I walked next to Zendra, and Trey wondered off a ways. I sighed.

"Trey doesn't seem to excited that I'm here." I muttered.

"Well..." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "He's just jealous, alright? He's not used to me hanging out with other guys."

"Oh." I said quietly and kept walking. "Nothing seems to want to kill us yet."

"That's good." She responded. "I don't think this powerful item would be in a place like this, don't you think?"

I nodded. I guess she asked me since I was the son of Athena or whatever. "Looks can be deceiving." I warned.

"Well, yeah. That sounds like something Athena would think of." She smiled. "But I know my dad pretty well... If the gods hid it, than I think they would hide it in a place with lots of monsters to protect it. But if the gods didn't... Then were screwed."

I gave a short laugh. "Were not screwed until I say." I didn't know where those words had come from, but I let it pass. "There's a lot to look at. The powerful object would either be in the least protected place, or the most protected place." I glanced around at the meadow, and then at the dark forest ahead. "The meadow is stretched out, I wouldn't suggest splitting up, just in case there's a trap... We need to search together, so if we do run into something bad, we'll have a good chance at defeating it."

Zendra nodded slowly. "Makes sense."

I smiled. "Good. Call Trey, will you?"

She shot a look at me, and I could tell that she didn't exactly like me giving her orders when she was in charge. "TREY!" She called.

The son of Ceto sprinted over. "Yeah?"

"Um, we have to stay together. Parker had a pretty good assumption that the object would either be in the least expected place, or the most expected place." She explained.

He glared at me but nodded. "Sounds alright."

"So... Forward, or to the side?" I asked.

"Forward. And then we'll go back." She decided and went on walking forward.

I followed and searched for caves and whatnot. Trey fell back again, and I sighed. He didn't have to act like I was the worst person in the world.

"Nothing." Zendra muttered and we continued. We were just leaving the meadows when things turned for the worst.

I didn't like the shadows that had started to gather around us. "Zendra...." But I didn't have time to finish, monsters began to leap from the shadows, circling around us. I reached for the sword strapped to my belt. Chiron had given us a bunch of equipment before we left, which was a good thing.

I glanced at Zendra, who nodded to me. We did the natural thing, we charged.

Our blades worked like a mirror. We were back to back, slashing and slicing like crazy. I didn't know where Trey was, and I didn't care. I tried to let my brain go blank, like it had before, but nothing happened. Monsters were closing in, and we were running out of options. I whirled around, stabbing a weird dog-like thing in the nose. It disintegrated on the spot. I took a breath before slicing a man-eating butterfly in half.

"Too many!" Zendra yelled over the roar of the monsters.

"We have to keep fighting!" I shouted back. "If we die... Well, that's the end of our quest."

She nodded, though I couldn't see her, and kept fighting.

Slash, dodge, stab. The monsters were backing off, I guess they figured out that our swords weren't just pointy sticks. As the pack started to clear, I caught a glimpse of Trey, sitting in a tree, a smirk on his face, watching me fight with satisfaction in his eyes. That just made me angry. I went super-man on the monsters. Slice, stab, slash, punch, kick, you name it, I did it.

The smirk faded on Trey's face, probably because I was doing so well. The monsters disappeared into the shadows, and I plopped myself down on the grass to catch my breath. Zendra did the same, until she realized Trey wasn't among us.

"Trey!" She yelled, her eyes dimmed until they were a stormy dark green. "TREY!" She screamed and ran towards the tree where he was sitting... Except he wasn't sitting there anymore, he was sprawled on the ground, bleeding from many slashes.

What had happened? One minute he was fine and watching me get killed, the next he was on the ground and wounded. I followed, but more slowly.

I stared at the lifeless shape of the son of Ceto. My spirits dropped immediately, realization spreading over me. He had made those monsters, hoping they would kill me... Just because Zendra and I hung out... But his plan backfired, his own monsters turned against him.

"Oh... God..." I muttered, my eyes widened.

Zendra sobbed as she cradled his head in her arms. "No..." She whispered feebly. "The quest..."

Oh, right. The quest. So far, not so good. Somebody had gotten killed on the first day. Oh joy! I buried my head in my hands. We were all going to get killed... And now that it was just me and Zendra... How the heck were we supposed to survive this stupid quest?

I couldn't believe I was thinking this, but Trey deserved his fate. He tried to kill me, so I wouldn't 'steal' Zendra or whatever. He died a traitor, a jealous idiot, and the worst boyfriend a girl could ever have.

Should I tell her about what had really happened? I bit my lip, maybe I'd tell her later. She was already upset as it was.

I walked over her slowly, I knelt beside her. "Come on." I murmured. "We'll go bury him over by that willow tree in the meadow. We need to continue."

She nodded, tears streaked her face as she stood. I glanced down at Trey, how the heck was I supposed to carry him?

"Can you help me out?" I asked quietly as I took his feet. She stumbled over and took his head. We made our way back to the meadow in silence, I figured it would be a bad idea to say anything, especially since her eyes were flashing, which was usually a bad sign. So I kept to myself, continued to walk, and hoped that nothing bad would happen. That was the last thing we needed.