Clash of the Protectors

Dinner comes to an end, and we venture to the living room. The time has come for the protectors to take action. To long have we sulked in the shadows, fearful of the gods' rath. We must take the offensive. At least that is what I believe. Hopefully the others agree. I call the meeting to order.

"So as you all know, the gods are angry at men yet again. However, unlike all the other times, the gods are more hell bound on their destruction. We must put an end to this—"

"And what do you suggest Ms. Hero?" Alastair rises from his chair and starts pacing. "Storm up to Mount Olympus and fight the gods? Have you so much vanity that you believe you are better than the gods?"

"Alastair please stop," Andromeda begs. "Just listen to—"

"No! You listen to me. She believes we have the power to defeat the gods; then why hasn't she already gone up to Olympus? Huh? Why has she hidden from the view of them since the beginning?" With this notion he stops pacing and looks directly at me. By this point I'm sitting on the edge of my chair, fists clenched, ready to tackle Alastair. "We would have better luck negotiating with the gods."

Pelagios begins to say, "That's actually not a bad i—"

I can't take it anymore. "Are you out of your damn mind? Why the hell would we walk straight into a death trap? Then, there really would be none to protect Earth, and then men would truly be doomed. As for your oh so humbling description of my vanity, that is not true. I do not believe that I'm better than the gods. I don't believe that I can defeat them. I don't even think that all of us together can defeat the gods!"

"Hey," Galadriel says. "Way to believe in us."

"I'm sorry, but honestly we have a one in twenty-five million chance of beating them."

"Well then," Alastair says. "Why did you call us here? Just to tell us that we are going to be beat by the gods? That we are useless?"

"No, I did not. Even though I believe out little, lovely, band of protectors can't win, I do believe that with some help we will be victorious."

"Praise the gods!" he says sarcastically. "She has a plan. Oh please enlighten us oh wise one."

I role my eyes at his ridiculous notion. "Alone we cannot beat the gods. But with others, we can prevail. We are not the only good creatures about this world. I know that if we can convince them to join side we will win."

"And how do you propose we wind the devotion of these supposed good creatures? While you spend most of your time with humans, I've actually been spending time with the other creatures, like centaurs and nymphs. While normally they are fiery and full of spirit, they are so fearful. It has been long since they fought in a great war. The don't even fight amongst themselves anymore, for fear of drawing the gods' eyes upon themselves. And why would they fight for humans? Humans have deemed them myths, have driven them from their natural homes, and destroyed the beautiful nature of—"

"I know; believe my I know the horrors of humans. I realize humans aren't making good impressions of themselves. But if humans get taken out, what makes you think the others won't be destroyed in the process accidently? Or on purpose? With humans gone, the gods will find other sources to take their rage out on. Do you really want to risk that

I was expecting Alastair to make some snotty remark, but he doesn't; he just stops pacing and sits down, putting his face in his hands. The room gets quiet. I look around the room to see if anyone will speak; but no one does. I stare at Galadriel and Andromeda, my best friends, expecting them to at least do something; but they don't. I can't believe this. Have the protectors really lost that much faith in humanity? I know they can be terrible, no, they are horrendous the majority of the time, but they still deserve life. The gods put them here on this Earth; they might as well keep them here.

I can't take it anymore. If they won't help me, then I will go by myself to find others who will. I know some creatures from long ago who should be willing to help. I begin walking away, but someone grabs my arm. It is Galadriel.

"Do you really want to save humanity?" he asks.

"Of course."

"And do you really believe you can get others to help your plan?"

"With all of my heart."

Galadriel looks into my eyes with the expression like "you better be right or I'm going to kill you" look. "Well then," he says, turning to the rest of the lovely people. "I'm in." I smile. Thank the gods one of them has common sense.

Andromeda stood up. "I'm not going to let the two of you have all the fun. If we get to let a can of whoop-ass on the gods, then I'm in." One by one the others start pledging their allegiances to the cause. The only one left now is Alastair.

"So what do you say Alastair?" Pelagios says. "You gonna join us or what?"

Alastair gets up from his chair and walks directly towards me, until he is practically a centimeter away. He stands there for a few seconds, staring at me until he finally backs up and says, "Might as well." Yes! Thank the gods. "But," oh for goodness sakes, what is he going to say. "I'm not doing this for the humans. I'm doing this so she (he points at me) doesn't get all the credit for saving humanity if this stupid plan works." Of course. I know Alastair was too corrupted of a person to be doing this out of the kindness of his heart. Now that I've got my posse, it's time for some recruiting. And we better recruit a hell of a lot of creatures, or this entire sentimental meeting would have been for nothing.