Ryland "Ry" Astrapí || Camp Half-Blood - Beach
Ryland stared at the ground blankly for a long few moments as if lost in thought, trying to shake the vicious voices from the back of his mind. Yet he couldn't. The screaming, it simply wouldn't go away. The endless loop becoming a long drone that was almost his constant companion on days such as this one. He hated every second that it spoke in his head, both wanting to forget about the horrid memories and to remember so he never made the same mistake again. At first, he didn't even hear Kiera speaking, only catching the second as she asked where he wanted to speak. Letting out a long sigh, he shook his head as he didn't like where they needed to go. Sharing those events with another person wasn't something terribly high on his favorite thing to do list.
Looking towards Kiera once more, it would be plainly obvious the pain he was barely managing to hide behind his facade.
"Neither, Kiera. We need to go talk with Rosie, I... I'd rather wait until we were on our way to explain it if you don't mind." He said, his voice wavering slightly as he spoke before forcing himself to pause for a few moments to gather his composure once more. Seeming to be more in control of his demeanor, he gestured towards the direction of the Oracle's cave in the forest.
"It might be related to our quest and the prophecy." He confessed, and with that, the two began to head out towards the Oracle.
Amid a long stretch of mountains, everything in nature seemed to stand eerily still. As if everything in the world was holding its breath in anticipation of what may come in the next few moments. Snow-capped mountains that each had a sea of green at their base from the massive forests that surrounding these beautiful mountains. Coupled with the lovely blues of crystal-clear waters that flowed down from the melting snows into a large lake in the valley below. Truly, something out of an artist's painting or a photograph one might see on a postcard advertising nature tours or the like. A landscape captured perfectly at a moment in time and seemed perfectly content to hold onto this moment for as long as it could. Of course, none of this actually mattered to the hungry eagle soaring gently on the winds overhead in its desperate search for food. Movement far below, imperceptible to any eye except for that of the mighty eagle. Taking it as a bid for a tasty rat, the bird tucked its wings and ripped through the air at breakneck speeds. Plummeting like a rock to find that tasty little morsel of prey that would feed it for the day as it flew on to find a new home.
Yet the bird suddenly stopped its fall and came to land on a branch in the forest. Its head curiously tilted around as its nose was filled with the tantalizing scent of meat. Although these scents seemed to smell sour judging by the bird's unwillingness to move from its perch and instead look around the area. The movement it had seen? A half-eaten corpse of a rabbit rolling down the gentle incline. Now that it was sitting on this branch, the bird of prey was bombarded by the scent of rotting meat floating in the air. It squaked harshly at the scent and took off to find food elsewhere, yet never even made it off its perch. A slab of wood flattened the creature against the tree that paid host to it. The large wooden club belonging to a bumbling creature that looked like a man except much, much larger. With rotting, yellowed teeth and a single eye in the middle of his forehead, it was clear this creature did not belong to the mortal world. With a deep, booming laugh that crossed the mountains, the Cyclops held up the corpse of the bird.
"We'se gots a good snack for mama!" It called out to the other walking alongside it with another bellowing laugh. Together the two turned to cross the forest floor ridden with corpses of various animals, and even signs of humans in some places. The grass stained red in some areas, which others bore signs of a struggle. Crossing this land they joined up with one of the two distinct convoys of creatures on the move. Broken shields and sword lay impaled in trees and the ground, a testament that a struggle had occurred here not too far in the past. The column that the two Cyclops joined left this forest and turned south, clearly with an intended target in that direction while the other turned northward.
Both columns of horrific creatures that would drive a mere mortal insane led up the mountains to a single opening large enough to fit a warship. From here they left, and within even more of the horrors milled around. An array of slithering, hissing, and other monstrous noises made it a dull roar inside this cave. Yet the middle edge of the cliff, overlooking the entire mountain range was left completely alone. As if the beasts knew better than to stray towards it. From the back of the cave, an eerie green light accompanied by the pained, weak wails of a dying man was barely recognizable. Yet up front in the empty area, two figures stood in front of a stone throne sitting on a carpeted and otherwise well-furnished square. One barely recognizable thanks to the shadows hiding most of their figure. The other, a woman wearing a full body covering with the headpiece occasionally shifting as a rather... scaly head poked out from under. She also wore sunglasses, as if nothing of her body was permitted in the open.
"Preparationssss are complete." The covered one hissed as she tucked a scaly body back under the cloth.
"We will be lying in wait." She finished before bowing her head and taking a step back. The shadow covered figure leaned forward slightly, making only her deep green lips visible in the light as they twisted into a smile. Then those lips moved to speak in a voice laden with honey and venom, elegance and power.
"So our little game begins."
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