A/N- Hey y'all! Smartone101 back with another chapter and *drum roll* a message from Lief! Take it away, Lief.
Lief: 'Sup, people? Anyways, I know y'all don't like that I'm on the run, and some of you *glares at crowd* have been calling me stupid or an idiot. Listen, peeps. I'm not an idiot. I have my reasons for doing what I do. But hey, I appreciate your concern. *glances over his shoulder* Stoll alert! That's my cue! *runs off*
Me: Okay people. That was Lief. And I agree with you. He's acting like an idiot. Anyways…here's your chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Day 5: Clue
Erin's POV
Stupid, stupid Lief. The Stolls had called me last night and told me that they had caught Lief, but that he had escaped. Why couldn't he realize that he needed to come back? What an idiot. I paced up and down the cave, muttering to myself. I probably would have done that all day if I hadn't fallen flat on my face. I lay there on the ground for a few seconds, getting my breath back.
Finally getting to my feet, I looked down to see what I had tripped over. Lief's sketchbook. A thought suddenly came to me. If there's any clue as to where Lief's gone, it's in there. I started flipping through the pages at breakneck speed. I slowed down, though, when I started seeing portraits. Some were done in pencil, some in ink. All of them were extraordinarily done. If I didn't know that this was a sketchbook, I could have sworn that they were photographs. As I flipped, though, I noticed something strange. Quite a few of these portraits were of me.
Casting aside this observation, I continued looking. Something caught my eye, but I flipped past it before I could take a good look at it. Turning back a couple pages, I finally settled on a drawing. At first, it looked abstract, like random squiggles. Taking a closer look, however, I realized that it was a road map. Camp Half-Blood was marked in red. Scanning the page for a clue, any clue, I spotted a green X in the upper right-hand corner. It appeared to be a small park in a little town called Kilton. This had to be a clue.
Theo and Noah were still snoring away when I slipped the phone out of Theo's pocket. One of the perks of being a Hermes kid is that you get to be super sneaky and remarkably good at stealing stuff. Plus, you're really good at Ninja -Of course, that could also be just me. Don't look at me like that! The game's legit! Anyways, that's beside the point. I went outside to call. The sun had just risen, probably a couple minutes ago. I opened Theo's phone and started to dial Connor's -stolen- cell phone, but stopped when a screen popped up demanding that I enter the "password". The password? Really? This called for some super Erin-type sneakiness. Slipping the phone into my pocket, I stepped back into the cave. I tapped Theo on the shoulder ever so gently. "Theo," I hissed.
"What?" he murmured sleepily.
"What's your phone's password?"
"Theo is awesome, no caps or spaces." Theo rolled over before bolting upright. "What did you just say?"
"Um, nothing. I've got to go now. Bye!" I said in a rush before bolting down the passage and outside, where I commenced to enter the password and dial Connor's cell phone number.
After a couple rings, somebody picked up the phone. "You have reached the amazing Connor Stoll. Now, whadda ya want?" Connor grumbled sleepily.
"Okay Connor, this is Erin. Now listen up and listen close. Lief is probably heading for Kilton. It's northeast of where I am. If you can get there before he can, you'll have a better chance of stopping him. Now, get your lazy rears up and get going!" I hung up, still not entirely sure how much Connor had heard. Now, for phase two. I ran back inside, slipped Theo's phone back into his pocket, and shook him awake. I started to do the same to Noah, but Theo stopped me.
"Don't," he hissed. "Noah sleeps with a knife."
"He's paranoid," I observed.
"Nope. He's always been like that," Theo defended.
"Then he's always been paranoid," I concluded.
"Who's paranoid?" a sleepy voice asked. Noah. I wonder…
"Oh, nobody. Just -AH! You're his evil twin! You're a clone! You're one of them!" I yelled, pretending to panic. Hey, they were looking way too serious. It worked. Theo fell out of his chair laughing. I'm not sure why. It wasn't that funny. It wasn't even as funny as what one of my half-sisters had said when she saw The Two Towers.
We sat on my bed, watching The Two Towers play out on the screen before us. Frodo and Sam were hiding in Osgiliath during the battle. A Nazgul shrieked, and Lindsey grabbed my arm. "It's not gonna hurt Sam, is it?" She asked, her face concerned. She had good taste in her favorite characters, I had to admit. Sure, maybe she liked Sam and Faramir, while I thought Merry and Pippin were the coolest, but hey- we both hated Frodo, thought Aragorn was weird, and knew Legolas was way too perfect.
"Lindsey, you've seen this movie about fifty times," I said. "Now quite down." If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when people talk during movies.
On screen, Frodo started to walk out onto the bridge to confront the Nazgul. 'What are you doing? Where are you going?' Sam asked him.
Lindsey immediately replied, in a perfect imitation of Frodo, "I have to go to the bathroom." We spent the rest of the movie rolling on the floor laughing until I thought I would suffocate.
"So, oh high and mighty genius, what's the plan?" Noah asked.
"Wha- huh?" I intelligently replied.
"See, I told you she wasn't listening," Theo smirked.
"Sorry. I was just remembering this one time when my sister and I were watching-"
"Don't even start," Noah cut me off. "We probably wouldn't think it was funny, anyways."
"True."
"So, what Noah was trying to ask you is what the plan is. Or if there is, in fact, a plan at all," Theo said.
"Oh, there's a plan. Get your bags, boys. We're heading back to camp."
Half an hour later…
"So, we're back at camp," Theo said.
"Way to state the obvious," Noah scowled.
"Thanks." Theo. Always so oblivious.
"It wasn't a compliment," Noah snapped.
"I knew that! I've known you for…how long again?" Theo said.
"Since we were born, you idiot."
"Really? I don't' remember that…'course I've had amnesia once…or twice…I can't really remember." Theo deadpanned. Noah rolled his eyes in frustration and smacked Theo upside the head. Theo winced and stepped away, looking offended. "What was that for?"
"That was for you acting like an imbecile. Now stop all…that." Noah made a vague gesture in Theo's direction.
"You just gestured to all of me," Theo said.
"And would you quit it with the How to Train your Dragon references? They're driving me up the wall!"
"In that case, you must have gone across the ceiling once or twice," Theo replied. Noah rolled his eyes again and sighed.
"Get him to stop," Noah said. I assumed he was talking to me, since the only other 'he' was Theo.
Getting a brilliant idea, I grabbed both boys by their shirt collars and cracked their heads together. Okay, so I probably did it a little harder then necessary. "That," I smirked, "was for wasting time." I released them, then smacked them both at once. "And that was for everything else."
Noah's face started to turn a strange shade of purple and a growl rose from deep in his throat. I took that as my cue to run for the relative safety of the empty Hermes cabin.
Lief's POV
I opened my eyes and immediately realized that I couldn't move my head. Let me back up a minute. After making sure there was a considerable distance between the Stolls and I, I had climbed up a pine tree and fallen asleep leaning back against the trunk. Now -now being morning, probably about 10:00- I realized what a mistake I had made. My hair was stuck to the tree trunk. With sap. That was starting to dry. I cursed under my breath as I slowly started to pick my hair off the tree.
Roughly half an hour later, I turned around to see how much of my hair I had left on the tree. To my surprise, I couldn't see any. That was when I reached up to scratch the back of my head. Let's just say that I think at least a third of the tree sap had gotten stuck in my hair. About then was when I slipped and fell off the branch I had been sitting on, thereby coating me with pine needles and a bit more sap before I could grab a branch. Of course, then the dryad just had to poke her head out at me, which startled me so much I fell the rest of the way and landed directly on a rock, bruising my tailbone. Ouch.
After cursing under my breath for the better part of a minute, I hauled myself to my feet. Seeing light ahead, I walked for a couple minutes before finding myself on the slope of a hill, clear of woods, with a dirt road at the bottom. I looked around for a while before accepting that I was lost. Completely and totally lost. Wait- was that the creek? I dashed over to investigate, and in doing so, tripped and fell flat on my face. Spitting dirt and grass out of my mouth, I walked the rest of the way, only to discover that it was not the creek, but a very small stream flowing into the woods. I figured it must be a tributary or something. I was really thirsty, so I lay down and slurped up the water without giving much thought to it. The water was ice cold, but I didn't attach any importance to that, either.
A couple minutes later, I was doubled over by the bank of the stream clutching my stomach and groaning in pain. There were the cramps that come with drinking too much cold water too fast, but there was something else, too. I just had time to lean over the stream and push my hair away before I was puking into the stream. Let's just say that the water tasted way worse coming up then it had going down. Afterwards, trying to wipe the taste out of my mouth with my sleeve, I realized that I would need to ask for directions if I ever wanted to get to Kilton. That would not be fun, as I generally was not good at asking for things and didn't exactly look trustworthy at the moment. I pictured myself and groaned. My hair was probably matted down from the pine sap, there was a scrape over my right eye, my clothes were torn up, and to top it off, I probably looked sick.
About then was when the truck came barreling down the dirt road. It screeched to a halt and I staggered up toward it. A man leaned out the window. "You lost?" he asked.
"Yes sir." If in doubt, be as polite as possible.
"Where you headed to?" the man asked.
"Kilton. Do you know which way it is?"
"Ne'er heard of it." The man scratched his head and I swear I saw a flea jump out.
"Do you know where the nearest town is?" I asked in desperation.
"Yeah. Up t'road a mile er so."
"Thank you. Thank you very much!" I turned and started a slow jog up the road. The man rolled up his window and drove off in the other direction. As soon as he was out of sight, I fell to my knees and was violently sick for the second time that day. Struggling back to my feet, I continued down the road.
A mile and ten minutes later, I saw a town. It was a small thing, really, but there were people. There seemed to only be a couple stores, so I went into the first one I saw. The clerk looked over his glasses at me. "Good morning. How may I help you?"
"Good morning sir. I was wondering…is there a place where I can wash up?"
"Not in the store. You could try the inn, but only if you have money. If not, then I suggest you go back to your family." I looked at the clerk, confused. "You are a runaway, are you not?"
"No sir, I am not. I was out running yesterday, and I took a wrong turn and got lost." Despite what you may think, I can lie. I'm just not the best at it. "I was supposed to be back home last night before sunset. Mom's gonna kill me."
The clerk bought it. Sucker. "Where're you from, then?"
"Kilton."
"Kilton? That's quite a ways for you to have run. Kilton's a good ten miles north of here." There! The clerk had just given me exactly the information I needed.
"Thank you, sir. I'd best be going." I slipped out of the store and had just started up the road again when I tripped and hit my head on a rock. Getting back up, I realized my forehead was bleeding. As the blood dried, the flies and mosquitoes swarmed me. Just what I needed. Working my way up the road in what I hoped was the right direction, I wasn't too surprised when a car slowed to a halt beside me. All my instincts were screaming at me to run, but I didn't listen and instead went up to the car. Big mistake. The window rolled down, and I found myself looking at two very familiar faces. Travis and Connor Stoll. My day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?
A/N- And there you go! Lief's having a bad day…By the way, who else caught the How to Train your Dragon references? Oh, and the incident with The Two Towers actually happened to me. Thanks sis, for providing Frodo's inspiring (not!) line.
-smartone101
