Oh, my. I get swamped at school, and finally make a deadline, only to get a review, which them proceeds to whisper complaints to my muse who then decides she agrees with the reviewer. Sigh. I am a slave to you all, much good may it do you. Ah, well. I am pleased to be able to write again, if only for a short while.
Thank you all so very much for the comparison to Carrie, though I, myself, have neither read nor seen it. I will continue not to do so while writing, actually, so as to avoid copying. After all, Stephen King is an amazing writer, and I don't plan to steal the greatness of others - I plan to make my own.
"Aeschylus calls them 'The warring Amazons, men-haters.' They were a nation of women, all warriors…Familiar though they are to us there are few stories about them." Mythology, Chapter II - Brief Myths Arranged Alphabetically: The Amazons, Edith Hamilton
The next morning, I woke to find that the boat was still. We had stopped. Scrambling to my feet over plushy cushions that almost twisted my ankles, I fumbled for the door, tying my bandana.
It was late again, and I thought I might be too late for breakfast, so I went to the open air part - the deck, I guess, - only to find Yume leaning on the railing, watching everyone else in the town we had stopped in. I walked over and leaned on the railing next to her. She had light gray circles under her eyes, and I thought how old she looked with them. She looked so worn and tired.
"Did you not sleep well, Yume?" I asked, worried. She started, but didn't look over at me, continuing to look out at the city.
"The Captain, our Lord Kronos, has ordered us to help bring the Amazons to our side. They're letting us off in Boston, and we'll make our way West to Five Lakes, New York. That's where they live." she said, sounding almost like a machine and not sounding tired at all.
"But didn't we just come from New York?" I was confused. Why leave New York just to come back to it? Wouldn't the other campers be looking for us?
"We left there so that we could go on this mission. Chiron and the camp director wouldn't want us to go, so we had to run away in order to do as our Lord wills." she explained, picking up her bag and beginning to turn away from me, heading down the ramp that led to the ground.
"Our Lord like God?" I asked, following after her. She sighed, exasperated like my mom used to get, and waved her hand at me.
"No, like a god. Kronos. But you can't say his name all the time. Names have power, and so it's really dangerous. We'll just call him our Lord, okay?" I nodded as we reached the bottom and started walking away from the boat. I wondered if Luke was coming with us, or if he was staying. Probably staying. I wonder what he thought of me? Ack! Kyle, stop thinking of that! You need to worry about your mom! How is she doing? Is she even alive? the thought worried me. I needed to get this done fast, or my mom might not make it.
"So, how are we going to get to Five Lakes?" I asked.
"Five Ponds. And we'll take the Gray Sisters' Taxi Service." And with that, I could tell she stopped paying attention to me. She walked up to the curb, and I followed her, watching as she threw a gold coin into the street, muttering something.
"What's you say, Yume?" I asked, turning to her and wondering if she was talking to me after throwing away a gold coin just like that.
"Hailing a taxi." She stepped forward into the street, and I whirled to see a gray, shadowy car that appeared as though it was formed from the smoke all around. I hadn't noticed the smoke being there before, but maybe I just wasn't looking. It said something on the side, too. 'Gyra Sissret,' or something like that. I didn't get a good chance to puzzle it out, because Yume was pushing me in too quickly.
"Get in. We're in a hurry, Kyle, if we want to save your mom. The sooner we start on our Lord's orders, the sooner your mom is saved." She climbed in after me, and pulled her bag with her, slamming the door shut. Having made my promise and knowing I needed to save her at all costs, I focused on our destination.
But it was my first time in a taxi. It wasn't like the lady's car, with seatbelts and soft interior and two separate chairs in the backseat. Instead, it was all one seat, and it felt like leather but stiffer, and black. It was lumpy and not all that comfortable, and instead of seatbelts, it had chains. Altogether, I thought the taxi was a very scary place to be.
"Five Ponds, New York! Out of service area!" The driver yelled.
"Five golden drachmas for the trouble." Yume held up a bag, and one of them looked at us with a green, bloodshot eye.
"HA! Out of metro fare bonus!" she grinned, seeming excited to get the extra money. I noticed that she wasn't alone in the front seat, though, and had two ladies under her that looked very similar and very gray. Ah, that must be the word outside! 'Gray'! Now, the other word. Ah…
Suddenly, I was pushed back into my seat, and I quickly grabbed the chain and buckled myself in, afraid for my life. A tinny voice came on through the speakers, on what I'd learned was a radio, and said, "Hi, this is Granymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!" I thought he spoke too late, and had a funny name. I knew who Zeus was, now that I'd been to Camp Half-Blood, and I guessed that Granymede must have been very important to be the king's cup-bearer. Still, his name was weird.
The women in the front seat were arguing about a tooth and eye as we traveled, and I wondered what they meant. Was that a secret code or something? Were they using it just because we were here?
"Hey, Kyle. Take that chain off. You might not get out if you leave it on much longer." Looking down, I noticed that the buckle was looking more and more like stone as we sped along, and so I quickly unbuckled it and took it off, before looking up at the older girl.
"Yume, are you feeling okay today?" She sighed, and looked out the window.
"Yeah. I'm just stressed. It's really important when our Lord gives you a quest like this one. Recruiting people is the difference between winning the war and losing it." she explained.
"War?" I was confused. There was a war going on? True, the other kids at camp had seemed tense, but war was something I thought was always noticed by everyone. Was there a war that was happening all around us, and we just didn't know it?
"Yeah. Between us and the gods." She didn't wait to see my interest, though it was definitely there. "You see, before the gods ruled Mount Olympus, before your dad or mine was ever born, our Lord ruled. He's the Titan of Time, and he heard that his kids would overthrow him, so he tried to destroy then early. But their mother hid the youngest one away, and he tricked our Lord into freeing all of them, so they overthrew him and cut him to pieces with his own scythe. Then, they imprisoned him in the darkest pits of Tartarus. Now-"
"What's Tartarus?" I interrupted, confused.
"Hell, basically." I made a small 'oh' sound as I took that in, listening as she continued. "Anyway, so now he's trying to come back and restore order. You know, when he ruled Olympus, it was known as the Golden Age."
"Wow." I said, in awe. This story all sounded very much like The Fall from Heaven. Only this time, God wasn't all-powerful, and so the Devil won and took over. It kind of made me happy to be on the right side. After all, God is always right. Right? I told Yume what I thought of all of this, and she smiled.
"I'm glad your faith is so strong. Otherwise, we might have had trouble getting a ride. It's a good thing your God is looking out for us, huh?"
"HA!" One of the old ladies in the front cried as the other two wailed, stealing our attention to the front.
"NO!" One screeched. "Give it BACK, Wasp!"
"It's MY turn to have the eye!" the one who'd crowed shot back. "You had it yesterday!"
"Give me the tooth, Tempest! I want to bite the coin!"
"No!" The three bickered and fought and swatted each other, and I wondered what kind of relationship they had.
"Don't look so weirded out, Kyle. They're sisters, and they're very wise." Yume chuckled.
"Wise?" 'Sisters' must be the second word. 'Gray Sisters.' What a weird title.
"Yes, wise!" The one with the tooth proclaimed.
"Hard right!" The one called Wasp commanded, and the one called Tempest turned, slamming Yume into me and ramming the both of us against the door.
"We know all sorts of things!" Tempest proclaimed.
"Where you're going!" Wasp added.
"And about your fath-"
"SHUT UP ANGER!" the other two screeched over her, punching and slapping and gumming her all at once. It was then that I noticed that Anger was the only one with a tooth, and Wasp the only one with an eye.
"So you all share only one eye and tooth?" I asked.
"That's right!" Tempest said angrily.
"And these two don't share!" they all yelled together. Yume laughed.
"But what were you saying? You know about my father?" I asked.
"Accelerating!" Tempest yelled, ignoring my question as the things outside the window began to blur.
"But wait! What about-"
"We're here! Bag of drachmas!" Anger held out a gnarled gray hand as the taxi lurched to a stop, and Yume dropped the bag into it, opening the door and getting out.
"Don't worry about it, Kyle. They never share with those who don't favor the gods. They only work for the money we give them."
"Out!" the sisters screamed, and I scooted out as quickly as I could, only to find that we were in front of a forest, much like my home in Pennsylvania. I smiled, inhaling the breath of fresh pine that I hadn't realized I'd missed until that moment. Walking forward, I wrapped my arms around a tree and hugged it before Yume could stop me.
"Wait! Kyle, wait for us to be received! The people here don't like you just waltzing into their territory, even if you're just hugging a tree! Get out of there before you get shot!" Looking back at her, I realized that she hadn't moved from the street.
"Too late." a voice said, and I felt the point of an arrow in my neck. My blood turned to ice. Yume thrust out her hands in fear and surrender.
"Wait, please! We haven't harmed anyone! We've only come to offer our hands in alliance to the Great Mayor Hippolyta III. Please. We come in peace, unarmed but for her bow and my kamas." She held them up, proving her point, and I saw that she had two women behind her, as well, both in hunting boots and holding bows and arrows. Their clothes were modern-looking, but made like they were supposed to blend in with the trees. Except that one of the girls was wearing an orange Camp half-Blood T-shirt. I smiled happily, grateful to see something familiar, even though she didn't look happy.
"Hey, we just came from there!" I said, pointing at the shirt. She looked startled, and then blushed, like it was embarrassing. She glanced at the girl next to her, and the ones around us, and they lowered their bows.
"You come to request an audience with the Mayor?" The one who originally pointed an arrow at me spoke, but I noticed she had another girl next to her who must've come out when I wasn't looking. Where are the boys? I wondered.
"Yes," Yume replied, still not moving and still very cautious. The girl who spoke, clearly the one in charge, stared at Yume for a long time, and for a moment, I thought that she was boring a hole into Yume with eyes like God's, the way He bores into all our souls at the Judgment. I ducked my head at the thought, ashamed at my own actions thus far.
"Very well. We shall take you to our city. You are not men, so that's good, but you must be aware that we do not take kindly to outsiders. Especially those who come with-" She narrowed her eyes, here. "-ill-intent." With that, she turned her back, and the other girls surrounded us, escorting us to the city in the forest.