The New Demigods

Chapter 20: Was That a Cow?

I woke up to Piper shaking me. "Hey, it's light out, let's go."

At first I thought there was something wrong with me, because my legs were in so much pain, but I realized it was the feeling of fatigue I was no longer used to after a month of using Gaia's healing pond. It also didn't help that I had slept on the ground in full armour. I groaned as I sat up, trying to convince my eyes to stay open.

"A deal's a deal," I said, rubbing my eyes and seeing Horace and Scarlet still fast asleep.

Horace and Scarlet didn't wake up as peacefully, Scarlet groaned at my attempts, covering her ears and Horace swatted me away.

"Seriously guys, we have to go." Piper spoke sternly and I noticed the dark circles under eyes, which made me wonder if she slept at all.

Horace groaned loudly sitting up. "Really missing that healing pool right about now."

"Same," agreed Scarlet, putting her helmet back on.

"And those delivered breakfasts."

My stomach growled in agreeance.

"He has a point, what are we supposed to do for food?" Scarlet asked.

"The forest must have something we can eat in it." I guessed.

"We're not going back." Piper clenched her jaw. "We find the part of the mountain we can scale and then we worry about food." She started her walk along the base of the mountain, looking for appropriate footing.

"Tell that to my stomach," Horace muttered. Scarlet and I grabbed his arms to help him to his feet and followed Piper.

The walk was quiet as we trudged on, following Piper; between the muscle fatigue and increasing hunger, it was hard to think of anything to say.

"Do you smell that?" Horace sniffed the air.

"Huh?" I questioned, but then I knew what he meant. The air smelled like a mix of smoke and cooking food.

"Is it the other Demigods?" Asked Scarlet.

"It doesn't matter, we can't stop now and we know Alistair would never share with us anyway." Piper didn't look away from the mountain.

"She might not share with you, but she seemed fine with us." Horace sniped. I jabbed my elbow into his ribs, trying to get him to stop. "What? It's true."

Piper stopped in her tracks, "well then, why don't you go join them?"

"Looks like we all are, the smoke is coming from there anyway." Horace pointed forward into the sky where we could see the smoke billowing from a fire somewhere up ahead.

"Great." Piper huffed and kept walking.

Our noses were correct, when the fire was in sight, we could see it was roasting a large boar. Horace surged with energy and started running towards it.

"Wait!" Piper tried to stop him, but he didn't listen.

"What's wrong? There's nobody around, it's fine." I said, eager to join in the meal.

"No, it's suspicious. Why would the other Demigods leave an untouched meal, large enough to feed all 16 of us?"

I knew she had a point, but we'd been walking well into lunch time and it was hard to listen to reason.

"They could be hiding in that cave over there," Piper continued, pointing to the opening to a cave entrance that lined up perfectly to where the boar was. "We have to stop him." Piper ran after Horace, yelling his name, but he had too much of a head start.