II. Travis Deals Illegal Cheese Whiz
TANIA
I knew that it wasn't real the second I saw my mother's picture perfect face staring at me.
Knew that what wasn't real? This dream or whatever world or dimension that I was currently inhabiting.
Why, you may ask, why did I assume that it wasn't real.
Well let me tell you.
It was because the gods didn't exactly care for their children, it wasn't in their nature to do anything for them. Heck I had never seen my mother before other than in the glossy pages of my Greek mythology book, covered by my free fall of tears as I wondered why she had left me.
So yeah, you could say that I had been harbouring up some not-so-pleasant feelings for my so called 'mother' ever since she had abandoned me on my father's doorstep.
There was no note, nothing. Just me in a basket.
A basket.
Yes, a basket.
She could've at least sent me someway cooler like, I don't know, riding on a horse or something with me in a mini cowgirl costume.
Biting back some words that wouldn't be categorized as 'pleasant' I looked over at Demeter who was looking at me, her face seized up as if she was in pain.
"M—mom?" I asked, my voice small as I stared at the woman.
"Tania." She said urgently and I bit back a sarcastic remark about how I couldn't believe that she knew my name.
"I'm in trouble," She started. "Phemes has captured me and—" she was cut off by a loud crashing sound and disappeared suddenly, leaving me completely submerged under water that I had just realized was engulfing me whole.
I spluttered, trying to rise to the surface but to no avail, it was as if some unknown source was pulling me down, trapping me at the bottom of this watery grave.
I started to get woozy, as if I was about to fall asleep and slowly everything started to fade, it was all disappearing, going away, leaving me alone, trapped...
I woke up, gasping for breath, quite literally, noticing that the whole of the Demeter cabin was staring at me with wide eyes.
"Are you all right?" Katie asked hesitantly, fiddling with her hands, her brown eyes filled with worry and concern.
"I'm fine." I mumbled, feeling my face burn red from all of the stares that, frankly, I was certainly not feeling in the mood for.
You could say that I felt a little hurt. "Thanks a lot mother." I muttered while putting on my orange Camp Half Blood shirt and a pair of shorts considering the sweltering heat of the summer.
What made me feel hurt was the fact that the one and only time my mother dearest had decided to contact me it was because she was in some kind of godly mess that she, no doubt, had laid upon herself.
I could hear some of my sibling shouting about which plants would look better at the front of the small cabin. Rolling my eyes I exited the homey yet beautiful Demeter cabin, walking out into the scorching sun as I looked around for the Big House.
I had to tell Chiron about my dream.
If I didn't give him the message things could get a little...ugly from my oh-so-lovely relatives. I shuddered, remember the child of Hypnos that had had a dream about his father's missing something-or-other and didn't tell Chiron.
Needless to say he was turned into a dandelion that, no matter how hard Mr. D stepped on it, stayed in place. It was a little bent up but other than that it was as good as new.
Yep, my overly-large family is kinda messed up, I thought as I avoided stepping on the dandelion that was precariously placed in the middle of the walkway.
Taking a deep breath, I walked into the Big House, calling for Chiron.
Well, here goes nothing.
***
"You could always sleep in the woods." Travis remarked lazily from his spot on the couch that was shoved into the corner causing the attention to turn towards the son of Hermes.
"I mean, if you don't want the dreams anymore..."
"Oh shut up Travis." Annabeth said in a tone of voice that could make anyone—me not being an exception—run for the hills.
"If the monsters didn't eat her before nightfall, then the harpies would." Annabeth ranted, her hands poised firmly on her hips as Travis heaved a sigh.
"Yeesh, can no one take a joke?" Travis asked.
Silence.
"Okay then." Travis muttered, folding his arms across his chest before discussing something with his brother Conner.
They both looked a little too intent on their conversation about something that I honestly couldn't care less about so I looked away, watching Chiron who had just spoken up.
"Pheme's did you say? That's the Greek minor goddess of gossip."
"My mother is kidnapped by the goddess of gossip?" I asked.
Hey, I won't lie, I was surprised.
"Demeter, an all powerful goddess lady was kidnapped by a minor goddess?" Percy asked. His eyes were half closed as if he was sleeping.
Annabeth gave him a disproving glare.
"I had a dream too." Fern spoke up and we all turned around to see Fern standing in the doorway of the room, a disgruntled expression on her face.
"And, unlike miss 'oh my gods I'm special' over there—"
I glared at her.
"—I actually got a prophecy."
That was all it took for smug little Fern to be surrounded by curious demigods.
Taking a deep breath Fern started.
"Children of Demeter and a child of the woods
Shall go on a journey to the place of no hoods.
A goddess to save will mean the end of your days.
Beware the danger of the one who will raze."
Everyone was silent for a moment until Annabeth spoke up, her grey eyes glinting as if she had some kind of revelation.
"The amount of people for a quest is usually three. That means two children of Demeter and one of the woods. The two Demeter children are obviously Fern and Tania. The child of the woods..." Annabeth trailed off.
"Grover." Chiron suddenly said, his eyes widening at the realization.
"What?" Grover asked, stopping mid-chew on one of his cans.
"Yes." Annabeth stated, giving Chiron a look. "Child of the woods would be Grover because Pan's spirit is in you and satyrs are also known as children of the woods."
Grover gave Annabeth a defeated look. "Fine, I'll go I guess..."
And that was how I got signed up for a crazy quest to save my mother.
It was about an hour later, everyone had left the pool room and gone off to do who knows what. Feeling a sharp pain in my foot I realized that I had somehow gotten a rock in my shoe.
"Thanks for telling us about your dream." Someone said as I was slipping my foot back into my sneaker. It took me a few seconds to respond, realizing that the someone was Percy Jackson and he was smiling at me.
"Oh, you're uh talking to me. Thanks." I managed to stumble out with a smile before walking away from Percy, red faced.
Why? Because this dude was the freaking hero of freaking Olympus.
Enough said.
Percy walked away and I started to process what had just happened at the meeting. As I continued to process the mind blowing events that had just taken place I heard a voice call out to me.
"Pst, girl with the brown falling out ponytail."
At least I think he was talking to me...
I turned to see Travis sitting on the ground by Thalia's tree (how the tree got its name is a long story...don't ask) wearing some some dark sunglasses.
"Uh." I said dumbly, looking at Travis' shady-looking stand.
"Get your highly demanded cheese whiz here! It's a good deal, only one drachma per can."
One drachma? How rich did the doofus think I was...
"Didn't they ban cheese whiz at the camp store?" I asked, suddenly even more suspicious than before.
"Well duh." Travis answered back, rolling his eyes at my genius comment. "Why else would it be in high-demand?"
Travis gestured towards his stand and I felt myself take a step back.
No illegal cheese whiz for me.
I shook my head at a now disgruntled Travis and started to walk away, feeling my hair blow slightly in the wind.
As I begun to think about the quest and all of its details I wondered one thing.
Why me? Why did Demeter choose me and Fern to message out of everyone that she could have chosen to send a dream-message to?
Why not Katie or someone like Percy Jackson?
Shaking my head I walked off towards the beach before climbing into my secret little cave positioned west to the busy shore.
Alone at last.
~
Hey! So chapters won't be too regularly because do you know how long that took to write a chapter of that length...
A long time, okay...
They will be less frequent but longer so...yay?
Oh gods that prophecy was horrible...
My schedule will be to update every other Friday at least. So there will be an update for sure every other Friday but there may be other updates randomly :)
Thanks for all of the votes and comments, I love you all like seriously you guys are the reason for my joy right now :)
Enough with all of the cheesiness lol.
Bye!!!
~xXGirlOfTheNightXx