Experiencing Great Success
Stories similar to this that you might like too.
The two of us had just come out of the small cave we’d used to hide from the wind, and I was still holding onto his arm. “Hey, what’s up?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, and then gave me a little squeeze. He started walking again, but I stayed put. “I’m happy for you.”
“Why?” I asked, trying not to sound too suspicious.
He stopped and turned to face me. “Because it’s something I’ve wanted to see for a long time. You have more confidence than anyone else I know.”
I looked at him carefully. “That’s because you don’t know me very well.”
“Maybe not,” he admitted with a grin, “but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy your success when you get it.”
“It’s not really success yet,” I told him. “We haven’t even started the trial.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s victory already. You’re here. And you’re going to be great.”
“Well, I hope so,” I said.
He chuckled. “You can do this. I know you can.”
“Thanks,” I said, and then realized I wasn’t wearing my cloak. “And I appreciate you coming with me today.”
“Anytime,” he said, and gave me a little kiss on the cheek.
I smiled back. “But don’t you need to go somewhere? The others are waiting.”
“They’ll be there,” he promised. “Don’t worry about them.”
“Okay,” I said. “Just give me a second to change clothes.”
We walked back to the cave where I’d left my cloak and changed into it. It was warm now, and I had no reason to keep it on. I was going to need to lose some weight before the trial anyway.
When I came back outside, the others were all standing around, waiting for me. We hadn’t been gone long, but it felt like a long time to me. I was still in the middle of changing my cloak when I finally noticed them, and I took a step back to take off my hood.
“You’re back,” Lita said. She was looking at me curiously as if she couldn’t decide whether or not to be mad at me.
“Yeah,” I said, and then held up my hands. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to run away.”
“We know,” Taryn said. “It’s okay.”
She gave me a quick hug and then stepped back. “Now we need to go over the plan again.”
“The plan?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “You’ve got the basics, but I think it would be good to go over the details one more time.”
“Okay,” I said, and then turned to the others. “Are we ready?”
“I’m ready,” Taryn said. “But I don’t think I’ll ever be too ready for this.”
“Me neither,” I agreed. “Let’s go.”
***
“What’s the plan?” I asked as we walked toward the mountain.
Taryn and Lita had both brought their weapons, and they were holding them in front of them, ready to use. The rest of us were armed, too, although most of the other kids weren’t carrying swords. But they still had knives and staffs. I had my bow and arrow, but I hadn’t even tried to draw it yet. I was nervous enough just walking around with it.
“We’re going to sneak in,” Lita explained. “If we get caught, we’ll have to fight our way out. And then we’ll probably end up being chased by the Minotaur.”
“We won’t be caught,” I promised. “I can feel his fear from here.”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Taryn said. “He might be afraid of the Minotaur, but he’s also afraid of losing his friends.”
“And if we all die,” I reminded her, “he’ll be alone.”
“That’s true,” she admitted. “But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do everything we can to avoid that.”
“So, are you ready to go?” I asked.
“Yes,” Taryn said, and gave me a smile. “I’m so excited.”
Lita looked at her carefully. “I hope you’re not getting ahead of yourself. We haven’t even started the trial yet.”
“I know,” Taryn said, and then glanced back at the others. “But I’d rather be too excited than not excited enough.”
“I’ll second that,” I agreed.
We came to the base of the mountain, and I could see the Minotaur’s head sticking up over the top. I shivered, and Lita put her hand on my shoulder. “It’s okay,” she assured me. “The Minotaur isn’t looking for us yet. He’s probably still sleeping.”
“You think so?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Remember, he’s just a beast. It doesn’t have to be awake.”
“I guess,” I said. “But it would be nice if he were.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “As long as we’re quiet, we should be fine.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “Who’s going to be making noise?”
“Us,” she told me. “We’re the ones who will be fighting him.”
“Fight?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said. “We’re not going to be sneaking up on him, or hiding behind anything. We’re going to go straight in, and we’re going to fight him. And if we win, we’ll be safe.”
“From the Minotaur?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “From the Furies.”
“Why?”
“Because the Minotaur is dead,” she explained. “And the Furies are supposed to come after the people who killed him. So if we defeat the Minotaur, we’ll be safe.”
“So we have to kill it,” I said.
“Not necessarily,” Lita said. “If we can get out of there alive, they won’t care that we’ve killed the Minotaur.”
“That’s not very comforting,” I said.
“Well, what is?” Taryn asked.
“It’s just a game,” Lita reminded her. “And I don’t want us to get hurt.”
“I don’t either,” I agreed. “But I also don’t want to lose.”
“Neither do I,” she said. “But it’s not like we have any choice, right?”
“Right,” I said. “So let’s just go over the plan one more time.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s do it.”
“First,” I said, “we need to climb up the mountain.”
“It’s not too hard,” Taryn said. “The rocks are big enough that we can step on them.”
“Good,” I said. “Then we’ll be able to get to the top without much trouble. As soon as we’re there, we’ll start looking for the Minotaur. We’ll all stay together, and we’ll keep our eyes peeled. When we find him, we’ll wait until he looks away from us, and then we’ll attack.”
“Attack?” Taryn asked.
“Yes,” I said. “We’ll have to use our weapons, but we’ll try to do it in a way that doesn’t make too much noise. After we’ve finished, we’ll run back down the mountain. We’ll have to be careful because the Minotaur might still be awake, and he may not want us to leave.”
“We’ll be quiet,” Lita promised.
“So we’ll do it,” Taryn said. “You know, this is actually kind of exciting.”
“It’s scary,” I told her. “But it’s exciting. And you know what? This is going to work. I can feel it.”
“Me too,” Lita agreed. “We’ll be fine.”
“What about the Furies?” I asked.
“They won’t come after us until they’re sure the Minotaur is dead,” she said. “As long as we’re gone before then, we’ll be okay.”
“I hope so,” I said. “But if we’re wrong, we’re in trouble.”
“It’s not like we have a choice,” Taryn said. “We can’t let anything happen to us. The others need us.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “And we’re the ones who are supposed to be helping them.”
“So we’ll do it,” she said. “Just like we’re doing it now.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll do it.”
“Good,” Lita said. “Now let’s go. We don’t have a lot of time.”
We climbed up the mountain, and it was a little tricky, but we made it. We stopped at the top to look around. It was beautiful. There were trees all over the place, and there was even a little waterfall. The mountainside was covered with green grass, and it looked like it had been perfectly manicured. But that wasn’t what I noticed.
The sky was a bright blue, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a sky like that. The sun was shining, and it was warm enough to make me think that I should take off my jacket. But I didn’t. I wanted to keep it on for as long as possible.
There was something else I noticed too.
The mountain was empty.
Absolutely, completely empty.
I didn’t see a single person or animal. There was no sign of life anywhere. Not even a bird.
“Why is it so quiet?” Taryn asked.
“Because nobody’s here,” I said. “Nobody’s supposed to be here.”
“Maybe the Furies aren’t coming,” Lita suggested. “They may have given up.”
“If they gave up, we wouldn’t be here,” I pointed out. “So I guess they haven’t given up. I wonder why not.”
“You’re right,” she said. “It’s probably because of the Minotaur.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t run into any problems.”
“Well, what are we going to do about it?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Let’s just try to find him first.”
“Okay,” she said. “How?”
“We’ll have to look around,” I decided. “He may not be in this area at all, and if he isn’t, then we can come back later.”
“Good,” she said. “As soon as we’ve found him, we’ll attack.”
“Attack?” I asked. “What do you mean by ‘attack’?”
“Just like we talked about,” she explained. “We’ll start looking for him when he looks away from us, and then we’ll rush him. We’ll try to use our weapons as quietly as possible, and we’ll get as many of his horns as we can.”
“You’ll try,” I told her. “Lita, you may have the best aim in the world, but you’re still not strong enough to break off a horn. You may be able to take one or two of them, but not more than that. And that’s if we’re lucky. The Minotaur has plenty of them, and he’s strong.”
“I know,” she said. “But we’ll do what we can.”
“Do you think it will work?” Taryn asked.
“I hope so,” I answered. “But we should probably be prepared for the worst. It’s always better to be ready for trouble.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to us. But it could.”
“Like what?” I asked. “You mean something might go wrong with our plan? Something might happen that we couldn’t have predicted?”
“Something like that,” she said. “There’s no way of knowing what could happen. That’s why we need to be prepared for the worst.”
“Well, we’re definitely going to be ready,” I assured her. “Because if we aren’t, we’re in trouble.”
“Me too,” Lita agreed.
“You really believe that this is going to work?” Taryn asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s the only thing we can do.”
“Yeah,” she said. “But I still wish it wasn’t us.”
“So do I,” I admitted. “I hate the idea of putting you in danger, and I know you don’t want to put me in any danger either. But we have to do it. We’re the ones who are supposed to be helping them.”
“But we’re just kids,” she said. “We can’t do anything.”
“We can try,” I said. “And that’s all we can do.”
“What if we can’t?” she asked. “What if we don’t find him? What then?”
“Then we’ll come back here,” I decided. “The Furies won’t be expecting us to come back, but they’ll have to believe we will. They won’t think we’d leave without telling them.”
“Why do you think that?” she asked. “They could have sent someone to watch us.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I don’t think so. They must have some reason for thinking we’re coming back.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “They’re the Furies. They have plenty of reasons.”
“We’ll be careful,” I promised her. “But if we don’t find him, we’ll come back.”
“Okay,” she said. “But how are we going to find him?”
“We’ll look around,” I decided. “He may not be in this area at all.”
“Good,” she said. “Let’s start looking.”
The End