artemis ; pjo

And We're Off

After that happened I explained what happened to the group. Not long after the large bus came, which was oddly empty. I sat at the window next to James. I could tell Madi wanted to sit next to me, but understood what was happening between James and I. So Madi sat next to Megan. The very outgoing MK sat down next to Dan. So the 2 most talkative people were going to be sitting next to each other. Great.
Sadie sat by herself as did Gabriella and Eric.

We were on the bus for about 2 hours before the first rest stop. We got off at a log cabin styled restroom and cheap fast food. As everyone else went inside, the 9 of us were just standing outside.

"Eric" I called out to him. Eric was sitting on a bench slumped over. I walked towards him and his head slowly lifted.

"Can I help you?" He said. I had only heard him talk once before, and I never noticed the mystery in his voice, like he was trying to cover up an obvious lie.

"Um," I sat on the bench next to him, which made him uncomfortable enough to move, "I need you to teach me how to shadowtravel"

"Uh, no. Only children of Hades and Pluto can do that"

"Not necessarily. My mom told me that you could teach me because I can travel through moon light. She said it was the same thing"

Eric shifted around like he wasn't used to being wrong.
"The rest stop tomorrow night, bring no one with you. We'll meet in the most secret place there is. We'll have about a half hour, so we have to work fast. I'll teach you for the next few nights" He said.

"Gatcha" I said and Eric just sighed.
*************************************

We all boarded the bus and sat down.

"What was the conversation that you were having with Eric" James asked me.

"Uh," I looked over to Eric who could hear our conversation. He violently shook his head, "Nothing, I was just asking him about the quest" I ad-libbed.

"Yeah, ok. The sky is beautiful tonight isn't it?" James asked.

"Yeah, it is" I said. I sighed and before I knew it, my head was resting on his shoulder. This time he was asleep though, and I could feel his steady breathing. I stared out the window, looking up at the moon.

*************************************

"Again, come on! We have less than five minuets and we haven't even moved an inch!" Eric yelled at me. He seemed stressed, but I couldn't blame him. I hadn't moved at all in he past half hour that we were practicing. We found a ring of trees that wasn't to far away from the rest stop.
He had told me to focus on where I wanted to go and also on the moonlight.

Do you know how hard it is to put your undivided attention on two things?!
It's hard.

"Can we just finish this tomorrow?" I pleaded.

"No, the next three minutes will be you trying" Eric snapped back.

Three minuets go by really slowly if you ask me.
We snuck back to the rest stop undetected. No one noticed that we came out of the woods. I was out of breath and was panting like a wolf. The thought of a wolf made me sad, it reminded me of Eclipse, who I left at home. Madi must have seen my distress and came up to me.

"Hey, I found out that the bus will take us as far as Michigan. That's good right? That creepy man said that Michigan was a good place to stop"

"Yeah, good news" I said glumly.

"Let's get to the bus, some sleep could do you some good" Madi said.