The Price of a Life.

Chapter Three.

Sofia's POV.

Chiron spoke up,
"You have two days to prepare if you want to have a chance at completing this quest. You may go."

Natasha didn't hesitate to walk away with Sofia and Landon following her. Lillian hurried up and started asking Landon if he had anything he'd need fixed for the trip.

People were now staring to disperse, and a group of boys was pushed apart as a guy with curly brown hair and glasses pushed through the crowd.

He caught Sofia's attention by saying her name.
"Sofia?" She paused and looked over at him. She nodded at him, and he asked, "Are you... okay?"

She nodded again and responded quickly,
"I'm fine." He nodded and went to speak again. He paused and stopped, nodding again and turned around, leaving. Landon patted her back gently and asked,
"You want help packing some stuff?"

Sofia shook her head and denied all of the other's questions politely. She pulled away and walked over to her cabin. Cabin Five, Ares' cabin, was surprisingly empty. She shut the door gently and took a deep breath.

That was before she whirled around and drove her fist into the door's frame. It splintered slightly, and she yelled.
"Fuck!" She breathed deeply and stormed over to her bed.

She flopped onto it and screamed into her pillow. She layed there for what felt like hours, before someone walked into the cabin. She forced herself to look up and could see the clear face of Lillian, walking into the cabin.

"You should really start getting ready. We don't have long." Sofia groaned and rolled over.
"This is fucking stupid! Why can't the gods just figure out their own shit for once in their immortal lives?"

Lillian shrugged and responded, voice calm and steady.
"I don't know. And none of us probably ever will. But for now, we can try to avoid a war between gods and begin packing." Sofia gave an agreement, and Lillian nodded before asking,

"How about I give you an hour? You try to pack as much as you can. I'll come back and check or help with the rest. Is that okay?" Sofia nodded again. Lillian sighed and left.

...

The sun had set, but she had never felt more awake. She stood near her bed, shoving stuff into a backpack. She wanted to cave someone's head in with her heel, but she settled for aggressively shoving her clothes into her bag.

Another fully packed bag sat at the bottom of her bed. It contained necessities such as a whole roll of toilet paper, a bag of Drachmas, a spare dagger, and a few spare pairs of underwear and sanitary products. Just in case.

A gentle knock on the door caught her attention, and she whirled around. She spotted Cassian standing in the doorway, arms glued to his sides.
"Oh. It's you." She rested her shoulders again and turned back to her bag.

"What do you want?" She began folding a t-shirt and heard him mumble a short hello before speaking in a louder tone.
"Just wanted to make sure you were okay." No one spoke. "Are you?"

"What?" Her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Okay, I mean. Are you okay?" She scoffed.
"Just found out that I might be looking forward to an unavoidable death at the age of 15. But yeah," she punctuated it with an aggressive shove of her freshly folded shirt. "I'm doing fine."

She gave him a smile, and he shuffled on his feet.
"I'm sorry." Sofia looked at him in confusion.
"What are you sorry about?" He looked nervous and mumbled out an answer.

"I just... feel bad that you have to go on this quest." Sofia rolled her eyes heavily.
"Yeah? Well, save your pity. I don't need it." Cassian went to speak but got cut off by Lillian bursting out of nowhere.

"Sofia? Are you almost done?" Cassian watched her walk over and glanced at the two before turning and leaving the cabin. "What was he doing here? Don't you hate him?"
"Trust me, I do." Lillian nodded as Sofia shrugged, and she didn't press any further.

Sofia zipped up her bag and turned to her drawers. She grabbed a smaller satchel and began putting stuff like lipgloss, hand towels, and a few other bits and bobs.

Lillian sat down on her bed and asked,
"What do you think Landon's doing right now?" Sofia shrugged and responded boredly.
"I don't know. He's probably crying or about to cry." Lillian sat up, concerned.

"Should we go check on him, then?" Sofia shook her head.
"There's no point. He'll just deny it and pretend to pack." Lillian nodded in acknowledgement and watched as Sofia finished her own packing and flopped onto her bed beside Lillian.

"I hate this. It sucks." She exclaimed, half muffled by the bedding. Lillian responded, calm and quiet.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know."

The next day, Sofia felt like she had a spotlight facing her. Everyone stared at her, watched her intensely even when she was just eating breakfast. They were acting like she was a scared little girl.

She wasn't scared. She was a daughter of Ares for crying out loud!

The day of the quest arrived, and her, Lillian, Natasha, and Landon were all waiting at the camp's edge. People were crowded around them and watched as they prepared to leave.

They watched as Mr. D walked over to them, and he asked to speak to Landon. He shot Sofia a look but put down his stuff and went to speak to him anyway.

Everyone began talking to people in the crowd as he left. Lillian was telling her brothers that they'd be okay, voice the same calm and quiet tone she'd used the previous night.

Natasha was talking to one of her "friends" from the Demeter cabin. They seemed to be arguing, but Sofia couldn't really tell. If they were, they probably didn't want her to involve herself in it.

Landon came back, stone-faced, and a concerning look in his eye. Sofia asked if he was okay, but he just smiled and brushed it off.

As they were about to leave, someone jogged over and asked,
"Wait! Sofia! I've got to give you something!" Sofia looked up, and her heart almost stopped as she saw Cassian.

He caught his breath before pulling something out of his pocket. He handed it to her, and she saw something that looked like a... shrunk nail? It was made of a glinting metal, probably spare celestial bronze, and was no bigger than her index finger.

He explained quickly.
"It's a mini dagger. When you click the button at the bottom, it can change into either a sword or a spear. I've had it for a while, but I thought it'd be more useful for you now."

Sofia almost smiled and glanced back to her friends.
"Thanks, Cassian." He smiled wide and pure. She walked back over to her friends, and he called out as they left camp's borders,

"Make sure you bring it back to me!" She spun around and gave him a thumbs up, not bothering to hide her smile. He looked pleased with that and she turned back to her friends.

Natasha smiled at her and went to speak.
"Don't." Sofia cut her off, fake irritation in her voice. This didn't stop her or Landon though from saying, "Oh!", dragging out the O.

Lillian stifled a laugh behind her hand as Sofia pushed Landon to the side, Landon wobbling and almost falling over. Natasha laughed out loud, and Sofia thought,

'Maybe this won't be that bad after all.'