Realm of the Hidden Heritage||Book 1||

Chapter 17

>>>Leah<<<

Leah felt great after saving her dad, and Kalley's mum. But now they had to help Jeremiah, which seemed a lot worse.

What made it worse was the fact that they didn't have a light source. The closest thing they had to one was Kalley's dagger, which had a faint glow to it. They walked around the cave system, looking for any trace of the monster.

The cave felt like a never ending maze. Leah was starting to get worried, millions of thoughts running through her head. What if he gets killed, or worse, She thought. She tried to ignore those thoughts, but it didn't work.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Leah asked.

"Physically, probably, mentally, I doubt," Kalley answered.

Leah looked down at the rocky cave floor, saddened by the thought of her friend being in pain, physically or mental. Kalley looked back at Leah and sighed, "Let's change the subject," She suggested.

"To what?" Leah asked.

"Tell me more about this wizard stuff, do you like, go to Hogwarts?" She asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm a Ravenclaw," Leah said.

"Do you have any friends there?" Kalley asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm friends with Lily Potter," Leah exclaimed.

"I thought she died," Kalley said.

"Not Lily Potter has in Harry's mom, I meant his daughter," She explained.

"Oh, I see," Kalley said.

"Any other questions?" Leah asked.

"None are coming to find, but I'll be asking you a bunch when we get back to camp Leah," Kalley told her.

"Alright, fine," Leah said.

They went back to looking for their friends. As they looked around, those same thoughts kept coming back into Leah's brain. She started to lose hope about finding Jeremiah, until.

"I found something!" Kalley yelled out.

"What did you find?" Leah asked.

"Some paw prints that look about the size of the Manticore," Kalley explained.

"Good going," Leah said, ecstatically.

"Welp, let's not waste any time," Kalley said, running in the direction the paw prints went

>>>Jeremiah<<<

Jeremiah gasped in air once the monster let him go. He sat on the hard rocky ground, his arm bleeding. He gripped his arm and tried his best to stop the bleeding. He tried to grab at his katana, but the monster had it in his grasp. Jeremiah just looked up angrily. But he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder.

Poison.

He steadied himself against a wall and looked straight into the monster's eyes "What do you want?" he spat.

"I need Demi-god blood for my plan to work," The manticore said.

"Then why did you kidnap two Mortals?" Jeremiah asked.

"Because I knew you Half-bloods just love to be heroes, and would jump at the opportunity to save a family member. I'd leave them out to be easy meat. Then I'd snatch up a demi-god once they came to me, so easy," The Beast explained.

"Why do you even need our blood?" Jeremiah asked.

"To help feed my troops, and help to start the rise of the monsters," The Monster smiled.

"The... What?" Jeremiah questioned.

"We monsters have been below everyone for too long, just wait half-blood, we will be your doom," The Monster beamed.

He then threw Jeremiah's Katana away as he laughed. Jeremiah slowly crept away to grab it, but when he turned around to slash the monster. He was gone. Jeremiah just stared at the empty cave confused and lost.

He then heard two voices. Kalley and Leah. Leah had a wand with light streaming out of the end. Jeremiah sheathed his katana and ran up to them.

"Did you see what way it went?" Jeremiah asked.

"Where did what go?" Leah asked.

"The Manticore," Jeremiah exclaimed.

"Oh, nope we didn't see it," Kalley said.

Jeremiah was upset that he didn't get to kill the damn beast, causing him to punch a wall.

"Did you get hurt at all?" Kalley asked.

"The stupid Manticore pierced me with one of his spikes," Jeremiah said.

"We should get you out of here," Kalley said.

"No shit," Jeremiah said.

"We need to get you back to camp quickly, we don't need it to spread," Kalley explained.

"Then let's go now, we can't waste time," Leah said.

The three of them walked out of the cave to Kalley's mom and Leah's dad talking. Kalley's mom smiled at her, "You ready to be home?" she asked.

"Yeah, but how are we gonna get back," Kalley asked.

Then as if a beam of light became human, Apollo stood right in front of the group with his sun chariot with him, "Dad!" Kalley exclaimed, giving her dad a hug.

"Kalley, whatcha doing here in Maine?" Apollo asked.

"Quest," Kalley said.

"I see, anyway I heard y'all needed a right home, luckily for you I'm heading right that way," Apollo said.

"Gods! Thanks dad!" Kalley said, climbing into the sun chariot.

Jeremiah and Kalley's mom followed suit, but Leah and her dad were much more hesitant.

"Is this safe?" Leah asked.

"Very," Kalley confirmed, helping Leah and her dad into the chariot.

"So, New York?" Apollo asked.

"Yup!" Kalley answered.

"Got it!" Apollo said, and soon they were on their way.

***

After what felt like hours, they finally made it back to camp. Apollo dropped off the three demi-gods, and said hello to all of his children plus Nico. Then he took Leah and Kalley's parents home. Will Solace was able to remove the spike from Jeremiah's arm, and he got it wrapped up. They returned to a hero's welcome and had a grand feast for them returning alive. Leah seemed to be overwhelmed by this, but also seemed to enjoy camp just a little more now.

Later Kalley and Leah walked off to have a private conversation with each other. Jeremiah wasn't sure what it was about, but he also didn't want to know. The thing Jeremiah was most excited about was that he finally got to have a peaceful night's rest after the bonfire, which he so desperately needed after all the monster hunting. He basically passed out the moment he hit the bed.