Rise of the Demigod (A Writing Competition)

Round 2 - Entries

Ginny Sashlin

(did not hand in)

Eliston Nicholas Myers

(did not hand in)

Alexandra Principe

(did not hand in)

Grace Hartfords

I'm scared. Anyone would be. Getting a golden apple from the garden of Hesperides is a monumental task. I'm 17, and I've been tasked with a job Hercules had to do. Obviously it isn't impossible, but I'm just a teenager. How am I supposed to complete a task the greatest demigod in history had to do?

I paused. The mixed thoughts racing around in my brain were somehow unreachable; my own emotions and expressions were unidentifiable to the one person who should have been able to understand them.

The pen in my slightly shaking hands shook as I wrote the next paragraph.

That was a rhetorical question, of course. I can think of plenty of ways to defeat Landon- the hundred-headed dragon I'll have to get around if I want the golden apple- but things can change. There are too many unknown factors that I can't account for... I feel like it's impossible to make a plan in this situation.

I took a deep breath and glanced at the clock. Two hours until sunrise. Two hours before we leave for the Garden of the Hesperides. Two hours before we leave for a place we don't even know still exists.

Not to mention that we might not even find the garden. It's easy enough to find the garden on an Ancient Greek map, but we're not going to Greece. The garden is in the Western Hemisphere now, and as far as we know no one knows where it is. There's mention of five people named Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Zoe Nightshade, Grover Underwood and Bianca Di'Angelo in a text I read that says they found the garden, but I don't know if they're even alive, much less if they still remember where the garden is located.

I peeked at the various open textbooks on my desk. Written on subjects such as Greek Mythology and History of Demigods, they should've been crucial to the mission; but they conveyed nothing more than I already knew.

I don't know what to do.

~~~~~~~~

Sunlight streamed through the window of the cluttered Athena cabin. Speckled rays of gold made my face warm and content. I unstuck my cheek from the notebook I had been writing in hours before. The words were smudged from a puddle of drool that trailed down my cheek, the once scribbled sentences now blurred afterthoughts of their past glory. I would have enjoyed the moment, but I didn't have time; I'd be late for the start of the quest if I dawdled any longer.

As if possessed, I shot up from the desk, my rolly-chair going flying across the room. I stumbled across the space towards my bed where I had laid out my attire for the day's journey. Almost recklessly, I tore off my wrinkled pajamas and slid on my "quest clothes" as fast as I could. Dashing into the bathroom, I brushed my teeth, washed my face and straightened out my hair quicker than I thought was possible. I paused in the doorframe between the bathroom and the cabin's bedroom, scanning the room for anything extra I wanted to bring. Textbooks, I'd need those. My journal, for mental reasons. My knives, for protection, of course. It seemed too little to take on a journey so essential.

Glancing at the clock, I absolved that there'd be no more time for contemplation. Roughly grabbing a leather satchel off my bunkbed's bed post, I stuffed the needed items inside, slid my backpack onto my shoulders, slipped my feet into my shoes, and dashed towards the door. Reaching the exit, though, I took a moment to look back on the cabin I had called home for so long, and reminded myself that it could very well be the last time I see it.