Leo was tired of fighting monsters. You would think you would get a break once in a while. But noooooo that would be too easy. They had run into several packs of hell hounds already, and they still had half the mountain to climb. He lobbed a few more fireballs into the clearing hoping to knock out the majority of the rest of them. It worked well enough but a few more survived. A glowing sword quickly ripped through the rest as Percy stood, bent over and panting. He looked up. "We can't take much more of this. We need to be at the garden by sundown, otherwise we must wait another day. Come on!" He wheeled and took off, racing to the top of the mountain. The other two followed, gasping for breath as they attempted to keep up. They finally caught up with him at the entrance to the garden where he was standing, transfixed. Leo and Nico followed his gaze and froze as well. The garden was beyond beautiful, it was breathtaking.
The sweet smell of eucalyptus filled the air, as we looked upon the most beautiful stretch of land i had seen before or since. everything was placed to give the maximum pleasure, everything from flowers to trees. Gazanias, passion flowers, plumeria, chrysanthemums, orchids, magnolias, roses, cherry blossoms, lily of the valleys, and birds of paradise. All the most beautiful flowers in the world were all represented. There were pathways lined with stones of subtle coloring winding their way through the plants. A few benches were strategically placed here an there around the boundary. A thin mist left the sparkling of dew drops on everything in sight. And of course, in the middle of the garden, the crown jewel, the tree of the golden apples. The one thing that ruined the whole effect was the ugly mess of heads that was Ladon, who had wrapped himself around the base of the tree.
A slight shimmering in front of us revealed the hesperids, all four of them, who all glared at us with arms crossed. "How dare you come to- King Perseus!" She gasped, her composure breaking. "What are you doing here?" You see, he was of such repute that tales of him and his abilities had spread across the land.
"I have come to get some golden apples, and I would prefer not to fight you for them."
"If that is what you have come for, with your abilities, and those of your companions, you will surely prevail. But please, do not kill Ladon. When he has only one head left, he will recognize he is beaten and will submit. When you leave, please do not spread the news of Ladon being weakened, otherwise there would be many who would seek to profit." She and her sisters bowed, and then they were gone.
Percy and the other two went into a huddle. "Okay, here is what we will do. Nico and I will distract Ladon after Nico sends Leo through the shadows to behind the tree. Once you have some of the apples, Nico will disengage and get you out of there. After that, we get Ladon down to one head. That will enable us to come back if we ever need another apple for some reason. Got it? Go!" We broke and ran forward hoping to get as close as we could before Ladon awoke. I concentrated on my powers and felt the familiar tug in my gut. I summoned power from the ocean and formed a giant water warrior. Ladon quickly woke up and growled at us. I turned.
"Nico, now!" He nodded and closed his eyes. The shadows reached out and grabbed Leo, before tossing him in the direction of the nearest rock. Leo yelped and turtled, but went right through the shadow the rock was in and popped out behind the tree, with his head still ducked, waiting for impact. He slowly uncurled and looked around, and started climbing the tree. The hundred headed dragon sensed something was wrong and he started to look towards the tree. I yelled and the water warrior surged forward, swiping a massive two handed sword at the beast. Ladon ducked and struck out, but its bites did nothing as the warrior was inanimate, and thus could not die.
"Leo, hurry up!" I yelled, sweat starting to bead on my forehead. I hadn't practiced my powers for a while, and just holding this much water together and moving it at a decent distance from the ocean was taxing my powers.
"Got 'em!" Leo yelled as he started to shimmy downwards. Nico lost his patience and had the shadows drag Leo into the tree. It might have worked, but the shadow on the trunk where Leo was was not big enough for him to fit it. This resulted in Leo's face traveling into the wood of the tree rather quickly, giving the Latino a face full of wood chips. "Ohhhh that hurt." He groaned. Nico winced in sympathy.
"Sorry dude, my mistake! Give me a sec." He had the shadows drag him farther down and then into the shadows. Leo reappeared a few feet away, stumbling around a bit woozy.
"Not coollll mmmannn." He slurred as he slumped to the ground.
Nico looked at Perseus. "Well, guess we are on our own until he wakes up." He was cut off by having to jump and duck sideways to avoid having his head torn off. Percy sighed in relief.
"Now we can concentrate on the heads. Nico, I will threaten the tree with my powers, cut off its heads when it gets confused." He had the water monstrosity take a few steps around Ladon and toward the tree. Ladon growled and threw himself forward, savagely attacking the perceived threat. Nico darted forward and cut off two of the heads before the dragon could react. He promptly got smacked hard by the tail and hurtled towards a rather nasty collision with a stone bench. He managed to shadow travel to Percy, his momentum knocking them both over. They glanced up in time to see the guardian looming over them, ready to destroy them. He got a nice face full of fire, curtesy of the fire powers of Leo, who was up and swaying on his feet, but did not look well. He had a huge black eye forming, a nice bump on his forehead, and a bleeding nose. The two scrambled to their feet and looked at him.
"Leo, are you all right?"
"Do i look all right to you? I have a broken nose, some bruises and a definite goddamned concussion from that. Of course I'm not all right!" Percy turned to Nico. "He's fine. Time to finish this." He wasn't able to control his creation anymore, so he had it dissolve over himself, refueling his power with the water. "Ahhh." He sighed in contentment.
When the water cleared, he saw two very unhappy companion staring at him, looking like drowned rats. Nico raised an eyebrow. "Was that really necessary?"
"No. Consider it payback for what you did to Leo." He nodded.
"Fair enough. Now lets get rid of this thing." He used his shadow powers to restrain Ladon as much as he could while Leo hurled fireballs and percy went in close. Perseus' skill with a sword was incredible. He was a blur, slicing and dicing, constantly on the move dodging Ladon's attacks. The whole "defeat the dragon" seemed much more sane the fewer heads there were. Eventually Ladon was down to only six heads. He launched them all in a simultaneous attack, one at Leo, one at Nico, and four at Percy, the perceived biggest threat, in a last ditch attempt. Leo pulled a sledgehammer made of silver from his tool belt and slammed the incoming head like he was trying to hit a home run. Nico slid to one side and cut down the head, but not before taking a blunt headbutt to his side. Percy rolled forward under the first head, and thrust forward, skewering a different threat. He jumped up in the air and beheaded the third, then spun and sliced off the head he had dodged first. The last remaining head retreated toward the tree and whimpered. Percy wiped his sword on the grass, then sheathed it and raced over to Nico who was flat on his back. He threw the ghost king over his shoulder and beckoned towards Leo. "Time to go. We can eat the apples on the ship." The three left, being the first ones since Hercules to complete the quest of defeating Ladon.
A/N I didn't want to reveal were Percy & co would go first, but i think i need a place where it is more light-hearted, to help Percy recover from the trauma he just experienced. Hence, Arendelle is up first, thanks to the happy hyper snowman.
Rant warning.
I hope North Carolina stands firm against the government. The fact that the justice department is ignoring all the unconstitutional things Obama is doing and is concentrating on the so-called "restriction of rights" of a few people who are sick in the head and have mutilated themselves is ridiculous. If North Carolina stands firm, other states will join it. Then Obama will likely do something stupid like call out the national guard that will lead to an outcry. The mere idea that businesses have more power than states is ridiculous. Unfortunately, i think they will cave in under pressure, everyone else has so far. They will cave for the money the government is threatening to withhold. But one can hope someone stands up and gives the government the middle finger right? Until someone has the bravery to stand up and do what is right, America will resemble a monarchy more than democracy. If you support the law and support freedom of speech and the right of states to self-govern, then send a message of your support to the North Carolina governor please.