Gaia

Chapter 4 The Brothers of Three

The temperature dropped as they left the warm suns rays and entered the shaded treeline that separated them from the next leg of their journey. Shays body gave an involuntary shudder as she noticed the trees were much larger in this particular forest than she had ever seen before. The speed at which they were riding through this massive forest seemed both fast and slow, time seemed to stand still but at the same time, it seemed as though the light from the trees was becoming brighter as the trees parted and gave way to a valley.

An ear splitting sound boomed over the land, causing Shays body to instantly stiffen as Shiloh grasped her waist and held on tight. Damian, however, only glanced over to them and then held his hand up, and the creatures they were riding on slowed to a stop acting if they were awaiting further instructions. Damien looked ahead, and with a slow, steady hand, he lifted his right arm outward and outstretched his long fingers, then slowly bent his fingers down and then slowly up. Shay was watching intently as the creatures bowed their heads slightly and then started slowly and quietly creeping through the forest towards the light ahead. The ear splitting booms became louder as they neared another clearing. If Shay didn't have to hold onto the creature to keep herself steady on its back, her hands would have surely been over her ears She glanced over at Damian, who seemed unphased by the racket. All of a sudden, the creature was leaping out of the way as an enormous bolder rolled by them, nearly missing them. Shay noticed they were in a deep, large, sized gully, and the boulders were rolling and bouncing right towards them. As the creatures dodged the boulders effortlessly, Damien raised his hand and then he quickly closed it and opened it, The creatures only took a second to react as they used their muscular legs to bound up and out of the gully. Landing is not so gracefully up on top of one side of the gully. Damien gave his a strong proud pat on the side of the neck and then outstretched his fingers and closed them making a fist. The creatures then crouched low to the ground and started what Shay could only explain as a battle crawl across the green grass upwards towards what looked like a mountain in the distance. As they climbed the mountain the trees grew scarce, the ear splitting noise seemed to fade but quickly in its place was a loud irritating voice. Shay quickly looked around, but saw nothing, she looked over at Damien who only smiled and pointed over across the trees to something. Shay looked. but saw nothing, she looked back at Damien and rolled her eyes while mouthing "there's nothing there". As they moved closer. Damien pointed again, Shay looked, it looked like a worn tree, but oddly shaped like a boot. It was dark brown and was covered with mud, moss and leaves. As Shay followed the odd looking tree upward with her gaze, she suddenly realized that it wasn't a tree at all! It was one of the Brothers of Three! Shay instantly took in a sharp breath and stifled a scream as she realized the Cyclopes were much bigger than the giants or anything she had ever seen. The tattered pants of the Cyclopes were a ruddy color of red and they too were covered in mud and leaves, a long blue shirt hung just over the belt line of his pants and moved in the wind created by the constant movement of gigantic muscular arms that were catching boulders that were flying through the air as he turned and set them down behind him they rolled and bounced down the mountain to the gully where they continued rolling down their chosen path. Shay reached her hand up and shielded her eyes from the sun as she gazed further upward trying to see the cyclops face. His broad shoulders looked like they could carry ten villages and his muscular neck led into a massive jawline, as he worked Shay could see his broad nose and his one blue eye. His hair was a beautiful golden blonde with just a slight wave to it.

Just then a thundering voice came from higher on top of the mountain "Arges! Let's pick up the pace, Steropes wants to have an early breakfast and we aren't stopping until we have enough boulders to start the next wall down there"! Arges smiled, his teeth all pointed and sharp and replied "well then, we wouldn't want Steropes to waste away! Throw them two at a time"! Arges yelled back some sort of agreement. Sir Damien looked quickly over at Shay and Shiloh and Shay could of sworn she heard him in her head say, "we need to move now!" The creatures started to speed up, and before Shay knew it, they were climbing up the mountain at a very high rate of speed. As they reached the top of the mountain, she could hear a low booming voice over the tree tops, the trees shook as well as the ground, like an earthquake. Brontus yelled back to Steropes, "Arges says pick up the pace you're the one holding up breakfast"! Now on top of the mountain, Shay could see the blue sky, smelled the fresh clean cool air and see where the forest ended just beyond the mountain. It looked like they were headed for a valley, just then Shay heard a loud noise whipping threw the air, she glanced up up their heads to see a huge Boulder heading for them! Before she could react, she felt the creature she was riding on jump into the air, she glanced over and saw Damien beside her on his creature. He was focused on the boulders, as the creatures seemed to effortlessly leap over the boulders as they came flying at them, 2 by 2. When they landed Shay realized her mouth was still gaping open in surprise, she quickly shut it and hoped Damien was too busy to notice, she squeezed Shilohs hand and he gave her a quick excited squeeze back. As they descended down the mountain, she drew in a deep breath of mixed emotions, she had escaped the village but what lied ahead for her and her brother was still not clear to her. It didn't seem to take long to Rea the bottom of the mountain, maybe because she was in deep thought, but her thoughts were disturbed by a higher booming voice, "Brontus, are we done yet, I could eat 2 fields full of sheep, I'm so hungry, why did you let Arges talk us into doing these chores before breakfast? Never again, I say, never again"! As they passed where Steropes was standing, she could feel the wind whipping by them, she glanced upwards past the tree tops and could see Steropes throwing two boulders up at the top of the mountain. It didn't take long to pass by him and out of danger of the flying boulders, she sighed, relieved that adventure was over. As they traveled through the rest of the forest, she could see the sunlight peaking through the trees up ahead.