First Encounter
“Hey, watch it!” A young woman yelled as Toby swerved his bike to avoid hitting her. She had appeared out of nowhere! One second, he had looked around and saw no one. He looked down to check his foot position for speed, and the next thing he knew, there was a twenty or so year old just standing directly in his path, just waiting to be hit.
“Sorry!” Toby yelled as he flew off of his bike into a neighboring yard.
“Oh, I’m sorry, too. Are you okay?” She asked him, running over to him. He stood up, smiling and unblemished.
“Just fine.” Toby said. “I’m glad you yelled. I didn’t see you. It was like you came out of nowhere.”
“Sorry.” The woman apologized again. She was immensely beautiful, and seemed much, much older than she appeared. “I’m Ari.” She said, as if providing an explanation. She held out her hand.
“I’m Toby. I live around the corner.”
“I don’t live around here.” She admitted. “I just came from the grocery store around the corner. I’m sorry I was in your way.”
“No, its fine. I should have been paying closer attention anyway. Hey, are you alright? I know I must have scared you.”
“I’m fine. You?”
“Fine.”
“Well, hey. My car is around the corner, if you need a lift. It looks like your tire got a little bit mangled when it hit the curb.” Ari offered, conjuring a vehicle to drive a block away.
“No... I’m sure my tire will be fine.”
“I insist.” Ari said, hoping she wasn’t coming off too strong. “I feel obligated to buy you a new bike tire. Or at least help you fix that one.” So Ari had managed to enhance the mangled appearance of the tire. In all actuality, it should have been fine. Good thing Arkonel had taught her well.
“You meant to get hit, didn’t you." Toby accused in the awkward silence as he pointed which way to go. It had been a while since Ari had interacted with humans, and she was definitely not used to concealing her identity, or creating a brand new one.
“No, of course not.” Ari protested.
“You’re not one of those psycho rapist killer females, are you?” Toby asked her, only half serious.
“Well, no.” Ari agreed with him. “But I did want to talk to you. I... I know about your dreams. I can tell you about them, if you’d like. But only if you’re comfortable.”
“Wow, um. You’re either crazy, I’m crazy, or something very weird has just happened.”
“Well, Toby. You’ve been raised Pagan, so the fact that you’re having this experience shouldn’t really be a surprise to you.” Ari retorted. “Look, this is my first time breaking the ice with a mortal, and this is obviously your first encounter with something non-human, so let’s just have an open relationship here, alright?”
“K.” Was all that Toby could manage to get out of his mouth.
“My name is Ari. I am a Goddess, recently changed to Immortal. I’ll tell you about the changing later. Basically, you have powers you don’t know about, because the family tree you’re familiar with is not exactly what happened.”
“My dreams?”
“What is your mother’s name?”
Toby met this question with a moment of silence as Anna pulled off the road and into the department store parking lot they were near.
“Anna.” Toby said quietly.
“Okay. And what is your father’s name?”
“John. John Shepherd. What’s your point?”
“What are the names of the people in your dreams?” Ari asked him gently.
“Okay, so I have dreams about my parents, what’s your point?”
“In your dreams. Anna has sex with an unknown figure who declares himself as a god.” Ari pointed out.
“Okay, so I have some fucked up dreams. About my parents. You could assume that about anyone.”
“You’ve had accurate dreams about the Gods, too.” Ari said. “And you know that the supposed dream god is Zeus. And you also know that it took your mother three years to get pregnant with you.”
“Then why is she dead? If I’m Zeus’ baby, wouldn’t he want her to take care of me?”
“Zeus... is the god of the living mortals. When Hades wanted her was not his choice.”
“So we don’t choose when we die?” Toby asked, challengingly. He unhooked his seat belt.
“Well, of sorts, we do. It’s a mixture. My guess is that what happened occurred when Zeus was not paying attention.”
“Right. K. Whatever.” Toby opened the door. “Hey, thanks for the ride, Ari. Have a nice... whatever it is, existence. I don’t want anything to do with this. Now or ever.”
“Hey, wait a second.” Ari commanded him, grabbing his arm and pulling him back in before he could get all the way out. “You don’t care in the slightest? You don’t want to know what I want?”
“I know what you want. You want me to turn back to you and go, ‘gee, well if Hades took my mom, and my dad’s not my dad, when do I get to meet Zeus’ or something. Right?”
“No, actually. Your family situation is your own. But I need some help from you. I need someone to lead others like you.”
“Go to an adult. I’m headed to college. Let go of me, please.”
Ari kept her grip on his arm and shook her head. She remembered why she liked females over males. They were a little less, well, irritating.
“Look kid, you don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to take the job. But please, at least think about it. Take this, and when you have questions, just hold it and say my name. I’ll meet with you at some point that day. Okay?” Ari handed him a very masculine looking beaded necklace.
“Sure, fine. Thanks. Bye.” Toby said, and managed to get out of the car before she grabbed him again.
“Bye Toby.” Ari responded, smiling. “Good luck.”
Her task over, she waited until he was a few feet away from the car and dissipated back into the immortal realm. Removed the car.
Seconds later, Toby turned to realize that the car, which had been off, and the woman, which had been sitting there watching him, was gone. Maybe he needed his head checked.
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