Prologue

This story as most tend to do, started as a war. A war between the gods, a war between man, and a war between the greatest civilizations of the era. It was a long and bloody war. It started when the Norse came back to try and take control of Europe and found that the Romans were already there controlling most of it. The Norse, never ones to back down from a fight started a war with the “upstarts” claiming original colonist status. The Romans fought back god against god, and man against man. Then the Greeks claiming divine rights to Europe and it’s surrounding territories, joined the fray, but because of the split personalities of the Roman and Greek gods, the two sides created an alliance. After a while, the Greeks and Romans thought that they were going to destroy the Norse, but they were totally wrong when the Egyptians came into battle, angry with the treatment they had received, and sided with the Norse...for now.
















Chapter 1 (Norse)

All was quiet in the small meadow. The trees and tall grass and plants waved lazily in the breeze. You could hear the birds chirping in their nests and on the wind. The sun shining yellow warmed the earth. All of a sudden you could a low humming noise that grew louder in magnitude until a bright light flashed and a portal was visible. Two normal looking tennagers stepped out of the swirling, gaping hole. These two teenagers were actually demigods on a mission for their leaders. They were part of a group of beings that called themselves The Elders. People call them Dark Elders. Rumors has it that they even use dark magic.

The teens were twin brother and sister. You could tell just by looking at them that they were different than the average teen. They dressed differently, like they were trying to fit in but didn’t exactly know how to. The girl had on a forest green colored dress that looked like it came out of one of the fictional books like, Inkheart or The Rangers Apprentice, while the boy had on a kimono or ninja-like outfit except that it was a mixture of the different shades of green and the different shades of brown. They even carried medieval weapons strapped to their bodies instead of the modern .45 or 12-gauge shotgun. The girl carried twin blades sheathed on her back, while the boy had a war hammer at his side and a war axe strapped to his back.

“Hey, Nikolai, are you sure this is the right place?” Svenja asked looking around. “This doesn’t look like much.”

“Yeah, the Elders said it was….well I hope they said this was it. They might have gotten it wrong.” he replied.

“The Elders get nothing wrong!”

“You’re sure? Not everyone is perfect. Even they can get things wrong.”

“No, the Elders get nothing wrong!” she said excitedly.

“Whatever.” he said, obviously bored.

“Why are you always like this?” she complained.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“You are always the opposite of me but we are supposed to be the same because we’re twins.” she said.

“That doesn’t mean that we have to do everything and agree with everything toget-.” he replied.

“Shh.” Because just then, Svenja heard a quiet rustling in the brush behind them. A rustling that was too low for a normal person to hear it. But, Svenja could.

“Hey Nik, do me a favor and just turn around slowly.” she whispered.

“Why?” he whispered back.

“Just do it. There might be something in the bushes behind us.” she hissed.

All of a sudden, a lion with gleaming fur stalked out of the vegetation. The creature looked ferociously magnificent with the yellow fur shining like gold in the sun. It open it’s mouth and said, "????? ????? ??? ?? ?????? ???;"

“What?”

"??? ?? ? ????? ?? ??????"

“What in Loki’s madness are you saying?” Nikolai asked roughly. “You better tell me or you’re dead. Capiche?”

“Who are you and why are you here?” it replied.

“Thank you. Hi. My names is Nikolai and this is my sister Svenja. We’re here because some of our people told us that we had to be here for something.” he replied. “Who are you?”

“My name is not important right now.” It answered with a deep snarl.

Svenja stepped in front of her brother instinctively thinking that the lion creature was going to attack him.

Noticing Svenja moving in front of him, Nikolai protested,“Whoa, sis I’m alright. Don’t worry if she/it tries something I can take care of myself. You don’t have to always protect me you know that right?”

After a while, she moved away from her brother. “Whatever you do. Don’t you move without permission.” Svenja told her.

“I don’t have to listen to you if I don’t want to.” the creature replied defiantly.

Just then Nikolai surprised both of them when he growled, “Yes you will if you want to live!” His eyes started to glow bright red.

Both of them backed up so quickly they tripped on each other. “Whoa bro you need to calm down.” Svenja said. She has not seen something like that happen before. It scared her out of her mind. I wonder maybe something happened all those years ago when Dad died. It could have been when Sif visited with him. What happened?

“If she won’t back down then I won’t calm down. That is my promise!” Nikolai told Svenja snapping her out of her thoughts. He stalking toward the lion creature bringing out his hammer and axe. To the creature he said, “You better tell me your name or I will bash your head in.”

Just then a beautiful girl walked out of the trees behind the creature “My name is Rhoda Sophia.” she replied through the lion’s and her mouth together.

“Wow! How can you do that? That is so cool!” Nikolai said with a large grin, his anger subsiding. His eyes stopped glowing their red glow; they ended up going back to their normal deep purple.

“I have been able to do that ever since I learned it from the animals, so pretty most of my life.” Rhoda said frowning.

“Oh I see.” Nikolai replied disappointed.

“It’s not as fascinating as it seems. Well not as cool as this.” She said then flexed her hands and claws quickly grew out of the tips of her fingers.

“How are you able to do that?” Nikolai asked with excitement.

“It is something that the animals taught me also. That and how to talk to any animal that I want.”

“Now that is cool!” Svenja and Nikolai said together.

“Yeah. I know right. So why are you here?” Rhoda asked.

“Um.. we’re not able to tell you that.” Svenja said sheepishly.

“Why not?” Rhoda wondered.

“Because we don’t even know. We were just told to come here by our Elders.”

“Ha I know whom, you speak of. You know that people call them The Dark Elders and that they are very dangerous?”

“No they’re not!” Svenja said defensively.

“Yeah they are.” Rhoda retorted.

“What makes you say that?”

“I have been in contact with them before.” Rhoda replied matter of factly.

“What!” Nikolai and Svenja said together.

“Yes. Two years ago I was confronted by one of them.”

“Who was it?” Nikolai demanded.

“I think that his name was Deucalion.”

“No way. The leader of the Elders. I haven’t even seen him yet.” Nikolai said so excited.

“That’s not the point.” Rhoda said.

“Then what is the point?” Svenja asked.

“The point is what he said while I was there.”

“What did he say?”

“He somehow knew that I was the one controlling my familiar but didn’t actually talk to me face-to-face he just started talking as if he was voicing his thoughts. He said, ‘You know by the end of the war, I will be the one in control this land.’ I just had my familiar crouch down and waited for him to leave. After awhile he did. but not before he said ‘And you Greeks will be the ones who go down first.’”

Gulp. “Are you sure you got that right?” Nikolai asked.

“You think that I made this up? How would I be able to even know who the leader of your Elders is?”

“I don’t know maybe you’re a spy.”

“I’m a Greek demigod. My father is Ares the Greek god of war.”

“Ha our mother is Sif the Norse goddess of war. I have battle strategy wisdom, while my sister Svenja here, has superhuman hearing. Beat that!” Nikolai boasted.

“Brother dear can you do something for me?” Svenja replied rolling her eyes.

“Yeah sure what is it?”

“Shut up.”

“Oh sure thing.” he replied sadly.

“Hey it’s okay I was just trying to get you to stop boasting about our abilities especially when we don’t know about the enemy. Remember the saying ‘Know thine enemy’?” Svenja said calmly and tenderly like an older sibling comforting a younger, sad sibling.

“Yeah you’re right.” he agreed.

They did not realize but Rhoda silently slipped away while they were talking. Finally, Nikolai noticed that they were alone. “Hey where did she go?”

“I don’t care. Let’s just get our job done and get out of here. Ok?” Svenja said

“Okay.”

What they didn’t know was that Rhoda was actually a spy not for the Greek, but for Deucalion their own leader. He didn’t expect for them to bring back any good news so he stationed a permanently temporary spy. She was the one who had been supplying Deucalion with the correct information that he needed for this attack and possibly future attacks. But what Rhoda didn’t know was that if she didn’t do things right, then she would be disposed of by Deucalion...

Chapter 2 (Archilaus)

The whole City of Athens is made up of military camps now that they had news of a battle about to begin. The people are lucky that they have the Oracle of Delphi to warn them of this coming threat. If they didn’t then have this warning they don’t know where they’d be. Back at Camp Half-Blood Rhoda reports of Nikolai and Svenja to the war council. She told the members what the twins told her, but she did not, and she hopes that she won’t tell them, of the fact that she has already talked to the enemy’s leader and is a traitor to them. Archilaus rushed in while Rhoda was in the process of being interrogated.

“This is what I found out, the enemy sent two teenagers to some spying but they were nowhere near here when I talked to them. Though they don’t know where they have to spy. Apparently, their leader didn’t divulge that information to them.”

“Lets hope that they will be nowhere near here anytime soon.” one of the council member replied. They all laughed. At least the tension is gone from the council...for now. Thought Archilaus as she sat down. But it seems that the word that enemy spies are here, somehow leaked out throughout the camp. I wonder who found out. I bet everyone suspects me for being that person. Ha to anyone who suspects me, especially when they find out that it wasn’t me. When Archilaus came out of her thoughts she realized that the interrogation was over and all of the council members had already left except her and the members of the inner circle of battle strategists. She looked at those members with envy. I wish I was part of the Black Circle.

All of a sudden she saw Rhoda walking alone towards one of the barracks. “Hey Rhodes, wait up.” Archilaus called.

“You are lucky that you’re the only one who I allow to call me that, you know that right?” Rhoda replied stopping shortly and turning around.
“I know that’s why I try and use that every chance that I get, you know that right?” she replied laughing. Rhoda couldn’t help but laugh too. Suddenly a group of soldiers walked by. One of them, yelled out, “Look. It’s the outsiders together.”...