The Golden Amulet (PJO, Sequel to The Silver Ring)

Chapter 30

There were dozens of Void soldiers. Each was wearing armor made of Void Gold, and armed to the teeth with all weapons imaginable.

In other words, we weren't going to fight them.

Fortunately, they seemed to just have come onto the cottage property. The closest Void soldier I had seen before closing the windows was still a quarter-mile out—and I was confident that was the closest Void soldier; gold didn't really blend with forest green, and it didn't with dirt either. Chances were, we would spot them way before they did anything. Which meant we could run before they made contact.

"Where are we going first to get to Deeplige?" Rosaline asked as she materialized a bag out of thin air and quickly swiped all the food into it. 

"West," I answered as I, along with Psi and Adriana, looked at Rosaline anxiously, not sure what to do. "Which roughly equates to going deeper into the forest."

Rosaline strode to a window that was to the west side of the kitchen and yanked the curtain away from the glass, before letting it glide into place again. "There's nobody there. C'mon. Before it's too late."

She ran out of the back door, which was conveniently placed facing the west—so technically, it was more like a side door, given that the front door was facing north. We immediately followed her.

The mile we sprinted across the cottage property to get to the dense forest was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. It helped us see the Void soldiers way before they saw us—but now, it could work against us. Plus, there was no cover lest the Void soldiers saw us and started shooting.

It seemed to take hours, but it was probably minutes; we all were warriors, meaning we were very athletic. A mile was nothing compared to what our bodies could do. In addition, adrenaline boosted us, making our speed rise up to an almost inhumane pace.

Finally, we reached the start of the dense forest, and the imaginative target on my back disappeared. It occurred to me that, a few hours ago, I had been relieved to get out of the dark forest, which was as dense as a dog's quantity of hair. But now I was relieved to once again traverse through the forest.

Instead of stopping, which I thought we would, we kept on running. This was a problem for me; I had just eaten a full meal a few minutes ago, and I had a huge cramp that felt as though someone was stabbing me in the ribs. Plus, my adrenaline was slowly fading away, leaving me to deal with jumping over logs, cutting my way through the shrubbery, and making sure I didn't step in a tangle of roots. It only took a quick glance at Psi and Adriana to see that they too were struggling.

However, Rosaline took pity on us a few minutes later. We stopped in the middle of a small clearing. I quickly realized why Rosaline had made us run the few extra minutes she did; in the forest, it would be very easy to get surrounded and very hard to run away. But in the clearing, we would hear anybody trying to sneak up on us and would have an easy choice of where to go. Plus, it was much better to rest in a space where I had my own personal space not taken up by two oak trees that seemed to be in the process of trying to smush me.

The sound of rushing water floated to my ears as I suddenly realized there was a stream of water a few feet away from us. It was small, only as wide as a door, but it would make do for my purposes. Heck, even a glass of water would work.

I strode to the edge of it and plunged my hand into the water.

My strength immediately returned; instead of being almost as lethargic as a sloth because I had no energy, I now felt as energetic as a kid who drank fifteen high-sugar energy drinks. I felt amazing, and not like I had spent my last few days on a quest deep in enemy territory.

But just like a bad dream, when I stepped out, I felt just as drained as I did before touching the water, just like an energetic kid after his sugar rush of drinking fifteen high-sugar energy drinks wore off. But instead of getting fifteen minutes of energy before crashing, I got fifteen seconds.

"Woah there!" Rosaline exclaimed, catching me as I stumbled into her. "Are you okay?"

"Yep," I asked somewhat drowsily. My mind had become foggy, and my muscles had turned into the lead; somehow, the water had taken my energy. " I'm peachy."

"Doesn't look like you're peachy." Rosaline refused to let go of me, even when I tried to slip out of her grip. "It looks like you need a nap."

"A nap?" I asked, my words slurring together. "That sounds good. I loveee naps. I don't know why I can't have more."

"I don't think I've ever seen you take a nap," Rosaline noted with a grunt as I involuntarily stopped supporting my weight and she had to hold me up. "Something's definitely wrong."

Something was wrong. My conscious was alert and oriented, and I watched in horror as everything unfolded; my body seemed to not be following my actions like I was observing someone in a dream.

Rosaline set gently set me on the ground, in a place that was relatively free of underbrush and only had soft grass. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

I squinted towards her. I could clearly see only her index finger up. But instead of saying "one," my mouth of its own accord slurred out, "seven-hundred-and-fifty-two."

"Yikes." Rosaline frowned. "I'm afraid I don't have that many fingers. Either that or I'm the one hallucinating." She looked towards Psi and Rosaline, who was just standing there. "I'm afraid we're going to have to stay here until I figure out what's wrong with him. Keep an eye out for Void soldiers, or anything amiss."

"Too late," Adriana said.

Everybody looked eastwards, and my headed lolled that way too. 

Across the river, there were monsters. And they didn't look happy to see us.

"Well, that's not good," I slurred out.