Last chapter…

I sighed. I thought about telling her about the blossom, but she looked so peaceful while she slept, that I didn't want to disturb her now.

Maybe tomorrow, I thought, yawning as well.

Chapter 10- I Lose Something Important

Two uneventful days passed. We would occasionally stop to eat or rest, and to check we were going in the right third day, we saw it.

Hecate's cave was hidden between a natural formation of rocks. We recognized it, because the rock there was darker. It looked somehow… evil?

"There it is", Jasmin glared at the cave with a determined look on her face. I had never seen her like that. It made me feel even more guilty.

"I think we should rest first", Patrick looked like he was choking on something, "It's getting late and…We have to be prepared for… whatever we face in there."

Jasmin and I nodded, and we started picking up branches for a fire.

The food had simply no flavor, and it looked like we had run out of topics, because no one said a word. Well, at least that's what I said to myself. It was obvious that nobody was in the mood for discussing what we were going to do next. So after we ate, I volunteered to take the first watch, and my friends went to sleep without saying another word.

I took my backpack to get the blossom. I got used to playing with it every time I had a watch. It calmed me. Now, there was only one tiny issue.

Where is my blossom?

I put the bag upside down, and all the content fell on the ground. The ambrosia, the nectar bottle… Some drachmas we had left…

We should contact Chiron tomorrow morning…

But no flower. Nowhere. I looked in the bag for the fourth time, horrified.

Where in Hades is my blossom?!

I immediately looked at Patrick, who looked so peaceful while he slept I almost forgot what I was so alarmed about. He was the first one to know about the flower. I had told Jasmin the next d…

I silently cursed myself.

I never told her. I completely forgot. And now I lost it. It must have slipped out of my bag somehow! The possibility that Patrick could be the one to blame appeared vaguely in my mind, but I remembered his expression when he saw it. No way he could have… right?

I lost it…

At least I didn't have to worry about deciding anymore. But I didn't have time to think about what a complete idiot I was, because a sudden snapping sound made me jump.

I took my ring off, and my sword was in my hand seconds later.

"Patrick…", I whispered.

Another snapping sound.

"Jazz…", they didn't wake up. I stood up slowly, my eyes wary.

I didn't understood we were surrounded until I felt a cold blade on my neck, pulling me back. An ice cold laughter made me shiver.

"Not ssso brave without your friendsss, are you?", a voice whispered in my ear.

A dracanae. I was sure. I closed my eyes, and I took a deep breath, while I prayed to my mother.

With amazing speed, I stabbed something with my sword, over my left shoulder. I heard a horrible scream, and a golden cloud of dust fell on me.

Thank you, mum.

I opened my eyes, and saw Patrick and Jasmin standing up, looking around. They saw the dust, and Jasmin's eyes went wide with horror. Patrick took out his bow, and Jasmin her sword. I ran to them, and we stood shoulder with shoulder, facing the monsters grinning wickedly at us.

Patrick took my hand briefly, squeezed it, and then he took out an arrow. Jasmin was trembling slightly, but she had the same look she had had this afternoon.

The monsters didn't wait for us to make the first attack. Instead, they all attacked at the same time, so in less than a minute I was fighting 3 dracanae, Patrick was busy with 2 cyclops and Jasmin had an entire pack of hell hounds trying to bite her arms off.

When my last dracanae turned to dust, I peeked over my shoulder. Patrick was doing well, but Jasmin was bleeding, and she was on the floor, trying to reach for her sword. I just started running to help her, when more dracanae came among the trees, blocking my way.

One of them tried to stab me in the legs, so I had to jump. A scream made me lost my balance while I landed, and I heard something crack when I fell to the ground. But Jasmin was in trouble. I had no time for injuries now. The dracanae used the time to stab me on the arm. It was my turn to scream now. I glanced at my shoulder, my vision blurry, and saw my blood covering my arm and the ground beneath it.

I looked up, and saw one of Patrick's ciclops running towards me. Patrick was no where to be seen., though. The ciclops picked me up, but I was too weak to struggle.

"Jussst take the girl! She wantsss only the girl!", a hissing voice said behind us.

"Patrick!", I yelled. "Pa…!"

I felt something hard hit my head, and everything went black.

My eyes opened the second time I felt some sort of pain on my cheek. My head was hanging down, so I only saw black rock, and my feet, one of them twisted in a strange angle. I was right, then. It was broken. I got another slap, and I understood what woke me up. I noticed I was tied up, trying to move my hands, but the rope was way too strong. I slowly looked ahead of me.

My dad was tied up as well, unconscious, and he had a large cut on his cheek. I only had a glimpse of what he looked like, because a figure stood in my way.

A woman dressed in a purple tunic, with long, black hair up to her waist, and with terrible black-blue eyes was glaring at me.

"So", she said, her voice sounding powerful and disgusted, "You are the noisy prat who I will kill today."

I'll take that as her friendly version of "Hello". But who said the goddess of magic was known for her warm greettings?

Sorry I haven't updated! But this week has been terrible! School sucks… And having the flu doesn't help much, huh?

I'll say it again: I suck at fighting scenes :[

And I had to make this chapter short- the part of the cave will be only in one chapter, so next one is a looong chapter. I hope you don't mind :]

Review! I love reviews. They're like the chocolate chips in the cookies, don't you think?