The Secret O: Chapter 1.1

So this is the first installment in my surprise for my sister (see my previous post if you missed it). I wrote this one out quickly, so it probably won't be the final version. It really does still need to be edited, but here it is in all its raw glory.

Chapter 1

Alyssa awoke to the sound of a door closing. Brushing aside her shoulder length blonde wavy hair, she peered at the clock on her beside table. 2 am, who could be coming into the bed and breakfast at this time of night, she thought to herself.
Getting up from her bed, she quickly wrapped herself in a robe and headed downstairs. The front lobby was illuminated with Christmas lights, and with a quick scan around she found it empty. Turning to the left, she headed into the living room and quickly spotted the figure who had woken her. The figure stood by its luggage, with its back to her, holding its jacket and surveying a bookcase in the corner.

"Excuse me?" she said cautiously, "I'm sorry but we're all booked up, it is Christmas eve after all"

"Too booked up even to accommodate your older sister" said the figure. Alyssa jumped into her sisters arms as she turned around.

"Isabelle, I knew you said you'd be heading in early this morning, but I thought you'd meant 6 am early, not 2 am early"

Isabelle smiled at her younger sister, she was six years older and stood a foot taller than Alyssa. But other then her shoulder length brown hair and dark brown eyes, contrasting Alyssa's hazel eyes, they we're identical; both shared their mothers lean features and youthful looks.

"Shall I set you up with a room?" asked Alyssa, "I think this is the first time you've come to visit my bed and breakfast" Alyssa had bought the old Victorian Inn that had been built on a mountainside and opened up a bed and breakfast just the year before. None of her family had been able to visit so far.

"Yes, but it's quite lovely!" answered Isabelle smiling, " I love the style!"

"So, should I show you to your room?"
Isabelle's face suddenly turned grim as she said "Not yet, we have some important business to discuss"

"At two in the morning? Surely this can wait till tomorrow" But Isabelle simply shook her head. Alyssa surveyed her sister, a grim expressions now creeping up onto her own face, "Isabelle whats happened? Has something happened to mum and dad?"

"No, nothing like that. This is more business oriented" She answered. Alyssa had never seen her sister so nervous, stumbling over her words as she tried to explain, "You see, you've had a proposition, more of a recruitment actually..."

"Isabelle, sit down and take a breath" Alyssa responded, guiding her sister to one of the sofa's that sat before the large fire place in the living room, "Sit and I'll make us some tea"
As Alyssa began to walk away, Isabelle reached up and grabbed her sisters arm, "Alyssa, you should read this, it'll explain it much better than I ever could" she said, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out a letter.

Alyssa took the letter from her sister and sat down. On the top side of the envelope, Alyssa's name had been written in big beautiful calligraphy letters and on the bottom side the letter had been sealed with wax. Alyssa looked closely at the wax, a winged staff with two snakes curled around it had been imprinted into the wax. She looked up at her sister, but Isabelle showed no sign of what the letter held. Standing up, she walked to the main desk in the lobby and found a letter opener. Breaking the wax seal, she returned to her seat in the living room to read the letter.

A the top of the letter was a crest with the words Secret O, in the center. Underneath the crest was beautifully handwritten calligraphy text that read:

"Dear Alyssa,

It is my great pleasure to invite you to join the H section of the Secret O. Along with this letter you will receive a special book, all the information you need will be enclosed in this book. We will be in contact for your first assignment, until then, please inform yourself upon the society.

Sincerely,

Hermes"

After Alyssa had finished reading the letter she looked up at her sister, "Hermes? As in the Greek god of thieves?"

Isabelle quickly met her sisters eyes, "Hey, he's not just the god of thieves, he's also the protector and patron of travelers and herdsman and..."'

"Isabelle" interrupted Alyssa, "They call it mythology for a reason"

Isabelle simply shook her head and stood up. She walked over to her luggage and pulled out a book and walked back to her sister saying, "Alyssa, please, if there is anything ever that I will require you to listen to in your life time, it is this. The Greek gods are real and they need our help"

Exciting plans are brewing!

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I last posted, having a new puppy keeps you busy! So I had meant to stick with character profiles for this blog but I've decided to take on a little personal project on for my younger sister. She's just turned 12 and she always talks about how she'd love to open up a bed and breakfast in Quebec when she's older. Well a couple years back, when I was in university and broke, I couldn't afford to buy her a Christmas present..... so I built one (I swear this will all tie back to the blog shortly). I bought a binder from Walmart that turned into a briefcase and went to work on constructing a magical tale for her. Having always been a fan of Greek mythology, I built her a story around the Greek gods (obviously adjusting the stories to be appropriate for a 9 year old). When she woke Christmas morning, she had a letter to open first, inviting her to become a spy for Hermes and join forces with the Gods (the leaders of "The Secret O" society) in fighting the Titans.

In the letter it indicated that all she would need was in the binder/briefcase under the tree. When she opened it she found a sort of manual I had written up. The manual began by welcoming her to the group and giving her a brief introduction/background to the group. Following this there was an entire history I had written, including the actual story of how the Gods first defeated the Titans, with the addition of my made up story about how the Titans had been freed from Tartarus and had an army of humans at their disposal. The history also went into how the Gods had almost been destroyed but were slowly recruiting only the best of the best to fight in their army. After this history was a couple charts which included the different roles the Greek Gods played in the Secret O (which stands for Olympus if you haven't figured that out). For example, Hermes who is the god of travel and thieves (among other things), was training the spy division of the army. At this point came her introduction into Hermes league, she had been recruited for this special division and I had written a couple of pages on how much of an honor this was.

Now came the fun stuff, in addition to this manual, at the back of the binder I had written profiles on each of our family members, saying who they swore allegiance to, how dangerous they were, what their background was and what she needed to discover about each of them.

This entire project took me about a week to do up, and she still has fun with it to this day. In the fictional Secret O society, I was her mentor and so I could call her up and give her secret missions at any point, so even though I lived miles away we could still play together.

Now for all this to tie in together I need to tell you a bit about a game I used to play with her when we were younger (I also played this when I was younger with just myself). We used to pretend that our house was a bed and breakfast and that all our family members were different guests staying there. We would "spy" on them when they were out and about and gather "intel" and try and foil there plans to destroy the world (you starting to see where I'm going with this?). So I would like to combine our adventures of when we were younger and the story I wrote for her with her future dreams of running a bed and breakfast in Quebec. I figured I could write a story with her and I as the main characters, me recruiting her and using her bed and breakfast as our base of operations. I figured I could write up our own adventures we'd pretend to have as children but in a story format. If I get enough done on this story, I'd like to print it out and give it to her as a Christmas present. Her very own storybook, with her and her future dreams as the main storyline. So as I write the story, I'm going to attempt to publish the pieces on my blog and see what you guys think. I will also be doing more character histories and posting these in between the chapters I write out.

I hope you guys enjoy it! Make sure to give me some feedback on the chapters!