The Sun's Kisses

5- Happiness Is A Butterfly

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of pancakes.
That's not normal for a quest-
Then I realized, I was at Mary's house. Allen's mother, Mary. I pulled myself out of bed and down the stairs, the table was set with Apollo and Allen sitting there. Apollo sees me and smiles softly, I wave in response and sit next to him. I'm tired and want to go back to sleep.
"Good morning Een!" Mary smiles happily, I smile slightly back at her.
"Hi." I say softly. She places pancakes, maple syrup, blueberries, strawberries, and wipcream onto the table.
We ate talking about the quest so far, we left out the part of when our original third camper died. And when Allen got attacked directly, but everything else we told.
"I see. You can stay here tonight but I suppose Chiron is expecting you guys soon, so tomorrow you will have to leave." She says, I nodded.
"Gotcha." I say, and we finish our breakfast.
Allen goes out shopping with his mom so Apollo and I are left alone. I sat reading a book I found while Apollo messed with the string on his bow.
"Tell me," he says, "how does the divided culture thing work?"
"Uhm, we celebrate many of the celtic holidays and the days dedicated to the gods. At camp I celebrate my greek culture. Otherwise we're not all that keen on religious culture things." I answer.
"Huh, that's a lot more simple than I thought. When's your birthday?"
"December." I answer.
"December . . . what?"
"You're annoying."
"I just want to know more about you is all, loveliest."
"Ew, stop."
"Then answer my question."
"December fifteenth nineteen-seventy-eight." I say rolling my eyes.
"That puts you at about thirteen now. Right?"
"Yep. Almost fourteen my friend."
"Huh, you seem older than that."
"I'm mature for my age."
"Cool." And we're quiet as I begin reading again.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

Later that night, I thought of my dad. Wondering what he's up to. Probably on a date with his boyfriend, who sucks and they have to keep it hush hush. Honestly though, I hate him.
"Whatcha thinking about?" He asks, drawing out the 'thinking'.
"My dad and his ass of a boyfriend." I say.
"Do you not like your dad?"
"I love him with all my heart. He just chose a horrible guy to date." I say.
"Understandable."
"Yeah."
"Are you tired?" He asks.
"Sort of. Are you ever tired?"
"Sometimes. It's more of a weary thing rather than a tired thing."
"That's kinda cool." I answer closing my eyes.
"Are you ready for the rest of the journey tomorrow?" He asks me.
"Yes and no. Are you ready to say goodbye to me and learn my name?"
"I'm always ready to know a pretty girl's name, but . . ." he trails off.
"But?"
"But I'm not ready to say goodbye to you." He says, he sounded almost sad. I open my eyes to see his blue ones looking into mine. I smile softly at him, he smiles back.
"It'll all be okay, you can visit me anytime." I say.
"I suppose so."
And I slip into the comfortable darkness of sleep.
The next morning, after breakfast we said our goodbyes.
"Nine in the morning exactly is when I'll be there, okay? When summer ends nine exactly. We have things to do with the rest of our summer days until school starts." Mary says to Allen. She kisses his cheek, waves goodbye as we leave, and shuts the door.
I had a feeling in my stomach to turn around and let Allen stay at his home. I knew it was silly so we just kept trooping through.
We passed the border into New York State and were almost to camp when I heard something.
"Stop." I whispered, Apollo and Allen stopped. We listened closely, I heard the breathing of the thing.
It was a monster.
A big, slimy, reptilian monster that had bones jutting out of its skin as plates on its back. It was on all fours and had a long tail with more jutting bones at the and.
Its beady red eyes looked into mine.
It had found it's prey.
"Run" I whispered, we went running through the woods. The monster right on our heels, it snapped at Apollo, then slashed through him. Making him disappearing into the wind.
"NO!" I screeched, tears streamed down my face. I had come to have some sort of care for him despite knowing him for such a short time.
But I had to keep going.
For Allen.
Mary has a son, Allen has a mother. I needed to keep him as safe as possible.
"Allen! Run faster!" I could see the woods becoming more recognizable.
We were getting close to camp.
Allen was ahead of me and the monster was on my heels. He tripped and tumbled down a hill, I tumbled after him. Allen was groaning from a pain, I saw the monster coming up faster.
I crawl to beside him, pitting myself between Allen and the monster.
"Allen, one more hill and we're at Camp Half-Blood. Please get up. Please get there." I beg him. He turns over, gets up stumbling and runs. I get up and run after him.
If you lost weight this wouldn't be so hard.
Not right now insecurity.
Allen ran up the hill, cresting on Half-Blood Hill when the monster jumped over me and landed on Allen.
His screams filled my ears.
"NO!" I screamed, running to him.
"Stella! Please!" He cried.
I summoned a sword, and stood in front of him, facing the monster, ready to die for Allen.
"STELLA!" Mr. D's voice boomed from behind the border. He wasn't allowed out because of a curse Zeus has on him.
I started for the monster, swinging at it. It slashed out at me, but I kept up. Slashing at it, making scrapes and small cuts at it, but not enough for gold dust. Allen was struggling to crawl as I distracted the monster. I knew I would have to make it to him and help him into camp eventually.
I was drawing the monster away but i was getting tired, I was slowing down.
I glanced back at Allen, thinking of how far of a sprint it would be to get to him. I glanced at the border, it would be an effort but I can throw him just far enough. I look at the monster, I saw a tree far behind it.
I could use the force of running, hope for godly power, and flip over it.
Here goes nothing.
I backed up then ran towards the monster, at last moment I went just by it and started for the tree.
Please, any god, please help me. I need to help Allen get back to his mother.
Please, I'm begging.
I will pay however needed.

Olympus . . .
Apollo was winded onto Olympus.
"Damn you Apollo!" Athena screeched at Apollo.
"You're just going to leave my daughter like that?" Aphrodite made her way across the room to snatch Apollo by the back of his hair.
"How dare you!" Aphrodite said, snarling the words.
"Aphrodite!" Zeus boomed. "Let him go." Zeus said in a dangerously low voice. Aphrodite shoved Apollo onto the ground.
That's when they heard Stella's voice.
Pleading to them.
Please, any god, please help me. I need to help Allen get back to his mother.
Please, I'm begging.
I will pay however needed.
Hearing this, they all stared as they saw what Stella was going to do.
"Take our help." Athena, Aphrodite, and Apollo said, waving a hand and helping.
For there was debt owed to them now.
One Stella Dawn must pay.
However needed, as she said.

Stella
I felt the power pick me up as I ran up the tree and flipped over the monster. But I felt that power stop.
I lost all sense of staying balanced and landed on my left arm.
Pop.
Crack.
Pain.
I screeched. Held my tongue and got up.
I ran to Allen, dragging him up, trying to help him get away. I thought better of popping it out of socket and got ready to heft him. I picked him up and a searing pain ran through my left arm. I screamed from the pain, but i had to keep going.
I owed it to the gods now to keep going.
I dropped my sword, it turned back into a necklace and it returned to my neck. I moved my right arm under him and ran with all I had. No matter how much it hurt. No matter how much it burned. No matter if I lived or not.
I was a few feet away and I knew the monster was on my heels. With all the strength left in me, I threw him over the border. Apollo kids got to work immediately.
He was safe.
He was safe.
I stumbled and fell.
I can die, knowing he's safe.
It hurt as I fell on my left arm.
The monster came hurtling.
Please, Stella. Apollo's voice rang.
Please live, I need you to live.
I did the one thing I knew as the world went into slow motion.
The monster jumped.
I grabbed hold of my necklace.
Closer the monster came.
"Knife." I whispered.
Down it was going.
Moving my hands, holding the knife, to my stomach.
I held tight and upright.
As I've been taught.
I shut my eyes tight, tears streaming down from the physical pain of holding on tight and the emotional pain of knowing.
Knowing I'll never see my dad.
Knowing I'll never know if Allen will keep walking.
Knowing I'll never get to say goodbye to Hestia.
Knowing that I may never see Apollo again.
I felt the weight of the monster come down.
I screamed.