Jay Evermist and the Olympians

Book One: The Battle Begins

Chapter 13: Time is Limited

(Sorry if this one is short but, hey I am back! And still on a roll. Oh and also, my computer was being a dirt-bag so I had to retype the ending not once, not twice, nto even three times. It wouldn't save so this is the fourth interpretation of this chapter. Enjoy!)

My head ached as I slumped back on my chair. Jacob was now chatting to Miki about the turbines in the plane but my head hurt too much to listen. I didn't even know why it hurt, but man did it hurt. I cautiously got up from my seat again and stumbled past the rows until I came across what my goal was.

At the front of the first class area was a small kitchen where they kept the soda and snacks. There was a kind enough looking woman standing at the counter making what looked and smelled like coffee. It sent my senses tingling. Not like spidey senses tingling but it was like my smell was intensified. I felt queasy when I reached the counter to where she was standing.

"Excuse me," I barely mumbled out without my head hurting more.

She turned to look at me with a smile. I wondered, 'what, was everyone here injected with happy juice?'. "Yeah, honey?" She smiled, taking in that I was a kid.

I cut to the chase real quick. "You wouldn't happen to have any painkillers would you?"

Her smile dimmed but didn't fade. "Oh I'm sorry," She placed a hand on my shoulder and I resisted moving it. "But, I can't give you anything without your parents. Are they here?"

"No thanks." I turned back without answering her question and left her to her coffee.

When I got back, my head felt like it could literally explode. The two teens were both looking out the window in odd peace and quiet. It wasn't until I sat back down and fiddled with my bag for ambrosia did I realize that the whole plane was oddly quiet. I looked around quickly and saw that everyone was not moving, like they were waiting. Or frozen.

Fear melted over me and my breath quickened when I saw a man move his hand up ahead. Then, I noticed that it was the same man from the bathroom. I put one and one together and decided he must have done it, or had something to do with it. Looking back now, it might have been jumping to conclusions but, he was freaky. Everything about him put me on edge. The symbols probably weren't a coincidence either. I had to get to the bottom of this.

I turned to face the window for a split-second and jumped in my seat when I turned and saw the man sitting in my empty seat. My mind fuzzed out I had a hard time foucusing when my headache got worse.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The man said quietly. Opposed to the layers and layers of clothing he was wearing before, he now sported a black and grey pinstripped suit and tie combination. "The symbols allow me to stay in this time with you, but it may cause you some pain."

"Who is the gods names are you?" I said expasperated. I frowned as thunder crackled through the still night. My eyes widened in realization. "No way,"

"Way." The olympic God winked.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have Olympus to run? And more importantly, a battle to attend to?" I smirked.

"So they didn't lie." Zeus smiled, and I felt so at home. "You really are so bright." He let out a sigh. "You met your first challenge in Washington, now Chronus has to get his panties in a binch and go do this to you."

"Cronus? As in the titan that we vanquished Cronus?"

"No," He quickly said. "Chronus is the god of time and lets just say, he hates it when you get them confused. He was sent here by," He stopped. "Well he was sent here to stall you."

"Wouldn't that not technically work, since we're frozen in time?"

"I never said he was the brightest God." He winked. I had no idea why Jason always complained, maybe I was just on his good side, but Zeus was pretty awesome.

"So what now?" I asked. "Do you poof us back in time so we continue the quest?"

"I guess so." He said, defeated almost. "But, wait, one last thing. When you get to where you're going remember this one thing." I nodded my head and absent mindedly leaned in, to hear every detail. "Do not go towards the fields. Take the path less traveled on to survive." I nodded for him to continue but he just stopped. Dang you Gods and your way of tricking us mortals.

I didn't remember falling asleep, or even closing my eyes for that matter. But one second, I'm saying goodbye to Zeus and the next my arm is being attacked by Jacob to wake up. I slung my duffle over my shoulder and slugged along with them until we got to the airport lobby, where I crashed.

I sat down with a huff on one of the seats. "Don't do well with flying?" Miki offered.

"You could say that." I rubbed my neck, straining to remember what Zeus had told me. "So, hotel anyone?"

"Well," Jacob and Miki shared a look. "We were wondering if we could go straight to the quest. You know," Jacob smiled. "Quicker in, quicker out."

"Don't know if that's what they say, but okay." I caved. As tired as I was, I wanted this to be over. But more importantly, I just wanted to find out what was going on.

We all headed outside to the curb, at one in the morning, while Jacob called a cab service, he swore would take us to where we need to go. "Okay it's a twenty minute wait." Jacob dug in his pockets. "You guys have any money?"

"Yeah," Miki exclaimed while pulling her wallet from one of her bags. "Always be prepared." She got up and headed towards the water fountain. "I'm going to make a call to camp, just saying we're okay."

"I wouldn't say that." I mumbled but if anyone heard me, they didn't say anything. So me and Jacob were sitting alone, staring up at the stars when something pulled at my brain. "Have you been here before?" I asked on a whim.

He stiffened but answered, none the less. "Yeah, I actually used to come here a lot." I didn't want to push him to talk in he didn't feel in was comfortable, but luckily, I didn't need to. "My mom used to live in Nevada and I would come here with my dad every summer."

I smiled thinking about how cool it must be to spend days at a time with your godly parent. Although, knowing Hades, it probably wasn't always a ball. "Are you okay about your dad? I mean it's not everyday you learn you parent started a war."

He breathed in deep and I realized I had hit a wire. "No," His voice changed to something I had never heard before, it was almost like venom. "He may be a bad parent. Hell, he may even be the worst parent to every walk his excuse for a soul across this earth, but I know. Deep down, I know he didn't do this, atleast not alone." He took another deep breath, returning to normal. "He's not that low."

My heart was almost breaking when Miki came back. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing." I said close to a whisper, still not taking my eyes off of Jacob. I wondered what had happened to him to make him feel so bad, but figured it was up to him to talk about it.

The taxi finally came after what felt like forever. Apparent;y, it was only 17 minutes. Miki and I went to the trunk to pill our bags in, while Jacob took Miki's twenty and payed. She handed me the bags while I arranged them. When we were done she closed the lid and turned to me.

"You sure I didn't miss anything?" Miki questioned.

"What do you mean?" Taken back by the question, a thousand excuses filled in my head.

"Oh come on, as much as everyone thinks it, I'm not stupid. One second I leave to say hi to Will, Diana, Gracie and the whole cabin and the next I come back to find you guys quiet. Jacob's never quiet, not around me." She frowned, playing with the strand of string that had frayed from her sleeve.

"Hey," I lifted her chin to meet her gaze. "Everythings fine. If there was anything ever up, I would tell you." She didn't look so convinced.

"Promise?" She asked.

"Promise." I grabbed her hand and shook it, while she failed to hold back a laugh. "Now is that good or do I need to go full on spit shake?'

"That's fine!" She said, louder than she probably expected to.

Jacob looked out the window at us an motioned us to get in before the driver kicked us out. We all piled in the back seat with Miki in the middle and me on her right with Jacob on her left.

"So, we are headed to DOA Recording Studio, 9846 Los Angeles, California." Jacob said while the driver nodded his head. It almost looked like he was going to question us, but something stopped him. Probably the fact that if he said that he probably wouldn't be getting paid.

I looked out the window and prayed to Zeus that he wasn't talking gibberish on the plane. We made our way to the studio as I conituned to stare at the scenery passing us. I had never been this far from home. It was scary but also exciting. Oh, if I only knew then.