Hey guys :) Here we go! Happy Almost Winter Break! At least it is for me :)

Enjoy!

-Olo Eopia03


Chapter 12: Smooth Landing


Four will venture on this quest,

Only one will fail the test.

In the garden you will find,

The truth of who was left behind.

Fall, and three will succeed.

To overthrow her love for greed.

"Let's go over there, Ray!" The bouncing little girl said in front of him. Looking down, he saw those two huge green eyes twinkling back at him. He couldn't help but grin. The two were on the streets, alone. The alleyway that they stood was dark and dingy, concentrated with an almost palpable silence. Ray could feel the cold dread creeping into his body. It was only a matter of time before they were found again.

A sharp pain seared across his mind . . .

"Quick! Up the hill!" The satyr said from behind him. Monsters. Almost everywhere. The worst part was that the hill was being blocked. They were surrounded. He looked over, and saw the fear reflected in the girl's eyes. They'd have to fight their way out of there.

The pain continued to grow . . .

A scream.

Fire. Everything was burning. But somehow it was being pacified, as if water had come in as an insulator. Fire and water. What was happening? It was too bright for him to see the commotion.

The pain was too much. He couldn't take it anymore. They were going to die. He didn't want to die. Not like this.

"Ray! R-"

"Hey, Ray! Ray! Wake up!" A voice said worriedly.

Ray bolted upright, only to find himself facing Elli. Her sea green eyes seemed to shine, no matter of what the situation was. Ray found that he was in a cold sweat, and his heart seemed to beat twice as fast.

"Where's the fire?" he said groggily as his vision came into focus. Elli's expression changed for a moment. Was that a look of concern on her face?

"Erm- Ray, never mind that. You've got to get up. Now!" The urgency in her voice made him jump up to his feet. They were still up in the chariot, with Mike and Melanie in front of them, but something was wrong.

"Guys, we're going down." Melanie said. The trees below them were starting to look more distinct as they got closer to the ground. But why were they going down?

"Zack," Mike growled as he scanned the sides of the chariot. They were glowing a deep vermilion red. "He did this. I bet you the real chariot is back at camp. This is only a duplicate that's been enchanted!" Whatever he was saying wasn't helping, because the chariot only continued to accelerate downward. Ray could feel the wind whistling deafeningly through his ears. Looking around, he then quickly put on his backpack and made sure the others were wearing theirs as well. If they were going to fall, they might as well get ready.

"We need to steer this thing," Melanie said, her voice unusually calm in a situation like this. Or at least they were all trying to act natural. "at least try to land somewhere with a safe landing."

"There!" Elli said, pointing ahead of them. As they neared toward it, Ray noticed that it was a huge lake surrounded by a ring of trees. Of course, Elli'd noticed it first. But he thought it was a brilliant idea. Soon, they all agreed, and Mike steered it as best as he could toward the body of water.

"She's not doing so well, guys," he grunted. "we might not-"

"Yes we will," Melanie said. Ray saw Elli and Melanie exchange glances, but he couldn't tell what they were both thinking. Yeah, sometimes it's annoying when that happens.

Mike sighed in satisfaction as they were just near the lake. However, the chariot was going at an alarming speed. Ray could see the knuckles of his friends gradually turn white as they gripped tighter onto the sides of the chariot. It didn't matter if the vehicle was glowing red, or if it was really starting to get hotter beneath their palms. It was a matter between life and death.

"The lake!" Mike yelled above the wind. "It's just there! Only a few more-"

The two girls started to scream. Ray yelled in shock. The chariot had disappeared into thin air. He floundered helplessly in the air as he continued to hear the screams mingle with the screeching wind. Those screams. Ray shuddered. He'd heard a scream just like that before. What was it? A dream?

He didn't remember falling from this high a height before. How high were they? With difficulty, he opened his watering eyes against the blowing wind, and saw that the lake was getting closer at an alarming rate. In a few seconds, they were going to plunge into the lake. The water really did look cold.

[xxx]

Melanie felt as though she'd hit the ground instead of nice liquid water. The surface pressure was so strong that Melanie almost hoped that none of her bones were broken. She didn't hear the others splash into the water, but she didn't have time to suck in a single breath before she went in. The wind had suffocated her on the way down. Or she'd been screaming too much.

Frantically, she groped upward for anything she could grab onto. Obviously, her efforts were fruitless, since she was ubiquitously surrounded by water. The water was rapidly rushing into her lungs. Slowly, she tried to focus, kicking her feet upward, ignoring the weight that her clothes and pack that was being brought down on her. As soon as she burst through the water, she took a huge gulp of air, and saw that Mike and Raymond were also starting to resurface. Elli was already swimming toward the water. She didn't seem effected by anything.

Hm,Melanie thought. Iwonderwhy.

As soon as they reached shore, Melanie saw that the look on Raymond's face was a sign telling them they should back up a little.

"That. . . That. . . Son of. . ." he growled, too angry to fume out the last of his words.

"Good thing, too," Elli muttered, glancing at Melanie. She couldn't help but grin at the telepathy that was going on between them. Elli grinned back. With a reassuring glance from Mike, he led Ray away from the girls' reach, telling them that they'd find a spot to settle in in no time. They could dry up in the mean time or even hang out. Well, at least Melanie could dry up. Elli . . . Well, she's completely fine.

All of a sudden, Melanie felt her hand reach quickly for her coat pocket. Hastily she pulled out the journal from her mother she'd kept ever since camp. To her surprise, Melanie found that it was completely dry, no wet ink seeping out of the pages. She sighed in relief.

"What's that, Melanie?" Elli asked in curiosity when she saw the book after watching Mike and Raymond leave. Mentally face palming herself, Melanie should've known better than to have taken it out in the first place.

"U- um, it's nothing really," Melanie said quickly, placing the book back in her pocket. Maybe she would write in it later. Elli's eyebrows were raised in. . . Was that amusement? Only someone like Elli would be able to feel that she could be old enough to feel amused at someone older than her.

Fine, her expression said. Melanie nodded. They were close friends, but when it came to times like these, they at least understood each other. After a few minutes of drying up and checking the contents in their packs, the two girls looked around to survey their surroundings.

"Where do you think we are?" Elli wondered aloud.

"Who knows," Melanie said, feeling just as lost. "Mike was the last one who was controlling the chariot. All I remember was him waking me up and telling me that something was wrong with the chariot."

"Hm," Elli pondered. "Tomorrow we'll only have eight days left. We spent one day flying up in the air, and it's getting dark now."

"But still, eight days, compared to past quests, is still quite a long time for us to be flying to San Francisco." Melanie remarked. San Francisco. Where the Garden of Hesperides awaited them. Ray'd told them that one of their enemies could involve a goddess, but he wasn't so sure himself.

Well,let'snothopefortheworst,Melanie thought darkly. In the mean time, she needed to take another look at her journal, perhaps at night. She needed to know what other peculiar things it could do.

"It's been a while," Elli said, her brow furrowing, "I wonder what they're up t-"

"We found a place, you guys!" Mike called out from the trees behind them. In a few seconds, the two boys stood in front of them, Mike especially looking proud of himself. "Not bad, I might say, eh Stone?"

"Not bad? I'd have to say it's pretty nice, after realizing we'd have to pitch in some big bucks," Raymond said. Thank the gods; he must've cooled down on the way.

"We're heading to a hotel on a street a few miles away from here." Mike said. "Oh, yeah. Did I forget to tell you? We're in Wyoming."