Young Writers Society

The rest of the night went on mostly smoothly, except for the parts where Delly started talking and we all yelled at her to shut up. That was annoying.

At least we actually managed to get somewhere. If we hadn’t, our nerves would be so fried that we decided to do two things that wouldn’t be any good. We might’ve either sent Delly back (actually, nevermind, that would’ve been very good), or we even might’ve quit the quest.

I’m glad Delly isn’t talking anymore, too, I thought. Delly had finally gotten so fed up that she hadn’t spoken a word since the time Savannah had put her axe against her throat and threatened her into shutting up.

Lotus sped up so fast she almost tripped over her feet, and I reached out my arm to help her keep her balance. “Thanks, Vic,” she said, giving me an embarrassed smile. “That was stupid of me.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I told her. “It’s easy to trip on terrain like this. It’s not your fault, and you’re definitely not stupid for it. Now, let’s go make sure Taylor is doing okay. He looks like he’s about to drop dead from exhaustion.” Yes, I did know what that looked like. You tend to see a lot of death when you live right next to the Underworld.

We raced toward Taylor, leaping over the gigantic rocks jutting out of the ground and weaving around our other quest mates.

“Hey,” Taylor said when we reached him, sounding even more tired than he looked. “What’s up? We’re almost at the cave where we’re gonna meet up with Wyatt. He’s gonna bring the changes of clothes. Look, the cave’s over there.” He pointed to the cave in the hill to the left, his hand shaking really hard.

“Look, Taylor, you need a break,” I informed him, gesturing to all of him to illustrate my point. “No arguing. Sit down and rest, please, or you’re gonna die of exhaustion. And I mean actually rest, not just sitting down for three seconds.”

Turned out he was so tired he didn’t even argue, which was good. Well, the not arguing part was good, not the part where he was extremely tired.

“Thank the gods,” I muttered. Well, okay, we’re gonna slow down, but Taylor really needs to rest. If he doesn’t, he’ll die. So, yeah, this is good. Don’t even think about finding anything bad about it, Vic. Don’t you dare. Okay, now stop arguing with yourself. That’s just weird. I really needed to stop getting into fights with myself.

Lotus gestured for Carter, Savannah, and Delly to hurry up. “Get over here, ya’ slow pokes!” she yelled. “Hurry up or you get to be stuffed into Delly’s closet, and lemme tell ya’, it ain’t fun!”

Savannah immediately sprinted toward us, with Carter close behind. Delly scowled at everyone (nothing new) and continued walking at her regular pace (which was as slow as a tortoise). “I can stand my closet!” she shouted up at us. “You’re all weaklings! Obviously I’m superior, as my father is Zeus.”

Rounding on her, Savannah shouted back, “SHUT UP about your father being Zeus! He sucks! Plus, it doesn’t matter who your faster is, because it doesn’t make you any good!” She spun back around and flipped over Carter, landing near the rest spot first and causing Carter to roll his eyes.

“I agree, Zeus sucks,” Lotus whispered to her.

“EXCUSE ME!” hollered Delly angrily. “You’re all wrong, and extremely ungrateful for the mighty king of the gods. There is something clearly wrong with all of you lowly idiots.”

“Like how we’re letting you come? As I already said, I know,” I fired back. “And also how we’re somehow managing to put up with you. That too.” How annoying does she have to be? I wondered.

Delly’s face flushed red with anger, and she charged at us while yelling about how we were “foul, lowly creatures.” Honestly, it was kinda funny how angry she got. The part that wasn’t funny was the part were she started hitting Lotus with an insanely sharp tree branch.

Lotus rolled her eyes and smacked the branch away. “Seriously, Delly,” she said sarcastically, “it almost seems as if you hate us.”

“I do hate you! You’re children of lower gods than Zeus, and annoying ones at that!” Delly screamed at her. “On top of that, you can’t even respect the king of the gods! You’re all vile creatures, and you should let someone superior to you lead! Me! I should lead! I would be a fantastic leader, and you all know that! You just refuse to admit it because you all love Victoria Lawrence! Now, either let me lead, or I’ll abandon all of you!”

“I like the second option,” Savannah piped up, her hands drifting to her battle axe. “How about we go with that one? That’d be wonderful.”

“I agree with Savannah,” I added.

Lotus nodded in agreement. “Yeah, do the abandoning option. I think we’d all prefer that, don’t you?” Carter and Taylor nodded in response, to which Lotus said, “I mean, I was saying that to Delly, but okay.”

“Ugh! You’re all idiots,” Delly sneered at us. “Fine, then. I don’t care about what stupid lowborns like you think. I’m leaving! Goodbye forever, worthless idiots! I hate all of you!” She spun around on her heals and marched away from us, muttering curses about us and our parents.

“Thank. The. Gods. She’s. Gone,” Savannah grumbled. We all nodded in agreement with her.

Shaking myself, I told them, “All right, break’s over. Let’s get over to that cave and meet up with Wyatt. Taylor, are you ready to walk again?” I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder, then stretched out my hand to help Taylor up.

Once Taylor was up, he said, “Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s go.” He turned toward the cave and started leading us to Wyatt. We scrambled after him, Lotus almost tripping over a rock, and stumbled into the cave.

We didn’t see Wyatt, but we could sure hear him screaming.

And we did see bloodstains and spilled supplies.