Mostly Normal: Only Half of the Story

(Elliot) Act Five, Scene One

Elliot ran from the cabin to the grotto. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Elliot had no idea how he knew, he just knew. As he ran, he could hear Madeline crying in the cabin, and Nora trying to comfort her.

When he finally got to the small gathering of trees, he was out of breath and covered in sweat. "Quinn! Where are you?" He shouted into the always night sky of the grotto. There was no answer. Elliot's face crumpled in despair, and he called again desperately. "Quinn!"

No sound but crickets chirping. Elliot stomped his foot, angry at everyone. Where was the child of Lilith when Elliot needed him? And Rio. Where was Rio? Elliot hadn't seen his half-brother in a while, and he had a bad feeling when he thought of him.

Elliot waited for five minutes without seeing a trace of his Celtic friend. Then, anger boiling in his gut, he stomped out of the wooded hollow in a towering temper. Fine. If no one was there to help him, he would have to do things himself. No more asking aid of his siblings and friends. Elliot had had enough of that.

Suddenly he looked up and saw three figures exiting the Janus cabin. All three were wearing backpacks and duffel bags slung over their shoulders. One wore what looked like a robe, and the other two wore jeans and T-shirts. Elliot knew only one of them: the boy with striking red hair and an purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt. Rio!

Elliot stopped in his tracks. Where was Rio going with these two unknown kids, towing bags like they were going on a trip?

Going on a trip. Elliot's eyes widened. Of course! But quests were so rare and hard to come by. How had Rio gotten clearance for one on such short notice? It didn't make sense, and yet...it looked real enough. Elliot gasped and dashed toward his brother madly.

He intercepted the redheaded boy and his friends about midway between the Janus cabin and Half-Blood Hill. Rio looked worried and grim, and his companions looked fearful. The one that Elliot had thought was wearing a robe was Japanese and his garment was actually a kimono, simple and rather drab. The other kid looked really handsome, almost like a child of Aphrodite. Both of Rio's friends had black hair.

The Japanese kid started speaking rapidly in his home country's language. The black-haired pretty kid next to him punched him in the arm and muttered something about how Elliot probably didn't understand Japanese. Elliot didn't pay much attention to these two, though; both of his bicolored eyes were fixed on Rio. "Where...you going?" Elliot panted. Rio shouldered past his half-brother and marched forward stubbornly without answering. The two dark-haired half-bloods (at least, Elliot assumed they were half-bloods) followed close behind.

"Salvador, we won't have to actually go to Egypt, will we?" Rio asked when he thought they were out of hearing range of Elliot, "That would be a long way, and none of us are old enough to drive. And I don't think Jupiter would be too happy with us flying, but I don't know."

Unfortunately, Elliot heard every word of this casual sentence. It also gave him a truckload of information. First of all: one of Rio's companions was named Salvador, which Elliot thought must be a Italian name. Second of all: there was something about the way Rio said 'actually go to Egypt' that made Elliot think this quest must have something to do with an Egyptian of some sort.

The boy named Salvador snorted and rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Rio," he said, "we didn't go to school in Egypt, did we? Hakizimana is in the States."

"Right, just checking," Rio said absently as he squinted at Half-Blood Hill and Thalia's tree, shading his eyes from the sun.

Elliot watched helplessly as the three thirteen-year-old half-bloods started trudging up the hill, then hung his head and walked back to the Janus cabin dejectedly. Rio was going to die out there, Elliot knew it.