The Mysterious Quest

Chapter 10 : Evil Death Birds

Jake's POV

We had started towards the mountain once again, with a lot of groaning moaning and whining from the others, mostly the Ethans and Eliza. Although I behaved as if I was energetic about going, I wasn't that energetic about leaving the safety and comfort of the river's edge. When making our way towards the mountain, Derek and the two Ethans kept cracking jokes to try and raise the morale and spirit while we marched towards the mountain, and it worked, until a bunch of creepy bat-like creatures descended upon us from the sky, trying to kill us and eat for flesh. "Everyone, draw your weapons and get to the trees!" I shouted to my merry band of 'heroes'. The masked man screamed, "Oh, my glorious birdies you have come to save me!" he cheered and ran towards the now cloud of flying monsters. The only difference from what he said is that they weren't seeming to stop and save him, the flying beasts only sped up, and shrieked loudly, their fangs and talons up and at the ready. Mr. Masked man uttered, "Wait, what aren't you guys stopping?" he then screamed a blood-curdling scream and was tackled by the hundreds of flying creatures. I didn't turn to look, my ears did the damage for me. All I could hear were the shrieks of delight from the creatures, and the pain induced screams from the masked figure, who I could now see his face. One of his eyes was a glossy grey, with a big scar running down his face, and there were burn marks and his left side, and a clumsy hair cut was on the top of his head. I almost felt bad for him, almost. We didn't stop running for a whole 10 more minutes and Derek even had to drop his backpack, which would way him down and make him slower, and boy was I tired, I think we all were. Out of the blue, the taller Ethan said "Hey everyone, please call me Edoh, instead of 'taller Ethan' it is getting annoying" I glared at him and responded with, "Okay, Edoh" to which he smiled. I was also glad that I wouldn't get confused between the two dopes. I looked at our surroundings and I frowned and groaned. "What is it, Jake?" Eliza asked, with a questioning face. "Uh, I'm pretty sure that we are lost, after all, we were just running in a completely different direction from where we are supposed to be going" I keened. Derek spoke up, "Oh, Jake! I have the map in my bag!" and then he looked crestfallen, "Oh, never mind, I left my bag back there when we were chased by the birds" he pointed in our previous direction and shivered. "Well, let's go back there and get the bag, and get a move on!" I said enthusiastically, even though I wasn't very happy about it. Eliza deadpanned, "Stop faking Jake, let's just go and get that bag" she muttered while jogging towards the attack zone. I followed her.

When we got to the bag there was an immediate stench from the body of the masked-demigod. He was turned facing me and all that was left of him was ripped up clothing, a skeleton, and micro-sized pieces of flesh that the creatures couldn't reach. I covered my mouth and gagged, I tried to skimp around his body and grab the bag and failed, tripping over his skeletal arm and falling on top of him, I yelled and jumped off him, grabbing the bag and running away from him. Great, now I stunk like a dead body. I reached my group of friends and dropped the bag and disposed of some stomach fluids and last night's meal. Edoh walked over to me and wrinkled his nose, "Dude, you smell like a dead guy" Edoh stated. "Maybe it's because I fell into a dead guy" I stated, disgusted with the fact that I touched the skeletal remains of a dead person. Derek trudged over to me, "Hey guys how- dude why do you smell so bad? Anyways, I know where we are and how we are going to get to the mountain now" Derek said. "Well, how far off course are we from our original position?" I asked. Derek responded with, "Roughly a kilometre or so, not that bad but not a short distance either" I groaned again, one too many times for one day. I looked at the map that Derek held and called over the two Ethans, "Come on guys, we are going to try and make it back to our previous camp, hopefully, get some of our equipment and get on our way" I said. My friends agreed and we started on our way back to camp, this time a bit more wary of what flying, swimming, or walking creatures could be watching us because, hey, it's better safe than sorry am I right? (A/N Holy Moly this seems repetitive with the words I am using, is it just me or Nah?) We managed to make it back to our camp and I reclaimed my backpack, grateful for a sip of water from my canteen. Eliza groaned when she opened her backpack. "What is it?" I said to her, "Oh, it's just that the vultures ripped open my bag and it ripped straight through my water bottle, now it's empty and my notebook is soaked" Eliza responded, she emphasized her point by dropping her wet notebook on the ground with a big *Schlop* "Here, take a sip from my canteen" I offered. I tossed it to her and she caught it with ease. Then she cringed and took off the cap and drank from the opening instead. "What am I that gross?" I said with a fake pout on my face. "Yes now take your bottle back, we have been taking too much time fooling around, we have to make it to the mountain soon," she stated. I was looking at Edoh and Ethan bicker about whose stuff is whose when a hard object struck me in the face. My hands flew up to shield my face, a little too late. "Ow!" I exclaimed I looked and saw my assailant, Eliza, who was rolling on the ground laughing. "Y-you should have seen your face!" she said, then another fit of laughter came. I rolled my eyes and put my container back in my bag before swinging it on my shoulder and watching Derek, who was sitting on a rock, watching the fish leap in a faraway river. I reached in my back pocket to take out a pinecone I found, but there was nothing but air. I whipped around to find Ethan running away sniggering and holding the pinecone. Well, being a son of Hermes allows you to do that sort of stuff. I told Derek to get a move on and join up with the rest of us. We then continued on our way towards the mountain.

*Time skip to when they reach the mountain :P*

We were at the entrance to the mountain's cave system where the capsule was, there was only problem standing in our way. It wasn't a very small problem either.

A / N: Hey guys! I have finally posted another chapter of this story, I might end it soon I'm not sure, the plot is bad because I wrote the first couple chapters a few years back, but now that I started writing it again a couple of years later, the plot doesn't make much sense and everything is not how I want it to be, but I might write another chapter, I'm still debating. Anyways I hope you enjoyed this one, and remember to keep your stick on the ice, PEACE.

-Maroon

EDITED