Free People's Champion by Lizzy Ford

People’s Champion
     
    “… and this is the part
where he won the gold in swimming and later that afternoon, in
judo!” Alessandra boasted.
    I paused to listen, concealed from view by
the night and trees in the forest where I had lived with soon to be
thirteen-year-old Lyssa, the female nymphs who kept her company,
and the priests managing the orphanage where we all lived.
    “Wow!” breathed one of the slender, elegant
teens with her. “I heard he competed in seven separate events in
one day and won gold in all of them.”
    “He did. He’s called the People’s Champion,
because everyone loves him,” Lyssa said proudly but in a whisper.
“He’s stronger than all the gods combined.”
    “That’s not possible!”
    “But it’s true!”
    I smiled despite my disapproval. Lyssa knew I
didn’t want her talking about my gold-medal past. She was too
young, and sheltered, to understand why, but I couldn’t think of my
past without recalling everything I was ashamed of. Would she look
at me with the same glow of admiration and love, if she knew what I
did to her real parents?
    The past was best left in the past.
    Even knowing this, I hesitated to interrupt.
No one had ever loved me the way she did, never believed in me.
Since we hid in this forest seven years ago, I’d enjoyed a life I
never thought possible, one of peace, family and happiness.
Alessandra was my adopted daughter, and I her ugly protector.
    One day, she’ll learn the
truth. The soft whisper in my mind
tormented me from time to time.
    “But not today,” I replied quietly.
    Today, I was her Herakles. The nymphs who had
appeared from the forest to play with her when she was six had
remained with her, sensing what the priests knew. Alessandra was
important and one day, she was going to need all of us to protect
her. They were part of my family, too, sisters to the special
little girl the priests and I had to hide at all costs.
    I purposely snapped a twig before moving
forward into the light of the small campfire Lyssa had started. She
quickly closed the browser on her cell phone, and the clips of my
days as a champion disappeared from the screen. I pretended not to
notice, and she hastily tucked the phone away.
    Two of the other nymphs had accompanied us
this night to camp in the woods. Usually, five or six of the thirty
girls came. Recently, however, they’d discovered the campground
next to our forest and worse, the boys who often visited it with
their parents. All of my past heroics paled in comparison to the
appeal of teenage boys.
    The nymphs giggled, and I sat down across
from them. Lyssa’s bright blue eyes found me. She was smiling.
    “What did the priests teach you this week?” I
asked gruffly, already aware of her slow progress in class. The
priests blamed me for her lack of interest in school, and I humored
them the best I could. I was no scholar. I didn’t see the use in
most of what they taught. The potential threats to Alessandra
wouldn’t be defeated by her ability to speak Greek, or how many
deities she could accurately name in under sixty seconds, or how
well she recited the credo of the priests who plotted to rid the
world of gods.
    None of that mattered. But I had to pretend
it did, for the sake of what normalcy a secret orphanage run by
rebel priests, and filled with magical creatures, could
provide.
    Lyssa sighed and rolled her eyes.
“Nothing.”
    I raised an eyebrow.
    The nymphs giggled and glanced at one
another.
    “Shut. Up!” Lyssa snapped at them, features
flaring red.
    “What?” I asked.
    “We started health class this semester, and
Lyssa is the only girl in class who hasn’t … you know,” one of the
nymphs said cheerfully.
    Alessandra groaned.
    My brow furrowed. “Hasn’t what?” I asked.
    “You know,” the other nymph said impatiently.
“Started.”
    “Shut up, Hectate!” Lyssa snapped.
    “Started what ?” I asked, confused.
    “Her ... period.” Hectate whispered the last
word almost too quietly