Chapter 9: We get attacked by some wild animals

Turns out, Oman is quite terrible with picking a right place to drop us off, though more on that later.

We picked up Kai, who had fainted and had burnt clothes. Alexander was fine, but Kai needed to be healed, so Amethyst fed him ambrosia (the food of the gods, as she told me) and sat by his side. We also retrieved his sword, which trust me, was not easy. (Long story short: lots of seaweed).

Meanwhile, I asked Oman, "How did you summon this thing? We were literally in the middle of the ocean."

"I have a little device that allows me to call in vehicles from my garage. When I swam to land, I called the ol' Lenny and it came," he answered.

"So, why do you have a helicopter and a ship?" I continued.

At this point, he probably had a stash of vehicles, most likely including a limousine, a private airplane, and a NASA spaceship.

"I have transpo of all kinds, from limos, ships, airplanes, really anything. Chiron helped me get a job as worldwide transport for demigods and mortals, so I'm always getting to travel," he explained.

"Do you have a Qatar Airways plane that shoots rockets?" Alexander asked excitedly. He may have slayed the snake, but still, I wanted to slap him.

Oman shook his head. "I ain't got a Qatar Airways plane, but I do got one nifty attack airplane, fit with missiles and whatnot."

"You're telling me you could've just blown up the serpent? Why didn't you bring your attack airplane instead for this trip?" I asked once again.

"I only bring that out in the most dire of circumstances, like a war or something'. I didn't think that we'd get attacked by a big ol' snake," he answered.

"Speaking of, what did Chiron actually help you do? You seem to owe him a lot," I asked.

"Indeed I do, child. Chiron and I met twenty years ago, when I accepted a job at camp," he answered blissfully. "For about three years, I helped train y'all demigods and worked alongside Chiron, but eventually, I started becoming�� uninterested with the work and began slackin' off. I yearned to travel the world, somethin' I'd dreamed of my entire life. When Chiron realized my dream, he let me become an international transporter and let me live my dream instead of getting' rid of me. For that, I owe him everythin'."

I nodded my head. Even though we had just gotten attacked by a sea serpent, I couldn't help but feel hope.

After a few minutes, Oman announced from the front, "We have arrived in New York y'all!"

But it wasn't exactly New York, we were surrounded by a large forest of trees rather than the actual city.

"Wait, hold up," Kai groaned, rubbing his eyes after taking a nap. "Why are you dropping us off here?"

"I'm sorry, but I need to get to China. There's a group of demigods waiting for me and I can't be late. Good luck, y'all!" Oman explained, dropping down the ladders for us to climb down. We hastily, but reluctantly, climbed down the ladder, Kai cursing under his breath.

When we all climbed down and Oman had left, (thanks a lot, SHERIFF), we began taking in our surroundings, wondering where in the heck in New York we had just landed in.

In front of us, there was a small grove of trees that led deeper into the forest which seemed to go on endlessly. The ground was muddy and littered with a vast array of sticks, leaves, and even some trash. The trees were covered in lush flowers and fruits, giving the forest a very spring like look.

"I can't wait to adventure in this forest! I love camping!" Amethyst squealed.

"And I hate camping, but you don't hear me talking about it," Kai muttered.

Alexander bounced up and down. "Maybe we'll find the Lost Sword of Endor! Or maybe, we'll find a tree!"

I really didn't have the energy to correct him.

"Why are you excited? We literally just got dropped off in the middle of a random forest, delaying our quest!" I expressed with annoyance.

Amethyst shrugged. "I mean, we still landed in New York so it doesn't really matter. And anyways, who doesn't love a good walk through the forest?"

"ME!" Kai and I exclaimed in unison.

Amethyst rolled her eyes in response, "Don't be such a baby about it guys, one little delay doesn't mean the end of the world.

"Whatever," I mumbled as Kai cursed under his breath once again. We began trekking through the forest, trying to find a way to get out of the forest and into New York.

As we looked for a way out, we kept hearing the faint sounds of insects from the trees around us along with branches breaking below us like someone breaking a nutshell. It was easy to be paranoid in this quiet forest and we were constantly looking around us, hoping not to be attacked. After about thirty minutes of walking, we stopped for a break.

"Gods, we're never gonna get out of here," I mumbled, as I drank the last of my water from a canteen that I stole borrowed from the ship.

"Don't be so negative, Rose. We'll make it out of here," Amethyst said positively before Kai finished her sentence, "When we're two thousand years old."

Amethyst scowled at him. "Yeah, with that attitude we will! Look, we're nearing the city. Then, you can go eat McDonald's and do whatever you want!"

She stormed off with a huff and disappeared behind a couple of trees.

Kai grinned. "That would be pretty nice."

I frowned. "Maybe we should apologize, I mean we are pretty close to New York after all."

"Don't worry, I will," Kai promised.

Once we finished taking our break, we decided to send Alexander to get Amethyst, but before he could even start looking, we heard a shrill scream that definitely sounded like Amethyst.

Immediately, Kai began running towards the scream, leaving me and Alexander to look at each other in horror. We quickly began following Kai, praying that Amethyst was fine and not dead by the hands of some strange monster.

Luckily for us however, it didn't take long to find Amethyst as the three of us proceeded to crash into her.

"Ow," Amethyst muttered, rubbing her head.

Kai got up in a daze. "Are you ok? Why did you scream?" he asked, half-worried, half-mad.

"S..some boar or monster started chasing me," she explained, stuttering in fear.

"Is it still chasing you?" I asked. I got the answer much sooner than I expected when out of nowhere, a large, mutant-size, pig looking thing started charging at me.

The pig was extremely hairy, with a dark pelt covered in long strands of fur. It had a large snout and canine teeth, which were as yellow as mustard. It had a short tail, which was about the length of a number two pencil. It snarled at us, ready to attack its prey, which of course was us.

Kai jumped in front of me and slashed upward with his sword, slashing its head off. "Take that, Peppa Pig!"

"No, Kai!" Amethyst exclaimed with horror. "You only just angered the rest of the boars!"

"What?! You only said there was one!" I yelled with panic.

Before Amethyst could say anything else, a horde of boars came charging in from deep within the forest. Similar to the boar Kai had just killed, the horde all had hairy dark pelts and canine yellow teeth.

"RUN!" Amethyst shrieked. We began running towards the right, jumping over bushes as branches crunched under our feet.

Finally, after running for a couple minutes, we found a large gray boulder and hid behind it, hoping the boars were far behind us. Thankfully, the horde dashed right past us and kept rampaging forward.

"Oh, thank the gods," I said, relieved. We all rested for a brief couple of minutes to make sure the boars were gone before walking again. But the encounter with the boars didn't help, as it had put us off track from finding New York.

"We've got to be getting close," Kai groaned.

"Calm down, best friend. We'll get to see McDonalds soon," Alexander said.

Kai patted him on the back. "We sure will, buddy. Now let's keep going!"

"Now you're excited," Amethyst said.

"Nope. Just making fun of you."

Amethyst scowled at him and bit back a response. We continued walking, but there still weren't any clear signs of escape. Eventually, we stopped for a quick break so we could eat.

"Oh shoot, well it looks like we have no supplies," Amethyst realized, her eyes wide with worry. "Here, Alexander, come with me to get some stuff. Kai and Rose, just wait here and keep an eye out for the boars. We'll be back soon."

"Yes, mom," Alexander answered, following Amethyst as they went deeper into the woods to look for supplies.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"I don't know," Kai said. "They may be gone for a while."

I nodded. "Probably. Anyways, this might seem like a random question but how long have you been at camp? It seems like you guys are pretty experienced with this demigod stuff."

"Amethyst and I have been at camp for about four years. We had been kicked out of a bunch of schools before our mom had sent us to camp. I guess our ADHD and dyslexia had some part to do with that, but it might've just been how we were. Since then, we've stayed at camp year round, occasionally visiting our mom during the holidays," he answered.

"That's cool," I said. "What about Alexander?"

He chuckled. "Three years ago, similar to how we found you, Amethyst and I were visiting our mom and we found him running into a forest, crying. He told us that he had ran away from home after being bullied by his family. However, we didn't actually know if he was mortal or a half-blood, so we tested his Ancient Greek, and we found out that he was indeed a half-blood. We brought him back to camp that day."

"And if he hadn't been a demigod?"

"It would've been pretty embarrassing, since we literally asked a runaway kid if he could read Ancient Greek. Even if I couldn't have brought him to camp, I would've tried finding him a home. I might've even asked my mom to take care of him."

I nodded, feeling bad for Alexander. I racked my brain for more questions, trying to find something to talk about while Amethyst and Alexander continued searching.

"Um, just out of curiosity, why do you have fire power? From what I'd heard, Apollo isn't known for his fire power," I asked curiously.

His smile wavered and he fell silent. I was about to apologize, regretting that I had asked the question.

"Well...about fifteen years ago, a year before I was born, Apollo and Hephaestus got into a pretty big argument. Hephaestus ended up getting so mad that he cursed a child of Apollo with immense fire power, who would end up dying of his own flames. When my mother revealed to Amethyst and I that we were demigods, she told me that I was that cursed child, that I would one day die of my own powers."

Dang, I thought. I had expected him to say something like "I don't know" or "I'm naturally blessed". Not "I'm going to die of my own powers". My smile instantly faded. "I'm sorry, Kai. If I had known-"

He shook his head. "It's okay. The curse is a part of me. I trust you, Rose. Just don't tell anybody. Especially Haden, or he might blow up camp."

I laughed weakly. It was nice to know he could still make jokes after telling someone about his darkest secret. For the rest of the time, we waited for Amethyst and Alexander to come back, no one saying a word.

After a couple of minutes, Alexander and Amethyst came running in with terrified looks on their faces.

"Pack up the stuff! We have to go right now!" Amethyst yelled. Kai and I hurriedly picked up our supplies as we began running through the forest for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.

"What in the world is going on? Why are we running?" I asked in a hurry.

"Well, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news, we found the exit to the forest! But the bad news, we're being chased by a bunch of blood-thirsty vultures!" Amethyst shrieked.