The Feats of Joel--Discontinued

Chapter 5

I felt weightless, it also felt like I was being pulled in a current. It seemed to take a minute or two to get through the portal, when we emerged at the other end we were in Daniel's old house. "Why is there a portal in your living room?" I asked.

"No one lives here anymore."

"Speaking of living, why don't you live with your parents?"

"Because they're with Hades in the Underworld."

It took me a moment to process that. "How?" I said quietly When I entered the portal it felt like when you go too high on a swing and feel.

"Scythian Dracanae."

"What?"

"Women with snake tails for legs."

"Oh."

"Anyways we need to get going"

"What exactly are we looking for?"

"We aren't looking for anything." Olivia said.

"We're waiting for something to come look for us." Daniel said and walked off. I followed him and when we got outside it was a cold cloudy day, unlike when I had fallen into the pit on November twentieth. That day it was sunny and about 85 degrees Fahrenheit, now it's about 50 degrees, not out of the ordinary for Oklahoma. We started walking down the street towards the ponds, we jumped the 6 foot wide trench the owner of the land had dug and filled 3 times. When we got to the 'desert' as we called it because of the cracked dirt that used to be there. I saw something at the other end of the football field sized dirt patch that looked like a giant pile of black topsoil. I started walking towards it the others saw and did the same until we were within 20 yards of it. "Stop!" Daniel said in a whisper. "Look closely" he said in the same hushed voice. I looked at the shape for a few seconds and saw it moving up and down slightly, like breathing. I looked closer and saw two ears and a tail, along with wide shoulders and hips. "Is that a dog!?" I asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, a hellhound. You know my old dog bud? Well he got killed by one of those. My current dog is a hellhound I inherited when I killed its old master, the traitor I told you about."

With that he started towards the massive creature, it was the size of his old room. (A/N by the way that isn't too big, my old room was about 10-15 feet from each corner of the wall.) He got to about 10 yards of it before drawing his sword. When he did so the hound's ears perked up and it quickly got up to face Daniel. When it faced him Daniel didn't flinch, even though it stood two feet taller than him and easily outweighed him by 250 pounds. It growled and leaped at him, what happened afterwards was genius. Instead of dodging or even putting his sword up, Daniel dove, rolled under it, and stabbed upwards through the belly of the hound into its chest, and sliced his sword down towards the dog's rear-end. The dog fell on top of him, dead. "DANIEL!!" Me and Olivia yelled at the same time. We ran towards the body and saw a sword poke through the side of the dog and slice a cut in its hide. Daniel crawled out of the beast, covered in blood, guts, and slime. "Ugh," he grumbled, "the inside of a hellhound is disgusting."

"That's what I would think." I said blankly.

"Yeah, it should dissolve in a few minutes." Olivia said.

"Dissolve?" I asked.

"Yeah monsters dissolve into ash once they are killed; the more powerful the monster, the longer it takes to dissolve." Daniel said while flinging slime from his hands and exposed arms. "I really need a shower."

"The ponds are right over there." I said, pointing back in the direction we came from.

"Yeah but the blood'll attract fish and I won't get it all off, besides, I'll probably just get moss and algae everywhere." He said.

"True." I said.

"Guys we should probably set up camp somewhere, it's getting dark." Olivia said.

"And once it starts getting dark," I started.

"It gets dark fast." Daniel finished.

Daniel took the lead and started off into the woods. I fell back with Olivia. "So how'd you figure out you're a demi-god?" I asked.

"I got chased by monsters until a satyr found me and brought me to camp, where I found Daniel and spent most of my time with him til' I made friends. Then he asked me to come with him to his favorite spot in camp, a ridge that looks over the whole valley. He asked me to be his girlfriend, I said yes, he kissed me, and he said his new favorite place is wherever I am."

"Wow, I knew he had a crush on you for years, but I never thought it would take him so long to do that." I said.

"Hey Joel?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Remember when you would stay the night and you and my sister would talk and I would tell you to stop even when you were whispering?" He asked.

"You heard our entire conversation, didn't you." I stated.

"Yep, and my parents told me I couldn't date until I was 16. That's why it took so long."

"Ya know it would be nice to let me think I know stuff."

"But then you would spread lies about me and I would have to shut them down then beat you up and give you a wedgie."

"I hate you."

"I know, this is a good spot for camp." He said. We were on a bank next to a small stream without much cover. "I'll take first watch. You can have my sleeping bag; Olivia, can you take second watch so I won't have to wake Joel up?" he asked.

"Sure Olivia said as we got settled and Daniel looked around. I fell asleep and saw black, then a figure started to come out of the darkness. It was a woman about 40 feet tall, with skin of stars and galaxies, a whip of stars at her side, and black wings protruding from her back. "So you are the one who killed the spawn of Erebus? You do not look like anything special, but the greatest heroes almost never do. You will be taken to my realm and never see light again! I will cover the world in darkness, spread eternal night across the land! I have laid back and watched Gaia fail twice to defeat the Gods! I will rise and bring all my worst children to wreak havoc on the human race! You will not stop me. I will crush your camp and torture your friends." I saw pictures of death and destruction, I tried to do something but I couldn't. I flung my eyes open and saw that it was morning.