• Eris smiled and leaned against the wall of the store she stood in front of. She took another drag on her cigarrette.
    "So you wanna start now or later?" she asked, blowing some brightly colored smoke.
    "Now. The faster I do this, the sooner I'll get to find my mom. So what do I have to do first?" I replied seriously, my heart speeding up with excitement and anxiety.
    Eris raised an eyebrow, the pierced one. "Hmm. One of those let's-get-it-over-with girls. Alright, here's your first errand." she shrugged, handing me an acid green sticky note with spidery writing and cartoon drawings on the side.
    I took it and read it.

    Remove the wheels from Apollo's chariot,
    Snatch the silver arrows of Artemis,
    Place a spider in Hermes's sandals,
    Steal the helm of Hades,
    Feed wolfsbane to Cerberus,
    Hide Athena's shield beneath the throne of Poseidon,
    And burn the hand of Hepheastus
    Do these tasks and you will have run your first errand.
    I will await in the park when you have succeeded.


    My eyes widened. Why had I said this would be easy?! I didn't even know these people! They were probably other gods. I didn't even know where to start! Where did these guys live anyway?! Those little bits of information would probably help. And another thing, what would they do to me when they realized that it was me who had done it? My stomach tumbled as I thought of all the possibilities.
    "What am I supposed to do?" I sighed, looking down at the small piece of acid green paper in my hand.
    Suddenly the paper flew out of my hands and zipped to the end of the street. It hovered there in mid air. I blinked. It merely stayed there. One of the corners moved up and down as if telling me to hurry up.
    I ran after it and it continued to speed away from me, occasionally waiting for me to catch up. It was always at least two feet ahead of me. I had to push through crowds and groups of people, earning myself some shouts of anger and murmuring of discontent and annoyance at a rude girl like me.

    I have absolutely no idea how long I had been following that piece of paper. But I know it must have been a long time because when it finally stopped, it was nightfall. Stars were coming out again. I was out of breath and starving. I needed something to eat, and something to drink to go with it.
    The paper merely stopped and came back to my hand. It had folded itself into something like an origami star. It unfolded a bit to reveal the first line of the note. The line about Apollo's chariot. It shone bright gold in the moonlight. The gold radiance illuminated my face and a bit of the area around me.
    "I'm guessing this is where I'll find Apollo's chariot. But why it would be in the parking lot of some fancy restaurant sure beats the hell outta me." I said, looking around the parking lot.
    All I saw were a bunch of cars. No frickin' chariots. I just hoped I could do this before Apollo came back to his chariot. My stomach grumbled hungrily. I gulped nervously.
    Some tiny writing appeared on the corner of the paper.

    Walk, the closer you are to the chariot, the brighter the light shall become. But be careful, you don't have all night.


    I nodded. Great. I was getting advice from the paper. I looked around. There were probably like a hundred cars in this parking lot alone. How was I supposed to find it in time?!
    Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward and took a few more steps. The light got brighter. I looked at a green car in front of me. I stepped forward. The light instantly dimmed. A step to my right. It brightened a bit. Another step. A little brighter. I turned around. Even brighter. Step forward. A bit brighter. Step to the left. Instand dimming. Step back to the right. Bright again. Another step. Much brighter. Another. Brighter. Another. Brighter. Another. It was so bright that I could hardly look at it.
    "You have reached it." a whispery voice that sounded like Eris's sounded from the note.