Guys I am sooooooooooooooooooooo sorry for the very late update! I've had a lot going on for a while and I haven't had time to update. Mostly because of homework, sometimes because middle school people stress me out because they have no dancing abilities... but nevermind that! On with the story! Finally an Emma chapter!

I don't own Heroes of Olympus!

Chapter 6:Emma

AND HE THOUGHT I WOULDN'T HELP. Uhg, men.

Well, hello. Emma here. I apologize for Leo's whiny-ness. He can be such a child sometimes. Does he not realize that this is very important to me? I want this to be a memory. I want our children to read this! Oh my gods. Did I really just say that? I'll just get on with the story before I do anything else stupid.

I had to find my way out of the forest by myself. It wasn't that hard; well, it would've been if not for the random girls. They just kept popping out of nowhere and telling me where to go. They all seemed so friendly that I had to trust their judgment. Besides, I didn't want to be there after dark. That place gave me the creeps.

I went over the river and through the woods (literally) all the way back into daylight. In the distance I saw a sparkling lake and kids in canoes. To my left, there were the weird cabins Leo had shown me earlier. To my right, there were some kids shooting arrows at targets. It looked like a horse had escaped or something, because standing in the middle of it all was a… wait- that is not a horse.

That man I had seen earlier… what was his name? Myron? No- Chiron. Wait again- the Chiron? From the old myths? Well, with everything I had seen today- giant dogs, fireproof boys- it seemed to make some sense.

I decided to try to avoid Chiron the horse-man and went over to the archery kids. In the corner of the range, I saw a girl- maybe a little older than me- fighting with two boys about something. I had learned that people often tell you more when they're angry, so I decided that this was my best shot for answers.

As I got closer, I could see their features more clearly: the girl was probably a year or two older than me, with shoulder-length brown-red hair. The two boys looked exactly alike (twins maybe?), both with curly brown hair and mischievous smiles. The only difference between them was their height- one was a couple inches taller than the other.

"I know you put those fake snakes in my cabin, Stoll!"

One of the boys gasped dramatically. "Me? Why would I ever do such a thing?"

"Because you're Travis."

"Oh, a first name basis, now?"

"Ugh! Why do you have to be so irritating?"

"Because I'm Travis."

"Stoll! You better run!" the girl yelled. She raised her bow and loaded an arrow, and the two boys ran off laughing. The two boys were almost out of sight when the girl raised her hand. In the distance, the two boys tripped on something and faceplanted. The girl must have heard me laugh, because she turned towards me.

"You saw that, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yeah. Everything," I laughed.

The girl looked me over and the anger went away from her eyes. "I don't think I've seen you before. Are you new?" she asked

"Yeah, I just got here a while ago. I'm Emma Madison," I said. I stuck out my hand.

The girl took it. "Katie Gardner."

"Nice to meet you, Katie," I said. "Who were those two boys?"

Katie sighed. "Travis and Connor Stoll; the bane of my existence."

I laughed. "Who's their parent? The god of stupidity?" I asked. In the distance, thunder rumbled. I had the feeling that I said something I shouldn't have.

"Well, I see you've adjusted quickly to the mythological world," Katie said. "You need to be more careful with names around here. Their father is Hermes, god of messengers, travelers, and thieves."

"Thieves?" I fought the urge to laugh. "Their father is the god of thieves, and their last name is Stoll?"

"Yeah, everyone thinks it's ironic but them. I'm pretty sure they just act dumb to annoy everyone."

"Sounds like they're doing a good job on the annoying part," I said. "Who's your parent?"

Katie stood a little straighter. "Demeter, goddess of the harvest and agriculture."

"Cool. So can you control the earth and stuff?"

"Not so much the earth itself, but most of us can make plants grow. For example," Katie said. She stared at the ground and lifted her hand. After a couple seconds, brown strings came out of the ground and fused together, forming what looked like a large tree root.

"Okay, that is WAY cool," I said. "So you made them trip?"

"You would think they would be used to it by now," Katie laughed.

"So," I started, "you didn't happen to see… ugh, what was his name…? Um, Leo! Did you see Leo running through here?"

"Oh, yeah. He just ran through here a couple minutes ago. I think he was heading for the Zeus cabin."

"Thanks. Um, which one is the Zeus cabin?"

"The biggest one- you can't miss it. And if you ever need anything, just come by Demeter! We're the one with the grass on the roof."

"Ok… well, I 'll see you later!" I called.

Katie yelled goodbye, and went back to shooting her arrows- probably picturing Travis Stoll's face as the target. I turned around and headed over to the cabins.

I looked around at all the buildings. Leo had shown me some of them, but not all. I recognized a couple: Hecate, Nemesis, Hypnos, and Nike. I had to guess at the rest of them. I passed one with grape vines growing everywhere. Grapes, I thought, who had grapes…? Dionysus! "God of wine," I whispered to myself. I smiled at my knowledge.

The next one looked like a life-size Barbie house. I knew that immediately: Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty. The one beside Aphrodite didn't look like anything special: just a silvery building with some deer carvings. I remembered reading somewhere about a goddess and deer… Artemis! Goddess of the Hunt. The next was just a normal building, but with an owl over the doorway. I knew that the owl was the sacred animal of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

I came upon a cabin that any vegetarian would love. There were all kinds of fruits and vegetables growing everywhere! I looked up and thought, this must be the Demeter cabin. There was grass on the roof, but the chocolate bunnies were a weird touch.

The two cabins at the end were definitely the most extravagant. The smaller of the two was beautifully decorated with flowers and vines, and carvings on the walls (were those peacocks?) I just guessed that it belonged to Hera. She was the Queen of the Gods, after all. The one beside Hera's was huge, with heavy bronze doors and white marble columns. As I got closer, I could hear a faint rumbling noise- like distant thunder. I took a deep breath and thought, welcome to the Zeus cabin. I cautiously walked up to the doors and knocked. "Hello?"

If you didn't catch the clue, their might be some Tratie cuteness somewhere in this story... from now on the updates will be coming slower (sorry!) because now I have to come up with the chapters. This one and all the ones before it were typed out months ago. Now I have to type them! Thank you guys for waiting!

-DaughterOfGaea2399