The Flames of Hope Ch 3

Chapter 3: An Unwelcoming Return
As I held Road Maker in my hands, I felt my own power swirl inside me and I slammed my hammer into the ground, causing the ground in front of me to transform into a road. A portal opened at the end and began pulling things in like a vacuum.

“Alright guys, drive through,” I called to them. John leaned his head out the window.

“Are you sure that things safe?” he asked.

“Don’t know,” I replied. “I’ve never tried to drive a car through it, but it should work, now hurry up before I pass out.”

“Works for me,” Mike said and he drove the car around be and passed into the portal. I pulled my hammer from the ground and ran down the road I had made into the portal before it closed up behind me. I turned my weapon back into the form of a pendant and clipped it around my neck before leaning against a nearby tree and sitting down. While I had been practicing using my ability, I had never tried to transport something so far before. I had mostly just made short trips, making roads that linked to opposite sides of the camp or sometimes taking a trip back home to see my mom who was always worried about me, but always said my father would look out for me. I had never tried to cross half the country along with a full sized car, but I recovered kind of quick after I took a sip of some nectar.

“We’re going to bring the car back to the garage, you tell Chiron we are back,” Mike said. John jumped out also and said he had to inform the council while Malcolm said he would go with me. We walked up to the borders of the camp and I stopped Malcolm as we passed by Thalia’s Tree.

“What’s up,” he asked.

“Just give me a second,” I told him as I walked up to the tree. Peleus looked at me for a second before deciding I wasn’t a threat to the tree or the fleece. I looked around the tree and saw a small hole higher up. I climbed up the tree and looked inside. There was a small bird’s nest, but when I looked inside there was a small metallic object that seemed to glow in the sun. I reached inside and a bird jumped out of the nest and pecked at my head a few times before flying off. I reached in again and pulled out a chain link that seemed to radiate a feeling of power like the fleece on the tree below. I was so happy at what I was holding that I lost my grip and fell about 10 feet to the ground. Malcolm ran over and checked to make sure I hadn’t cracked my head open or anything, which was when he saw what was in my hand.

“That can't be what I think it is, can it,” he asked in a state of shock. Meanwhile, I was in a state of exhaustion and pain.

“I’m not sure, you take this to Chiron, he may know if it is the real thing. I’m going to head for my cabin and get some sleep, that battle took a lot out of me. We parted ways and he ran for the Big House, but as I walked through the camp I couldn’t help but think something was wrong. It was quiet, but not the usual quiet. I couldn’t hear the Apollo campers shooting their arrows or the Ares cabin blowing up stuff. I couldn’t hear the pounding of the Hephaestus cabin’s hammers or the pencils of the Athena camper’s drawing out blueprints. I looked around and I didn’t see anyone, the camp was empty. Then, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a figure move inside the Hermes cabin. I ran inside and sitting in a chair at the corner of the room was Hermes, He had his head down and his head in his hands, running them through his hair as if he were stressed or upset.

“Dad?” I called out to him. He must have been deep in thought as even with all the powers of a god, he didn’t know I was there.

“Nolan!” he yelled and his voice seemed to shake the entire room. Then, in an amazing burst of speed that I couldn’t even follow he had his arms wrapped around me. “I thought you had been lost.”

“What do you mean?” I asked trying to push him off me, but with little success until he willingly let me go. “Where is everyone, why is the camp so empty?”

“Come, I will show you,” he said as he lead me around camp. We eventually made it to the mess hall and when we entered, I was amazed at the level of destruction. I large rift in the floor was in the center of the room with the yells of dead souls rising from it. I had always noticed the crack in the floor, a child of Hades had caused it years ago, or so the rumors said, but I had never known that I had been eating over a portal to the Underworld. Then black flames shot from the fissure and the portal closed back up.

“Hades has been busy in the Underworld trying to prevent the rise of Leiomenos with little success. The gods offered to help by attacking Leiomenos when he escaped. Unfortunately, no one suspected he would escape right in the middle of our children’s camp.

“Are they…” I began, but was interrupted.

“No, not dead. He captured them so that he could feed off their fear, their belief that he is truly unstoppable. I thought he had gotten you too,” Hermes said as he took a quick glance over in my direction before motioning for me to sit at the Hermes table. “He has even started capturing minor gods, absorbing them into himself to make his own power stronger. Iris being one of them, meaning he can control the messages and look in one anyone trying to send one. He may simply be working his way to Olympus, gaining power to defeat the Olympians. Or…he could already have the power to defeat us and is simply toying with us by causing uncertainty.”

“Isn’t Zeus doing anything?!” I yelled, angry that Hermes sounded so hopeless. But, also a bit upset with myself for not being able to stop Leiomenos when I had the chance all those months ago and falling for Melinoe’s trap.

“This is a problem of Zeus’ own creation. He claims that the gods are strong and can face this threat with the combined effort of the gods, but…”he paused for a second.

“What, what is it?” I asked, wanting to hear the second half of his sentence.

“But Zeus has fear behind his eyes like I have never seen; even when we faced Typhon he was always sure he would win. It causes uncertainty among us and the older Olympians won't tell us much about him so we don’t have much to go on. It is causing Athena stress, not knowing something for once,” he said as a small laugh escaped his mouth and for a second it looked like a weight was lighted off his shoulders.

“Swift, where are you!” came a voice from outside. Hermes looked over and then pulled a cell phone from his pocket.

“938 missed calls, it is a slow day. I have to go now, it looks like your friends are here, and maybe more if you know where to look,” Hermes said and vanished from right in front of me.

“There you are, everyone is gone,” he said taking on long gasps of air as if he had run around the entire camp.

“I know, something has happened,” I said, and I started to explain to him what had happened.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive