Notes: Actually written for SilverCyanide's ABC Challenge on Veritaville, starting each sentence with M and cycling from there through the rest of the alphabet. Posted it first as a chapter of my Percabeth drabbles, but that was at three am when I was half-asleep. Now, I'm not so sure. So here it is.
And I learned a new word! Vespertine is pretty. :)
Vespertine: (Adjective) Of/related to the evening. Of an animal; active at night.
Vespertine Aggressions
Monsters, it seemed, would attack whenever they found them sharing some quality time. No less than twenty seconds after they'd sat down near the borders, one showed up and started snapping at them with fiery jaws.
"Oh great, not again," Annabeth said.
Percy sighed and drew Riptide. Quests didn't have to exist to prompt random attacks by monsters on innocent demigods. Reasons could be wide and varied, but trouble usually found them anyway.
Sparks flew in the air as the giant scorpion-snake scuttled towards them. They dived into opposite directions, barely missing it's claws.
"Uber-fast thing with pincers and fangs; not fair," Percy groaned.
"Vespertine monsters are always the worst too," Annabeth added.
"What monsters?"
"Xanthope has nothing on me," declared Annabeth, grinning.
"You're weird sometimes, you know that?"
"Zip it and start swinging that sword, Percy."
Annabeth slid out her knife as the monster charged at them again. Black skin, sleek and glittery, blended with the evening air to render it practically invisible. Copses looming behind it didn't help matters either.
"Duck," Percy yelped, just as the snake-scorpion spat out a mouthful of green acid. Eerie smoke started drifting up from where it had hit the ground. Fire danced around it's jaws.
"Green acid, of course," Annabeth grumbled. "How come it's never colourless? It so annoying when these things ignore real life."
"Just please stop sulking and help me out he-aarrgh!"
Killer blows caused by giant pincers was something most people didn't live through. Luckily for Percy, it was only mildly disorienting for a guy who'd done the Styx thing.
"My gods, Percy!"
Now his girlfriend was mad. Only the poor monster had no idea what it was on for. Percy going down seemed to have made it cocky, for some reason.
Quivering with excitement, it turned, snapping it's jaws towards her.
Rolling her eyes, Annabeth pulled on her invisibility hat. Some screeching and scraping later, the snake-scorpion disappeared in a cloud of dust. Then she appeared and turned to him, hands on hips.
"Utterly useless even when invincible, aren't you?"
"Very," Percy agreed, grinning as she helped him up.