A/N

Hey guys, thanks for reviewing, I now have 23 reviews! But my computers being all weird and it says I only have 18, but anyways, thanks to the people who reviewed:

Guest: Aw thank you! :) :)

Guest: Thanks for reviewing you are awesome! =D

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Anyway...

I couldn't update this last couple of weeks or so because… (Drumroll) school was starting (it started the beginning of September, I know, it's late) and I had a week of vacation the week before and there was no Wi-Fi. So anyway, sorry, I've had no motivation lately and I'm trying to get my writing brain going again!

So anyway, comment and review, and possibly favorite it? Thank you it would mean a lot to me! I'll check out your stories and profiles if you do.

ON WITH THE STORY! :)

Chapter 8:

My head snapped towards Annabeth in full attention, this should be interesting...

"That could mean one of two things… one, your godly parent is Athena –Minerva, whatever you want to call her-, OR, that owl just told us to go inside, or in the general direction of that volcano…." Annabeth says, gesturing in the direction that was obviously toward the volcano, even though I don't know why she thinks we have to go inside the volcano...

"Or both!" Leo chirps behind me, and I jump because I forgot he was there.

"Uh, I'm sorry but I really don't feel like crawling into a volcano right now, I don't care if that thing is active or not…" I say, sort of unsure, I mean, who knows if that thing is just randomly gonna, squirt molten lava at me? I really do not want to take that chance.

"It'll be fine! We'll let Leo do all the dirty work!" Piper says cheerfully. Why is everyone in such a good mood all of a sudden?! I was about to ask why she though Leo would have to do all the dirty work. What makes him different from everybody else? I mean, this is my quest right? If Leo did all the work then wouldn't it be his quest and not mine?

Right as I open my mouth to ask, a giant spurt of lava shoots itself from the side of the volcano a little ways up, and I flinch backward, instinctively. Most of the lava doesn't reach us, but a good sized clump of it rains down and splats right on my arm before I can move out of the way. I shake my arm automatically, before realizing that the lava on my arm didn't burn, it only tingled a little bit. I stand there stupidly, staring at it as if it would give me all the answers. Annabeth's eyes widen and she opens her mouth to say something, which I hope is something that will explain what the heck just happened.

"Uh, we might want to rethink that first part…" She says, as if she can sense the fact that it didn't hurt in the least bit. My mind flashes back to our previous conversation and I realize she's talking about my Godly parent being Minerva. Or Athena…. Whatever. I wipe the lava off my arm, and there is no trace of it after it is gone.

"What do you mean?" I say, confused, what does this have to do with my Godly parent?

"Leo's like that, fire doesn't hurt him, he can, um, create fire. Certain children of Hephaestus have the gift of creating fire, which also means it doesn't burn them. Its rare, people like him." Piper explains, and turns to Leo, gesturing for him to demonstrate. He hesitantly opens his palm, and a small flame lingers there, the red flames licking his fingers. The flame dissipates when he closes his palm. I stare at him with wide eyes, and he stares back at me, as if he expects me to say something to him, perhaps something rude.

"…can I touch it?" The words come tumbling out of my mouth.

"What?" That's Leo.

"The flame, can I touch it?" I reply.

"What? Why?" He asks again, looking confused, but a little relived.

"Well… I want to touch it, to see if I'm fire resistant like you." I say, and the words my lips form don't make much sense, but I know what I mean.

"No. You know you are, we all saw what just happened." He says, not unexpectedly, but still.

"But…" I start to say, knowing my argument is in vain.

"No." He says once again, cutting me off, and I accept his answer in defeat. We all just stand there, and I run through the conversation we just had in my head. I'm sure my face is turning red, cause I'm realizing how stupid and ridiculous I sounded in the recent conversation. I'm in this weird mood right now… what do you call it? A 'childish' mood I guess. You know what I mean? I hate it.

"So… what do we do now?" Jason says, adding to the conversation. I guess everyone dropped the subject on my Godly parent is, and I'm not about to start it up again. We'll probably end up discussing it sooner or later anyway.

"Well… I guess Leo and Alex can do the parts involving fire then." Annabeth says reluctantly "I mean it is Alex's quest." She adds. I nod, along with the rest of them. I really have no idea what part the rest of them are going to have in this, but I'm sure they have it all figured out.

"Yeah, but how are we going to get into the volcano?!" I speak again, am I missing something?

"Well if we're supposed to be going in there, there'll be an opening somewhere along the side." Annabeth explains slowly, and I realize that her explanations make a lot of sense, this IS Annabeth we're talking about though. Well, I guess we'll see if this is what we're supposed to be doing right now.

We all share a look and begin to walk steadily towards the giant lump of lava. As we begin to circle the volcano, I realize that it's a lot bigger than I had originally thought… This was going to take a longer than I thought. I figured that if we're gonna be walking, I might as well ask them about their previous quest.

"So guys…" I start to say conversationally "Story time!" I end, grinning big, quoting myself from before. Do you remember? When we were on the boat before Juno released her wrath and violently crashed us into an island? I see Leo half smile next to me out of the corner of my eye.

Piper laughs, "sorry Alex, it's gonna take a lot longer than we have to tell you about it."

"So basically we had to rescue Hera from a crazy giant that wanted to marry her." Leo says, ignoring Piper's excuse, looking amused.

"Seriously? That's a little weird…" I state, but I'm sure there's more to it than that. Piper glares at Leo.

"That's not what happened…. Well, it is but, I wouldn't put it that way. We did a lot more that that…" Piper defends, and Jason speaks up.

"Well, we did save the world." He adds. I nod, but I'm pretty sure most demigod quests involve saving the world, to some effect at least. Nobody else speaks for a while afterwards, we just walk in silence. After a while, I spot a marking on the side of the volcano. It's a sort of triangle, but there's a horizontal line down the middle. Two small dots line the top of the triangle, parallel from each other. But they're so small I'm not sure if they're part of the carving or not. For a second, I see Annabeth's eyes widen, but her expressing soon changes to confusion.

"What- I – I….." She started to speak but trailed off after stammering a couple of words out. Piper, Leo and Jason obviously didn't know what was going on either 'cause they were looking at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue. She never did.

Out of instinct, I raise my left hand and press my palm to the symbol etched into the old rock. My hand begins to glow and I feel warmth spread from my palm. When I release my hand, a part in the rock formation slides away to reveal the entrance to a completely pitch black tunnel.

N/A

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