20Chapter 18: Rise of the Suns
In my mind, I was still trying to get over the fact Vanessa was here and was flesh and blood. I was holding her waist as she was asking me questions. "Why did you get me? What happened with Apollo and Aphrodite? Was I the only one who died?"
I sighed and told her what happened after she died. "I got you because I felt like a failure. I didn't want the whole camp thinking of me as a bad leader since I lost someone."
"But it was destined to happen," she said. "But you shall fail to save the heron in that hour. I'm glad I was hero, strangely I ended up in the Fields of Asphodel, but I was going to die anyway."
"And I wasn't going to let them stay dead," I countered. "Look, even if you were Jane or Josh, I still would have gotten you. Phoebe, maybe, but definitely you three."
"What about Thaila?"
"She wasn't going to die. She was practically leading the quest and calling the shots, unlike I felt like I should have been."
"Hey, she's been on the field way longer than you fighting and leading," she encouraged. "For three days at camp and completing the quest, that is amazing. I'll be honest, as much as I will deny it if the question comes up again-" she looked at me, "-I couldn't have done that. Stop beating yourself up, Don."
I sighed again. "Ok, sure. At least I'll be able to actually get to know my family."
Vanessa looked at me sternly. "Are you ok? What's bothering you?"
"This," I said and showed her my fate mark. "When I went to get you, Hades had a clear 'no' in his mind when I asked him to give you another chance. But when he saw my mark, he allowed it. And then another thing…" I told her about my dream with the dirt woman and girl before she woke me up. She cursed. "Gaea already knows? That's not good."
"Gaea?"
"Remember the lecture I gave you before the tour of the camp? I think I mentioned her." She glared at me. "But to repeat myself, she was the ultimate goddess, the goddess of the earth. If she were to be awaken, life as we know it would be gone."
"So the end of the world is already at our doorstep?" I asked. "She told me she will rise and I'm pretty sure she wasn't bluffing."
"She will rise," she commented. Her face look darkened.
"Now, how do you know? Because she said so doesn't mean it's the truth."
She stayed quiet for a while. "I'm pretty sure everything will be explained to you tomorrow. Even the meaning of the mark, but just be patient until then." Then she did something I thought she would never do to anybody. She let go of the reigns of Bonnie, turned, and hugged me. I flinched not expecting she would do that, but I reluctantly hugged back. "Thanks for getting me. I'm glad I met you." Then she turned and refocused on the reigns again. Knowing her dad, I still didn't think she would do that.
You did well, my hero, Aphrodite said in my head. She'd been so quiet and inactive, I forgot she was even there. Then I started to glow. Vanessa almost turned around to look. "Again?"
I glowed brighter and brighter, but I didn't feel any rush of power. In fact, I felt the opposite. After I was done glowing, I consciously called for Aphrodite, but there was no answer. "Aphrodite left me," I informed her.
She nodded. "We'll be at camp soon. When we get there, I'd encourage you to sleep if you can anymore. Tomorrow is going to be long for you, and so will the rest of the summer."
I didn't ask any questions. The absence of Aphrodite actually made me very tired. "I'm actually tired now that she's done that. Do you-"
"Go ahead," she answered. Slowly, I turned my head and rested it on her back. I then confirmed that she was very well alive. Even though we were flying in the cold, she was very warm. It wasn't long until I closed my eyes…
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I don't remember getting off Bonnie or getting to my cabin, but I unpleasantly woke up in it. The last thing I wanted to hear in the morning: a chorus of "oh my gods!" and Josh yelling "Doooooooooooon!" I slowly opened my eyes with a blurry vision. I had difficulty looking, but I soon came into view of Josh with all my other siblings plus a few other's I didn't recognize meeting behind him. "Hi! Welcome back! Now tell us: why were you gone? Where were you?"
I winced at the clock showing seven o clock. I supposed they were kind enough to let me sleep through, but I feeling the need to be lazy that morning. Even two periods of sleep wasn't enough to replenish my energy. If you don't believe me, try walking up the steps of hell. "Umph," I murmured and waved my hand in a 'go away' motion. "Five more minutes, please. Go to Ares's cabin if you want to know."
Hurryingly, some of them went out the cabin door and I drove my head into my pillow. A minute later, the noise came back with the 'no way' and the 'how the-' I could hear someone come up next to my bunk and I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don," Vanessa said shaking me lightly. "Wake up. Emergency council and we're needed."
"Umph," I moaned. I understand that she was being extremely nice to me, but I wasn't about to play favorites over who can make me voluntarily wake up. I motioned her away. "Five more minutes," I murmured and put my head in the pillow harder.
"Counter proposal: I will give you five seconds to get up by yourself or I'll do it, and you don't want me to." Immediately, I got up. I'd rather accept her blackmail of mysterious hell than go through it. "Good," she said. "Another three minutes to get ready to leave. I'll wait."
I looked down at myself. I had the same clothing on as I did last night, and they weren't so bad. "This is going to be quick, right? I asked. "Because I'm consciously not up until I shower."
"You're fine, and I don't know how long it's going to be. Let's go." Sarah, my older sister and cabin counselor lead us to the big house. As we walked, I couldn't help but asking. "Sarah, who were those other kids that were in the cabin?"
"They're demigods like us, but of the Roman aspect," she answered. "The explanation is kind of long, but were friends with them and their camp. They are also here for the emergency council. A few will be staying with us for special reasons, which you're about to find out."
We eventually got to the big house and into the Ping-Pong room. It was exactly how I remembered it as I got assigned the quest…except the fact that it was packed. There were more than twice as many demigods this time. It was crowded; we were all against each other in some way. Even Chiron was at the table with another demigod girl next to him. She was a redhead with a small nose and blue eyes. She was starring at me intently. In fact, everyone was starring. All the attention made me uncomfortable, and Chiron went in for the rescue. "Welcome back done…and Vanessa." He chocked out her name like it was hard to say, in which I couldn't blame it. "Would you please sit?"
There was a chair across the table from him reserved for me. No, that's ok, I thought, but my body walked forward. I uncomfortably sat down. I looked around and saw that none of the hunters were here, including Thaila and Phoebe. Their cabins were empty, so I assumed they had already left camp. I uncomfortably walked to the chair and sat only sound was my footsteps and the sound of the chair as it was pulled out and as it went in.
Chiron cleared his throat. "To start of this emergency meeting, don, can you please show your arm so that everyone can see? The mark, I mean." I laid out my arm so the mark showed clearly, and everyone looked at it and murmured. Even though they were all soft voices, there were a lot of us in one room, so it was loud. Chiron stomped his hoof and everyone went quiet. "Next, would you, ah, tell your story to us. Take all the time you need with the details."
To do that, I had to close my eyes and say it so I didn't get a nervous breakdown. I explained everything, from the pigmies and meeting Jane, the illusionists crabs, King Minos and his new labyrinth, how I got my golden bow and the mark, the minotaur and his attack, the death of Vanessa and Tityus, going to the Underworld to get Vanessa, and my dream with Gaea and the girl with her, and summed it back up to the present. I didn't know how long that took because I didn't know whether my head was hurting from remembering all that or the lack of oxygen in the room.
Everyone was quiet as I told it, and when I was finished, murmured again. Chiron pounded his hoof against the ground for silence. "And I believe you have questions for me?"
"Heck yes," I confirmed. "Who was the girl I saw in my dreams, what does this mark show, why is it important, and why are demigods from the Roman camp here?"
Chiron scrunched his beard on deciding on where to start. "To start, I have a few ideas of who this girl is, by the description you gave me, but until I am sure of her identity, I will not say them." He looked around the room with a 'hope you heard that because I will not bring it up again' look. "Second, as you already may know, the mark on your arm is the symbol of the Fates, the three sisters that know the fate of everything, even the world, what will happen in a millennia to tit or if it is destroyed in that time, when." He paused. "The great prophecy has spoken that Gaea will rise. To many of us, we assumed that was the end for us. But the Fates have given the gods and the rest of us beings to stay dominant. On an artifact, they have put a blessing that who ever received it would have powers to give us a chance to continue." He paused and I realized the hidden message. "Never before has anybody in ancient history have been given the power to host gods, or anything of higher power, I should say…until you came long." He paused again, and I knew he was doing it for the dramatic effect. I guess an old guy like him needed to have fun once in a while, but I found it messed up in many ways. "Don, you have the power to host practically everything: gods, spirits, nymphs, everything. Being able to host everything, With all that power, you will be as powerful as Uranus, the ultimate god of all time, the only one more powerful, if not equal, to Gaea."
There was a long pause, but I knew he was done. During it, I let it all sink in. I was the last hope for everything that wasn't pure evil. I was the final-the last stand for it all. Me.
The girl next to Chiron saw my face and quickly spoke up. "To put it in an easier way to put it, you won't be the one fighting with all of us behind your back. We predict there will be a plan of Gaea that will help her rise before you're ready, but we will all fight to prevent that. When she does rise, you're our final blow to shutting her down."
I nodded, but it didn't really help. "So what now?"
Sarah came in. "If you die or get kidnapped, it's the end for all of us, so we have to go to extremes to make sure that doesn't happen. You're going to be going through some serious training of Roman and Greek styles. That's why they're here."
"Plus, we can't have you unguarded on your own," The girl next to Chiron said. "Were not going to go to extremes to this, but you need to have a guard with you. You can choose since it wouldn't work well if we choose someone you didn't like." I nodded and quickly glanced at Vanessa to my left. We made eye contact, and I looked back. It was those simple moments that I enjoyed the most: being able to ask a question and get an answer through simple gestures.
"Okay," I said. "I understand the new adjustments. Is that it?"
"One more thing," Chiron held his hand. "When you leave, be sure to visit Jane in her cabin. She has some stuff for you."
I nodded and stood. My head was hurting for a fact of the oxygen lack. I pushed in the chair and joined the crowd as everyone left the room. I got outside and waited for Vanessa. She was one of the last to pop out.
"Why?" I asked.
She grinned. "You gave me another chance at life to be a hero, a chance for a full life. Being with you for four years is my way of paying you back.
I smiled. Knowing she would be with me made me feel a lot better, keeping in mind what a fighter she was. Than another thought came to mind. "Where's Bonnie?"
She shrugged. "Who knows? But I'm sure she's not to far around here. She should be in ear shot of your whistle sound."
We were coming up to the Hecate cabin. Outside of it, Jane and Josh were talking to each other and Josh was wailing his arms around. "…was the reason why we got caught!" he was saying. "That thing almost got us killed if it weren't for Don!"
"I know, but lesson learned that I'm only going to be doing test runs only here where it's safe. Please Josh?" she pleaded. She was trying to lean on him, but Josh saw the trickery and backed away. "Yeah, and if I do, I'll be a giant, and I don't want to be one of their brothers." Then he saw us moving towards him. "Don! Vanessa! Can you please tell Jane I don't like being the guini pig?"
"Ok, desperate measures," she sighed and hugged Josh. He looked down with a failed look. "Really? This is your desperate try? I can live with this. I 've been through more embarrasing things."
Apparantly, Josh didn't see the full plan. Quickly, she knelt down and pulled down his shorts, revealing red plad boxers, then came back up and binded Josh by hugging him again. Then she turned to a crowd. "HEY EVERYONE! LOOK WH-!" Josh quickly clamped her mouth with the only thing movable left: his head. He moved his cheek so it looked like it she was kissing him.
Everyone turned and saw the confusing image. They started murmuring and Jane pulled back her head back. Josh had a victory grin. "Told ya."
"Did you forget I can still do the same thing while their looking?" she asked, moving around him to keep the crowd's attention. Josh's grin quickly died and his face went red. "Ok, ok, I'll try it!"
"Swear it on the River Styx if you let me go!"
On that she let go and stood back as Josh pulled up his shorts. The people that were still watching turned and talked to themselves while walking away. "Well," I said. "Wonder whether the rumor will be Jane is so madly in love with Josh, she's already doing crazy stuff, or the secret to Josh's success with girls are his chick magnets called boxers."
"Har har," Josh grumbled. "You're not the one being begged to be turned into Tityus's brother. Anyway, whats up?"
I looked towards Jane. "Chiron told me to come here at the cabin. You know why, Jane?"
"I'd thought you'd never ask," she gloated and motioned us into her cabin. I looked in and whistled. The innings look like a set for a play in a prairie at night. The ceiling and walls were mixed with indigo and violet and white sparkles the shape of stars. There were bunks along the wall with a queen-sized bed against the furthest. In the middle of the cabin was a crystal ball glowing brightly on an end table. A nice sized glowing table with a symbol engraved in it and candles on the corners of it was sitting next to the door. On one of the bunks were a huge bag and a few letters next to it. Jane walked up to it and started untying it. "Ah, when Quinn found out you went and got his sister from the underworld, he 'convinced' almost every cabin to give you something. Chiron didn't feel easy leaving it at your cabin with the new demigods, so he left it with me."
She loosened the bag and dumped everything onto the bed. Multiple stuff came out of it: armor, shoes, a jacket, a shield, and a necklace. I looked at the stuff. "Clothes?"
Jane looked over the items as well. "For the items, the cabins that dropped them off asked me to describe them, if it's not in a letter." She picked up the breastplate armor that was strangely suddenly hard to see now. "From the Hephaestus cabin, this is what they called 'chameleon armor'. From a distance, it would make it hard for someone or thing to spot you since it blends in with your surroundings." She put that down and held up the big golden shield. "From the Athena cabin, this is a video shield. Supposedly…hold on."
She banged it a few times, then an image appeared. It was a sky overview of the camp. I could see my cabin at the arena, Chiron standing on the porch of the big house, multiple white vans on the grass with a purple banner in the horrible parking positions. "There we go. As long as the sunlight is touching it, you can see anywhere."
"Really?" I went up and took the shield from her. I zoomed in on the forest and saw a nymph smoking to kids in purple shirts. "Got to admit. That's cool."
"Plus, they said if you need to visit their library or ask questions about anything, they're there to help." Jane then picked up a blue fur coat. "This was a gift from the hunters of Artemis before they left. It's supposed to be really warm on the inside, but I would try it on later." She tossed it to Vanessa to hold and picked up a pair of white sneakers. On the sides of them, white wings suddenly sprouted and flapping. Josh, being scared the heavens out of, tripped back and scooted. We laughed as he got up. "A little warning there next time," he grumbled.
"Sorry, Josh," she giggled. "Anyway, this is obviously from the Hermes and I don't really need to describe what they do." She let go of the shoes, but instead of hitting the ground, the wings lifted it in the air and on top of the armor I was holding. Then Jane picked up a pink envelope and handed it to me. It smelt of chocolate and something I don't know and probably didn't want to know. Obviously it was from Aphrodite. In the inside was a thank you letter with a lot of lip marks and a silver necklace with a ruby in stoned. "They also said if you need any advice, let them know," Jane informed me. "The rest of the letters are the same thing, but there's one more thing I want you to know about. May I see the necklace?"
I gripped the necklace and tossed it to her. "Now, if it had a magic effect, what would it be?"
I lifted my eyes. "I guess a inner radar of monsters or something."
Jane turned and grinned. "That's nice, but you're not getting it. I can't go that far. But I can do this…"
She put the necklace on the table with candles and put here hands on the table. A pinkish light went through the engravings of the table and ne necklace glowed. After ten seconds, it died and Jane looked tired. She took the necklace and gave it to me, The ruby in the middle was now glowing multiple colors. "Now you have a mood charm," she said. "Usually for my camp shop, people have to pay for enchantments, but for you three, it could be favors."
Vanessa smiled. "Thanks, Jane. I'm glad we met."
She nodded and yawned. "Now if you excuse me, that took a lot out of me, so I need my beauty sleep right now."
She motioned us out of the cabin and was about to close the door until she remembered something. "Oh, and the Ares cabin also said that if you have a problem with someone, talk to them. They'll 'fix it.'" With that, she closed the door. I looked down at all the stuff I got. "Wow. I should be doing this more often."
"Don't abuse the hero gifts," she warned. "But think positively. You're going to fight Gaea and you nee to be ready. Ready to start training?"
I looked at her surprised. "Already?"
Aaaaannnnnnddddd… CUT! That's the end of Bok One. I'm going to take a long break and think more upon my next story, but I have most of the quirks worked out. Thank you viewers for viewing! :D I will now give you the book title and summary of the sequel.
Coming whenever I feel like it
Book Two:
Reconnaissance of Time
(Sequel to 'Rise of the Suns') The mysterious girl who sounds like Annabeth and call's Gaea 'mom'had a pretty suitable life. Leading and fighting for Gaea with a promised future of heroism and positive fame, she had everything she ever dreamed. Suddenly, disaster strikes, and she is forced to pair up with the 'devil' (Don) to get back to their time period. All the while, she reveals secrets about her past of why she sounds like Annabeth and others that should have stayed hidden in time. Don's POV.
Thank you!-and stayed tune! :D READ AND REVIEW!-Flappy741
