Scavenger's Odyssey

The rusty blade stuck in the sand.

The sun was setting, and I had been looking for hours. I thought I'd found everything worth finding, but then this strange sword appeared...

It was a beautiful thing. The metal was glimmering red, the hilt was golden and beautifully carved. It must've been worth a fortune; I had never seen anything like it before. So I pulled it out of the sand, and as I did my hands were covered with blood. Blood? From where? Then I looked at the blade and saw that it was covered in what looked like an ancient language! How? This was thousands of years old!

I had to look closer. If it were truly that old, there might be something useful inside...

But then I heard someone calling me, "Zenem! Zenem!" The voice sounded like my mother's, so I ran home as fast as I could. When I arrived, my house was on fire. My parents were running around screaming, trying to put out the flames. But they didn't have time! They couldn't save the house or anyone inside of it! They tried to run away from the flames but they couldn't escape them either. They fell to their knees and cried as they watched their home burn down to ashes...

But then something strange happened! Out of nowhere, a bright light appeared above us and my parents stopped moving! Was this death? Am I dead? Have I gone to heaven? What's going on?! As I stood there staring at my parents in shock, someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me along with him into the light. There we were standing on what seemed like a sturdy wooden boat in the middle of a vast ocean...

Where am I? Who are you? Where are we going? We're just standing here waiting for something to happen! This has to be a dream... Doesn't it?

And then the boat stopped and we reached land. As soon as we set foot on shore my eyes widened when I saw dozens of people carrying weapons walking towards us. Are these people going to invade us? Can they not see that we're tourists?! Before any fights broke out between us and these warriors, a woman stepped in front of everyone else, holding what looked like an ancient book up high while she spoke some words that sounded like gibberish... But then suddenly we understood her words and realized that she was telling everyone what our names were! This is unreal! She can read minds?! And she even knows our names?! What kind of sorcery is this?!

Before any more surprises could happen a man with long white hair came out from behind one of the warriors and spoke: "Good morning!" He said cheerfully as he walked towards us, "I'm glad you decided to join us today!" Everyone stared at him in shock except for one person who smirked and mumbled something under his breath when he noticed our confused faces. The man smiled brightly at that person before continuing: "My name is Apollo!" He introduced himself warmly, "And you are?" He asked expectantly with his hand stretched towards us for a handshake. Without thinking twice about it, we shook his hand and answered politely: "Zenem." After saying our names all of us looked around awkwardly trying to make sense of everything that had just happened here today. But then Apollo took off his helmet while asking everyone else if they would be able to do the same so he could see us better since he wanted to get a good look at each of us individually. Relieved by his request everyone happily took off their helmets until only two people remained: Apollo himself, and another man with long white hair who hadn't said a word since we had arrived here...

After everyone else took off their helmets Apollo turned towards the other man and said: "This is Odysseus." He used his hand to point at him before adding: "He will be leading your adventure." At those words Odysseus walked over to Apollo's side without even looking at any of us once before addressing us directly: "You'll be starting with your training tomorrow morning!" He said simply before turning around again and walking away from us without any further explanation. As soon as he left everyone looked back at Apollo for answers, but Apollo only smiled warmly at us before saying goodbye and leaving us alone with Odysseus so he could show us where we would be staying from now on...