THESE HIDDEN WINGS

[136] HALLS OF LEGENDS, HEROES AND GODS OF OLD

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"Hera."

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CLIMBING UP THE stairs, we moved farther down into the tower, coming to two large metal doors that seemed to be sealed expertly, a digital padlock by its side.

Lucas moved toward it, entering what I assumed was a four-digit password, the doors swinging open for us.

Lucas stepped aside beckoning for me to go in.

I hesitated for just a moment, glancing at him, but his encouraging nod allowed me to take the first curious step into the dimly lit room

I could feel him come up behind me, the lights flickering on, to which I assumed he had flipped on.

My eyes narrowed through the freshly lit room, trying to adjust to the sudden brightness, my eyes coming into contact with hundreds of little marbled statues, the sizes of medium vases, that littered the length of the room which was quite large.

"Welcome to the hall of Legends, heroes and gods of old," Lucas chuckled, as I glanced at him, the deep circles beneath his eyelids not able to hide the fact that he seemed genuinely in a better mood despite his progression, "yeah it's a mouth full."

We both chuckled at this.

Turning to study the little statues closer, I moved to the nearest one, picking it up and marveling at the architecture of the little statue. It was a little heavy though.

A fairly sculped man, his locks curly and deep reminding me of Harvests, making me feel that in real life, or had the statue had color, they would have been dark like midnight- no, that didn't look right, deeper brown, but not quite as dark.

That shade of midnight could only belong to one person.

My eyes trailed down to its well-sculped jaw and the fierceness in his eyes.

There was a severed head in his hand as he was mounted across a winged horse, seeming to raise the head whose hair was a writhing mount of vipers toward the sky, a battle cry on the verge of erupting from his lips.

"That's Perseus, son of Zeus and his mortal lover, Danaë," Lucas explained with a low sniff moving closer, "that's Medusa's head, the weapon he used to save the princess Andromeda from the sea monster, Cetus," he explained and I remembered reading of the Greek hero, once a few years ago in the palace library.

I still couldn't believe the number of details that were displayed on the tiny statue, of the very tiniest making it look so life-like and real I could only commend the artist.

"W-who made this?" I signed placing the statue back.

"Ogun," Lucas grinned back, " I mean Mr. Ogutsus," he replied moving toward another statue, "he likes to make these statues in his free time," he explained, "it's a weird hobby, but as I said," he huffed picking up one of the statues, "he has an obsession with the old gods. I think he still believes they exist somewhere out there," he explained turning slightly to me with the statue he was holding in his hands.

"Hercules, " he mentioned, and I moved closer to it, studying the little statue.

He stood looking like the hero of the legends, bareback, seemingly breathless, tall, and sharp, and yet he looked strangely familiar.

He seemed to be taller than Perseus. His hair was however long and rolled down his back like a wild mane.

I just couldn't put a finger on it, where had I seen that face?