OLYMPIANS' LOST PROGENIES

CHAPTER TEN - Claimed by Real Father

The ground was covered with thick, malodorant mud. I couldn't see what was it, or what was its color. Everyone of us was blinded by the darkness. I ran my right hand on the ground and touched a very hard, round object. Then suddenly, a light ahead of us brought back our sense of vision.

I almost screamed when I saw what I was holding. It was a tiny skull, all covered in what I thought was mud, was actually blood infested with dead flies and other insects. I threw the skull in a corner. I heard someone was vomiting behind me. The light ahead came from Barry's torch. He was now handing torches to each of us. All coming out from the claypot.

"Come, let's walk now." Barry said after giving each of us a lighted torch.

"Where are the creatures?" I asked Barry while we are progressing. Our surrounding were still the disgusting sight of pile of skulls in decaying blood.

"Gone." He answered. "When we get in, we all fainted. I still managed to see the place around. I didn't see anything."

"We are lucky then." Emma said. I looked at her and I noticed her grinning.

"So where are we going now?" Logan said from the very rear.

"Find the portals to the mountains." Emma said.

"And there they are!" Barry almost screamed triumphantly, but my face distorted when I saw the portals.

The portals were holes in the wall and the wall was like the inside of a tube. We were standing at the bottom of this tube and the only way to check the portals are climbing upward.

"How many portals do you think there are?" Logan asked.

"I don't know, there must be thousands." Barry looked up and squinted his eyes as if trying to see the dead end. "They are portals to every mountains in the Philippines."

"The Philippines has over 7000 mountainous island. The number may be unknown so the mountains can only be guessed at." Emma said. "We are going to look for a particular. One that is located in Bicol Region, the Mt. Malinao."

I looked around us. I felt like being trapped inside a titanic can of sardines with holes in the wall as big as doors of normal houses. I'm glad to discover that every hole had labels above it, but how could we find the one we're looking for? I suddenly felt hopeless.

"We have to start looking for the portal now." Emma suggested.

We scattered around and started checking every entrance. There were chances I needed to climb up to check the other holes on the second level. I saw Barry, Logan, Emma and May climbing up to the fourth level. I'm trying to do the same but I couldn't. Mt. Pulag...Mt. Kitanglad...Mt. Dulang Dulang... Mt. Ragang...Mt. Kalatungan. I could feel my sweat already dripping. I was thinking we're doing it wrong. I looked around and saw May over my head. She was almost at tenth level high. I squinted my eyes because I see something protruding from the hole above May's head. I was just staring. That thing suddenly move and slithered down to coiled around May's body. Ayase screamed. I was guessing it was a snake. A huge snake. This place where we in was a lair of a giant snake.