Read Online The Gift From Poseidon: When Gods Walked Among Us (Volume 2) by J. A. Ginegaw - Free Book Online Page B

armor over whatever he dressed into or was born in.
    Finished, Mermaid guides atop Gryphons led each team through a long, twisting tunnel; this corridor ramped up toward the playing surface of the arena.  During this walk into gamely battle, the two teams could see and speak to each other through a separating wall made out of rickety wooden slats.
    “Come on, Alexander, don’t be shy!  Do tell us what it’s like to wake up each morning to a face uglier than a Yeturi’s soiled backside!”
    Cheers rang out all around Viracocha.  Other friendly Centaurs, interested Gryphons, and curious Arachna followed and cheered him on.  Alexander just shook his head, stared straightforward, and continued to march toward the doors.  Not the reaction he sought, Viracocha fired again:
    “I slipped the Mermaids a couple of extra gold pieces to ensure I was on the opposite side of your stench-ridden filth.  By the time this game is over, I will have knocked out so many of your teeth, the only thing you’ll be able to mouth will be a salt lick block!”  Another round of rowdy laughter filled the tunnel.
    “Why, Viracocha?” Alexander pleaded.  “Why do you stalk me as if I am some violent thief or murderer or ––”
    “How dare you hold yourself in such esteem, you talking mule?  We both know you are a lesser Centaur than the most ruthless criminal could possibly be.”  Viracocha’s words as if the sharpest of blades cutting through tender meat, his mocking tone morphed into one of pure fury.  “In the shameless pursuit of my sister, you pretend as if her brotherly caretaker is some invalid, as if I am powerless to identify your intent!  WHO ARE YOU TO BE SO BOLD?”
    As Viracocha screamed these last words, he slammed his blackened shield up against the separating wall.  Inside a gleaming helmet his mother most likely polished for him, Alexander’s pasty white face turned smug.
    “ Finally … FINALLY!” Xavier howled.  “Now we know why you two Centauresses have been bickering like old hags!”  As if he stalked prey in league with Viracocha, the crude Gryphon flashed a near demonic grin.  “A brother valiantly defending his sister’s honor – yet she seeks to just give it away.  HA!  Now we’re talkin’!”
    This nasty insult received but a nasty glare back in protest.  Viracocha was a mad, furious Centaur, not a mad, insane one.  Especially in such an enclosed space, an adult Centaur had little chance of handling even the weakest full-grown Gryphon.  Xavier was barely two-thirds the girth of his oversized new king, but that mattered little.  He made up for this by way of a sinewy savageness few dared match.  Well known by near all as a playboy with the boorish mind of the infamous Kassandros, he used females for his own gain and dismissed them just as quickly.
    “You skewer the lad with vile words as if he were a freshly killed boar!” a massive Nubian from behind Alexander bellowed.  “A great celebration upon us – embrace the mood.  Enough already, my noble Olmec!”
    Although eager to spar with any creature that defended Alexander, Viracocha wisely acted as if deaf to Seneferre’s words and continued to glare at his quarry.  Achaemenes, a bright red Arachna and somewhat new king himself, shadowed the hunter.  Across from him on the other side, Artafarnah, a cobalt blue Arachna and his kind’s lead general did the same to the hunted.  Both wisely kept silent.
    “No, no, no !  Let the squabbling continue!” Xavier demanded with a bloodthirsty growl.  “Let none of us stop you, Centaur, from swinging your taunts at his youthful throat – I say grind that ax!  It has been far too long since Harpastum killed a player.  Perhaps today we get lucky!”
    “Careful what you wish for, Xavier!” Simonacles shouted with a wide grin.  “That dead player might be you !”  Laughs erupted all around the outgoing Gryphon king.  Laid-back and cheerful outside the Harpastum pitch,