Ventures Chapter 24

Instructions

Chapter 24 The Rainbow Kidnapper ---- When I reach it, I notice it’s an iris-message. I think back to when my sister once iris-messaged my dad, when I had walked in on that. It’s basically a way to communicate by paying the rainbow goddess, Iris, with golden drachmas, which are ancient greek coins. “What is it,” I ask softly, as I sit in front of it in between Jacob and Aternus. I push my brown hair out of my eyes and stare at it, the rainbow mist reflecting on my skin. Suddenly, a hooded figure appears in the frame. “I have your friend,” it says. “Who are you?!” Jacob yells and I jump at the sudden sound. “That is for me to know, and for you to find out.” Aternus then signs angrily, ‘Which friend,’ The figure grins under the hood, “I believe you know who I’m talking about, Aternus Verrin,” They turn to show Havi, unconscious. My heart beats faster. “I believe her name is Havi Varadi, correct?” I lost it. Angrily, I yell, “Give her back to us!” I feel my hands turn to fists and my grey eyes turn dark. Jacob puts a hand on my shoulder to try to calm me down. It did not work. The hooded person turns back to us. “Not unless you get something for me.” ‘What?’ Aternus signs. “Bring me one pair of Hermes’ winged shoes to the store you wrecked earlier.” “And then you'll let her go?” The figure nods and then the iris message stops, leaving us sitting in the dark. “Well? Who knows how to get Hermes’ flying shoes?” Jacob asks. Me and Aternus look at each other. “First of all, they are winged shoes, not flying,” I say, “second of all, the answer is none of us know where to get the shoes.” Jacob then rolls his eyes at me. “Well, excuse me, but if they have wings, then they fly.” Now, it’s my turn to roll my eyes, “No. For example, penguins don’t fly, but they have wings.” “Well, they glide in the water like they’re flying.” “Dodo birds don’t fly.” “What the Hades is a ‘dodo bird’?!” “An extinct bird. They had wings but they didn’t fly. That was because they had rocks to digest stuff in their stomach, it’s actually quite interesting-” Jacob stops me, “Okay, whatever. Before you turn back into a walking Wikipedia, I give up.” “Well. Now I need to figure out whether you are being chivalrous or just a quitter.” “Okay, A) I don’t know what ‘chiva-ar-lourse’ even means,” I open my mouth to say something, but he continues. “B) I really don’t care, and C) I’m not a quitter.” I cross my arms, “First of all, it’s ‘chivalrous’, not ‘chiva-ar-lourse’, that just sounds like some kind of disease. Second of all, you should. Third of all, that is still being decided.” The child of Hephaestus crosses his arms, “A) Or a kind of bug. B) Why? C) Yes, and it’s now decided that I am not a quitter!” I snort, “It’s still the wrong pronunciation, so you should care. And, yeah, we’ll see about that.” Aternus steps between us before we can continue, signing, ‘Let’s just get his shoes so we can get Havi back.’ I nod, and Jacob follows Aternus out. I trail after the boys, only turning back once to stare at where the iris message was. /We’re coming for you, Havs. I promise./