They reached their first stop after the sun had set.
It was a homeless shelter in the east side of Manhattan, about four miles from their final destination. The exterior of the shelter wasn't much to look at: faded sign, peeling paint, broken window. The inside was worse; the shelter was full of alcoholic middle aged adults, whose smell would sure mask theirs from monsters.
"We have to stay here for the night," Arrina whispered.
"I don't like it here," he whispered back. "It feels wrong."
"It's fine Houdini, I've been here before. Its alright to stay here. No monsters."
Houdini looked unsure. Arrina was unsure when she first came here, too. But they couldn't stay outside at night, there was too big a risk of a monster attack. Arrina could defend herself, but she wasn't sure she could protect Houdini if more than one attacked them. He was too weak, only six. And besides, the subway wasn't an option for Arrina.
"We just have to stay for the night." Arrina opened the door to the shelter. "Look- they even have soup." Arrina pointed at the back of the room to a table with a large pot of soup on it. Arrina held Houdini's hand and made their way around the room, careful not to breathe through her nose. When they reached the soup, Arrina took a examined it carefully. She took a small whiff and decided that maybe soup wasn't a good idea.
"On second thought, let's just have some cereal bars." Arrina reached into her belt pouch and pulled out five chocolate chip cereal bars and handed four of them them to Houdini. "Here, you need your strength." Arrina guided them to an empty space by a wall.
They munch on the bars in utter silence. Arrina takes this time to examine the shelter and its occupants. There was a restroom and door out back, and a window by the entrance. Other than that, there wasn't much to this place but a sad plastic plant in the corner and broken air conditioning.
"How come other people can't see your knife?" Houdini said a little too loudly for comfort. Thankfully, no one seemed to hear him.
"Shh! You have to be quiet about that," Arrina whispered. "Besides, people can't see my dagger for the same reason you can pull knives out of thin air. It's magic. But you have more control of it than I do."
Houdini took the last bite of his bar and started getting up to throw away the trash. Arrina stopped him and put out her hand. "I got it," she said, and he gave her the rappers. She unzipped her pouch and placed them inside.
"You should rest. Most kids your age would be asleep by now." She patted her lap and Houdini curled up and rested his head on her. Arrina pulled the jacket over him and brushed his hair to the side.
"Ok, but after that you need to go to sleep." Arrina searched through her mind for child friendly Greek stories. "Have you ever heard the story of the Canis Major and Canis Minor?"
"No," he responded.
"Well, the Canis Major and Canis Minor are constellations in the sky, or pictures you can make with the stars," Arrina began. "The Canis Major is also called Laelaps, and the Canis Minor is the Teumessian fox. The giant fox was sent down by the gods to punish a city called Thebes. The people didn't like the fox so they fetched the magical dog Laelaps, who always caught everything it chased. The people thought this would be the perfect solution. But the Teumessian fox was destined to never be caught, so the two creatures found themselves running forever. Sometimes, the Laelaps would get close, but the fox always escaped."
"What happened?" Houdini asked. His eyes were green now.
"The king of the gods, Zeus, decided he needed to do something about the confusing cycle. So he turned the two creatures into stone and cast them into the stars. But they still chase each other."
Houdini yawned. "Why did the god king have to turn them into stone? Why couldn't they have kept going?"
Arrina picked her words carefully. "Sometimes, the gods do things that don't make sense unless you look at the situation another way. Think about the arguments the other gods were having about which creature would win. He had to do something before something serious happened."
"That makes sense." Houdini yawned again and curled up on her lap. "You're good at telling stories."
Arrina laughed. "I'm glad you think so. Now time to sleep. You have a big day tomorrow." She brushed aside his hair again and watched him fall asleep. Then she leaned her head against the wall behind her and thought about what she was doing. Taking the subway would have definitely been safer and quicker. Well, tomorrow her little mission would be over, the Houdini would be safe, and maybe she could find out more about his mysterious past.