Hey guys! So, I don't even know if anyone actually reads this, but I like my story idea so...another chapter. I know I should really be updating my other stories, but I finished this chapter a couple months ago and it's literally just been sitting in my files, waiting for me. So, here it is! Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please review! It makes my day!
Chapter 2: We battle it out for snickers
Nicole threw herself at me, knocking the both of us to the floor. We collided with Kyle, who tripped and fell, landing with a 'CAUTION, WET FLOOR' stand on his head. The strange snake monster hissed at us, glaring.
"Quite a feasssst," she hissed. "Demigodssss for lunch."
"How do you know?" I demanded, trying to sound braver than I felt.
"Pleassse, I hear all the gossssssip in Tartarussss," she replied. Tartarus? I didn't have time to dwell on that, because the man in the tattered clothes suddenly turned into Mike, or should I say, Uphias. Uphias roared in triumph at being back alive, and turned to glare at us. He threw another bronze sphere and it knocked Kyle into the brick wall, his head fell onto his chest, and blood trickled from the impact.
"Kyle!" I screamed, conflicted between what I should do. I grabbed Nicole's dagger and charged at Uphias, who was too caught up in his pride to notice me. I struck him in the gut, and he disappeared with a poof of smoke. The snake thing shrieked and spat venom towards me. It hit my shoulder, leaving me with searing pain and a bad burn.
"I've got this, you don't get away without revenge," Nicole shouted. She lunged at the snake, which dodged and attempted to spit on her. Nicole pulled away just in time and tackled the thing to the floor. The two of them were rolling around, struggling and fighting. Nicole had pressed her hand onto the thing's mouth to stop it from spitting, and the thing kept swiping Nicole's armed hand away. Nicole kicked the thing in the snake trunk, and since it was distracted, she was able to stab it into oblivion. I gasped slightly, trying to breathe. Kyle. I raced over to the wall, and found Kyle with a serious wound on his head. A large gash ran horizontally across the back of his head.
"Hurry, we need to get out of here," I commanded. Nicole ran to my side, helped me hoist Kyle onto our shoulders, and with one final grim look back, we left.
...
"We have to get him to the nearest hospital," Nicole instructed, placing him down on a bench in a park. He was completely unconscious, maybe even...dead. No. I wouldn't think of it that way. I couldn't think of it that way.
"Right, because nobody is going to notice his fur, hooves, and horns," I said sarcastically.
"You're right," Nicole admitted. "Do you have any ideas?"
"No, but we need to go somewhere more private," I mused. Nicole nodded, and we carried Kyle further until we'd entered a forest. It was huge, stretching back and forth for miles. We stopped by an oak tree and gently lowered Kyle by it.
"Wait a second." I ransacked his bag, finding sticky toffee looking food, and a golden liquid.
"He told me about that," Nicole said. "That's ambrosia and nectar, the food and drink of the gods."
"Good, then it might just help save his life," I muttered grimly. I popped open the bottle, and poured the drink into his open mouth. I waited. Nothing happened. Nicole stiffened.
"I'm sure it's just taking a while," I said. Nicole gave me a look that made it seem as though I was obviously convincing myself more than her.
"Let's hope so," she whispered softly, trying to look sincere. I heard a snapping of twigs.
"What was that?" My head jerked up as I looked at Nicole questioningly.
"I have no idea," Nicole replied, shaking her head. Again, the snapping of twigs. I turned quickly and saw a boy with cropped blond hair and rainbow eyes, wearing a deep blue shirt and black shorts with orange sneakers.
"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked defensively.
"I'm Ian, son of Iris, the goddess or rainbows. And I'm here to help you save your friend."
...
"Do we trust him?" Nicole turned to me, hands on her hips and her eyebrows furrowed. "It could be a trick. What if he's a monster?"
"And what if he isn't? What if he could save Kyle?" I countered. Nicole lowered her gaze and nodded stiffly. I looked back at Ian.
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" I snapped. Ian smirked at my temper, but came forward and bent over Kyle. He began singing a lovely tune, about the sea, and open beaches with happiness at every corner.
"Are you on drugs?" Nicole asked. "Because happiness and rainbows are clear signs of drugs."
"Are you a daughter of Ares?" Ian asked lazily. This surprised Nicole.
"Who?" she asked. Ian shook his head, looked back at Kyle, and continued to sing his strange song about rainbows and happiness, or whatever it was about. I was standing a little far back from the rest, watching with amusement as Nicole and Ian argued. Nicole sauntered over to me, scowling.
"What? You don't like rainbow boy?" I teased.
Nicole rolled her eyes. "In the guys dreams. He's clearly on drugs."
"Oh come on, Nicole! Give the guy some respect, he could save Kyle."
"Or kill him." Nicole sighed, walking back to the oak. I heard her apologize to Ian, who accepted her apology. The two of them talked as Ian tried to make a new song that could help. He looked over at me and beckoned with his fingers.
"What's up?" I asked.
"We need you to sing."
...
"Okay, maybe Nicole was right about saying you were on drugs." I raised my eyebrows.
"Really?" Ian asked, frustrated. "Look, I think your voice has powers. So, if you sing this song about healing, then-"
"Wait, my voice has powers?" I repeated. Nicole seemed unfazed by this, as though she already knew. Heck, maybe she did.
"I think so. But if you don't try, we won't know. Now sing." Ian handed me a paper with some words scribbled on it in messy handwriting.
Our dearest friend, one who we care for,
Has been hurt out and by his core.
We ask you, good powers of song,
To save his life, for we've waited so long.
Watch over him, make him see again.
Show him mercy, don't let this be his end.
"It worked!" I cried in astonishment, as Kyle's head lolled to one side, then he lifted up his head and jumped up in surprise.
"Where am I?" he asked, looking at Ian. "And who's the guy with the bad fashion sense?"
"Hey," Ian protested, "my mom picked this out for me."
"And who's your mom?" Kyle asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Iris." Ian crossed his arms defiantly. Kyle stumbled to his feet and looked between me, Nicole, and Ian, fidgeting nervously. He reached into his bag and took out a can of coke, poured the liquid into a bottle, and began eating the tin.
"Um, okay," I said, confused. Kyle blushed, stuffing the remains in his pocket. "I guess we better move on."
...
Ian said he had to leave, but gave us some extra drachmas so we could 'Iris-message' him if we needed any help. Of course, Nicole scoffed at that, and claimed we would be perfectly fine on our own. Ian smirked, and left us standing in a forest in the middle of nowhere.
"Great," Kyle muttered.
"Come on guys, we've got a long walk ahead of us," I sighed. Nicole cursed silently, and we began walking through the trees. It started getting steeper, and we realized we were walking up a hill. The trees became slowly and steadily denser, and the air became thinner. And if that wasn't bad enough, it started to get darker as well.
"I don't like this," I mumbled, stopping, and causing Nicole to bump into me.
"Seriously? It's just a woods at night, no biggie," Nicole commented.
"I don't like the dark," I muttered.
Nicole sighed, instead of laughing. "Fine, we'll rest for the night. Here, this tree looks good." So we set out blankets and pillows at the base of a large tree, settling down.
"I'll take first watch," I offered. "I have my dagger." Nicole tried to argue against that, but she couldn't fight off her own sleepiness, so eventually she reluctantly gave in. Kyle hesitated, then settled down on a blanket and curled up. He was asleep within minutes. I sat a few feet in front of them, pulling my knees up and clutching my dagger tightly in my hand. How did I get here? A month ago, if this had happened, my reaction would've been completely different. We'd only been walking for a day, but I already missed my mom. I looked up at the twinkling stars, and imagined my mom in our apartment looking at the night sky, worrying. If she was, I couldn't blame her. I heard a noise, so I jumped to my feet. My dagger was firmly in my hand, my eyes open wide, taking in my surroundings. Nothing. Then a hand covered my mouth, stopping my scream.
...
"Ahhr! Gerroff!" I yelled, trying desperately to break out of this person's grip. I had heard stories of people biting hands in a scenario like this, but quite frankly, that is disgusting.
"Be quiet!" a voice hissed in my ear, sending shivers of fear down my back. I swung at the person with my dagger, hitting it. But nothing seemed to happen. Hmm, not a monster then, I guessed.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." The person let go of me, and turned me round to face him. Yes, it was a him. A very weird-looking him. He had curly blond hair, harsh brown eyes, and pale skin. I stood fazed on the spot for a moment, then shook my head to clear my thoughts. This wasn't normal, not at all. Some random stranger, that looked weird, 'capturing' me then letting me go.
"Dawn!" he said urgently, his voice filled with panic. "Dawn!"
...
I shot up like a bullet to see Nicole standing over me, her dagger in hand, and a grim look on her face. She was the person who had kept saying my name in that urgent tone.
"What? What is it?" I asked abruptly, attempting at unsheathing my dagger, but finding that it was already in my open, outstretched palm.
"Nothing, just a monster attack," Nicole replied bitterly, pointing to a tight bandage on her leg.
"What? When?" I questioned, appalled.
"You fell asleep, then a monster came," Nicole murmured, rubbing her leg. "But don't worry, we understand. You should've woken us up. You'd had longer than you should've had watching, so we get why you fell asleep." I swallowed, trying to rid myself of the guilty emotions. Nicole noticed, but pretended she didn't, and went a little way away to go put some nectar on her wound. I nodded half-heartedly, mustering a weak smile.
"Hey." Kyle limped over to me, his crutches by his side.
"Um, why have you got your disguise on? Nicole knows," I said, standing up and brushing the leaves off my jeans and straightening my yellow tunic top.
"Yeah, well, hikers come around this area occasionally," Grover answered, adjusting his cap so that it covered his horns properly. I looked around us. We were still by the tree, but it was now a lot lighter, the sunshine filtering through the canopy of leaves overhead. I smiled. Daylight was always better than night. I didn't know why, but I suddenly felt stronger and more determined.
"Right, then." I grinned, as Nicole walked over. "Let's get going again."
...
"73 bottles of pop on the wall, 73 bottles of pop. If one of those bottles should happen to fall, 72 bottles of pop on the wall," Kyle sang quietly. I was about to lose it. He'd started at 200, now he was at 72. Can you imagine how tiring that is to listen to? No, of course not, because you're probably a normal kid who decided to read the story of a demigod. Well, congrats, I envy you if that is the case.
"Kyle?" Nicole said sweetly.
Kyle turned to look at her, since he was leading. "Yeah?"
"Shut up."
"Okay." Several hours later, we came across a pair of frightened looking teens. Or were they kids?
"Can you help us?" the girl asked bravely, visibly showing off her sword. It looked like a demigod sword. I walked towards her gently, holding out my hand.
"Of course. I'm Dawn, who are you?" I asked softly.
She shook my hand. "I'm Trisha, that over there is Henry." Trisha pointed over to the boy sitting on the ground, staring up at us timidly.
"Hi," he said tentatively, getting up and joining Trisha. Kyle and Nicole both glanced at each other before smiling and replying with a friendly 'Hello.'
"Maybe you two should come with us," Nicole offered.
"Sure, where are you headed?" Trisha replied.
"Um, that's complicated," Kyle admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Ever heard of Camp Half-Blood?"
...
"What?" Henry asked keenly, suddenly taking interest in the conversation.
"Nothing!" I exclaimed. "Please, give us a moment. Kyle, we have to talk." I dragged Kyle by his shirt and let him go once we were out of earshot of Trisha and Henry.
"What was that all about?" Kyle questioned defensively, standing up.
"Why'd you mention camp to them?" I demanded, placing my hands on my hips.
"Look, they're demigods," Kyle explained. "And I know this because satyrs can smell demigods out. For satyrs, that's as easy as sniffing out a dirty sock from a pile of fresh ones."
I hesitated. "Okay, then. Let's go back." We walked back, and found Nicole handing them some water, which they gulped down gratefully with mentions of thanks. I smiled. They wouldn't harm us. If Kyle and Nicole both thought they were safe, then they must be.
"Hey, sorry, I just, um, forgot something," I lied. Trisha gave me a knowing look, then returned to drinking the water that was given to her.
"So, can we come with you?" Henry whispered.
"Of course," I replied.
...
"I'll take first watch, again," I offered. Nicole wanted to complain, when Trisha glanced over.
"I'll join you," she said. "In case one of us falls asleep, there should always be one person awake."
"Great," I mumbled. Nicole, Kyle, and Henry bid us goodnight, before retreating to the base of a tree and making themselves as comfortable as possible on the blankets. Me and Trisha decided to stand up, that way making it less likely that one of us should fall asleep. I stood facing East, and she stood facing West. She then came over to me, shaking her head.
"How do you do this?" she yawned, covering her mouth with her light brown hair, her blue eyes crinkling.
"I don't," I replied half-heartedly. "Seriously, this is only my second night. Last night, I fell asleep, and my friends got attacked."
"Oh, gods, that's bad," Trisha muttered, lowering her dagger, and gazing up at the night sky. I did too, and I remembered many nights with my mom when I was little where we'd set up a little child's tent in the back garden and spend the night in it with bowls of popcorn and candy, watching the stars fill the dark sky.
"Yeah, it is," I replied weakly.
...
"Trisha! Trisha!" I screamed, dodging a spear. Standing before me were several horrible monsters. One of those snake things, a lion of some sort, and three harpies.
"What?" she asked, her eyes bleary from sleep, which soon widened in alarm. I'd told her to try and get some sleep, and that I would wake her if there was a problem. Which, there was.
"Quick, wake up the others!" I instructed. She nodded, running over to the others and shaking them all awake. Nicole had slept with her dagger in her hand, and sprang up eagerly to face the oncoming battle. Her eyes gleamed with that dangerous glint she'd first had when she held her dagger the day I met her. Crazy to think that was only two days ago. Kyle and Henry were less prepared. Kyle threw down his crutches, reached for a spear hidden under a blanket, and fumbled around nervously, walking into trees. Henry, however, was even less prepared and just stood there frozen on the spot.
"Oooh! More demigods to eat!" one of the harpies shrieked, racing down towards Nicole, who aimed a precise slice to the head. But the harpy had expected that, and moved out of the way just in time to avoid Nicole's blade.
"Sisters, formation!" the first harpy cried. The three of them formed a V shape, rose high into the air, then turned and dived down, straight towards Nicole. I was about to rush to defend her, when a huge weight knocked me over. The lion had thrown me to the floor, as though I was a rag doll. My head ached, sending pulses of pain through my body. The lion roared, aiming to tear open my throat. I put my dagger forward, horizontally, trying to block it. But the dagger wasn't long enough, and the lion swiped at me. My arm burnt with a horrible pain. The lion lunged again, this time for my neck, and I welcomed its open mouth, its sharp rows of teeth, its menacing eyes.
...
Then it hit me. Would I really let this, this monster, beat me? With sudden energy, I pushed the lion back, causing it to topple backwards and onto it's back. It got up as quickly as it fell, but it was still enough time for me to get up, passing my dagger from hand to hand, awaiting the beast's next move. It bent its back legs, then sprang up with a large growl and opened its jaw wide. But this time, I was one step ahead. I threw my dagger right at where its heart was, and saw it crash to the ground, before disappearing into dust. In its place, a hooded cloak remained made from the skin of the lion. I turned round, and saw Trisha battling the snake thing, and Kyle was fighting one harpy as Nicole fought another.
"Wait," I mumbled. There was something wrong about this. "Weren't there...three." Then I saw it. The third harpy licking its shriveled lips high up in a tree. I couldn't figure out what it was aiming for, since it wasn't staring at me, Trisha, Kyle or Nicole. It had a pack of snickers in its claws.
"Oh no." It dawned on me so suddenly, that I had no time to react. The harpy cried with glee, dropped the snickers, and dived at the speed of a bullet at Henry, who was standing helpless and defenseless.
"Henry!" I cried. He looked over just as the harpy hit him. And then he was gone. The harpy held him in her claws, flew up and yelled to her sisters, who shrieked back, equally as gleeful. Henry stared at me with such an intense look in his young, brown eyes, that I looked away. Trisha was running through the trees after him, looking up every now and then to see where they were. Kyle and Nicole both aimed a spear each at the snake woman, which burst into smoke. Henry began calling. He was calling for Trisha, who was running desperately, yelling back. And then the harpies disappeared out of sight, up and over the mountains. Trisha stopped, her arms fell limply by her side, and she walked slowly over to us. She looked at us one by one.
"He's gone," she whispered.
...
"Here." I handed Trisha a cup of nectar. She accepted it reluctantly, taking small, careful sips from it. She kept looking up at the sky, and whenever she heard a snapping of twigs she'd jump up and look around hopefully, as if Henry would saunter in and say, "Hey, guys! That harpy thing? Just a normal real-life CGI trick of mine. Oh, do you have any snickers?" Of course, none of this actually happened.
"Is she okay?" Nicole whispered to Kyle, behind me and Trisha, some way back.
"I don't know. Who are you talking about?" Kyle murmured back.
"Both."
"I hope so." After a little while, they decided to treat the serious wounds. I had tried avoiding looking at my arm, but now I had to. I felt sick to my stomach. There was a deep rip in my arm. I also still had the burn on my shoulder, which still stung. Kyle had several scratches on his back. Nicole had a gash on her forehead, and Trisha seemed quite unharmed, (well, physically, at least) except for a few scrapes on her arms. When Kyle saw my arm, he gulped.
"We should start with Dawn," he suggested, keeping his eyes on my arm.
"No," I said sternly, "my arm will require a lot. First, the small cuts. Then we'll see what's left over."
"Fine, but if there's not enough, we're going to baby you," Nicole sighed, rubbing her temple, then winced as she touched the edge of the cut.
"Right, let's get to it." Trisha stood up, turning round to face us.
...
Once we'd put some nectar on Kyle, Nicole, and Trisha, there was enough left for me to spread a little bit on my arm, and the tiniest slither on my shoulder. After that, we trudged onwards, going further and further into the woods. We didn't stop much, only if someone needed the toilet, then we'd all turn in the opposite direction of whoever had to go. There were also food stops, but we didn't have much, so those stops were rare. Maybe once or twice a day, three if we were lucky. I ached all over from the fight, every inch of my body tingling with energy and discomfort. It was getting later, and we settled down for a quick rest. We'd decided against going to sleep at night, and thought it better to simply carry on through the dark.
"So, anyone else hungry?" Trisha asked, coming through some trees to a small clearing where me and the others had been waiting, her arms full of firewood as she plopped down beside me.
"You betcha," Kyle agreed, hugging his stomach. Nicole laughed softly, shoving Kyle's shoulder as he mock pouted. Trisha rolled her eyes at them, then dumped some of the wood onto the lightly burning flames. It was dark, and we tried to keep wide awake. But it was so hard not to fall asleep.
I tried to pay attention to what the others were saying, but my eyelids kept drooping. Kyle noticed.
"Maybe you should get some sleep," he said. I nodded, too exhausted to put up a good argument, and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the ground.
...
My dreams were usually peaceful, but not tonight. I was standing in a barren wasteland, deserts stretching out all around me. Trisha, Henry, Kyle, Nicole, Chiron, Mrs Milano, my mom, and some guy with sandy blonde hair wearing shades were standing in front of me. Chiron wheeled forward, looking at me intently.
"Go! Wake up! Get out of here! Your friends don't know, but you must tell them. It's coming." He shimmered into the air. Then Kyle, Nicole, Trisha, my mom, and the sandy haired guy shimmered as well. I saw Henry standing there, his arms stiff, his expression unreadable except for the pure innocence in his eyes.
"Please, don't do this to me," I whispered. I started crying. He let a tear slip as he smiled at me.
"It's not your fault."
...
"Henry!" I screamed, sitting upright to find the others staring at me anxiously.
"Are you okay?" Nicole queried, handing me some water.
I shook my head. "I don't know. It was just a bad dream, I guess. Really!"
"Okay!" Kyle said. "We believe you. Don't worry. Anyway, we should continue." I nodded grimly. We stood up, squashed any tell-tale signs of our fire, and went up the path. It was a long twisting pathway that wound up the steep hills, going around the many trees. It was scary, I'll admit it. For starters, we were in a creepy woods, for seconds, I hated the dark.
"You know what? I don't care if Chiron told me to only use it in emergencies, this counts," Kyle announced, pulling out a paintball gun.
"Um, Kyle, that's great, but we need to keep going," Trisha said.
Kyle sighed frustratedly. "Exactly! This is our savior! This will help us get to camp!"
"It's a paintball gun," I pointed out. Kyle stamped his hoof, then pulled the trigger on the gun, sending a paintball flying up in the air. It disappeared into the darkness.
"Wait for it," Kyle advised. So we did. We stood there for five minutes, and nothing happened. No sign of help, no sign of anything at all.
"Come on," Nicole sighed. "Let's-". She was cut off by a loud thumping that shook the forest floor.
"What's that?" Trisha's eyes widened in fear. The sound grew louder and louder, the whole forest now seemed to grow with anticipation of what was making the noise. And then it suddenly stopped, coming to a very final halt. And there, standing before us, were half horse, half man creatures, armed with paintball guns and plastic golf clubs. A few of them were wearing crazy goggles, others pineapple hats with spongebob figures stuck carelessly on them.
"Dude, what up?" the guy in the front said, his cross eyed googles staring intently at his nose.
"Oh. My. Gods," Trisha whispered.
...
"Dudes, these are like drunk goggles!" another centaur exclaimed, spinning in circles.
"Hush," Kyle commanded, and the centaurs all lined up, saluting him. "Centaurs, can you take us to Camp Half-Blood quickly?"
"Oh, bro!" the guy in front said, "we're gonna see our buddy, Chiron, again!"
"Chiron? But he's, he's..." And then it hit me. Chiron was the first centaur of them all, he had trained those heroes. But, he was half horse. Then how was he in a wheelchair?
"Okay, dudes, hop on," the centaur in front sighed, holding out his hand towards me. I looked at him, wondering what he was thinking. I reluctantly grabbed his hand, and was surprised to see how strong he was. He lifted me off the ground and dumped me on his horse back. His horse skin was a soft brown, his normal skin a similar tanned color. He had blond hair, and I could only guess that he was a surfer dude. Well, surfer centaur dude. Trisha got on behind me, and Kyle and Nicole got on one, so the others could run ahead and clear the way, keeping an eye out for trouble.
"You ready?" Kyle asked us.
"Definitely," I replied, and the centaurs began galloping, cutting through the air. I smiled, now this was something to write home about.