Family Legacy

           

                                         Family Legacy

   



         The year is 416 B.C. Alexander Black laid on his death bed in his home town of Placean o the coast of Greece. He is the last living member of his family to have meet Troy, his father. He was a man who had saved his home town from Persian invaders and Troy had stopped another army in Egypt from destroying a major city and these were his to biggest adventures. Troy had set off on a shipnorth when Alexander was Twelve. Sense then Troy hasn't been heard of, but Alexander knew his father survived the trip and made it to his destination where ever in the would that might be.

   



         One day while Alexander was feeling well enough to talk, he called for his son that seemed to have excelled when compared to his siblings. He was Krono Alexander’s youngest son who was seventeen years old. Krono had shown good leader ship skill while he was in school. Alexander wanted his father's legacy to continue to be told and known by someone. Alexander told Krono all the stories about his father. After this Krono wanted to know more about his grandfather. How did he accomplish the things he did, did he have any hidden treasures, but the thing that bugged him the most was where did his grandfather end up at the end of his last adventure?

 



          For the next seven months Krono listened and documented everything that his father could remember about Troy. Finally in the summer of 415 B.C. Alexander died at age seventy four.

With the information that his father had given him decided to tackle the biggest question that Krono had I his mind “ Where did his grandfather end up at?”.

 



          Krono used his fathers money to buy three bireme's a boat with two rows of oars on each side and the sailing masts. Krono used information from previous explorations by Greeks and learned of a passageway to the west that might lead him to the area where Troy landed. He set sail the next morning,  ready for what ever the sea had to throw at him.

   

         The Mediterranean Sea was calm and the sailing went fine, his fleet of three biremes were making good time. They've been going at a good pace for the last fifteen days of the trip.

   

         “ We've gone about six hundred miles.” Krono said this trying to brighten the spirits of his crew members. Krono had no clue how long it would take to get the sea passage he had heard about. Krono prepared for the trip by packing a few months worth of food with them that was being dragged be hide their boats in smaller rowboat like boats.  It required a lot of food to feed the banks of oarsmen.  Near the middle of the day the wind suddenly pick up, it was like one of the gods were helping Krono and his crew go faster.

   



         One early mourning after twelve more days of rowing, Krono could start to see land approaching on each side of him. The land seemed to be closing in on his fleet.“ Keep away from the shallows” Ordered Krono as he tried to keep his ships from running a ground. Krono made sure that the northern coast was always in sight.

 



          Sticking to the coast the fleet continued to go north. Another twelve days past and the wind was still strong on their backs. Krono was know in territory never see by Greek eyes. The weather was cooler I this new area. Soon they came to another place in the sea were the land seemed to be closing I on them, but the fog detoured Krono from exploring the new area in fear of hitting rocky a bottom.

    Another five days passed and the wind was furious. The cold was making rowing hard for the oarsmen, but the wind picked up their slack. To make things worse Krono only had a few day worth of food left, they would have to start rationing food. Krono had a idea that might save the crew and solve the problem. The oarsmen would row for eight hours a day. While they were rowing a team of men would, cast nets in the empty boats they were tugged and catch fish in their nets.

 



         Krono went over the plan in his mind to see if there were any mistakes I his plan. The next step would be for ten men to go ashore to cook the caught fish and bring them back to the crew. If Krono did this they would go slower, but they wouldn't starve, Krono needed all the men he could get for the trip home. Ten more days creeped by.

   

         Krono woke up one night while he was sleeping in the captains tent on the deck, he was in a cold sweet, there was a feeling in his stomach that he didn't like. Krono thought it might be a bad omen or it could be someone didn't give him a cooked fish that evening. He wiped the sweat of his forehead and went back to sleep. The moon was swallowed up by the suns light as Krono wobbled out of his cabin. The biremes made their way through the icy waters, and dark clouds covered the mourning sun. A thin Sheet of ice formed on the surface of the ocean. The day continued and Krono didn't notice the change in the thickness of the ice, he just though that what happened earlier  was getting to him.

   

         Two more days dragged on. and the clouds had gotten even darker. The ice had now gone from being a millimeter to a centimeter thick. The day progressed into the evening hours. Krono was about to send men ashore to cook fish, when all of a sudden it started raining ice. Krono and his crew had ever seen such a thing back in Greece. The crew took this as a sign from the gods and they began to row with all their strength, not taking any orders from Krono or any other officer. Krono began to wonder if he should have went o this journey.

   

The raining ice had damaged a few of the oars and some of the supplies but nothing to serious. The ice was continuing to thicken making travel even slower. The raining ice had now turned into raining slush, and the winds were still going strong.

   

Krono was sitting on the ship deck and randomly asks one of the officers “Do you regret coming on the journey?” The officer didn't reply. Krono was starting to doubt  himself. From out of nowhere Krono hears the snapping of wood, the bireme next to him had struck a mountain of ice under the surface of the water.

 



There was nothing Krono could do for the poor souls on the ship. If the other two boats stopped the ice would freeze the water around the boats getting them stuck too. They continued forward, off in the distance Krono could hear the faint screams of the oarsmen shackled to the boats lowest levels.

   



Three days after the storm Krono and his crew went ashore. Three men dressed in animal skins approached him. Strangely they said “hello” to Krono in Greek. Krono Told the men about his journey, they welcomed Krono and his crew into their village to rest and study for as long as they want.

 

Krono replied “yes” to their proposal. Krono left five men on each ship to watch it will the rest of the crew went into the village.

   

A fail old man adorned in bone jewelery, approached Krono.

“ What is your reason for being here?” the old man asked.

    “ I'm looking for my grandfather.” replied Krono

“ No one has traveled to our village for ages.” he answered.” Other than a scout that a rival village sends every few weeks demanding we give our land to their warriors we barely get any visitors” 

   

         “Who's been threatening you?” Krono asked.

      “ Come to the story hut and I will tell you, for many many moons this village has ruled a vast amount of land.” the elder explained “ But recently a tribe from the north has been taking land on our border,  and they've demanded we give them our farming land. They recently have raided a storage area that held a majority of our food supply, and with the cold times at their greatest i'm afraid our village won't make it if we don't deal with this new threat.”

 



          Krono Continued to listen to the man ramble. The elder told Krono stories about the village and his peoples history. Remembering what he was looking for, Krono paid closer attention to the stories.

   



         Krono listened to the last of the elders stories.

“ODIN” the man said “ He is our god of wisdom, he created a fountain named after himself, the Fountain of Odin. It is said to be a beautiful fountain that granted any mortal who drank from it a vast amount of knowledge, and eternal youth.”

    Whether or not this story is true it is the one Krono remembers the most about.

 

          “ Sit down traveler!” The elder said to Krono “ There is one more story I want you to hear, back when I was a wee child there was a common story I heard, it was about the gods, they sent us a deity down to us to enlighten us in many a ways.”

 

          Before the elder could finish the sentence Krono heard shouting and went outside to check it out.  I man was send what looked like warriors out of a gate.

  “ Whats happening?” Krono asked

  “ We're being attacked!” replied the man as he rushed of to get more troops.

   

         Suddenly Krono was caught in a group of troops that were leaving the village. Krono managed to break free from the group. He looked around. The troops that had just come from the village we're being fired upon by enemy archers, and they were dropping like flies. More enemy troops were coming out of the wood work to attack the village, the majority were carrying clubs, or short spears. Krono saw two opposing groups collide. He saw a gigantic man carrying a huge club, take a swing a small warrior and he flew ten yards before falling to the ground motionless.

 



Out of the corner of his eye Krono saw three troops running at him. Not wanting to be killed he darted of into the woods. He ran until there was no sound behind him,he stopped on a small hill that was cleared of trees. He looked back at the would to see if there was anyone following him.

He turned back around and standing in front of him was a young looking man, but when Krono looked into his eyes he saw a man who had lived for a hundred years. Krono examined him closely   

he had a slightly darker skin tone than the people he had seen in the village. Instead of the rough animal skin robes other villagers wore, he wore animal skins fashioned into a tunic.

   



         “ What are you doing here.!?” the man asked.

    Krono replied “ I was in a village close to the coast, and from out of no where a group of warriors attacked us and I ran into the woods so I wouldn't get killed.”

   



         “That group of idiots haven't tried to attack there in the last 70 y....” the man quickly cut off.

   

With curiosity Krono asked “70 what? Years? The man quickly began to walk away down the hill. Krono let him get far enough ahead so that he could follow him without being spotted. Krono followed the man through the woods for a while until the man cam to a cliff he quickly tapped it and it slid open and the man walked in, the door slid back into place behind him. Krono managed to catch a glimpse of what looked like a underground spring.

 



Krono approached the cliff he felt around for a switch or something to use to open the door like the man did, nothing. Krono began to become frustrated, he grabbed a stick next to him and started to beat the side of the cliff. Looking up the side of the cliff he noticed a small ledge twenty feet above him. He looked for foot holds and started climbing the cliff.

   



Krono managed to make it to the ledge. In front of him was a hole in the cliff that seemed to go into the cliff. Krono peeked his head through the hole. There was a magnificent waterfall that began at the upper most regions of the cavern and and ended in the spring below Krono. He could see the man drinking from the spring, the man walked out of Kronos view, so Krono leaned farther through the hole and noticed there was a ladder that came up to the hole.

 

         The man turned back around and noticed Krono, their eyes meet. The grabbed a bronze sword from a stone table carved out from the side of the cave and began running toward the ladder that went to the hole in the wall. Krono heart filled with fear, he quickly backed out from the hole. Running on adrenalin Krono began scaling the cliff, he wanted to get away from that man as quick possible. In Kronos mind it was all a blur, time seemed to go by quickly, before Krono knew it he was near the top of the rocky mountain it was a large flat area.

 

          The rest of the mountain seemed to slick to try to climb. Krono knew he was trapped. The man crawled over the edge onto the same flat as Krono. The man pulled the bronze sword from its sheath. The man took a stab a Kronos head and caught him on the side of the cheek, blood was dripping from the wound.  Krono did some fancy foot work and dodged the mans next to swings.

 



          Kronos adrenalin was wearing off and he was getting backed up to the edge. The man took another stab and managed to slice into Kronos arm almost to the bone. Krono let the force of the blow push him back of the cliff. Krono expected to hit ground, but instead his back meet the branches of the tall pines which made the fall a lot softer.

 

          Krono hit the ground with a thud. He stood up and quickly checked to see if anything was broken, he quickly dressed his wound with a piece of cloth. Fear took the place of adrenalin in Krono, he didn't want to meet up with the man again so he ran towards where black smoke was rising from. Krono ran out of the woods and saw the battle field. Body were everywhere and Krono could hear the moans and cries from help from the one that weren't lucky enough to have died.

   

         

         Krono walked into the ruined village, the majority of the buildings were either destroyed or burning. A small group of villagers approached Krono.

   

“          What happened?” Krono asked

   

         “ What happened?! We just lost our homes and our families,and there likely to send another wave of attackers to finish us off, that's what happened!” A woman from the group yelled at Krono.

     

“ Don't worry I have boats we can get on them and find a place far away from here.” Krono said trying to get woman who had yelled to stop crying. “ Follow Me.”

     



         Krono lead the group to the boats only one was left and most of the oars were destroyed. Krono used a few row boats to ferry the surviving villagers onto the boats. Krono set sail south as fast as his bireme would take him. When the were a couple hundred yards from shore Krono could see a villager run towards the boats, but sadly he was running a way from more enemy archers and was quickly killed. Krono grew fond of the woman how had yelled at him and learned her name was Alicia and was the chiefs daughter.

   



         Finally after a day of sailing south, the ship took so much water the had to abandon it. There was no was that Krono could build a boat that could sail back to Greece, so he settled for the next best thing he was going to start a town and marry Alicia. At first the town was just a bunch of lean-two’s but by late summer everyone had a cabin like house. Krono also had a surprise, Alicia gave birth to a baby boy, and Krono named him Vance “Troy” Black after Kronos Grandfather.

        Troy stood at the entrance of his cave home and he quickly tapped the stone that slide it open and he walked inside and laid his fathers bronze sword that his father had left him after he died on, back on the stone table. Troy knew his grandson Krono was still alive, he had to make the fight look real so he wouldn't anger Odin and be tortured.  It's one of the things that come with drinking from Odin's Fountain. It's really a curse not a gift, when someone drinks it's waters they git the job of guarding for eternity until someone else drinks from the fountain, then the old guard gets to leave this place, but still has to deal with never growing old, so they still can't raise a family.

   

         Troy remembered when he first arrived here seventy odd years ago, he enlightened the village and taught them the Greek ways and it's language. Then one day while he was very ill, a man offered him a drink that would cure him,so he drank the drink that was actually the fountains water, and Troy is now the guardian of the fountain until someone else drinks from the fountain.Troy thought deeply about his situation, he than sulked away into his bed room to sleep and try to get his family of his mind.