DIVINE » l. valdez

a vegan's worst nightmare

Before the god could celebrate, Meg yelped from somewhere in the trees. She collapsed as one of the myrmekes caught her in its mandibles.

"NO!" Hina and Apollo screamed in unison. 

Apollo begun trying to sing again, but all he mustered was a scratchy wail. Hina struggled against the weight of the ant's leg, her sword barely out of reach. 

Black dots began swimming in her vision and the blurred head of the myrmeke grew larger. As the world faded away, Hina felt long curved pincers wrapping around her torso. 

Her body rose from the ground and all she could manage was a low groan.

The myrmeke continued moving, Hina's limp body jostling with every step. As she was dropped onto the earthen ground, a warm gooey liquid enveloping her body.

When the smell of decay hit her nostrils, Hina gagged, lurking forward against the slimey encasement. 

Slowly, her managed to open her eyes, and held back a surprised gasp seeing the stacked the carcasses of animals surrounding her, all covering in hardened goop in various staged of decomposition. 

"Hina?" a voice from asked.

As the goo began hardening around her, Hina managed to glance upwards to see the top of Meg's head inches from her own. "Meg! Thank gods, you're okay."

Each breath Hina took was followed by the instant urge to gag as the smell burnt her nose.

"Where are we?" Meg asked, geraniums sprouting from all around her, shielding her face and targeting the weak points in her casing.

"This must be their food drop off." 

"Oh."

Hina agreed with Meg's sentiment. Guilt ate away at her stomach, knowing she could have done more to protect the young demigod. 

"I'm so sorry, Meg. I should have protected you. I'm so useless, I can't get us out of here, I can't protect anyone, and I definitely can't can't the end of prophecy! Gods, I'm such an idiot!" 

Tears begun pooling in Hina's eyes, blurring her vision of the trees overhead. Slowly, they raced from the corner of her eyes to her ears. 

"Gods, why am I so weak without my powers?" 

She could hear the taunting words of the Fates, chastising her, and they were true. Without her powers, Hina was nothing. An empty shell of a hero who had died long ago. 

Yet now, she had not only her own life on the line, but Meg's. No matter what, Hina couldn't let Meg be exposed to any more horrors of the world. 

Surprisingly, Meg didn't seem upset with Hina. "It's okay."

Hina's heart did a doubletake. "What about this is okay? We are trapped in the grossest possible way and are going to be ant food."

Meg stayed silent for a beat and Hina bit back an apology knowing the young demigod didn't want one.

After an eternity, Meg spoke, her voice so quiet Hina almost couldn't hear her. "Apollo and Chiron told me everything. It's not you're fault." 

For once, Meg sounded as if she had aged a decade in seconds, her voice absent of any childlike joy or teasing. 

"You lived through so much."

Hina watched the trees sway in the winter wind, the swirling rivers of the Underworld burned into her eyelids. "Meg, I haven't survived anything. I died. Once during the war to defeat Gaea, and a second time when I came back. Don't let Apollo fool you, you've already seen how hard it is to be a demigod."