Mania

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A shadow floated facing her, the face of this shadow barely visible but visible enough to make out the facial expressions. Her long cloak lightly brushed the floor as she floated right above the ground. Her long black nails playing with her long black hair. Anyone who did not know Nyx, who did not have their mother as the Goddess of Night would be frightened of her.

“Yes, Mania, I heard you the first time. What is it, my child?”

Mania stood there, shaking, looking down at her feet. Her mother drifted closer to her and lifted up her chin.

“What is it, my child?” She said in her sing song voice.

“Khaos.”

Her mother’s hand dropped from her face.

“Do not speak his name. Come with me.”

Her mother took her hand and held it tight.

“You must know you will be seeing your true form before any of your classmates. I will remind you not to mention a word to anyone. As no one is to know about your non-human form.”

Mania nodded her head in agreement and held her mothers hand tight.

“Espistrofi sto pnevma tis gis.”

Mania shut her eyes tight and when she felt her mothers grip loosen, she reopened her eyes. They were on what seems like a huge mountain with green grass and beautiful coloured flowers surrounding them. Mania stood in awe. She had not seen this place in so many years she had forgotten what it looked like. The soft soil up ahead and just behind that a beautiful waterfall with rainbows dancing in it. Taking everything in, she started smiling. Nothing on Earth could compare to the beauty of this place.

“This is Mount Olympus?” Mania asked her mother.

“It is. You don’t remember?”

“Not very well. It is beautiful.”

Nyx took her time looking around.

“It is, isn’t it? You often become so busy trying to keep up with the movement of life that you never really stop and appreciate the beauty around you.”

Mania looked up at her mom and watched as a small sad smile played on her lips. Her mother was so beautiful when you caught a glimpse of her face.

“Anyways, darling, let us go inside.”

They walked up the mountain for two minutes and they were greeted by a beautiful blonde woman with hardly any clothes on. Basically, just pieces of cloth covering her most prized possessions.

“Sphinx, how lovely to see you again.”

“Nyx,” her voice sent chills up Manias spine. She sounded like she was whispering an inch away from Manias ear, even though she was at least ten-foot-tall and nowhere close to anyone’s ears.

Her eyes darted between Nyx and Mania for quite some time before she spoke again.

“You have brought your offspring with you this time. Correct me if I am wrong, but is Aetatis not for a few more days?”

“You are not wrong, Sphinx, our business, however, is our own. We would like to enter Olympus now.”

“Of course, you do know that you must first answer my riddle.”

“Had I been a new comer or someone from a distant land, then yes, I would have to answer your riddle. But neither my daughter nor myself are strangers to my home.”

“Yes, you are not. However, your daughter is a stranger to me,” Sphinx said.

"Do not play with me guardian!" My mothers voice echoed around me. Her voice went through my body and sent shivers down my spine. A small arrogant smile played at the Sphinx's mouth. The Sphinx held her hand out over the sand and it started to swirl. The sand was swirling up to her hand and as it got closer it started forming into the shape of a sword.

Manias mouth dropped open. She was not used to seeing someone pull a sword out of a handful of sand.

“Drop the sword, Sphinx.”

“Your daughter shall not be allowed through, so you either go back or…”

“Or what?”

The Sphinx then tore out of the human form she was in and transformed to this beast. It had a long tail and giant paws. Mania thought it was a lion, until it turned around. She noticed that the statue had the body of a lion including the paws, the head of the beautiful woman she had seen before but no breasts. Instead she had the chest of a bird.

“Oh, she has wings too?” Mania asked in disbelief.

Nyx reacted very calmly and stepped back and brought Mania back with her. She looked to the ground and Manias eyes followed hers. Nyx stretched out her arm and Mania saw her arms shadow growing until she had reached the Sphinxes body and her hand grabbed hold of her neck and her fingers started tightening around the Sphinxes throat. Mania looked at the Sphinx and saw that she had started suffocating. Her hand was grasping at her neck and trying to pull Manias mothers hands off but it was no use.

“How dare you raise a sword to a Goddess, you filthy servant.” Nyx spat

She eventually let go and the Sphinx dropped to her knees, taking as much air in as she could.

“Sphinx, I will be having a word with Zeus about your behaviour. I doubt he will take it lightly. We will be heading to Olympus now, please open the gates.”

The Sphinx looked up with a menacing look in her eyes and muttered words under her breath. The ground started shaking and the waterfall a few feet away stopped flowing and the rocks behind it opened and formed a passage. Grass vines then grew up the doorway and decorated itself with white flowers. Other grass then grew above the door spelling out Olympus and as it was done forming the word, the grass started glowing a bright yellow colour. Mania walked closer and started to look at all the detail. It was certainly grass, but only the grass spelling out Olympus was glowing. The grass decorating the doorway was very normal.

“It is called Herba Lucem. The glowing grass. I see you are very fascinated by it.”

“I am. I have never seen anything like this before.”

“You wouldn’t. There is none on Earth. We make sure of that.”

“Why? It is so beautiful. Why not share it with the world?”

“As beautiful as Herba Lucem is, to humans it would kill them.”

“Is it poisonous?”

“No.”

“Then why would it be of any danger to humans?”

"You are one of the strangest underworld rulers, Mania."