Chapter Eleven: Climbing Lava Walls and a Wild Willow

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One day was all Alexia had. One freaking day before they go on a quest. One day before they set foot on the monster-infested world.

And how did she spend that day?

She spent it by battling sea serpents, hacking at dummies and climbing the extremely dangerous climbing wall dripping with lava.

But seriously, whose brilliant idea was it to make a freaking climbing wall with lava spilling down it's sides?!

Exhausted, Alexia crashed down onto her bed in the Demeter cabin, which was empty, except for Willow, who was too busy gardening outside to notice her.

Alexia sighed, she hated training with Drake. She was jealous of the other campers. Who had their normal schedules and activities, while she was stuck with an annoying dim-witted Drake as her trainer.

Sure, she admit he was good with a sword and tended to give good advice to her during her lessons, but the sad truth was that she was too busy trying not to die of boredom to even listen to a word he was saying.

So far, the only thing she accomplished today was a small cut on the arm, hair that looked like a bird's nest and two lava-scorched t-shirts.

Mentally debating on whether or not she'd go back to practice, she pulled out something from under her bed,which was a circular golden box an image of a snake and a wheel stamped on it's gleaming golden lid.

Alexia didn't quite know how, but after the dream chat she had with Demeter, the box she saw in her dreams had randomly appeared under her bed, which she found bother weird and cool.

The daughter of Demeter stared at the golden box with pursed lips. The circular object was strangely the same color of her eyes.

And so was the object inside it.

"There you are!"

Alexia bolted to her feet so fast, she accidentally forgot she was sitting on a bunk bed, so naturally, when she stood up, her head hit the metal above her.

"Ow!", she screeched, as she,clutched her throbbing head. Furious, she turned to find a smirking Drake sitting behind her. "DRAKE! STOP SCARING ME LIKE THAT!"

He just chuckled, "Why should I? It's fun to make you angry"

"DRAKE I SWEAR---"

He raised his hands in surrender, "Yeah yeah, you'll rip my head off my neck, I know. So stop screaming already"

Alexia huffed, "I'm not screaming"

"Mhm, keep telling yourself that", he said smirking. "But anyway, are you ready for training?"

At the mention of training, she groaned.

"Ugh! I hate training!", she complained. "Why can't I have Pegasi riding like everybody else?!"

Drake snorted, "Oh please, you'll fall off the Pegasus before you even leave the ground"

"HEY!"

"Besides, we only have forty minutes before free period. Pegasi riding started ninety minutes ago", he replied before taking a hold of her elbow and dragged her out of the cabin. "Come on! It'll be fun! We're going to see if you're any good with a bow!"

"But isn't Archery at two o' clock?!", she protested, recalling the camp's schedule.

Drake rolled his eyes, "I told you, you are having advanced training, so we're not following the schedule! The quest will start tomorrow!"

"This sucks", she muttered as the son of Hades dragged her towards the Archery range.

---

"Turns out you are horrible at archery", Drake muttered, as they jogged away from the Archery range.

Alexia scowled at this. "WELL WHOSE IDEA WAS IT THAT I TRY ARCHERY!?"

He scratched his head and smiled slyly. "Hehehe...."

"Try archery, he said, it'll be fun, he said", she muttered to herself, when two familiar campers came up to them.

"Hey!", Fred greeted, wiping the sweat off his face. "So how was training?", he asked.

"Why don't you ask Drake that?", Alexia said, shooting a glare at Drake.

"Guessing from your look, it didn't go so well", Gwen said, sighing.

"Can we switch trainers?", Alexia asked, bitterly. "I think my trainer's brain is broken"

"Hey! I heard that!", Drake complained, annoyed.

Fred laughed, "I'm not even sure your trainer has a brain"

Gwen and Alexia laughed at this, making Drake pout like five year-old, "You guys are just jealous"

"Mhm, keep telling yourself that", Gwen said, snickering, causing Drake to roll his eyes in annoyance.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?",Drake asked, raising an eyebrow.

Gwen sighed, "I was supposed to have Pegasi riding lessons from the Aphrodite cabin, but all the Pegasi are in use. So I thought I'd go to sword training for now"

"I was supposed to train the Hephaestus cabin but they're too busy making traps and weaponry in case of another attack", Fred explained, making Alexia step back when she noticed he was holding a spear.

Drake clasped his hands, "Perfect! Now we can all train together!"

"Wait what?", Alexia said, confused.

"Gwen, you can teach her how to build stuff! Fred, you cab teach her archery, since you have good aim! It's perfect!"

Fred raised an eyebrow, "Uh-huh, and what will you do?"

"Um.... eat a sandwich?"

Alexia and Gwen facepalmed.

Fred sighed,.and glanced at Alexia, "Are you any good with a bow or arrow?"

"Pffft, she didn't even hit the target", Drake said, smiling.

"HEY!"

"How about a sword?", Gwen asked,

"I doubt she can lift one", Drake muttered, making Alexia stomp in his foot. "Ouch! Hey! It's the truth!"

"Throwing knives?"

"Lol no"

"A spear?"

"I'd like to see her try"

"Er, how about a gun?"

The suggestions went on and on, Drake kept answering for her, making her want to punch him with every word.

"How about a chainsaw?"

"How about, no"

Alexia admit, having a chainsaw for a weapon would be pretty cool. Considering she could use it to chop off Drake's head when he got too annoying.

"So the only weapon she knows how to use is a dagger?", Fred asked, frowning.

"Well yeah, sort of", the son of Hades muttered, "But she has trouble---"

"ALEXIA!"

The four demigods looked up to see Willow, the Demeter cabin's counselor, riding on a milky white Pegasus.

Oh look, a wild Willow appeared.

"Hey Willow", the golden-eyed brunette greeted, smiling.

"Get on", was all she said, before grabbing Alexia's arm and forced her on the Pegasus.

"Hiya!", she said, before the two demigods riding on the snow-white Pegasus rocketed towards the sky, leaving three demigods staring after them in confusion.

Where was Willow taking her?

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