Chapter 11: An Ounce of Prevention….

 

Crouched in a bush, obscured by shadows, Odysseus held a dagger made of bone clenched in his jaw as his hand tightened around the white yew bow in his hands.

Twenty feet away was a large round furry creature, one with tusks and a squat face, a wild boar according to the books he’d been studying. His prey.

Odysseus narrowed his eyes, releasing a breath as he notched his handmade arrow and took aim, his vision focusing on the target digging at the ground at what he suspected to be for truffles.

Sorry. 

Odysseus let loose his arrow, the bronze tip flying straight and true, striking the creature in its thick neck. 

Immediately the creature squealed, floundering to its side before another arrow struck its eye, cutting its oinks.

A moment of silence, the forest quiet before Odysseus crept from the bush to confirm his kill.

Odysseus stood over the boar, the beast’s tongue hanging from its mouth with blood leaking from its maw.

“Sorry.” Odysseus said, recovering his arrows from the sinew and wiping the blood off of the metal.

“Very well done.” Chiron said, the centaur appearing from being a tree with his hands clasped behind his back. “However, as an archer, once you fire upon an enemy, you expose yourself. Circumstances notwithstanding, the first shot an archer takes should always be the kill shot, removing the enemy from the equation. If these were more wild grounds, an injured prey’s screams would attract predators.”

“I understand.” Odysseus said, reaching down and flipping the boar over by grabbing its front legs where he began dragging it back to camp.

Next came the skinning, butchering and drying of pelts, Odysseus listening intently to any corrections Chiron and Claire gave.

“Well, look at you.” Claire said, slapping a hand down on Odysseus’s shoulder as the duo stared at the butchered boar suspended from a set of wooden poles. “Little rough around the edges, but there may be hope for you yet.”

“Thanks Claire.” 

“Sure bud.” Claire said, flashing a smile at Odysseus who did his best not to wince upon a vision of her crying and tormented face flickering in and out of his vision. “Well, I’m starved, lets grill up some piggy!”

“Y-yeah.” Odysseus said, turning to look at Chiron tending to his garden. “How about you get it grilled up and I join you in a bit?” 

Claire raised a brow, the red-head cocking her head before shrugging. “Sure why not. But if I’m cooking you owe me.”

“Thanks Claire.” Odysseus said, smiling lightly as he watched the woman wrapped in intangible flames walk away oblivious to what the teen saw.

Chiron turned his head to face Odysseus as he stood over him.

“What concerns you?” Chiron asked, noticing the look of apprehension on Odysseus’s face.

“I… keep having visions.” 

“Of the man you might become?” Chiron asked, returning to weeding the garden where carrots and potatoes grew.

“No. Of Claire.”

The centaur paused, his head raised.

“Of Clare you say?” Chiron asked, his eyes narrowing at Odysseus who explained what he saw. 

Her crying face, flames hugging her body with tears falling from her eyes. The image of a girl on fire overlapping with her current self.

“That…” Chiron began, his brow furrowed as he set down his tools and took off his gloves. “That is concerning. And you say it comes and goes?”

“What does it mean?”

“To be frank, I am not quite sure. Usually visions are premonitions ordained by Apollo as a boon or gift. Very rarely given and when shown about a person not yourself, they are either usually rooted in deep feelings of attachment, or a message being sent.” Chiron explained, cocking his head to the side. “Are you attached to Claire?”

“I-” Odysseus blinked, a sudden feeling of guilt weighing on his heart. “I mean I think she’s pretty, but-”

“YO! What’s the hold up! Am I eating all this meat by myself?!” Claire called out, interrupting Odysseus.

Chiron smiled lightly and shook his head.

“Then this could be a message. Someone asking you to intervene in whatever ill fate may be about to befall her.””

“But… she’s Claire.” Odysseus said, a feeling of doubt and worry touching his mind. “How am I supposed to save someone who’s faster, stronger, and more skilled than me?”

“Strength isn’t always physical and what we can see, Odysseus. In some ways, it is true that Claire exceeds your current capacity for some tasks. But in other ways she is sorely lacking while you excel.” Chiron explained. 

Odysseus looked down, fidgeting with his hands. “Should I tell her? Warn her?”

“That is entirely up to you.” Chiron said. “How you go about completing the trials and dealing with competitors is your prerogative.”

Odysseus frowned, unhappy with the old man’s response. “Don’t… don’t you care?”

Chiron sighed. “Of course I do. But it is not my role to interfere with the trials.”

“Not interfere? If that was the case then you could have left me to die. Let me be eaten by gnolls.”

“My finding you wasn’t by some way of chance.” Chiron replied, his face seeming to darken. “I was spurred, ordered to do so by hands unseen that beckoned me to aid you. For the same reason you have four days remaining here is the same reason I cannot interfere. There are limits. Boundaries even I cannot cross.”

“Are you saying that if I wanted to put an arrow in Claire’s back I could?”

“I would prefer you do it not within the grounds of my domicile, but yes.” Chiron said, turning back to his garden. “I have seen many would-be heroes come and go, Odysseus. Some, less than heroes, others, the very definition of tragedy. Many perished before they made it to the first floor. Some by the horrors that lurk on this floor, and others, by creatures that wear the guise of mortal flesh. This is not a place for fairness and equality. You would do well to understand that.”

“So what are you? A creature that wears the guise of mortal flesh?” Odysseus asked.

“I am… what I have always been.” The elder sighed, his shoulders sagging, the metamorphed centaur dropping his gardening tools. “Chiron, wisest of all centaurs, teacher of heroes, and the Sagittarius. Cursed to witness the beginning of every journey and more often than not, the end. I am not your enemy Odysseus, this you can rest sure of.”

“I’m sorry Chiron, I didn’t mean-”

“No. You are right in your caution.” Chiron said, standing up, his hands on Odysseu’s shoulders. “What separates you from a warrior of the heart like Claire is that you are one of the mind. You have keen eyes, a cautious mind, and a curiosity that aches to be satiated.”

Odysseus stood with his eyes downcast, his hand shifting the knife back into the makeshift sheath of tied leather on his forearm that was obscured by his long sleeve tunic.

“HEY! I WILL! Seriously eat all of this if you don’t come eat!” Claire called out as Chiron released Odysseus.

“Go, after you are done eating, I have delivered several more books to your cabin I would like you to review.” Chiron said with Odysseus nodding.

Walking off, Odysseus pondered what to do as he approached the redhead laying on the nearby table laden with cooked meat.

“Uuuugh about time.” Claire groaned, sitting up. “I’m starving.”

“If you were hungry why not just eat?”

“It’s not my kill obviously.” Claire replied nonchalantly.

“Yeah but you cooked it.”

“And you hunted, dragged it, skinned, and butchered it.” Claire said, her eyes staring at the cooked boar meat. “I just seasoned and cooked it. So can I have your meat now?”

“Go for it.” Odysseus signaled with the woman tearing into the cooked food. 

Odysseus joined the woman at the table, eyeing her form continue to flicker between the vision version and her real self as she hummed a tune and picked clean the strips of meat off of bones. 

“What?” Claire asked, chewing and swallowing. “Why do you keep staring at me?”

“I’m not staring at you.” 

“You are.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes! You are! Do I have something on my face?”

Odysseus sighed, pondering how to say what he wanted to as the woman began wiping her mouth.

“Claire, I think you’re going to die.” 

The woman froze, staring at Odysseus for a moment with a silence that coated their surroundings.

Suddenly Claire broke out into a laugh, the woman slapping her knee. “Oh, you got me, you look so serious!”

“Claire.” Odysseus said, meeting the woman's green eyes. “I am serious.”

The woman's mood deflated, her smile turning into a frown. “Alright, enlighten me on how I'm going to die?”

“I have visions. Glimpses of… your death.”

“So… you're seeing things… ok.”

“Don't dismiss me Claire. Every time I look at you I see a vision of you crying, consumed by flames, mouthing the words thank you as you burn alive. Chiron says it could be a premonition, a message from a god asking me to save you.”

“Save me?” Claire looked Odysseus up and down. While he was looking less and less like a scrawny mummy, he was still lanky and skinny, his body not yet filling out the clothes he wore. “You?”

“That's what I said to Chiron. I don’t know why I’m having these visions, but it’s concerning.”

“Or maybe, they're not visions and you're just dehydrated and enraptured by my feminine looks.” Claire smirked. “That’s why you always see me as sizzling.”

“I’m not kidding Claire.” Odysseus reiterated.

“Fine fine, I’ll just stay away from fire.” Claire said, scooching a bit away from the nearby campfire that seemed to always burn despite there being no kindling.

“I don’t think it’s that simple Claire.”

“Look. I appreciate you looking out, but I can take care of myself. And no offense, the day I need saving by a scrawny runt like you is the day everything has gone to fucking hell.”

“Rude.” 

“Sorry.” Claire shrugged. “Right now you should be focusing on yourself, eating, resting, learning. Once you leave this place it’s fuckfest out there.”

“Same could be said to you.”

“Me? I’m prepared. There's nothing out there I can’t handle.” The huntress replied, evident confidence in her skill as she pulled out a serrated metal knife and twirled it in her hand.”

Odysseus eyed the weapon, observing the inscription on the blade that read Rangers Lead The Way.

"You like? It was my fathers." Claire said, smiling before handing the blade to Odysseus by the blade.

“It's sharp.” Odysseus said, eyeing the ridges and reflective glare that possesses a sharpness his bone knife didn’t have. “What's with the teeth on the back end?”

“For cutting through fuselage, wire, and other stuff. Kinda like a saw.” Claire explained before holding out her hand for the weapon Odysseus was reluctant to part with.

“Claire, Odysseus.” Chiron said, the sound of the centaur’s full form steps turning their heads. “You should each be using this time to train. Claire, assist me with refortifying the walls, Odysseus, tend to your studies.”

Claire groaned, standing up. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure…”

“An apt idiom Claire,” Chiron said before focusing on Odysseus.

“Yes sir.” Odysseus said, standing up as the the centaur and huntress left, leaving him to stop and he watched as the girl on fire walk away.