The New Demigods

Chapter 25: Sandcastles

When I rejoined the rest of the demigods, they were using their weapons to draw a map in the sand.

"If we've found three entrances so far, who knows how many more there could be." Akari used one of her arrows to point around the drawing of the mountain in the sand. They had mapped out where the vortex had dropped us off and the path both of our groups had taken before meeting up. The mountain was in the middle of the map and marked with the entrances we had found, all on the East side - marking the minotaur, chimera, and cetus. "If we keep going from here, we'll be back to the chimera, which might be a better fight for us than the cetus, now that we have Piper and Horace to help us."

I cleared my throat, feeling invisible in this conversation. Scarlet had already lost interest in the strategy conversation and was off to the side with David building a sandcastle.

"She means because the chimera breathes fire that I'm immune to." Piper clarified.

"And I could use Horace's help as a fellow archer since Andrew decided to stay with Zach," Akari rolled her eyes.

"Something tells me Horace won't be so eager to help with another one of our plans." Peyton looked across the shore at Horace who was still sulking alone - the last skeleton warrior standing a few feet behind him.

"Well we could forgo the chimera all together and try our luck on the other side of the mountain." Akari marked the west side of the mountain with question marks, assuming it would have the same amount of entrances as the East side.

"What about Scarlet?" I asked, knowing Akari hadn't thought about how the journey would be impossible for her. Akari turned to Dakotah for the answer.

"There's not much my plants can do for a sprain like that, Demeter only taught me wound care. Hailie, can you make her something a little more elaborate than the crutches?"

"Not without a proper workshop," Hailie shook her head. "I already did a sweep of the ships and there weren't any materials I could use for crafting. For now I'm stuck with what can be made out of wood since I used the last of the metal, from the shield we found in the woods, to make the water canteens."

"Then she stays here," Akari's suggestion was met with complacent silence.

"Seriously?" I couldn't believe they'd even suggest leaving someone behind, and that Piper didn't even seem to flinch at the thought.

"We'll come back for her, when we've found the relic." Piper's tone lacked the empathy I was used to from her.

"Then I'm staying with her."

"Gemini, c'mon I'm just trying to be sensible."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself."

I turned away from the conversation and joined Scarlet and David building their sandcastle.

"Gemini, you're just in time, I started making sand people of all of us and I need your help with Piper. I'm not sure I'm properly capturing her sensible nature." Scarlet smirked mischievously.

I laughed and joined her, "well for starters, you can't build her down here with the rest of us, you need to make her on top of the castle."

I let myself forget about the tension of my conversation with Piper and focused on the sand sculpting. For a moment it almost felt like a regular day at the beach with friends as we laughed over our creations.

"See, that looks much more like her," I announced standing up to admire my handiwork.

"Like who?" Piper asked from behind me.

"Like you," I admitted. "I made this sand sculpture of you." I pointed at the mound of sand on top of the castle.

"That's supposed to be me?" Piper zoomed in, with curiosity. "I don't see it?"