Jace Irons: The Shard of Chaos

Chapter Thirteen: This was NOT the Plan...

We rode for I don't know how long. The elk that David and I were on were huge, and despite their immense mass and stature, they moved with incredible speed. We zipped through the forest so fast that all the scenery began to melt together in one continuous blur. A few times I looked over at David, who was sitting high on his elk looking like he was having the time of his life. I had never ridden an animal before, but so far, it was a pretty fun experience.

We rode on for what felt like an hour when the trees began to thin, as in the trees we passed seemed shorter, thinner, and more sparse than back in New York. We rode on for another twenty minutes or so after that when both elk suddenly screeched to a halt, throwing David and I over their heads, tumbling into the ground. We looked up and saw that we were on the border between the forest and what looked like endless fields of tall grass. The elk huffed and stamped around on the edge of the tree line. It looked like they were tied to the forest after all. David and I got up off the ground and dusted ourselves off. I looked up at the elk again and they turned around and ran back into the forest, soon disappearing in the distance.

"Well," said David. "Guess this is where the forest ends."

"Sounds about right," I grunted.

"Where the hell are we?" asked David.

I looked all around. Behind us to the east was endless forest. To the north, south, and west was an endless expanse of tall grass; miles and miles of nothing but tall grass standing on flat, flat ground.

"If I had to guess," I said. "I'd say the midwest."

"Damn, those elk ran that fast?"

"Must have," I said. "Magical elk belonging to Artemis. Not the weirdest thing we've seen, right?"

"Right." agreed David. "So where are we going again?"

"The desert, I think." I said.

I pulled my backpack off my back, opened it, and pulled out Artemis's map. There was a big red x in the center of Arizona. There was also a glowing blue dot somewhere near the bottom of Ohio. David pointed to the blue dot.

"That must be us," he said.

"Yep," I said. "We'd better head west."

"What, are we walking the whole way?" he said in disbelief.

"You see any cars?"

"Damn it." he shrugged and we started walking west.

We trudged on through the fields of tall grass, occasionally passing over a small dirt road as we made our way west. It was hot out. After a while, we were both ready to collapse. We were still amidst the massive expanse of grass. We sat down and pulled out some of our ambrosia and nectar to fuel up and try to make it to a nearby town before nightfall. I pulled the canteen of nectar out of Artemis's backpack and passed it to David. He took a long drink then handed it to me. I took a few gulps of strawberry ice cream-flavored goodness then sat back and felt the sun on my face.

"Hey, what's nectar taste like to you?" asked David.

I looked at him, confused. "Like strawberry ice cream. Why?"

"Hmm, nice." he said as if that was an acceptable answer. I mean, didn't all nectar taste like a strawberry milkshake?

"What's it taste like to you, then?" I asked.

"Warm clam chowder." he grinned.

"How does that work?"

"Whaddya mean?"

"How's it taste like a milkshake to me but chowder for you?"

"Oh, nectar tastes like your favorite comfort food. I mean, it's the food of the gods. Thought you knew that."