Lance listened to Valerie's recount quietly, sympathizing the bad experience she had been through; he almost raised a hand to give her a pat on the shoulder but he decided against it. He let the silence hung in the air for a minute before he spoke, [color=00aeef]"I guess I'm just a bit like you - it was my first and last quest."[/color] As he recalled that bad memory from the back of his mind, he could feel his heart aching in his chest. He tried to ignore the pain. [color=00aeef]"It was a year after I came to the Camp. There was an abandoned well that was tampered with dark magic, so Mr. D sent me and a satyr Bill to go investigate it. The well originally belonged to Iris, but Hecate turned it into one of those secret passageways leading to the Underworld. Hades was furious when we showed up on his turf - he thought that Zeus sent someone to spy on him [i]again[/i] - so he set the Furies on us."[/color] Now it was [i]his[/i] turn to get to the nasty part. [color=00aeef]"We tried to get back to the mortal world via the well, but only one of us could go through - Bill pushed me over and I was safe, in exchange I had to watch him being ripped to pieces by Hades' monster bats. I just watched him die - like deep down I know that it's inevitable, that there's nothing I could do to change his fate."[/color] He closed his eyes and swallowed, forcing down the mixture of sadness and horror rising up in his throat. [color=00aeef]"Ever since then I tried to avoid taking up any quests at all costs. It's my fault that Bill died - he was the one who brought me here to Camp Half-Blood, and I killed him."[/color]

Lance stuffed the remaining of his toast into his mouth, to force all his attention on chewing his food and pushing his emotions off his mind. [color=00aeef]"Chiron said that I need to stop running away and grow up, and I think he's right."[/color] He stopped - they had arrived at the cabin where Rachel was staying at - and he turned to look at the demigoddess. [color=00aeef]"This is it. I'm going to see the Oracle. What about you?"[/color]