“The Rise of Zeus – Chapter VIII (Pt 7)”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

BASIL (cont.)

“It’s very rare for someone to call an emergency meeting, though,” Neera says. “The last time we had one was two years ago when Jonah tripped and hit the button.”

“I only tripped because Kell tied my shoelaces together,” Jonah protests with a scowl. He turns to Kellan and says, “Honestly, you act like a child sometimes.”

Kellan sticks his tongue out at Jonah. “At least I’m not a grumpy old man like you, dad.”

“I’m twenty! That’s not old!”

“Boys, boys,” Silas interjects, holding up his hands between the two of them. By his almost imperceptible eye roll and Neera’s snicker, I can tell that I should expect many more little arguments like this in the future. “Come now, take your seats.”

He sits at the head of the table and gestures down the line of chairs. I hang back—is there assigned seating or do I grab the first one I see?—and the others march toward what I suppose are their assigned chairs. The last empty one is at the head of the table opposite Silas, so I head to that one and sit down.

“Good,” Silas says, “now we can begin.” He looks directly at me and there’s a soft shuffling of fabric as the others do the same. Involuntarily, I shrink under their gazes; oh, come on, you’d find that being stared at by six people in full sets of armour is super intimidating too!

“Basil,” Silas continues, “you may ask your questions now.”

Immediately, my mind goes blank. Don’t you find that that always seems to happen? You’ve got ten million questions bumping into each other in your head like people in an overcrowded amusement park, but as soon as someone gives you free rein to ask those questions, everyone leaves the park. Like, what’s with that?!

So, my magnificent brain sends that message of emptiness all the way to my mouth and vocal cord muscles and I say, “Uhhhhhhh…”

Luckily, Harper jumps in and saves my idiotic-sounding butt. “Actually, Basil was wondering about the type of training we do here.”

Final Comments: Sorry I haven’t posted in a while… I’ve been super busy wrapping some stuff up at work! But I’m back now, and man it feels good!

Overall Rating: 😁