Child of Zeus {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

TWENTY-SEVEN: How Do You Forget That?

It's summer now (yay) and that means I'll have a lot more time to write, finish this story, and work on the next installment (until summer school, where I'm taking history so I don't have to do it during the school year, and then after summer school the writing will continue). I've made the executive decision however to publish the next book after writing the whole thing, so this whole "scheduled publishing, no publishing for like a year, publishing one chapter, no more publishing for three more years" thing won't happen. For those of you joining me after this whole story was published, I didn't actually wait a few years I'm completely over exaggerating.

Thank you for those of you PMing me to continue, those of you commenting and expressing your liking of my story, and those of you voting. It makes me smile and encourages me to write more when that happens. I hope you're enjoying how your character is growing throughout the journey, and all the twists and turns along the way. On with the story!

I'd completely forgotten that majority of the myrmekes were where Johnny and I so desperately wanted to be: above ground.

We boosted each other up through the trapdoor into the cottage, and it shut on its own like it had when I dropped down. I hid my dagger in the fabric of my shirt so, even when we were spotted, the ants wouldn't go nuts about my shiny object. Even so, I kept it ready for when I had to use it. There was no way we'd be getting back to the temple of Demeter without a fight. Unless...

I pulled my friends back inside the cottage just before Johnny had a hoof out the door.

"What?" Diana asked, eyebrow raised.

"We won't be able to get through them - even with our weapons, we don't know where to hit to kill them. We don't have any more flares,"

Agra nodded. "Yes, but what else can we do? You have made it quite clear that we cannot wait until noon." She was studying me again like she was looking right through me. I wondered if everyone was doing that because I had something on my forehead or a sign on my back; stare at me weirdly, please!

"I've only done it once before, but..." I looked at my friends. "I know how to get us to the temple without encountering even one ant."

I'd peaked everyone's attention.

"We're going to fly."

~

Agra was arguing about it, though Johnny had seemed very interested in the offer. Diana had kept silent, but was watching me with her caliculating grey eyes.

"You cannot carry three of us at once," the ninja princess said. "One side would be heavier than the other and it might make you crash."

She wasn't wrong. "But we could try," I said.

"Hope," she put her hand on my shoulder. "It is not enough."

I found myself turning towards Diana, and like it had happened when the question was brought up about how I had gotten money for supplies back at Valencia Valley Park, I was talking without knowing what I was saying.

"Your medallion - you didn't just use it to find us. You're smarter than that. And we've all forgotten something very important, until you remembered it."

She looked startled, like I couldn't possibly have known that. And I hadn't - I don't know why I said it. But without further provokation, she launched into the story.

"Agraulus and I bumped into each other while we were searching. We couldn't find an entrance, so we decided to make our own by blowing up a hole in the ground. After that we used the second flare to blow the tunnel. But there was no other tunnel that went in that direction.