Well here is the next chapter. Enjoy!.
Side note - I think I am going to make the length of all future chapter as long as this one :/
V
Jason
Jason wondered how he slept through all the noise. He was the first one to wake up from the quest group, but everyone from Hephaestus Cabin was already wide awake and working on the shell of The Argo II. He got up and made his way to Abram's and Leo's makeshift bed. Jason couldn't decided what was funnier: Leo in a jumbled mess of pillows, his hair in a crazier mess then usually, and his arms and legs sprawled out in different directions, or Abram laying in the fetal position with his arms tightly wrapped around Leo's waist, his head resting in the crook of Leo's neck, and using Leo's right arm for a pillow. He gently shook Leo's arm to wake him up. "Hey love birds, have a good night sleep?"
Leo's fluttered open. "What's up man?" He asked in a groggy voice.
"Maybe you could tell me?" Jason replied nodding his head towards Abram.
"What, um nothing man," Leo muttered. "We were just cuddling. Um, we ready to head out?"
Leo was Jason's best friend, so the thought of making fun of him farther than one comment didn't even come to his mind, even though some of Leo's cabin-mates told him to say something when he walked past them on his way over here. "Well, I am. Just waiting on you two."
"Well, we are still packed, but let's eat something before we leave." Leo said removing his arm from under Abram waking him up.
"Ugh, I was having a nice dream for once. Why did you wake me up?" Abram asked with a drowsy voice.
"Not that it wasn't super uncomfortable, but I needed my arm back." Leo said getting up from the bed.
"We should head out in a bit Abram, so you better get up and eat something now while you have the chance." Jason added before he followed Leo to the newly appointed space that would be the kitchen in Bunker Nine for the next month or so. "So Leo, how do these plates work?" Jason asked him when they sat down.
"Uhh, maybe they work like the goblets." Leo replied with uncertainty in his voice.
"Two Pancakes, Two eggs scrambled, a strip of bacon, a slice of ham, and a sausage link, oh and orange juice." Abram announced when he sat down next to Leo. The platter and goblet in front of him quickly filled up with his request. The food smelled so fresh and the orange juice smelled like it was just squeezed. Everything smelled so good that Jason couldn't help asking for the same thing.
"How did you know how they work?" Leo asked Abram with a mouth full of bacon.
"I dunno, I just asked?" Abram replied between bites. "So what's the plan for when we leave?"
"You see those sheets of Celestial Bronze there?" Leo asked them as he pointed towards the door. There, by the door were three long sheets of Celestial Bronze. They were about as long an average door in a house but twice as thick.
"Yeah, what about them?" Jason asked.
"Well, when we do leave we are going take them with us." Leo replied.
"What for?" Abram questioned. "Those things look like they way a ton!"
"So I can make us a shelter out there, or do you want to just camp in a tent with no protection from any monsters." Leo remarked. Jason could see a look of clarity wash over Abram' face as he realized it was a good idea. "Oh, and only one hundred pounds each. I weighed them." Leo added before stuffing his fork into his mouth.
"Only, one hundred pounds." Abram replied mocking Leo. Leo just shrugged and nodded.
"And . . . you want us to carry them?" Jason asked
"Well duh! I don't really have anything to carry them with, and I could make something but it would take a few hours to fin-."
"I'm usually lazy," Abram interrupted him. "but I think we should just leave as soon as possible. The longer we take on this quest the higher the chance of more people getting hurt at camp." They came to an agreement to just carry them and leaving behind their armor.
"Where are we going to set this up? Any ideas" Jason asked Leo.
"Uh, I do have a place in mind. I just hope we can find it again." Leo muttered. "You guys ready to head out?"
"Yeah." Jason and Abram said in unison. The three boys got up from the table, wiped their plate and goblets clean, took the items with them to gather the rest of their things. Leo and Abram decided to wrap up some blankets and put them on their backs in bundles. Jason volunteered to do the same, but with some pillows. They said their goodbyes to Leo's siblings and tried to find a comfortable way of carrying the sheets of celestial bronze out of Bunker Nine. They journeyed for thirty minutes before taking a break. The metal on their backs started to grow intensely warm as the sun started to rise higher in the sky. The laid their sheets of metal against some trees but quickly got a talking to by some angry nymphs.
"Geez," Leo hissed. "Are there any trees that are just trees?"
"There are." Abram laughed at Leo before tossing him a water bottle. "We're just unlucky that we keep picking the wrong ones." They sat around and talked. Jason told Abram more of the story of what happened when he blacked out against the Hydra. He was a good listener. He had a few questions but mostly he just stared at Jason and nodded. After he finished reciting the past, Jason suggested they continued moving on. Not looking forward to carrying the sheet of metal, Jason was reluctant to get under it. He got the best hold he could get on the large object and followed Leo as he led on once again.
They were treading through the forest for almost a total time of an hour before Jason realized where they were going."Are you taking us back to where we saw the Hydra?" Jason asked Leo.
"Eeyupp." Leo replied still walking ahead of them. "I figured best place to start looking for our monster, would be to go where we last saw it."
Jason didn't argue with Leo's logic. For once it actually made sense. Abram and Leo were ahead of Jason. He noticed how quickly they took to each other in the past day and a half. He really didn't think anything more of it, besides the line of the prophecy, but he knew like their relationship was just getting started. The canopy of leaves started to thin the further away they got from Bunker Nine. Screeches of monster echoed through the air, but nowhere as heavy as it did the night before. The good news: they didn't have that many demigods walking together anymore, the bad news: they're still very powerful demigods, no doubt their scent was overpowering any other demigods scents in the forest besides theirs. The woods started to clear around them. They started to became still, as if anything that valued life steered clear of this area. Jason totally understood, it was the smart thing to do. He saw what they were going to be up against, and with his past actions made the situation a whole lot worse.
The sun was high in the sky. It must have been noon. Jason really couldn't take the weight on his back anymore, but he was relieved when the he heard the familiar sound of nothingness in the nature, and the only sound in the area coming from the waterfall at the lake. All three boys threw down their extra luggage on the north side of the lake with grunts.
"Let's not do that again." Abram huffed. "Next time, Make a three man wheelbarrow or something."
Jason caught his breath before looking around the small valley. It was just the way it was after the Hydra attack. The once peaceful lake was not Dark puddles of a glowing green substance were scattered around where the Hydra tried to melt them by spitting acid. They were still steaming so Jason made a mental note to not get anywhere near them., Most of them were away from the lake, Jason was glad about that. If this was where they were going to set up their camp/base, their main source of water was unharmed. Trees littered the area, and even though most of the dryads they had met recently just yelled at him, he hoped no dryads died along with the trees. Something told him some lives were lost.
"Sucks dude," Leo said as if reading Jason's thoughts. "But at least now I have more resources for our shelter."
"How can you say something like that?" Abram scolded him.
"We have to make a shelter to stay alive our here. I'm not saying I am glad they're dead, but now I can make a more sturdy cabin. It'll help us to stop this from happening again, at least stop the Hydra from doing anymore of this."
Abram responded with a grunt. Jason didn't blame the guy, if he didn't know Leo as well as he does, Jason would have thought Leo was heartless too, but on their last quest Leo went through some hardships. He learned that nothing lasts forever, and sacrifices had to be made for things to succeed.
"I'm going to scout around, maybe I can see where it went and if anything is near we need to worry about." Abram said to Jason and Leo, but refused to look at Leo. He threw his backpack on the ground and only carried his bow, quiver, and dual swords.
"I'll go with you." Jason said throwing his things down next to Abram's. "We won't go far Leo. If you need us just yell."
"Got it, I'll just start working on building a place to sleep tonight." Leo responded as he dragged a sheet of the magic metal away from the other ones and examined it.
Abram had already walked off making Jason jog to catch up to him. "Don't think he's heartless or anything." He told Abram when he caught up to him.
"It's not that. It's just being back there, I reminds me of how useless I was. How I only managed to save myself and put you guys in so much danger. Not to mention I only saved myself from one attack. If it wasn't for you protecting us while Leo dragged me away . . ." His voice faltered. "If I only didn't freeze when I saw the fire. I should've been able to do something. I should've been able to help, to protect her-"
"Her?" Jason asked as soon as Abram stopped himself mid-sentence.
"Uh, nothing, never mind." Abram squeaked back. Jason felt like Abram was hiding something, but he didn't want to push him if he wasn't ready to talk about it. Jason could only guess it had something to do with fire. The way Abram jumped when Leo summoned fire, even though Abram asked him to do it, or how he acts like he is opening up to Leo, but quickly distances himself as if Leo was a bomb just waiting to go off. Jason couldn't really blame him about the hydra incident, especially if that was the first major monster he had seen. They kept a distance of ten minutes of walking time from their scouting position and Leo. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, besides the usually sounds of nothingness. They wondered around looking for any clues. They found some tracks in the mud, but they didn't belong to the Hydra. They were a lot smaller and looked as if was walking on stilts through the forest dragging something heavy.
"Any idea what these are?" Jason asked Abram.
"Not a clue, but there are definitely more the one set of tracks here." Abram replied with a pained look, as if he knew what made them but was struggling to remember. They decided it would be best not to stay in one place for too long. They continued to walk in silence for what Jason would guess would have been two hours.
"What do you make of the prophecy?" Abram asked him finally breaking the silence.
"Well besides the obvious parts, like you and Leo?" Jason said. He looked about Abram who was now blushing hard. "I'm not too sure about the second line. I'm pretty sure the first line is saying you and Leo are going to be the best of friends or something, and the last two lines are about fighting the Hydra, and preventing any other campers from dying from its attack."
"Yeah, that is pretty much what I came up with, but the second line. Make the gods over think. Which gods, and why would it make them over think?" Abram asked,
"You got me, but usually when gods over-think or overreact. It never means a happy end for us heroes." Jason replied.
"Thanks . . ." Abram muttered.
"Cheer up, I've came face to face with some gods. I'm pretty sure you could take the on or convince them it's nothing." Jason chuckled.
"Thanks." Abram said a little more sincere. "C'mon it's getting late. We should get back to Leo."
They made their way back to camp traveling opposite of the sinking sun. They continued to head west finding the camp with a little bit of difficulty from the retreating light.
"Stop!" Abram ordered Jason. "Listen." Jason held his breath and concentrated on any sound he could hear. In the distance the sound of faint scratching echoed off the hills. It sounded more like a giant crab scuttling around on the sand at a beach.
"I don't get it? A giant crab?" Jason asked very confused.
"Oh gods, please no." Abram whispered. Jason turned towards him. His eyes now wide open he looked was very pale. Jason was worried he was going to faint again, but his thought were interrupted.
"HEY NO! . . . GIVE THAT BACK!" Someone yelled in the distance.
Before Jason could even realize who it was Abram was running off, bow ready with three arrows notched.
"We've have to hurry." Abram yelled back to Jason. "Leo's in trouble!" Jason sprinted like his life depended on it. He finally caught up to Abram who was standing on a hill shooting arrows into the valley below them.
"What are those things?" Jason asked looking down below. He could feel voice tremble in fear for his best friend's safety.
"Mrymekes." Abram muttered. "Ancient Greek for ants, but as you can see. . . they're not like normal ants."
"Yeah no kidding." Jason said in disbelief. His eyes were still trying to register what he was seeing. The mrymekes were the size of German shepherds. Their armored shells glistened blood-red. Their eyes were beady black and their razor-sharp mandibles sliced and snapped. Twenty of them surrounded the camp and were advancing onto Leo, who was using a sledge hammer for a weapon. A powerful weapon, but a slow one with Leo's body type. Jason could see his strikes becoming increasingly slower after each swing. His body was getting tired fast, and soon he wouldn't have the strength to get away if he needed to. A group of five mrymekes were flanking Leo from behind, while his attention was centered on two trying to drag a sheet of their celestial bronze away. Luckily, Abram noticed, quickly took aim, and let fly a volley of arrows aimed towards the five advancing. Most of them bounced off the mrymekes' carapace, but some found the chinks in their armor and imbedded themselves deep. Some of the mrymekes let out a hissing sound before exploding into a clouds of dust. Apparently, some of the hits were deadly, but most just seem to wound the beats or make them angry. Abram pulled Jason behind a tree to avoid being seen by the ants.
"We have to get down there." Jason said readying his weapon and peaking from behind the tree. A blood curdling scram echoed off the hills. A mrymeke had gotten close to Leo and bit him on his leg making him crumple to the ground. Jason watched in horror as a second ant sprayed goo in his face. Leo was too weak to scream, but he madly clawed at his face trying to get the substance off.
"LEO!" Jason scream and stepped out from behind the trees.
"Jason, No." Abram hissed grabbing his arm and pulling back."We can't afford to give ourselves away."
A group of seven of the remaining mrymekes surrounded Leo, picked him up, and started walking into the forest.
"Why did you stop me! How could you just let them take him away. They're going to kill him." Jason exclaimed.
"They won't kill him right away. We've got about half an hour." Abram replied while counting his remaining arrows in his quiver.
"How do you know that?" Jason asked.
"Annabeth. She read about them and told me details about the last time she fought those things. She said they destroyed their anthill though, with the bronze dragon. Y'know, the ones y'all took on your quest. Some must have survived somehow and started building a new one."
"A dragon?" Jason asked with confusion in his voice.
"No! Another anthill idiot." Abram barked. "Now c'mon, before they get too far."
They swiftly ran down the hill and followed the direction the mrymekes went, quickly stopping by their backpacks. Jason grabbed a few supplies, while Abram grabbed his whole pack.