Quest of the Half Gods

Chapter 18: Απόλλων

Apollo, Galatea, Magnus, and Alex wandered through the streets of Boston, following the glowing path that Apollo had conjured for an hour or two before Magnus suggested they stop for food. Apollo hesitated, looking back at the path, "Shouldn't we just continue following the path? We are on a time limit." Galatea nodded in agreement, "We need to keep going." Magnus groaned, "But falafels..." Alex punched him in the arm, "Come on. We are on their quest we need to follow them." Magnus sighed and they continued on.

They walked for about thirty more minutes, Galatea, Magnus, and Alex sharing various stories about their adventures while Apollo walked on in silence.

He had felt a strange pang in his heart when he saw Galatea leaning over him after he'd been knocked unconscious. She saved your life. He thought that's all. But that hadn't been all. When he'd looked up at her, for a moment, he'd forgotten that they were on this quest. He'd forgotten that the gods were dying and suddenly he and Galatea had been back in the Olympian gardens and he'd just woken up from a nap during a picnic. He felt a lump in his throat as he thought back on the fond memories he and Galatea had shared together on Olympus. He had no words to express how grateful he was to have her. She was the only person who had ever accepted him for who he was, even when he was an ignorant and selfish, curse-obsessed freak.

He looked over at her before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. He opened them and kept moving, focusing on the task at hand. "Remember what it's like to be human." That's what Jason had said. He was trying his hardest to be a human hero. Well, half-human hero, but still. He wanted to make Jason proud of him. He had to complete this quest.

Alex abruptly stopped moving and turned around, her hand raised in the air. "Do you guys feel that?" Apollo frowned before indeed realizing that his demigod instincts had kicked in. He braced himself for another godly death, though that is not what came. Instead, three wolves pounced out of an alleyway on their left and the group took off running through the streets, trying to lose them, when suddenly, the path returned, trying to take them directly over the highway.

Apollo groaned, "You've got to be kidding me." He had several bad memories including two occasions in a very short span of time where he'd plummeted off of a highway in San Fransico, ironically, also on a quest while mortal, though the last time he'd done it, he'd slowly been turning into a zombie. Long story.

The others watched in shock as Apollo immediately veered off of the sidewalk they were on and began sprinting toward the highway. Galatea was the first to follow him, Alex, and Magnus shortly after her.

Apollo found himself doing par core that Lester Papodopolous would have never been capable of and gained a new appreciation and awe for the natural demigod gifts. He lept over cars, ignoring the yells from angry Boston drivers as he made his way across the highway. He could imagine tomorrow's Buzzfeed News headline: "Insane Teenage Boy Plays Real Life Crossy Road on Boston Highway While Commuters Try Their Best To Hit Him."

He reached the other side of the pass, stopping when he realized that the path dropped immediately into a forest off the highway, with no way to get down that didn't involve him breaking his legs.

Galatea suddenly appeared at his side and looked over the edge. "Jump." She said, her face showing no sign of humor. "WHAT?" Apollo said, looking at her like she was insane. Magnus showed up at Apollo's side, clearly having also heard what she said. "We can't just jump! We'd die. We aren't gonna come back if we die here." A car horn honked behind them and the three of them turned to see Alex flipping off a driver as she climbed over the last car in the lane. She approached them, shrugging, "I could turn into a bird but that's not gonna help you guys."

Galatea rolled her eyes, "I have-" More car horns honked behind them and they turned to see the wolves quickly making their way toward them across the lanes of cars. Galatea looked over the edge again and then back to her companions, "Listen! We have one option, and that is to jump. That's where the quest is leading us and that's where we need to go, so jump." They opened their mouths to argue before Galatea got a determined look and climbed onto the rail, jumping off without hesitation.