Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Magic Upon Magic: Tartarus


I took a couple of moments to look around the Underworld. As I'm looking around, a map caught my eye. I took a look at it.

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Hmm. We needed to get to Tartarus, so… Uh, okay, here we go. See uh, you go through the Judgement Pavilion, then through the Fields of Asphodel, and then we're at the Entrance to Tartarus.
Gulp. Not a promising thing. Allison observes the map, does a shrug, and we set off. As we go through the Judgement Pavilion, I hear voices. As we approach, I hide behind a pillar to watch. I see a ghost. King Midas. He has flowing Greek kingly robes, a crown, and a serious face. "AND I WANT YOU TO GO TO… THE ISLES OF THE BLEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He yells. A soul emerges jumps for joy, or more like floats for joy and heads up north. "NEXT!" Midas yells. "Hmm… A life of anger. Crimes, breaking the law, FIELDS OF PUNISHMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" A soul droops and walk to the Field of Punishment.  "Ah… Horrible life, deserves a serious life sentence. Tartarus." He says darkly. The soul whimpers and heads through the Fields of Asphodel and to the entrance to Tartarus. "FIELDS OF ASPHODEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" King Midas once again. A saggy soul moves slowly to the white fields and immediately starts munching on asphodel. Other souls eat the asphodel. I wonder what it tastes like… I step out of my pillar and quickly move away. Stealthily, we follow the Tartarus soul. He sadly walks there, muttering, "I don't deserve to go there. The Fields of Punishment is even better than that." He sighs and continues, er, floating. We follow him through the Fields and into the entrance. A horrible feeling goes through me and I gulp. Loudly. On accident. Come on! I was scared! What do you expect? The soul whips around. "What was that?" The soul we're following says. We quickly hide in the middle of a bushel of Asphodel. I breathe in a couple of breaths to calm me down and I feel better. The soul cautiously turns back around and continues walking. I step quietly out  of the Asphodel and tip-toe up to the soul. I signal for Allison to follow. She jumps out and tip-toes next to me. We keep following the soul until we reach at what looks like a cave entrance. I read a broken up sign with weird handwriting, in red paint, bearing the words, (It looks like it was fingerpainted…) 'WELCOME TO TARTARUS.'

I almost have a total breakdown there. I grasp my chest, Allison helping me a little. Ah, that's better. The soul takes a big breath, and walks in the cave. I do the same. We tiptoe, but it's not needed. Screams of pain, terror, agony, you name it, start to surround us as we're coming in. The noise nearly knocks me down. Allison looks like she could scream herself. I pat her back, give her an ambrosia square, and we head off. The soul looks around for his punishment, finds it, and hunches over to start. Yikes. I wonder what his punishment is. I face away from him as Hades watches over him. "BAH! NOT GOOD ENOUGH! FASTER FASTER! THIS IS TARTARUS! NOT THE EASY FIELDS OF PUNISHMENT!"  The soul nearly starts crying in pain himself. "NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!" Hades yells to another soul. "YOU DO IT LIKE THIS! NOW MOVE!" Gods, Hades is mean. Allison shares the same look. Allison and I stealthily sneak away from Hades' view and hide near a pile of dark black rocks. "Where do we even go?" I ask Allison quietly when the coast is clear. She seems to be the resident Tartarus and quest guide. "Uh, I think we go thata way." She points towards a lava pit.  Gulp. I take a deep, deep, deep, gasoline-tasting breath, (BLECH. It tastes dis-gus-ting!) and we walk to the lava pit. Er, towards the lava pit is a better phrase. "Well, this is it." Allison says, pointing her finger to the bubbling lava. Suddenly, I hear a voice. "Ahhhhh… Some nice little demigods. How nice of you to drop by…"

The voice kind of softens to a faraway voice. I whip around, looking for the source of the voice. In the darkness, there are two eyes. The usually flesh white part is now a deathly yellow, and the black
pupils drill everlasting holes inside. I shiver and manage to peep out, "Who are you?" The eyes become bigger as the, er, figure, I guess comes out. The eys turn a menacing red, and the voice suddenly is angry. "WHO AM I? HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME!"  I hold Alliosn's hand. She doesn't snatch it away from my grip. My knuckles turn white from my firm grip. I get clammy. Yikes. The figure comes out completly. I didn't expect the next surprise: It's Circe. 


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