AN: Whoo! Chapter 10! Love it! The story seems to be coming along well in my opinion. Sorry about the late post; I was watching Divergent and I had to go to the dentist. (Yes that took all day. Don't ask questions).

The victory party began to wind down as the campers got tired and started falling asleep in the grass around the fire. Onesimus had long ago stopped celebrating as the memory of his impending quest and possible death refreshed itself in his mind. Onesimus had heard stories about the last time there was a five person quest. Two hadn't made it back, and Onesimus had a sick feeling in his stomach that this quest might turn out the same . . . or worse.

Onesimus sat on the outskirts of the victory party, trying to figure out how to break the news of the quest to Krea. In his sulking, Onesimus didn't notice Alex until he'd sat down next to him.

"What's up?" Alex asked seriously.

"Hm?" Onesimus said, not even realizing at first that Alex had spoken. "Oh, nothing."

Alex eyed him and said, "Bullshit."

Onesimus sighed. "There's a quest." He said simply, knowing that he'd have to get this over with sooner or later.

Alex's eyes widened at Onesimus' statement. The first question that came to his mind was "Am I going?"

Onesimus nodded, but his expression was sad. "You, me, Eris, and two other people." Alex's eyes darkened a bit as he realized the implication. "I didn't get to choose the companions, either. Hades did." Alex's previous excitement had died completely.

He stood and without looking at Onesimus, said "I guess I better go prepare. When do we leave?"

"Three days." Onesimus said solemnly.

Alex left without saying anything. Onesimus heaved a sigh and leaned his chair back until it fell all the way back. He laid there and stared up at the stars. He couldn't find the beauty in them but their light distracted him enough to allow him to fall asleep. W

Onesimus' sleep didn't last as long as the others'. His father was the god of travelers, so he was always awake early, ready to travel wherever he needed to. Today, that place was the Hades cabin and then the Athena cabin, assuming he was still alive at that time. As he stood, some of his siblings began to stir. Usually his siblings were up before him but there was too much on his mind at the moment for him to get a good sleep.

He headed off in the direction of the Hades cabin; he turned around multiple times, trying to talk himself out of it, but he knew he had to. Without realizing it, he made it to the Hades cabin and silently cursed his own speed. There was no turning back now.

Onesimus mustered up all his courage and stupidity and raised his hand to knock. Before he could even touch the door, it swung open and Eris nearly ran right over him.

When she noticed him, Eris said "Come here to gloat about your fluke." Onesimus could easily imagine fire in Eris' eyes.

Immediately a smartass answer came to Onesimus mind, but he stopped it before it could exit his thoughts. Instead, he said "No, I've come to call a truce. " He reached out his hand but Eris ignored it.

"Nah, I'm good." She said and tried to move past him.

Onesimus moved in front of her to block her. "Look, we're going to have to work together on this quest, so we might as well start now."

Eris rolled her eyes. "There's three other members of the quest for you to work with." She said stubbornly.

Onesimus gave up on that line of action and instead tried something else. "Well, how about telling the other quest members, then? Got any plans for that?"

"Chiron left that up to you."

"Exactly! And since you know Clif, you're going with me to the Athena cabin to tell him and Krea about the quest. "

"No."

"Really? That's it? Just no?"

"Yep."

Onesimus was ready to pull his hair out. "Why do you have to be so damned stubborn?"

"Why do you have to ask so many damned questions?" Eris responded calmly.

"Gods dammit, just come with me. Please!" Onesimus said, frustrated.

A small smile played on Eris' lips. She was satisfied with the reaction she'd gotten out of him. "Well, since you said please." Eris began walking to the Athena cabin without waiting for Onesimus' response.

Shaking his head, Onesimus followed quietly. When the pair arrived, There were a few boys from the Athena cabin playing an enchanted game of chess. The board wasn't flat or square and it simulated terrain. The game was also real-time instead of turn-based.

Onesimus was just about to try and get the boys' attention when he saw a rock hit one of them. He turned to look at Eris, but all she said was "whoops. It slipped."

When Onesimus turned back around, all three boys were looking at him. "Uh, can you get Krea and Clif please? It's for Chiron." Not a total lie.

The boys stared angrily at Onesimus for an awkwardly long amount of time, which gave Eris a little bit of satisfaction. Eventually one of the boys stood and walked inside the cabin. The boy saw Clif talking strategy with the cabin leader, Rayla. He tapped Clif on the shoulder and told him what was going on. Then, he asked Rayla if she knew where Krea was. Rayla pointed him towards the back of the cabin where Krea was just waking up.

When the boy reached Krea, he said "Onesimus is outside. He asked for you."

Krea's mind froze for a second, but she quickly jumped out of her bed and combed her dirty blonde hair as much as she could and applied a small amount of makeup. She wiped her eyes with a towel so there wasn't any evidence that she'd just woken up.

Outside of the cabin, Onesimus was glaring at Eris.

Eris smiled a bit and said "What?"

Onesimus just shook his head. As he turned back to look at the cabin, he saw the boy come out followed closely by Clif. When Clif noticed Onesimus and Eris in the same vicinity, his expression changed to concern and bewilderment. He approached the pair slowly, giving a small wave to Eris.

"Where's Krea?" Onesimus asked Clif.

"She's on her way out." Clif said, sounding weary.

Onesimus saw Krea not long after. He tried his best not to stare at her, but failed. Krea began to walk towards Onesimus until she noticed Eris and Clif. Her expression looked a lot like Clif's.

Krea approached cautiously and when she arrived, Onesimus said "Hi." Then he silently cursed himself for sounding so stupid. He'd wanted to say more but he'd lost the ability to form sentences.

"Hi." Krea said, obviously unhappy.

Onesimus turned to Clif and stuck out his hand. "I'm Onesimus." He said with his trademark grin.

Clif ignored the hand. "I know who you are. We've had to upgrade our security three times this month because of you." Onesimus dropped his hand but kept the grin.

Then Krea piped up with "So are you finally here to explain?"

"What?" Onesimus asked, caught off guard.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Krea said, her expression turning deadly.

Onesimus began to stutter a response, but when he failed at that, he ran.

Eris began laughing hard. "Did he actually do that? He just ran." She laughed harder.

"Yeah, that's how he solves his problems." Krea said a little sadly. She turned to Eris. " So what's this about?"

Eris explained the quest as simply as possible but when she told it, it seemed as though she was delivering a death sentence.

At the end, Krea said "Wow, two days. I better start preparing." And she ran off.

Clif spoke after Krea had gone. "So your father just randomly and without reasons assigns a quest?" He shook his head. "Well, we're fucked."

The statement surprised Eris and she knew it showed on her face. There was a pause and the silence between them began to grow. That is, until Clif grabbed Eris' hand and said "well, at least it's not a completely bad thing." And he gave her a smile.

Eris forgot, once again, how to breathe. She managed to smile back at Clif, but not much more than that. Before it got awkward, Clif released Eris' hand. "Well, I have to prepare, too." He said and walked back into his cabin.

AN: Hope you enjoyed this part of the story. Leave me a review to let me know what you did/didn't like about it. Send me a private message if you have any questions about the story or the authors.