“Hide your horns, Sim, and your wings. Humans won’t respond kindly if they see them.”
Akri always said that whenever they went around humans.
Especially given how many people were deads ’cause his mother had kilded them all over what the Greek god Apollo had done to her akri. She hated those Greek gods.
So did her akri.
They were mean and hateful. She hoped they all died one day, just as awfully as her mother had, especially Apollo.
And because the world was nothing like Simi remembered. They were in what akri called a Stone Age. All their technology and tools had been lost. And the island of Atlantis was no longer here. Akra-Apollymi had sent it to the bottom of the ocean when she’d found out what they did to her son.
All because the humans had hurt her akri. Personally, the Simi was glad akra-Apollymi had kilt them. It was only fair ’cause akri was a good Simi daddy.
Even now, he picked her up and carried her on his shoulders. It was why she made sure that she looked like his daughter. She just wished her eyes matched his. Sadly, she couldn’t make them swirl. The closest she could do was a light blue.
But that was okay. They was close enough.
And after a while, they came to a broken village that had been abandoned like so many others. Only a few buildings still stood and they weren’t fully intact. Whoever had lived here before the goddess’s tantrum had run off, but they’d also left some of their foods behind.
Akri set her down so that they could both look through the broken things to find her food.
“Hey, Simi. I have something for you to eat.”
She froze at a voice that seemed familiar. Oddly accented and deep. Her akri held her back from the stranger.
Simi didn’t know why. He seemed friendly enough with his tousled dark-hair and thick beard. His skin was a bit darker than most of the Greek people.
But akri was tense as he faced him. “Who are you?”
The man stepped around a fallen column to kneel before Simi. He set a basket down at her feet and uncovered loaves of bread, fish and cheese. “I know you’re hungry, sweet. Dig in.”`
Delighted at the banquet, Simi let out a squeal before she set on the food with a vengeance.
The man stood up and offered his arm to her akri. “My name is Savitar.”
Her akri hesitated before he finally shook Savitar’s arm. “How do you know Simi?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “I know lots of things, Acheron. And I’ve come to help you learn your powers and to understand your simi demon. She’s too young still to be left to callous care, and the last thing I want is to see either one of you hurt because of it.”
“I would never hurt her.”
“I know, but the Charonte have special needs you must understand. Otherwise, she could die … as could you.”
“The Simi would never hurt her akri!”
Savitar laughed. “But you might take a finger or toe.”
She licked her lips as she remembered how yummy akri’s finger had been that morning. Savitar wasn’t wrong. If she got hungry enough, she mights take a finger. Maybe a toe, too. But right now, the bread and fish were much tastier.
Acheron scowled at Savitar. “Are you threatening me?”
Savitar laughed. “I never threaten. I just kill whatever annoys me. Stand down, Atlantean. I’m here as your friend.”
And he was definitely the Simi’s friend. She loved her anyone what brunged her food.
Buts it was weird that the men didn’t speak while she ate. Akri picked through the rubble as if looking for something while Savitar sat near her, watching her eat.
Very strange, and yet not really. Akri didn’t talk much to anyone. He was always guarded around others who weren’t her. ’Course, that made sense given that the evil gods had tried to kill him.
