Chapter 17 ~Enryx
Enryx sat on his bunk and started wiping monster blood off his arrows and polishing his bow. Why can't monsters not bleed? They can basically do anything else. He hung up his quiver of golden arrows and bow and started unpacking his camping bag and sorting out his clothes in his wardrobe he shared with Nethrys, while Adrian got one to himself including an extra bunk which he was curled up on, burying his face in his hands.
"Andy, you alright?" Enryx asked, looking at the wreck of a Godling. Scoffing with the name of 'Andy', he replied,"Not really."
"Want to talk about it?" Enryx awkwardly consoled, though he secretly wanted him to say no. It's not that he didn't like Adrian, it was because it was probably about romance or food, which were things Enryx were not bothered with and he didn't think he was much help.
"Sure," Adrian rolled over to look at him and Nethrys, who was hanging upside down from his bunk. Damn it! Elektra had switched shifts with Nethrys, with Rosamynd in the seat next to her.
"So uh.. what's wrong?" Enryx asked.
"Well...I was with Trudy on the roof, we were kissing-" He was interrupted by Enryx's gagging.
"And then she said `I love you' to me."
"That's sweet, I guess," Enryx said awkwardly, not really knowing that to say to him.
"But then... I said I love brownies."
"What's so bad, you love brownies!" Nethrys shrugged, flipping off the bed and grabbing the wretched but delicious snack from the fridge, tossing one at Enryx and Adrian.
"But she said 'I love you' and I didn't say it back." Adrian replied, as he started munching on his snack.
"But do you love her?" Eryx frowned at Adrian, watching him fidget uncomfortably and turn away from him and Nethrys, who was also observing the Godling with a slightly disapproving expression.
"We're almost at Phoenix!" Elektra interrupted from the front seat.
"I don't know, we only just recently met and we haven't known each other for a long time."
"So you don't love her?" Nethrys asked, pausing from polishing his silver shield to look at Adrian, his eyebrows raised in confusion .
"I-I don't know."
"Do you still wanna go out with her?" Enryx asked, "I mean she's really pretty, nice, talented, pretty and smart. Did I mention she was pretty?" He added, smiling to himself.
Adrian gave them both a hard look, "Seriously guys, what am I going to do?"
"Tell her you love her, maybe?"
"I don't know if I want to yet," Adrian groaned, flopping into the bed and burrowing his head into the pillow.
Enryx heard footsteps coming down the spiralling staircase from the floor above. Katerina walked down the stairs and over to her bunk with Trudy behind her, both sweating and panting. Enryx saw Trudy looking at Adrian, who was fiddling with the leather cord around his neck, not quite meeting her eyes.
"Are you sweating? Why are you sweating?" Nethrys asked curiously.
"Where did you guys come from?"
"The training room." Kat collapsed onto her bed.
"We have a training room? Since when?" Poor Nethrys just looked really, really confused.
"Since forever, I guess," Trudy said quietly. Katerina whispered something in Trudy's ear and Enryx could just make out what she said- something about talking to 'him'. He guessed that 'him' was Adrian and that Katerina wanted Trudy to talk about what happened.
"Adrian, can I talk to you in private?"
"Huh? Yeah sure," Adrian said down at her from his bunk. Trudy nodded and put down her battle gear and walked up stairs with Adrian behind her.
"Do you wanna eavesdrop?" Kat suggested, grinning cheekily. The others agreed and went up the stairs but paused before the second step after a very disgruntled Vytoni and Lysandra came down the stairs and joined them, obviously kicked out of the second floor.
"Who kicks people out of their habitat?" Lysandra complained, "Are they even allowed to do that? They shouldn't be allowed to do that."
"Shush!" Enryx silenced, "C'mon. Lets go!" They walked up the stairs silently, Lysandra pausing to cover her mouth as she swallowed a giggle. They stopped right in front of the door, careful not to make any noise.
"Adrian, I-I'm sorry." Trudy apologized
"Sorry about what?"
"Saying that. It was obviously too soon."
"It's ok, sorry for responding badly."
"No, it's me that should be sorry."
"No, I'm sorry, my response was stupid."
"You know what? We're both sorry, I like you, alot ."
"You're in like with me?"
Trudy giggled, "Yes, I'm in like with you, Adrian Belikov."
"It's Sir Adrian Belikov," Adrian corrected jokingly in a serious voice. They both laughed. They're probably having a make up kissing session. Enryx could almost hear them kissing but maybe it was just his imagination. He heard footsteps edging towards them.
"They're coming back down!" Enryx panicked. Everyone instantly ran down the stairs and hurried to pretended to do something. Nethrys went back to polishing his shield; Vytoni and Lysandra went back to reading and Katerina went back on her laptop. Enryx rushed over to his bunk and slid under the covers as he heard Trudy and Adrian walk down the stairs and go into the kitchen.
"Hey, guys- what's new?" Adrian said, awkwardly, making himself a sandwich.
"Um, we literally just saw each other like two minutes ago," Nethrys commented, catching the juice box that Adrian chucked at him, "Thanks."
"Not so welcome," Adrian muttered, "Right, um, we did." Adrian replied, nodding to everyone, "Yeah! We did." Adrian hurried away with Trudy, eating the sandwich he just made.
Vytoni got up again and headed back upstairs, probably, but as she walked past Enryx and Nethrys's bunk, all of a sudden she fell, catching herself on the last second, bringing Nethrys down with her. Despite having fell down as well, Nethrys burst out laughing, snickering to himself.
"You tripped me, you moron!" Vytoni leapt back up again, glaring at Nethrys.
"Not my fault, you and the floor must be very close!" Nethrys said, unable to hold in his laughter.
"You're dead, Blackthorn!" Vytoni growled, punching Nethrys square on the jaw while storming up the stairs. Everyone stared at Nethrys, who was rolling around on the carpeted floor, roaring in laughter.
"You should go apologize, Nethrys," Lysandra said softly. Kat looked up from her laptop and grunted in agreement.
"She deserves it!" Nethrys retorted indignantly.
"Why? I mean," Enryx quickly defended himself from Nethrys' seething glare, "What has she done to you?"
"She was born," Nethrys replied lamely, pouting like a child, which made everyone either laugh or roll their eyes in frustration. Enryx scoffed, while Lysandra pointed towards the flight of stairs Vyt had stormed up. Sometimes Nethrys can act like such a jerk.
"Fine," Nethrys sighed in resignation, slowly walking up the steps, " I'll go apologize." He went up the stairs, disappearing from their view. It was silent for a few seconds, then-
"Maybe we should go listen in on them," Lysandra whispered, already getting up and creeping up to where the two Godlings were talking - more like arguing. The others followed her, their ears keen and alert for any signs of trouble.
"We're a bad influence on her," Enryx whispered to Katerina. Kat giggled and smiled, following them up the stairs. Distantly, Enryx could just make out what they were saying - and that was because they were on the verge of shouting.
"Look, I said I was sorry, okay?"
"Don't talk to me! Unless you would like to be my target practice!"
"Ugh. Nevermind. Anyways, why do you have such a big grudge on me?"
"What?!" Enryx could practically envision Vytoni as she bore a hole through Nethrys' sorry little face. " I have every right to grudge against you!"
"What do you mean? What have I done to you?"
"Its people like you, who just stroll in and take whatever and leave. Half the girls in the Hunt were scarred by boys like you! Some of my friends left the Hunt because of some guy she fell for. So I'll say this once. Stay away from me and my friends."
"Sure, I can do that. Your friends are miles away. In fact, they probably replaced you, too."
Next to him, Enryx heard Lysandra draw in a sharp gasp, as if she remembered something particularly painful. He opened his mouth, intent on speaking with her, but she shook her head slightly and continued listening intently, pressing her ear up against the door. Later.
"Well then, keep up the good work or you'll regret it." Vytoni growled.
The crowd of godlings which surrounded the door parted as Vytoni threw open the door.
"Thanks for invading my private conversation guys," Vytoni stalked up to the roof. The others looked at her then at each other, and instantly rushed to Nethrys, who was sitting on a beanbag watching some talk show with a short-haired, white blonde woman sitting on a red armchair. Nethrys' cheek were flushed with embarrassment or anger - Enryx wasn't sure which one it was.
"That witch! Who does she think she is? Queen Latifah? Princess Diana? She can't tell me what to do!" Nethrys complained.
"You're the one that tripped her up!"
"It was just a joke, I swear."
"You apologized though, right?"
"Yeah, you guys eavesdropped so you already know, I did but all she did was talk about this 'I'm a boy' business."
"Well, just try to be nicer to her, after all we're stuck together until we complete this quest."
Nethrys nodded and turned up the television volume, watching the short haired woman talk show host speak with her guests. There was always a roar of laughter coming from the audience in the show. During the next couple of hours all Enryx and Nethrys did was watch reruns of shows on their television while eating. Soon Lysandra joined them, holding a thick book about the size of an encyclopedia.
"Guys, I think we should plan out how we're gonna find Phobos in Phoenix," Lysandra said, scanning through the book.
"We could try Iris-Messaging him," Nethrys suggested.
"That won't work, but we could try."
"Let's call an emergency meeting."
Enryx went over to the telecom attached to the wall and pressed down a button, "Um, hi, everyone, can everyone come over to the den please? Thanks," Enryx released pressure on the button and sat down on the dining table. Soon all the godlings sat around the table. There were maps, notes, research and pictures sprawled across the table, everyone was talking and chattering amongst themselves. Elektra had parked the caravan near a motel at the edge of Phoenix city borders.
"So, uh," Enryx cleared his throat and everyone stopped to look at him, "We're almost at Phoenix, and we should come up with a plan to find -and stop- Phobos."
"I did some research and I found a possible place where Phobos could be," Lysandra announced, slamming an impossibly thick book onto the table surface, making everyone edge back.
"Some?" Adrian commented incredulously, "Some?"
Lysandra silenced him with a hard look and flipped to a page and spun the book around so everyone could see it. On the page was a picture of a barren, rundown shack. The walls looked terribly burnt and seemed as if it was barely holding itself together. The title read 'The Sunflower Mine."
"The Sunflower Mine was destroyed five decades ago in a fire, it was used produce mercury and it yielded large amounts of mercury, gold, silver and copper. I heard some gods wanted to restore it, so that gives Phobos a reason to be hiding out there," Lysandra informed the curious godlings.
"That's a good idea," Trudy remarked. The godlings all looked at the pictures and read a few paragraphs of information about the mines.
"Hold on, I was just researching about Phoenix and there's this urban legend about the Domes of Casa Grande. Apparently it's a dome-shaped abandoned factory -hence the name- It was rumoured that human and animal sacrifices were held there - and reports on use of black magic."
"That's a possibility as well," Rosamynd shrugged.
"We'll have to split up then," Elektra decided.
"Hold on," Vytoni grasped the book she had taken from Lysandra's hands, much to the other Godling's annoyance, "There's a third. Copenhaver Castle - 1970. A tourist attraction. This castle was said to have been abandoned due to a mysterious murder, leading people to believe that the castle is haunted - knowing my luck, it probably is."
"Great," Enryx ran his hand through his hair, gritting his teeth in frustration, "We have three places. Anyways, I'm not sure how long we'll be there so we're gonna go in three groups of three."
"Trudy, you will go with Nethrys and Lysandra." Enryx ordered, pointing at the three. "You will go find the Sunflower Mines,"
The three nodded and stood up from their chairs and began collecting the scraps of paper and pictures of their destination. Lysandra took the book back from Vytoni and muttered the incantations and the page duplicated then flew into her hand. The others looked at her and she raised her hands in defence.
"You know you can just rip the page out of the book?" Enryx remarked.
"But that would be harming the book," Lysandra nagged and Enryx found himself growing impatient.
"Elektra, you will go find the Domes of Casa Grande with Vytoni and Adrian." Enryx commanded. Trudy frowned at the group choice and hugged Adrian.
"So that leaves, you, Katerina and Rosamynd to go look for the Copenhaver Castle," Nethrys spotted, taking pictures of the information onto his small camera he took around with him.
"Correct," Enryx replied.
Everyone went downstairs to their bunks then picked out their weapons and gear. They all got prepared for the mini-quests across Phoenix.
"So everyone rendezvous here in about... three and a half hours?" Enryx asked.
~END OF CHAPTER 17 ~