CH. 10 – the beginning of the journey
They gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill. Lanterns and small fires were scattered like dices allover camp to spread warmth and light, but it was far from as effective and cheerful as the sun. Dexter, Terrwyn, Chiron, Bliss, Mary, Vixen and the rest of cabin number eleven stood on the top of Half-Blood Hill. They silently watched as Meg and the third participant for the quest climbed the hill and joined the group.
"HIM" Dexter shouted and pointed at the muscular boy with slim pants and brown mohican.
"Yes, him" Meg responded, glaring into Dexter's oily shades "The only one that's not completely useless going on this darned quest!"
Troy proudly puffed out his chest and fixed the strap of his sports bag. Dexter pouted and wanted to snort an insult about the beef, but he knew that Meg was right. Troy had the most trained body of the three and he sure could fight like a bear – Dexter had seen it when spying on him.
"I know you aren't the bests of friends" Vixen said and looked between Troy and Dexter and Terrwyn "But you'll have to lay your grudges aside and work as a team, for the sake of the quest… and the world"
She looked up at the sky. Stars dotted the pitch black mass and gleamed like diamonds, but Dexter felt like something was missing.
"There's no moon" he thought out loud
"Artemis misses her brother" Terrwyn mumbled. Dexter gave her an asking look. "The moon can't shine without the sun, after all"
"Oh" Dexter looked up at the sky again "That was… deep"
Troy snorted and rolled his eyes. "Are we going to stand and stare at the sky or maybe get on with the quest?"
"Sure!" Dexter said and took his eyes from the sky "Let's go then!"
"Dexter…" Vixen laid a hand on his shoulder "Do you know where to go?"
"Uuh, no" Dexter stared at her "Should I know that?"
"You're the guide, idiot" Troy snorted
"B-but I don't know where to go!" Dexter looked nervously around at them "I-… I don't…"
Mary dropped her head into her palm "I see no future for us" she mumbled, but Vixen stabbed her in the chest with her elbow.
"Well fortunately I have reflected a little" She told them "I'd suggest to search up Artemis and her hunters"
"Who are they?"
"Artemis, the goddess" Bliss explained "Apollo's twin sister. She and her gang with immortal hunters"
"Still mortal in combat" Mary added
"Mortal immortals…" Dexter said and scratched his head "I don't get it"
"That's not important" Vixen waved her hand, wanting to get to the point "Remember the first line of the prophecy. Artemis is most likely the 'lonely twin' it was talking about, now when Apollo is gone"
"Makes sense" Dexter said and he saw that the others nodded in agreement "So, where can we find her and her gang?"
"At the west coast" Vixen told them "I haven't come in contact with them, but that's where the chariot probably crashed down and probably where they would start searching"
"Okay, then" Dexter said, scratching his head and trying to get his mind around all the information. "Let's go and have a look at the west coast" he then said and clapped his hands together.
"How will we get there, then?" Troy asked.
The group looked at Dexter, like they were waiting for him to decide "Why are you all looking at me?" he asked "I'm not the leader, really…"
"Argus can give you a lift to New Your City, but then you are for your own" Vixen said with a serious tone
"Uh, yeah! We'll plan it out in the car, then" Dexter assured her
"Right!" Vixen said and smiled warmly "Well, I'll wish you good luck then!"
"You gotta do it, Dex!" Bliss said and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. "Here, have this!"
She let go off him and handed him a package of dirty cloth. "Go on, open it!"
Curious about what Bliss could possible give him, he unwrapped the sloppy-made present. A black belt fell out from the wrappings. Dexter held it up and inspected it. It was decorated with something that looked like empty bullet capsules.
"Oh, a belt… Thanks!" Dexter said and tried to sound as grateful he could manage. In reality he wondered why they gave him a belt, his pants were rather too small that too big for him.
Bliss snickered. "It's not just an ordinary belt, Dexty!" she said and pointed at the bullet capsules "Those are knives!"
"Knives?" Dexter took a closer look. They were indeed no bullet capsules, but Dexter couldn't see how they were knives. For him it looked just like sticks of bronze.
"It's magical!" Bliss took the belt to demonstrate "Just grab one of these and pull… and voila!" She removed one of the sticks from the belt. Immediately it expanded in the other end, growing a flat blade of a throwing knife.
Dexter gasped, stared amazed at the knife. "WOW!" he said and summoned a knife himself. The blade was giving away some kind of glow and the edge was super sharp. "Thanks a lot!" he said and looked at Bliss, this time really meaning it.
"Hehe, it was Mary who crafted them" Bliss told him, patted Mary on her shoulder.
"Bliss made me do them" Mary said and cleared her throat "It wasn't like I wanted to or anything-…"
Dexter threw himself at the two girls and hugged them hard. Bliss laughed and returned the hug, but Mary muttered and tried to free herself.
"Just put the hilt towards the belt, and it'll retransform and stick to the belt again" Mary said when Dexter had released them. "It's ten knives in total. Don't lose any or the pattern will get irregular"
Bliss demonstrated how to do while Mary talked. She put the knife towards the belt and it shrunk down into a stick and attached itself onto the belt, as it had been before.
Dexter did the same with his knife and it did the same. He held up the belt in front of him, grinning. "Thanks, again!" He said, trying to keep himself from tearing up. "That's so nice of you!"
"Anything to help you staying alive!" Bliss said and gave him thumbs up.
Before Dexter could join Troy and Terrwyn and leave the camp, Meg pulled him aside and pulled his head down to her eye-level
"If I see that you come back unharmed, but my brother does not" the growled at him with a low voice "I'll personally make sure you'll wish you never was born!"
"Don't worry!" Dexter assured her and defensively held up his hands "If anyone's gonna come back home unharmed, it's Troy!"
Meg didn't look convinced, but let go of Dexter. They waved a last time, Bliss gave Dexter a one final hug and then the trio crossed the protecting boarder around the camp and went down the Half-blood Hill.
A white van stood waiting for them down at the road. Argus the security guard of Camp Half-Blood; a giant man with blond hair and blue eyes all over his body, sat in the drivers seat and waited for them to get in.
The chosen ones packed themselves inside the car. Because of his length, Dexter got to sit in the front seat next to Argus while Terrwyn and Troy got the backseat. They sat in silence for a few minutes and looked out the windows, but Troy repeatedly grunted impatiently and Dexter finally sighed.
"What?" he asked Troy bitterly and looked back at the brunette.
"Well" Troy said, crossing his arms "What's you plan then, guide"
Dexter shrugged "We take the first lift to the west" he answered and looked forward "And try to find that Artemis and her hunters, I guess"
"And how do you know where to find then?" Troy asked
"…I don't" Dexter sighed
Troy snorted and returned to look out the window again. "Great" he muttered "Just gotta search the whole west coast, then"
"We could try to iris-message them" Terrwyn mumbled
"Iris-message?" Dexter asked. He remembered Vixen mentioning something like that for him once "Those, rainbow-video-messages?"
Terrwyn nodded
"Didn't that Vixen say she hadn't been able to contact them?" Troy glared down at Terrwyn
"It's worth a try, at least" Dexter said and looked back at them again "If it doesn't work… well, we could always try find them at the west"
Troy snorted
"Better than just sitting and snorting, at least!" Dexter snapped back at him, facing forward and crossed his arms in annoyance.
They didn't say much the rest of the car ride. Dexter could hear Troy complaining about Terrwyn's bag, how it would be in the way when fighting.
"It should be functional, not stylish" Troy complained
"Says the one who has a perfect-styled mohawk" Terrwyn said.
Dexter couldn't hold himself from laughing. Troy's face turned pure red and he turned towards his window, mumbling something like: "It's at least not in the way"
Giving Terrwyn a wide grin and both thumbs up, Dexter then returned to stare out the window.
After almost three hours, they started to closing in to New York City. Dexter yawned and tried to stretch his limbs as much he could inside the car. He had taken the moment to nap; gathering energy for the coming adventure. Looking at out of the window, Dexter saw a sea of house roofs swishing by and now and then a dark park or a bright baseball field light up by tall spotlight. Dexter sighed longingly, imagining himself pitching that ball.
The parks and house roofs was soon replaced by large industrial buildings. It looked less invitingly, since it was much poorer light up and many street lamps were broken. A chill ran down Dexter's spine. He could barely believe that he had been somewhere around those buildings, running away from a giant fire breathing bull about just a week before.
They reached a tunnel and Dexter couldn't see anything but other cars for a few minutes. When they came out again, they were surrounded by skyscrapers and they had surely reached the center of New York City.
It had already reached lunchtime when they arrived to the city. The three demigods agreed on getting something to eat before setting off, so they went to the nearest McDonald's. Dexter was surprised how much people there was in town and how unbothered they acted. To be the day after the sun fell down from the sky, Dexter started suspecting that the mortals didn't notice at all.
They ordered their burgers and sat down at a table in a corner of the restaurant and dug in to their food.
"The fastest way would be by plane" Troy said and stuffed the last piece of his burger in his mouth
"Bwo e eweg ghah mffne fo daff?" Dexter asked with mouth full of fries.
"Excuse you?" Troy wept off his own mouth with a paper towel and gave Dexter a disgusted look.
Dexter finished chewing and swallowed before trying again: "Do we even have money for that?" He asked, taking a sip from his Fanta Exotic.
Troy shrugged "Do you have any better idea, then?"
"Isn't there any other magical way? Like, that smoke taxi!"
"Smoke taxi?" Troy asked and frowned
"Yeah, that taxi with like, three chauffeurs that's driving like crazy" Dexter told him "They drove me and Ray n' Ban to camp. Got there in like, five minutes instead of three hours!"
Troy raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"It's true!" Dexter said and looked at Terrwyn "You know who they are, right?"
"The west coast is out of their reach" Terrwyn mumbled and dipped a fry in ketchup.
Dexter's mood sank. "Are you sure" he asked, lowering his burger "And there's no other magical way of travelling?"
Terrwyn shook her head. "Not that I know of"
Dexter stuffed a handful fries into his mouth while sitting deep in thoughts. How on earth would he be able to guide them? He didn't know more about what they were supposed to do than the other two did. If I were the sun, where would I land if I suddenly fell down? Dexter asked himself, but then shook his head.
"Well, how about we go and check out some… travel ways and destinations?" Dexter said, leaned back in his chair and burped loudly.
Troy wrinkled his nose and gave Dexter another disgusted look, but then he nodded in agreement. "Sure thing, guide"
They waited for Terrwyn to pack the rest of her burger in her backpack before they set off. To where? Dexter had not much of a clue. Aimlessly he wandered around, pretending to lead the team to a specified destination. He was more down in thought, considering about how he was about to guide the group. Without notice, Dexter had stepped out right in front of a driving car. The car driver jumped on the breaks and honked furiously at the blonde pedestrian.
Dexter jerked back to the reality as Troy grabbed him and dragged him up on the sidewalk again.
"What the hades are you doing?" the muscle-boy yelled at him "I'm starting to think that you have no idea where you are going?"
"You just started to think that?" Terrwyn murmured and sighed
"Hey, guys. I'm sorry but-" Dexter started, but cut himself off. Staring at the building on front of him, and three words he had been told came back to him.
"What now?!" Troy growled and impatiently put his arms to his hips.
Dexter didn't answer him. Instead he flew up to his feet, grabbed his two companions by their wrists and dragged them along inside the building. There were a lot of people inside, queueing for passing through the ticket controls. Somehow, Dexter managed to push himself and his two friends through the glass gates as a man slid his card to open them. The old man yelled after them, but Dexter kept on running with Troy and Terrwyn stumbling after him.
A whistle behind them told them that a guard had seen them and Dexter hurried as fast as he could down the escalators. They stumbled down a pairs of stair and finally got out on a platform. Dexter looked at the trains that stood on either side of them.
"What in Ares are you doing?" Troy asked him, panting by the sudden sprint.
"I'm doing nothing-…" Dexter said between his breathes. "…inside your daddy" His heart was racing and his throat wheezed every time he breathed.
A yell from the top of the stairs and they saw the guard hurrying down towards them. Dexter started running again towards the other end of the platform and to another stairway going back up. He chose another set of stairs leading down to a new platform, but turned on his heel before they reached the bottom and climbed upwards again. Third time's the charm, Dexter thought and ran towards the next staircase. There was one single train standing at the platform, wheezing as if it was just about to set off. Dexter yelped and threw himself, Troy and Terrwyn onboard the train right before the doors closed and the train started chugging out of the train station.
Dexter collapsed on the train floor, trying to catch his breath. Terrwyn sat down on a seat, also panting but Troy remained standing, trying to act unbothered. The few passengers that had taken places in that carriage stared wide eyed at them.
"You two are too weak" Troy snorted, sitting down in an empty seat opposite to Terrwyn "Can't even run a little and you're already dying"
"Hey, I'm a former smoker!" Dexter panted, holding up a finger "And I'm not a trainoholic!"
"I'm not a trainoholic!"
"Yeah, right!" Dexter sat up on the train floor "Just goes down to the arena to kill some dummies whenever you get some spare time"
"How do you know what I do during my spare times?" Troy's eyes narrowed
"Ah, no nothing… I don't know" Dexter's words faded into a mumble and he looked down at his duct taped shoes.
"However" Troy said, still glaring suspiciously at Dexter "Why did you drag us onto this train, even?"
Dexter bit the nail of his thumb, thinking about the moment of realization. "Follow the trains" he said finally and looked up at Troy and Terrwyn "She told me that, so I had to check and then I got this feeling about this train…"
"Who told you?" Troy asked
"You got a…feeling?" Terrwyn asked.
They both leaned forward in curiosity, but before Dexter even started on his explanation the train stopped and the doors flew open. He stared out the door and saw a poorly lighten rail yard with several long lines of freight trains. Dexter's gaze fell over a goods wagon where the doors stood wide open and he got a gnawing feeling that he just had to go there; it was their way forward!
Dexter shouted, grabbed his friends and dragged them out of the train before the door could close on them. Before Dexter could drag his friends away from the platform and towards the train, Troy yelled and broke free from Dexter's grip.
"Okay, now you tell us what in Ares' scarred face you're doing!" He demanded and stomped his foot on the concrete floor of the platform.
"Later! We gotta hurry!" Dexter said, trotted impatiently on place and glanced over at the goods train "Please, we may miss it!"
"No, I won't take another step before you explain!" Troy demanded and crossed his arms.
"Alright! Listen" Dexter said quickly, still glancing over now and then towards the wagon "I had a dream where Madame Luck, a really weird fortune teller, told me to 'follow the trains' and now I get this feeling of where to go!"
Troy and Terrwyn blinked and stared at him as if he was a mad man. Before any of them could say anything, Dexter shrieked, looking at the train which had whistled and slowly started rolling.
"We'll miss it!" Dexter cried and searched for a quick way towards it.
Troy grunted, muttering something for himself and then he glared at Dexter. "No, we won't!" He said and jumped down on the train tracks and started running.
Dexter stared after Troy, surprised that he accepted Dexter's explanation. He looked down at Terrwyn, who just had jumped down from the platform and waited for him to come along.
"This is crazy" she said when Dexter jumped down to her, grabbed her hand and started running.
Troy had already climbed up inside the goods van when they finally had caught up to it. They struggled to keep up to its speed and it was only gaining more for every second.
"Hurry!" Troy shouted, stretched out his hand to help them up into the carriage.
Dexter pushed Terrwyn in front of him and helped her up to reach Troy who pulled her up and returned to help Dexter. His legs ached and felt heavier for every step and his trachea felt as thin as a straw. How much he even pushed himself to run faster, the train was outrunning him.
"Come on, you idiot!" Troy shouted and got down to his knees to shorten the distance between them "Jump!"
Gathering the last of his stamina, Dexter leaped forward. He felt Troy's hand grabbing his arm and started pulling him upwards. Dexter tried to help as much as he could, but it wasn't easy with his feet dangling in the air and the wind trying to drag him outwards. Another pair of hands grabbed his other arm and together Troy and Terrwyn pulled Dexter inside the wagon.
They collapsed in a pile and took a long moment of just catching their breath. Even Troy groaned of exhaustion. None of them spoke or moved for a long while, and the first to break the silence was Terrwyn.
"I hope your feelings are leading us to the right place" she mumbled and wept sweat off her face with the sleeve of her jacket.
"I hope so too" Dexter mumbled, staring up at the ceiling.
Rustling as from wrapping paper caught his attention and he looked up. Terrwyn had opened her backpack and brought up the half of a burger she saved from her lunch.
Dexter's stomach rumbled longingly by the sight of the food. Why didn't I think of that? He thought bitterly and faced away from Terrwyn. Crawling towards one of the corners of the carriage, Dexter leaned towards the wall and yawned.
"I guess we should rest while we can" He mumbled and yawned again.
"I think you should tell us what's going on" Terrwyn said, her green eyes piercing through his aviator shades.
"I agree" Troy said "I'd like an explanation why we're 'following the trains'"
Dexter from Terrwyn to Troy. He didn't see why he wouldn't tell them and they did deserve to know. "Alrighty then" Dexter said and cleared his throat "It all started when I woke up at a railway…"