The First Step

We Steal... A Lot
"The Journey of a Thousand Miles begins with the First Step." a favorite saying of Damian's, honestly it annoyed me, especially considering our new quest was now taking us across the entire country, so that meant we were going several thousand miles. On foot.

We had already been walking for going on two hours and, with where Camp Half-Blood is located, we weren't really near anything in the first place and weren't near anything now.

It was never in me to hate, but every now and then I got really close to something like hate.

"The worst you can muster is dislike, Lil." Damian said, basically reading my mind.

"Stop that." I muttered.

"Stop what?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"Knowing me as well as you do." I replied.

"Oh, but if I did that, then I wouldn't have the idea I do now." Damian said, that devious smirk on his face.

"What is he talking about?" Ben asked. Poor guy. He just found out he was a demigod and now he's being dragged on a quest way before he was ready or even slightly adjusted to his new life.

"He's going to steal something, most likely." I answered. I tried to make Ben feel better, in that way that only I can.

"What? But that's against the law!" Ben exclaimed.

"That's the thing," Damian said. "As the son of the god of thieves, I don't really care."

Then Damian was gone. Another trick he had inherited from his father, Hermes. It was something like teleportation. Damian could travel just about where ever he wanted to in the blink of an eye and be back just as fast.

When Damian reappeared, he was in a truck. He was also a few feet off of the ground. The truck then crashed to the ground, the suspension nearly gave out as the truck bounced on the ground. I ran over to the truck after it stopped leaving the ground and was simply rocking and I heard Ben following behind shortly after.

Damian looked exhausted, he was sweating and was white knuckling the steering wheel.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Been a while." he replied.

"Since what?" Ben asked, the nerves obvious in his voice.

"Since I moved something this big like that." he answered, then promptly fell over across the bench seat.

With Ben's help, we moved Damian over to the passenger's side and buckled him in. Ben sat in the middle and I got behind the wheel. It was the first time I had ever driven, but it wasn't like we had a choice.

"I guess this is what the Oracle ment by Child of Philia must Steer." I muttered. "Too bad prophecies aren't always this simple..."

"Um..." Ben muttered. I glanced over and saw that he was staring back, into the truck bed. I looked back and there was a tarp strapped down over the bed, covering it. But it looked odd, in a lumpy kind of way.

I climbed out of the truck and moved to the back. I untied the tarp, only one knot. I guess Damian had tied it down because he enjoyed making this knot that looked complicated, but wasn't, and was strong enough to hold things down.

Pulling the tarp away I saw a lot of stuff. A large tent, three sleeping bags, one of those kerosene stoves, kerosene tanks, enough food to last us a couple of weeks and three plastic bags that appeared to be filled with clothes.

"Oh, Damian..." I muttered as I looked at all of it. Ben's shocked face was in the back window, fogging it up a bit. I covered the bed with the tarp again and tied it down. I then got back into the driver's seat and started the engine.