AN: Just to reinterrate, I own nothing but my original storyline and Oc's. Thanks :)

Chapter Eight

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

The quartet was up the next morning before dawn. Alek spit roasted fat sausages over the campfire and then wrapped them in thin pita bread to make it easy to munch on, on the go, while Pythagoras and Jason packed up the camp. For his part, Hercules made sure that all the water skins were filled with icy cold spring water from the nearby spring. The group munched on the sausages as they continued their trek higher into the forested mountain range; by noon they had reached an altitude high enough that even Jason was forced to slow his pace due to the thinner air. Coming into a small clearing ringed by tall conifers and dotted with craggy boulders, Alek decided she'd walked quite long enough and announced she was taking a break. Groaning his agreement, Hercules promptly collapsed sitting on one of the large rocks and pulled out his water skin to take a long pull on it. The others found spots around him to take their own ease, and Pythagoras passed around more pita bread along with fresh fruit for their lunch.

"How much further to the cabin?" Alek asked as she nibbled on a crisp apple.

"We'll get there in another couple of hours if we continue at a steady pace" Jason replied as he recorked his water skin and hung it from his pack.

Alek acknowledged the statement with a nod as she chewed another bite of her apple. Swallowing quickly, she asked the one question she'd been wondering about all day, "Who does the cabin belong too? Who built it?"

"Nobody knows," replied Pythagoras shrugging, "It had already been abandoned many years ago when Hercules and I first stumbled across it on a hunting trip. We just assumed the original owners had either died, or had moved closer to the city for more convenience."

"It could also be one of old King Darius's hunting lodges" Hercules stated as he gouged a small hole in the loose soil of the clearing with the toe of his sandal and buried the core of the pear he'd finished.

"Who is King Darius?" Alek asked curiously.

"He was King Aeson's grandfather" Hercules replied vaguely, "He was ruler of Atlantis when my father came here as a young man, and was the last truly great king the city had."

"What made him so special?" Jason asked curiously as the group took up their packs and prepared to continue their trek.

"Well according to the scrolls," Pythagoras panted as he doggedly followed Hercules up the trail, "he was a military leader before he was king. The ruler before him was an uncle once removed on his mother's side, who had no living children. Darius was a soldier in the army and though related to the ruler had no expectation of ever having the crown. He was a man of the people, living among them as an ordinary citizen. The ruler had other relatives who were closer relations and who many thought would make suitable heirs. Unfortunately for them, the old king had other ideas. Days before he died, he called the city councilors together and made a public announcement decreeing Darius as his choice of heir."

"What happened then?" Alek asked curiously.

"There was an attempt at a revolt" Hercules grunted from the front of the trail, "The leader of it was the old kings' nephew, Darius's cousin. He thought for sure he'd be named ruler; even boasted of it as the old king lay dying. He convinced some of the city counselors to back him and they tried to take over the city garrisons. Unfortunately for them, Darius was greatly liked by the ordinary soldiers as well as most of the generals. They refused to arrest Darius, and instead arrested the nephew and his conspirators' and drug them before the old king; who promptly had Darius crowned before an assembly of the people and the priests of the temple. After that he turned the matter of their punishment over to Darius, saying as the new ruler they were his problem now. Darius showed mercy and instead of having them killed, he banished them and all their kin from the kingdom for one hundred years."

"Whatever happened to them? To the nephew?" Alek asked fascinated with the story.

"Who knows" Hercules shrugged, "They probably went to other kingdoms and wormed their way in there. People like that are always attracted to power. They crave it like a drowning man craves air."

The little group continued on in silence, each contemplating what fate may have befallen the people in the story until they reached the clearing high in the mountains that held the abandoned trappers cabin. Alek was relieved and somewhat surprised as she looked around the clearing holding the cabin. Whoever had built this place had taken pride in their work. All the bushes had been carefully cut back to leave a flat open space on which to build. Even now, decades later, the forest had failed to reclaim the clearing, even though the grass had grown high and wild. The cabin itself was sturdy and well built. The huge logs of the walls had been cut and smoothed before being plastered over with the usual mixture of sand, gravel, and mud. The eves were carefully carved with reliefs of the various gods and goddesses of the hunt and of nature. A heavy door of solid oak was set into the south side of the building, and openings covered with solid wood shutters that could be tied back acted as windows along the east and west sides. In actuality, it was a studier built dwelling than a good majority of the houses that made up Atlantis, and Alek once again found herself wondering why it had been abandoned.

The one major shortcoming that she could see was it had no immediate source of water. The closest stream was a small trickle that splashed down the mountainside several hundred yards back down the trail. Still for their purposes it was perfect. It was highly doubtful that anyone could find them here unless they already knew where the cabin was, and from the amount of dust that lay over everything inside, it didn't appear that anyone had been here for many long years. Alek's ingrained sense of tidiness had her shooing Hercules and Jason out the door to fetch water in the wooden pails they found stacked beside the door inside, while Pythagoras cut a bushy branch from one of the shrubs that had managed to take hold beside the cabin for a broom. The rest of evening saw Alek and Pythagoras doggedly putting the little house to rights as Jason and Hercules divided their time between sparing and running water detail. By nightfall, the little cabin had been cleaned and tidied to within an inch of its life; a merry fire crackling in the hearth with a pot of stew bubbling over it. The enticing smell of the stew wafted out one of the opened windows, and had the warriors tummy's rumbling mightily by the time they called a quits to Jason training at sundown.

Washing off the dirt and sweat they'd accumulated at the water pail Alek had left on a convenient bench beside the door, they trooped inside to find the cabin spick and span and Pythagoras and Alek studying a scroll of detailed drawings of various plants and herbs native to this particular altitude and mountain range. Alek glanced up at Jason and smiled, "I didn't hear as many 'thuds' this time" she praised her dark haired love, "So that must mean you're getting better."

"Oh he's definitely getting quicker, I don't necessarily know about 'better'" Hercules grouched as he filled a horn bone cup with small beer from the leather skin they'd brought with them.

"At least I'm getting the knife every time now" Jason replied smugly.

"Oh ai, you're getting the knife, but if you can't manage to keep it long enough to score a hit it doesn't matter" Hercules informed him sourly, "Remember there's no points for second place in these games."

"Well I think its wonderful progress," Alek reassured the brunette warrior, "after all you can't expect to be perfect at it after only a week's training. I bet this Harmon fellow was just as bad if not worse when he first started out. Besides, you're not training to actually win in this thing; just to be good enough to survive long enough to withdraw."

Jason nodded in agreement, though privately he wondered if when the time came, he'd be allowed to simply walk away. Somehow or another, none of his past experiences in Atlantis had ever panned out that easily for him or his friends.

After supper that night when the quartet had settled down to sleep, Alek lay in the dark of the alcove where the cabin's only real bed stood and mulled over the situation Jason was in. 'How can the people of Atlantis stand for the many abuses and injustices they're subjected to on a daily basis?' she wondered, 'How can a ruler who has been basically saved by someone then turn about and command that savior to fight in an arena for public entertainment?' Of course logically she knew that for the time period, most Atlantians were better off than a great deal of the rest of the world. Compared to the abuses that lay in store for future generations at the hands of the Romans, Atlantis was a veritable paradise. Still there were hundreds that went hungry every day, and though it wasn't nearly as prevalent here as it was in other city states of the time period, there was still a good deal of slavery practiced.

'People pray to "the Gods" for protection and deliverance from cruelty,' she groused silently to herself, her mental voice adding sarcastic air quotes as she imagined deities lounging around Mount Olympus that looked surprisingly like the cast of 'Gossip Girl'; 'while most of the injustices that are committed against them are done in the name of those same Gods and yet I'm one of the few people who can see the irony in that. Even Pythagoras falls back on the Gods as an easy excuse to explain away anything he can't justify with his mathematics. And Jason, oh don't even get me started on Jason' she huffed quietly to herself as she gave her makeshift pillow a punch before turning over, 'He knows as well as I do that 99.9% of all the things attributed to "the Gods" can be explained by science, but it's like his entire upbringing and education has dribbled out of his ears since arriving here. Honestly at times I just want to whack him about the head and shoulders until he comes to his senses!'

In fact the only person that Alek had ever come across since arriving in Atlantis who was as cynical about the Gods as she was was Daedalus. "So how do you explain Nyx?" the sarcastic little voice in her head argued. Even though Alek had, as far as she knew, at least actually met a Goddess in the form of Nyx, she still hadn't totally decided which side of the logic fence she was on when it came to that particular divinity. 'I mean really, there are a dozen explanations for all this that make much better sense than just accepting that Nona just happens to be a retired priestess, who just happens to have a map showing a secret temple of a divine entity that just happens to be a long distant relation of mine. A deity who just happens to live in the cave in the mountains of western Greece that's marked on my grandmothers' secret map. One who's just been biding her time until some long lost relation (me), just happened to need a favor that requires time travel right?' she argued with the voice; 'After all, all this could just be a vivid dream sequence caused by lack of oxygen when I went unwater in the pool in the cave. I could have been knocked out by that mysterious "oracle" and be experiencing vivid hallucinations while who knows what is being done to me as I lay unconscious on the floor of that cave. Hell for all I know, I could have succeeded in my suicide attempt, and this is my own personal hell.'

'Yeah right,' replied the little voice snidely, 'because that makes sooo much more sense. Face it girl, you know darn well that your Nona's side of the family gives new meaning to the term weird, and this isn't the first time weird stuff has happened; it's just that this time it's taken you a little farther than you can comfortably explain away.' "Oh shut it would you!" Alex snapped. Hercules snorted. "S'rry" he mumbled from his pallet on the floor before turning over and promptly starting to snore once more. Alex rolled her eyes and silently prayed for patience before turning her thoughts once more to the argument she was having with herself. Hours later, still unable to come up with a reasonable explanation that satisfied all sides of her argument, Alex felt that if she continued much more her head might actually explode. Finally she forced her beleaguered brain to just accept the unacceptable and work from 'if's'. Logic reasoned that if all of this was real and not some vivid delusion her grief stricken brain had cooked up, and if a Goddess was really responsible for transporting her through time and space to a place that science had never had a shred of actual evidence existed, then it stood to reason that this same divine personage would probably have the power to protect Jason during the games no matter how barbaric his opponent… That is if Alex could persuade her too. Until she was 100% sure one way or the other, Alex figured the safest option was to keep all possibilities open regardless of how far-fetched they appeared. After all, she reasoned, what harm could it do to send out a prayer or two of her own to one of, if not the most powerful deity in the pantheon; especially if those prayers happened to actually do some good where keeping Jason safe was concerned.

Abruptly coming to a decision, she silently slipped out from under the thin blanket covering the bed and carefully slipped on her sandals. Knowing the men would never allow her to venture out into the forest alone at night for fear she'd get lost or attacked by some wild animal, Alek concentrated on moving toward the door of the cabin as silently as possible like she'd been taught when tracking game. The seconds seemed to drag as she concentrated with all her being on not waking the three men asleep on pallets spread around the hearth. There was a swift flash of silver in the brunette beauties gray-blue eyes, & unbeknownst to Alek, suddenly it was as if a transparent veil dropped over the sleepers, sending them deeper into their slumbers and making them oblivious to the small scratches her sandals made against the rough pine floor. As Alek drew abreast of the table, she carefully picked up the small hunting knife that Pythagoras had left there when he'd turned in for the night as well as the nearly empty skin of small beer and the crust left over from the loaf of bread they'd shared at supper.

Making her way as quietly as possible to the door, she gritted her teeth and carefully edged it open just enough to allow her to slip through, silently willing the aged wood to make no noise. Miraculously her prayers were answered as she edged out into the night, carefully shutting the door behind her. Quickly making her way across the clearing where the cabin stood, she silently thanked the full moon that gave enough light for her to pick her way down the trail to the small stream that trickled down the mountain not far from the cabin. She heard the tinkle of the water before she ever saw it and with only a minimum amount of searching was able to find the small altar made of stacked river stones Pythagoras had pointed out to her earlier that had served the cabins previous occupants as a place of worship.

Trying to remember how she'd seen Pythagoras and sometimes Hercules make offerings to the Gods, she kneeled before the altar and placed the bread on the flat stone in the middle. Taking the knife, she carefully pricked the end of her finger and let a few drops of blood fall onto the bread before pouring a trickle of the small beer over the whole affair. Then taking a deep breath and closing her eyes she spoke softly, "Great-Mother, I call to you. Hear my prayer mighty Nyx and grant my wish. I ask nothing for myself Mother, but only that you watch over my love and keep him safe during the trials he must face in the coming days. I don't ask it of you out of a desire to see him glorified, or either of us enriched, but only to keep him safe with me, and I with him as you promised when you sent me here. Please guide his hands, his heart, and his feet so that he may always return to my side. Amen."

There was the slightest sound of static discharge suddenly, almost as if a small electrical flicker popped and Alek opened her eyes in time to see the faintest shimmer dance across the wet surface of the altar stone before all settled as it was before. An involuntary shiver shot up her spine and she glanced around quickly half expecting to see the black haired woman with stars in her eyes standing behind her, but the forest was as calm and unoccupied as it had been on her arrival. Quickly getting to her feet, Alek hurried back up the path to the cabin and silently slipped inside. The three men were soundly slumbering as before with no sign they had been aware of her nocturnal activities. Slipping over to her bed, she slid off her sandals and crawled gratefully back under the thin blanket. Within moments all that could be heard was the steady rise and fall of breath of four people sleeping soundly.