"It seems that I can use the Gate of Babylon and by that extent everything inside it. Wherever this place is at least it's safe for now." I said as I felt the oceans water underneath my feet.
"He'll even if I the gold portals don't shoot an endless supply of weapons, I can still use it as a storage place." I said as I looked at a timer that kept counting down, it's green now but anyone that has seen these things both in real life and in video games or in moves knows that this thing will eventually turn red. It's better to have a boat or something just in case.
I turn to look at the sky and for a brief moment, I let myself forget that I'm currently standing in the middle of nowhere.
The sky is blue, it doesn't mean much for people living in small towns, but after years of living into the city, seeing such a blue sky, well it's breathtaking.
I can't stay here all day, I need to find a ship, hell right now even a small boat is good enough, the computer screen in front of me begins to display different ships, each one looks like it was built for a king.
That thought alone makes me smile, Gilgamesh had everything he could and would ever want and now I have all of it too. I want to take the biggest and greatest ship he has, but it needs a crew to actually work.
No, what I need is something that can both sail deep waters, just as easily as a small river and can be used by me alone or two more people.
Three small ships take all of the screen, each one is exactly what I need. There's no point in me staying here wherever here is, still, it feels weird leaving.
I press the screen on one of the ships, it has a weird name one I can't even hope to pronounce but in an instant, the ships stands before me ready to leave. I look at the golden sails, the canons on both its sides front and single large cannon on its back.
Yeah, it's one hell of a ship, except there's just one problem, "How the hell am I supposed to get on?"
The side of the ship opens and a set of stairs drops in front of me. "I guess that answers that"
I walk up the stairs and all honestly it feels wrong, this place is my only clue of how I even got to this place and now I'm leaving it behind, its nothing more than a small patch of loosely put together sand in the middle of the ocean.
Hell now that I'm standing on top of the deck of the ship I can't even see the patch of sand anymore, slowly the stairs begin to lift themselves up and the ship's sails drop, a small tug underneath my feet tells me that it's too late to turn back now.
Not even a minute and I can't even tell where I used to stand anymore.
A small bell hanging from a wooden hook mixes its sound with the ocean, with each passing wave the bell rings.
I can't stand here all day its, better to do something then just wonder where the hell I am. Now that I look at it the ships actually pretty big, it can easily fit a dozen people, hell if I push it, it might fit more then it should be possible.
I don't know, I've never been on a deep sea ship, nor do I know how to navigate, the later is one of the reasons why I chose this ship, the thing can do it all on its own. Hell for all I know instead of heading towards where people live, I'm headed in the opposite direction.
Better to see what this thing has inside it, below the deck should be some cool stuff...nop, there's nothing here just a bunch of cannonballs, some wood, a couple of tables, rope, buckets and that's it, it's just a ship.
Better go back up, it's creepy being down here the ship has three floors and all of them are bright, but the thing is there's nothing giving off any light, so where is all of the light coming from.
Better not to think about it, right now this ship is the only thing I have, well it and an endless supply of things, but I don't know what those things are or the consequences of using them all.
A small wave of, hell I don't even know what to call it passes over me, all I know is that for some reason, I should really be upstairs now, I run up the stairs and instantly regret my decision, the ocean is covered in blood, some sort of monster attacked a ship one bigger than the one I'm on, the monsters dead but I shouldn't get to close.
"Help!" The voices of drowning men reach my ears, I should just leave them there, in all honesty, they aren't my problem and it there are more monsters.
Help!" The men scream even as they swallow water.
I can hear the sound of something falling from my ship and I didn't even know this thing had lifeboats, as I look around I see the men either jumping in or pulling their friends in, they soon begin to use their hands as paddles and the stairs of my ship drop on their own.
I can see the first man new wet from head to toe and judging from the cut on his eye, he's losing a lot of blood.
'"Thank you" he gasped for air as he tried to speak. "The hydra came out of nowhere, it's dead now but" he said as a combination of him breathing and somehow at the same time him wanting to dominate his words come out in gasps.
"Are there still people onboard?" I so him as the rest of the men finally reach the top of my ship.
He struggles to breathe before looking at me. "I don't know"
"I'll crack you boys a deal, I'll take you with me" I lift my hand up to stop them before they interrupt me. "What I mean is I'll take you to where you were going and from there your on your own. So go see what you can save from your ship and if anyone is still alive in there." I tell them as they all turn and look at each other before nodding and walking back down the stairs...
Slowly my ship moves closest to the broken cargo ship until it can't get any closer, a combination of rocks, wooden spikes and what smells like acid keeps the ships separated. It doesn't matter, the men soon start coming back with barrels filled with water, fruits vegetables, dried meats and strangely enough fish.
I smile as I see that some of the men aren't even wet, meaning that there were a couple of people still alive in there.
The sun is starting to set and the last piece of jewelry is brought on board. "So where to?" I ask the men.
"Athens sir" one of them answers me.
"Take us to Athens." I said and I could feel a warm feeling pass over me and as strange as it seems, I could swear I heard a child's voice saying "it's about time I have something to do."
I can feel the pull of the ship as it begins to turn itself around, the pop-out screen shows itself again, for some reason it's green now, before it was white, it's a today trip, other than the color of the screen, the only thing that's different is the color of the count down timer.
"Captain if I may, sir with all due respect but would it be okay for us to pay for our stay by doing some chores for you sir. I mean, I know your ship is a blessed one but we would like to pay you back for helping sir." One of the sailors tells me, he's a muscular one, he can't be any older than thirty or late twenties.
"Do what you please but be careful not to break anything, if you boys get hungry feel free to tell me." I answered the man, why didn't I tell him what needed to be done, simple I have no idea what needs to be done.
Slowly the men begin to tighten the ropes on the sails, some begin to mop, while others simply try to keep themselves busy, still, some just sit in the corner with their hands holding their heads. I can't blame them, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to face a monster like that.
Still, it's better not to have them dwell in their misery, speaking from personal experience it's better for them to talk to someone or by the very least get drunk.
The computer screen shows itself again, this time it's white, I wonder if it means I'm using two different screens, I find a couple of cups, oddly enough they're all made of gold and covered in jewels.
I find more than one kind of wine bottle and as elegant as they are, a bunch of low-level men are about to leave them empty.
I can hear the sound of the men's startled voices as the gold portals open up and as I take both the cups and wine bottles from them.
"Here drink something." I said to the men that were sitting on the deck of the ship.
As I walk around handing out the cups and placing a wine bottle next to them, I can see how a lot of the men begin to grasp just seeing jewel covered cups, even as I take more and more cups out.
"Keep an eye on them, I've seen this before, it's better for them to be drunk, then for them to jump." I said to the same muscular man who had spoken to me earlier.
He looked at me with a hard expression even as I handed him a wine bottle and a cup that seemed to be made of nothing but rubies.
"Are you the son if a God?" he asked me, even as he towered above me, his eyes showed a mixture of fear and hesitation.
"Who knows, it's better not to look at a gift horse in the mouth" I answered him.
Nothing else happened after that, just two days of a bunch of men out at sea drinking and working. Still, by the time we reached the city of Athens, everyone was already imperfect working conditions, I wonder what they are, none of them dare to eat any of the food I offered them.
Still, the city was in ruins when we reached it, apparently, someone had attacked it, but whoever it was lost and now the people were rebuilding. Slowly the men brought down their cargo gave me their thanks and walked away.
Five hundred cups, each one worth a fortune were handed out to them and five hundred cups were waiting for me onboard my deck. As for the wine bottles they were there too, they were empty now, but still, it was the thought that counted.
"Captain!" I heard someone scream, there was no point on turning to see who it was, I don't have a crew and everyone I knew here had already left.
"Captain can you hear me!" A man screamed, yeah there was no doubts whoever he was he was screaming at me.
"Yeah." I said as I walked to the edge of the deck.
"Thank goodness your here sir." the man said as he looked at me, he was one of the youngest of all the sailors.
I didn't say anything, all I did was look at him.
"Sorry," he said. "Well, the thing is sir, the rest of the crew has families and people to go back to, but ever since I was young, I only had...The captain took me in sir...sorry, what I'm trying to say is, is there room for one more.
"... Sure...but I have nowhere to go if you're okay with that her up here." I answered him, why did I let him on, no reason, it's better to have someone to talk to than to travel alone after all.
(Change)
I stood there looking at the captain, who he was I didn't know, was he someone of noble blood just passing the time, or the child of a God that simply didn't care or just someone that got really lucky and ended up getting a ship.
"Let's go get something to drink," he said to me, as he moved his hand in the air and a gold portal opened beneath the ship itself before it vanished inside the gold portal.
"So any idea of what happened here?" The captain asked me.
"They say that Aries tried to destroy the city, but a Spartan managed to stop him." I answered him, as I pointed to the papers hanging from the walls all over the buildings in the city.
The captain looks at the sky and smiles. "At least I know where I'm at... How much are things worth here?" He asked me, altho he never even turned to look at me.
I just looked at him after all things were worth the same everywhere one went. "Two coppers for a cup of water, six silvers for a pound of ground beef, gold for land." I tried to explain to him, but I really didn't know any more than things that had to do with the sea.
The man turned to look at me and smiled. "You don't know do you?" He asked me, no it was more like he was pointing it out.
"Sorry captain but I only ever lived on the ship so..." I began to explain myself before I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Well, that means we have to learn as we go." He said as a gold portal dropped a bag filled with gold in front of him.
It was better not to ask, whatever those things were, they seemed to have anything the man wanted or needed.
We walked in silence for an hour before he even spoke to me again, we walked past the weeping mothers crying for their children that had died during the attack, whether those children were full-grown adults or actual children didn't matter the results were the same.
A lot of crying women and men who struggled to hold back their tears, in order to support those that remain. Someone had to be the strong one in all of this and unfortunately, it had to be them.
Stone and wood littered the streets as the remains of homes and buildings either crumbled around us as we walked, or forced us to turn around when we found a street that was blocked by all of the rubble.
"So Athena rules this city?" He asked me.
"Yes, sir. The Goddes Athena rules Athens because of that the city is known as one of the most prosperous city's in the world, people come here either for education or make their fortune either thru trade or simple work." I answered him.
"...So what do you want to do?" He asked me.
"I've never been here before and from what you've told me there has to be something fun to do around here." He continued.
I stood there and watched him as he began to walk past me, I didn't know anything beyond the ship, hell even when the captain was around, I tied the ropes, kept watch and never really left the ship except when the rest of the men went drinking.
Wait that was it, there was one place I did know.
"There's a guild I know, we can get a drink there sir and it's a good place to find work." I answered him.
He stopped walking "Lead the way".
Ten minutes later.
I stood there looking at the sign on the door, according to it the guild was closed because of the attack, everyone was either out working, whether that was helping find missing people, rebuilding things or killing monsters didn't matter either way, the one place I knew in the city was closed.
" Forget about it, let's drink something." he said to me as he handed me a gold cup decorated with jewels.
Red wine, our first day together and we drank red wine on the steps of a guild that was closed in a city that was in ruins. Had anyone pointed this out to me I would have gotten as far away from the Captain as possible. At least that's what I want to believe.
(Character change)
10- 9- 8- 7- 6-5- 4 -3-2 -1
"I guess that's it, the countdown has finished whatever happens happens." I said to myself as I look at the past out form of the man next to me, the sun is about to completely go down and the city is turning dark.
This city is strange, I've lived both in small towns and cities and neither of them became this quiet, sure the towns became empty with only people porch lights and street lamps lighting everything, but the towns were never quiet.
Music from inside peoples homes could be heard well into the night and even in the city there were always homeless or people that were up to no good walking around, but this place. It's quiet too quiet.
"All thank goodness there's someone here." I heard a man say as he held out a piece of paper and tried to catch his breath.
"Listen, my town has is being attacked by a pack of wild boars and they seem to be getting stronger and even smarter. We don't have much, but we can pay you back with a hot meal, clothes and some copper." The man said to me as he handed me the piece of paper.
I took the piece of paper and realized I couldn't read a single word on it, luckily the pop out screen showed itself immediately and translated the thing for me.
The town was only five days away and from what the paper said they reward was just that, a warm meal, clothes and copper. Hell if I was desperate for money or anything, I would have jumped at the chance to do this, but I'm not desperate for money and I don't need any of this.
I turn to look at the only person I know here, the guy will be dead if I leave him alone right now, so I just turn back to looks t the man that handed me the piece of paper, before nodding to him that I would do the job.
"Wait till tomorrow." Was the only thing I told him and the man sat down beside me before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.
These people were way too trusting, yet again, he did just hire a complete stranger to go kill things for his home town. Not to mention the fact that he would be leading those strangers to the town himself, now that I think about it, his reaction is actually normal.