[20 DAYS LEFT]

Docm77's POV:

I thought that we had a breakthrough. I really did.

We sat in one of the many crossroads of the cave, and looked at the cave behind us, just trying to find where the glow berries that Stress and Keralis have planted.

In other words, we were lost. Not that the others would admit to it, they were simply too proud to say that they got lost in a cave of all things.

I stared at the one hermit that can sense cave systems the best, but his red night vision goggles blocked me from having a full view of his red eyes.

Tango's shoulders stiffed, his blond hair turning into more of a mess: "It's frustrating! I am trying to find a cool area that has air current but there's like an underwater lake above us and it's messing me up!"

Wels sighed and looked up at the rocky ceiling, wishing there was a better way of finding out where we are.

To go down into a cave is easy, but going back up? We would usually just sense for a huge air pocket, but we were way too deep underground; Or the other way was to find a cold spot, which was made harder with the underground lake above us.

"Stress? About those glow berries?" Xisuma sighed silently, clearly tired of being in the dark.

Stress sighed as she planted one seed onto the ground and spread her magic over it... nothing happened, "I don't know... I think the walls of this gosh cave is too... poor and tough for any roots to take hold."

Jevin looked up from his meditation, a shadow of disappointment hid most of his eyes, "The bloody walls are water-resistant too. I am thinking that the cave has it out for us."

I let out a loud frustrated moan and kicked a poor small rock; "This is dumb. If only something will fly down this cave and-!" then something hit me at the back of my head.

I swear the gods are playing this as a big joke and I was the victim that the gods chose for this sick prank, I twisted my body around to see what in the world could hit a 6.5-footman in the head.

A small animal lay on the rocky surface, looking a bit dazed and confused. Tango pulled over his night vision goggles and held the animal in his hands.

"It's a bat, the echolocation must have reflected off of your robotic bits," Tango explained, weirdly calm.

Zed snapped up a light fire for us to see, a brownish bat sits in Tango's hand, and it was larger than the size of a normal bat, on top of his furry back was a small bag with a piece of paper tightly folded in it. Stress squeaked in the face of something that she found cute.

But for me? Bats are usually unwelcome news, German myths of deaths taking place after one has spotted a bat. Of course, they were only myths but that's what told me when I first learned about Greek gods.

From the sources I have and a lot of theories, it way it most makes sense is that the gods from all different mythologies are in a sense like rulers in their area of worship, of course, they have an area of land where one or more gods rule' over, but my sources say nothing about if the gods of one mythology will talk to the gods of another.

If the stories of their myths stay alive, so will the gods.

Oh, right, the bat. I just must be wary for anything, I looked at Tango with a look that encourages him to keep talking, he's hiding an idea from us by the sight grin I could see on his face.

"It's a messenger too, so not only do we have a message from the other Hermits, but we can also use this fellow as a way out from this cave." Tango continued his wide grin.

Now that's good news it was so good that it got B-dubs to funnily wake up from his slumber.

"Morning B-dubs, you had your beauty rest?" I heard Zed pester the sleeping moss pile.

B-dubs just looked at us with beady tried eyes and just yawned, "The message peeps."

Since he clearly heard everything from his sleep (no I do not know how he does it) we just stared at the small animal who was still in Tango's hands.

Or was he dreaming that this will be happening? The children of Hypno never fail to confuse me.

Keralis like a true Disney princess began speaking to the small bat, in even more Disney-princess style, the small bat seemed to understand every one of his words; to be fair, if Keralis speaks to you, you better listen up to his soft quiet tone.

The bat made a few clicking noises and handed him a paper that was folded up in his bag and squeaked a few more times to Keralis, who was just nodded along.

"You understood that?" Mumbo asked and stared at the bat after trying to understand the clicks himself.

Keralis let out a small laugh and shook his head, "I wish, but no, I have no idea what it's trying to say."

Wels rubbed his chin thoughtfully and muttered something like him wondering if Gem would have a bit of an easier time understanding animals and then looked at Ren but shook his head as well.

"My dudes, I know this is weird but... I think I may have an idea." Which speaking of the devil, Ren spoke up; Wels scowled his eyebrows and muttered something like never mind.

Xisuma looked at Ren with one raised eyebrow, and said "Go on Ren, your idea?"

Ren pulled down his sunglasses and looked at us with his eyes, which are usually a bright brown into the sun but now a mostly eerie red in the dim light of Zed's fire, "It sounds crazy, but I think the clicking may be morse code."

Xisuma thought about it for a short while and allowed Ren to go the side and do... whatever the heck he's doing.

I looked at the crazy lad (in a good way I swear) as he pulled me away as well, letting out a rough chuckle and said, "I don't have a translator for animals if that's why you pulled me here."

Ren gave me a deadpan look and just sighed, "I just don't want to be alone, 'kay?"

I gave him a raised eyebrow; my grin widens just a bit and that caused Ren to nearly break out in a laugh. "Ok, and maybe just a little bit because I thought you know morse code."

"I'm disappointed if that's all you think I know." I switched my tone to one of a disappointed dad's.

Ren gave my shoulder a light push and allowed me to lean into the small bat, which seemed to be scared out of its mind.

I mean I'll like to think that little kids would like to run up to me and call me Uncle Doc. But this was a bat, not a kid, so there were differences.

The small mammal made a range of fat clicks, it was simply too fast for the human ears to register that as anything, but a bunch of 'E' spammed over and over, and as funny as it is to have a bat just 'E' at us; we needed to translate that.

Lucky for us, we aren't exactly human. Ren has a crazy good memory and I'm somewhat robot. (Oh, we are also part gods, I forgot)

Ren took the time to repeat the message to me and surprise, surprise, it was morse code! Who in Gaia's ever-loving arms took the time to teach a bat morse code?

"Message sent! And repeated five times too." I made sense of the clicks and drags in my head and asked the bat something as well in said code.

After hearing my request, the small bat finally seemed to have calmed a bit. The idea of helping our outlooks to be the goal of this animal.

I softly whispered a 'thank you' in morse before looking at Ren.

"The bat will lead us out of the cave, people!" I exclaimed loudly; I haven't seen the sun in so long it's not even funny that I missed the huge ball of fire in the sky.

Tango seemed to be the only one that will miss this cave system a bit, the letter still in Wels' hand because and I quote "Reading in the dark hurts your eyesight."

So, the letter will have to be read later because Wels is an actual mother hen. (You know it's true Wels! Don't deny me!)

The bats squeaked again, hopping onto Ren's head, and puffing its chest out. Has someone been teaching these animals human expressions? How would you... you know what. Never mind that I have seen weird things before.

The bats squeaked again, hopping onto Ren's head, and puffing its chest out. Has someone been teaching these animals human expressions? How would you... you know what. Never mind that I have seen weird things before.

Ren and me being the impressive duo we are, half-heartedly translated that as the bat was dragging on and on about how much it loved bananas and was willing to lead us out if we find it a banana tree to musk its smell all over. Did this bat understand the basic economies? Because I'm sure it's repeating what my books taught me back then.

But it was a fair trade, I get my way to the surface and the bat gets a fruit (fun fact, bananas count as berries)

The bat hung out on Ren's shoulder, using its wings to point us back to the surface.

Right, then left then straight, go up and turn to the third tunnel.

"Ren, who ideas to who could have trained this bat? It felts... weirdly advanced for Grian's usual training for birds." I asked. I mean anyone that can take in a wild animal like a pet is cool in my opinion but this just kind of seems a bit extra to me.

Ren rubbed the stubble that was starting to grow on his chin, "You think it will that 'Crow Father' that Grian talked about?"

Grian has talked about some random fellow that he just called the Crow Father; I honestly don't even think how he meet another person that is a natural at taming birds as he is but weird attracts weird... I guess. "While I don't doubt it, come on, his name was called Crow Father. I don't think that means bats."

Another left than the second tunnel, take a twist of right turns, and go up.

We had a few people that could be this third person in Eurydice's gang. Pasiphae was cursed by the Gods once and she had powerful witchcraft magic, which was much more dangerous and she's at the skill where she could just soul-reap people with no problem, the problem is from the little we heard about from Eurydice, this third member is referred to as a 'He'. I mean it is possible that Pasiphae doesn't care about the pronouns bit, but it is something to think about.

Then we have Medusa, she hated the gods but again, pronouns problem and more importantly. Eurydice has talked in depth about this third member's eyes, so that's out of the window. Keralis has suggested that maybe contact lenses could solve the whole turning to stone thing but unless there are magical contacts lenses out there for sale. I doubt it.

Minos was a popular theory for who the third member was, being a tyrannical ruler, he would fit the image of keeping his title even after death and he have some disagreements with some gods in his past. The problem is, the Gods were kind of nice to jerks, so he was on good terms with most gods, enough to become a judge with Hades.

Straight, then the tunnel at the far right and into a smaller crack in-between the walls.

But my personal favorite theory was King Midas being this third member. Midas was a rather good king in comparison to the others, but he had a lot of pride for himself will call himself a handsome and valiant man so it would be too out of character to force his people to say his full title even after his death.

Best of all, he had a lot of bones to pick at, from his selfish wish that every he touched would become gold including his daughter to Apollo cursing him with the ears of a Donkey. The guy had it out for the gods and blamed them for his madness, which was kind of the truth but... let's not side with the villains here 'kay?

Midas doesn't seem to be a person that would know charm-speak but he would seem like that person that will use the soul-reaping, but he was a bit annoyed at his people.

Up, and up than a sharp left and climb up some vines and! Oh!

So, with that as the theory we are sticking with, we finally walked out into the daylight, it was about early morning, and we all sighed a huge breath of fresh air.

"I can't believe that I haven't smelled fresh air since last week. Was the sun always that big?" Kevin exclaimed and I turned to look at the duration of the sun.

Which was blinding and an unbelievably bad idea, don't-stare-at-the-sun-kids. But that aside, yes, the sun was the same size as it always has been maybe just a bit dimmer as it was rather early, however it just seemed a bit bigger than it had been before. Hm, weird.

Mumbo poked Wels near his pants, in which the knight takes out the letter from the other Hermits. Wels whispered rather loudly, "Wonder what's inside this letter, you think they have gotten all the items that they need?"

"In ten days? I doubt so, I love the others to death, but they are kind of slow..." Mumbo answered back, at this point most of the hermits were gathered around Wels.

TFC giggled to himself, "Don't talk about the others like that, I'm sure they have the most wonderful of news to share."

I had faith in the others to show us something good but the few words in the letter made my heart drop to the ground.

——————————————————————

To the other Hermits:

Please come to Mari's House.

We need help.

Cleo and Grian, along with the hourglass and Orpheus are gone.

Be quick, please.

——————————————————————

Something was deeply wrong, Cleo and Grian?

Gone?

That's bad, those were our strongest charm-speakers, and they were our friends.

Mumbo was the first to break off into a quick dash, we followed the panicked Mumbo.

"If we ran all the way! ... I think, I think we can make it before night!" Mumbo yelled, for someone, I've had never seen this worried. He ran as if his life depended on it.

And in sense, all our lives depended on whether we can stop a dead person and we need all of us if possible.

I wondered if this third member knew this, I wonder what they are doing now. I wonder why.

Be quick. the letter said, and we were.

...

The sun was just ticking to the summers of the mountains near, and we busted through the door.

The state of the room was rather clean for the whole other half of the Hermits to just be sitting in.

Most of the Hermits looked distressed and worried, with Eurydice having a full-on breakdown next to Mari, luckily, because Mari is the mom that everyone needed and was just super caring and guiding Eurydice to vent out her emotions.

Etho was turning over a small machine in his palms, he looked rather deep in thought with the ways that his eyebrows are furrowed.

Joe seemed to be a lot more alert and nervous without Cleo's being next to him, and Pearl just had her hands in her face taking in huge breaths, her dog Teddy sitting protectively right next to her.

Mumbo was the first to break the sombre mood within the room even though I know that he had slept just a few hours ago, his hair sticking out from the run and his much paler face make it look like he hasn't slept in a few weeks.

"What happened." Were the words that fell out of Mumbo's mouth, and for the cave group that has just been stuck in a cave for all this week, we would love to know that as well.

Eurydice broke into harder sobs and Mari gently caressed her head. Whatever happened it couldn't be good considering that response.

Xisuma looked at his twin brother, waiting for Ex to take the reins and start it off and with a bit of pushing, it worked as Ex took a massive sigh.

"So..." Ex recollected the tales they encountered in the desert of the sun, the burning ash that was the sand, the never-ending weeping of the sisters, the cold shivers when they first found Orpheus, his dead eyes stabbing into their own: asking, begging, PLEADING for the hermits to help him only to charmspeak them into feeling worthless.

"Then, we woke up the next day... and Grian and Cleo..." Ex's voice faded a bit, this is the first time in a while I have seen him that upset at himself, as he threw his head back and let out a groan.

"I knew that something fishy was happening, but the bloody mind-screw that the dude did on me! Gosh! I should have punched myself." Ex gripped his fist tight like he was about to punch something.

Eurydice shifted warningly in Ex's direction even if she wasn't in the right place to fight, she will still defend her husband to death and back.

"Right sorry! The bloody husband took our two main sources of charmspeak but yes, I should care about the language I am using to describe your lover." Ex let out a huff and sat down, even if it is not obvious for everyone else that he was mainly upset at himself only as Eurydice looked like she was going to knock some teeth out of Ex's treasured helmet.

"Right, if we are right about this... Orpheus should be heading to Olympus or wherever the fates are living right now." Wels, the ever level-headed said calmly.

Scar whose usual grin has dropped to a frown, exhaled "If we didn't have any progress on our side, surely your side must be able to balance out this..." The last sentence sounded just a bit hopeful, but not at the same time.

Sending a silent look at Xisuma, he caught onto our train of thoughts and started with a small warning, "Well, we have ideas of who this third member may be but take it with a grain of salt, they are just theories."

I nodded silently, if the third member was Midas, it still doesn't explain a lot, we still don't know how he managed to do all of this in the matter of a few months.

"Midas... We think that the third member is Midas." Xisuma whisper-yelled, turning his head to Eurydice hoping to see any response from the young adult. But there was no response, Eurydice just stared at us; her red puffy eyes and eye bags as a result of crying too much, causing her to look almost demoniac.

"Midas? I think I heard of that name, he's that turning things to gold, right?" Pearl asked, her breath is still shaken.

I nodded at Ren, and he happily hopped in to tell a story, "Well yes, Midas was a gold person but that's not all he's known for. King Midas, founder of the capital city of Gordium and maker of the Gordian Knot that came undone by Alexander the Great. He was said to be a great but prideful king, after winning favor with Dionysus. The King had a single wish that even the gods batted an eye at, He wished for everything that he touched turned to gold."

I punched Ren slightly as a reminder to keep it short, he let out a slight wince but agreed to keep it short. "Ugh, you're a killjoy Doc. But yes, then he turned his daughter to gold too and run away because he was guilty. When he heard the god Pan boasted that he could play better than Apollo and the sun god was like 'Oh? A bet' and they had a contest and asked him to judge and when he chose Pan is the better player, Apollo got mad and changed his ears to one's of a donkey."

Scar nodded eagerly, even if this was the seven hundredth time, he has heard this tale, that's why I love this man, he's pure.

Joe rubbed his chin and thought about it for a bit and then suddenly said, "This isn't a part of the actual myth."

Joe being weird has always been a thing in this group with no one can be able to understand him to except Cleo who isn't here anyway, it's really hard to know what he wants to tell us half the time.

"More details maybe? Which part isn't an actual myth?" Mumbo asked, looking at Joe's deadpan face.

"Nathaniel Hawthorn made up the part about the daughter. As far as I know, there's no source if he actually had a family at all. While he didn't like Apollo that much, sources say that he was madder at the barber for spilling the secret." Joe said, looking at Ren's red-ish eyes.

That's interesting, the thing about touching his daughter with the golden touch was really popular and I honestly thought it was an actual thing and it looked like I'm not the only one with that belief.

"What. All the books from my childhood. and you are telling me that they are wrong?" Ren held his head in shock, anime sound effects can be heard if you get close enough to his shaking form.

Gem came to the rescue of Joe and said that there was a good chance that they also did not know.

Ren screamed into his palms if there was one thing that he dislikes and that will be wrong information. "Doc, we need to storm the bookstore at fifty-three street. I'm going to ask for a manager."

For my response, I pulled him away and quickly whispered a quick 'maybe we will talk about this more later.' and turned to look at the Hermits, again one simple question, one that has been asked a lot of times before and will be asked again in the future.

"What now?"

For the record, we are rather quick planners with tens of ideas to solve a situation all at the same thing. This is the first time I heard silence from that question.

Which is not good. This is worrying for us to scrape the bottom of the barrel this fast.

"I don't know." Was the honest response and it broke from the lips of Xisuma.

I let out a well-deserved groan, "Look at this, here we are back at square one with two missing members after wasting TEN F-days."

I bit hard on my lip to reframe from cursing, False shook her head and sighed:

"For one, we need to stick together, we can't lose another member." False stated monotony: wearing the face of one that had seen wars, cold and sharp.

"Then we have to stop this third member from getting to fates, they now have two master charm-speakers and assuming that they and Orpheus are also charm-speakers. That makes four."

Four charm-speakers together were dangerous; I know that Cleo is capable of controlling a minor god when she just shooed Eubouleus away from allowing all his swine to roam into our farm.

Back when Cleo was a fresh hermit, I remember just poking around our home when Cleo pulled me behind the walls of one of the cabins, she just clammed my mouth shut and looked from the corners.

"What the Hades is that!" I muttered from under her hands, despite me being nearly a foot taller than her. I had nothing in comparison to her surprising strength.

"Eubouleus." She said without any further context, wearing an expression of mischief but weary enough for her next victim.

Eubouleus or Eubuleus was a minor god, that's why most will have never heard of him. Heck, from some of the myths about him, he was described as a demigod.

Why he was there on our home that day I never knew as the next thing I remember is Cleo just grinning and walking up to him for a casual conversation, as if telling a minor god to frick off with his sacred swine was causal.

Lords, Cleo has guts bigger than the gods themselves.

And when I asked her why she just told off on a god, she replied with and I quote: "I heard sometimes swine carry illness, and as an undead, I rather not deal with any more sickness. Those are really nasty when you just don't have an immune system anymore."

Not questioning the fact that she just assumed the SACRED swine had an illness, I just replayed the memory in wonder as she charmspeak a god and told him off.

What an actual nutcase that Cleo was and still is.

And how much power the enemy is with her in their grasp, but... there's still a small ray of hope.

Cleo can't actually be under the control of neither soul-reaping nor charm-speak, she can't be controlled as she is undead. (No, I don't really know why it doesn't work)

But soon, that hope becomes nothing but a burning memory as Iskall pointed out a good point; "That third member won't be hesitant to use Grian against her, honestly that is the only reason why they also took Grian."

Ren nodded in agreement and from his bag, he pulled out a rather large map that details the whole world, "Any idea where the gods will be right now?"

Pearl looked a bit confused and muttered, "I thought you would have already known that don't you like went there a few times. wherever the gods' home is."

While yes, at the foot of Mount Olympus in the area where you are most likely to grab their attention with a name drop. But the problem is that the Fates... aren't exactly gods.

And even with that, another challenge is that the Gods travel to wherever the center of their worship is, and with some gods like Aphrodite staying in only their mythical island.

That is one headache I am forced to deal with.

"Nereus?" Asked Jevin.

Of course, I heard about him from the past quest that I couldn't go to because robotic parts and water don't mix well at all. Nereus is one of many sea gods and has the wisdom of everything that has ever happened in the history of ever... even if he talked a bit weird.

Gem shook her head at that idea, "Remember that it seems like the Gods are having an issue among themselves at this moment, and not even Apollo or Hypnos is helping us out with the dreams about the future."

Hypno nodded to that (or he's just nodding off to sleep, it's a bit hard to tell) and muttered something that sounded like "Dreams... too blurred. No meaning."

We are really at the end of our stick here, nothing that we have thrown in the wall has stuck at all.

"We have to research the Fates." Said Ren with a determined face.

"That's a bloody great idea! Genius even!" Ex exaggerated, "Now, how in the world are we going to get information about deities about as old as time itself."

Ren, in rather bad faith, turned to look at Eurydice for any ideas. Which she took offense with: "I may be from the past. But I'm not that old!"

Ren then again in rather terrible taste turn to stare at TFC, the man is unhinged for a death wish! And because TFC is the greatest and kindest soul, he just let out a loud chuckle and wheezed out: "This old fool knows nothing about the Fates."

Ren then let out another groan and looked rather annoyed. "This quest is getting nowhere! And we have a time limit! Great!"

Etho, who had been quiet this whole time, spoke up: "Instead of leading to the location. What about following them to wherever the Fates are."

Xisuma nodded, allowing Etho to explain his plan a bit more in detail, "Now, we usually know where to go in a quest, an ocean, or temples or whatever's. But this time, we follow Orpheus to where he needs to go and stop him last minute."

While a great plan, in theory, we need to know where Orpheus is right now, or this will not work. Fortunate that a few other Hermits also have this same question.

"My husband will probably check at Olympus first," Eurydice muttered to herself, looking like she has not slept in a thousand years.

In all fairness, we stare at her a bit too much for the information about the other members of the villains. On any other day, she would refuse to tell us any more about him. While we are the ones that are supposed to save the day and be the so-called heroes, who said anything about backhanded tricks? (And honestly, we are at the end of our sticks)

"He's a bit of a cautious one. Even if I told him that there was a better way back home, he would stick to the path he marked out. His go-to for finding any deity is to always check Olympus first." Eurydice explained further, it doesn't look like she is even aware that she was speaking to herself.

Being cautious in the past would make sense, weapons are a lot more... well dull in the past, it's always a sword, shield, or bows and they weren't always the best. It's typically good for demigods to stick to a pattern that avoided the most monsters.

"And being talented at music doesn't always drive the monsters away!" A flashback of a younger Joe said.

It was a much more peaceful time back then, I sat in the fields, weaving a basket out of straws.

"Yeah, but how is weaving a basket more important than learning how banger rock-metal is?" I exclaimed out of frustration.

Joe held a thoughtful gaze as he looked at my hand fumbling around the half-complete basket, "Well, you can store things like food in baskets... not sure if music can do the same thing."

It was a half attempt to shut me up because I was whining a fair amount (Look it was a bad day for me), but Joe continued talking.

"While music can be used as a distraction, it's only helpful if you have a group of people that has your back as you will be focusing all your energy into that song." Joe playfully hit his straw basket to imitate the sound of a drum.

"In other words, music is only good if you have a group of butt-kicking friends behind your back."

Assuming that Orpheus will avoid any public transport, it might take him a few days to get to Olympus. But because we (hermits plus one) know the great innovation that is also known as trains and buses, it will still probably take us a day or so to get to Olympus. But it's much better than the days that will be spent walking over there.

"Do you still want to find... no, get your husband back from whatever spell that the third member used on him?" Pearl asked gently, well aware that Eurydice's state of mind is rather fragile right now.

Eurydice looked a bit confused at that question; her face flushed to a rosy, red: "You still want me as... your ally?"

Pearl gives a grin that could brighten up a dark room, "Of course! I don't think that other hermits have any problems with it!"

Taking a quick peek at the other Hermits' expressions, only Exy reacted rather shocked (but there was this sense of overwhelming pride from him as well) but then again, I will be shocked if he agrees to have an ally this quicky, he is after all Ex.

Eurydice looked down at her binding white dress, now mudded to a greyish brown with dirt, and started shaking.

"Oh, you don't have to push yourself to come!" I added, fearing that she felt pressured to come along on this quest.

"No... I want to. I need to." She looked at me in the eyes, tears escaping from her own. "Thank you."

Thank you?

...

Somehow that just warms my heart a little bit more. Thank you.

One after another world-en and we have never gotten a thanks event from anyone. While we do it not for the frame, it doesn't hurt to have someone who really knows about it.

Thank you.

That is all we wanted, just a simple thank you.

If only Grian and Cleo were here.

TLDR:

Ladies, gentlemen, enbies, and others in between. The Hermits are back at square one. Welp, better luck next time!

Author's Notes:

Merry a-bit-past Christmas! (Or whatever holiday you spent) Just took a bit of a break to hang out with my friends, but I am back! Woo! Still animating and plotting something big after my other animations are done.

ALSO, I just... season 8... no- It just doesn't seem real! It ended so quickly, I just- and the moon. Ren and Doc's episodes? (The fact Ren rewrote old lore that confirmed that seasons 6 and 7 were perpendicular to each other *Sahara Diamonds*, but now they are side by side?) (Ren, Doc stops you will give me a headache)

Also unrelated but my other AU has a virus that wants to hurt the Hermits and has ARG elements in it and is within a simulation... Doesn't that sound a bit familiar? (Made the AU in season 7... mm and has a mention of Grumbot)

My mind is still processing the whole ending.