aching temples, I took a deep breath and continued.
          “I stepped back into the alter room and I saw a shadow moving past the pillars. I crept behind the ones on the opposite end and while I was walking towards the intruder I pulled out my stave, just like just like we practiced. Before I could make it to the statue, I saw a flash of purple light and before I knew it I was flying through the air and I seemed to have blacked out. Then two guards manhandle me,” I glared at the guards again, the one on the left smirked a bit. I glared a bit harder, hoping my eyes bored holes in his shiny helmet I knew he was oh so proud of. “and woke me up and then you start sputtering in my face so much that in my groggy state I couldn’t even understand what the heck you were saying and then you tell me to say what happened last night.”
         I was satisfied to see Priest Dorcus’ face turning purple with indignation.
          “Well I never!” he spluttered. He was acting like a fish on land, his mouth opening and closing. I stifled my laughter by pretending to cough. He straightened up and cleared his throat, his face serious once again. “I have decreed that you, dear Eleni, must go and retrieve the stolen statue of Athena from that decrepit thief. You will leave immediately, but I must warn you, your travels will be harsh and you may involve some, creatures, better left in your astounding imagination. You are not permitted back here in the Parthenon, Temple of Athena, or even Athens, until you retrieve the statue.”
         I stared at his retreating back, the guards following, the one who smirked before looked back with pity in his eyes. I glared and stuck my tongue out. I looked back at the altar and the empty raised platform where the large, 40 foot statue once stood. I rubbed my aching temples again. To think that the one day I filled in for Urvis because he had a stomach ache was the day I was sent on a quest to retrieve the statue of Athena. Just my luck.