The Chains That Bind Ch 5

Chapter 5: Five More Minutes
I got out of my bed and snuck outside to see Megan standing under a tree away from the cabin. I had only managed to see her because of the moonlight reflecting off her silver hair and I wondered for a second if she could have been a child of Artemis, but I knew that wasn’t possible.

“About time you got here Slowpoke,” She whispered in a loud tone, as if trying to insult me, but too scared to make any noise in case someone was nearby.

“What did you want to see me about,” I asked, sounding a little cold without meaning to. That was normally Megan who talked like that, something I could tell she noticed.

“Alright,” she replied. “Next time I think about inviting you out in the middle of the night with no one else around, I’ll think better of it,” she said mockingly as she waved her hand around as if to brush me off. It was enough to bring a smile to my face, something that had been missing for the past week.

“Don’t do that, it would be bad if you were eaten by the cleaning harpies without company,” I joked as I got closer to her. She let out a small laugh and then her face took on a more thoughtful tone as if just remembering that the harpies could be out right now. Mr. D was always letting them out if he even thought a demigod could be out of their cabins.

“Listen,” she said as her face and tone became serious. “This is your second major quest within a month, if you keep going out like this you are going to burn yourself out and I’m…..I mean all your friends are worried about you.”

“Don’t worry; I’m sure I’ll be fine. Plus, the prophecy even said that if we fail we will have plenty of time to rest,” I said, trying to reassure her and myself at the same time. Truth be told, I was very nervous about this quest. Melinoe was still out there and she needed me for something; at the same time there was some other force out there that was trying to stop us from saving Malcolm. As I lost myself in my own mind, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me.

“Just be careful, no one is allowed to beat you up but me,” and then she let go and disappeared into the darkness. I walked back into my cabin and went back to sleep, still feeling the warmth of her arms around me.

My alarm went off and a few of my cabin mates tossed their pillows at me and telling me to keep quiet. I got dressed and grabbed my bag before taking another look around the room and closed the door.

“Good morning,” came a voice from behind me. I turned around to see Erika with a bag on her back as well. “Have you seen Kat? She was supposed to meet us at the camp fire but I haven’t seen her.”

“She is probably still sleeping,” I replied as I reached into my bag and pulled out a small horn. I opened the door to the cabin to see a few demigods sleeping soundly, but the one I was looking for was right in front of me. I placed the horn next to her head and squeaked it loudly, causing the girl to shoot up like a rocket. She looked around the room as if not knowing where she was and then turned her eyes to us.

“Hey guys…what are you doing here this early?” she said as she let out a big yawn and I almost fell asleep. She turned and looked at clock and noticed the time. “You guys are late; you should have woken me up sooner.”

I could tell Erika was confused at the statement, but I could understand what she meant. There was no way she would have waken up on her own and she trusted us to wake her up on time hoping we would know enough to do it. She could be a genius if she was awake half the time.

“Get your stuff together, we leave in a half hour,” I told her, picking her bag up off the ground and tossing it into her lap. She got up out of bed and headed to the bathroom while me and Erika headed for the camp fire to wait. About twenty minutes later, Kat emerged from her cabin and squinted her eyes as the sun filled the brisk winter air. Chiron appeared out of the Big House to see us off and handed me the keys to one of the camp cars. Most of them we bought from old junk yards for a few bucks, but the Hephaestus kids always managed to turn them into well oiled machines that wouldn’t explode when you hit the gas or turned the keys. We tossed our stuff in the back seat and I got behind the wheel driving onto a dirt road and past Thalia’s Tree.

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  01:04, April 5, 2011 (UTC)