Ventures Chapter 20

Instructions

Chapter 20 Owls --------- Havi rolls out a piece of paper on the ground in front of us. Where she found it, no idea. “Okay, we need to figure out where to go next, /without/ getting knocked out in the process.” She gave me a pointed look at that last phrase. “Hey!” I say, crossing my arms. Havi shrugs. “So, I found some clues, and it seems that we need to go to a place with ghosts and such. Any ideas?” Aternus signs something too fast for me to interpret to Havi and she nods, signing something back. I study the paper. There’s writing, but even though it seems to be in Greek, my dyslexia is messing with my ability to read it. Just scanning, I can see messy scribbles, that must be Havi’s handwriting. “Okay, so let’s head west,” Havi’s voice snaps me back to reality. I look up, and Jacob and Aternus nods. Sooo, what happened? I scratch the back of my head, wishing I hadn’t zoned out. I try to remember if I heard any bits of conversation, but nothing pops up. Then I notice that everyone is staring at me. My cheeks flush. “What?” “Nothing.” Havi says, shaking her head. I look at my feet and Havi rolls up the paper. I feel like I was supposed to contribute somehow… but how? I decide to get up from the ground, forgetting how much my left side hurts. I wince at the small shooting sparks of pain going up and down my left side. Jacob gets up after me and comes over saying, “Woah, you okay?” /No duh./ “Erm-” Jacob takes that as a 'no’. “You want some help?” He asks me. “Uh-” I stutter and try to come up with an answer. “Uh- no thanks. I think I can do it.” I finally say, then adding at Jacob's fallen face, “but if I'll do, then you'll be the first to know.” Jacob smiles a tad bit. “Alright.” I smile back and watch as Jacob walks towards Havi, probably planning with her. I watch for a bit, forgetting what just happened, when my stupid leg decided to give out and I had to grab a tree branch to keep myself from falling. I look up at the tree. It’s very sturdy… I look back down at my left leg. It’s been bandaged from the attack. I chew my lower lip. (Should I..?) I shrug and see if I can climb back up. I almost giggle from excitement when I manage to get up to a sturdy enough branch and sit on it. The owl lands right next to me and hoots. I tilt my head and immediately remember my dad. I remember he told me a Choctaw story that had to do with owls. I honestly can’t remember what about though. (Seems kinda ironic, considering the stories were saying that we were supposed to avoid owls and my dad married Athena, whose patron animal is an owl.) The owl hoots at me. I laugh at myself and softly hoot at it back. “Yo, Abigail, whatcha doing?” The owl flies away and I look down at Jacob and roll my eyes. “First of all, /never/ call me Abigail,” “Duly noted.” “And what does it look like I’m doing?” I finish with a squeak in my voice. Jacob laughs and tries to climb up. He slides off the trunk after getting about six inches off the ground and lands on his back. I laugh, lean against the trunk, and watch as the son of Hephaestus begins another pathetic attempt at climbing a tree.