The New Demigod Adventures

Chapter 5 Abigail

Wandering off into the unknown with two demigods I barely knew wasn’t necessarily my favorite hobby, but Chiron had told me what I needed to do and therefore, it was going to get done.

    I had never gone on a quest before, as in, ever. I had dreamed of how it’d play out, and of course, that wasn’t how it’s be happening now. Of course it wouldn’t, nothing ever did. There was still a pit in my stomach though and I knew why.

    As I packed, I wondered what I could bring that I would be comfortable with someone seeing if I died. It was a trick my mother had taught me.

    “What if you were to die and someone had to go through your pockets? Would you be okay if that was what they saw?”, she’d always say. It sounds a little demented for my mother to speak to me in such a way, especially from a young age and I guess it was a little, but my mother never down-talked me. From the day I was born, she spoke to me like a person. I did the things she did and I talked how she talked.

    With those thoughts in mind, I packed slowly, wondering how each and everything in my bag would make me look if I were to die, something I was sure was bound to happen sooner or later. A drawing that Skylar had made for my birthday, some of my mother’s photos and her last note to me and basic survival tools (because I wanted to at least look like I care about living or dying.) I eventually settled to throw in some basic trapping equipment in case the two boys annoyed me and of course, some random bits and bobs, along with a deactivated mini Festus to keep me occupied when the other annoyances did their thing. I felt a little bad calling the darker demigod an annoyance, as I didn’t really know him.

When I came across my piece of paper, however, I froze. I’d written and rewritten the words on it a million times, using it to postpone what I’d always planned to do afterwards, but no matter what I did, it never sounded good enough, therefore I never got around the finale. Every once in awhile something would happen and I’d restart, the words always coming out the same.

I blinked a bit, trying to clear my head, then finished packing quickly. There was a bunch I had to do before I left tomorrow and I wasn’t postponing anything anymore, I promised myself that.

I opened the door of the cabin, looking for a daughter of Aphrodite to whom I had some explaining to do. Instead, I was met by the very son of Ares who I despised more than the god himself.

“Why’d Chiron choose you, Tristam?” The boy, much taller than I, sounded as if he genuinely expected me to answer without him giving me first an explanation of why he was standing on the front porch of cabin seemingly waiting for me.

“Why’re you here, Everett?”    

“I had a question to ask and I’m going to get my answer.” His tone was threatening, but lucky for him, I was in a pretty good mood so I didn’t snap just yet.

“Ah, well, see handsome,” I made sure my sarcasm seeped through that last word, “I don’t know why Chiron chose me. In fact, I’d have preferred if he didn’t. So maybe asking him would’ve been a better choice.”  

    “I already did.” I put my hands up. What could I tell him? I had nothing to say. “He said you were specifically requested.” I rolled my eyes, trying to get around the human monument in front of me.

    “Don’t you have someone to be making out with or beating up?” I finally squeezed past the Everett boy and began walking in the direction of Skylar’s cabin.

    “Only your best friend!” He called out behind me, making me second-guess my direction and I found myself instead walking towards the Big House. I needed to yell at someone and there was only one person I could think of who’d let me.