I'm a horrible human being! Wait, can I call myself human?
Anyway, SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING!
Saturday, we had a massive firework party as it was my brother's birthday yesterday. The family came round and it was a busy night- they didn't leave until about half nine at night.
Yesterday, I was watching The Purge. Not as scary as I'd thought it would be, but still a good watch- I recommend it!
But I do have ideas. During the day, I've been working on about three or four chapters for Alvie's story after they get past the boulder. YOU WILL HATE ME!
And back to school today. Yay… six weeks at school and then CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS! WOO!
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No…"
"Are we there yet?"
"No." Alokia and Alvie glanced at each other. Alokia was trying not to laugh. Max had found something new to annoy Elsie with.
"Are we there yet?"
"Will you shut up?" Elsie whirled round to glare at him. His expression remained calm and innocent, wearing a playful smile.
"Are we there yet?"
"Oh for the love of gods…" Elsie threw her hands up and turned her back on him. "Damn it, Alvie, why'd you do this to me?"
"Sorry." Alvie mumbled. Alokia bumped him with her shoulder, smiling reassuringly.
"Don't be mean to Alvie, Elsie." She said. "It's not his fault Apollo gifted him."
"Bloody gifts…" Elsie grumbled.
"Are we there yet?"
"Oh my gods- shut up!" Max laughed, which probably didn't help his situation. Elsie's hand went to her pocket, where she kept her knife.
"We're here." Alokia said, noticing the boulder about ten metres away. Elsie sighed in relief and ran ahead. Alokia glanced at her older cousin. Max grinned.
"I think I broke her."
"Not even close."
"Aw, what? Way to crush a guy's hopes, Kia." Alokia stuck her tongue out at him and Max mimicked.
"Oy, Idiot!"
"Yes?" Max looked round. Elsie glared at him, motioning them all over.
The boulder was a lot bigger than Alvie remembered. Definitely a lot heavier. How were they going to move it?
"Push it?" Alokia suggested.
"Break it." Max voted.
"Alvie, can you move it?"
"Um…" Alvie studied the boulder. He hadn't tried moving anything that big before. Considering its weight and the little room to manoeuvre it, there would be issues. "I… I don't know…" Max ruffled his hair.
"It's OK. We'll think of something." He assured. Alvie gave a small, grateful smile, but it faltered as he studied the boulder nervously. Knowing his luck, the tiniest breeze would push it and then they would have an Alvie pancake.
Alokia ran her hand across the boulder. She was frowning slightly, that look she got when she was thinking.
"Would celestial bronze go through it?"
"Probably. Why?"
"We could make cracks in it. Then Elsie could cover it in water, filling the cracks and then Max could freeze the water."
"Is this Geography?"
"A bit, yeah."
"Nerd." Elsie teased.
"No, she's just smarter than you." Alvie said quietly, poking the boulder and not looking round. Elsie stared at the back of his head blankly.
"Alvie Jackson. Just used sarcasm." Alvie looked round then, frowning slightly.
"That's Crystal's fault." Max smirked.
"I need to have serious words with Crystal." Elsie mumbled. She sighed. "Alright, Kia, we'll try your plan." Alokia smiled gratefully. Max summoned his axes as the younger two drew knives. Elsie retrieved a sword from her watch and they went around stabbing the boulder. Celestial bronze sliced through the rock as easily as slicing through butter.
"OK." Alokia said after a few minutes. "Elsie, thick layer of water. Um, try and get it into the cracks." Elsie nodded, sheathing her sword and holding her hands out. The ground around the rock trembled and broke apart as water shot up. It wrapped around the cracked boulder, smothering it in seconds in a shimmering, blue-ish blanket. "Max." Alokia nudged her cousin. Max rested the tip of his axe against the water. Ice spread out from the axe and swirled over the water, crackling as it froze. They could see the cracks in the rock expand slightly through the ice.
Elsie and Max smashed the ice with their weapons and the rock shattered as easily as the ice.
"Nice work, Kia." Max grinned at her. Alokia smiled bashfully.
"The tunnel smells funny." Elsie commented. The tunnel was dark and did indeed smell funny- stale breath with a hint of something alcoholic.
"It goes forward about twenty metres and goes left." Alvie said.
"Hey, look." Alvie looked up, following Max's point, and remembered the runes above the entrance. His heart sunk. Now he was here, the carvings didn't cloud together or jump about. They made sense. "What's it say?" Max frowned.
"It's Latin." Alokia said. "I..." She frowned slightly as she read it slowly. Her Latin was probably the best out of all the Jackson and Valdez kids, but it wasn't amazing. "That's…" She turned to Alvie. "That's your prophecy."
"Which one?" Elsie asked after Alvie stayed quiet.
"Um… the, uh, the second one, I think."
"So… I didn't write a prophecy?"
"Well, you managed one Rachel came up with before you and you knew this one somehow. The carving doesn't look that new. Years old, maybe." Max smiled at his brother. "No prophecies." Alvie looked relieved.
"I hate prophecies."
"I think we all do." Elsie pulled a flashlight from her back and forged ahead. The others grabbed their flashlights and followed dutifully.
"Look at that one." Alokia shone her flashlight on a carving on the wall. It was about the size of an average toddler.
"That's Daedalus's mark." Max said. Alvie nodded in agreement, his relief gone and replaced with nervousness. Elsie looked quizzically at the brothers. "Mom's got his laptop, remember?"
"Oh, yeah." She cast the light around. "Does that mean this is the Labyrinth? I thought this place was destroyed when Daedalus died?"
"It had a life of its own." Max told her. "It was always growing and changing, always causing trouble. Something this big and powerful wouldn't just collapse after Daedalus died."
"Still… be really handy if did…"
"Alvie, you OK?" Alokia asked gently, drawing Elsie and Max's attentions.
"Mm-hm."
"You look like you're going to be sick."
"I'm fine." Alvie did look pale and sickly, scanning the tunnel and glancing nervously at Daedalus's mark. Max put a steady hand on his shoulder. "Dizzy." Alvie mumbled.
"You're not going to have a psychic attack, are you?" Alvie shook his head.
"We should keep moving. You up for it, Alvie?" Alvie nodded, tucking his hands in his pockets.
The tunnel went from rocky interior to organised and piped sewer tunnels. They walked along the edge, dodging the sewage and breathing through their jumpers to avoid the stench.
"How much further?" Max coughed.
"Uh… about ten minutes." Max half-laughed, half-groaned in defeat and complaint. Elsie snickered in amusement as they reached a crossroads. (Cross tunnels?) "Left." Alvie said.
"Are you sure?" He nodded. "Do we get away from the smelly?" Alvie hesitated.
"Eventually." He settled with.
The ten minutes was about eleven minutes too long for Max, but he was so relieved to leave the smelly tunnels behind and go through a large vault-like door that lead into a cleaner, less smelly tunnel with jagged rock walls covered in moss. Alokia commented that there may be some water supply nearby for the moss to have formed, but none of them sensed anything with their watered down Poseidon-y powers.
The only problem, they found after about fifteen minutes, was that they were bored. The walls were just the same, rocky and mossy, and they stretched on forever. I-spy quickly faltered out and Max picked up his 'are we there yet' game, much to Elsie's annoyance. Alokia and Alvie did their best to restrain the Elsie from killing Max, reminding her that they were all ADHD, but Max more than all of them put together. He wasn't as bad as Tobias, but he was still bad.
"Max, why don't we play that guess-what-I'm-thinking-of game?" Alokia suggested. Max smiled.
"OK. You first."
"Oh, um…" She fell quiet for a few seconds. "OK, got one."
"Book." Max guessed instantly. Alokia smiled.
"No. Ask questions."
"Oh, right. Uh, do you read it?"
"No."
"Is it a game?"
"No."
"Is it something stupid?"
"Yes."
"Tobias."
"No."
"Dad."
"No."
"Kia, watch out!" Elsie grabbed Alokia's arm and pulled her back. They all faced the front and saw a deep pit spanning fifty feet across both ways with no clue as to how deep it was.
Max picked up a fist-sized rock and dropped it in the pit. He counted quietly to himself, getting annoyed by the time he reached eighty.
"How are we going to get across?" He looked at Alvie. "Can you levitate people?" Alvie looked startled at the very idea.
"Don't be mean." Alokia muttered. "Can you do an ice bridge across?"
"I can probably get about half way and then faint on you guys."
"Faint?" Elsie smirked.
"That or drop down dead?" Alvie winced, but none of them noticed.
"What if Elsie made a water bridge first and then you froze it."
"Mmm… could work. Depends if she faints about halfway."
"I'm not weak." Elsie growled, clenching her fists stubbornly.
"Didn't say you were." Max replied casually. Elsie glowered at him for a few seconds before moving forward and holding her hands out. The ground crumbled at her feet and water rose in a tide a few feet up, but then the ground cracked. Max and the bookworms darted back, but Elsie was stuck in the middle.
"Elsie!" Alokia cried. She took a step forward, but was too late, the water tumbling into the abyss along with the ground beneath her feet. She gave a startled scream as she dropped, her hands scrabbling for purchase on anything.
Max dived forward and grabbed her arm. Her back collided with the rocky wall and she gave a pained whimper before looking up and seeing who had rescued her. She was torn between scowling and staring at him in shock. Max looked mildly surprised himself, but was distracted by the ground weakening beneath him.
He quickly pulled his cousin up, grabbing her other arm and dragging her back to safer ground.
"Um… are you OK?" He asked. She just stared at him, trying to wrap her mind around what just had happened.
"W-we should… should find another way." Elsie shakily got to her feet. Max mentally sighed. Yep, save her life and leave her confused as hell.
Alvie looked back across the pit, frowning. He had a feeling they needed to go through the tunnel opposite and-
And then there were monkey bars spanning across, faded and ghostly as if they were shrouded in mist. A figure of similar substance was swinging across them and, with a jolt; Alvie recognised the blonde curls of his mother tugged back into a ponytail. Another figure appeared and it was his father. Both of them were younger, in their teens, about fourteen maybe.
The image shimmered and flickered. Alvie rubbed at his eyes and frowned at it.
"Oy, planet earth to Alvie!" Max snapped his fingers in Alvie's face, following his gaze. Max's frown told Alvie that he didn't see what Alvie could.
"Could you, uh, could you make ice… ice monkey bars?"
"Ice monkey bars?" Alvie nodded. "What?" Max put the back of his hand against Alvie's forehead. Alvie chewed his lip before explaining quietly what he could see. They all looked at him strangely, but Alvie insisted so he seemed less of a nutcase. Well, hopefully. "Alright, I'll try. Uh…" He looked at Elsie. "Can you do the water or not?"
"Um…" She was still shaken from the near fall and was still trying to process that Max- her archenemy- had saved her. "I'll try."
OK, this chapter- I had the idea of Elsie falling and Max saving her, but the rest is pretty much made up on the spot. I'll post the other chapters over the next few days. And, as I said, you will hate me. A lot.