The Meeting of Father And Son

“So, having a little wing trouble, are we, son?” A mighty voice came from all around Toby and nowhere at once. Ari had been sent to retrieve Zeus, and they appeared seconds later. Ari, clothed more traditionally in terms of modern clothing, and the glowing figure he assumed was Zeus, clad in leather parts and a white blouse like shirt. The man towered over him, but only by a foot or two.

“You could make yourself less... ominous, father.” Arkonel commented when he saw his father appear. “I mean, really. He’s your youngest. You don’t want to scare him shitless before he even knows how to spread his wings.”

“Sorry.” Zeus agreed and Toby watched in wonderment as Zeus’ form shrunk by a few feet until he was the same height as Toby. “Well, you turned out relatively handsome in terms of mortals.” Zeus smiled and outstretched his hand. “Hand shaking is what mortals do now a days, correct?”

“Yeah.” Toby said, extending his hand to meet his fathers. Warm, strong, like he was human. Almost.

“Sorry if this might make you uncomfortable, but I need you to take off what’s left of that shirt and let me take a look.” Zeus said to him. He nodded and slipped the ripped shirt over his head, and bent his wings back and looked at Ari. Understandingly, Ari walked the five feet behind him to pull the shirt off of his wings. He had been shirtless when it happened, but he had gotten cold, so he had asked Ari to help him put his shirt on, ripping holes in the appropriate places to make his wings fit.

The air cool and his skin reacting, Toby realized that his scrawny, tanned eighteen year old body was covered in goosebumps, with his wings vibrating, well, beating gently, to keep him warm. All of the gods were slightly amused, and he could tell that this was the most unusual action they had seen in a while.

“You know, Aphrodite, sister, you might as well appear. Its not like everyone else is not here.” Hermes said to no one in particular. Seconds later, a beautiful brown haired, brown eyed lady in a long flowing, majestic purple robe appeared next to Hermes.

“Well said, brother, and well met. I came to see what the commotion was, when I went to the palace and found nobody home.” Aphrodite said apologetically. “Is this the last son?”

“My name is Toby.” Toby said as he shivered in the empty gymnasium’s cold, stale air.

“Can’t you people see that he is cold?” Aphrodite walked towards him, extending her hand.“Let me warm you, darling.”

“Sister!” Hermes admonished. “He’s much too young for you!”

“I was simply going to warm him up a little. No embarrassing side effects, you know. I know how much mortals hate the idea of their sexuality being able to be seen. And if he’s that one’s son, then we all know it would be able to be seen.

Toby turned bright red and shivered a little more. They were treating him like a new specimen at the zoo, never been seen before exhibit. Less than... well, he was less than them. But still, he was a person!

“Well, they seem to be part of him. And he does have muscles to work them.” Zeus concluded at the end of his examination. “It seems that his body wants him to become immortal, even if he doesn’t really want to. If we cut them off, I’m not sure if they will grow back. Is that acceptable?” Zeus turned his attention on Toby.

“No.” Toby said immediately. “I’ve had them only for a few hours, but I’m rather... attached.”

“Well, we can make you fully immortal, and that will fix the problems, in the terms that you can change your physical appearance. Or someone can cast an illusion on them – we can call Hephaestus or Psyche in to see what they can do, but that’s only what you mortals would call a temporary fix.”

“I don’t want to leave the earth.” Toby protested. “Why can’t I just control them and make them go away? Why couldn’t my life be normal?”

“Normal isn’t any fun.” Aphrodite patted him on the head soothingly. “I promise we’ll take good care of you. And I suppose,” Aphrodite looked at Zeus pointedly, “That there would be special provisions for you because you don’t want to.”

“Yes, obviously, there would be special rules and privileges for you, because you are my youngest and I need you here, on earth. Regardless of where you want to go or do.” Zeus agreed with Aphrodite.

“What if we just give him a crash course, so to speak, on being immortal. We tell him how to change, how to get from here to Olympus. Then we leave him here, on earth. He won’t require sleep anymore, so he can spend his nights recruiting and forming the Academy.”Ari asked Zeus. “That way, he can still be with the mortals that he knows and loves, he can go to college like he wants and it’ll still work, here, for us.”

“Its up to you, Toby.” Zeus turned to him. “We can cut them off, which may be extremely painful, and possibly may not grow back; we can turn you to immortal and show you how to function; or we can bind them underneath your shirt somehow. Have you tried folding them back?”

“They don’t really... ” Toby said as he concentrated. He could stretch them back to touch each other.

“Why don’t you... yeah, now stay there. Have you ever seen a bird fold its wings?” Hermes asked him, and Toby nodded. “Try to do that.”

Toby concentrated on the image of a bird folding its wings. They kind of, sort of just brought them closer to their bodies, right? He tried folding them.

“Look at that!” Hermes said triumphantly. Toby reached back in wonder, with a brief flash of pain and loss of sensation.

“I did it?” Toby asked him.

“Yeah, you did.” Ari said, patting him on the back. “That wasn’t so hard, was it.”

“Yeah, okay.” Toby glowered at his mentor, Ari. She shrugged.

“Good job, Hermes.” Zeus said. “Nice meeting you, Toby. Keep up the uh, good work. I’ll be seeing you all later, but for now I must run. Apparently I have some work to catch up on.”

“Bye, father.” Arkonel said. Aphrodite looked at Toby, wingless, and almost looked disappointed.

“When you are getting lonely, just call out my name. The amusement of today means I owe you a boon, and I will gladly help you in any of your... endeavors.” Aphrodite winked at him. Did Toby just get hit on by a sex goddess? She disappeared as his jaw dropped nearly to the floor.

“Pretty good stuff.” Arkonel said, laughing at him. “You climb a rock mountain, you sprout wings, you can’t get rid of them, you get Aphrodite to owe you, and you meet the king of gods.”

“I know, I know.” Toby said laughing. He wondered if he could get his wings to come out, again.

“Hey, listen, we’ll fly you home, if you want. Or at least fly with you. So you get some control over those huge ass things that come out of your back.” Ari offered, and Toby nodded.

“Yeah, I’d really like to get some control, if you don’t mind.” Toby said.

“I can do it. I’d like to get to know my descendant. I won’t get him in trouble, I swear.”  Hermes offered, and Toby shrugged.

“That alright with you, Arkonel? We’ll go home, get some... work done?” Ari asked him, and the grin on Arkonel’s human shaped face widened immensely.

“By all means, dear friend of mine. Fly away with our charge. But if you get him in trouble, we’re sending Zeus to you.”

“Well said. Bye, you two. Have fun.” Hermes said, and Toby said his farewell as they blinked out of existence.

“Alright, lets sprout some wings and run into shit.” Hermes announced. It was well into night outside.

“Shouldn’t I go outside, first? Did you see my wingspan? I don’t think I could fit through the door.”

“Point well taken, let’s go.”

“Alright.” Toby followed the glowing god out the door, shaking his head. What a long fucking day.

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