GENEVA

Being teleported was like being transported through an entirely different reality - it felt surreal, and it made me very sick.

And believe me, I knew about traveling through different realities. After our first quest, Arthur showed me how Iris pockets work and to say the least, I hate them. When you go through one of the pockets, you see all of time unfold in a blur of events before being placed back into reality, now at an entirely different location than you were previously.

I feel the same about being forcefully teleported.

I found myself descending from the air and crashing down towards a long island and immediately set my sights on an area to land where I wouldn't fall and die.

I averted my eyes to a stretch of trees and landed on top of one of the thicker ones, tumbling through the top of the tree and skidding past branches before crash landing onto the ground.

Assessing my situation, I was super dizzy, a little queasy, and I had a bump on my head. I had also scraped my knees and bruised my elbows in the process of landing, worsening my state.

Looking past my injuries, I was currently in a small grove of trees that was covered with logs, sticks, and rocks. A few squirrels scattered at the sight of me and ran off towards a small pond a couple yards away from me. I staggered around, trying to see where I was. My stomach then heaved and the next thing I knew, I was retching onto a small rock.

After I was done, I wiped my mouth with my sleeve. I realized I had a deep cut on my arm that probably originated from my bad landing and the sharp sticks that had been near me. I didn't really have anything on me like a napkin or something, so I tried wiping away the blood with my blouse and hoped nothing would happen to it.

I decided to go into the direction where the squirrels had gone earlier and walked toward the pond, still trying to make some sense of where I was.

After retracing their steps, I entered a small pond area where a couple of animals were drinking out of the water. I hesitantly inched toward the pond. My mouth was extremely dry and throwing up didn't help me one bit. I didn't want to disturb the animals or drink from their water, which might've been contaminated, but I was desperate, so I shooed the creatures away with my daggers and grabbed a handful of water. The water tasted terrible, but it helped quench my thirst, so I took a few more handfuls.

Once I was done, I observed the area in front of the lake. It was a dead-end, so I headed back to where I was initially.

I decided to go in the opposite direction of the pond this time, as the pond had led to nowhere. It'd be useful to memorize that pond as a water source though, should I stay on this island any longer than I anticipate.

Opposite the pond was a grassy hill, and as I ventured forward more, forestry and trees were seldom found, leading me to believe a whole different setting was beyond the hill.

I traveled up the hill at a slow pace, my back aching in pain every step I took as the landing seemed to be taking its toll at the worst time.

When I finally did get over the hill, I arrived on a beach area that had clams and seashells scattered all over. There was a long rock ledge that jutted up from the sand, located in between two long pillars the size of the BBB's masts, each pillar engraved with some Latin and Greek words I couldn't make out given their small text size.

Standing upon the ledge was a fit man that looked to be in his early twenties. He had black, close cropped hair, a scruffy beard, coppery tan skin, and blue eyes similar to those of Arthur's. He was wearing a purple toga and was barefoot. He was strangely carrying a long baseball bat which he hung over his shoulder like a caveman. Looking at him made me quiver in my boots a little bit, not just because of his unsettling physical features, such as his eyes, and his long baseball bat, but something else entirely.

Normally, I wouldn't have wanted to interact with a strange-looking man carrying a five foot-long baseball bat, but I was desperate and needed some answers. Plus, I probably would've been found anyways, and likely with more calamitous results. If my theory was correct, this guy could be a real threat should I get on his bad side.

"Hello?" I called out.

The man turned around and looked at me curiously. He jumped down from the rock ledge and said, "Hey, what's up?"

His voice was deep and casual, casual to the point where I made the assumption he was trying to be something he clearly wasn't.

The strange feeling from earlier combined with his overly casual tone of voice further served to prove my theory that this guy was a god or deity of some kind, but I needed to find out more before I came to a final conclusion whether to trust this guy or not.

If mistrust was my fatal flaw, maybe I could change it by trying to trust someone or at least listen to what they have to say, no matter how shady or mysterious they are. Sounds like a bad omen, but what else was I supposed to do?

"Um, I'm kinda lost. Do you know where we are, and who are you?"

The man chuckled. "Well, I'm Hercules of course! You haven't heard me?"

No wonder he looked like Arthur. The two of them were literally brothers - half-brothers to be more specific. Seeing Hercules was made even stranger now that I knew the resemblance between him and Arthur.

"Of course I know who you are," I said, trying to feign excitement. "Although I kind of expected you to have ginger hair and wear an orange outfit, like how you did in the movies."

Hercules' smile quickly faded. "Don't listen to those movies. Complete utter trash, and a mockery of me and my legacy."

"Sorry," I muttered. "So, where are we?"

"We are at the Pillars of Hercules, where I'm bound here for eternity as Olympus's gatekeeper," Hercules said, resentment in his words. "It's somewhere between Morocco and Spain."

That now explained the presence of the two random pillars that stood to each side of him. What the two pillars said I still didn't know. While I could understand Greek, again, the text was so small that it would take a microscope to fully read out. However, I could infer that they said something Pillars of Hercules-related, like, I don't know, 'The Pillars of Hercules'?

"That doesn't seem too fun," I said, trying to sound as peaceful as possible so I wouldn't get clubbed to death.

Considering what Amethyst told me about Hercules' fatal flaw being wrath, I was already on a fine line between life and death, and one wrong or conflict-inducing statement would increase the latter exponentially.

Hercules nodded his head. "Believe me kid, being a hero isn't as easy as it sounds. All this work for the Olympians and this is what I get. Nothing."

"Totally." I quickly nodded. "I'm gonna head off now and uh, it was nice talking to you."

I tried walking towards the sea, trying to think of any ideas to get off the island, but Hercules blocked me and wouldn't let me pass.

"Where are you going? You asked me a bunch of questions about me, it's only fair I know about you, especially if your desire is to get off this island, my island."

Panic spread through me. I had tried avoiding conversation mainly based off the fact that I was a child of Hebe, who was his wife. If he found out I was some random child of his wife, he would go completely haywire.

"Um.. what is it that you would like to know about me?" I asked nervously.

Hercules contemplated for a moment. "How exactly did you get to this island? It's been a while since anyone has come here, especially without knowing where they were."

I gulped. "I, um, was teleported here."

"By who and why?" He asked.

Oh gods, I thought. This was starting to become an interrogation - and I've never been good at interrogations nor interviews.

"Pasiphae teleported me here. My friends and I got into a bit of a scrabble with her and I tried running at her, so she used a spell and now I'm here," I answered.

"Why were you fighting Pasiphae? What is someone like her doing fighting with a bunch of mortals?" Hercules asked.

"Well, my friends and I are on a quest and we were attacked by her."

Hercules narrowed his eyes. "So, I take it you're a demigod?"

"No, what is a demigod?"

What the hell was I thinking saying that? Gods, I really screwed this up for myself. Now Hercules would know something's up.

"Huh," Hercules said. "Because you seem awfully familiar and you were fighting against an immortal with your 'friends'. I take it you're Geneva Rhodes, and your friends are the other fugitives, Rose and that loud-mouth Kai."

Alarm bells began ringing in my head. "You must have mistaken me."

Hercules again blocked me and said, "Enough of this tomfoolery! I knew my wife would cheat on me!"

"Um, haven't you cheated on her?" I recalled.

I instantly regretted my words as he lifted up his baseball bat in rage. I couldn't even cower away as I stared Hercules down, expecting him to smack me into the stratosphere, but he instead sighed deeply and dropped his bat.

"I'll let you live, on one condition," Hercules said.

"What?" I asked.

"Recently, a disgusting pig of a god named Proteus has been shape-shifting and causing a bunch of noise while I'm trying to sleep. He has been stealing my food, and has been driving me nuts!" Hercules said. "As I'm bound up to this island, I can't get to him, but you can. I need you to tie him up and bring him to me."

"So you can do what?" I asked.

"It's frankly none of your business," Hercules said. "If you can do that for me, I'll let you live and allow you to leave this island."

I began thinking. Tying up Proteus was my only chance at leaving the island, but if I failed, Hercules would probably kill me. But it was my only choice, so I had to do this.

"I'll do it. Where is he?" I asked.

Hercules pointed towards a nearby island.

"He's over there. If you don't bring him back to me by the afternoon, I'll be having your head."

As I walked off, Hercules said, "Two things before you leave. Firstly, don't think about trying to leave behind my back. Not like you could anyways, since I have to grant you permission off this island. Secondly, don't call for your friends either. It'd be a real shame if all five of you died here, so don't think about trying it."

I took a deep breath. Hercules was certainly not kidding.

I nodded, agreeing to his terms as I walked towards the shore and prepared myself to shape-shift into a dolphin.

The very first time I shape-shifted - at the Sea of Monsters - I had more stumbled into it than done it myself. I remember thinking at that moment that what I was doing was crazy and how I wished I could swim away from the island, knowing enough about the Sirens to know how screwed I would be if I got caught in their spell. My body kept swimming while my mind racked itself for solutions, with the answer being my wish to be a dolphin and be able to swim away becoming reality.

Since then, I had been practicing my shape-shifting every now and again, and while I had improved a little bit, I always seemed to hit speed bumps.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I pictured a dolphin, just as I had at Siren Island, and reopened my eyes. The transformation was successful and I quickly jumped into the water, swimming my way across to Proteus' island.

About halfway through my swim to Proteus' island, I ran into a fleet of rocks that caused me a ton of trouble. There were so many that several times, I hit the rocks and my form would begin to falter.

I thankfully made it out without losing my dolphin shape, but by the time I reached the island, I was extremely winded and tired.

I morphed back into my human form and observed the island. It was about the same size as Hercules' island and had similar geographical features, such as a sandy beach and a vast amount of trees. There was a thick forest behind the sand, where I could audibly hear movements and talking.

It was a beautiful site overall, but my focus was on capturing Proteus. I walked past the beach and into the forest, hoping to see what all the talking was about.

The forest was creepy and sort of deformed, as many trees were cut down and vines dropped down from the tops of fallen down trees that blocked my path. For a while, I cut through thick vines and avoided weird trenches in the ground, getting essentially nowhere.

I jumped over a misshapen log and cut my way through a series of vines. I arrived at a secluded pond surrounded by cut-down trees and weird logs. Sitting around the pond was a large group of Naiads, who seemed to be talking about something.

"Oh my gods, he's so cute," one of the Naiads said. "With his brown hair, his dumb jokes, and those deep brown eyes. So dreamy…"

I, like I said earlier, was desperate, so I walked over to the Naiads. From what Amethyst had told me, they were great creatures of knowledge and knew a bunch of stuff about a variety of topics. She also said they loved their gossip and talking about boys, which didn't reassure me about their level of intelligence and if they could actually help me.

"Hey, can you guys help me?" I asked.

The Naiads began shrieking with excitement.

"Oh my gods, is that Geneva Rhodes?" one of the Naiads, the one that had spoken about the 'dreamy boy', said.

Another Naiad began fanning her face. "OMG, I love you girl, like you're my inspiration."

"I felt so bad for you when Arthur died," One of the Naiads said. "I was honestly stanning you guys so hard."

The mention of Arthur's name caused a sense of sadness in me, but I ignored it and tried to maintain my composure.

"Um, uh, thanks, but I need to find Proteus. Do you guys maybe know where he is?" I asked.

The oh-my-gods Naiad squealed. "I know, I know! He's near the ocean part north of here, swimming with the other animals!"

"I love Proteus," the Naiad who was fanning her face gushed. "He's a great shape-shifter!"

"So, what is Proteus' deal?" I asked.

A Naiad, one who looked older than the ones around her, rubbed her chin. "You don't know who Proteus is?"

I shrugged. "I mean, I kinda know who he is but not a lot."

"So I can assume that you've probably never heard of his tale. Well, Proteus is not just renowned for being a shape-shifter, but also a wise man capable of seeing into the future, past, and present," the old Naiad explained. "Many heroes sought his help, such as the legendary Trojan hero Menelaus or Aristaeus. They were forced to try and chain him however, as he never divulged the information without being forced to."

"Really? But isn't he a shape-shifter?" I asked.

"It wasn't easy for them to capture him, believe me," the Naiad continued. "Whenever they thought they had caught him, he would try and escape by assuming multiple forms."

"Nice to know," I muttered. "So how exactly am I supposed to rope him up?"

"Well, Proteus spends almost every second in the sea, communicating with the other animals, but around the afternoon, he sleeps on the land. That is when most heroes made their move. As for supplies, I would recommend looking into Hercules' shack."

One of the Naiads gasped. "Why would she go there, Natalie? Do you remember what happened to Patricia when she checked there?"

"I'm aware of that, but you're not going to find many supplies on this land outside of the shack," Natalie replied, twirling her hair.

"Where's the shack again?" I asked.

"It's on this island, not far north of this pond," Natalie answered.

"But isn't Hercules bound to his island? How could he have created a shack here?"

Natalie laughed, followed by giggles from her fellow Naiads. "Is that what he told you?"

"Yeah, he said that he couldn't capture Proteus for himself because he couldn't move past his island," I replied.

"Well sweetheart, that's a big lie. Hercules has full claim to any islands near his. They're all interconnected to his island, and therefore, he has claim to all of them. He merely sent you here because he's likely failed to get Proteus in the past and now he wants you to do his tough work. What else did he tell you?"

"That I needed to be granted permission by him to leave the island. Is that false too?"

The Naiads all bobbed their heads up and down as I scowled and vented, "Of course he'd lie about that. I'm just gonna leave."

One of the Naiads shook their head. "I wouldn't do that. Many sailors and people have ended up on this island and tried to leave, but Hercules is way more powerful than he looks. If you try to fly off, he'll just kill you with one laser-accurate rock throw."

"Great," I muttered. "I'm really going to have to chain a shape-shifting god for a lazy, self-serving god. Well, thanks for your help."

"We're rooting for you, girl," one of the Naiads said.

I said goodbye to the Naiads and headed off towards the shack. I was going to have to wait to attack Proteus since it was not yet afternoon based off the position of the sun.

I walked north of the pond. There were little to no animals around me, and the forest was dead silent, which didn't sit well with me. After cutting through a couple vines and walking a couple yards, I finally reached the shack.

The shack looked like a normal house - a really creepy one at that. It was made out of some sort of gray wood, which looked to be extremely old and damaged. There was a small staircase that led up into the entrance and a few windows, all of which were covered by blinds.

I cautiously entered the house, narrowly avoiding a bear trap that was laid out in front of the door. This place was definitely booby-trapped, meaning that I had to be my utmost careful from here on out.

The place looked and had the quality of a motel room. There was a small twin sized bed that had cigar burns and crumbs, as well as a mini-sized fridge that appeared to be broken and a couch that had a bunch of holes in it. There was a medium sized wooden table in the middle of the shack and the bathroom was to the right of the place, which for some reason, smelled like a dumpster. My suspicions about the place being boobytrapped were proven to be further true as the bathroom had a bucket of tar lackadaisically strung across the top.

There was also a closet that was directly in front of me. That was most likely where the supplies were.

I opened the closet up, and narrowly moved out of the way as a knife dropped down from the top of the closet door's hinge. No wonder this place was so abandoned. Hercules probably thought it didn't have any purpose and booby-trapped it to make sure no one else could steal his stuff.

The closet contained many relics and weapons, from a bow and arrow synonymous with most stories of Hercules to many spoils of war Hercules obtained from the Twelve Labors, like the pelt of the Nemean Lion.

While many of the tools were cool, the only one that was really useful was a thick, long, coiled up metallic chain. Next to said chain was a hook that didn't carry a single relic or weapon, making it stick out like a sore thumb. It was the only hook in the cabinet that didn't carry something, making me believe that someone might have come here and stolen whatever item the hook held. Maybe that was why Hercules had booby-trapped the shack.

Anyways, I recognized the chain from the tale of the Erythmanian boar, who Hercules had tied up and captured for one of his twelve labors. I debated taking the other stuff too, as Hercules was a snobby son of a gun, but I decided to leave them behind, as I didn't want to get into any more conflicts with Hercules. He'd probably get mad at me for stealing his chain, but maybe capturing Proteus would help settle the score.

Since I had to wait, I began practicing with the metallic chain, trying to familiarize myself with it. I had to be fully prepared to capture Proteus, which would mean having to learn how to use the supplies.

I headed outside the shack and used a tree as a dummy so I could train with the chain. I taught myself several moves and learned how to move with it. I already had some chaining experience from my time at camp, but I was rusty. After all, I haven't gone to a single camp activity in the last month besides campfire time, lunch, breakfast, and dinner.

After a while of practicing, I decided to head past the shack and towards the area of the ocean where Proteus was.

I hid behind a tree and began analyzing the animals. There were a pack of dolphins that were playing with each other, jumping up and down in the water as if they were doing some weird, synchronized dance. As cute as it was, it was also incredibly boring and I almost snoozed off at some point.

However, I knew exactly where Proteus was when one of the dolphins split from the group and transformed into a coy fish. For the next hour or so, I paid close attention to Proteus, making sure he never got out of my site. It was maybe the most annoying job I ever had to do, but it was worth it if it meant escaping this crap hole.

Eventually, after an hour or so of waiting and boredom, Proteus exited the waters and transformed into an old man with a long white beard, sky blue eyes, and a bald head. He was wearing a white robe that was stained as well as a pair of slippers that fit snugly on his feet.

He grabbed a couple of materials on the ground and formed a hammock between two palm trees. He laid down on it and shut his eyes, signifying that he was asleep.

I took a deep breath and began walking towards Proteus.

It was now or never.