The war council was gathered, and though Cadi resented having to pull the head counselors from the festivities, it had to be done. The daughter of the West Wind felt pity towards her fellow campers and friends, who had to be dragged away from their one night of fun to go in a dimly lit room and argue with each other for gods- knows how many hours. Nevertheless, they all intently stared at her as she repeated the prophecy she received from Cassandra, and then once she finished, started talking quietly amongst themselves. Cadi played with her cup of Coke a bit, sloshing the ice around and around in order to give everyone time to build upon their opinion on the matter at hand.
"Do you think this is a big enough prophecy to get the allies of the West involved?" Cadi asked Chariclo wearily. The wise nymph pondered about it a bit, her finger tapping the table methodically, but she shook her head 'no'.
"Shame, it would have been quite a romantic reunion with your husband." Cadi cast her teacher a teasing glance, which was returned with a furious, caught-off-guard glare. But Cadi had already turned her attention to Remo Donovan, son of Enyo. The sleep-inducing warmth of the fireplace was starting to exert its influence over her and lull her to sleep, but she ignored her own sleepiness and kept her eyes open.
"Our spies have come back reporting that Kronos' revival is nearly at its peak." The son of the war goddess scowled. "I've got the entire camp under heavy training for the war coming up. So, what the hell do you think you're doing Hendrix?! Skipping off on a quest when we're at war?!"
"What he means to say," Penelope, a daughter of Hypnos yawned, "Is that you're our one and only Commando Cadi. What are we gonna do if you don't come back in time for the war? We'll be screwed."
"That's not what I meant at all." Remo growled moodily.
Cadi lightly smiled at Remo's rare indirect way of concern, but shook off his worries with a shrug. "I tried putting off the quest for now, but Cassandra was adamant about fulfilling the prophecy as soon as possible."
"North." The daughter of Phobos, Marika, muttered anxiously. "What's waiting for you up there?"
"It sounds like a wild goose chase to me." Remo stated grumpily.
Chariclo finally spoke up for the first time throughout the whole duration of the meeting. Her voice was quiet and composed, but everyone immediately was silent once she started talking. "It must be connected to the titan war in some way. The titans are too close at hand and are too great a danger to focus on some evil lurking elsewhere. As to the task that you must complete, child, heaven knows. I take it that you must discover that along the way. The top priority to discuss at this meeting is how we are to cope if we spare you on this quest. Be it one demigod, all possible allies will be needed to fend off the enemy."
Cadi nodded grimly. This particular problem had been circling in her head ever since she left Cassandra's tent. After brainstorming on it awhile, she only found one conclusion. "I'm going on this quest. My father had warned me about it, and the prophecy conveniently lands on my lap a few hours later. If I'm too stupid to take the hint, then any monsters out there deserve to take a hard whack at me." She mused with her trademark sly grin, but it slid off when she made eye contact with everyone in the room, especially Remo. "If I'm not back in two weeks' time, consider me as good as dead. Proceed with preparations as planned. Remo is immediately first in command."
The war council room broke out in loud protest. "Oh, don't be so overdramatic, Cadi." One of her close friends, Jade scoffed at her. "You're one of our most skilled veterans."
"But here's the thing. You won't be able to spare a few demigods to go rescue me, right?" Cadi asserted. Most of the head counselors mumbled under their breaths in agreement. "If I'm not able to send you word in a week, then it's either because I'm in deep shit or the quest will take longer than expected. Perhaps both, since misfortunate always liked to screw me over."
Cadi's important point was unanimously true; no other opposing argument could be made to win back the debate now. It took another hour or so for all the head counselors to uneasily come to the agreement that Cadi would be leaving camp and going on the quest. Just when Cadi felt they had all settled down enough for her to tell them about the companions she chose, they went into yet another dispute about who she should bring.
"I'm not bringing any of you with me, by the way." She had off handedly made the simple comment, probably from fatigue.
"What do you mean you're not bringing one of us?" Jade snapped. "I'm coming."
"You're staying put. All of you." She yawned, wanting nothing more than to stumble her way back to her cabin and catch as much sleep as she could.
"I agree with Miss Hendrix." Chariclo primly stated. "It would be imprudent to bring another head counselor at such a chaotic time as this. Heaven forbid, but if her journey were to take longer than expected, it is much better to lose one head counselor than two or more. I'm afraid we have to think strategically on this, rather than involve our personal emotions."
"I had in mind only two demigods. The smaller the group, the swifter we are, the less soldiers Camp Eirene will lose." Cadi shared.
"Who did you have specifically in mind?" Chariclo questioned.
"Victor Roy from the Nike cabin and Meri Eldoris from the Nereus cabin." Cadi demanded.
"Very well." Cadi stared dumbly at Chariclo, disbelieving that the director of the camp would not question her choices. "However," She spoke a moment too soon. "In the prophecy there was a reference to the 'depths'. Perhaps it would be sensible to take a demigod child related to a god of the underworld? A child of Thanatos maybe?"
"The children of Thanatos need more training." Cadi stubbornly shook her head. "And most of them are rather young. I'd prefer to have Remo training them at home than hull them across the country to some ambiguous destination and find out they have no idea what to do with a bow."
"As you wish." Chariclo's pursed lips and tightly drawn eyebrows told Cadi just how unsatisfied the old nymph was. Cadi held back an amiable, good natured laugh at her caretaker's expression. "When do you leave, Miss Hendrix?'
"As soon as possible. Hopefully with the will of the gods' on my side, the sooner I finish the faster I can return home." The daughter of Zephyr yawned and drowsily continued. "We'll leave at dawn. Council dismissed."
After the not-so-cheerful war council meeting, Cadi had hunted for her new quest companions amongst the festival crowd. It took at least an hour, and within that hour, friendly Cadi Hendrix was transformed into a sleep-deprived, dark ring-eyed monster. She found them at the very last place she'd thought to check, the place she assumed they would never be: the dock of all places, diving off into the cold sea like idiots along with other campers. But she stayed true to her mission, and dragging them both by the backs of their shirts, took them to a quieter, secluded area.
"Cadi! Let go! What's the matter with you?!" Meri slurred. She angrily shook Cadi off and was ready to give her friend a piece of her mind, until she saw how irritably Cadi was glaring at each one of them. "Oh, what rocked your boat?"
"Maybe it was a who?" Victor smirked mischievously, nudging Meri knowingly in the arm. Meri nodded, reciprocating the same troublesome smirk.
"Very clever guys, but I'm too tired to make a comeback to your lame comment. You guys are obviously a little on the tipsy side from the spiked punch I presume. You two are coming with me on a quest."
"A quest?" This word finally managed to bring them to their senses. The two pairs of eyes bored into her own to find out what nonsense she was spouting out.
"Yeah," Cadi crabbily stated. "Head back to your cabin, pack up, and get as much shut eye as you can. It's three o'clock right now, so you got three hours at the most. We leave at dawn."
"Aren't you gonna fill us in?" Victor asked.
"Later, later." She hastily waved good bye to them and stumbled like a drunk back to her own cabin, which lucky for her, was the farthest from where she currently was.
Eventually, Cadi walked slowly into her cozy small cabin. So far, Cadi was the only child of Zephyr who took residence at Camp Eirene. Even though it was dark outside, the Zephyr cabin around her cabin, some dissipated once coming in contact with her skin, exploding in an invigorating burst of cool mist and leaving behind a scent of a spring fragrance. But Cadi was undeterred from her ultimate destination: her bunk bed. Without even bothering to pull back the cerulean covers, she just sprawled on top, stomach on the bed and head buried within the softness of the pillow. Sleep overtook her at once.
The earth was plunged in devastating chaos. Ashy fumes plagued the general landscape, which served to poison any living organism that dared to breathe in an intake of air and to obstruct clear vision. Trees sacred to nymphs were not only bent, but snapped in a sickening manner with trunks and branches sticking up at all abstract angles. The waves of the oceans had abandoned their tranquil façade and were currently churning, roaring, and threatening to consume the land. Thunder growled at a rapid rate, nearly occurring every second. The darkness of the earth was disrupted momentarily by the light provided by ominous lightning bolts. A scent was still in the air: the abominable odor of sulfur. The uproar around the world was tremendous, almost too vulgar to bear. This was a battle field, a bloody one at that.
"You dare attempt to remove me from my rightful throne?!" Zeus roared at a humongous figure with frightening rage. The veins of his neck were bulging out and he rained down lightning bolts without mercy on his foe. The foe merely brushed off the lightning bolts similar to how one would slap away pesky flies and continued lobbing earth upon the Olympian god.
A woman in a cloak of shifting dirt watched the battle with concentrated interest. "Go my children," She crooned, peacefully. "Defeat the gods and restore my true children." Her face appeared to be asleep, with eyes closed to the world she brought into creation, yet her hands were capable of bringing about madness.
The scene abruptly jumped to a bored looking woman, staring intently at a bug cage. She inhaled a deep breath when a beetle jumped eagerly about, as if keeping her disgust from spilling out. The dung beetle stopped instantly, sensing its host's revulsion, before resolving to roll around a big ball of dung happily. The dung beetle was similar to an excited puppy in a way, playing with a toy ball without a care in the world. Yet noticeably, the beetle's forearms were exceptionably bulky.
"Mother, brother is rolling around in his excrement again." The woman uttered, holding back a gag. This woman was exceptionally pretty, yet her eyes bore a cold indifferent to her surroundings, especially to her dung beetle brother.
"Do not fear child. He will rise again." The woman with the cloak of dirt set a shaky hand on the bored woman's shoulder. She leant closer into the glass of the cage, and her fingers stroked the glass where the dung beetle was tenderly. Her face had lost its serene quality, for now the eyebrows were drawn in and the eyes were the slightest, tiniest bit open. "He will rise again!"
Those words were repeated over and over, like a maddening mantra. Over and over. The scene with the two women had long since faded out, but the stage of the dream was replaced with a constantly shifting kaleidoscope image of dung beetles. Parallel to a 70's psychedelic, drug-induced hallucination, the bright colors were weaving wildly about, yet the image of the dung beetles stayed the same. Neon orange. Hot pink. Lime green. Dung beetle. Dung beetle. Bright blue. Electric yellow. Strawberry red. Dung beetle. Dung beetle.
Cadi bolted up from her bunk, hitting her forehead against a small cotton ball of white cloud which instantly disintegrated at her touch. The chilly explosion against her forehead pacified the demigod, who realized the vividness of her dung beetle kaleidoscope dream had actually induced some sweat. She took the time to sit still and have a good long laugh at how ridiculous the very idea was. A dream about a dung beetle had freaked her out. Demigods had weird dreams, but this one was definitely one of a kind. Cadi quieted down, sensing there was more to the dream than she thought and because she would probably wake up her fellow campers with her crazy laughter.
She peeked at the bedside clock, which blared 5:30 A.M. in red. She had only a couple of hours of sleep; she'd have to deal with it throughout the day. Alerted and startled now, she grabbed her beat up backpack. Opening her closet door, she withdrew her emergency quest packet, filled with ambrosia, nectar, and a medicine kit. She hurriedly grabbed some clothes off the hangers, not even knowing if she was bringing the adequate amount of jeans and shirts. Her clothes always got ruined at one point or another on a quest, and then ultimately lost forever anyway. She reached for her weapon of choice in the overhead compartment until the glint of her bracelet caught her attention. She never got to find out what quirky thing her gift could do.
As if it knew that its master was commanding its presence, the bracelet literally hummed at her command, transforming into a long handled, double bladed battle axe. The familiar weight of the weapon was nostalgic to Cadi, and she "oohed" and "aahed" her approval for a few minutes. She inspected the blades with care, noticing that the metal was of the finest celestial bronze. On one side of the blade was inscribed "Cadi Hendrix" and the other opposite side with "Daughter of the West Wind", both in ancient Greek characters. With a flip of her wrist, the battle axe was altered back into its dormant bracelet form. She clasped her hands in prayer, sending her ecstatic gratitude to her father. A light aromatic breeze blew across her empty cabin in response.
Cadi slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed straight for the showers. First ones to the showers always were guaranteed warm water, but when she got there, she only wanted a cold shower to fully wake her up. She waved to her naiad friend, Ariel, along the way. Ariel offered her soap that she claimed was organic and therapeutic, some nonsense about aloe vera and seaweed fusion. Cadi accepted, albeit reluctantly. Ariel was overjoyed with being given the task to braid Cadi's thick hair. Heavily smelling of aloe vera and seaweed, Cadi walked slowly to the Pavilion, whistling a tune on her way.
Ahead of her, she could already see Victor Roy scarfing down breakfast while Meri maturely sipping her iced Americano coffee. Cadi nodded amiably in response to their "good-mornings", and went first to the food bar, where the nymph servers were serving breakfast. She made some small talk with them, though she had to be cautious around the nymphs' tendency to talk nonstop. She drew away from them when she grabbed a tray full of food and threw some bacon and eggs into the fire for the gods. She seated herself amongst her quest companions whilst chugging down orange juice.
"Now will you fill us in on the quest?" Victor impatiently, for he already finished his food many minutes ago.
"And will you let me eat first?" Cadi shot back, deliberately eating her hash brown extra slow just to bother him.
He rolled his eyes and muttered "Typical Cadi."
"I see you have failed to inform your companions about the quest," Chariclo walked up to them with the quietest of steps, shocking all three of her students. She shook her head disapprovingly at Cadi. "Very well, eat and gain strength. I will tell them."
Cadi ate leisurely, only half listening to what Chariclo was telling her new teammates. The dream had popped up in her mind again, and she wondered if she should ask Chariclo if she knew anything about it. But then again, dung beetles and hippie colors. Those were likely to gain the nymph's suspicions about the spiked punch. The sun had barely risen, and the camp had not stirred yet, considering the wild party would cause everyone to sleep through the day. The pitter-patter of hasty little footsteps was heard entering the floor as a tiny body launched itself onto Cadi clingingly.
"Cadi!" Big brown doe eyes stared into her own orbs, and the light illuminating off of these doe eyes gave the owner's face a special puppy dog sort of look. The luscious mane of strawberry blond hair was barely tamed by a single hair tie. "You're leaving?"
"Cookie, I was wondering when you'd get here. You should have slept, you're probably tired from the partying last night, right?" Cadi petted the little girl affectionately and shifted to allow the daughter of Tyche to rest in her lap.
"You didn't answer the question. You're leaving?" Cookie posed the question again. "Who's gonna teach me how to shoot an arrow? Or who's gonna teach me how to swim? Or who's gonna teach me how to ride a Pegasus? Or who's-"
"I'm leaving on a quest, yes. But with you here, maybe I'll come back." Cadi reassured the young girl. Cookie opened her arms for a hug, which Cadi gladly accepted. Cookie was Cadi's special good luck charm, mainly because the little girl was a daughter of the goddess of fortune. Cookie was one of the demigods Cadi had personally escorted to camp, and the hardships of the journey had built a strong relationship between them. Before Cadi had gone on any of her quests, Cookie had come by to wish her good luck, and Cadi always succeeded her quests and came back in one piece. Quite a beneficial relationship in Cadi's point of view.
"You promise?" Cookie stuck out her pinky innocently for a pinky promise. Cadi hesitated, her face suddenly becoming less confident than she was before.
"Cookie! You little twat, you ate from my hidden sweets stash last night didn't you?" Cookie was dragged from her arms and into Victor's, who tickled her viciously to death. Cookie's giggles echoed across the Pavilion. Cadi breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." Remo's gruff voice stated as he sat himself closely beside her on the seat.
"I was about to, wasn't I?" Cadi said. She looked at Victor, who was busy distracting Cookie by tossing her up high in the air. He saw her grateful dubious eyes on him and winked at her. "At least I have some good friends."
"I contacted our informants last night. Kronos paid a lot of visits to Greenland, and it's north of here, so I suggest checking that out." Remo told her, stealing her cup of orange juice and defiantly drinking from it.
"Well your lead is the only trustworthy one so far. I'll take it."
Remo stared at her for a long time, and Cadi, unbothered by it, stared right back. He was a handsome youth, blessed with the perfect bad boy looks. His eyes were a mysterious onyx color, which matched his black bed head hair, except for the dark red highlights in it. True to his rebellious nature, he wore punk rock stylized clothes all the time. He had the muscles to prove how hard he trained nearly every day, but lacked the sun kissed tan to back it up, because he was as pale white as a piece of paper. A permanent scowl was always fixed on his face nowadays, and it saddened Cadi quite a bit for she missed his gentle smile when he thought there was no one looking. She pinched his cheeks and forcefully brought his frown upwards.
"While I'm gone, be a man and take charge, you hear me?" She commanded, her voice purposely condescending to tease him.
"And don't die on me, Hendrix." He retorted, slapping her hands away. But when she withdrew her right hand, a black woven bracelet engraved with intricate characters rested on her palm. She blinked incredulously at Remo, but he merely enclosed her fingers around it and placed his bigger hand over hers. "Take it. Offer it up to Enyo for emergencies. Last resort, got me?"
The numerous ominous black bracelets had always adorned his arms for as long as she could remember. It might have seemed like some fashion fad, but Remo was far from the stylish accessorizing type and he never took them off. As far as she could stretch her mind back in the past, Cadi never remembered one moment where Remo was bracelet-less. He had told her that they were gifts from his mother, a sort of reward for his training. He never went on to explain fully the mechanics behind them, but she sensed some sort of formidable aura surrounding them.
If Remo was parting with his bracelet, then even he was expecting the worse for Cadi. She nodded her head solemnly and slipped it on. The moment seemed to be lacking something, but not tension because that was in plentiful supply. Just when Cadi was about to envelope him in a bone crushing hug, Chariclo authoritatively chided them for not leaving at that very moment. The quest goers filed out of the Pavilion, with Cadi lagging behind. Remo stood frozen in place, with the most emotionless expression that pained her.
Before leaving the Pavilion, Cadi bumped her own shoulder into his meaningfully while giving him a pointed look. He shook his head, rubbing his neck out of habit when he was at a loss of what to say. She gave him her trademark grin and jogged swiftly with her friends, without once peeking over her shoulder to see his unreadable expression.
"Take Arethusa's Tunnel. The S. S. Narcissus has been navigating too closely to the island for my comfort." Chariclo advised. "Make contact with Cecrops on the other side so he can report back to us as quickly as possible."
Escorted by their headmistress, the group came upon a clearing in the thick woods where a large cave of polished silver stone rested, awaiting them. It was guarded by two colossal celestial bronze statues of Greek warriors reminiscent of ancient times. They were the guardians tasked with the duty of Arethusa's tunnel. The warriors were a defense precaution, made from the hands of the crafty mechanics of Camp Eirene and some divine help from some minor gods and goddesses ever since the threat of the titans had struck. Rust had tainted their armor over the years from being left to the elements of Mother Nature in the same fixed position. Their spears were stationed high above the heads of the demigods and nymph, crossing to form an "X" over the entrance. These guardians were set to immediately fight any enemy that managed to find the tunnel and buy enough time for Camp Eirene to set up the camp's defenses. Cadi strained her eyes to see the tall warriors' faces more clearly. The expressions carved into their faces were quite fierce. They seemed ready to spear and gut anything that crossed their path.
"I wish you all success on this quest." Chariclo austerely said to them, but the tenderness of her eyes and the way she patted each of them on the shoulder firmly told them otherwise. She mumbled some words in ancient Greek, which caused the still guardians to activate with a red fire and part their spears to allow entrance.
"Don't worry, Headmistress! I'll be back before you even realized I was gone." Victor cheekily replied, nose scrunched at the sappy sentimentality of the moment with some discomfort.
"We'll be back soon." Meri chirped in an optimistic way.
They both took the initiative to walk into the darkness of the cave first. The cave was an entrance to Arethusa's tunnel, which is a transportation tunnel encased in glass that spanned from underneath the island, stretching from across the depths of the sea, and directly leading to the mainland. It was installed as a crisis backup plan, in the case that a whole camp evacuation was necessary. Once anyone traveled down the declining hill towards the river encased in the glass, boats would be waiting to take that person to the other side. The water spirit Arethusa, who was an active supporter of Camp Eirene, blessed the river water herself to make it would carefully convey the demigods to safety. If there were a few demigods in each boat blessed with water manipulation abilities from their parents, then every boat was bound to be carefully carried away to the security of the mainland.
The final demigod halted in front of her headmistress, at a loss of what to say. Chariclo's eyes softened on Cadi, for though this certain demigod always managed to get on her nerve somehow or other, Chariclo had watched Cadi grow from the dreamy-eyed child to the fearsome warrior she was today. Though she would have refused to admit it to anyone, Cadi was definitely one of her favorite demigods she personally had a hand in raising up, both because of the daughter of the West Wind's unorthodox style of thinking and her sincere respect for others. "Miss Hendrix, please be cautious on this journey. Need I remind you that everyone of Camp Eirene is under your leadership."
Cadi nodded, but lunged forward to bring her arms around the elder nymph in a warm hug. "I guess I'll hug you if you won't dare touch me." She jested light-heartedly, and Chariclo patted the girl's back.
"Now go. I expect you to come back a full-fledged hero, Cadi." Chariclo patted the girl's arm fondly. Said demigod's mouth was openly slightly agape in wonder that her headmistress had used her first name in the whole lifetime that she had known the nymph. The daughter of Zephyr had practically grown up under Chariclo's care since she was a young girl, and to see the trust that Chariclo gave her was something just profound to her.
"I'll make you proud, Headmistress Chariclo."
Cadi was about to jog after her team members, but she paused and touched the celestial ankle of the statue to her right, lost in thought. Although Arethusa's tunnel was applauded for being such a well-thought out back up plan, something about the tunnel bothered her.
"Something wrong, Miss Hendrix?" Chariclo called out.
Jolting back to reality and away from her wayward thoughts, she shrugged the nagging dilemma off. "Nothing…I think." She reassured Chariclo, and with one last wave over her shoulder, she took off after her teammates.
Cautiously sliding down the steep incline at the base of the cave, Cadi arrived at the base of the tunnel once she passed through the giant metal door. The darkness of the passageway was illuminated by some torches with flames destined to never blow out, similar to the flames that lighted Mount Olympus. She had been down in Arethusa's tunnel before, and always enjoyed the scenery that the glass encased tunnel offered her. The depths of the ocean gave off a dark tint of tranquil sapphire and a variety of schools of exotic fishes could be seen when cruising through the tunnel. Though she admired the view of the oceanic depths, it didn't change the fact that Cadi feared and will always fear the ocean and its dark unknown waters. She was a child of Zephyr, the God of the West Wind, and his domain was clearly the skies. Once a child of the wind, always the child of the wind.
Still the sight of the aquatic world always mesmerized her, since it was strikingly eye-catching and a danger that she would never dare dive into unless she absolutely had to. Her friends were idly waiting for their team captain to grace them with her presence.
"Took you long enough." Victor retorted at her.
"Yeah, my apologies." Normally, she wouldn't have passed up the chance to throw back a biting comeback of her own, but her mind was filled with cloudy thoughts today. The usual enchanting shade of blue ocean was now murky, nearly black. As a demigod who trusted all supernatural signs and her gut instincts, it unnerved her a bit. "Let's get going."
She gently grabbed the backs of the collars of their respective shirts, and jolted them forward with a great blast of wind. Her paternal lineage had blessed her with the gift of wind manipulation, and that was always a perk. She had put many hours of practice since she was young to master the power of the wind, but it definitely was a beneficial advantage to have in combat. She had especially focused on her own sort of technique, which she eventually coined as wind walking. It took some time to eventually conceptualize the idea, but it was successful, for her father applauded her ingenuity and it had saved her neck a handful of times in battle. By focusing her wind manipulation at her feet, she could literally surf through the air and speed up by going turbo with gusts of wind. Executing the wind walk had been difficult during her first few tries; she had run out of stamina on many an occasion and passed out. But with the rigorous training regimen she was placed in under Chariclo's guidance, she could now use it multiple times without breaking a sweat.
Within the span of a few minutes, they had passed through the glass tunnel that was thousands of miles long from the coast. The whistle of the soothing wind in her ear calmed Cadi down her nerves a bit, but then she caught sight of the bottom hull of a large ship through the glass of a tunnel.
"You guys see that?" She murmured worriedly.
"It's the S.S. Narcissus." Meri responded, equally as concerned. "They've anchored near the shoreline of the mainland. They should be circling around camp."
"That can only mean they're searching for something on shore." Victor concluded. "Which isn't particularly good for us if they find this tunnel."
"We'll have to tell Cecrops to have his guard up at all times." Cadi stated authoritatively. However, she also muttered her anxiety under her breath. "I don't have a good feeling about this."
Leaping up the inclined hill with each fellow camper in hand, they came upon the ladder leading up to the entrance to the mainland. Victor mockingly bowed before them, arms stretched invitingly towards the ladder. "Ladies first."
"Or sacrificing us in case we're falling for an ambush." Cadi scoffed, firmly gripping the rungs of the ladder to pull herself up first. She climbed the ladder swiftly and nudged the heavy metal doors gently, in the case that there were enemies waiting to strike her down. But no one was in the basement of the shop, so she heaved the doors open all the way for Victor and Meri. "So far so good."
She jogged up the stairs of the basement to head to the first floor of, Cyril's Deep Sea Wonders. Under the alias Cyril, Cecrops had opened a shop that specialized in anything relating to the ocean, but mostly tourists came to visit and purchase scuba gear or treasures Cecrops had hulled from the sea, such as sea dollars or sea shells. The ropes from the fishing net that hung from the ceiling swung lightly from the breeze of a giant electric fan nearby. The shop had a salty smell to it, reminiscent of the salty Greek sea Cecrops favored. Cyril's Deep Sea Wonders was one of the older buildings of the Athens area, for it had been established centuries before by the minor gods and goddesses who wanted protection for their demigod children. The nautical themed wallpaper with knotted rope and navy blue anchors was peeling away at some places, but it gave the shop that antique element Cecrops liked. She spotted the guardian of Arethusa's tunnel whistling a sailor's tune while polishing some pearls and keeping an eye on the Hephaestus TV, which currently portrayed Aeolus on the Olympus Weather channel. It was silent in the shop, for there were no customers, and the only sound that could be heard was the whirring of the mechanics inside the old TV and the distant sounds of the waves crashing against the shore.
Cadi scrunched her eyes in distaste as she watched Cecrops's shiny scaled fish tail swish about mindlessly. "Honestly, hide that tail will you?"
"Well if it isn't Miss Cadi." The ancient former king of Athens turned to her with an apathetic expression on his face. There was a void of any sort of emotion on his face, though it gave him a sort of regal, taciturn look. "Who are you to come here and command me?"
"Even though you have no customers in here, what if some human stumbled in on you? The Mist can only hide you so much. And with the S.S. Narcissus nearby, if any monsters come passing by the lane outside, they could easily identify you and sniff that something's fishy around here-"
"I'll have you know, I once ruled as king of Athens! Athena trusted my judgment on many an occasion, and many of my subjects back in the day held on to my every word as I passed down extremely wise advice to them. I led Athens to glory, and Zeus was pleased when I was intelligent enough to realize that worship was due to him." Cecrops haughty voice had completely drowned out anything Cadi was trying to say, but she was so used to this sort of attitude from him, so she merely nodded through what she called, his "cranky grandpa scolding" with a patient passive countenance.
"Of course, Cecrops. But Chariclo and I have been concerned with the S.S. Narcissus lately, and we would both kindly restate to keep your eyes peeled for strange activity. And as we were passing through the tunnel just now, we just saw the S.S. Narcissus docked at the mainland."
"It is a preposterous to entertain the idea for even one second that a monster or a titan or any loathsome creature would dare to step one foot in my shop." He replied, defensive as always.
"As what we would expect. At your best discretion Cecrops." This ending statement always managed to please him somehow in the end; it was best to just give up telling him anything. "May I have the keys to the car, please?"
He nodded contently at her humble words. He turned to the key rack and plucked the keys from the hook to hand to Cadi.
"Oh, I wanna drive!" Victor exclaimed, rushing forward to snatch the keys from Cadi, but she slipped them in her pocket quickly.
"As if. I remember your half-brothers telling me what a reckless driver you are. I don't want to get in a crash anytime soon." She shook her head.
"But I'll get us to wherever we're going faster." He argued back, not even bothering to reject that he was a bad driver with speed problems, for it was a universal known truth anyway.
"Yeah, but the matter is if we'll get there in one piece." Meri chimed in, with a smirk in Victor's direction. He simply growled and frowned at her.
"What a quaint shop this is." A sickly sweet voice cooed, and everyone turned to see four captivating, seductive women of enamoring beauty. All with blood red lips, they swayed their hips temptingly as they entered the shop. Three came forward to inspect Cecrops more carefully, flirting with him shamelessly. "And you must be the handsome owner of this shop."
"Indeed I am!" It appeared that Cecrops was more than delighted to have all the female attention on him. So much for his proud declaration of having his guard up at all times.
"And these children, how…cute they are." Cadi stiffened as one passed by particularly close to her. This woman winked especially at Victor, but the son of Nike stood his ground, not even batting an eyelash at the vixen who couldn't take her eyes off of him. A heavy scent of overpowering perfume throttled her senses, but there was an essence of something else that made her skin crawl. Musty and dank, vile and disconcerting. The smell of the Underworld.
"Shouldn't you children be somewhere else, say Delos maybe at Camp Eirene? You all wreak of demigod scent." The fake pleasant voice dropped a few decibels to a threatening deep vocal churn.
In a flash, Cadi already summoned her battle axe and brought it down with thundering force on the empousa that was closing in on Victor. "Damned empousa." She snarled as the woman screeched in pain, shifting to her true form of deathly white skin, ruby red orbs for eyes, hair of flame, and a prosthetic leg and a donkey leg. She was a terribly disjoint creature, and she exploded in a puff of dust in a few seconds.
She turned to aid Cecrops in disposing of the empousa around him, but all three had a hold on him, each with a knife to his neck. "Not one move, demigod." The leader sneered as she cut a slice of Cecrops neck to draw blood. "Another step and I'll slice the head off this pathetic being."
Cadi halted where she was, not daring to even blink. This hostage situation in a matter of minutes when she first arrived at the mainland was not what she expected. Behind her, Victor had his sword at the ready and Meri posed expertly with her spear, ready to heave it into an empousa's heart. Cecrops stood stock still, but his usual stone like face had a drooping frown of self-loathing.
"Looks like we stumbled upon the secret passage to Camp Eirene." The empousa licked her lips, obviously enjoying the power she held in her hands. "Wait until we get word back to our titan commanders. They'll order us to massacre the whole camp. How lovely, every last demigod slain, not one to be spared."
Telekhines waddled into the shop, their seal bodies, flipper-foot feet, and dog faces were a familiar sight to Cadi. Their claws surrounded her, ready to tear her to shreds if she showed defiance for one mere second. An empousa stepped forward to wave a jagged knife haphazardly in front of Cadi's face. "You, lead me the way to the camp or my sisters will make sure to gut the old man. Drop your weapon." With a loud metallic clang, she let the smooth handle of her axe slip between her fingers. The knife was once again jabbed in front of her face, barely missing her nose by a centimeter, yet she did not flinch. In desperate times, showing fear and losing all rationality was the cause of downfall.
"Lead the way." The empousa commanded, signaling some telekhines to follow in case Cadi did something unexpected. The knife was prodded periodically on her back, right in the middle where one forceful blow could be the end of her. She steadily led the way, smoothly without interruption and without vocally challenging them so as to appear docile and submissive for the time being. She pointedly made eye contact with Meri and Victor as she passed by them, yanking down her hoodie sleeve further to conceal her wrist, where her bracelet had already returned as she descended down the stairs. She trusted her comrades to understand that she was entrusting them with taking out the rest telekhines and empousa, whilst saving Cecrops. Cadi would deal with the urgent matter at hand.
"And? Where's the entrance to the passage?" The empousa tapped her high heeled foot contemptuously, throwing her head back and forth around the dingy basement room and looking utterly ridiculous as her curled ringlets swung madly.
Cadi pointed to an ambiguously unlit corner of the room that was bathed in darkness. "There." Once the empousa and the telekhines turned their heads away from her, she flicked her wrist and once again felt the familiar smooth texture of her axe. Gripping it tightly, she rushed forward with a gush of wind and sliced the empousa cleanly in the middle, right in half. She shrieked in pain as she reverted back to her hideous form, staring in disbelief at her lower body being separated from her upper body, or from the stomach upwards. She shouted obscenities to Cadi before exploding into gray, lifeless dust.
Unfazed, Cadi bounced off the wall and rebounded to strike four telekhines in one foul swoop. She gripped the axe handle with both of her hands to increase the force. Just as she was about to leap back in the air to defend herself from the remaining telekhines, one was bold enough to leap up and slash its claw against her left shoulder. She grunted from the sting, but would not allow the pain of a mere shallow scratch to slow her down. All these telekhines had to be eliminated because they knew that somewhere in this basement, a passage to Camp Eirene was hidden, simple as that. She landed with a dull thud back on the ground, where five telekhines surrounded her. She singled out two on her left and hacked them to pieces. Her determined look never deterred as she cut through the flesh of the three telekhines like butter. Heaving the axe so that part of the handle rested on her shoulder, she surveyed her surroundings. Lots of dust, but no living monster in sight to report back to the titans. Releasing a sigh of relief, she trotted up the stairs but halted in alarm when she saw that a telekhine had been watching throughout the whole ordeal.
He saw her closing in on him and slipped off into the telekhine masses to conceal himself. Recovering herself, Cadi ran after it while yelling out, "Dammit, get that telekhine!" Not once did her eyes waver away from it, for she feared she might confuse him with its fellow brethren. Meri and Victor had followed through with the plan; they both stood protectively in front of Cecrops as Victor plunged his sword into the last empousa. Their heads snapped up in alarm at Cadi's desperate cry for help. This one particular telekhine warned its fellow brothers to hide him, and irritatingly so, his brother telekhines were all throwing themselves at Cadi before she could go any further. Meri, who was closest to the door, clumsily tried to pierce the telekhine with her spear but it had already slipped out of the door.
Banging the door open wider, Cadi hurried out into the street but there was no monster in sight. It was already making its way towards S.S. Narcissus where it would report back to the titans. The secret passageway to Camp Eirene wouldn't be secret anymore. If the titans used Arethusa's tunnel, forget standing up against the titans, for all the demigods would be annihilated. That left the only option that Cadi had wanted to ignore.
Charging back into the shop, she was unsurprised to find all the monsters dealth with and dust spread out all over the floor. She marched onwards to Cecrops, whose complexion was now bone white pale, considering his "impenetrable fortress" had just been so carelessly invaded. "Do you have any leftover bombs, Cecrops?"
He nodded shakily and gestured towards a small crate behind the cash register desk. Cadi flipped the lid open and fished in only to find small bombs that wouldn't make nearly a big enough explosion. "I need more firepower, Cecrops."
"I prepped a lot of gas tanks downstairs in the basement this morning." He croaked. She rummaged through the drawers until she found a usable lighter.
"What's going on, Cadi?" Meri questioned, unsettled by how mute and serious their leader suddenly became.
"A scout telekhine saw me lead the way down to the basement, and probably theorized where the entrance was." She was scowling deeply. "I wasn't fast enough to stop him from going back to the titans. The enemy will be informed any minute that this place can lead to Camp Eirene. And I, for one, am not allowing the titans to slay our friends using the tunnel that was supposed to help us…Which means I'm bombing the whole tunnel."
"What the hell?! Are you insane?" Cecrops cried out.
"Meri, go help Cecrops pack his stuff. He's heading back to camp. Victor. Get some gas tanks and spread them around here. We're blowing up the shop too. Don't ignite until I'm done destroying the tunnel." Cadi barked out orders, to which her teammates complied to without any rebellion whatsoever. "Work quickly, we got a time crunch."
She placed her backpack temporarily on the countertop so as to be relieved of its weight. She tuned out Cecrops's indignant outcries, for she knew Meri would easily calm him down soon enough. Take a handful of gas tanks, she wind walked through Arethusa's tunnel, placing a gas tank every few meters or so. She had finished placing gas tanks throughout half the tunnel when she returned to find a grumpy Cecrops waiting for her back in the basement.
"I disapprove of this plan, you know." He snorted, chin raised in the air.
"I'm unorthodox and rash. But I get the job done. You have any other idea?" She asked him blandly.
He pulled a faced, like he had swallowed a wheel of cheese that hadn't been uncovered for centuries. He didn't offer up any other solutions for her though.
"But I am sorry that I have to destroy your home though." Cadi bit her lip guiltily. "I know you put a lot of dedication and love into this place."
"Then slay a titan or two for me." He said to her, clutching to a duffel bag that contained all his belongings now.
Cadi felt the upper corner of her lip lift into a smile, but she just nodded her consent. Offering her arm, he linked it through hers and they took off to the tiny island of Delos. Cadi finished dropping the rest of the gas tanks along the way. Her nerves started acting up, and she was anxious to blow up the place and get the whole thing down with before the telekhine brought recruitments.
"Inform Chariclo about what just happened." Cadi reminded Cecrops. "And apologize to her for me, will you? Take care of yourself, Cecrops."
"And you as well, Cadi Hendrix." He eyed her keenly for one moment, before taking off to warn Camp Eirene of the titans' advancements.
Cadi turned to the tunnel with a pained expression of what she had to do. Closing her eyes, she offered a pray up to the spirit she was about to offend. "Arethusa. I'm sorry that I have to destroy your glorious gift. It's the only way to protect the demigods, though." She bitterly choked out her pathetic excuse. "As soon as this whole messed up affair is over with the titans, I promise I'll be more than willing to help construct a new tunnel."
Letting out a deep breathe, Cadi stared into the tunnel whilst flicking the lighter on and off. The air was twisting and churning around her, lifting her up as she tucked in her knees. And she was off, holding down on the lighter as she lit up the gas tanks. The bottom of her ratty Converse shoes skimming the walls of the circular tunnel as she navigated her way through with alarming speed. She counted the seconds it took to explode one gas tank. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. As soon as she lighted a gas tank, it took seven seconds for the tank to explode. The daughter of the wind didn't dare to turn to look back at the damage she caused. She probably wouldn't be able to carry out the rest of the task, and be too caught up in utter madness she was creating. Last gas tank! She mentally cheered, but still felt uneasy about the timing. The telekhine probably relayed the news back already. She needed to get going if she and her teammates were going to make an inconspicuous escape.
She scaled up the ladder and shut the metals doors shut while the explosions of the tunnel rocked the shop. The wooden foundation boards keeping the shop up groaned at the blow they had been dealt. Seems like the shop was ready to meet its final day. She flew up the stairs and found Meri and Victor already putting the last gas tanks in the middle of the shop. "You guys done?"
"Yup." Victor replied.
"Great, catch." Cadi threw her backpack at Meri and threw the car keys at Victor. "Victor, you're driving afterall."
"I knew you'd come 'round, Cadi!" Victor grinned, before jogging off to the car.
Running downstairs, Cadi lit the pile of gas tanks in the basement and then swiftly leapt up the stairs to land firmly with her two feet on an air cushion. For the giant pile of gas tanks in the shop, she tossed the lighter in without a second thought and willed the wind to push her through the shop quickly. The car engine was running, just waiting for her so that the whole team could depart. She jumped into her seat and slammed the door shut loudly behind her. "Drive!"
The car took off, screeching and kicking up dust as it left the ticking bomb of a shop behind it. About a few hundred yards away, the shop detonated and burst into flames as shambles of the ruined building rained down on any passersby. Cadi stuck her head out of the window and bobbed her head in approval.
She positioned herself back in the seat when the consequences of everything she had just done came crashing down on her in one big avalanche. "Oh gods, what did I just do?" She mused, albeit with a bitter edge to her voice. Arethusa's tunnel was Camp Eirene's only evacuation option and she had just completely disregarded it and bombed it. If Camp Eirene wasn't screwed before, it was totally screwed now.
But she refused to have her fellow comrades and friends, who were training so hard to survive the upcoming war, fall at the hands of a surprise attack. A surprise attack that she could have stopped. Her decision barely scraped by. The demigods of Camp Eirene would live another day.
"Holy shit, Cadi. You're crazy!" Victor laughed raucously. "Imagine Chariclo's face when she hears what you've done."
"And we just started out quest to." Meri sighed. "What does that mean for the rest of our quest?"
The high energy, adrenaline-filled mood of the team fell short after that last comment. Cadi didn't have the answers, but she had a strong hunch that things were looking down from here on out.
"Head to the airport." She told Victor. Ignore the question for now. The uncertainty that they would come out alive couldn't be pinned down with a definite answer. "Go through the back roads so we can go to the hangars."
"We're not buying airplane tickets like normal people?" The daughter of Nereus questioned.
"Why use money when my brothers can hook us up with our own plane, free of charge?" Cadi asked back.
"You never told us you had brothers!" Victor exclaimed. He swerved the steering wheel as he hit a full on collision with a street sign. The ear-splitting screech of the metal of the street sign pole and the car drummed against the passengers' ears.
"Well, half-brothers technically." Cadi clarified.
"They some big shot pilots or something?"
"Something like that. Actually you might have heard of them." Cadi commented, watching the sceneries of Greece fly by through her window.
"Oh really?" Meri piped up curiously.
"Yeah. They invented flight."
"Wait…" The daughter of Nereus paused, slightly confused by Cadi declaration.
"The Wright brothers."