Freebie Shorts #4 (Uncle Hades Drops in for a Visit)

Lykos

I'm sitting on the couch reading a book when all of a sudden a wall of flames appears in front of me and my uncle steps out.

The man is so overly dramatic. "Hello my dearest nephew! Have you missed me?"

I roll my eyes. "Of course I did uncle. How are things?"

He waves a hand. "Oh the same. You know how it is."

I nod. "Of course I do. So, what are you doing here?"

"Well I thought i'd come congratulate you on the birth of your child. Here I brought the little tyke a present."

He hands me a gigantic box.

I cautiously open the lid and say, "Uncle, what is this?"

"A baby Hellhound. I would've brought a Cerberus but there aren't many of them left and besides a three headed dog might be a little much for a child."

I put a hand on my forehead and say, "Uncle. Talon is a newborn. He can't take care of a hellhound."

My uncle says, "No but you can. I promise you'll thank me in the long run. Hellhounds are extremely loyal but they can also be extremely vicious. Train him up right and he'll make a fine addition to the family. You won't find another animal more protective than this one."

"Okay, okay. You've convinced me."

He claps his hands together and says, "Oh goodie. Here's a handbook on how to take care of him. Now where's the little tyke? I have another gift for him."

He drops a book the size of three encyclopedias put together on my coffee table causing the poor piece of furniture to shake under the force of the impact."He's in the nursery."

My uncle makes his way down the hall and I follow box in hand. We enter the nursery where Talon is sleeping peacefully. My uncle looks into the crib and says, "This child is already powerful in his own right. He's inherited your abilities but is also an Alpha born wolf. However, I have seen how his life will turn out as he is. It's not exactly happy. The time will come when he has to prove himself to someone and failure means the loss of his happiness. Therefore I'm giving him a bit of a leg up. He already has the powers of Zeus and Poseidon. He inherited immortality from you. So the only gift I have left to give him is a piece of me."

My eyes widen. "You can't mean..."

He nods. "Yes. I will give him some of my power as a gift. It isn't much. I can't throw lightening or cause storms like my brothers but I do have control of the underworld and with it the dead. The flame thing is only a simple magic trick. He'll be able to use it of course. However, I think the little one here can use the power to control the dead to his advantage. For some reason I keep envisioning him conjuring up an army of zombie skeletons or something. I seriously need to stop watching The Walking Dead. It's frying my brain and giving me outrageous ideas."

I hold back the laugh I want to let out at his Walking Dead theory and watch in fascination as he says a few words in ancient Greek and places his hand over my son's heart.

When he's done he turns to me and says, "It's done now. You'll have to be on high alert. Train Talon to fight as you do. He's the only demigod in existence to have the powers of the big three as everyone calls us. He'll be a target now. I know you can handle yourself and have no doubts you'll be able to protect him. You know how it goes. Once the word gets around that no one can fight you or him they'll leave him alone. Until then, you'll have to watch your back."

I nod. "I know. I'll protect him with my life. Plus this little hound you gave us will help too. No one wants to fight a hellhound."

He laughs. "That is true. Well, I must be going. Can't be gone too long otherwise people think it's okay to run rampant and I come back to a disorganized mess."

I laugh. "Well then you better hurry. Come back and see us soon."

He says, "Oh you can count on it." Then in an instant he's gone.

Declan enters the room a few minutes later. "What's with the foreign scents in here?"

"My uncle came to visit."

"Oh I see. Wait, which uncle?"

I look over my shoulder at him. "Hades."

"Seriously? What did he want?"

"To congratulate us on Talon's birth and give us some gifts."

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Gifts?"

I nod and hand him the box. "Gift number one a hellhound puppy."

He opens the box and says, "This is insane."

I look at our son and say, "Not as insane as gift number two."

"What was gift number two?"

I clear my throat and say, "Well, our son now has the powers of three gods instead of two."

His mouth drops open in shock. "Holy shit."

"We have a long road ahead of us. As soon as he's old enough I'll start teaching him to fight."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. "He'll be a target. Other demi-gods will try and kill him. Once word gets around that he can defend himself and there's no point in trying they'll leave him alone but until then it's going to be an uphill battle."

He puts an arm around me and says, "We'll be ready."

"I hope so."