Once I returned to my friends, I was sure that I was finished 'letting it go.'
I plopped down beside Sophia with a sigh, while Leo clambered up a tree, Nico leaned against a stump and Percy played with Riptide.
I slowly accepted that Phillip most likely wouldn't be coming back. We were either sitting on his bits and pieces or he had been kapowied to Lord-knows-where, and not quite dead yet. I guess that demigods' fates are anything but fortunate.
"Where are we to go now?" I asked miserably, leaning my head against the trunk of a tree. "I don't know what to do anymore."
Sophia opened her mouth to speak, when Leo cut in. "Hey, guys! I - I see something! Smoke! A little ways away!"
"It's your finger, Leo," Sophia responded in a low voice. "Extinguish it."
There was a scuffling noise, and Leo replied. "It's extinguished, but that wasn't it. I still see the smoke. It's up ahead, on this mountain."
I cranked my head around. "I'll bet that that's where Enceladus is keeping my mom. Guys, we're getting closer. We're brushing against the end of this quest, lose or win."
There was a long silence between us. It looked like everyone was pondering their choices and decisions, and all the events that we'd been through together.
Percy stood up, shouldering his bag. "Well, I plan on returning home with both Amath and her mom safe. Let's go kick some giant butt."
Leo clambered down the tree, with a grin. "I love kicking giant butt."
We took off in the direction that Leo told us to, fueled with a new energy, with a new will to continue on. We were brushing against the end.
I didn't know what to expect.
A/N: Okay, guys. I know that this one is insanely short. I think I'm starting to catch writers block, which is horrible. So here's the new, really scrappy update. Don't hate me, please. XD The chapters that are to follow, I swear on the Styx, will be longer.
