You know, I printed this story out and guess how long it was. 44 pages! If you have read ALL of the story (and if you haven't, GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING!) you have read a number of pages equivalent to the number of pages that make up the first 2 chapters of The Last Olympian. Wow I never thought that I would be capable of writing that much. So let's write some more! (I pause a moment to do some horrible dancing) If you are wondering about that- I'm listening to inspirational music while I write (BOOM BOOM POW!)
I just finished The Red Pyramid! I already published chapter 1 of Mythological Mayhem- a P.J. – Kane Chronicles crossover. Check it out!
The scene before me was….interesting to say the least. I was in the underworld. I had been down there enough times to know that-Okay, so I had only been down there once- but that is still enough times. I was standing in front of a river. It was not the river Styx- it was too clean and normal looking.
It must have been the river Lithe- that was the only other river in the underworld. There were 4 figures on the bank. Two of them were skeletons. Another was Nico, and the last was a shade. The shade was shrouded in darkness- so I could not tell who it was. Nico was talking to it intently. He looked worried.
The shade shook its head once and jumped into the river. Nico's eyes grew wide. The river bubbled for a few minutes. Then the skeletons reached down to pull the shade out.
The thing in their skeletal arms was no longer a full grown shade. It was a baby. It had a tuft of brown hair and aquamarine eyes.
I felt a shock of recollection. Apparently so did Nico, because he shook his head a couple of times. The skeletons took no heed and threw the baby up on the air. The baby laughed and then dissipated.
I heard Nico say "Oh Styx."
Clarisse gingerly poked me on the shoulder. I didn't move- I had absolutely no desire to get up. Clarisse sighed and… slapped me on the face. Now that woke me up. I sat up quickly and drew my knife. Things would have gotten really ugly, but then I realized why Clarisse had woke me up.
Rachel was sitting in the corner with her green eyes glowing. She was swaying back and forth and smoke was pouring out of her mouth. The musty smell of snakes filled the helicopter.
Images circled around in my head until I saw 6 teenage boys gathered around a picnic table. I knew all of them except for one- a guy who looked to be about 15 years old. He was tall, with a pale complexion. He wore his light brown hair shaggy, so that his bangs slightly covered his bright, tawny eyes. He stood at the end of the table and played the saxophone. He was good, I mean really good, like child prodigy good.
He stopped playing and the guys all looked at me. The one sitting closest to me- who happened to be Bekendorf- started speaking in Rachel's chanting oracle voice.
You will go west to face the goddess of love
Nico looked up from his ham sandwich and said
But your troubles come from down below, not from up above
Grover took a bite out of a tin can and said
You will recover a friend left behind
The guy I didn't know took the sax out of his mouth and said
A new demigod is who you will find
My heart almost stopped when Percy looked up at me and smiled and then said
To your true love is where you will go
Then Luke looked up at me, his eyes grave, and said
Only to meet 2 unexpected foes
The image swirled around in a green fog before it blinked out. I was in the helicopter again. Rachel crumpled to the ground.
She laid there for a few seconds before she sat back up and hoisted herself back up into her seat. Just in time because a split second later, the pilot looked back into the cabin.
"Everything alright Ms. Dare?" he asked, concerned.
Rachel responded, "Yeah, Jake, we're all fine." The pilot returned his gaze to the sky and Rachel sighed and fell asleep.
Clarisse grunted and turned over and after a few minutes, she was snoring as well.
Today had been a pretty suckish day. The only highlight was that I could add another thing to my "I did something better than Harry Potter" list. Well, it is a pretty short list. But beating up a basilisk was a pretty sucky way to start a quest. And then I didn't even get to fly the helicopter! Life was not fair.
I looked across the cabin at Morgan. She looked like she was doing some deep thinking. Her hand was raised up to her eye level. A purple fire danced in her palm. She scowled at it, as if she was concentrating really hard.
"That looks really cool." I said, "Is it hard to do?"
"Hm?" she asked, looking up, " No, it's not hard at all, this is a meditation flame. Gazing into it clears the mind. I do my best thinkin' staring at this thing."
"Were you thinking about the prophecy?" I asked her.
"Yeah" she said, "It was weird, do all prophecies come with freaky visions?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Well what was really weird was that there was a bunch of people I didn't know, or just know barely; and they were sitting there right next to my brother."
"The guy with the saxophone was your brother?" I asked.
"Yeah, half-brother, my dad's son, well it was a vision of him anyway. It's just weird, he stinks at the Saxophone, I had thought that he would be playing his guitar. "
I gaped at her, "Stinks? That was the best playing I have ever heard!"
"Well, I'm not saying that he isn't good, but compared to his skills for all the other instruments, his Sax sucks."
I leaned back in the luxury leather seat and wondered what Morgan's brother had to do with our quest.
"So, you know that kid who said the second line of the prophecy?" Morgan asked me.
"You mean Nico? Black clothes, long hair, skull jewelry?"
"Yeah, that's him. Isn't he a friend of yours?"
"Yeah" I said slowly and suspiciously, while raising my eyebrows.
"Well, um, I was wondering if, like, when we got back to camp, you could maybe, um, introduce me? He really is cute."
I smiled at her. "Sure, I think he'd like that."
Morgan smiled back.
Jake the pilot stuck his head back in the cabin. "Ladies, we'll land in Boston in 10 minutes."
I told Jake thanks and leaned back into the seat. I watched a fly buzz around the window. I made a mental note to let it out when the chopper landed.
We didn't really have much of a plan after we got to Boston, but demigods are great at improvising. I looked out of the window and watched the scenery unfold beneath me and quietly hummed an Owl City song.
There's chapter 9. Yeah that last sentence was kind of random- but I'm listening to Saltwater Room now- ooo- song change. Kelly Clarkson- My Life Would Suck Without You- MORE HORRIBLE DANCING TIME! :)
Later!
