Zedaph's POV:

The dinner was wonderful, Alex was cute, the hermits were wonderful, and so much fun to talk with. (Some of the Hermits, if not all were wholesome as heck.)

At the end of the day, Grian, Beef, Xb, and I went back to the Hermes Cabin.

While walking there Xb asked: "Now that I'm been claimed, do I have my own cabin?"

Grian thought for a minute, "Yeah, you do, but it hasn't been built yet so you can chill with us for now."

Beef signed, "Now I'm kind of jealous, you don't have to deal with Zed's snoring."

My face got flustered, "Hey! Not cool!"

Xb laughed, "Honestly, I might even miss the snoring."

"Well then, we could have sleepovers!" Grian put his hands into the air.

We giggled the whole way back and when I hit the pillow, I fell asleep and started snoring.

Honesty, with Xb and Beef talking about their dreams, I wanted to have a dream like that, I don't really remember what the last dream was about, sometimes about pirates and getting lost at sea? But that night, nothing, I was just floating in a black hole. Nothing at all. (I asked the Hermits about that, they all had roughly the same dream, huh, don't you think that's weird?)

I woke up because of some buzzing in my ear, and giggles from someone.

"What... is that a bee?" I asked then realized "Oh my gods, is THERE A BEE?" (I had a terrible and embarrassing experience with bees when I was young. Xb and Beef, you SNITCH-)

Xb looked like he was about burst with laughter, Beef was basically on the ground half dead and Grian held up a recorder that had buzzing noises in it.

"You never told me you nearly swallowed a bee when you were a child," Grian said, his mouth pressed into a thin smile.

"I was dumb as a kid ok? And Xb... Beef..." I said while sternly turning to them.

If looks could kill, I think I could have killed Xb and Beef twice, their face turned into visible fear and Grian roared with laughter in the background.

"What did I say about telling anyone about that story."

"Sorry! We had to, there was no other way to wake you up," Xb said, still giggling like a madman, and dashed for the door.

"Wait what? Xb! Wait for me too!" Beef said, and before he ran out of the door, he looked at me and muttered, "Sorry!" then dashed off.

Breakfast was wonderful, Cleo had like three cow livers, so the dining area smelled like beef. (Not saying my buddy Beef smelled bad, but sometimes the dried blood on his work suit stinks.)

When the hermits were voting for what class they wanted to have when I suddenly wanted an apple.

It was something Beef's mom usually says, "An apple a day keeps the doctors away."

And of course, the fruit plate was the farthest away, so I asked to be excused and went there.

I went there, the table was neatly decorated, I went there, took an apple, and took a single bite when demon metal bulls went charging out of nowhere.

The pair of bronze bulls were the size of an elephant, the horns shinnied a glistening silver, their eyes were ruby red, their body was mostly gearing and at the creaks of the gears showed red lava running through the body. (Ok off-topic, but I think watching gear turn and work is super satisfying.)

I was caught off guard and fell on my butt, and because of that, the first bull missed me.

The second bull gently put its hoof on my chest, at first, I didn't feel anything but then it got burning hot really fast, I yelled in pain and hoped the hermits heard that.

False and Iskall were the first ones to find me, False went back to tell the rest of the hermits and Iskall pulled out his sword and shield. (Haha, Sword and Shield... Pokémon.)

The bull with its feet on me looked at the other bull, the other bull nodded and went charging into Iskall, its horns pointed toward, hoping to stab Iskall, but he was quicker and dodged the attack.

While the Bull1 was distracted by Bull2, I pulled out Tim and stabbed the stomach of Bull1, it reared up and lifted his hoof off me, and in that time, I moved far away and went into a fetus position and hugged my burning stomach.

Bull1 now had my one weapon in its underside, my sword locked tightly in its grasp, dripping lava onto the grass.

In my blurred vision, I saw Iskall swung his sword at Bull2, it staggers backward to avoid the attack and crashed into the table, Iskall stood there for a moment, anticipating the next move, and to the left, the rest of the hermits were made aware of what's going on, Joe gets a hold of Etho rushed to me.

"Etho! Do you mind making some cool water?" Joe said as he removed the bottom of my shirt and studied the area where I was burned. Etho nodded his head and began concentrating, Joe said, "Second- or Third-degree burn, yep, I have some Aloe Vera with me, this will help."

As Joe was putting whatever 'Aloe Vera' is on me, Bull2 began going crazy and began charging at us.

False stepped and blocked it with her shield, the bull continued pushing toward, False, now realizing she was fighting a losing battle, switched to offense and push the bull toward, knocking the bull off balance and creating an opening for False to strike.

But Bull1 saw what was happening and sprang up, charging at False with rage in its eyes, and by using its horns it blocked False's attack, but half the horn was cut. Then it charged again at False, but Cub came in a big way, he jumped on the now broken table and stabbed Bull 1 with an Egyptian Axe, the Bull went limp. Soon the metal transformed into yellowish dust, leaving nothing but my khopesh, Tim on the ground.

When Bull2 saw that its friend has fallen, it charged for Cub and threw its horns up, Cub tried to evade the attack but failed, the dull thud and an unconscious Cub land next to Scar, where Scar decide that the best weapon was his flute, and charged into the battle, the Bull2 seem uninterested and lied its eyes on Etho.

Joe at this point just finished dressing the burn in a dry dressing, the cold slime of Aloe Vera helped the burning sensations in my gut, and I sat up and stared longingly at Tim.

Grian saw me staring at Tim and flew by to give me Tim. And at that exact moment, Bull2 launched an attack at Etho. Etho pulled put a small Japanese dagger and threw it in between its eye, Bull2 stopped dead in its tracks and wobbled backward violently shaking and collapsing into dust. (So cool)

"That never happened before." Xisuma gasped.

In a long while, I finally let go of the breath I was holding, "What are those demon bulls?" my voice shaky and a bit rough.

"Those were Colchis Bulls." Cub's voice said, he was leaning on Scar for support.

"The mist of the fence around us usually stops any monster from seeing us, plus we have a small barrier to keep them away. Weird." Xisuma stoked his helmet, his face striking fear, and confusion.

"Those bulls were made by Hephaestus and can only be controlled by him unless he let two out on a mistake, this was planned," False said, her blonde hair now in a ponytail.

Mumbo looked offended, "Dad will never do that!"

"I'm not saying that he did it! It could be anyone!" False said.

Exy peeked out due to the noise, "What is making that noise? I'm trying to sleep!"

"Um, we got attacked by Colchis Bulls and I think the fence that protects us is broken," Xisuma said.

"Good grief! Are y- I mean the fence ok?" A look of worry quickly flashed over his face. (Aw, he cares about us.)

"Well, the fence seems broken, meaning that it's no longer safe here," Xisuma said, worry written all over his face.

Xb walk towards the fence using SilverLight and tapped the fence, after a bit of thought, he said: "There seems to have magic coming from this fence, it feels cold and empty." He shivered a bit to show his point.

"Well, maybe the dreams from Xb and Beef could help us," Joe said.

"Find the answer of the sea and question of the flames," Grian said, lowering his eyebrows in thought.

"Well, what do those things mean?" I asked.

"Well, we use flames to demonstrate victory, so going with my Greek knowledge, we have to find Nike, the goddess of victory," False said.

"What about the answer of the sea, I know there are many, many sea deities," Jevin said, then looked at False expectantly.

"Didn't Heracles do something about wrestling an old sea god?" Ren said, his eyebrows raised up as if remembering something important.

"Yeah, he wrested Nereus for information," Exy said, his arms crossed.

"Then we do that! Let's go!" I said excitingly.

"Where does he live anyway," Mumbo asked.

I paused my matching to the fence and muttered "Oh."

Iskall then answered with the blandest answer, "Well, he has to live somewhere in the sea."

Cleo added, "Well, no duh Sherlock." And laughed with sarcasm.

False nodded idly "From what I remember, he lives somewhere in the Aegean Sea."

"That's... a huge area to search. And it's like, very far away." I said.

"Oh boy, I get seasick sometimes." Beef said, his face was a sicky white.

"Well, suck it up. There's no point wincing about a useless thing." Exy growled.

"Other than transportation, is there other ways to get there?" Ren asked.

"Well, Grian's teleportation magic and Tango's shadow travel." Impulse responded, he quickly glared at Tango for a brief second, "Well, if Tango doesn't get stuck halfway through."

"There's only a twenty percent chance of that happening!" he grinned weakly.

"When you do that with multiple people, the percent increase to eighty." Impulse frowned.

"Well, we have to go into two groups then." Etho said then turned to Grian and Tango, "After the teleportation is done, there is a one hundred chance of these two passing out, so we have to keep that in mind."

"Well, pack your stuff, we are going on a ride," Wels said.

The group went back to their cabins, I walked to the Hermes Cabin with Grian and my friend, a sinking feeling started to settle in my stomach, (No, it was not the burn from the bull.)

I guess Grian saw my look, he asked "Hey? Are you ok?"

"It feels weird like I just feel like there is a bigger force at play." I kicked a stone, "I was just be feeling like this could be my home forever yesterday then it's all crushed."

"To your first concern, I am sure, there is someone else in this picture, and to your second, well, you have to live with the danger," Grian said with a laid-back tone.

"Do this happen a lot?" Xb asked.

"Having to move? Yes, but have something or someone plotting to kill us, no, well not as much." Grian said.

"Do it not bother you?" Beef asked with concern.

"No really, hey! Don't feel bad, we are all usually about to die." Grian pasted a fake smile on his face. I didn't know why that sentence unsettles me so much, maybe it's Grian's lighthearted tone or the way we said 'we'.

"Well, my mom is gonna kill me if she finds out about this." Beef laughed.

"Pack the essentials items, nothing more," Grian said.

And we did that, we packed the essentials, I kissed goodbye to my bed (I wish I brought the pillow; it was super fluffy.), and headed off.

We all gathered back and split into two groups, Xisuma nodded at Grian, his arms started glowing, while the other team started sinking into the group.

"Prepare yourselves," Grian said, and the ground disappeared under me.

TLDR:

Zed learns that an apple a day doesn't keep the demon bulls away.

Author's note:

Why does my motivation for writing only come in the middle of the night? It's like 3 am when I am typing this.

Anyways, another shortish chapter, but I think, this is the true prologue of HermitCamps, prepare for angst, fluff, and whatever comes to my mind.

And this is my first-time writing fight scenes, did I do good? (Writing fight scenes is much easier than animating them)

Fun fact, I have PJO Au, should I also write it here? (The only doubt I have is that I have an OC and a self-insert character in that story.)

And uh if you are still here, thank you for reading. :D