After breakfast(Lucas and I won by the way), I thought I'd try to find an archery range or training room. Lucas offered to show me, but I wanted to see if I could find it on my own. Next time, I'll ask for directions... I can't find it. I spot a staircase that comes into view. Maybe it's up there and I start climbing. Four flights of stairs later, I see a trap door right above me. I see a cord, and I pull it. I jump back as a wooden ladder clattered down from the door. I almost run back down those stairs, oh my gods! It smells so horrible, it would make onions cry. It smells like rotting wood, mildew, and a little bit like reptiles. Curiosity overrules my disgust. I hold my breath and climb up.
This room is filled with Greek hero junk, and everything is covered in cobwebs. I walk around and see some stuff with tags and plaques. One caught my attention. It was an eye and the plaque read MINOTAUR EYE, CAPTURED BY MAYA HART. As honored as I am, that's just gross. Who put that up here? I keep looking around, and spot someone else here. "Hello?"
"Hey," says a girl. She steps out so I can see her. She is pretty tall, slim, has green eyes, and red hair. "I'm Rachel. Rachel Elizabeth Dare." She holds out her hand and I shake it. "What brings you up here?" She asks me.
"I was looking for the training room, but I couldn't find it. Could you help me?"
She smiles, "Sure! Follow me." She leads back down the way we came and we start heading to the training room. I think.
As we're walking, I couldn't help but ask, "What were you doing up there?"
"I wanted to see all the cool stuff up there. I haven't been up there in a while and I think it's kinda cool to see what trinkets and trophies are up there. Congrats on the Minotaur eyeball by the way!"
"Oh that? I didn't know that was up there. Do you have any idea who put it up there?"
"Yeah, it was-" Rachel suddenly doubles over like someone's just punched her.
"Oh my gods, Rachel! Are you ok?" She straightens up and when she looks up at me, her eyes glow serpent green. I take a step back, "Umm, Rachel? Are you ok?" She starts speaking, but it sounds as if there's three of her:
Five shall go west, to find stolen power ancient,
Searching sands of time, to ensure chaos' abatement.
Two shall find flame, two's devotion divided,
And a hero's arid suffering, a fate that must be abided.
At the last word, she collapses. I rush to catch her, and I hear someone clear their throat. I turn around, "Oh hey Chiron." I nervously laugh, "What's up?"
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"I know what you think, but I swear I didn't hurt her!" I frantically explain. "You see-" He holds up a hand and I stop talking.
"I know you did not harm Miss Dare. However, a prophecy has been spoken. You see, she's our Oracle."
"Wasn't that the Oracle of Delphi?"
"Yes, and Rachel has taken her place. The spirit lives within her. How did you come across Rachel?"
"I was looking for the training room, but went to the attic instead. I asked if she could give me directions, and she said sure. So we were heading there, and you saw what happened." He nods understandingly.
"I suggest you get ready for next week. You will leave first thing."
"Wait! Why me? What's so important about this quest?"
"Did you have any recent dreams? What was it about?"
"One had one of my close friends being interrogated about a 'him'."
Chiron's face turns pale. "What? This is worse than I thought. You must leave first thing tomorrow!"
"Not until you answer my question, what's so important about this quest and why me?"
"Someone of Olympus is missing, you have to find them!"
"What! Why me?"
"You've been given not only one rare gift, but several. Demigods are never given more than one gift like the ones you possess. You have more abilities than your brothers and sisters. You are capable to do more than you know. Apollo has broken the rules by giving you all of these powers."
"So..."
"So? So? Many are wanting to know how he accomplished these things. Normally these things are given to a god. I believe Enceladus has taken him and is holding him captive on Mount Diablo. Orion wants Apollo to do the same for him and his brothers. To make them even more powerful. If they aren't given what they want, they will send him to Tartarus on the summer solstice. Apollo has sent many there and it will not be enjoyable. The ones he has sent there will take it out on him personally and gods take a long time to reform."
"Let me get this straight, I have to find a god I have never seen, also known as my father, before he is cast to a hell worse than you can possibly imagine?"
"That pretty much sums it up." I can't believe it! Now my dad needs me. Not once has he shown up to see me, but now I have to help him. No, I have to save him.
"What would happen if I didn't do this quest?"
"The world will slowly end. He is the god of the sun. No god of the sun, no sunlight to get rid of the night. No sunlight means no life. It's up to you now, no pressure."
"Woah woah woah, you cannot just drag in a bucket load of pressure, then say 'no pressure'." He shrugs his shoulders. "Ok, I'll ask four other people to help me on this quest. I'll leave first thing tomorrow. How long do I have?"
"June 20th. That gives you about a month."
Great.
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"So what do you say?" I ask Riley and Farkle.
"That's so messed up," Farkle's says.
"Tell me about it."
"We'll help you. We have faith in you and know you'll be great."
"Thank you thank you thank you!" I exclaim and leap into their arms. "You guys are the best! Now I just have to find two more people."
"Good luck!" they shout.
I run around trying to find Lucas, but I run past the training room. Where was this thing an hour ago! I wouldn't have been in this mess if it wasn't for this stupid room. I notice no one is really in here and I need to blow off some steam. I walk up to a station. I need to work on my swordsmanship, so I decide to go there. I walk up to the trainer, "Hey, can you help me practice?"
"Sure." He turns around. "Maya?"
"Nathan? What are you doing here?"
"Around this time, I teach sword fighting. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on an archery range?" he chuckles.
I giggle a bit, "I thought that I'd brush up on other combat skills. I can't use arrows for everything. I'll eventually run out."
"True, true. So you ready?"
"I kinda need a sword first."
"That's kind of important," he laughs. "Here." He tosses it to me and I catch it. "You ready now?"
"Yup, let's go." Just then, he slams his sword on mine, "Always be alert." He stops, "here fix your position." He walks next to me to fix my position. He puts his hands on my hips, moves them a bit, and tell me to spread my legs out a bit. He models the position and I copy him. Then we go back to practicing. A few minutes later, I manage to disarm him. His sword goes flying into the wall behind him. He looks at the wall behind him and back at me. He lets out a whistle, "Dang! You're a fast learner. Is there anything you can't do?"
I laugh, "I don't know, but you're a pretty good teacher. Hey I have a question for you."
"Purple!"
"Oh my gosh! How'd you know?" I say dramatically.
"I'm just that good a guesser," he laughs. "Ok, what was your question?"
"Would you want to go on a quest with me?I could use someone with your expert swordsmanship." He looks at a loss for words. "Nathan?"
"Y-Y-yes! I mean, sure, that's cool. When do we leave?"
"First thing tomorrow." Just then, something grabs my sides. I quickly grab the arm on my side, put it over my shoulder and flip the person. They slam onto the ground in front of me, and I see that it's Lucas. "Oh my gods! I'm so sorry, it was a reflex! Are you ok!?" Lucas groans and grabs his side. "Remind me not to sneak up on you again," he wheezes.
"Here," I offer him my hand. He takes it and smiles. Oh no. He pulls me down so I'm on top of him. I don't know if I hurt him, but man! Does he have abs? His stomach is so hard! He laughs and says, "I know how you can make it up to me."
"You just pulled me to the ground."
"True, but you threw me to the ground."
"Touché. Whatcha got?"
"It's a surprise, that's why I came here." I stand up and help him up.
"Alright, I just finished training, so let's go." I turn around and walk up to Nathan. I give him a side hug, "Thanks for your help!" He gives me a small smile and I smile back. I face Lucas and see he's bent over. "Aww, you know me so well!" I jump on his back and yell, "Onward!" He just laughs and we take off.
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I hopped off of Lucas' back and he covers my eyes. "Don't peek." He leads me to his surprise, and we stop. "Ok, we're here." I grab his hands and uncover my eyes. We're standing in front of an empty horse's stable. "Ever ridden a horse?" he asks.
"Yeah, but only once."
"Great, because I'm about to take you flying." Just then, a white horse flys in front of the horse stable. "Maya, meet Ocean, my pegasus. Ocean, this is Maya."
"I can see why you named her that, she has the prettiest blue eyes," I smile. She neighs, and Lucas reaches into his pocket, "Here. She loves apples." I feed her an apple and she rubs her head against mine. Lucas smiles, "I think she likes you."
"Well tell her I think she's beautiful," I smile and stroke her. She neighs and gives a hug, or whatever it's called.
"You ready to go?" Lucas says as he puts a saddle on Ocean. He hops on and offers me his hand. I take it and he helps me up. "Hold on!"
"To what?" Just then, he shakes the reigns and Ocean takes off running. She spreads her wings and is about to take off. I scream and wrap my arms around Lucas. Ocean jumps and we start flying. My eyes shut and I pray that we don't die.
"You can open your eyes Maya." I open them and see us approaching the clouds. When we're up there, I dare to look down. Everything seems so small, and I can barely see it. I look around me and take it all in.
"Wow. This is incredible!"
"Sometimes I fly up here to clear my head or need a quiet place to think."
"Or enjoy the view."
He chuckles, "Ya, there's that too." I remove one of my arms and let it sweep across the clouds. It kinda tickles and I laugh. I throw my head back and close my eyes, taking in the fresh air. As I open my eyes, I can see the sun setting. I can honestly say I've never seen anything so breathtaking. It even tops the sunrise. As its setting, the sky turns an amazing purple, pink, and orange. It just all blends together. As I admire the sun set, Lucas turns around. "Look." I turn around and see a cloud in the shape of Ocean.
"Did you do that?" I ask him.
"Yeah."
"It looks amazing." I move my hand and see the cloud turn into more of a golden color. "Woah, how'd you do that?"
"I didn't make it change colors," he says, confused. That's weird. I wrap my arm back around Lucas, and it turns back into a pinkish-orangish color.
"Oh! Before I forget, I was looking for you earlier."
"Really? What for?"
"I have to go on this quest, and I was kinda hoping you'd join me." I explain what the quest is for and it becomes silent. "Lucas?"
"Of course. I'd love to go on the quest with you," he smiles at me. "When do we leave? And who's coming with us?"
"First thing tomorrow, and Riley, Farkle, you, and Nathan are coming." He drops his smile when I say Nathan's name. "Is something wrong?"
"Uh, no! No, nothing's wrong. Hey, do you want to fly Ocean?"
"I don't really know how."
"I'll guide you, don't worry." We switch positions so he's behind me and I hold the reigns. He puts his hands over mine and I am so glad I'm in front so he can't see me blush. "Ready?" I nod. "Ok, you shake the reigns like this." He helps me do that and we sky rocket back down to the ground. Ocean takes off so fast, I slam back into Lucas and I can feel his heart beating incredibly fast. We start yelling "WOOOOO" and I hope that no one is trying to sleep.
When we land on the ground, Lucas gets off and helps me down. I pet Ocean and thank her for letting me ride her. Lucas actually starts talking to her, like having a conversation. I look at him funny. "Oh, since I'm a son of Poseidon, I'm able to talk to horses." Man, he's so lucky! He says goodbye and puts her in her stable. We head back to the cabins in a comfortable silence, looking up at the stars.
"Thank you for letting me ride Ocean. I can see why you like to fly: you feel like you can do anything."
"Yeah," he smiles. I look down and see his hand getting close to mine.
"Hey Lucas, can you hold something for me?"
"Sure." I slide my hand into his.
"Thanks," I smile. I look up at him and see him smile too. We keep walking back and I can feel my eyelids getting heavy. I lean on Lucas' arm as we walk. We reach my cabin and we say goodnight. "See you tomorrow," I yawn. I walk in, but hear a "Wait!" I stop and turn around. Lucas runs up to me. "My turn." He cups a hand on my cheek, leans down and gives me a kiss on my other cheek. His lips linger a bit, but as he pulls back, I feel my face heat up.
"Goodnight Maya," he smiles. He walks back to his cabin and I bite my lip to contain my smile as I close the door. I turn around and see my cabin looking at me. I see Chad smile. Oh no. "Ooooooooo, is someone blushing?"
"Shut up."