"Are you sure that what you saw was actually where you think Enceladus is?" Sophia asked as we furiously trekked down the trail.
"I know it's where Enceladus is," I replied for the one-millionth time.
"It could be anything," Percy pointed out from the back.
"I'm aware." I muttered. I was in the lead this time. Who made really big fires out in the middle of the forest for the fun of it? Enceladus. And Enceladus would bring us to my mom and the end of the quest, dead or alive. Dead or alii-ive.. got distracted. Sorry.
Anyway, as we got closer, I started smelling smoke. We were deathly close. I could feel it.
Then an asteroid hit the earth. We all died. The end.
Just kidding. Don't take things so seriously.
I found out that the smoke was Leo getting nervous. Sophia smacked his hand, and he tried to give it a rest, but the poor heifer really was nervous. "I've went up against this guy before. He's a bad dude. I mean, he's nothing compared to Gaea, but.."
I hadn't been in the war with Gaea. I'd come a few months after it happened. It was a pretty big thing, and must have ruined the minds of some campers. But the camp looked perfectly fine when I came along. They must have healed quickly, or something.
Me and my mother had seen a few of the war's effects, though. Crops in Tennessee were pretty much going crazy. I'd seen faces in the barley and whatnot. I later learned that what I saw was karpoi. At the time, I'd thought I was going insane.
But now Enceladus was back. Back to the demigod life, I suppose.
We hiked up steep hills and had to even go minor rock climbing a few times. Percy got Sophia's shoe to the face a few times, and I heard him muttering about he was always tasting the shoes of Athena girls.
After rock climbing, hiking and a lot of walking, I smelled bigger smoke, that was definitely not Leo. "Guys. We're getting close." We all grouped up in one tight little circle, and were much more cautious.
I had to pull back a few branches and shrubs that made an awful lot of noise, but we didn't seem to attract any attention.
It was when I knew that the fire was in a clearing that I flung myself against a tree. "Okay, guys. His little hideout has to be there." I whispered. They all nodded.
"On the count of three. One..
Two.."
"WHO ARE YOU?!"
I nearly jumped out of my skin. I backed away to see at least seven guys come from the clearing, all holding shotguns. And they were abnormally tall.
"Oh my gods. I'm sorry. We're sorry. We thought -"
"Gods?" One of the guys furrowed his brow, and lowered his gun.
"Yeah, well, I mean -"
Percy jumped from our tight circle and held his sword at one of the guys' throat. "I know what you are. The Mist is strong but I know."
"You're crazy, man," the guy replied nervously.
"Percy, I think he's just an innocent guy.." I couldn't help but start trembling.
"He's far from a normal guy. Take a good look at him. The Mist is strong but none of them are normal."
I stared at him for a good, long time. And it started becoming clearer.
Suddenly, the Totally Not Normal guy smirked. "Started wondering how long it'd take for you to figure it out."
They all started to morph at once. They grew six arms instead of two, and mud started dripping off them as if they'd rose up from the earth recently. They started to look like moving clay statues.
"Gegeines," Sophia muttered from the back. "Earthborn. We've made it, and this is the start of the end."
