Demigods

Forming Plans

Lexis
********

My sister had to repeat herself twice when she told me what we were going to do. It was stupid beyond belief. Everyone knows the dangers of the woods and that's during the day. Young campers avoid them at all cost. Only the older kids enter there. But at night? Unheard of. Well, not completely unheard of. Some campers have told stories about going out there at night with another camper, but that is for an entirely different reason.

"So who's all coming?" I asked. We were sitting on my sister's bed waiting for curfew to start. We were going to call lights out, then head to the woods to meet Mattias.

"I talked to Aisha. She thinks we're insane, but she doesn't want to be left out either so she's coming. That makes you, me, Mattias and Aisha."

"And Mana doesn't know?"

"Obviously not. She'd still be yelling at us about how stupid we're being if she knew. No, as far as she knows, it's just the three of them going."

I nodded, then hopped off her bed. After waiting for almost ten more minutes, curfew began. "Alright campers! Lights out!"

Most people started complaining, but Devin shouted, "Our friend is going on a quest tomorrow and the two of us have to be up super early to see her off. So shut up and go to sleep." Several people still grumbled, but complied. Within five minutes, everyone was out.

"Let's go," I whispered. Devin nodded and we crept out of our cabin. I honestly couldn't believe that we'd never done this before. Maybe the thought of being eaten by harpies kept us from trying. But seriously, how had we never snuck out past curfew before? It did help that we were councillors this year. Sneaking out is much easier when you tell everyone when to go to sleep.

Mattias arrived at the edge of the woods a few minutes after us. Then it took another fifteen waiting for Aisha. Several times, we had to move around and duck behind trees or under logs because we were avoiding harpies. Finally, she appeared.

"Where have you been?" Devin snapped.

"Sorry. I'm not a councillor like you three. I don't call lights out, I have to wait for it. So I had to stay put until everyone was asleep."

"Okay, follow me," Mattias said. Devin looked miffed that she wasn't able to say anything more to Aisha, but for once she kept her mouth shut and followed.

I stayed right behind Mattias, followed by Devin and Aisha stayed at the back. Finally, we reached a boulder that we call Zeus's Head.

"Wait, are you saying we can get out through there?" Devin asked. Matt nodded.

"No way. No! Don't you know what that tunnel is a part of? It's a tunnel that leads into the labyrinth! Everyone knows that story. When people get lost in the labyrinth, they don't come out. I thought it was destroyed in the second titan war," I exclaimed.

Matt looked at me like I was dumb. "Of course I know the stories. Believe me, the tunnel through here is not part of the labyrinth. Mana and I have used it plenty of times. It used to be a part of the labyrinth, but like you said, it was destroyed. Years ago, some campers must have dug out the collapsed tunnel and created a new tunnel that leads outside of camp borders. Not magical, just a normal passage. But it's how we are going to get out of camp unnoticed."

"Wait, back up. You've snuck out of camp before? You and Mana?" Devin asked.

He looked slightly embarrassed. "Um, yeah. We discovered it the year we went on our quest. I'm fairly certain Chiron knows about it, but he pretends he doesn't. Mostly because if he admitted to knowing, he would have to get rid of it, and us using this passage to sneak out of camp was better than Mana's alternative."

"Which is...?" Way to just leave that hanging, Matt.

"She had a bad habit of shadow travelling. Just taking off without telling anyone. It scared everyone to death. So I forced her to make a deal with me; whenever she had to get away, we used the passage. And I came with her. She gets attacked too often in the outside world for her to be travelling alone."

Aisha spoke up. "So if we use this, we can get out and like, spy on the girls?" She looked thrilled at the thought.

"Sure. However you want to put it. The point is, we'll know when the rookies are about to get everyone on the quest killed, so we can pound them for that," Devin explained.

"You mean after we save their butts from said danger," I added.

"Of course."

"Are you two done?" Mattias snapped. "Come one, let's get back to our cabins. We can't help the girls if we are all harpy food."

"Wait," I quickly said. "We need food and supplies. How are we going to get that?

Mattias grinned. "We steal it of course."

What he meant by that was we needed to sneak into the Big House, go up to the attic (which thankfully is fairly clean) and grab a few backpacks that are already loaded with supplies in case of emergencies.

"There. Each of us have one. There should be enough room to pack some spare clothes, so please do. I don't want to be stuck with six smelly girls."

I did the math. "Wait, six? What do you mean six?"

He looked at me strange. "Um, I mean six girls?"

"There are only three of us," Aisha pointed out.

"We aren't actually travelling with the other three. We're just staying near them in case of monster attacks that they can't handle and need our help," Devin said.

For a moment, Mattias didn't reply. Then he started laughing at us. "Oh come on. You guys aren't seriously overlooking one giant detail here, are you?"

Us three looked at each other and shrugged. "Alright then, tell us, wise guy," Dakota snapped.

Instead of answering, he simply pointed to Aisha. "Who is her godly parent?"

"Zeus. You know that," Aisha said. She looked confused.

"Exactly. Zeus. And if we are travelling near the other three girls, who is Mana and Glynn's godly parents?"

"Hades and Poseidon. What is your point?" Devin seemed annoyed now.

But it suddenly dawned on me what he was getting at. "There is no way we'll be able to hide ourselves. Zero chance."

He nodded. "It was bad enough when I went last time, and that was just with Mana. It will be three times worse with the other two. And the rest of us aren't exactly free passers either."

Aisha held up her hands. "What are you guys talking about?"

I explained, "There are three children of the big three that are going to be in about the same area, along with two of Ares kids and a Hermes kid. Every monster in the country is going to be able to sense us."

Dakota groaned. "We're going to be like a beacon. I think even using a cell phone would be less of a flare."

Mattias nodded. "I hope you guys feel at your strongest. Because once we step out of the camp borders, we need to constantly be alert."

I think it is a shock to no one that I got very little sleep that night.