This is the eighth chapter of The Daughter of the Wind! It took a little while to get to it (mostly due to procrastination, but I apologize for that). So, let's get right to the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own PJaTO. If I did, I'd have my own chauffer taking me to school.
The Daughter of the Wind
Chapter 8- Some heroes are born…
I kept the card in my pocket as I went about my business and headed off to try the climbing wall again. The words from the letter were still etched in my brain like a mantra.
The wind can be as lethal as knives and as calming as an ocean wave depending on the heart of what made it…
Those words inspired me as they echoed in my mind.
RUFF!
I swiftly turned around, a little too late, as the hellhound from before, Mrs. O'Leary, pounced and threw me to the ground.
"What the-"
"Mrs. O'Leary! What did Percy tell you about controlling yourself?" I heard a familiar voice scold.
"RUFF!" The dog replied, not fazed by the scolding voice in the slightest.
"Yes, I know you wanna play with her, but attacking and playing are two very different things," The voice cried out as he pulled Mrs. O'Leary back.
Once Mrs. O'Leary was forced off of me, I sat up and a hand was reached out. I looked up to see the hand was connected to the goat-boy, Grover Underwood.
"Grover?" I questioned as I took his hand.
"Hey, Aiden," He replied with a smile as he pulled me up to my feet. His other hand was used to pet Mrs. O'Leary.
"I'll never understand why Percy has a pet demon dog," I muttered. Grover seemed to overhear me.
"You haven't seen a demon dog until you've met Cerberus,"
"The three-headed dog down in the Underworld, right?"
"The very same," Grover answered as we started walking. "He's not as cold-blooded as people think he is though. He's actually just like any other dog… except for the whole three heads thing,"
"Yeah, well, the three heads thing is kind of a big deal."
"Touché,"
"Where are we headed anyway?" I asked. Grover frowned slightly at my question.
"I'm headed for the way leaving camp,"
I stopped in my tracks and looked at him, stunned.
"Why?" I asked urgently.
"I'm Lord of the Wild. I have to go wherever I'm needed," Grover sighed.
"Lord of the-! You do realize how dangerous it'll be once you leave camp, right?" I reminded worriedly.
"Yes, I realize that, but it must be done." That wasn't what I wanted to hear. What I wanted to hear was: "Gods, you're right! What am I doing, leaving camp? I'll just stay here where it's safe".
"You at least shouldn't go alone." I reasoned.
"I appreciate you're concern, Aiden, but I'll be fine. I've done this before," Grover protested with a reassuring smile.
I couldn't help but be a bit perplexed by this. I'd never risked my life for anyone, so how can he risk his life just because he has a title telling him to? Why did he have to risk his life at all? What did he have to gain from that? Respect? Honor?
As I pondered these thoughts, Grover and I neared the entrance to Camp Half-Blood or rather the exit from it. I watched, torn, as Grover stepped out of the boundary line. I curiously wanted to follow, to see what the point of all of this was, but I didn't. I had the sense not to throw my life onto the frontlines.
"Be safe," I lamely called out to him.
Grover just looked back and waved before going on his merry way, leaving me there to wonder if he'd come back in one piece.
Once Grover was so far away that I couldn't see him, I decided to head back to my cabin instead of the climbing wall. On my way, I spotted Natalie walking to the Arena probably to see two Ares kids fighting to the death with each other. Seemed like she'd be into that kind of stuff. Torture, Discomfort, Pain. Yeah, they all seemed up her ally.
I resentfully noticed she was heading in my direction with two of her siblings. The only thing worse than Natalie was Natalie with backup witches. I quickly flung myself into the woods. Time for a short cut.
I traveled deeper into the woods, trying to find my way to my cabin with as little trouble as possible. Little did I know, in a demigod camp, getting anywhere with few troubles is just wishful thinking.
I stepped slowly across leaf covered ground until I heard crackling of leaves from behind me. I turned around swiftly, but no one was there.
"That was a little creepy," I whispered to myself as killing scenes from horror films flooded through my head. Especially those ones where teenagers get killed for going into the woods.
Then, I heard it again. So, I did what I always did whenever I felt scared. I started threatening.
"Whatever's behind me, if you do not-" then I saw what was behind me. It was an overgrown metal ant. And when I say overgrown, I don't mean 2 centimeters longer than normal. I mean bigger than a guard dog!
I backed away slowly, but that only made the monster hungrier. Maybe taking a shortcut wasn't the best idea.
The giant ant crawled towards me; it's sharp and shiny mandibles reflecting the sunlight into my eyes, causing me to fall on my back as the ant inched closer. I raised my arms for a weak defense as my eyes widened, thinking this would be the last glimpse of daylight they would ever see again.
What happened next was rather unexpected. Someone launched themselves onto the ant, tackling it. I crab-walked at least 5 feet to get away from the thing and I watched as the person on its back wrestled the creature to the ground. Before the ant could slice the guy's hand off, the kid pulled out a vial of some strange liquid and poured it on the metal bug. The liquid melted right through the ant's armor and soon the creature stopped thrashing about before turning into dust.
I panted, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. Whatever had happened, whatever that thing was, it was gone now. The kid got up from the ground and walked over to me. Before, the shadows of the trees hid the person's identity, but now I was able to see his blue eyes and curly brown hair.
"Connor?" I asked confusedly. Wasn't Connor supposed to be with Hermes?
"Nope, but close," the boy said as he hunched over me and gave me a hand. I smiled at the familiar face and I took his hand.
"Travis Stoll," I realized as he pulled me up.
"The one and only," He replied as he smirked. He turned and was about to walk away, before looking back at me. "You coming?"
I shrugged and followed. Son of Thieves or not, he knew where he was going and I didn't.
"So, what brings you here?" I questioned as we strolled through the forest of trees and monsters.
"Just going for a walk," He lied. I wasn't stupid enough to believe someone would go for a walk through these woods without any ulterior motive. "Well, I was going for a walk until I saw you needed some assistance,"
"Yeah, thanks for that,"
"No problem. I mean, how could I not save the damsel in distress?"
On the outside, I rolled my eyes, but on the inside his comment made me realize something. That was the second time I'd been attacked by a monster (well, if you could call Mrs. O'Leary pouncing on me an attack), and it was the second I had to have someone else's help. The second time someone had to save me. Was I really that helpless?
"Why…?" I murmured.
"Why what?" asked Travis.
"Why did you risk your life to save me? That thing could've taken off your head, but you tackled it anyway," I reminded him. Travis shrugged.
"Well, I wasn't gonna let you die. That would've just been cruel," he notified. "Plus, we're born heroes. Saving people is what we do best,"
"Isn't that just a nickname for demigods?" I inquired as I pushed away branches from our path.
"That's only because of demigods like Hercules and Perseus," Travis informed. "Huge heroes, in both sense of the word,"
"What if I don't want to be a hero?" I muttered selfishly.
"Well, then I guess it's your choice,"
"Good…"
I felt a little guilty telling someone who saved me that I wouldn't do the same for him, but why should I? It wasn't like saving people was my problem since I'm a demigod. And even if it was like that, I refused to let that responsibility be put on my shoulders.
"So what was that thing before?"
"Myrmeke,"
"Mur-what?"
"Myrmekes. They're like metal fire ants except when they bite you, you're poisoned. They also love to eat meat and metal. Make's that shell of theirs tough to crack," Travis explained as he grimaced.
"But whatever you poured on it melted right through," I recalled. "What was that stuff anyway?"
"Really toxic acid," he answered simply.
"How did you get acid?" I asked suspiciously.
"You don't want to know,"
I took his word for it.
"So what are you really doing out here?" I requested quizzically.
"If you must know, I'm collecting bugs to put on the roof of the Demeter Cabin," He replied with a mischievous smirk.
"Trying to impress Katie, I presume."
Travis's face reddened deeply.
"I'm not trying to impress her!" he argued.
"I don't know, I mean what you're doing is right out of the textbooks. Boy pranks girl to get her attention. Girl yells at boy. Boy continues to pull pranks because he secretly likes it when she's mad-"
"I don't like Katie and I don't care how cute she looks when she's mad at me!" he exclaimed. But I just smirked.
"So you think she looks cute when she's mad," I gathered. Suddenly, I heard crunching of leaves from behind us.
Travis didn't seem to notice as his face got redder. "Look, I-"
"Shhh!" I hissed at him. He glared at me for shushing him, but he shut up all the same.
Then we both heard it. The shuffling of multiple legs against the ground.
"Oh no…" Travis trailed off as his blue eyes widened.
He then looked over to me and franticly grabbed my hand. "We need to go!"
"What? Why?" I asked desperately, but he bolted off running, taking me with him.
We ran through the woods hurriedly, jumping over tree roots and racing through bushes. I could feel a few twigs scratch my legs mercilessly. Frankly, I was pissed and confused so I ripped my hand from Travis's.
"What's happening?" I demanded.
"We need to get out of the woods," He tried to grab my hand again, but I refused to let him.
"Not until you tell me what's going on," I ordered.
"Myrmekes," He answered as he glanced around us, making sure there were none.
"What about them?" I asked, still not understanding.
"Well, the thing about Myrmekes is that when one is being threatened, it calls for help." Travis informed.
"H-how much help?" I asked. I could hear the anxiousness in my own voice.
"Usually two or three, but since we killed one-"
"We?" I stated incredulously.
"Okay, since I killed one, there might be-" But he stopped short and his blue eyes were more scared than I'd ever seen them as the stared behind me.
My heartbeat seemed to stop as I turned my body around slowly. There behind us were 8 or 9 metal ants, their beady black eyes glaring us down.
As they inched closer, I listed ideas in my head. We wouldn't be able to outrun them, not if it only took 2 minutes for them to catch up to us. We couldn't take them down one by one. Travis didn't seem to have any more of his toxic acid. We were screwed.
Still, I refused to just sit and die. Not after all I'd been through. The Myrmekes inched closer. Suddenly, my father's words became my saving grace.
The wind can be as lethal as knives and as calming as an ocean wave depending on the heart of what made it…
Lethal sounded really good right about now.
"Ah!" I heard Travis cry out as one of the Myrmekes sliced it's mandible on his leg.
"Travis!" I yelled.
Without warning, the winds bended to my will. It whipped and tore through bushes and blew leaves into the air, but it wasn't strong enough. The God of Thieves' words appeared in my head.
"Quite a lot of wind power. Trust me, you'll be a knockout," Hermes promised.
Come on, I thought at the winds. Harder!
It listened. The wind went from being a harsh breeze to a gusty wind from a tornado. I quickly dragged Travis into the eye of the storm as he held on to his bleeding leg and we watched the chaos around us.
The winds alone sent the Myrmekes flying into nearby trees. This in turn dented their armor and turned the Myrmekes to sand. Of course, the ants scarred the trees as well with their metal bodies. I would definitely have to apologize to those tree nymphs later. Once I was sure all Myrmekes had been dealt with, I soothed my rapid heartbeats and calmed my frantic nerves. The wind calmed with me, leaving nothing but a very painful migraine on my part.
"Wow…" Travis breathed as the wind evaporated.
"Yeah…" I agreed, ignoring my throbbing skull, and then I remembered his bleeding leg. "Come on; let's get you a child of Apollo."
"I just need some ambrosia, I don't think it's poisoned," Travis noticed as I threw his right arm over my shoulder and placed my left hand on his waist to help him up.
As I felt my headache beginning to subside, we started limping out of the woods. It was silent until Travis chuckled tiredly.
"What's so funny?" I requested.
"I thought you decided not be a hero,"
I let out a chuckle of my own.
"We were born heroes. Saving people is what we do best." I imitated.
"My brother sure can pick em'," The Son of Hermes muttered to himself with a laugh.
"Shut up," I ordered as a blush crept onto my face.
Well, that was the 8th chapter of The Daughter of the Wind. I hope you all loved it and if you didn't, the next chapter will be up in 4 days. Please Review!
Yours truly,
The Victorian
