AMETHYST

"Oman, you didn't tell me there would be so much, um, mud?" I groaned.

For the last five or so hours, Alexander, Kai and I had been running errands for Oman and getting a bunch of supplies for the ship while we waited for any news on Geneva.

Our supply run had led us here, where we were tasked with finding a bucket of tar once again. We were at some abandoned site that was drenched in large pools of mud. In the middle of all the mud and leftover construction was a singular tar bucket.

Believe me, none of us wanted to go to this extremely muddy construction site, but this was the only abandoned one we could find. Remember, we were all fugitives, so being seen in a public spot didn't bode well for the future of the quest.

"Stop hollerin' bout absolutely nothing and just get the darn tar!" Oman shouted through the comms set. "Y'all have been whinin' the last four hours!"

"Geez," Kai said exasperatingly. "When did you get so fussy?"

"Oh, I'll show you fussy if you don't bring me that tar, boy!" Oman replied aggressively.

This, along with that incessant whining that Oman was complaining to us about, served to prove how tired we had become awaiting info on Geneva, to the point where doing our tasks had become tedious in nature and none of us could wholeheartedly try and complete our missions.

Alexander groaned as he trudged his way through the mud pool. He was able to grab the bucket, and slogged his way out of the mud. Now possessing the bucket, we tracked back to the BBB, cleaning ourselves of mud as we made our return.

After handing the bucket off to Oman, I asked, "What supplies do we need next? And please, no more muddy construction sites."

"Or jet fuel," Kai added. "It was fun the first time, but after a while, you kind of get sick of it."

"Or stupid foil balls," Alexander said.

Oman frowned. "I didn't ask for a foil ball."

"Oh, you didn't?" Alexander muttered. "Whoopsie."

He reached into his pocket and threw a foil ball into the trash can nearby, disappointment on his face as he did so.

Oman then shrugged, his face loosening up a bit. "I'm not actually sure what we need next. We got all the things on my shortlist, so I guess just rest up. It's pretty dark out, and y'all smell like crap."

We nodded as we all headed back to our cabins, completely exhausted. Instead of heading to my cabin, I went to the training ground, where I saw Rose kick a dummy into the wall.

"Hey, Rose," I said.

Rose waved. "Hey, Amethyst. How'd the supply hunt go?"

"In Kai's words, I got kind of sick of it after a while," I answered. "So, uh, why exactly didn't you come?"

"Well, you guys were already going, and I guess I just needed some rest," Rose replied.

"Really? 'Cause if you wanted rest, I don't think you'd resort to training to provide that. This is about Geneva, right?"

Rose sighed. "Yeah, you got me. Despite what Kai said, I still can't help but feel worried. What if she really is dead? Then it'd be all my fault."

"I didn't want to go on the supply trip and drag everyone down, so I figured it'd be best to just train on my own."

"How could it be your fault?" I asked. "You didn't even do anything."

Rose shrugged. "Well I'm the one that brought her on the quest even though she was still going through something."

"Rose, quests can be unpredictable. You can't blame yourself for every single thing that goes wrong. And besides, I think bringing Geneva on this quest was a good idea. She spent the whole of the last month in isolation, and her being on this quest is the best way to help her. Rose, whether you believe it or not, you've done Geneva a huge favor.

"I guess."

That's when something in my backpack rang. Rose stopped training and turned to me as I pulled out my phone.

I was getting a call from a random number I'd never seen before. Either someone from camp was calling me or it was an accidental dial from a random stranger.

"You think I should answer?" I asked Rose.

"Maybe, it could be important." she said.

I decided to press the accept button, and the call started.

"Hello? Who is this?" I asked.

"It's Geneva," the caller said.

"Really?" I asked. "If you actually are Geneva, who is my favorite singer?"

"It's Justin Bieber," the caller answered flatly.

"Okay, so you really are Geneva," I said, assuring myself.

"Yeah. I'm at a Starbucks in Madrid on Verano street or at least so I'm told. Come meet me there," Geneva said.

"Okay," I said. "We'll meet you there. Bye."

Geneva hung up, Rose and I sharing a hopeful glance. I quickly ran up to Oman's office and told him to change course for Madrid. He gladly did so as we all met in the training ground.

"What's this for?" Kai yawned. "I'm just saying, if I'm forced to be awake past ten, I'm gonna go all Jack the Ripper on you guys for delaying my beauty sleep."

"Same here," Alexander groaned.

"Okay, so Geneva is at a coffee shop in Spain," I announced.

Kai rolled his eyes. "Is that seriously what you brought us here for? I'm glad we found Geneva, but it is not worth losing sleep for."

"No, but as a general warning, make sure to hide your weapons and dress up like a normal, human being," I explained.

"I'm confused. Why can't Geneva just come to us?" Alexander asked.

I considered his answer before speaking. "The only problem is that if she trails off all by herself, people may wonder where she's going and trace us back to the ship. Plus, at night, monsters are at their strongest. Leaving Geneva alone to fend for herself if a monster shows up doesn't seem like the smartest choice."

"Fine, Professor Lecture Much," Kai said. "I'll keep that stuff in mind. Now let me get like five minutes of nap time before I'm forced to go against my will to a coffee shop."

"No," I said. "No naps. The last time you said that you'd do a short nap, you ended up missing all your courses and Chiron got really mad."

Kai groaned. "Ugh, you're the worst. Fine."

We headed back to our cabins, and after a while of flying around, Oman announced we had arrived in Madrid. He chose to dock the ship in a small lake that was surrounded by forestry, an activity that has become the norm over our last couple of expeditions. The four of us got off and voiced our farewells to Oman.

We were all dressed up as pretty normal looking teenagers, except for Kai, who looked absolutely dead. There were dark bags under his eyes and he walked like he was half asleep. However, in the context of looking like a teenager, he looked fine.

We made our way through the forest and into the beautiful night city of Madrid. Some people hung around outside, but the city was mostly quiet. Many of the big structures in the city had their lights on, illuminating the city in a beautiful glow.

We walked along the sidewalk, hoods over our heads and staring down at the ground. We couldn't risk getting identified, even if it meant looking like the sketchiest group of teenagers of all time.

Kai laughed out of nowhere and said, "Man, we look like the Men in Black, but just teenagers and not wearing business suits."

Alexander laughed hysterically. "Yeah we do. Or like those Teletubbies from Sesame Street."

The two boys continued laughing hysterically, prompting some adults and teenagers nearby to give us strange looks and walk away from us. They had scared off the people with their weird laughing, but they were also super delirious. They really needed to go back to sleep or something.

We eventually arrived at the Starbucks Geneva had been talking about on Verano Street. For some reason, there was a huge butt drawn on the Starbucks logo and some weird Spanish graffiti that read - 'and bear in mind that my Spanish isn't perfect - 'Barcelona bad, Real Madrid champions of Spain!'.

We opened up the doors to the place. It looked like a regular Starbucks on the inside, with some employees working at the counter and handing some drinks out to customers. There were some wooden tables at the side, a bathroom in the back, and a counter that showed off the food you could purchase behind a glass encasing. Behind the counter was a large board, listing all the choices for the menu.

Geneva was sitting down at a nearby table, seemingly alone except for one old man sitting a couple tables away from her. He seemed to be busy wiping his snot though, so he didn't notice us as we took a seat at Geneva's table and Kai stole his coffee.

"Brownies!" Alexander yelled, running to the front counter.

Kai and him seemed to be getting gradually more insane the longer they were awake. I seriously didn't know how ten minutes after I had met up with Kai and the rest of the team, the two of them had gotten so crazy.

Rose sat down next to Geneva. "Hey, Geneva! Uh, where'd you go after Pasiphae teleported you away?"

"Well, long story short, I went to the Pillars of Hercules, talked with Hercules, had to chain a shape-shifting god, saw Arthur in an Iris message, replied to the message, and then left after a bout with Hercules," Geneva summarized, stumbling on Arthur's name.

"Wait, you talked with Hercules? Wait, was he wearing lion fur? Did he have orange hair?" Kai asked.

"You saw Arthur in an Iris message?" Rose asked.

Geneva nodded sadly. "I did, but it came long before today." She turned to me. "Can an Iris message get delayed like that but still travel to the intended receiver?"

I nodded. "If an Iris message halfway through finishing is abruptly ended, it will still travel to the receiver, albeit much slower and longer than intended."

Alexander came back from the counter, carrying some change in his hand - meaning he had been the one that stole from my foreign currency drawer - a massive cup holder containing a bunch of beverages, and a Starbucks bag containing a brownie.

Kai took one of the drinks off the holder and slurped it down quickly, to the point where after ten seconds, his sips became hollow and bubbly as he reached the bottom of the drink. "Dang, this is really good! Why do I feel so good? GOOD!"

"Because you just slurped down two drinks of steaming hot coffee, and are having the equivalent of a sugar rush," I explained, taking one of the cups. "Ooh, venti size. Nice."

Alexander spit out his coffee. "Wait, there's venti inside of here? Hell no."

He stormed towards the counter and asked for a refund on his coffee, only to get denied.

"Well, I guess we should get going now," Rose said, slurping her chocolate milk through a straw.

We all nodded as we exited the coffee store, wishing the cashiers a good day. However, when we exited, we were met with pure terror.

"Are those mushrooms?" Alexander asked, his eyes squinted.

Rose shook her head. "No, but they are certainly wolves."

Standing upon the road was a big pack of wolves, all with gleaming red eyes and large, shiny fangs. The one in front of them was about a foot taller than the rest, and his red eyes were the color of blood, making him look super creepy.

Lycaon and his lycanthropes.

"Wolves, tonight we feast! Take all of their heads!" Lycaon shouted.