The Belt of Stars

     Whats this? Me posting in under a week of the previous post? Today I have another short story but this one is my longest yet. I have been working on it for multiple months and  finally finalized it. I hope that you enjoy it and feel like the time you use to read it was worthwhile.

    

    Many people know of Orion's belt, the three stars that make a straight line in the sky. They have heard of the tales of how Zeus placed him in the stars to be forever remembered, but really it was all because of his final adventure with his firend Hespheratiomus.

    Orion was a great huntsman and had defeated many foes and hunted many creatures. He was well known as a hero and a good one at that. One day, when coming home after a long hunt, he met a tired messenger boy who had an important message for him. It was a request from Lord Hespheratiomus, a relative of the god of the forge Hephaestus. Hespheratiomus’s city, Forgerate, had been attacked by a great monster and he needed assistance in defeating it. The reward for his troubles would be a magical, mechanized, metal, bow forged by Hespheratiomus that could pierce through almost anything. Upon hearing this Orion, tipped the messenger, ran home, grabbed some more equipment, and set out on what would be his final journey.

    Orion arrived at the city and saw how strong the monster was. A wall that once surrounded Forgerate was utterly demolished and many houses crushed with some in flames. The town hall itself was half demolished with one of its once magnificent towers turned to rubble. As he approached the steps, Hespheratiomus came out of the door looking more ragged than Orion had ever seen him.

    “Thank the gods you’re here. We just suffered another attack and we don’t know how many more we can take. I’ll fill you in on the monster, its not one that's ever been documented before, probably because nobody has survived its wrath. I've dubbed the beast Gerantius and it is devastatingly deadly. It’s got an alligator mouth that shoots toxic gas, the body of hippo, a long flexible tale like a cobra and huge leathery wings that allow it to fly at tremendous speeds. Normal weapons wont pierce it’s hide, so I’ll have to give you my bow before you defeat it. Just know that it’s not the finished product and has not been fully stabilized. Because of I’ll give you a fully finalized one afterwards but you will have to work with the prototype for now.”

    “Whether the bow is a prototype or not I will only need one shot, take me to its lair,” responded Orion.

    “You see, it’s not that simple, he doesn’t live down here on earth but on the moon. I have devised a two man craft that will take us to him, but I also have not had the chance to test it. I modeled it after the sun chariot and used some Ichor that I managed to get a hold on a while back to power it. I already have it set up and it should be ready for take off in no time.”

    Hespheratiomus lead Orion to the back of the town hall and pressed the secret stone which opened up the back wall to reveal a runway and Hespheratiomus’s lab.

    “Come, we must hurry, hop in and we’ll set out,” shouted Hespheratiomus, as he stepped into the chariot. “I already have the bow in your seat with all the arrows you will need. Don’t take any of your equipment, it'll just weigh us down.

    Once the two men were seated in the chariot, Hespheratiomus flicked a few levers and the chariot shot forward powered by the Ichor. Hespheratiomus steered the craft up and away as Orion stared wonder struck at the city that looked smaller every second.

    “By the gods Hespheratiomus, this is amazing! I never dreamed that I would be flying without the aid of a Pegasus!”

    “Amazing isn’t it,” commented Hespheratiomus. “I’m also slightly surprised at how well it’s handling although I had no doubts that it would be amazing. We should be exiting earth in just a few seconds. Once we are in space we won’t be able to breath so I’ve devised a sort of space armor that will keep us safe from the cold, empty blackness that is space for about thirty minuets so we’ll have to make this quick.”

    “Once again, I’ll only need one shot at this beast.”

    The duo equipped themselves with the space armor which Hespheratiomus said was made out of some shed skin the monster had left behind. They exited the earths atmosphere and imedieatly felt the cold vacuum of space try to get at them from outside their hide armor. The suits held but Orion and Hespheratiomus realized how dangerous and mysterious space was. Orion tried to ask Hespheraiomus for more detail on the monster they were about to face but came to the realization that he couldn’t talk! While Hespheratiomus was very knowledgeable of space even he didn't know that sound doesn’t travel through the void.

    Orion now tried to see if his partner had realized the same thing and tapped him on the shoulder to which Hespheratiomus responded by attempting to form the word “what” but upon failure came to the same realization as Orion. Orion started trying to communicate with Hespheratiomus by using arm gestures and exaggerated lip movements but Hespheratiomus smiled and took a tablet and stylus from underneath the cushions of their craft.

    He wrote on the tablet “It seems like space is restricting us from communicating some how. I will research this once we return but for now we will have to communicate through writing. We should be approaching the beasts layer fairly soon, I advise you start getting ready.”

    Orion nods to Hespheratiomus and starts getting warmed up and practices hand positions as they get closer and closer to the moon.

    Around ten minuets later they are close enough to clearly see the moons craters and dented surface. Hespheratiomus maneuvered the craft towards an exceptionally large crater and from inside the large pit came the beast. It was livid at having interlopers in it’s territory and it didn’t appreciate that they were flying in an odd contraption that was new to it. It bared it’s fangs and charged. Orion pulled out the bow that Hespheratiomus had made and aimed directly at the creatures scaly head. With the skill he gained through his years of hunting he shot straight and true and the bow propelled the arrow at frightening speeds. The arrow sped through space and just as it was about to stab Gerantius in the head it caught the arrow with its long scaly tale and threw it back at the Orion and Hespheratiomus.

    Hespheratiomus was able to avoid a direct hit to their craft but the arrow still lodged itself into their craft causing it to leak Ichor into space. The bow wasn’t in any better shape and some pieces had fallen of into the vast emptiness of space. The monster then spewed toxic gas from its mouth and roared in silence at its new prey.

    Hespheratiomus and Orion were fine since they had their space armor but the gas obstructed their view of the beast. The monster then attempted to swallow them hole and while Hespheratiomus was able to avoid a direct hit the back of their craft still got scraped by the creatures fangs.

    With their craft and weapon badly damaged Orion and Hespheratiomus new they had to finish this quickly. Their ride no longer moved much faster than walking speed and was being pulled by the moon. Orion knew that they were going to die, even if they did eliminate their foe they wouldn’t be able to get back to earth and would die in the cold embrace of space. Throwing caution to the wind Orion made a last ditch effort and jumped from the craft towards the monster. He knew that it would block whatever he shot at it from a distance with it’s tail but if he was close enough to it it wouldn’t be able to react. Hespheratiomus understanding what he was doing decided to help him out by distracting the enemy. Hespheratiomus started pressing buttons on the craft and golden ichor spilled into space. Like most creatures, the beast knew that ichor was powerful and it went in to drink it and didn’t notice Orion drifting toward him with his bow drawn.

    Orion lined up his shot and fired. The damaged bow exploded while launching the arrow. The arrow left the bow in a straight line at the skull of the monster and flew straight trough it’s brain. The monster had been defeated but as it died it thrashed around violently and managed a lucky strike on Orion and ripped his space armor. Orion immediately felt the effects of the vacuum of space as his body began to swell. Hespheratiomus slowly drifted his craft to the now dead form of Orion and took his friends body and bathed it in the remaining floating ichor. Orions body began to glow and he was turned into stars along with his only remaining piece of clothing, his belt. Hespheratiomus wrote what happened that day on his tablet and sent the ship on its course back to earth without him knowing that his armor wouldn’t protect him long enough for the return trip. In his remaining hour of life he stared at the stars that no formed the shape of Orion and his belt.

 The End

    There you go, my own original Greek Myth made by me. I hope that you enjoyed it and are in utter shock from my amazing storytelling skills. If you have liked my posts then consider sharing my blog with friends and relatives so that they too can enjoy my works. I'm not sure what my next post will be about but it will most likely be a story about me and scoliosis. If you have any requests, questions, or notice that I spelled something wrong, tell me in the comments. Farewell for now, Scoliatic.