artemis ; pjo

Flame

Ben did more than find us an exit.

Ben guided us through the vast concrete space with the help of Gabby and James's swords for light. He made twists and turns like he has been doing this his whole life.

I was walking in the back of the group, mostly so I didn't have to face anyone, especially James and Ben. My emotions were all jumbled up in a mess. I was twiddling with my hair when Ben abruptly stopped. I crashed into James, and almost made him fall.

"Sorry" I said quietly.

He helped me regain my balance.
"I haven't spoken to you yet. You seem to be avoiding me. Are you avoiding me?"

"No, I'm just, just tired. Fighting a creature takes a-a lot out of you" I stuttered.

James obviously didn't buy it, but let it go.
"I'm just glad you're okay"

Ben made a sharp turn and in a few minutes we were inside another large room. It was all white marble with pillars. The room was extremely dim. The only light source came from the center. It have of a warm, orange glow.

My eyes followed the light to its center and I filled up with joy. Sitting on a gleaming white podium was a small chip of wood engulfed in flames. Ambers flew off and cascaded to the floor, turning to ash. My feet started working before my thoughts and I ran to the Flame.

I reached out as Ben called for me to stop. My fingers grazed it as I remembered that it was fire.

"Ah!" I screamed in pain. I looked down to see blisters forming right away. The pain I was experiencing was like no other. I cradled my hand and fell to the floor. The world seemed to disappears as pain coursed through my arm. It felt as if I had stick my hand into molten lava and left it sit there for a while before placing my hand into an oven.

MK rushed over to me and shoved so much ambrosia in my mouth that I thought I was going to choke. She then poured a whole canteen of nectar down my throat as the pain dulled. I swallowed back the last drop with a hard gulp, and struggled to stand up.

"Holey fricken Hades that hurt" I spat. Eric had a look on his face after I said that, and I had to bite a laugh back.

"You okay?" James asked as he ran over and let me lean on him.

"Yeah"

Ben came over to me and wrapped my hand up, as he tried to make me balance on him instead. James waited until Ben was finished wrapping my hand before practically pulling me away, which I was fine with because I rather see anyone but Ben right now. He had a look of dismay on his face, but backed away. Ben looked at me with sad eyes, but I pretended not to see.

I looked towards James. "I'm fine"

He nodded and hoisted me upright.

"Um, so the way to get it isn't to grab it, as you, uh, saw right there," Ben said, desperately trying for a small joke, but earned silence. James cleared his throat and casted a challenging look at Ben as he continued, "So, we have to have a special fire-proof bag. Thankfully we have a lot of that material in Argatha. Well, in most mythical places, actually. I picked one up on my way over here, ya know, just in case. Um, who wants to do the honors?"

"I'll do it" Gabby piped up.

With a concerned look Dan said, "Are you sure? You might get hurt"

"I'm fine Dan, I can handle myself. Remember I'm the tough one, and you're the cute little puppy dog"

I was taken aback by this and made a kissy face at Gabby.

"Oh shut up girlie"

Dan nodded as Gabby took the bag from Ben and stuck her hand inside of it. Walking slowly, Gabby grabbed the wood through the bag and flipped it inside out. She then pulled the drawstring and tossed the bag to Dan who nearly dropped it.

"I told you I could take care of myself" Gabby said with a smirk, "Where next?"