Something nudged my leg and I woke up with a start. The world had been plunged into darkness and I was in the middle of an earthquake!

Wait no. I blinked a bit until my eyes adjusted to the light. I was in a wooden cage covered by blanket and the cage was on a donkey cart that had just driven through some potholes.

I was nudged again, and I realized I wasn't even alone in the cage. No, trussed up like a turkey (like me), Josh the hero was here too. He looked quite disheveled but mustered a smile when he saw I was awake.

I think I hissed worse than the basilisk,

"What the hell have you gotten me into?!"

His smile turned into a frown,

"How about what have you-"

He was cut off by two deep voices coming from outside who were also arguing, but alas they were arguing in Greek,

"I don't understand why you wanted the boy too, the girl is enough."

"Petros don't start this again-"

"I'm telling you; he is not going to sell well on the market!"

Both me and Josh were equally enraged by those words.

"Market?!"

"Boy?!"

Neither of the men seemed to hear us over the banging of the cart and all the insults that followed fell on deaf ears. After a short cool down period though, Josh began talking business,

"We need to get out of here. Got any hidden weapons on you? They took my sword and dagger." he said.

"Yes, a knife strapped to my left inner thigh."

Not needing to be told twice, Josh started inching his way towards me, turning in the process so his hands, that they had tightly bound behind his back, could reach the knife. After a few minutes of fumbling he almost had it and then he really, I mean really, didn't.

"Lower. Definitely lower." I said, trying to keep calm.

"Huh? – oh – OH - Sorry!"

Luckily for the both of us, he did get it eventually and after a bit of, let's call it couples' yoga, we were able to cut each other free.

I finally got the chance to lift the ominous blanket and see where we actually were. One glance though and I dropped it again in shock.

"How the hell are we on a mountain pass? how long was I out for?" I asked, mostly myself.

Josh lifted it to take a look and his reaction was similar to mine,

"Only woke up maybe five minutes before you. Judging by the sun, it's evening. That makes it what? 12 hours? How the hell... "

"They must have used something on us." I leaned back on the bars of the cage, "You a godling or something?"

"Yeah why?"

"They must have used Orpheus powder and thought we were mortal. It's still used in cases of kidnappings and assaults as a more potent version of roofies. We are actually lucky, since we're both Olympian it wore off early. Usually the stuff can last up to 3 days."

Josh was evidently a little shaken by that last part, but he played it off well. He also changed the topic,

"By the way, if you don't mind, what kind of Olympian are you?"

"I am a Nymph."

"Oh, that's cool."

His reply made me laugh.

Oh, that's cool, he said to the Nymph sitting across from him in wooden cage on a donkey cart, driving on a mountain ledge in 400 B.C.?

Damn, the guy was growing on me.

Josh had moved on and begun tugging at the top of the blanket to uncover the back undetected.

"Okay, here's a plan," He said as he moved the last bit of blanket, "Clearly we're on a one-way mountain road so they wouldn't be able to turn the cart around even if they wanted to. I say we try to slip out the back and make a run for it downhill. Hopefully they won't notice or chase if they have to abandon the cart. That okay with you?"

Fair enough. There was no other option anyway.

"Fine. I'll cut the bindings with the knife and you can hold the frame, so it doesn't fall."

"Good idea." he gripped the bars as I went to work on the thin leather straps holding this wooden prison together.

It didn't take long for me to detach the back part completely and when I was done, Josh was able to pull the frame inside the cage itself.

The cart was going about walking speed, so it wasn't exactly hard for us to get off. Once back on solid ground, we immediately broke out in a sprint downhill. Sandals on dusty loose gravel weren't great but I think I would have run barefoot on hot coals if it meant I could escape the fate of the 'market'.

The sun was setting as we ran down the deserted road with not a sliver of an idea what awaited us at the end of it.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, all I could hope for was that I eventually lived to tell this absolutely ridiculous tale to someone.

********

By the time it was dark, we were still wandering down that mountain. So far, we hadn't come across a single soul apart from a few wild animals but least our kidnappers hadn't comeback either. They probably still hadn't noticed we'd escaped.

My whole body ached, and my feet felt like death. I had been ill prepared for a kidnapping followed by an impromptu hiking trip and I was pretty sure my toga was starting to show it. Josh didn't fare much better; his feet were dragging, and his shoulders had hunched over a while ago.

Suddenly the gravel under his feet slipped and Josh stumbled. I just about reacted fast enough to catch him. It was too dark for me to see his embarrassment, but I could hear it in his voice,

"Thanks for that, I think the Orpheus powder hasn't quite worn off yet."

Straightening himself up again he continued,

"When they told me a damsel always finds her way into a hero's arms, I didn't know it would be like this."

I laughed and let go of him again.

"I may be a nymph of all trades, but hero is not a job I intend to take up anytime soon." I told him.

"Yeah, I've been here doing it for months and it still hasn't grown on me either."

'Months'? My interests and also my sense of danger was piqued,

"Uhm Josh, just out of curiosity, how long have you been... I mean... what exactly are you doing here... in the past?"

He kicked one of the rocks he'd slipped on,

"I'm on my grandtour so to speak. I've been here for eight months roughly and have about four more to go...."

Suddenly it clicked and the hero talk began making sense to me.

"You mean you're on godling trials that take almost a year?!" My surprise was evident.

"Yeah those." he said in a small voice as if I had just outed him for having gonorrhoeae or something, "Don't all of them take a year?"

His question was absolutely ridiculous to me, "No they don't! The normal ones are like a few days, maybe weeks at best. What weird kind of trials are you on?"

"Ah." came the reply, "I see."

He halted for maybe a millisecond and then continued walking on as if nothing had happened.

I caught up and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him once again. He turned and under the moonlight I got a glimpse of his face. His expression was hard, but his eyes looked pained.

For some reason my voice became softer,

"How is that something you don't know? Didn't they prepare you for your trials at uni?"

He grated at my question, "At University I was prepared for a career in marine biology, not traipsing through Ancient Greece trying to solve stupid riddles posed by overgrown cats!"

Wow. What nerve did I just hit?

I stared at him dumbstruck and he wiped a hand over his face, as if he were exhausted by more than just today,

"I'm sorry... " he took a deep breath, "... Today has just been one horrible day of many many horrible days."

I dropped my hand, not really sure what to do next. He clearly had some unresolved personal issues that as a complete stranger, I probably shouldn't get involved in.

And yet somehow, I felt like I really should.

"If you need to vent about anything go ahead, there's still a lot of mountain left so we definitely have the time." I offered carefully.

"Thanks, but as a descendant of Herakles, I'm supposed to carry my own burdens." He walked on alone.

'Herakles'? I was becoming more confused by the minute. Marine biology was a human thing and you didn't live in the human world if you wanted to go on the trials. His rare lineage explained the extra-long trial period, but it just made his lack of knowledge the more eyebrow raising. Not knowing basic trial lengths was like flying to Costa Rica without knowing what continent it was on. Also, there was that other thing-

I went after him,

"Like no offense but how come a descendant of the mighty Herakles let's himself get kidnapped by roadside bandits?"

He laughed bitterly, "Thanks for trying to spare my feelings with let's. Nah, they caught me fair and square. I've been tricked, mislead, captured, fought and beaten pretty much all over the Aegean. I'm surprised myself that I even made it this far. Alive."

Nope, something was definitely amiss here.

I prodded further,

"But, uhm, like why? Shouldn't you be better prepared as a hero... Ah!"

Too focused on our conversation to notice, I stepped right into a pothole and felt myself tip forwards. Josh tried to catch me, but I just ended up dragging him down with me.

After some involuntary groaning, we both managed to roll over until we faced the night sky. Either unwilling or too tired, neither of us made an effort to get back up and we just stared at the bright stars together.

It took a while before one of us spoke.

"I'm not a hero." he suddenly said, "I'm nothing but a stand in. A hypocrite. I willingly sacrificed myself for my family and yet I somehow regret it. My half-sister, she was meant for these trials... "

"I'm only here to play harp for money." I interrupted him.

The silence somehow turned awkward.

"-Money, I need to pay the tuition for my last year at law school. I just meant to say, I'm not particularly noble either."

Josh coughed and continued,

"My half-sister she got injured so I had one week to put my master's degree on hold and get ready to come here, so our family wouldn't be plunged into the depths of Tartarus for refusing the Olympian call to trial. I've lived in the human world for most of my life, I didn't even know most of my family. I didn't want them to die, I still don't but- now I regret it."

The stars lost their glimmer and I was snapped back to reality. If you missed the trials, the punishment was basically a slap on the wrist. All that a family lost was face, so godlings rarely skipped them since it tarnished their very fragile concept of honor. Nobody was at risk from dying because of trials apart from the godling and if they did, they were essentially martyred. So, what the hell was he talking about?

"I don't know why I'm sprawled on a path telling all this to a complete stranger but I haven't spoken to someone from the present since I got here-" he chuckled, "I guess after eight months in the past I've finally become that crazy babbling dude on the mountain myself, you know the one that always tries to stop travelers with his stories-"

I tried to sit up and the gravel dug itself into my elbows.

"Josh, about the call to trial," I said,

"None of that's true."

********

Josh had been relatively silent and calm after finding out he'd been lied to. He eventually told me the whole story and I listened to every bit of it.

Left to live with his human cousin's ever since he was 8, Josh's mythological part of the family had one day reappeared only to convince him he needed to go on the trials and save them all from retribution in hell. They had sent him off to the past with nothing but a refresher course in active combat and beginners guide to the trial. He had sold the guide for food on his second day. They had intended for him to lay his life down so they could keep their Heraklian bragging rights. With Josh's untrained skills, it had essentially been sacrifice to send him here. His first question after the revelation had been how to terminate his trials but sadly I had to tell him that once officially started, they could not be ended early.

He'd learnt most things by doing and had barely gotten away with his life on multiple occasions. He'd survived until now, but it hadn't been easy. I didn't need to see the scars on his body to believe it, I heard them enough in his voice all ready. He'd learned that trials could disguise themselves as normal tasks or people, hence he'd approached me on the road yesterday. Since few Chronos travellers ventured where he had to and most of them avoided godlings on trials like the plague, none of them had spoken more than three words to him until now.

And to be honest, if we hadn't been kidnapped, I would have probably been one of them. To me the past had always been a lawless place. There was no point in getting involved in people's problems since I couldn't do anything about it anyway. After all, in past I was only a Nymph, nothing else.

But little did I know at the time that sometimes all you had to do to help was listen.

As we reached the bottom of the mountain, I finally spotted some faint lights in the distance. Josh figured it might be a village and so we both agreed to try and seek out help there. We had been stripped of our valuables by the kidnappers and all we had left was my knife and the togas on our backs.

An hour and one step through the village gate later, we were stopped by an sleepy village watchman. The fact that we had even made it this far did not exactly speak well for his abilities.

On cue, Josh fell to his knees in front of him just like we had planned on before. I meanwhile broke out into hysterical tears and did the same, clinging to Josh's neck as I sobbed into his shoulder.

"Oh brother, dearest brother," I whimpered as he wrapped his arms around me. And let's be real, after that kind of day it felt nice to be held.

When I heard him speak though, I almost bit through my tongue trying not to laugh. His voice had suddenly become 3 octaves higher than normal and quivered more than the strings of my harp when I played Prestissimo.

"Oh, praise the gods!" he exclaimed, "We have been saved!"

**********

I was once again woken by someone aggressively shaking my leg.

"Kim. Kim? Kim!" they were trying really hard to wake me up, "KIM!"

Ugh, they just weren't giving up.

"What?!" I opened my eyes just so I would have the ability to glare at whoever dared to disturb my precious sleep.

What stared back was a very anxious looking Josh.

"We need to leave, at least you need to leave. Right now." he told me.

I sat up in the bed the village elder had so kindly provided for me last night after our rather dramatic entrance. They hadn't hesitated to help after we had told them our *ahem* 'story' and had found us beds for the night. I had stayed with an old widow and he had crashed with the elder's son.

My attention went back to Josh who was inching closer and growing more upset by the minute.

"Why do we have to leave now?" I asked not moving whatsoever.

"I'll explain but it's best if you get going. We don't have any time to spare."

Reluctantly I began moving, albeit at the speed of a sloth. I was still in my dirty toga from two days ago and I didn't need to see my hair to know that my fishtail braid had long died and gone to fish heaven.

Managing to sit upright on the edge of the bed, I searched the floor for my second sandal until I realized I hadn't even taken it off last night.

Wow new low.

Eventually I managed to put on the other one and Josh basically dragged me out of the house immediately.

We were halfway at the gate, when a Grey-haired man in a rough blue toga blocked our path.
"When I heard, I knew it would be you." the man suddenly kneeled, "Herakles you have returned."

Josh looked suspiciously like he wanted to kick the old guy but luckily refrained from doing so. I figured whatever history these two had was the reason Josh had wanted to flee the village so quickly.

"I have." He answered through clenched teeth.

"You must have come to slay the creature. Praise thee, the tree cannot hold out any longer."
"No it cannot." Josh was seething now.

Definite bad vibes here.

"Then I will not disturb you any longer."

The man stood up, bowed once again and then shuffled off to who knows where.
I may have been groggy before but now I was all ears,

"Care to share what's going on?"

Josh looked exhausted again and I was starting to wish I could make it go away,

"It's one of the trials. You have to pick a golden apple from a tree protected by a dragon. The apple can't fall, so if you don't pick it before it starts to rot the tree dies. In the dark and since we came from the mountain, I didn't recognize this place, but when I realized where we were just now, I nearly had a heart attack. I stumbled across this trial by accident in my first week of being here. I wasn't meant to do it before month six, but that old guy pretty much pushed me into it. I was still quite inexperienced and gullible at the time. I nearly died trying to get that stupid apple for him."

Sound a little bit like a trauma to me.

"So, what now?"

He exhaled sharply, "I have to do it. The old guy's the taskmaster, once he proclaims its started, you can't leave until you've made a 'proper' attempt."

"Can other people help you?" the words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.

What the hell was I doing.

"Would you?" he asked.

Damn it, puppy eyes. How could this six-foot-tall guy seriously give me puppy eyes and also make them work?

"Yes." I answered, "I'll help."