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A blast of a car radio filled the air, shattering the magic of the moment. Zephyr yelped in surprise, while Iris peered through the clouds to the mortal world below.
“That’s her! Our Son of Olympus’ true love!” Iris wriggled free from their tangle of limbs, and peered at a car that sped along a road below. “Quickly, we have no time to waste!”
With a shimmer of light, Iris grabbed Zephyr’s hand, and pulled him to the earth. He gulped as the sensation of her hand caused his heart to flutter once more, and shook his head to clear it. If he wanted his hero’s license, he had to focus on the mission at hand. Which meant he had to ignore this ridiculous crush, and concentrate.
“So, remind me…” Zephyr studied Hera’s briefing notes, grateful for the distraction from his hammering heart. “Who are our two lovebirds this time?”
“He’s the descendant of Hades, King of the Underworld, and guardian of lost souls. And she’s a workaholic mortal who’s lost sight of the magic in life.” Iris’ eyes sparkled with mischief as she plucked a wrench from thin air, and fiddled with a nearby road sign. “Luckily, I’ve given her a little holiday to the Underworld.”
With a turn of the wrench, the road sign swiveled, until it pointed to a nearby dirt track. Zephyr watched as the mortal’s car approached, before it turned from the main road to follow the direction of the sign. He raised an eyebrow as it sped into the distance, where a magical glow sparkled in the darkness.
“I can think of better places to go on holiday than the Underworld. I’ve heard it’s filled with ghosts and all manner of things that go bump in the night.” Zephyr shuddered at the mere thought. “Besides, don’t you think the King of the Underworld will be a little suspicious when a mortal turns up into his lair?”
“Zephyr, does this look like my first time meddling in the affairs of others?” Iris rolled her eyes, before she conjured a letter from thin air. With a grin, she folded it into a paper plane, and turned to Zephyr. “With these instructions, that mortal will be another lost soul for the King of the Underworld to save. And now we just need a friendly breeze to deliver it to his front door.”
Zephyr smiled in understanding. He summoned his winds, until they plucked the paper plane from Iris’ hands, and sent it in the same direction as the mortal’s car. As it sped into the distance, Iris broke into a grin.
“You know, I wasn’t sure about pairing up with you at first.” Iris drew herself to her full height, and met Zephyr’s gaze. “But I’m starting to think that you and I make a good team, wind man. Sure, there’s been a few world-ending calamities along the way, but it’s been one hell of a ride.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Zephyr sighed as he reflected on their journey. “It seems like so long ago we first set out on our mission. And now, we’re just one step away from the finish line.”
“To think, you’ll be a hero of Olympus, and I’ll have more treasure than a plundering pirate.”
“And just what are you planning on doing once you have all this treasure?”
“Why, I’ll bury it at the end of my rainbow, for safekeeping.” Iris winked playfully, and gazed at the horizon. “And after that, I’ll go on my next adventure. I’ll follow the winds and travel the world, sowing mischief wherever I fly. I’ll befriend dragons, and battle pesky leprechauns who try to steal my treasures…”
Zephyr raised an eyebrow as Iris’ hands balled into fists. For a goddess of rainbows, she certainly wasn’t all sunshine and sparkles when it came to tiny treasure-obsessed Irishmen.
“That sounds like quite the adventure.”
“You bet!” Iris’ eyes gleamed at the prospect, before she drew an excited breath. “You could join me too, if you wanted?”
“Really? That would be…” But Zephyr’s rush of joy faded as he glanced at the Heroes Bar in the heavens. “I’m fairly certain the Heroes Bar has strict rules about picking fights with tiny Irishmen. Even if they’re a bunch of pesky treasure-thieving leprechauns.”
“Oh, right...” The sparkle in Iris’ eyes faded, while her hair turned to a shade of mournful blue. “I guess that means we’ll be parting ways then, wind man.”
Zephyr drew a long breath, and lowered his gaze to the earth. “I guess…”
Zephyr’s heart sank as realization dawned on him. All this time, he’d been so focused on his mission, that he hadn’t considered what would come afterwards. The Sons of Olympus might have brought them together, but now he and Iris were doomed to drift apart. His shoulders sagged in realization, until he slowly deflated, as if the wind had been taken from his sails.
Silence descended between the pair, as they gloomily contemplated what the future held. Zephyr glanced at Iris, to see her hastily wipe away a single teardrop, which splashed onto the earth with the shimmer of a thousand rainbows.
“Well, this adventure isn’t over yet, wind man.” She forced a smile, and glanced at the silhouette of a city in the distance. “How about we leave our two love birds to it, and grab one of those meat buns, for old times’ sake?”
Zephyr smiled, and nodded.
“It’s a date.”
1
Acold breeze drifted across the Underworld. A scattering of snow danced in the winds, playfully meandering across the moonlit landscape of ice and rock, while the bare branches of trees reached up to the night sky like fingers of bone. All was silent across the snow-covered desert; a landscape where no birds dared to sing, and no flowers dared to peek from beneath the blanket of snow. It was a place of silence. A place where magic no longer bloomed. A place of death.
Shadow sighed as he gazed across the barren landscape of glittering ice, sending a cloud of fog drifting into the night time air. So much for being King of the Underworld. His kingdom was nothing more than a wasteland, his home an empty motel, and his company confined to a handful of spirits and a particularly meddlesome poltergeist. He studied the Underworld mournfully, a landscape lost in an eternal winter, where no life would dare to grow. Well, nothing except for one particular desert plant, of course.
Shadow winced as he pulled a cactus needle from his backside, and cursed the gods for his misfortune. He was supposed to be saving lost souls, and helping them move on to the heavens above. But how could he, when no lost soul had visited in centuries? His heart sank as he gazed at the stars above. The afterlife certainly wasn’t what he thought it would be.
A low whine pulled him to attention, while a pair of paws impatiently scratched at his side. Shadow turned as Cerberus emerged from the gloom, his tail wagging like a plane propeller in greeting. With a smile, Shadow affectionately scratched each of the playful pup’s three heads, before the dog lay by his side.
