Hola! Hey I finished this chapter... Yay!!! It's a bit longer than the last one (I hope) so please enjoy and tell me what'cha think.
On the bus ride to the airport, I tried thinking of a way to get out of flying to Illinois. I could say I had a fear of heights, but I figured Artemis wouldn't really care, and truth be told, I was actually kind of curious to see what flying was like. I had never been on an airplane, because my mom had always been afraid that Zeus would blast me out of the sky if I had ever gotten into one, and it probably didn't help that her parents had been killed in a plane crash when she was younger.
I had been so lost in thought, that I didn't realize that we had finally reached the airport. I probably would have missed our stop too if Artemis hadn't told me it was time to go.
We walked inside of the large airport, and Artemis went to buy our tickets. It was now or never. I had to tell her that I couldn't fly.
I grabbed her arm before she could walk off. She looked at me strangely, "Perseus, what are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.
"Umm…" Oh boy, here it goes, "I can't fly on an airplane." I admitted quickly.
"Why not?" she asked suspiciously.
Gods she's making this hard, "Umm, well, your father, Lord Zeus, he umm, he doesn't exactly like me flying. Flying, for me would probably be a bad idea."
"Oh, right." Artemis cursed under her breath in Ancient Greek.
"Maybe we could just take a train instead." I suggested.
Artemis thought for a moment, "No, flying would be much quicker, and we have to find the master bolt by the winter solstice, and we don't even have to prophecy yet. Flying is the quickest way to go." She thought for a moment, "Besides, Zeus wouldn't blast the plane out of the sky if I'm in it too." She added.
"You don't sound so sure." I commented.
Artemis scowled at me, "Just trust me ok." Before I could reply, she stalked off to the ticket counter to buy our tickets.
As I waited, I heard someone reciting a horrible haiku,
"Flying is now safe
Percy can find Rachel Dare
My haikus are neat"
I glanced around, and wasn't all that surprised to see Apollo leaning against an 'Out-of-Order' ticket machine, dressed as if he were coming back from the beach, with flip-flops, and sunglasses on. I looked around and casually walked over to the sun god.
Apollo flashed a brilliant smile at me, "Hey Percy Jackson, long time, no see, what did you think of my haiku?"
"Umm…"
The smile faded slightly from Apollo's face, "Never mind, don't answer that. So, I heard you stole the Zeus's lighting bolt again."
Before I could protest, Apollo cut me off again, "Hey, relax cous'. I know you didn't steal it. I also know my sister didn't steal it either." He glanced over at Artemis who was waiting to get our tickets.
"What are you doing here?" I asked as politely as I could.
"I am here to bring you good news." Apollo smiled.
"Umm, isn't that usually Hermes job?" I asked.
Apollo shrugged, "Yea, but Hermes was busy, so I decided to help him out." He paused dramatically, before continuing, "Now, for good news; Zeus says he won't blast you out of the sky for flying this time. He wanted me to emphasize though, that you can only fly this once. Zeus says that if you were to ever try flying again, that he would quickly incinerate you into nothing." Apollo beamed at me.
I nodded my head slightly dazed, "Good to know."
Apollo nodded, "Yep, and two more things before I go. One: Find my oracle. Rachel's a tough girl, but still, I'm nothing without someone who speaks my prophecies."
I nodded, "Okay, what's the second thing?" I asked.
"Watch out for my baby sister." Apollo said in a hushed voice.
I was a bit surprised by this request. Artemis was a goddess after all. "I'm pretty sure Artemis can watch out for herself." I said in the same hushed voice that Apollo used.
Apollo looked slightly concerned, "I know I just have a bad feeling about this quest that's all. Just don't try to do anything super dangerous on the quest." He said.
His seriousness startled me. After a moment I nodded my head. I'd try to keep us as safe as possible.
Apollo looked relieved, "Well that's good. See you around Percy." He began to walk away, but paused and turned back towards me, "Oh, and Percy, you promised me a haiku after the quest to save my sister and I never got one, so I'll be expecting one the next time I see you."
I began to stutter how I didn't even know how to write a haiku, but Apollo just winked at me and in a flash, he was gone.
A few hours later, Artemis and I were seated in the crowded airplane, waiting for takeoff. I had begged Artemis for the window seat, and she had stared at me strangely before finally allowing me to sit there.
Artemis was sitting calmly in the seat next to mine. I didn't understand how she could be so calm, whereas I was anxiously awaiting the takeoff. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the plane began to move.
I realized quickly that flying was only exciting for the first few minutes of takeoff. Once we go to around 30000 feet off the ground, I realized how annoying flying was, especially with my ADHD. As we got higher, my ears began to pop uncomfortably, and looking down, the only thing I could see was clouds. I began to fidget uncomfortably as my ADHD began to act up. I couldn't stand sitting still with only a few inches of leg room.
Some few hours later, the plane landed in the Chicago airport. I had never felt so glad to stand up in my life. Artemis looked relieved that we landed too. I guess I was probably driving her insane with my fidgeting during the flight.
We grabbed our bags from the drop-off area, and made our way out into the bustling Chicago streets. I looked around in amazement. It was almost frightening how much Chicago looked like New York. Chicago was a little bit smaller that New York, but it had the same sort of busy feeling about it. I looked around and noticed a tall building jutting out into the sky, more so than the other buildings; the Sears Tower. It kind of reminded me of a smaller, more uneven version of the Empire State Building.
"So where's Navy Pier?" I asked Artemis.
Artemis thought for a moment, "If I remember correctly, it's about 30 minutes away by car."
"Okay."
We found a taxi, and about half and hour later, we were outside of Navy Pier. It was pretty cool looking. A large Ferris wheel stood out against the smaller rides and fountains. Large overly decorated Christmas trees decorated the pier, and thousands of people were walking around in the cool winter air. The smell of hot cocoa and cinnamon was intoxicating. It smelled so wonderfully like Christmas in New York.
I was dragged back into reality when I realized that with all of the people, it would be near impossible to find Rachel.
"How are we going to be able to find Rachel here?" I asked Artemis.
"We should start by looking in the most inconspicuous places for her. Just look out for some monsters. I have a feeling that they will lead us to her." Artemis said.
We began maneuvering our way through the crowd. No one really paid us much attention so that was a good thing. But unfortunately it was very hard keeping track of where Artemis was. There were so many mortal girls here that looked about her age, that it was near impossible to follow her.
I had been walking for a while when I realized that I hadn't seen Artemis in a while. Panicking, I began frantically looking around for her. Fortunately after a while I found her again. She began heading towards the mini-golf course. We had already been that way. I ran up to her to see where she was going.
"Artemis. Artemis!" I tried to get her attention, but she didn't respond. Finally I caught up with her.
"Artemis where are you going, we've already looked over here." I said tapping her on the shoulder.
She spun around, and I realized in an instant that it wasn't Artemis, "My name's not Artemis weird-o! Now stop following me." The girl huffed.
"Umm, sorry, I thought you were someone else." I apologized.
The girl stalked off, and I began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had no idea where I was, or where Artemis was.
I was completely, and entirely lost.
Heyy! So what did you think? I luv positive feedback. Thanks!
~ArtemisFrimm