Chapter 9! I'm really excited about this story, I love writing it! And that's what really what matters most when writing, that you love it, not just that other people like it.
So don't be discouraged if you don't know who Ate is, neither did I at first. I'll give as much info on her in the chapters as I can find.
AND ACTION!
The whole day was a blur. I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hardly paid attention to anything or anyone. The only thing I really noticed was that for the whole day, people were staring at me, curious and puzzled looks on their faces. I would have said something if I wasn't so consumed in my own thoughts.
"Careful chica! You'll burn yourself!" said a voice.
"Huh? Oh, sorry Leo," I said. I was at arts and crafts with the Hephaestus cabin. I was working with fiery hot metal, and I was getting dangerously close to the skin.
"You need to hold the hammer angled away from you," Leo said, showing me.
"Oh, ok," I mimicked the method and slammed the hammer down. Unfortunately my thumb was in the way. I howled in pain and clutched my poor finger.
"Well, at least you got the angle right. Just try to keep vulnerable digits out of the way next time," Leo said, handing me a bag of ice. I cradled my thumb in the freezing ice, sighing as the frozen water soothed the sore. Leo watched me, then said, "You seem distracted today".
"Hm?" I looked up. Leo was giving me a curious and slightly concerned look.
"You seem distracted today," he repeated. "Like there's something on your mind".
"Oh," I said. I sighed and looked down at my lap. "I guess it's just my claiming, that's all".
"Ah," Leo said. "I see. I guess it must be hard not to know who your mom is, even if you find out who she is".
I looked at him and raised a confused eyebrow.
Leo bit his lip. "I mean…you know who she is, but you don't know who she is. Like, about her".
"Yeah," I said. "I've never heard of Ate before. She's not an Olympic goddess, is she?"
"She must be a minor goddess," Leo said. "There are thousands of minor gods".
"I just wish I knew more about her," I said.
Leo was silent for a moment. Then his face lit up. "I think I know where we can find out". He grabbed my hand and dragged me to the cabins.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You'll see Jo," he said.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
"What cabin is this again?" I asked. Leo and I stood at the door of a cabin that was simple; gold and blue with an owl carved over the door.
"Athena," Leo said. "Annabeth's cabin".
We walked inside and I gasped. The inside was covered in intellectual things. The beds were pushed against the walls, as if sleeping were the least important thing to do. Tables covered with papers and blueprints were everywhere. The walls were lined with bookshelves and cubby holes, containing not only books but also ancient scrolls.
But Leo walked past all of it. He walked up to the bookshelf on the far wall and started feeling around, not taking the books off but instead poking and tapping them. "I know it's here somewhere…" suddenly his hand fell on a particular book and it slid out when his fingers touched it. The book shelf slid aside, and Leo turned back to me with a smile that made me grit my teeth. "Come on," he said.
I followed him through the entrance and what I saw was even more fantastic than the cabin. I didn't see how it was possible. This was definitely bigger than what the cabin looked like on the outside.
I stood at the entrance of a multi story colossal library. There were at least a dozen floors above and below me. Campers were few and far between, but the few there were were either studying for the next school year, or researching for Ancient Greek or monster class, or the Athena kids were just hanging out, laughing and drinking coffee. Papers were here and there on tables, including several copies of, the Olympic Press, a popular newspaper for the magical world.
And the books, oh so many books. There must have been enough to beat the world records a hundred times. It was pretty much a dyslexic nightmare.
"Oh, my, gods…" I said, those the only words I could speak. I wasn't exactly partial to books, but even I had to admire it's awe-inspiring wonder.
"This is the domatio tis gnosis," Leo said.
"The room of knowledge," I translated.
"It's the result of a perfect collaboration of Athena and Hephaestus. The two cabins worked together over winter break".
"You built this?" I asked in awe.
"Uh, along with the help of my cabin and Annabeth's cabin," Leo said, blushing. "It's the perfect place to go if you don't know something".
"Leo, that's brilliant!" I said. Leo smiled and we walked toward the ancient Greek section of the History level.
I was grateful for the source for research, but after an hour I was ready to throw every book in that place in a bonfire.
"Gops…the abble, no apple…Ate—AAAHHH!" I screamed, and threw the book. I jumped up and paced around the table, the words swirling around my head like alphabet soup. My dyslexia had stretched to its limits and my ADHD wasn't doing much better. "How are we ever going to find anything in this place!"
"There's got to be something on your mother," Leo said. "We just have to be patient I guess".
"Patience is not something I have," I said.
"You think?" Leo said. "You look like a crazed fish out of water right now". But Leo didn't look much better. He looked like he could scream too. He was tapping his fingers at a rapid pace, trying to control his ADHD.
I sighed and sat down, laying my head on the table. "There must be an easier way of finding what we're looking for".
Leo scratched his head. "Like what?"
"I don't know," I said. I stood up and walked over to a random shelf, aimlessly looking over the spines. There were so many books. How could I find just the right one? I pulled a book out and randomly flipped through the pages. The book was one of hundreds of a series of Encyclopedias on demigod history. Suddenly my fingers fell upon a familiar name.
"Percy's in this book?" I asked. I read over the summary, which described Percy as a demigod son of Poseidon, chosen of the great prophecy, leader of the demigod army against Kronos in the second Titan war, ect. There was several pages on him, and appearently even more information that was noted in the Encyclopedia as the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" novel series.
"Oh, yeah," Leo said. "Percy was part of this huge war some years back, before even I was at camp".
"The second Titan war?" I asked. "There was more than one?"
"History repeats itself," Leo explained. "According to older campers that were there for it, the Titan's tried to make a comeback".
"Wow," I said. I flipped further into the book and found yet another familiar name. "You're in this book too Leo?"
"Yeah," Leo said, obviously a little embarrassed about it. "I was part of another war".
"The giant war," I read. "And the war between the Romans and Greeks. I didn't know the Romans were still around".
"Rome was a huge civilization," Leo said. "The original might not still be around, but its legion lives on".
"It says here there was a prophecy tied to it," I said. "The prophecy of the seven. Seven half-bloods shall answer the call…"
"To storm or fire the world must fall," Leo said from memory.
"An oath to keep with a final breath—"
"And foes bare arms to the doors of death".
"What did it mean?" I asked.
Leo looked at the book solemnly, as if remembering something he wished to forget. "There were seven demigods in the quest to defeat the giants. Me, Percy, Annabeth, and four others you don't know".
"Piper Mclean, Jason Grace, Frank Zhang, and Hazel Levesque," I read. "Who are they?"
"They don't go to this camp," Leo said. He winched at that last name I said. "Frank, Jason, and Hazel are children of the Roman gods. Piper went to live with Jason and the rest of them at Camp Jupiter, the Roman camp in California. I haven' seen them in person since they left".
I looked at Leo. He was looking at the floor, his face contorted in an expression I knew well: longing. Longing to be with the people you cared again. Longing for happiness. Longing for…something you couldn't quite put you tongue on, but it still hurt your heart like a knife.
After a few moments of silence I said, "How long ago was this war of the giants?"
"It was last summer," Leo said.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "If it was that recent, how come I didn't hear anything about it in the news?"
"The mist," Leo said simply.
"The what?"
"The mist. It's like this magic veil that hides things from what they really are for mortals. You probably heard things on the news like a massive blizzard in California, strange glacier breakage in Alaska, and huge freak storms in Rome and Greece".
I thought about it, then nodded my head. "Yeah, I think I remember hearing something like that. that was you?"
"Me and the rest of the seven," Leo mused. "Yeah, we got into a lot of trouble then".
My attention remembered that we were supposed to be looking for research on Ate. Leo and I moved further into the library, scrutinizing for anything that would be helpful. After another hour I had to stop.
"I hate dyslexia," I said, rubbing my eyes.
"I know what you mean," Leo said, doing the same.
"I wish there was some way to read without it turning out like scrabble".
Leo thought for a while, then his eyes widened and he smacked a hand to his head. "Oh, I am so stupid".
"What?" I asked.
Leo reached in his pocket and pulled out a small plastic box. He unscrewed the lid, revealing two tiny translucent disks. "These are some eye contacts I designed myself. They're made to help suppress the affects of dyslexia".
My eyes widened. "That's amazing".
"I brought them with me so we could test them," he said. "But I sort of forgot until now when you mentioned something. Here, take them out carefully".
Using a pair of provided tweezers, I carefully plucked the contacts from the little box. With cautious fingers I gingerly lowered the tweezers down and placed the tiny disk on my eye. Then I proceeded to put the other one on my other eye.
I opened my eyes. Through the contacts I saw the world completely differently. Every word I saw I recognized instantly. It was like the fog had lifted, and I saw everything more clearly.
Things moved much more smoothly from there. I read twice as fast, and went through all the books in the history section in what seemed like no time at all.
"Leo, I think I have to say this is the best invention you've created," I said, skimming over the last encyclopedia.
"You haven't seen all of my inventions," Leo said, though I could tell he was soaking up the praise. He looked at the walls of books and said. "I don't understand. I thought we had information on every god, hero, and monster from here to the underworld in this library".
"Hmm," I said. I paced the floor, as if walking would reveal the answers I was looking for. All of the sudden I heard a creek. I stopped, then shifted my weight. Another creak. I looked down and saw nothing but an ordinary creaky floorboard. I would have just moved on if not for a thought.
"Weird…" I said.
"What?" Leo asked.
"This floorboard is loose. See how it creaks? This library was built recently. It shouldn't creak".
Leo looked at the floor quizzically.
I bent over and pressed on the board. Then I slid my fingers under it and lifted up. the board lifted and I moved it aside. Underneath it was a hidden book. It was obviously very old. It was leather bound, with yellowing pages and the writing on the front was done by hand. I squinted at the writing, but couldn't read it.
"I can't read what it says," I said, handing the book to Leo.
"Really? I can".
"What?"
"It says, 'The Goddess of High Jinks, Impish Behavior, and all Things Your Parents Told you Never to do". Leo looked up. "I think this is what we've been looking for. But why was it hidden in the floor?"
"I don't know," I said. "How come you can read it and I can't?"
Leo looked at the cover. "Oh, it's in Ancient Greek. With those contacts, your demigod brain is reversed, so you can only read English. Oh man, that could be dangerous".
"How?"
"If it alters the way you think about language that much, it may alter the ability to see through the mist, which is treacherous for demigods. You should probably give them back to me now".
I did so and watched Leo rush off to try and fix them. I looked at the cover of the book in my hands, which had a very clear title now, and opened to the first page.
The book read in Ancient Greek,
Young demigod, if you have found this book, you may very well be in grave danger. By uncovering the location of this book, you have upset and stirred many evil spirits. But don't put it back. What you have already done cannot be erased. Now you have two options: you could turn the page and continue reading, or you can lock it away, forget about it, and hope that whatever is out there will never find you. If you chose to read on, it will only increase the danger you're putting yourself in, thus it is safer to lock this in a chest, throw it in a place you will never have to look at it again, and try you very best to forget it. But whatever you do, do not get rid of it. That is the worst thing you can do. If this book were to fall into the wrong hands, the mortal world as we know it will be destroyed. Take care, and I hope you take this advice to heart and use the knowledge you discover wisely.
-The Sneeker
"The Sneeker," I said to myself. Who could that be? Whoever they were, they obviously believed this book was dangerous. Should I read it? My fingers inched toward the page, then drew back. What would happen if I did? According to the letter, I would put me in danger. But it looked so tempting. This was what I had been searching for my whole life. Answers. Every kid who's been left by a parent wants to know everything about them. I always wanted to sit and have a conversation with my mom, to get to know her. And this might be the closest I'll ever get to that. I took a deep breath and turned the page.
Suddenly I heard the sound of a ram's horn being blown. Time for dinner. I tucked the book in my arms and headed out of the library.
There's chapter 9! Nice and long for ya! So what do you think Jo will find out? Something really shocking and exciting!
Please review!