Camp Hermit-Blood - The Sea of Monsters

Zedaph

The moon was not big.

Definitely not.

Blocks had not been flying everywhere, people had not been randomly floating into the air, the ground had not started shaking every three minutes. Everything had been fine. The moon was not big.

Tango had conducted an experiment. The conclusion had been that the moon was getting closer.

But who was the son of Athena? Zedaph. And Zedaph had said everything was perfectly normal.

Everything was normal.

Right?

Okay, maybe everything had been a little bit off.

Maybe nothing had been normal.

But Zedaph had still hoped.

Until the moon crashed.

Of course, the whole thing was over now. Mostly. Right now, the Hermits were on their way to a new world.

They spawned on a grassy area at the edge of a wide river. The river ran through a birch forest surrounded by mountains.

"ARGH!" Bdubs yelled. "IT'S A BIRCH FOREST!"

"Okay, I know some of you took supplies or something to wherever you went, be it the Void or the Nether or the End," Xisuma said. "But it is a new season, even though the last one was short. And a new season means a new start."

A few people groaned, but everyone promised to throw their shulker boxes and tools into lava pits.

Then they spread out to do the things that they normally did at the start of a season: chopped wood; mined stone, coal, and iron; and gathered materials for starter bases.

Night started to fall, so Zedaph was expecting Bdubs to sleep. But apparently Grian or someone was with him, destroying his bed, because it got dark enough for mobs to spawn.

Zedaph glanced at the sky. He definitely had no idea what he was looking for. He definitely did not notice that the moon was normal sized.

Mobs started spawning. Zedaph found himself fighting a new zombie or skeleton every few seconds. In a small period of calm, he quickly ate an apple and then got his sword back out.

"Why are there so many?" he muttered to himself.

Finally, mercifully, the sun came up. Zedaph ate some more food to heal himself and then got to work on his starter base.

People in the chat were jokingly asking Bdubs why he hadn't slept. Bdubs replied (in all caps) that there were always monsters nearby when he tried.

Zedaph's starter base was a rock. People said he lived under a rock, so now he did live under a rock.

There wasn't much to it.

Zedaph realized he was out of food while building the base, but since everyone was settling near Spawn, there wasn't a cow in sight. He had seen Ren building a pie shop across the river, but from how that was going, it wouldn't be there fast enough.

So therefore, Zedaph made a chicken farm.

Or, he tried to. None of his four eggs spawned anything.

So, that didn't work out.

The food situation seemed to be a problem with everyone Zedaph came across. Everyone was asking for food, but nobody had anything to spare.

The second night was much the same as the first: lots of monsters, not even Bdubs could sleep through it. Zedaph started to think something was up.

The third day of Season 9 was spent trying to find food.

It didn't work that well. Zedaph didn't feel like bringing the two cows he had found all the way back to Spawn. So he killed them and then cooked the beef that they dropped. But at least he had two steaks now.

Zedaph spent the rest of the day, and the night after, in the caves, mining iron. He got himself a full set of iron gear, and found a lava pool that he could dump his things from last season into.

He saved the coordinates of the lava pool and went back to the surface. He grabbed the shulker box of diamond gear and tools, resisting the urge to steal from himself.

He was almost to the lava pool when he stopped.

There was something that he couldn't leave behind.

Zedaph took out the box, opened it, and rummaged inside until he found what he was looking for.

He found it: a leather cord with a single clay bead on it. The bead was dark blue with a trident painted onto it.

Summer's coming soon, Zedaph thought. But with the circumstances, I don't know if I'll be able to go back to camp this year.

Zedaph put the necklace on over his iron armor anyway and grabbed an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and his bronze sword. Then he threw the shulker box - his valuables, his enchanted diamond gear, his elytra, his clipboards of experiment results - into the lava pit.

"Goodbye, Season 8," he muttered.

He left the cave.