We set up a campfire near the other end of the woods. Hillary groomed Lussafir's wiry fur. Hannah sharpened a branch she had found on the way and was carving it into a spear. Ethan tended to a couple of cuts on his calf muscle with a first-aid kit he had found in his satchel. None of us had said a word since our get away. It was almost like we weren't there- I even had to look up every once and a while to make sure they were all here. I stared into the flames of the fire deeply, remembering the House of Hermes as if it all a dream- but it wasn't just a dream. It was real- all too real.
I remembered what Hillary had said to me as we left- We did the right thing, no matter how much it hurts. But how was that supposed to make our decision any more okay? We were responsible for all the demigods who fought along side us, and that meant Liam and Juni as well. I didn't understand what came over us when we decided to leave them like that. We should have stayed and fought for our lives. We were outnumbered by Nyx's warriors and, with the fierce ambition of Chiron, we were surely toast. But I didn't give a damn. Better to die bravely and for a cause than to go galloping away like cowards with our tails between our legs (if we had tails.)
A hand brushed through my hair. I looked up to see Hillary, smiling at me, though her sapphire eyes held the same look of grief I shared. With her other hand, she reached into her bottomless black satchel from the House. Hillary handed me a plastic box. I opened it. It was one of the Hecate-burgers.
"Eat," she commanded. "It'll give you something else to do other than sulking and blaming yourself." I smiled at her. Hillary had been looking after me ever since we met in 3rd grade, almost like she was my older sister. It was a habit for her. She was my best friend- that's what she was supposed to do.
"Come here Hills'," Ethan asked Hillary to sit down next to him.
Hillary rolled her eyes (I swear, she does that so much I'm surprised they haven't popped loose yet). "Ethan now is not the time to put on your flirting attempts, okay?" she snapped.
"No," Ethan sighed. "There's a cut on your shoulder-blade. I need to clean it up before it gets infected."
She looked at him, surprised. She didn't even notice it was there. "I can tend to it myself," she retorted.
Ethan raised one eyebrow. "Can you reach back there to get it?"
"Sure, I can!" Hillary reached her left arm over her head and swatted at the air trying to touch her back. She then tried to go under her right arm but the gash stretched open from the movement. She winced and recoiled. "Fine, I'll let you touch me just this once. I'm sure it's not even that bad." She sat down next to Ethan, still wary of her choice.
He shook his head. "You've taken care of my bruises for 5 years now. In all that time you've said that every injury has the potential of getting worse. Just let me heal the dang cut, okay?" He wet a ripped piece of cloth from the first-aid kit and dabbed it on her wound. Hillary stayed silent.
I unwrapped the burger and took a portion out of it. The juicy meats and tender bread bubbled in my taste buds. I watched as the sandwich reformed whole again.
The Hecate-burger got me thinking. I reached into my satchel until I found what I was looking for. I knew it was the right thing to do- for Hermes, for Liam, Juni, and the Mercury Clan. Hannah looked up from her spear-carving and saw the object. "The demigod map?" She propped her spear against a tree and came to me.
"Yeah," I confirmed. I opened up the gold-streaming paper. On the written lines, the Godly Residence blank was... well, blank.
"Hillary," My blue-haired bestie looked at me as Ethan put a band-aid patch over her injury. "Can I see your water-pen-thingy?"
She unsheathed her dagger and tossed it to me. As I caught it, the blade had changed into a silvery-blue pen. I took off the cap and wrote Hermes once more onto the blank line.
"We're finding a Hermes kid first?" Ethan asked. "Haven't we had enough of those lately?" The shakiness in his voice made it clear he as well wasn't over the guilt, no matter how accustomed our facial expressions were.
"We all owe the Mercury Clan something for risking themselves for us. The least we could do is secure their kin's fate in their honor." The three of them looked at me in astonishment. Hillary shown a smile of approval creeping on her face. "You have a kind, thoughtful heart, Sierra." she complimented. "That's why its so surprising that Hades is your father."
I was about to say Well, I do have my own evil laugh that freaks people out, so I wouldn't count myself out just yet, but I saw her point. My mother was always a gentle, kind-hearted soul- maybe I got it from her.
I held the map up to the firelight. The blaze made the borders of states and continents much clearer. I paused. "What was that thing Liam said to make it work?" I asked myself.
Ethan walked over and took the map from me. "Deixe mou ton tropo!" he commanded. We saw the pen ink soak into the paper. It flowed on to the continents and spread until the mapped different demigods and locations. This time, the House of Hermes wasn't located. Butterflies ate at my stomach.
"The nearest demigod is a boy named Caleb Hallmann." Ethan read off the map. I tapped the paper like a smart phone and it zoomed in on the location. Caleb's profile said he was 17 years-old, on his senior year of high school. The map shown a little portrait of the guy. His skin was slightly tanned, and he had a long nose and stout jawline. His hair was raven black and and his teal eyes held a sarcastic, loud character to them.
"The map says that he goes to a boarding school in Sweetwater, Tennessee." Hillary pointed out. "Pevancy's Academy for juvenile delinquents. Sounds about right for a kid who's dad is the king of thieves and trickery."
"Where will he be tomorrow?" Hannah asked. "Precisely at 1 pm?"
"That totally doesn't sound stocker-ish," Ethan murmured sarcastically.
"Hannah's right though," I agreed. "We're definitely not ready to find him today. We will devise a plan and carry it out tomorrow." I closely inspected the map. At the corner of the paper, I noticed there was another blank line: Date and Time ___________
With Hillary's dagger/pen, I wrote tomorrow's date (Sept. 11th, 2016), and the time of preference, 1:00. Once again, Ethan said the enchantment. As the map began to update, the pinpoint expressing Caleb's location levitated to a new spot on the continent.
It showed he would be going to the Athenian Parthenon Museum in Nashville, TN. That was kind of ironic. "A school trip maybe?" I guessed.
"What ever it is, " Hillary snatched up her pen and sheathed it back into dagger form. "We'll be there. I'll call Pheonix to set us up in a tour group. At any rate, we are getting into that Parthenon and coming out alive, all five of us." I thought to myself, Why worry, Hillary? It's not like anything is going to happen!
Holy Hades, I need to stop jinxing stuff.
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The God's Reign: Book one, The Knowing
General FictionSierra scott seems like a normal 15 year-old girl- well every hero does at first. The Greek mythology world comes alive in front of her own eyes as she is called to find twelve demigods to fulfill their destinies in Olympus. Including her, they must...
