The Princess got down on one knee and fired three arrows.  She hit one eye, one throat and an open, roaring mouth.  Telamon threw his javelin, but missed.  Peleus and Laertes held on to theirs while Nestor and Telamon drew their swords.  Heracles also threw his javelin and struck one giant in the leg, not that it slowed the giant much.  Then Heracles picked up the giant spear that had been thrown at the four dice players.  He was the only one who could lift it, effectively, and he got it turned toward the giants as the two sides met.

The men had their shields, with which they were able to ward off spears and big rocks.  The giants had no such protection.  They wore only leather-like loin cloths; and from the grunts and minimal noises they made, like a few words of some language, and the crude stone-tipped spears they carried, the Princess imagined they hardly even qualified for the term cave men.

“Double up,” the Princess called, not sure if the others would understand what she meant.  She called to the shield of the Kairos, which appeared in her hand, and she pulled her sword, one she could stab with as well as slash.  With that, she stood beside Heracles so he could get both hands on his giant spear.  He poked with the spear, and gutted one giant while he cut two others.  The Princess used her shield to protect them both, and slashed with her sword at any giant hand that got too close.  She only glanced once at the others, but she figured they must have understood something.  Telamon teamed up with his brother, and Nestor protected Laertes, whose shield had gotten cracked by a stone missile.

The men and giants looked to be in a standoff.  The giants got down to face the men more eye to eye, and they scurried around on their eight hands and feet, looking for an opening.  The men used their weapons like disciplined soldiers.  The giants could not get at the men, but the men could not discourage the giants or force a withdrawal.  And the men were slowly backing up toward the water, which would put them in a precarious position once the water got up to their knees.

Out at the ship, the men arrived and Iolaus helped Argus up the netting while Asclepius tied off the skiff.  Even as Asclepius clambered up to the deck, Iolaus shrieked and pointed at the shore.  Two of the giants broke from attacking the men and started to wade out into the water.

“Bows,” Asclepius shouted, knowing the young man needed direction to keep him from utter panic.

“Althea,” Argus called out, thinking she should be right beside him.

“The one on the right,” Asclepius said, as the other giant appeared to dip under the water.  He added a soft whisper.  “Father, I could use your help with this,” and he smiled, as he pictured the broad side of a barn which Althea said he could not hit.

Two arrows flew.  One hit the giant’s chest, squarely.  The other hit closer to the belly, but it was not deep, and came out when that part of the giant went under water.

“Althea.”  Argus squinted at the shore, but his eyes could only make out the motion of the battle and his ears could only hear the yells and screams of the men and giants.

Asclepius and Iolaus each sank another arrow into the oncoming giant, and he belatedly remembered his six arms and might have fended them off.  The giant tried to pull the arrows out, but they ripped his flesh open and he began to bleed, profusely.  The giant made a sound somewhere between surprise and incomprehension, and it collapsed to float in the sea like a dead man.

Asclepius and Iolaus turned to see Argus bring an oar down on a giant head with enough force to snap the oar in two and leave jagged edges on the end.  The giant that slipped under the water had sprung back out at the edge of the ship.  He grabbed the netting and pulled his head up above the railing.  When Argus smashed the oar over the monster’s head, the giant yelled and began to push and pull on the netting.  The whole ship began to rock.

Argus stood there in uncertainty, trying to maintain his balance, holding on to the broken oar with the sharp end pointed at the giant.  Iolaus came from behind and shoved on the end of the oar.  The oar moved forward, helped by the motion of the ship, and the jagged end went through the giant’s eye, and that whole side of the giant face.  The giant roared, but let go of the netting, and fell back into the water, arms flailing at the wood that would surely kill him.

Asclepius saw both giants floating on the surface of the bay, dead, and he raised his eyes to the battle on the shore.  Heracles looked like he might have killed two more of the creatures, and Laertes looked like he might have gotten one, but lost his javelin in the process.  Peleus was the only one who still had the long point to keep the giants at bay.  The others had their shields and swords, with which they could only slash at hands and fingers while they had backed up, ankle deep in the water.

A half-dozen giants began to push the men harder, sensing if they got the men in the deep, they had the advantage.  At that point, three things happened.

First, a dozen more giants appeared, pouring out of the woods at great speed.  The men in the water gasped, but it turned out the giants were being chased.

Second, all the giants started screaming and running as eight people on enormous horses came out from the woods, with signs of great magic.  The people on horseback had weapons that cracked as loud as frost broken tree branches.  One big man had a weapon that blasted with the sound of thunder.  The men felt the wind as one of the women raised her arms.  The men covered their eyes from the blast, even while a red-headed woman shot flames from her hand like a dragon turned loose.  Then, before the few living giants could get back under the cover of the trees, the short, old man pointed a little stick at the fleeing giants, and a stroke of light came from the stick to put a hole as big as a melon in three of them.  It would be generous to suggest three or four of the giants made it back to the woods alive.

Third, Atalanta appeared, followed by Jason, Meleager and the rest of the crew.  The Princess had already vanished by then and Althea returned, though she kept the armor, and the long knife across the small of her back, she let everything else return to Avalon, the place from whence it came.  The armor and boots naturally adjusted instantly to her smaller and rather shapeless twelve-year-old size, but it made her look like a genuine little warrior.  She smiled up at Heracles.  He looked down at her and spoke.

“Friends of yours?”

Lincoln got to the front, looked down at Althea, and asked.  “Althea?”  He looked twice at Atalanta, who also wore a sort-of armor.  But he recognized the armor Althea wore, and she nodded and yelled.

“Boston.”

Boston got down and raced to Althea open arms, and with a speed that made even Atalanta raise her eyebrows.

“Nice rifles,” Heracles said to Katie and Lockhart.  They gave him strange looks until Althea explained.

“Heracles hangs out with the gods some, and Athena has a big mouth.”

Then Jason, Meleager and Atalanta came up, and Jason commented first, to Althea.

“I see you have your fairy armor on.”  Althea merely nodded and smiled.

“We heard the great cracking noise coming from the beach,” Meleager explained.  “We started back in case it was trouble, and as soon as we heard sounds of fighting, we ran.”

“No problem,” Althea shrugged it off.  “Heracles already killed about half of them.”

The four men still standing in the water, laughed.  It was not the first time they had seen the Princess in action, or seen one of the other lives of the Kairos, like Doctor Mishka.  Curiously, they never said anything, or else they talked in such tiny whispers, no one heard.  Althea’s father Argus, and most of the crew had no idea.  At least they never mentioned it.

Althea got right to the introductions.  “Lockhart and Katie, Lincoln and Alexis, Elder Stow and Sukki, both very special people, Major Decker, a true military man, and Boston, the elf of the party.”

“Hey!” Boston complained about being ratted out.

“And my bestest friend,” Althea said, and that made Boston smile.

“You are so young this time.”

“I start out young every time,” Althea said, and went on to introduce some of her companions.  “Heracles, Nestor, Laertes, Peleus, Telamon, Jason, Meleager, Atalanta…”  She paused there to add a note.  “Katie is an elect, too.”

“I know,” Atalanta said.

“I can tell,” Katie said, and the two women gave each other a slight nod.

“Heracles is my other best friend, oh, and Asclepius who is aboard ship with my father, Argus, and that cretin, Iolaus.”  Althea stepped up, with a stern look on her face and wagged her finger at the travelers.  “And Katie, Lincoln, and the rest of you, keep your mouths closed and your thoughts to yourself.  We are going to move down the beach to get away from the dead bodies, and then we can have a celebratory feast and thank the gods for their good fortune and favor with bloody sacrifices and all that sort of thing.  Then you can stay the night, but you must move on first thing in the morning.  There is just too much chance for one of you to say the wrong thing.”

The four men that stepped back on dry land, laughed.  Meleager mirrored Atalanta with his hands on his hips.  Jason had his arms crossed.

“So, that is what we are doing?” Meleager asked, in a voice that wondered who put Althea in charge.

Althea simply nodded affirmatively, twice, and Heracles shouted.  “You heard the Princess,” he made a joke.  “We are going to celebrate our victory.”  The men cheered and started upwind where the wind would blow the smell of the carcasses away from the camp, not that any of the men were strangers to the battlefield.

Six men and a boy stayed to watch the ship, besides Argus and Althea, of course.  Jason led the majority of the crew into the wilderness to hunt and gather.  Heracles stayed behind with Peleus, Telamon, Nestor, Laertes, and Asclepius stayed in case someone came back hurt.  Iolaus also stayed to annoy everyone.

The ship anchored in very shallow water, where the men could practically walk to shore.  They needed to find a stream or river to sail up for fresh water, but meanwhile, they rested in a little sheltered bay that appeared perfectly safe for them to hunt and gather.  The Doliones kindly pointed out that over Bear Mountain, the game was plentiful, because the Doliones had plenty and thus never hunted over the mountain.

It sounded so reasonable.

Jason and some others were for leaving only the cook and Argus to watch the ship, but Althea got suspicious, and made such a stink, the crew finally decided to leave a contingent—just in case.  Althea spent the morning apologizing.

“Don’t be mad at me.”

“Never,” Heracles smiled.

Althea screwed up her face and said, “I’ll hold you to that someday.”

Peleus, his brother Telamon, Laertes and Nestor were the old men, being in their mid-twenties.  They all went with Meleager when he killed the Calydonian Boar.  Now, they sat around a cleared area of the rocky beach and played with some dice.  Heracles and Asclepius sat with Althea and talked about their years, training under the master centaur.  Argus sat a small distance away, and mostly complained about Iolaus throwing rocks into the sea and complaining about being bored to death.

“Oh, I’m trying not to listen,” Althea said.  “We don’t need the negative vibes.”

“I see you brought your bow ashore,” Heracles pointed.

Althea nodded.  “I thought I could practice,” she said, and handed it to Heracles so he could string it.  She had a couple of straight points she could shoot at trees and retrieve, and a couple of hunting points, just in case.

“I don’t know,” Asclepius said.  “You always seemed to hit the target, at least better than I did.”

“That’s because you weren’t made for fighting,” Althea said.  “Your delicate hands were made for healing.  Chiron saw that right away.  Even before he knew who your father was.”

“And what was I made for?” Heracles asked.  He handed her bow back, smiled, and patted his big hand on her head.

“You were made for doing great deeds, and learning how to control your temper and not beat people up,” Althea said.  Asclepius laughed and nudged his companion.  Heracles did not find that especially funny.

“And what about you?”

Althea sighed.  “I was made to someday have babies.”  She did not look thrilled by that idea.  “I don’t mind babies, and I suppose that will take all the skill and strength I can muster; but I have to admit, I kind of like this adventuring business.  I would not mind living on the road, at sea, facing challenges, doing deeds worth remembering.”

“What deeds?” Iolaus heard and yelled.  “There is nothing for us to do, and I am bored.”

Althea scoffed, drew her arrow so the fletching tickled her cheek and the nock rested by her ear, and she let go. They watched the arrow stick into a tree, and then saw a twelve-foot monster stand up beside the tree.  It looked roughly human shaped in the trunk and head, and it stood on legs, that may have been more like hind legs.  It had six arms on its trunk, so overall, it gave off the appearance of a giant spider, a look that got enhanced by the dozen others that stood up from their eight legs to their hind legs.

The creatures carried spears that looked like small trees with great stone points.  They had rocks in other hands for throwing.  Heracles moved swiftly, even as the four playing dice jumped up and grabbed their shields and javelins.

“Asclepius and Iolaus, take Argus back to the ship and defend the ship at all costs.”  Heracles ordered.  Althea got a hunting arrow on the string before Heracles picked her up.  “And take Althea with you.”

“Hey!” Althea protested, and called out to the armor of the Kairos. It came, but not to Althea.  She went away and the Princess came into her place.  Heracles had her lifted off the ground with one arm, and she could not help the remark.  “Hello handsome.”

Heracles dropped her and ignored her as she threw Althea’s bow and arrows to Iolaus.  She turned as Heracles picked up his javelin and shield.  Then he acknowledged her.  “Princess.”  They had met before.

She pulled her own Apollo-made compound bow out from her hidden pocket, and brought several of Hephaestus’ best arrows with it.  They watched as the six-arm monsters stood there in uncertainty, until one heaved a spear in their direction.  It missed the four men who were quick enough to get out of the way.  Nestor was the one who responded.  His javelin pushed right through the middle of the giant.  The giant lost his insides as he collapsed.

“Get ready,” The Princess and Heracles yelled together.  They knew, as soon as these giants processed what happened to their comrade, they would be on them and hopping mad.  The charge came, but somewhere in the distance, Althea heard the sound of guns and thunder.

###

Decker hurried back to the group.  “Arm up,” he yelled.  A spear just missed Katie’s horse on the outside of the group, and stuck in the ground.

Alexis and Boston pulled their wands, and then Boston also thought to pull her bow and some arrows from her personal slip.  Lincoln pulled his handgun while Lockhart reached for his shotgun.  Katie, a marine, never went far from her rifle.

“I don’t even have a spear,” Sukki complained.

“You will be fine,” Elder Stow told her, calmly. “Just stay by my side.”

Sukki nodded, and patted the knife Artie once carried, that she now had on a belt at her side.  It reassured her to know she had such a fine instrument available, if necessary.

The group got ready to move forward when they came, a dozen multi-armed giants sporting tree-trunk sized spears.  The giants charged.

“Fire,” Lockhart yelled, but it was moot.  Katie and Decker had already opened fire.  Lockhart let loose with slugs from the shotgun when the giants got close enough.  Alexis raised the wind that blew all sorts of debris in the giant faces and eyes.  Boston fired several arrows that exploded when they struck.  The giants did not even throw another spear in their direction after the first.  Instead, they turned and ran, possibly frightened by the noise.  In less then a minute, six dead giants lay on the ground, and no living giants were to be seen.

Boston heard someone call her name.  It sounded like the Princess.  She looked in that direction first, before she quickly checked her amulet.  “The Karios,” she shouted.  “Come on”

Boston rode fast.  She wove through the trees like the expert rider she was.  The others did their best to keep up.

After 1176 BC Anatolia and the Black Sea.  Kairos 68: Althea, the Argonaut

Recording…

“Althea, dear, come help your old father.”  Argus put his hand out and twelve-year-old Althea let him lean on her shoulder so he could stand.  She walked him to the ship’s railing, though he was old, and lazy, not a cripple.  Still, she was his daughter, his only living child, and since mother died, Althea felt that obligation thing to do what she could to make his last days comfortable.

“Do you know what city that is?” Argus asked.

Althea nodded.  “The land of the Doliones where Cyzicus is king.”

“Uh…” Argus pursed his lips before he asked another question.  “What kind of a name is Cyzicious?”

“Cyzicus,” Althea corrected him.

“Uh…” Argus pursed again before he turned to the ship and to the helmsman.  “Euphemus, make for the city of the Dolimoes and King Cyckious.”

Althea invented the face palm, as three young men came to join them on the starboard side.  Althea knew the men well.  In fact, by then she had gotten to know the whole crew, but these she knew especially well, from the time she spent with Chiron.  It was Artemis who brought her to the centaur when she was found wandering around the woods, alone.  Well, she had her fairies with her for company, but she was only five, and since she could not tell where she was from or who her family might be by name and city. Artemis thought she would be best put somewhere safe.

“What am I going to do with a little girl?” Chiron complained.  “I train boys here.  We only have boys.”  He stomped his back legs and fretted.  “Boys, come here,” he called to three boys who were telling jokes in another part of the big cavern.

That was how Althea first got introduced to these three.

“Father says you shouldn’t argue with his sister.  And he thinks she is cute.”  Twelve-year-old Asclepius, now the ship’s physician at eighteen, grinned at her.

“I have a feeling my father would say keep her.  We could ask Athena, but she would probably say train her, too.”  That was Heracles, now all of nineteen-years-old.

“I’m not sure if my father is alive or dead,” the third one said.  “But she is cute.”  That was the eldest, fifteen at the time, and now twenty-one.  Jason was the reason they were on this quest.

“I could learn to read if I had someone to teach me,” Althea said, at five-years-old.

Chiron stroked his beard and shuffled his front legs.  That request settled the matter.

“Hey Althea, watch this.” The people aboard ship got interrupted by the other twelve-year-old on board, Iolaus, Heracles’ nephew.  The boy had climbed up the rigging and hung upside-down.  Someone bumped the rigging by accident, and did not notice as the boy’s legs let loose and the boy plummeted head first to the deck.

“Oh,” Jason and Argus said, and squinted.

“You could have fallen overboard,” Heracles yelled.

“Too bad he missed,” Asclepius mumbled, as he ran to make sure the boy was all right.

Althea practiced her face palm move.

“So, what is this place?” Jason wondered, changing the subject.

“The Doliones, ruled by King Cyzicus,” Althea said.

“How do you know all this stuff?” Heracles asked.

“Chiron’s maps,” she answered.  “Plus, I read.”  she sounded snippy.

A woman came up and looked around at everyone, ending on Althea’s snooty face.  “Are these men bothering you?” she asked.

“No,” Althea admitted.  “They are just being men.”  She looked toward Iolaus and was glad to see he didn’t break anything.

“Maybe it knocked some sense into him,” Heracles said, having caught the look.

Jason, Argus and the woman, Atalanta, snickered, before Atalanta spoke again.  Meleager is at the oars.  Maybe we should help.”

“Oh, yes.  Right.”  They went to do that very thing, Atalanta with them.

“Captain?” another man stepped up, and Althea thought he should have saluted.

“Is that a dock?” Argus pointed generally toward the town.

“Yes, father,” Althea said.

“That is where we need to go,” Argus said.

“Sir,” the man turned and began to give orders.

“Good thing I came along to captain my ship,” Argus said.  “This is without doubt the best and biggest ship ever to sail the seas.  I wouldn’t trust it to anyone else.”

“Yes Father,” Althea said as the man returned from yelling orders.  “And stopping for food and fresh water in a friendly place is just what we needed to do.”

“Uh…”

Althea nodded to the man, and he smiled, now that he knew what they were doing, and he went to inform the others, and check to see what supplies they actually needed.

###

Sukki looked at the fire as she talked.  “I can’t go back, even if I could go back.  I pledged to return to the earth and live my days on the earth, or die trying.”

“People say that all the time, and some fail,” Alexis said.  “But no one honestly expects such people to die.”

“I would expect to die,” Sukki responded.  “It is our way.  You don’t know.”

Elder Stow nodded.  “I have learned on this journey that the gods do not make promises.  This is wise.  But for the Gott-Druk, such a pledge is a matter of sacred honor.  Most keep their mouths shut when such opportunities come up, but when the cause is painted as something like a sacred cause…”  Elder Stow did not finish the thought, but the others got the idea.

“Well, you are welcome to stay with us,” Lockhart said.

“You are going to like the future,” Alexis said.

“And, when we get there,” Katie added.  “I am sure there will be plenty for you to do, if you don’t decide to go with Elder Stow.  I am sure whatever you like will be fine.”

“I don’t suppose you could all go away and give this world back to my people,” Sukki said, though she knew better.

“Sorry,” Lincoln said.  “That is a wish that is not in our power to grant.”

Sukki understood.  “Excuse me,” she said, and went into her tent without looking up.

Elder Stow sighed.  “It will take time.  It may take a long time.”

People seemed to understand, and went to bed, hoping Sukki would adjust.  She seemed a shy, but likeable person.

Katie and Lockhart stayed up, having the nine to midnight watch.  Katie felt nervous, but could not pinpoint exactly what she was feeling.  Lockhart thought it might be because they had a relative stranger in the camp.  Katie was not sure.  Finally, she looked back the way they came and mouthed her most pressing feelings.

“I hope Artie is all right.”

Lockhart hugged her.  “I am sure things worked out well for her.”

###

When the moon rose, deep in the Anatolian hills, where those hills fell to the edge of the Black Sea, three sets of eyes watched the campfire, and the strange people with their big horses that had intruded into their territory, and they discussed what to do about them.