Alexander ~

I fought a battle with my eyelids, trying to get them to open. It took a lot of strength to do something that would usually take little, almost no effort at all to do. It was like I was playing tug-o-war with ten people on the other end of the rope. It took quite a long time before I finally got them to open. I was exhausted from just opening my eyelids, and obviously didn't have enough strength to get up and look around. My senses however, told me that I was still in the underworld.

"Hello?" I said. "Anyone here?"

"I'm coming," I someone said.

I could make out a figure walking towards me. She crouched down so that her face was inches away from mine. It took me a few minutes to realize who it was.

"Thalia," I croaked.

This angel … my angel was crying. Those electric blue eyes were all cloudy and misty with her tears. Her face was a complete mess, black eyeliner smudged all over the place. No, I thought. This image is all wrong. Even though my body was mentally screaming at me with pain, I ignored it and slowly reached up; wiping away her tears with my hand.

"Thalia …" I said softly. "Please, don't cry."

"I … I thought you were going to die!" She said. "Thank the gods!"

"What happened?" I asked.

"After you blacked out, there was a chariot pulled by six black stallions and a bunch of skeleton warriors suddenly appeared. One of the skeleton warriors signaled for us to get on the chariot, while the others were fighting the drakon and the other hellhounds. Nico and I carried you to the chariot and we were brought here."

I sighed with relief. "Thank you father."

"Those were sent by your father?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I prayed to him for help before I blacked out."

"Oh," Thalia said. "I thought the gods weren't allowed to interfere in any way during quests, but oh well."

"How long have I been out for anyways?" I asked.

"About 5 hours," Thalia replied.

"Help me up," I said.

"Sorry, can't" Thalia said, while she smirked at me.

"You're evil Thalia," I said.

She laughed. "You shouldn't be getting up at this stage. You should rest, I'll go get you more nectar and ambrosia."

I guess all that talking sapped the limited strength I had, because before Thalia could even come back and give me more nectar, I had already fallen into deep slumber. As I lay there on the ground in the underworld, my mind travelled to somewhere else. It was a beautiful garden that probably had Lady Demeter's blessing. There was a fountain that sat in the middle of this place, and a beautiful woman wearing a light pink dress stood next to it. It took me a minute to realize that the woman standing there was Aphrodite, the goddess of love herself.

Ugh! I thought I told her to stay out of my head! She's so irritating!

"I can hear your thoughts Alexander," Aphrodite said.

"Sorry Lady Aphrodite," I said. "I thought you said that you'd stay out of my thoughts!"

"Well I didn't swear on the River Styx did I?" Aphrodite replied.

"Fine," I huffed. "So what brings you into my mind again oh great goddess of love?" I said sarcastically.

"Well I couldn't help but see that scene just now," Aphrodite said. "It's so romantic!" She squealed with excitement.

"Uh …" I said.

"Don't you just love it?" Aphrodite said. "Forbidden love! The daughter of Zeus and a son of Hades can you believe it?"

"Who says we're going to be together?" I asked.

"You know you love her," Aphrodite said. "Just admit it."

"Fine, fine. I do love Thalia, but you can't say the same about her. She's a hunter!"

"Oh please," Aphrodite said. "Many hunters have already broken their vows to Artemis. It's about time another one did."

"No!" I said defiantly. "I'm not going to make her give up immortality because of me."

"Sheesh Alex, way to ruin the fun of everything!" Aphrodite said as she pouted.

"Whatever," I said.

"I'm late for my date with Ares! Oh and Alex, you should wake up now, before Thalia shocks you." Aphrodite said.

"Huh?" I said. "Thalia? Oh crap!"

Aphrodite sighed. "Too late," she said, then disappeared in a flash of pink light.

Thanks to Thalia's electroshock therapy, I was able to jump up almost instantly.

"Thalia!" I yelled. "And why do I smell smoke?"

Thalia put on an innocent look on her face, and then laughed.

I groaned. "Thalia! That was my favorite shirt!"

"Um … Alex? Can you put on a shirt? Please?" Thalia said, while covering her eyes to block the view of my upper body.

I swear I saw Thalia blushing, but shook the thought out of my head. You're not going to make her fall in love with you! I told myself.

"Fine," I said.

I quickly stripped off the tattered remains of my shirt, and pulled on another one.

"Ok Thalia," I said. "You can look now."

Thalia slowly lowered her hand, like she was afraid that I was lying to her. Why would I do that? I thought to myself. A moment later, Nico waltzed in humming the guitar solo of "One" by Metallica.

"So what'd I miss?" Nico asked Thalia and I.

"Nothing much," I said. "Just the fact that I finally woke up after 5 hours Nico!"

"Oh," Nico said. "So … what are we going to do next?"

"Well," Thalia said. "We should start looking for the lost goddess again."

"That's right," I said. "And we should definitely avoid drakons and hellhounds this time."

"Got it," Nico said. "Now where to?"

"This time we should head back to the other side," I replied. "There are only two paths, and we've already taken one, so the other path is going to be where the goddess is."

"Ok, then let's get going!" Nico said.

I apologies for the long wait, but school work has taken up most of my time. I also had a minor case of writer's block, so spare me. Anyways, Alex's quest continues and time moves on. Do you think that the drakons and hellhounds are the only challenges or obstacles Alex, Thalia, and Nico will have to face or am i going to put in more surprises along the way? Well, I guess you all just have to be patient to find out.

Child of the Moon's Shadow: There's Aphrodite (again), stirring up trouble as usual. Well, I hope you enjoyed that little chapter, and GET BACK TO STUDYING! Hmm ... maybe Hades will lend you his chariot when you're done studying for exams. I don't know, you'll have to ask Alex to help you convince Hades though. Anyways, cya for now!