TEN

Sylva quickly interjected, “Forgive me, great messenger eagle. Please forgive me for the Regent's foolishness and disrespect towards your presence, but what she tells you are the truth. We need the Fountain of Youth with great urgency, tell us its location so she might take a drink from it and be healed,”

“I know of your circumstances, warrior. That was why I was summoned to come before you . . .” said Gibran the eagle.

“Could we hurry this up?” interjected Joanne, rudely. “I’ll like to drink some more wine; I get really grumpy when I’m sober,”

“Hush now, child!” scolded Sylva.

“I shall turn a blind side to this scrawny girl-child before me and proceed with the message,” said Gibran the eagle, being exasperated. “I shall tell a tale that happened during the times of the first realms. Very long ago, when Hebe walked this very land you see before you, the Fountain of Youth was always in sight . . . that is until evil brought forth its ugly head and the Fountain was hidden away with the help of a mortal, that mortal was your forefather,”

“Yes! *slurp* Yes! I've heard this story plenty of times before . . . Hebe fell in love with a mortal man and they had a child, giving birth not too long after that, and by a miracle I'm a direct descendant from the union of Hebe and the mortal man. I come from the lineage of a goddess, but that really doesn't account for the Fountain of Youth, does it?” said Joanne, she was bored by all the mythical talks of the lineage of Regents, plus she had been out of wine so long that she was starting to sense her emotions come over her and she needed to repress it, and of course she was dying too, dying without wine should be a capital offence, she thought, and if she did survive she’ll make a law about it.

“You do not understand decendant of Hebe,” said Gibran the eagle, trying to convince the mortal. “In other to hide the Fountain of Youth, the Fountain had to be hidden in plain sight . . . in case anyone comes looking for it. So for the sake of love the mortal man had to drink all of the waters of the Fountain, to store its contents in his blood,”

“So you're saying there's no more Fountain of Youth ergo I'm going to die soon? . . .” asked Joanne, after belching loudly, her mind was embarking on the journey of understanding this logic, but she gave up halfway.

“No, you unintelligible being. You’re clearly dumber than as a rock,” said Gibran the eagle, being thoroughly vexed by the mortal, it flared hot air through it holes in its beaks. “What I am saying, scrawny girl-child. Is that you're the Fountain of Youth . . . Your blood holds the power to give life and immortality,”

“Shit, Hera's cunt!” blasphemed Joanne.

“How did an eagle learn sarcasm?”

“How can that be the only thing you grasp from the entire sentence the messenger said . . .?" asked Sylva, with a scornful frown.

“So, I don't need a cure. Because I am the cure,” blurted Joanne, her mind finally arriving to its conclusion.

The falcon ignored her, “I was sent to warn you scrawny girl-child. Durga the evil Regent of the city Bellona, who’s being influenced by the goddess named Enyo (goddess of war, destruction and fear) . . . they both know this truth and would stop at nothing to slice you open, drain your blood and gain powers of immortality for she and her city’s army, and if this happens she would be invincible even to the goddesses, no mortal or goddess would be able to stop her then.” said Gibran the eagle, its voice sending chills of fear as it shudders while talking of evil.

“Regent Durga is truly scary. She is rumored to be ruthless as well as deadly, we have to shut down the Heraen games, because if she comes we will be unprepared and things will hazardous to begin with.” advised Sylva, from her perspective.

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“No, I cannot do that. I won't succumb to fear ever again, we'll send word out to Regent Nakano (the Regent of the city Minerva) we shall report to her that Durga has the ambitions of breaking the peace treaty of the realms by starting a war,” said Joanne, with a blaze of bravery in her eyes. “If she wants me so badly, then let her come . . . if she wants war, and then let her come, and from now on we shall prepare for war.” she continues, before her face became puzzled. “Now Gibran the eagle, would mind flying me to the city palace? I desperately need some wine.”