Myths and Gargoyles by Jamie Hawke (interesting books to read in english txt) 📕

to one of the large, square buildings. “That stage is where we’ll be doing a lot of your training.”

“On a film stage?” I wasn’t sure if they were messing with me, but loved the idea. The practicality of it was also confusing, but I was open. Hell, the awesome HQ we’d stopped by wore a costume, so why not this.

We parked next to it and started for the entrance, my eyes drawn to several movie stars who I definitely recognized, but couldn’t quite place. The type that were always showing up in movies but weren’t quite big enough to be household names. One or two nodded back, and Pucky said they were Myths.

“Here’s the thing with movie studios,” Elisa said, opening the door to our training facility. “You think they could really do half the special effects they have without some form of magic? No way. I saw Avatar, and could point to the exact moments where magic was necessary. Not magic in that they really made islands float, but magic to get the technology where it needed to be.”

I entered the stage and stared in awe at all manner of movie sets set up in a sort of obstacle course, along with several people that I guessed were stuntmen, lined up with various kinds of weapons.

“Stations,” Red explained. “You’ll run through the obstacle course, going through various simulated experiences, some of which you’ll recognize from movies like Raiders, using actual set pieces.”

“Thought you’d like that,” Pucky said, beaming.

“Yeah yeah, it was her idea,” Red admitted.

“And then fight those guys?” I asked.

“Train with them,” Red corrected me. “Keep that in mind—everyone is here to make you be the best you can be. You’re only fighting your inner voice that wants you to quit.”

“Is that so?” I asked, chuckling. “Okay, so what next? When do you start yelling and telling me that pain is weakness leaving the body, and all that?”

She gave me a humored smile, then said, “None of that. Just… try to keep up.”

Without another word or even pausing to stretch, she was off, Pucky letting out a whoop and going after her, Elisa motioning for me to get going.

“I’m observing, this time,” she explained. “And right now, you’re falling behind.”

19

Red and Pucky already had a head start, and I really had no idea what I was doing. The obstacle course was in three levels, set up along the walls of the stage—basically a hangar-like structure—complete with what looked like a jungle, buildings, and even a water tank.

“Today,” Red said, pausing at the edge of the jungle section, then leaping to grab hold of a tree branch and using it to swing up to the next section.

I tried it, and the damn branch tore at my hands, my swing not high enough.

“Shit,” I yelled, landing on my back with a thud. First part of the course, and already I was gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of me.

“This is going to be a long day,” Elisa shouted. “Get up, buttercup.”

“As you fucking wish,” I finally said. I was trying for sarcastic but it came out more like a wheeze. Then I was up on my feet again, and found another route up to the next ledge, using a rock and tree trunk that I could jump off from, American Ninja-style. I’d watched that show with my mom enough times to get a basic idea about some of this stuff. It’d been her favorite show when I was young. She was always trying to encourage me to go be a stuntman, because she’d played around with that field of work once… a long time ago. If she could only see me now.

“Pucky’s almost to the next round,” Red called out, appearing on another ledge that was made to look like the top of a short cliff. I grabbed a rope disguised as a vine, and climbed.

At the top, a burst of white feathers came at me and I nearly fell back, but ducked and was able to roll forward to avoid what I saw seconds later were the images of swans.

“Not fair,” I shouted down to Elisa.

“We’re trying to train you to go up against evil in its rawest form,” she countered. “If a few swans scare you, then we’ve got bigger problems.”

“Hardy-har,” I mumbled, and saw Red disappearing into a dark cave ahead.

Entering after her, I saw where the magic part came in. They hadn’t wanted it out in the open, I guessed, because who knows who could wander into the studio. But in this section of the course, they had all sorts of monsters from movies I’d seen. Inside the cave an illusion made the ceiling appear to be open sky. A dragon swooped by, and to my left a creature with eyes on its hands instead of its face was running for me. Creepy as hell, but not as bad as the stupid doll with the knife. All of this was familiar, though the only ones I could easily place were the Rodents of Unusual Size that leaped for me as I sprinted through a swamp-like area. ROUSs, as they were called in the Princess Bride, meant there might also be quicksand and spurts of fire, I remembered, since my dad had watched the movie with me at least a hundred times. Sure enough, a spurt of fire sprang up and I dodged, wondering if they were testing me on my knowledge of film as much as my skills.

The obstacle course kept on like this. As I plunged into the water tank a mershark suddenly appeared out of the depths but it didn’t actually try to eat my head, much to my relief—as there was no way I’d be able to outswim that thing. Struggling on, I reached a building which promptly burst into flames, it seemed, while around me other buildings were blowing up. I had to escape all that, staying low from the smoke, paying attention to trip wires and ticking, and