Chapter 3: Explanations
"A dragon?" I exclaimed. "You mean like, the all-powerful-200-feet-long-fire-breathing-mythical-eats-young-maidens-preys-on-castles-loves-milk-causes-the-plague-flies kind of dragon?"
"Oh gods no!" he replied. "This one is only 100 feet long. "
"That's makes me feel better." I said sarcastically.
"Chiron," Archie interrupted. "You really expect him to fight a dragon?" Archie gestured towards me. "He's only been here a day!"
"You're Chiron?" I asked, bewildered.
"I would have agreed with you yesterday Archie, but then we got a prophecy," he held out a piece of paper to Archie.
"We got a prophecy?" I asked anyone paying attention, which was no one.
"I see, but isn't Nico also a son of Hades?" Archie asked.
"Nico, like the guy I saw this morning?" I asked.
"Yes, but look at this right here," Chiron pointed to a spot on the paper.
"Time out!" I screamed. Chiron and Archie both look at me with expressions of worry. "Will someone be so kind as to tell me what in the name of Hades is going on?"
Archie sighed. He handed me a piece of paper. I grabbed it expectantly and studied it, but all that was on it was a crude poem written in pencil.
Out in the Penn's woods, filled with brotherly love,
Cries out a soul, cast from above
By the dawn of 171st day
All hope of victory will be taken away
Daughter of Hecate, Son of Ares,
Daughter of Athena, Sons of Hades,
Five will go to the path that burns
Though one will die and 3 shall return,
Ever fifth one has been forgotten naught,
Sadly her final battle is fought
Sentenced to Hades this poor soul
A loss it creates, no one could console
"Whoa," I commented. "Deep. Did one of your scouts get this off a bumper sticker?"
"No Tarrick!" Archie almost yelled at me. "This is serious! Prophecies always come true! It says in there two of the group members are going to die!" There was a serious look on his face that I had never seen before, granted I've only known him for 24 hours. He buried his hands in his face and sighed.
"First things first," he said calmly. "We have to assemble a team." He removed his hands from his face and pointed to the fifth and sixth lines of the poem. "Thankfully this prophecy is pretty straight forward. It says right here, 'Son of Ares, sons of Hades, daughter of Athena, daughter of Hecate.' We only have one daughter of Hecate, the rest are guys. We only have two sons of Hades."
"Yes," interrupted Chiron,"but how many daughters of Athena are their?"
"23," Archie replied instantly. Chiron and I both shot him worried glances. "What?" he asked.
"Never mind," I replied. "Well, how many sons of Ares are there?"
"More than a few," Chiron said sadly. "But I choose Archie for a reason." Archie looked up expectantly. "Ever since Annabeth's dad defeated the monsters atop Mount Tam using celestial bronze cased bullets, I had some campers start working on a project off the books. Come with me," He motioned towards the door. We walked over to Felix, the metalworking leader, son of Hephaestus. Chiron muttered some words to him, and then Felix motioned for us to follow him. I took one more look at the prophecy. For just a second, I saw a hidden word jump at me, but I quickly lost it. It's probably just my dyslexia, I thought.
After walking behind a curtain we emerged into a poorly lit room the size of a half-bath, its walls covered with plywood. Felix reached up to what looked like one of those sprinklers on the ceiling, pulled it out, turned it, and pushed it back in. Instantly the ply wood fell off the walls, revealing rack after rack of shining celestial bronze rifles, machine guns, and-
"Is that a rocket launcher?" I asked, bewildered.
"Yep," Felix said proudly. "Only one of it's kind."
"Dang," said Archie. "Is that, a fifty cal' armor piercing incendiary sniper rifle with times twenty magnification scopes and gimbal mounted support stand?"
"Good eye," Felix said, amazed. "It also comes equipped with a detachable silencer and recoil suppressing stock." Archie laughed and grabbed the gun off of its stand. I was eyeing up and odd looking pistol.
"What's this?" I asked Felix.
"That," he said, taking the gun off of its perch, "would be a Browning Mark 3. The original design was made of steel with a black epoxy finish, but this one is celestial bronze through and through. It has high profile fixed sights with a locked breech and single action trigger. Don't worry about the thumb safety, it's ambidextrous. Its barrel is four and five eighths inches long and fires 9mm API round."
"Uh…" I mumbled. "What?"
"That's the technical term for kickass!" Archie told me. He chuckled and started walking towards the door, testing the sights on his new favorite toy.
"Hold it there Tex'" Chiron grabbed his shoulder. "These weapons are still on the hush-hush, so first let's assemble your team, and embark tonight." Archie dropped his gun sadly and trudged out the door. I gave Felix a thankful smile and handed him back my gun.
"Now to find Archie," I told him.
************
I eventually found him in the small clearing behind his cabin. He was loading his pellet gun with fresh ammo. I shyly walked up to him.
"This what you do when your bored?" I asked him.
"Pretty much," he replied without turning around. He picked up a small metal ring that had paper stretched over top of it and stood up. "Watch this," he told me. He tossed the ring up into the air and fired five times at it. It hit the ground with a sharp 'dink' and Archie picked it up. There was a solemn hole in the dead center of the paper.
"No offense but you is a really bad shot," I told him. He grinned at me.
"Nope," he giggled. "That's five through the very same hole.
"No way!" I exclaimed.
"Way," he said flatly. "Now let's go round up some recruits." He shoved the pistol into his pocket and walked towards the center of the camp.
"Okay," I told him. "We need five demigods for the trip, and we already have four. All we need is a daughter of Athena."
"Anyone you know?" Archie asked.
"Well, there is one girl. Her name is Tessa Menzies."
"Tessa Menzies? Dude first off, she is WAY out of your league, and two, she doesn't know heads or tails about anything related to guns."
"I still don't see the problem." I told him.
"Fine, well check her out."
"Okay, but I've got more pressing issues at the moment; I have to get ready for canoeing."
"Fine, meet back here in one hour got it?"
"Sure thing."
*************
I sat on a small log opposite Tessa and Archie.
"So you are telling me the Greek dragon Iactus Aere has escaped from the Underworld, and now it is terrorizing Philadelphia?" Tessa asked.
"No, we're telling you to read a prophecy," I told her. "A prophecy that doesn't say anything about the ring menace or a cactus. And what's this about Philadelphia?"
"Am I the only daughter of Athena around this place?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied sarcastically.
"Underachievers, it says very clearly right here." She pointed to the first line of the prophecy, 'Out in the Penn's woods, filled with brotherly love.' 'Pennsylvania means Penn's Woods.' 'Philadelphia' means city of brotherly love. Simple."
"Okay, now what's this about a cactus?"
"It's pronounced Iactus Aere, and it literally means 'cast from the air.' I thought it was just a myth, but I guess Chiron is never wrong."
"It's a myth?" I asked her. "Do you see where you are standing? Do you know who your parents are?"
"It's more complicated than that. You know how when you were younger your parents told you about the boogie man? It's the same sort of thing; an ancient Greek wives tale. The story talks about a dragon that fought Zeus, but when he lost one of his wings was hit by lightning and he fell to Earth. Every 1,000 years he escapes his prison and attacks some village, only to be captured and resentenced."
"And we have to fight it by," I checked the prophecy, "The 171 day of the year?"
"The summer solstice is the 171st day of the year, i.e. 2 days from now."
"What happens if we don't kill it by morning on Wednesday?"
"Then the creature will loose it's magical bond to it's prison in Hades, and we won't be able to force it back down there."
"Then we better kill it at the path that burns."
"What's the path that burns?" asked Archie.
"Well, I'm not sure about that. It seems almost too simple, but I think it means Burns street."
"Well, then it shouldn't be too hard."
"Hold your horses; there are 3 Burn Streets in Philadelphia."
"Bummer," said Archie.
"But," she said, her eyes gleaming with delight. "I, being the most awesomest daughter of Athena, have found out which Burn street."
"Now it's not nice to gloat," Archie told her mockingly. She scowled at Archie and went back to explaining. It was a pretty scowl.
"I found on an old Greek map that there is an entrance to the Underworld right where Philadelphia is today. After some more Recon I found that it emerges on none other than North Burn Street."
"Ten points for Tessa!" I held up my hand for a high five. She didn't even look up. I looked at Archie and he mouthed the words 'out of your league.'
"So it's settled than?" I asked Tessa and Archie. "Round up Abigail and Nico tonight and head out tomorrow morning?"
"Sounds good to me," said Archie.
"Then it's settled," said Tessa. She pulled her diary out of her pocket and started writing in it. She looked up at me, then looked back and started writing faster. I didn't know what to think, so I figured I get in some target practice on Archie's home gun range before the day was over.
