//------------------------------// // 9. We Start the Quest // Story: The Pantheon // by Pylon Constructor //------------------------------// It was midafternoon when I started walking over to the hill to see my new quest mates, I just finished packing some of what few things I came here with. I gave myself a quick change of clothes that basically consisted of a fresh camp shirt, a pair of blue track pants, my tennis shoes, and my new wristbands. My duffle bag just had a spare change of clothes just in case, some mortal money Chiron lent me, a few drachmas, some toothpaste to keep my breath minty fresh, and a toothbrush. Oh, and also some god food known as ambrosia and nectar. The ambrosia looked like brownies with a small goldish tint and was given to me in a little plastic ziploc bag, the nectar was stored inside a canteen but I assumed that it was gold or amber colored. Chiron said the food and drink of the gods can heal a demigod, but too much of it can kill us just like any other mortal that consumes it. It was just a tad depressing when I really think about what I brought with me, I didn’t have much in the way of personal items so the actual act of packing was done so quickly all I had left was time to think. Though I can’t say having a lot of my things with me would have a been a good thing really, since I was about to head off on a dangerous quest across the country. As I started to approach the hill I decided to jog the rest of the way up, the large body of Chiron was one of the first things that greeted me when I finally reached the top. The other things that greeted me, or I guess I should say who, was a blonde haired man with a startling amount of blue eyes on his body, another blonde haired girl that was sporting a cowboy hat and boots, and an elfish looking, purple haired boy staring off into the distance. Both of whom I assume are my new quest mates are about my age. “Ah, glad you made it, Rainbow,” Chiron said as he uncrossed his arms from behind his back, smiling as I stopped in front of the others. “Yeah,” I replied. I nodded at the others, “What’s up? I’m Rainbow Dash.” “Applejack,” the blonde haired girl said, smiling at me as she tipped her hat. “Nimble Gust, call me Nimble,” said the boy as he shifted the duffle bag hanging on his shoulder around. Chiron clasped a hand over my shoulder and addressed the others, “Rainbow here will be your quest leader. Are you two ready to hear the prophecy now?” The girl and guy agreed, Chiron reciting the lines of the prophecy to them. While he was doing that, I was busy feeling just a tad too nervous for my liking. Sure, I liked to consider myself a people person, but I’ve never thought I’d actually be in a leadership position with real lives on the line. That usually takes a type of dedication that I felt I did not have. When Chiron finished telling the others about our quest and Applejack spoke up, a country twang to her voice that I didn’t notice before, “Well, that there quest don’t sound too difficult. But what’s this about a ‘Meadow City’ and all?” The other guy nodded, Applejack asked the important question. One I had neglected to ask Chiron when I first got the quest. Chiron merely smiled at Applejack and replied, “I gave myself a little bit of time to think the quest through and I believe that I have found the answer. I am certain that your quest will lead you down to Texas. Dallas, more specifically.” I looked up at Chiron, “What? Why Dallas?” “Tell me, Rainbow, do you know what Dallas is called?” I thought it over, “Uh, not really? Isn’t it just called Dallas?” Chiron just shook his head, “No, Dallas was once called “Place by the Meadow”, there is history to that name but I shan’t bore you with it. There is also the added part about reunion being the key, Dallas has an observation tower in the city called Reunion Tower. A tourist attraction where I am positive that you’ll find your end goal.” I had no idea that the names of places had more than one meaning, but at least we have ourselves a destination. Heeding Chiron’s advice, he was older than me by a lot, I decided that Dallas was where we were going to go. “Argus here will take you as far as the train station in the camp van,” Chiron waved a hand over to the blonde haired guy and a white van with a stylized strawberry on its side and the words “Delphi Strawberry Service” over the fruit. “But no further, he is a part of the camp’s security after all and having more than three members of your quest could jeopardize it.” I shook myself out of my staring at the van and looked at Chiron oddly, “What? Why a train? Can’t we take a plane?” Although I don’t know how we could get our weapons on board with the metal detectors. Chiron shook his head no, “I’m afraid that the airport has had too much suspicious monster activity around it. Likely put there by our unknown perpetrator in order to slow us down long enough for war to break out. Sadly, what with mortal security getting ever tighter around airports, any disturbance caused by a monster would delay you even longer than simply taking an alternate route.” I tsked and looked down, not wanting to let the others know that not flying by plane disappointed me. I never got to fly in one after all, our town couldn’t really support an airport, and my mother simply drove us anytime we wanted to take a trip. New York wasn’t that far away from our town and was the only place worth going within driving distance. “Ah, don’t worry about it sugarcube,” Applejack interjected. “Besides, your father don’t really like other half-bloods flyin’ around in his domain anyhow.” Nimble snorted and muttered, “That’s putting it lightly.” Chiron cleared his throat, “Yes, well, the Lord of the Sky’s temperamental attitude towards half-bloods not of his own aside, you should best be moving now. You three only have a week to complete this quest, you must return to Olympus in that timeframe and bring the two missing owls back to Athena.” Or else we are all doomed, was the last, unspoken part of his sentence. But no pressure right? I mean we were just three kids being sent off to face somebody able to sneak around the place of the gods and steal back some magic birds they took. All this taking place in a week and if we return too late then the kiddy gloves are off, and the gods go to war against each other. Once again, no pressure. “Now, off you three go, and don’t forget to watch yourselves out there. You don’t know what may lurk in the dark, be ever vigilant and you probably won’t die,” with that positive and uplifting comment he waved his hands forward in a shooing motion and we hurried to stick our bags inside the van. We were almost done moving everything around so that the bags don’t move around when we heard a voice. “Wait!” the voice screamed from down the hill, dragging the ‘a’ for a good couple of seconds longer than necessary. I looked back the way I came and saw Wild and Fluttershy sprinting up the hill. I guessed that Wild was the one that screamed for us to wait, male voice aside I just could not see Fluttershy screaming like that. The two finally caught up to us, Wild sliding on his hooves as he came to a stop, looking only slightly winded as I’m sure he had a lot of practice running around. Poor Fluttershy, however, looked like she was about to fall over, she came to a stumbling stop and nearly fell over as she put her hands on her knees and gasped for air. “W-wait, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said between breaths. I came up to my longtime friend and rubbed her back as she got her energy back. She seemed to finally catch her breath after a little while and slowly stood pulled herself up straight, only a tiny amount of shakiness left. She had to have really pushed herself to get to me before I left. “W-we wanted to say, um, good luck on your quest, Rainbow,” she softly spoke. She softly toed the ground with a boot, “If that’s alright with you of course.” I grinned at my best friend and pulled her into a quick side hug, she squeaked in surprise as I said, “Of course it is, Flutts! Glad you two could make it before we left.” Admittedly I was glad to see my friends before I left. I really should have at least visited them before I came up here and I felt really bad that wasn’t the first thing I did. But they didn’t seem bothered by it at all as they stood there supporting me with smiles on their faces. I really did have some good friends and I couldn’t be prouder of that fact. I just wished I wasn’t leaving them behind to go off on a potentially deadly quest. Wild grinned back and held his arms out for a hug of his own, I rolled my eyes and obliged as he said, “Sorry I couldn’t come with you, Rainbow, but I was given a mission from the Council before you got your quest. I’ll be leaving tomorrow with a couple of other satyrs.” I just shook my head, “It’s cool, don’t worry about it. What’s your mission?” I really was curious, Wild just back back from a mission, me, and he was so quickly being shipped off to another. It had to be pretty important. Wild just shrugged, “No idea to be honest. The Council did some woodland magic around the time we came to camp and got some strange feelings from the few Wild parts of America left. Took them this long to make a decision because they were too busy arguing with themselves, a bit like the gods actually.” Thunder rolled across the sky, Wild looked up and with a nervous chuckled he replied, “No offense intended of course.” When the thunder stopped he shook his head and looked back at me, “We’re just going to investigate what’s going on, I’ll tell you when we get back if it’s anything interesting.” I held a fist up and he grinned and bumped it back with his own, “Hey, I’ll hold you to that.” “I’m sure you will,” he mirthfully said back. We walked back to the van, chatting aimlessly about our time so far in camp and just generally catching up, Nimble was already sitting in the back waiting for the rest of us to join him. I had the feeling he wasn’t much of a people guy if his silence was anything to go by, then again he could just not have anything to say. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was talking with Applejack. The two were sisters, a fact that I learned while they spoke to each other. Not all that hard to guess when they talk about making plants grow with their demigod powers and a bunch of other nature things. Once we finished with our goodbyes Applejack and I finally got inside the van, I gave one final farewell wave to my two friends and closed the back of the van. Once I had taken my seat and buckled my seatbelt, safety is important, Argus keyed the ignition and drove down the hill. He turned onto the lonely road and sped off to the nearest train station going out of Manhattan with three demigods in the back seat on a quest to save the world.