Chapter 20: Υυ- Upsilon

I was ready to go. I have my ring on and have a small dagger in the sleeve of my jacket. I’m wearing a pair of denim jeans and a simple graffiti T-shirt.

Fern asked me nervously, “Are you sure you don’t want me to come along?”

I smiled, “You want to see Arik again?”

Fern gulped, “You know what? I have other stuff to do.”

Leo grabbed the collar of Fern’s shirt and pulled him away. They started to talk as if they have some sort of plan.

Piper said, “Jason and I are going to see the sights of Las Vegas. But we’re going to keep an eye on you, just in case.”

I nodded that I got it. I then went out of the hotel and into the building where Arik-Arian wanted me to meet with him. The napkin wrote:

Coffee for two?

Cut me some slack,

I will help you

Get your voice back.

He wrote down the address where I’m supposed to meet him. It was some Starbucks around the corner of the hotel. I went to the counter and bought myself an iced café latte. When I went in, I saw him reading a newspaper in a booth.

I asked, “I’m suppose to meet a Dufus here, but I don’t really see him”.

Arian set down his newspaper and corrected, “Its pronounced DOLPH-US”.

I sat down across from him. “Rudolph?”

“No, DOLPH-US.”

“Oh,” I said. “Mucus.”

He sighed, “I give up.”

I showed him the napkin, “Very creative”.

“Yes, I have many talents.”

I sat down on the booth across from him. “So Arian, if that’s your real name, why am I here?”

“You’re right, Arian isn’t my real name, it’s really Arion.”

I gasped, “You have an evil triplet, plotting to rule over the world?”

Arian-Arion laughed, “Arian was just another cover. You should know the famous legend, Arion and the Dolphin.”

It must be a Greek myth. “Must have never heard of it, tell it to me.”

“Please?”

I pleaded like a little kid. “Can you tell me a bedtime story, please, with a cherry on top?”

He took a sip of his drink. “I would be delighted to.”

He leaned forward, telling his story. “I was a famous poet and musician of Methymna, almost as famous as Orpheus, rumored that Apollo himself taught me.”

I huffed, “As if."

“I never really knew my parents, but it was rumored that I was the son of Poseidon and Ino. I was raised by a traveling poet who taught me everything I know,” he continued. “I was a Dionysiac poet, famous for creating the dithyramb-”

“Dithyramb?”

Arion explained, “The dithyramb is an ancient Greek hymn that is sung and dance in honor of Dionysus.”

I felt a sudden cold shiver. “You honor Mr., I mean, Bacchus?”

Arion asked, “Don’t you mean Dionysus?”

“Yeah, I meant- Di, Bacchus.”

My Roman self won’t let me say the Greek term of Bacchus.

“Never mind.”

“Any way,” Arion said. “I was one of his followers, playing my lyre as I sang. Thanks to that, that’s how I met Periander of Corinth.”

“Who?”

He smiled. “I was getting to that. He was a young man who was sailing to Miletus, but landed to Lesbos, where I was. As he explored the island, he heard us dance for Dionysus, even heard me sing. He introduced himself to me, so I told him my story. With that he paid an old couple to look after me.”

“Cute”.

“Periander became the king of Corinth. He missed me, and my songs”, He gave me a mischievous smile. “So he asked for me to come to Corinth to join his court, I was full grown and quite handsome. I then taught them the dances and songs of Dionysus and my famous invention, the dithyramb.”

I smiled. “Quite”.

“He was like a father to me, so I sang the best songs I made. Later then, I went to a music contest of Sicily. Naturally I won.”

I took a sip of my drink. “No contest.”

“I boarded a ship from Tarentum to return me to Corinth. But the sailors wanted my prizes I got from the contest. So they gave me the choice for me to jump overboard or suicide and they will give me a proper burial.”

I said pretending to be awed, “So what happened next?”

Arion took another sip of his drink. “I said my most famous line, ‘No Greek would swim out into the deep from a boat for pleasure’.”

He paused and looked at me. “No comments from you so far?”

“Me, do such a thing?” I protested. “No one’s stopping you, please, continue.”

“Anyway, I begged them to let me sing one last song. My song attracted a school of dolphins, where I jumped overboard and they saved me from drowning. I headed back to Corinth, told the Periander my story. The sailors arrived to the port and were thrown to the dungeon, the end.”

I applauded. “Bravo, bravo. Tell it again.”

Arion’s eyes lit up, “Really?”

I admitted, “That was sarcasm.”

“I thought you were being sincere.”

“So you’re like centuries older than me, that’s weird”, I laughed. “That’s why your last name is Dolphus, after dolphin?”

He nodded, “The Greeks never really had last names. It’s always your name and where you were from, or like ‘Alexander the Great’. America is just so confusing, you must need a last name.”

He rolled his eyes. “What’s your last name? I couldn’t tell them that I was Arion of Corinth, so I decided having my last name be Dolphus.”

I started to snicker, “But why Dolphus?”

“Oh forget it.”

“So where’s my gift?”

“I’m not giving it to you,” he said as he finished his drink.

I whined, “Why not?”

He shrugged, “I have nothing else to do today. I want to see how far you’ll go for your voice.”

“So you’re testing me?”

He shrugged, “I guess you can say that”.

Something caught my eye. I looked to my left and saw what looked like a Jason hockey mask. I blinked and it was gone, maybe I’m getting paranoid or something.

I eyed Arion. “Then lead the way. “Test” me, on how much I want my singing voice back.

He stood up and held out his arm. I looked at it, then at him, and back to the arm.

“Must I?”

“Yes, you must.”

I stood up and he linked his arm with mine. And we walked out of the coffee shop.

Arion showed me two tickets. I took one and looked what it was.

I read aloud, “Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat”.

Arion smiled, “I’m currently living in the Mirage Resort and Casino. I want you to meet the dolphins.”

“But the tickets cost about seventeen bucks each.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Oh, okay.”

We reached the Mirage. It was way luxurious than our hotel. The building was looked like an open book, when we went to the front there was a second wall. I bet from a birds’ eye it looks like a 3-pointed star.

We passed the life-like volcano at the front of the hotel. It looked so real, with realistic looking fire spurting out of it. The volcano looked so realistic, it had detail crevices making it look more like a mountain. Fire lit up around the lake, it was beautiful. Leo, Leo would have like this, but who cares about him. As we passed, the volcano burst out lava. I flinched that made Arion laugh.

I protested, “It startled me!” But I laughed along with him.

We went into the hotel. He turned left and we passed the atrium. It was inside half of a sphere, and looked kind of like green house. It was filled with huge palm trees and exotic plants and flowers. I heard some sort of creek running inside of the atrium. I noticed someone in a batman mask, am I seeing things? Sadly we continued to pass the atrium. We passed many places like the Samba steam house, the spa, and the pool (I wish I could’ve swim in there.)

Finally we reached the Secret Garden. We went under the arch and Arion gave the lady our tickets.

She winked at us, “Have fun”.

I tried to explain, “Oh we’re not-”

Arion interrupted, “We will”.

We walked all over the garden; I saw beautiful albino tigers and lions behind cages. I wish Fern could see this. I don’t if he would like it, but they seem to be treating them well, so I guess he would. And their cubs, some were regular looking and the others were albino. I even got to carry one. The trainer handed me a baby tiger. She purred softly as I fed it some milk.

I cooed, “It looks so adorable, just as cute as Cebury.”

Arion asked, “Cebury?”

I answered back while I cradled the tiger. “My 3- headed dog, she’s a mastweiler.”

The tiger cub meowed.

Arion said, “She says hi.”

I looked at him. “You can talk to tigers?”

“Uh, no. I was only kidding.”

“Oh, wow.”

We then headed to the dolphin habitat. It was a huge pool filled with dolphins. The dolphins did tricks in the air with their trainers. I could watch them for hours.

Arion tapped on my shoulder. “What are you doing standing around here for? Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“We’re going to be a trainer for a day.”

“Wait, what? How much did it cost?”

“Five hundred-fifty bucks.”

I exclaimed, “What?”

Arion added, “Each”.

“Again,” I said. “What?”

Arion rolled his eyes. “We don’t have all day, we got to change to our wetsuits.”

“Um, okay.”

Arion and I, along with everyone else came to the pool in our wetsuits. The trainer explained the rules and basic tricks. I learned how to shake hands with a dolphin, it was pretty cool. After that, the trainer let us have freestyle or let us play with the dolphins. I leaned to the pool, still standing.

I asked Arion, “How deep do you think the pool is?”

Arion shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”

“What’s that suppose to-?”

Arion pushed me into the pool, and then jumped in with himself. The dolphins swarmed to Arion, naturally. Arion started to whistle a tune; the dolphins went wild and started to splash us. After the trainers calmed them down, we changed in the lockers. It was getting dark; I wonder where else Arion will “make” me go. Arion was there waiting for me with someone. I came closer and saw him holding on Fern’s collar.

Arion smiled and waved a batman mask in front of me, “I found this stalker in a batman mask”.

Fern cried, “I’m not a stalker, I was just worried about you!”

That would explain the batman mask I saw at the atrium. I had Arion let go of Fern. I introduce Arik as his real identity, Arion.

Fern coughed, “As in the immortal horse?”

Arion stepped forward while Fern retreated a few steps.

He waved his fist. “You sure have some guts!”

Arion seemed like the Arik I first met. I pushed Arion away from Fern.

I just had to ask, “Immortal horse?”

Arion sneered, “Yeah, that stupid horse was named after me. I never like horses after that.”

Fern explained, “He’s the son of Demeter and Poseidon, they changed to horses and Arion was born. He’s the fastest horse alive, and he doesn’t have any wings.”

I smirked at Arion, “So you have a horse for a half-brother, and has the exact name as you?”

“Yeah”, Arion huffed, and then he glared at Fern. “If you have nothing else to do, you can go.”

Fern muttered, “Fine”.

As he walked past me he whispered, “I still don’t trust him.”

I know Fern longer, should I listen to him and not trust Arion. No, maybe it’s just an old rivalry since Arion used to bully Fern. It’s probably nothing to worry about.

My stomach started to growl. I looked at Arion, “Dinner time?”

Arion smiled and agreed, “Okay then, dinner time”.

Arion took me to the Cheesecake Factory down by the Las Vegas Strip. We went into the lobby of the restaurant. Arion went up to the hostess of the restaurant.

“I have a reservation for two,” Arion said professionally.

“Ah, Mr. Dolphus,” The lady’s eyes lit up. “Good to have you this evening.”

I stepped forward. “You’re actually pronouncing it wrong. It’s really pronounced DU-FUS.”

The lady stammered, “I-I’m so sorry for my mistake, Mr. Dufus. Please, let me take you to your table.”

I smirked at Arion who was sticking his tongue at me.

The lady lead us upstairs of the restaurant and outside to the patio. I even passed Jason and Piper who were already ordering desert. They didn’t really notice me passing, so I let them be. The patio had a single table with a candle and flowers at the middle. You can see the Vegas skyline from here; sadly you couldn’t see any stars.

I said in a quiet voice, “Oh”.

As the hostess left, Arion pulls out my chair so I can sit down. He then sat down and looked into the menu. I was about to take one for myself but he snatched it away.

A waiter came to our table, ready for our order. Arion handed the waiter our menus and gave him a nod.

The waiter asked, “The usual, Mr. Dufus?”

I started to snicker.

Arion gritted his teeth, “Yes, the usual will be fine, Edward.”

The waiter nodded and left the patio.

I stared at Arion. “I didn’t get to order anything.”

“Don’t worry,” Arion said with a smile. “It’s the usual.”

“What if I’m allergic to something,” I protested. “And when I eat something, I collapse and die?”

He asked, “Are you allergic to something?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Then we’ll be having the usual.”

The waiter came back with all of our food. He set it all in front of us. He covered the table with calamari and popcorn shrimp. He then set my favorite in front of us, angel hair pasta with shrimp. And some sort of salmon, I hope Poseidon will forgive me for eating seafood just this once. Maybe he would even like to have the recipe, or not, this shrimp might have once been his subjects. The waiter then poured some sort of drink from a bottle into our glasses. He then left the patio again. I just stared at the drink like it was poison.

“What is this? Some aphrodisiac?”

He laughed, “Me? Trying something like that?”

“Fine, I believe you.”

I took a sip of the drink. The taste reminded me of the apricot cobbler I had.

I asked, “What is this?” I took another sip of it.

“Nectar.”

I was about to do that spit take, like cartoons do. But I covered my mouth and I swallowed the rest of the drink.

“N-nectar?”

He looked puzzled. “Yeah, apricot nectar punch. I got it in bottle version, and no worries, its non-alcoholic.”

I thought it was the literal nectar of the gods. “Oh.”

He handed me a plate of what looked like lemon squares.

“Try one.”

I took a cookie and bit a piece of it. I taster a bit of butterscotch, a candy I like.

“Wow, what’s this?”

“Ambrosia.”

I started to choke on it, but I thankfully finished it.

Arian started to look worried, “Is something the matter? Are you allergic to ambrosia bars?”

Oh, it’s not ambrosia, the food of the gods. What’s the matter with me today?

“Sorry, I’m fine.”

To prove I was okay, I finished the rest of my spaghetti and my drink. Arion dug into his jacket and held out a candy bracelet with nine life savers in different colors.

Arion smiled, “This is the ticket to your voice”.

“A Valentine day candy bracelet?”

“No,” Arion said. “Each candy will help out your voice for each muse.”

He gave me the bracelet. I looked in each life saver and each one had a muse’s name engraved in it. I put the bracelet on.

“So it’s true?” I asked. “Each muse has a small weakness?”

“Yup, like one can’t score high notes and stuff.” Arion nodded. “All you have to do is pop one in your mouth and sing while eating it. But be sure to get the right candy for each muse, or you’ll lose.”

I laughed, “Wow, it’s that easy? How did you get this?”

The waiter came with our desert, two slices of cheesecake, and the check. I started to eat my cake while Arion started to slice it with a knife.

Arion said, “My patron”.

“Who’s your-” Then I realized.

Arion looked down. “Gaea.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

“I really like you.”

I stayed silent.

“She brought me back to life, for a reason.” He continued to cut up his cheesecake. “I-I was supposed to get close to you. Be your friend.”

I had myself take another bite of the cheesecake, but to me it starting to look pretty disgusting.

“She needs you to be alive, but-”

I asked, “But what?”

“If you were to refuse to join us-”

No, no he can’t. I pierced my fork into the cheesecake and lifted a piece.

He finally admitted. “I was ordered to kill you.”

Time seemed to slow down; I froze and dropped my fork on the floor. It seemed to clatter on the wooden floor in slow motion. Ordered to kill you, echoed in my brain like a catchy song stuck in your head. In mid-chew, I stared at Arion’s knife in his hand. But it felt more like minutes, even hours gone by. The knife, is he telling me this to give me a head start? Arion finally got what I was staring and dropped it on the ground.

“No, Alex, that’s not-”

“At school, did you have to-?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it, that he had to kill me.

He answered, “Yes”.

I got up from my chair with a start. I dug into my pocket for money and place it on the check.

I heard my voice cracking, “Goodbye, Arion…Dolphus”.

And for once I said his name correctly.

I ran out the restaurant. I hoped Jason and Piper didn’t see me; I didn’t want to ruin their night since mine was.

I arrived back to our suite. I slammed the door behind me. I turned and saw Leo watching something on the TV. I guess Fern wasn’t home.

Leo turned and saw me. “Alex, why are your eyes red? Were you crying?”

I was trying to blink back tears. I went into the bathroom and, again slammed the door behind me. My stomach started to turn; I tried to stop myself. But it was already too late; I threw up into the toilet. I heard a knock on the bathroom door.

Leo sang out, “Come out, come out, wherever you are”.

I said, “Go away”.

“Come on, I know you’re in there.”

“I said go away.”

Leo paused then said, “I need to use the bathroom.”

I yelled, “Liar!”

“I’m serious”, he started to bang on the door. “I haven’t gone since the poison ivy incident.”

“Fine.”

The place reeked with vomit, so I sprayed it with Febreze air freshener. Soon the bathroom smelled like lavender. I got out of bathroom with a waiting Leo.

I muttered, “It’s all yours.”

“I don’t need it anymore.”

“Okay then.”

I walked to the bedroom and plopped into my bed. My face landed into the pillow.

“Ohh-kay, did anything exciting happen today?” Leo asked.

The pillow muffled my voice, “No.”

Leo asked again, “What happened?”

“I’m still saying no.”

“Tell me a story.”

“Nope.”

“What about a summary?”

“Nothing”

“How about a poem?”

I started,

There was once a happy mute,

And she hung out with a brute,

Though a man of his word,

Something went awkward,

Now he no longer seems cute

Leo said, “I didn’t get any of that.”

I sighed, “Good”.

“On a scale on one to ten, how was it.”

“To.”

Leo asked, “Really, two? It was that bad?”

“I meant to, as in T-O. You asked me from a scale of one to ten.”

“Hey, don’t get smart on me!”

“It’s already easy to do.”

Leo sat down on the edge of my bed.

“Fine, don’t tell me. It’s probably boring anyway.”

I snorted.

Leo exclaimed, “Ah-ha! So it’s not boring.”

“I-I didn’t say that.”

“Says the person who snorted,” Leo mumbled.

I pushed him out of the bed.

“Ow! Fine, at least ask me how my day was.”

“Okay then, how was your day?”

Leo answered, “None of your business”.

I sat up from the bed. “But you just asked me to-”

Leo gave me the “talk to the hand” gesture, “Nada, mean no”.

“Are you serious?”

“You won’t tell me, then I won’t tell you.”

“Fine.”

“What?” Leo asked.

“Okay then.”

Leo muttered, “I thought reverse psychology would work on you.”

“No, Leo”, I said. “Reverse psychology won’t work when you use it.”

“I guess so, hey! Did you do reverse psychology on me?!”

“Me?” I protested. “I would never do such a thing.”

“Okay, was that sarcasm?”

“Please. Sarcasm won’t work on you.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Wait, was that sarcasm and a lie?!”

I stared at Leo. “You don’t really get reverse psychology, do you?”

“Pfft, I do.”

I noticed a Jason hockey mask on Leo’s bed. Was that the mask I saw at Starbucks? No, it’s the mask that Jason wore in the nightclub. I heard the door click and Jason, Piper and Fern come in.

“I think I saw that Arik or Arion guy pass us down in the Cheesecake factory,” Jason said. “He looked pretty depressed or something.”

Piper asked, “What happened?”

“It was nothing”, I lied.

Piper sat down beside me. “Are you sure?”

I nodded.

Jason clapped his hands together. “We’d better go now. We only have three more days left.”

Leo whined, “Already?”

Fern nodded. “Come on, Phoenix is ready to go.”

 ____________________________________________________________

Helloooo, readers of my book. I know, I know. I should be very, very guilty for not writing this book for sometime now. I'm sorry, but never fear. The next chapter is coming up. So stay tuned for the next chapter of my book.

Your demigodness,

RubixCube89201