The Flames of Hope Ch 15

Chapter 15~Useless Knowledge is Never Useless
After getting back in the car, I volunteered to take the wheel and began driving toward Atlas. Ruff and Tuff could be heard in the back seat arguing about what music we should listen too while everyone else seemed to be tuning them out in one way or another. Their fighting proves useless however as I am the one in control of the radio and I put in a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ CD into the CD player. They complain a bit about how they wanted to listen to something else, but I catch them singing along to a few of the sounds under their breaths in the rear view mirror.

As far as distance goes, we were still pretty far away but we were making good time. It was about mid afternoon when I saw a sign that said “Welcome to Wyoming” in big bold lettering. At this rate, if we didn’t stop for anything we would make it to Atlas by about 5 o’clock in the morning, but that didn’t seem like a good idea as everyone would be tired at that time of night. However, it would allow us to rest up and prepare for a fight is we were faced with one. Leiomenos knew we would be trying to save our friends, but I wasn’t sure if he would know Atlas could supply us with an answer as to where they were being held. Even so, I didn’t want to take the risk of going in unprepared.

“So, anyone know any good car games?” I called into the back seat. While I always enjoyed traveling on the open road, even I got bored at times and I could tell everyone else was too from the way they looked. About half the people in the car were asleep or just watching things pass us by while looking out the window.

“We could play the license plate game,” Sammy suggested. “We just need someone to keep track of all the states we see. Considering we are driving cross country, we maybe should have started when we first left, but it’s too late now.”

“Best thing I’ve heard. Anyone have a pen and paper?” I asked, and Kat let out a yawn before pulling a writing pad from the seat in front of her. We looked around and found a few states before we hit a dry spell as we were kind of just moving with the traffic. Once again everyone slipped into boredom. We kept driving down the road and I’ll admit I zoned out a bit, but then I felt a strange sensation pass through my body and I took notice of the world around me. It was like I passed into a world of black and white as I looked around.

“Does anyone else see this?” I asked and looked back, but everyone was frozen in place. I knew in an instant something was wrong and I felt like putting the car in reverse and backing out the way I came, but the engine slowly died as the color faded from it. I thought it would cover me as well and I’d be stuck in place, but it didn’t seem to affect me at all. I opened my door and stepped out of the car, looking around at this new world.

“I need to talk to you,” came the voice of a woman and I turned around ready to defend myself as I pulled my hammer out. “Oh put that thing away,” she said and flicked her finger, causing my hammer to shrink back down into the shape of a pendant as I looked on in disbelief.

“Who are you?” I asked her, as I tried to get some kind of clue from her attire. She was dressed in a short black dress and a pair of long black boots. Two balls of fire seemed to circle around her head at a slow speed as if lighting the area around her.

“Hecate, goddess of magic, crossroads, and to a lesser extent, trivial knowledge,” she said and made a gesture with her hands that caused small fireworks to explode in the air above her head in a show of traditional magic. “It was fate that our roads were bound to cross as I have information that you will need.”

“But if you’re the goddess of trivial knowledge, wouldn’t any information you give me be trivial?” I asked her. “Not to be rude or anything.”

“All information is trivial until it is used, but knowledge is never useless. Keep that in mind. I can only say this to you and you alone which is why I created this place outside the world, but it is slowly breaking down,” she told me and then looked around as if making sure no one was listening in. I looked around as well and as I looked up, I saw cracks forming in the dome and small pieces falling down.

“Alright, I’ll listen to what you have to say,” I told her and waited patiently for her words.

“I was hoping you would,” she said and a small smile appeared on her face. “Leiomenos has a hollow heart. A piece of him is missing, but it is not lost.”

I waited for more, but she didn’t say anything else and just looked at me as if I should understand, which I didn’t.

“Is that it?” I asked her and she nodded back to me. “Well, that is pretty trivial. I’m sure it will help if you spent all this energy just to tell me that.”

“It might be important if you use what you know,” she told me and I watched as the world started to break down as larger pieces fell and disappeared showing color from the world at large. “I would suggest you get back to your car because as soon as this world disappears, your car will keep driving without a driver.”

“Thanks,” I said and ran back for the car and jumped in. Then as if someone tossed a baseball through a window, the grey world shattered and the car went zooming at the speed I had been driving at. I swerved a bit trying to get use to the sudden burst in speed and everyone seemed to notice it and started yelling at me to keep my eyes on the road. I checked my mirror and saw Hecate wave to me before disappearing in a puff of smoke like a stage performer.

“You ok to drive Slowpoke?” Megan asked as she placed a hand on my shoulder from the back seat. “You aren’t falling asleep at the wheel or anything? That’s not like you.”

“I’m fine,” I told her. Hecate had told me this information was for me only, so I wondered if that meant I wasn’t suppose to tell anyone or if the information was trivial to everyone but me. I wasn’t sure so I kept it to myself and promised I would tell someone if it seemed important. “Just thought I saw something in the road.”

She seemed to accept this answer and we kept driving for what felt like forever.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive