The God's Reign: Book one, The Knowing

chapter 10- Hermes has terrible front-door service

As I took in the scene, Lussafir sat himself down on the grass. All of us rolled off back awkwardly and we came crashing to the ground (Thanks a lot, gravity.) we got up and brushed off the random blades of grass. "Here we are," Hillary reported. Ethan cleared his throat. She rolled her eyes. "What now?"

"I got on the dog; I get a kiss, as you promised." He pointed to his lips. Hillary had a dollish expression- a face she only made sarcastically. "Oh right, I forgot," She commented. Ethan leaned in innocently. Hillary kissed her finger and slapped Ethan with it.

"Okay, you guys," I chided the two lovebirds. "I've done some research on this place. As it turns out, Hermes had Hephaestus to construct a series of traps and snares around the building."

Hillary cracked her knuckles. "pah-lease!" she argued. "Neither traps nor snares can hold me back! I am good at getting away from and avoiding things: school fights, cafeteria food, annoying boys who won't leave me alone when I ask them to..." she gestured to Ethan, who looked hurt at first, but then shrugged as if it was true. "-plus, Artemis trained me to get past his gadgets as a kid," she finished.

"You mean you were trained by Artemis this whole time! First time I heard of this!" Hannah gasped, glancing at me expectantly.

I threw my hands up in surrender. "I didn't know until two weeks ago!" I defended myself.

Hillary then herded us to the door. We waltzed on to the gray stone porch that. Engraved on the stone were different texts that looked like Greek calligraphy. Before we went in, we froze and unsheathed out weapons: Ethan held his gold sword, Hillary gripped her silver dagger, and Hannah pulled out an AR-15 (how on Earth she fit that into her pocket, I had no clue.) I twisted my ring as the amber-steel blade clanged in my hands. Ethan and Hannah awed my weapon. "Sweet," Hannah smiled.

Ethan knocked on the door and waited for an answer. "Hermes has been dead for years." Hillary corrected him "no one is going to-"

Then, a monitor beside the door sprung to life. A teenager pulled up on the screen. He had swoopy dirty-blonde hair and pointy chin. He would have been cute if his green eyes did not shoot me a stare that let me know I should not trust him to go through a school year without at least toilet papering the principal's car.

"Who are you and what do you want?" the boy asked distractedly, twirling a pencil in his fingers. I cleared my throat. As it happened, I was the leader of this quest. I was responsible for conversations like this. "Er... we are all demigods," I told him "we-"

"Did Nyx send you here?" he cut off.

"I-I don't know who that is, so, no..."

"Do you have membership passes?"

"This place has membership passes?"

"What are your names, since you obviously don't have passes?"

"Sierra Scott, Hillary Davidian, Hannah Strachan and Ethan Crane,"

The teenage boy typed the names into a computer in front of him, mouthing names as he went. When he finished, he read the results on his screen, his eyes widening. His gaze switched from us, to the screen, then back at us.

"So, you confirm that those are your real names, not just aliases?" he asked reassuringly.

"Hell yeah, we are!" Ethan shouted to the monitor. "Now, what we need from you is a map to where the future gods are!"

The boy sneered. He pressed a button on his key board and the door swung open. Before we could walk inside, weapons-flamethrowers, cans of mace, and canons loaded with ballistae-mechanically aimed at Ethan's chest.

"And, do you-by any chance- have an extra pair of dry shorts?" he gulped. 

** I KNOW THAT THIS IS A SHORT CHAPTER, BUT I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE FUNNY ENDING WITH ETHAN WITH WET PANTS**