floriography [ stories five ]

carnation || five

[ hopefully this ends up being the last part of this arc. i might switch over and send chase bailey ezra and ronnie on a quest just bc i can

this newest wattpad update can fucking suck my metaphorical dick

this update is full of me using my brain and making sure things make sense in a geographical sense bc they're in my home territory yeet

stay safe,
lew. ]

———————

We knew something was up as soon as we crossed into Ohio.

I could've went across the river from Huntington, but I wanted to prolong the inevitable. Same thing when we got to Point Pleasant, home of the Mothman. I finally gave in when we reached Mason.

See, Mason is this really small town that my brother had the misfortune of being named after. The main attraction was either Walmart or Wahama High School's eagle statue. Which was pretty sad.

We ate lunch before we left my home state, at this tiny little Chinese buffet wedged between a hair salon and a shoe store. It wasn't the best, but considering the pizza place around here had a sign that said "no shoes, no shirt, no pants, no service", our options weren't great.

As we drove across the bridge, the temperature dropped by at least ten degrees. It was the middle of June, and I swore I saw snowflakes.

——

Logan's directions were fucking useless.

"Drive towards the storm," he said. "It's where we need to go," he said.

We stopped off in a little town called Coolville to refill the truck, and so I could put on a sweater. Literally less than an hour ago, it was probably hovering around 100 degrees. Now, as we got closer to our destination, it was around 40.

"I think we need to head towards Marietta," Harry told us, looking troubled as he crossed the parking lot back to the truck. "The girl inside said that there's a storm on the radar hovering above that town. It's less than an hour away on Route 7."

"This might be our last time to rest up for right now," I sighed, glancing at the exterior of the GoMart as I pulled another jacket on over my sweater. "Wanna see if they've got milkshakes or something?"

——

Marietta's supposedly one of the most important 'cities' in Ohio. Like, the oldest settlement west of the Ohio River or some dumb shit.

They've got a lot of signs around, stating what historical significance these random places have. I knew something was up when we drove past one that was supposed to tell us about historic Harmar Village and it said 'this is where I fucked your mom'.

I parked along the road, pulling the keys from the ignition and the flower crown from my head before opening my door. I made sure Mason's pomegranate was in my jacket pocket. "Y'all ready?"

"Yeah, man... But do you see this?" Logan pointed across the Muskingum River, towards downtown Marietta.

At first, it looked like a giant bird flying around the courthouse, but after a moment or two, the Mist fell away to reveal a kid zooming around the dome, winged black Converse on his feet.

"Hermes kid, I'm guessing?"

"That doesn't explain the snowstorm." Harry said.

Then, the temperature dropped again, and Logan mumbled, "Uh-oh."

Walking towards us was a wisp of a girl, thick black hair and dark eyes standing out from her bluish-white skin, her thin dress giving probably no warmth or protection from the storm. The snow seemed to be emanating from her, but she looked scared out of her mind. In the background, I could see the kid in the winged shoes getting closer too, so I turned my crown into the weapon. I'd spent most of the trip with my weapon in disguise, just so Logan wouldn't have a visual prompt to joke about.

Even though we were facing down some strange demigods, Logan laughed a little and said, "Looks like your hoe is finally out in the open, huh, Lew?"

"This isn't the time, Lo," I returned softly.

Within moments, the flying kid had touched down, walking towards us with a scowl on his face and his hands tucked into his hoodie pocket. "Lemme guess... Camp sent you?" He asked as he flicked his dyed hair out of his eyes.

"Well, yeah. I just— we were told that some kids were causing trouble—" I started, resisting the sudden urge to hide behind Logan.

He cut me off. "Chiron sent me to handle this a couple weeks ago. So you guys can march your happy asses back to camp and let me do this!"

"Gods of Olympus, Luke, stop being so overdramatic," Logan sighed. "Let us help. Who's the girl?"

"I've been calling her Elsa. She won't tell me."

"Hey, Harry, hold this for a second." I handed my weapon to him, then took the pomegranate out of my pocket and tossed it to Logan. Finally, I took my jacket off and started walking to meet the girl in the middle.

"Be careful, Lewis!"

The girl was even smaller than I thought when we stopped in front of each other. She couldn't be older than thirteen, and she shivered wildly.

"Here, you can wear this until we find you some clothes," I said gently, holding my jacket out so I could help her.

She let me put the jacket on her, but neither of us moved to zip it up. Slowly, I held out my hand, and just as timidly, she took it. Her skin was freezing cold, but the storm clouds began to dissipate when we started back to Logan and Harry.

"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to, but you'll be safe with us. We're taking you to a camp where people like us can be safe."

I didn't think she was going to say anything, but when we reached the others she mumbled, "I don't like my name, but you can call me Eve."

——

Turns out— a pomegranate is a decent projectile weapon.

I was too busy helping Eve, but apparently, Luke was being an ass, so Logan just threw the fruit as hard as he could and cracked the son of Hermes upside the head. That's why there was a passed out kid in the bed of the truck.

Harry convinced another used car dealership to give us a minivan, so we loaded up with Luke strapped in the very back, Harry and Eve in the middle row of seating, and Logan in the passenger seat while I drove. The more at ease Eve felt, the more the storm just stopped. Soon, temperatures were back to their normal middle-of-summer intensity.

So, all in all, things went pretty well. No one died, or got hurt. But it seemed like Harry disliked me even more than he did, so I'm assuming that Logan made more comments like his legacy of Aphrodite one.

Eve seemed to like it a lot back at camp, but there was the issue that we now had two children of Khione that didn't have a good grasp of their powers. It should be okay, though. They were learning.

The Hermes cabin collectively groaned when we brought Luke back. He was the root of most of the pranks that went to far within the group, and no one really knew what to do with him now.

I've been told that the signs in Marietta went back to their normal, boring history lessons, and that we did a really good job. I wouldn't know. We got back to camp and I slept for two days.

Our real problem?

As soon as we got back, Bailey found us and told us, "We're leaving in a couple days on our own quest."

"Who?"

"Me, Chase, Ronnie, and Ezra, even though he's scary."

Youth and rainbows, fear and panic, wisdom and beauty, and war. Sounds like a total shitshow. And I'm so glad I'm not a part of it.

——————

[ yeet it's done and it sucks but it has a lead in to another arc of this.

if i do the next arc, who's pov should it be in??