Remember The Good Times, Sing The Blues, and Practice What You Preach

“It’s just fractured.” Sophia said, the leg wasn’t bent out of its normal shape. She looked up at her sister. “It’s just a fracture. I could probably heal it. The split would only be precautionary.” She said, why did everyone forget she had healing powers. Yeah, like, maybe Eli was better at it, but she could handle a fracture. She’s healed mulitple of her own...

“I think there’s a door somewhere over there.” Sophia gestured to the area she was searching right before her sister had fallen down. She didn’t get to have a good look yet. She would when she was done healing it. Once she had. She got up to find something to use as a splint. The only thing she had were her arrows. So she broke the tips off and shredded the feathers off, before wrapping them tightly as she could around her sisters leg. “There.”

Aspen sat there waiting for Sophia to inspect her leg. Of course out of everything to happen to her it had to be this. At least it could have been way worse, it could have been to the point where the bone was sticking out of her skin. It would make it open for infections and there would be no way to even use her leg. At least with just this fracture Sophia could heal it enough that she could use it.

Once she was fixed up she used the wall behind her to help her get up and steady herself before walking in the direction that Sophia had been talking about. She didn't see much of a door, but decided to feel around on the wall to see what she could find. Eventually she pushed on something hard enough that the wall came crumbling down and through it there was a hallway. "I guess its probably this way." Aspen mumbled as she started to down down the hall until they made it into a semi lit room. In that room there were bars coming down from roof to floor.

Behind the bars were three different women who were honestly breathtaking. The first was draped in light pink robes, she had fair skin, but the real stand out was the long red and wavy hair that flowed almost like a stream down her back. The one beside her was of darker skin with her hair up in a in a high pony tail with braids in it. Jewels decorated the pony tail that she was wearing and her arms, she had some white coloured robes on and naturally her arms had been folded over. The last woman standing there was wearing a light blue robe with her almost white hair in a loose braid decorated with flowers. She easily seemed the most gentle of the three.

The only question was, how did they get them out? Possibly they could try bending the bars a little, but that seemed like it would take too much time. Aspen looked up at the ceiling and could see that there was a hole that let light in, that would definitely be an exit point if at all possible.

The one in light blue robes spoke first. "We seek help in getting out of here. We are far too weak to even help ourselves at this point. We would very much appreciate your help." Her voice was soothing and almost sounded melodic. Aspen could listen to her voice all day.

Sophia stood up and followed her sister over to the wall. After they finally found the right spot to push the wall came crumbling down in front of them. The younger girl followed her sister down the short hallway, which led to the room where three women were being held in a cage. Sophia knew right away that these must be the ones they were sent to rescue. Now if only they could get them out of the cage.

The bars reached from the ground and went all the way to the ceiling, there was no obvious door, which was making things more complicated. She glanced around the room, it was plain nothing special about it, except for the three goddesses locked in a cage. Sophia ran her hand along the only interesting part of the wall closest to the cage. There were Latin words carved into the wall. Sophia recognized it as some kind of spell.

The young centurion took her knife out of her pocket, and did the only thing she could think of that would break this kind of spell... well at least she was hoping it would work. She stabbed the wall right onto of the spell. The wall cracked, and the the bars keeping the goddesses locked up, disappeared into thin air.

“Got it!” She said, with a happy smile on her face.

As Sophia was looking around for a way to let the muses out of their jail cell, Aspen had started to rummage through her bag for what she knew she had. One of the most essential things that she always brought when she knew she was going into the mountains was a grappling hook. It was rare that she ever needed it, but you never knew with the mountains if someone would get stuck or not. She did her bag back up and slung it onto her shoulders before taking the hook and swinging it upwards to grapple onto the rocks above the hole.

To make sure it was secure Aspen tugged on it a few times and even grabbed on with her whole body weight to try and get a better idea. It was fairly sturdy and would work. "Alright, I will bring up the front and help them from up to, Sophia you can bring up the rear and make sure they can get up the rope. Nice going with the bars, by the way." She said with a smile and she was obviously proud of her younger sister.

Aspen had the from there grabbed onto the rope and began to climb up it. Once she got to the top she put her hands on the mountain and pulled herself out of the hole and up onto the side of the mountain. "Alright, I'm ready." She said.

Sophia shrugged, with a small smile that she tried to hide, trying not to notice how proud her sister felt of her. She just nodded in agreement to the plan, and when her sister got to the top, she gestured for the goddesses to start their climb. “Coming up!!” Sophia yelled up, then turned to the three goddesses. “Goddesses first.” She told them politely, as one by one they each started climbing up the rope. Sophia took up the rear in case any of them slipped, and although she definitely heard a couple complaints from one specific goddess, all of them got to the top safely with no problems.

Once Sophia got to the top, she pulled herself out of the hole, and started pulling the rope up.

As each muse came through the hole Aspen had grabbed their hands and helped them up onto the mountain base. Finally when Sophia came back the older Virgo daughter felt somewhat accomplished. They had completed part of the prophecy, but she still wasn't entirely sure about the second half and how that would happen. The one in the light blue had come up to Aspen and her sister.

"We appreciate your help very kindly. We may have enough power combined to teleport all of us to the bottom of the mountain, but from there we will be requesting that you could drive us home. We are too weak to get their ourselves." Again she had spoken relatively softly and her voice rang music through her hears.

"We will gladly escort you home. Do you need any water or food?" Aspen asked the three of them and they all shook their head no as the three of them former a triangle shape holding hands and their eyes closed.

"Close your eyes please." The one in pink had spoken and Aspen had followed their instructions. "You may now open them." The same voice had been heard only a few minutes later. The five of them were now at the base of the mountain before the got on the bus that would take them back to Valemount.

Eventually they had made it back to the car and Aspen turned it on.

Sophia stood still, and closed her eyes at the goddesses command. She heard a swooshing sound, and when she opened her eyes just seconds later she found herself at the bottom of the mountain. Teleportation was always fun, but she hated how she always had to close her eyes for it, she wanted to know what it looks like. Not that she was complaining.

When they got to the car, Sophia made sure all three goddesses were comfortable in the backseat, before she climbed into her own. “Do you want me to drive?” She asked Aspen, realizing her sister had been driving the entire quest. “If you want a break that is...”

Aspen had put the keys in the ignition and she turned them until the car had started. She had hardly heard the words that came out of her sisters mouth, before she shook her head slightly with a small laugh. "Please Sophia, you're like ten." The older girl teased.

It had been a long trip, but finally by the time it was about two in the morning they made it to where they needed to be. The muses had gotten out of the car and returned into what they called home. As for Sophia and Aspen, she had put the seats down and made a make shift bed for the too of them. "I guess it is time to get some sleep and figure out the next part in the morning."

“Suit yourself.” Sophia said rolling her eyes. Nevermind that she’s had her license for four months now. She wasn’t going to complain. Who wants to drive that long anyway. After dropping the muses off at their home, and making sure they got in ok, Sophia helped turn the seats into beds and leaned back, “Yeah.” She agreed, checking the time. “You want first watch or I can?” Sophia suggested, since she had taken a very long nap while they were driving the muses home, she wasn’t tired yet.

"Yeah, I'm fairly tired, if you could take the first watch, that'd be lovely." Aspen said as she started to wrap herself up in the blanket and she rolled onto her side. When she closed her eyes she tried to think of stuff to help her fall asleep, but apparently she didn't even need that. Aspen fell asleep fairly quickly.

After a few hours Aspen had woken up and switched off with Sophia. It was around eight in the morning when there was a knock at the window and Aspen looked out to see who had been knocking. It was one of the muses that had been with them only six hours ago.

"We would like to get your help with something else." The one who wore the pink robes spoke. "It's a job that we discussed would best be done by the two of you, if you don't mind." She asked

Sophia nodded. Nothing interesting happened, there was an owl that landed on the hood of the car for a bit to eat its dinner, which Sophia found really gross. Around 7am, Sophia nudged her sisters arm to wake her up. Once she was sure her older sister was definitely awake, she curled up in her blanket and fell asleep almost instantly.

At some point Sophia woke up, she wasnt actually sure why she woke up, or how long she had actually slept for, but when she rubbed her eyes and sat up she was greeted by the sight of the pink muse talking to Aspen. “What’s going on?” She asked, curiously.

"She was asking if we would help them with something else, they think we're right for the job." Aspen told Sophia quietly. She didn't want to startle Sophia or be too loud, she knew that Sophia would startle easily until she had a few more minutes to really wake up, but she was sure given the circumstances that would be soon. "I think we should do it." She said firmly to her sister.

“Why are you talking like that?” The younger girl asked loudly, “I’m not five!” Sophia gave her sister a weird look, before the look was ruined by a yawn. She glanced over to the muse who was still standing by the car window, “of course we will help you.” Sophia told the goddess, “just tell us what needs to be done.” Sophia added, politely.

"I just spoke quietly?" Aspen offered. She wasn't a fan of the look on Sophia's face and her attitude. If they weren't on a quest right now, Aspen would probably say a lot worse, but at the moment they were in the presence of the muse. Aspen grabbed her bag and her weapons before the muse spoke,

"Those wont be necessary."

"Oh, okay." Aspen said hesitantly, but she left them behind as she exited the car. "Also Sophia, I never said you were five, sorry for trying to be considerate of you just waking up. Maybe next time I will just yell in your ear. How about that?" She asked obviously irritated. She had done something considerate for her sister and now she was acting like a child. Maybe she was five.

Sophia shrugged, it’s not like her sister had never talked to her in the morning before, Sophia just wanted to know why she was being weird about it this time. Sophia ignored it for now, and got out of the car. She wanted to ask why they wouldn’t need their weapons. It sounded strange to be told that, the younger girl supposed it also meant the dagger strapped to her ankle was a no go also. She sighed and put it in the car, feeling relatively naked now without it.

“What do you need us to do?” Sophia asked, once she was fully out of the car.

"Follow." The muse said as she began to walk off towards the forested area. Aspen looked to Sophia for a brief moment and she wasn't really sure about this. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to move forward following the muse and her red flowing hair.

Their walk was taking longer than Aspen had anticipated, but eventually after going through a cave they came out on the other side where there was a waterfall cascading down the rocks and splashing into a pool of fresh water. There was green grass everywhere and even an open meadow for as long as she could see. Aspen felt like if you weren't careful you could get lost.

They walked down to the field where the other two muses were and the third one fell in line with the others. The one draped in white at this point began to speak

"Welcome Aspen and Sophia Virgo. We are so very thankful that you both could come to our side and help us. We have been forgotten for so long that I am afraid we have grown rather weak. We require further help from the two of you. For decades and decades now, and maybe even centuries at this point, we have been forgotten by many and aren't considered part of the other nine muses. With people forgetting about us, it has made us grow rather weak, we haven't been able to use our powers much lately." She finished saying being rather formal.

"That's where you guys come in. There are some challenges that you can do, that only you guys can do since you share similar blood." The one in pink said again.

Sophia glanced back to Aspen. Not really sure if they should be trusting the very vague muse that wanted them to follow. Sophia followed a couple steps behind anyway, figuring ‘why the hell not!’ The walk took, probably around a half hour, and the sight that greeted her was one of the most beautiful things she’s ever seen.

As the muses explained their predicament, Sophia wondered what these possible challenges were. The only type of challenge she could think of would involve needing a weapon, and they didn’t have theirs anymore. “What are these challenges?” Sophia finally asked, after a brief pause.

"We will give them to you one at a time." The muse in white started to speak to the two girls in front of her. "Each one will represent each of our realms in away and they will just be challenges that really get you to challenge yourself and go outside of what you know, for the most part anyways." She said.

Aspen wasn't too sure about this whole thing, but figured they were here already, the least they could do was help, right? "What's the first one?" Aspen asked the three of them and that was when the one in blue spoke up.

"Your first challenge will be from me. Mine represents song and voice. This particular challenge will require you both to sing. I have a few songs to share with you both that I need sung, it's a song paying tribute to my realm of song and voice." She spoke delicately.

Sophia glanced over at Aspen. This was some sort of joke right? They had to sing? Sophia couldn’t sing, she sang one place and one place only, in the shower. But only when she was the only one home, because she had been banned from singing, that’s how bad she was. This right here, was a really bad idea.

Sure she would do it, but hey, that didn’t mean the muses would enjoy it.

Aspen had been a little bit peeved about this so called 'challenge' that they had been give. What was with this? Were they for real right now? She was out here wasting her time for this? Aspen wanted to turn around and leave in this very moment, but everything had been telling her to stay and that she had made it this far and that maybe she could just finish this fast and go home.

The legacy looked over to her sister as the lyrics materialized in paper in front of them. It had took some time, but finally they had sung through all the songs together and when they were done there was a small clap that could be heard from the muse draped in blue. "Well done ladies." She complimented.

It was then that the pink robed muse had stepped forward and began to explain her challenge to the girls. This one had to have them list off a bunch of names of gods and goddesses that they could remember and they had to keep doing it until they could do it in the correct order, but finally when that was done it was time for the last muse.

"So, my challenge for you guys, is all about practice and patience. One of you will be blind and the other will lead them through an obstacle course using patience and practice. If you fail at any point you have to go back to the start and redo it. This is the last one and then you ladies will be free to return home." The one in white had said.

“I’m sorry? Blind?” Sophia asked, blurting the question out loud before she could stop herself. Maybe they were waiting to see who would have the worst reaction, but not more than two seconds passed when the muse in white snapped her fingers. The sound of the snap echoed in her ears, and suddenly she couldn’t see anymore. Her hands went to her eyes, rubbing at them, “A w-warning would have been nice!” The centeurion said, angerliy. She wasn’t happy, this entire challenge thing was so pointless! And now she was blind! She hoped they would remember to give her back her sight once they were done.

The had been escorted over to the obstacle course that they had setup in the meadow there. It wasn't too long after that, that the snap of the fingers could be heard and it was evident that Sophia was now blind. "It'll be okay Sophia." Aspen said to her younger sister as she started to walk in front of Sophia to try and guide her through the course.

"Come forward about five small steps." Aspen called out to her sister.

“Mhmm trying.” Sophia said, her voice annoyed. She wasn’t annoyed with Aspen though. She was annoyed with the situation. What kind of bullshit quest was this? It felt like some kind of backwards little kids field day. The muses has to be doing this for their entertainment, not because they were weakening. There was no way this was legit. Sophia took the five small steps, though. She did it carefully, not wanting to trip and fall and give the muses satisfaction.

It took them what seemed hours to get through the stupid obstacle course. Every time they had failed they had to start from the beginning again, and it just was the most annoying thing ever. Finally they were near the end and Sophia just needed to climb up the steps. "You have five steps in front of you, just feel for them if you need to Sophia. We're almost done after this." Aspen said to her younger sister. She truly felt sorry for the fact that Sophia had been the one to go blind, if she could have Aspen would have volunteered herself for it instead.

Being blind at first, was ok. But after the fourth time of messing up and having to restart, it was getting a little annoying, and maybe a bit terrifying. Sophia had never realized how much she relied on her sight before this, and the idea of it being a permanent thing scared the crap out of her. Of course she knew this wasn’t going to be permanent, but it still got to her. It was a terrible mind game for her. She took a deep breath, as she used her feet to find the stairs, one by one, she counted them in her head as she stumbled clumsily up them until she reached the top.