It was a bull. A bull the size of semi made of celestial bronze, its hooves striking sparks from the pavement as it charged down Shore Road with fire breathing from its permanently flared nostrils. One quick look over his shoulder and Plex took off like Secretariat scrabbling for his bow and an arrow. With all due respect to centaur archery I couldn't see how that was going to do us much good or, my colt either.

Yury passed us like a long low streak of brown lightning with Poly crouching on his back like a jockey, "RUN!" they shouted together. Now there was a plan I could work with! We galloped neck and neck down a side street - gods only know what the mortals were seeing. The buildings on our right opened up and the ponies jumped off the road into a scrubby field with plenty of cover. We hid in a clump of trees while the bull went snorting and rooting around looking for us.

Plex raised his bow. "No," I said in my best 'command voice'. "You'll just get his attention."

"He'll track us down anyway," he argued.

"I got a plan," Poly said suddenly. We all looked at him. "That's an automata right? Well I'm a son of Hephaestus if I can get close enough I can turn it off."

I looked at the huge, snorting creature. "Um, how close is close?"

"On its back," he admitted.

Yury gave a loud whinny, "You've got to be kidding!"

"We wish," I said. The smart kid had guts and I'd been on the receiving end of his plans often enough to know he was cunning with it. "What do you have in mind?"

…

Plex ran like a steeplechaser hurtling over bushes and ditches, weaving like crazy as his breath came in heaving pants. Hanging on for dear life I shot a look over my shoulder; nope, wasn't working – and not just because the darn bull was gaining on us. It was weaving as much as Plex and Yury couldn't stay alongside long enough for Poly to make the jump.

"Slow down!" I hollered in Plex's ear. "I'm getting off."

He slowed all right, in sheer astonishment. "You're what?"

But I'd already made my leap, landed on a nice soft tussock and rolled to my feet colt in hand. My first shot pinged off the bull's big fat face getting his attention. He veered away from Plex and headed for me in a straight charge. I held my ground, blood singing in my ears. I'm a son of Ares I live for the fight and I wasn't scared a bit now that I wasn't running anymore. I took more care with my second shot and one red glowing eye went out with a ping. It was less than twenty feet away now, my vision had narrowed to its flared, fire exhaling nostrils and my third shot went right up one – Heeyah! Then it was veering aside, missing me by inches and knocking me off my feet with the wind of its passage, Poly clinging to its beefy neck. By the time I'd got up he'd worked his techie magic and the thing had collapsed on the ground in a golden bronze heap.

Plex came trotting up to me, panting and blowing, eyes wild, "You crazy or something?"

"Yup," that was Poly, heading back to join us. He gave me a look of respect – his first. "That was insane, brave but insane!"

I snorted, "Says the kid who played rodeo rider!"

"They're both nuts," Yury told Plex.

He nodded agreement, "Heroes!"

"Yeah, well we'd have been toast without you two," I said and watched our centaur buddies expand with pride.

"Got that right," Yury said happily.

"That was a real adventure, wasn't it?" Plex wanted to know.

"Absolutely!" Poly and I said in rough unison.

….

The rest of our trip was uneventful, well a cop did stop us in Port Washington to read us a lecture on riding ponies on a major road but luckily he either couldn't hear Plex and Yury's snorts of indignation or interpreted them as horse-noises.

Poly lived in a rambling white house within sight of the beach big but not grand, a sort of colonial ranch. He went inside and came out again carrying two six-packs of cokes. He and I took one each then left the rest for Yury and Plex to chug down while Poly led me to the opposite end of the house and through a side door into a big bay windowed room full of electronic junk, with a little redheaded woman who looked a whole lot like Poly sitting at a worktable in the middle of it hunched over a job involving a magnifying lens and a lot tiny wires.

"Mom!"

"In a minute, Poly," she mumbled absently, intent on her work. Then the other shoe dropped and her head shot. "Polypoetes Stone, what are you doing home?"

"I'm on a quest, Mom, and I need your help."

"We need her help," I corrected.

"Oh, right. This is my companion Mark son of Ares, and we got a couple of centaur boys in the backyard too."

I have to hand it to Mrs. Stone my own mom couldn't have taken it more coolly. "I see. Exactly what are you questing for and how can I help?"

We both opened our mouths to explain but first Mrs. Stone had us bring the Pony boys into the dining room put a couple of loaves of bread, assorted lunch meats and spreads on the table and let us at it. We scarfed down sandwiches and explained about Callie and the Party Ponies between bites.

"Mr. D sent you to rescue this little girl?" Mrs. Stone said in a way that suggested she'd met Mr. D.

"Oh yeah!" we said together.

She gave Poly the Look. You know, the one moms give you when they know you're lying.

"Well… he did say if we wanted to rescue her we could," he admitted uneasily.

"But it's a real quest, ma'am," I put in quickly. "We've got a prophecy and everything."

"Right," Poly said eagerly. "On the Hill of Watch, seek for that which you have lost-"

"Which means Callie," I said, and we know we can do it because she said 'Valor and skill united shall prevail' and that's obviously us."

"He's valor and I'm skill," Poly added, rather unnecessarily.

"Seems to me you're both pretty valorous," Yury remarked. "And the way Mark potted that bull definitely took skill."

"Bull," Mrs. Stone echoed. She gave Poly and me a long look as we shifted uncomfortably then said very firmly. "I do not want to know. What else did the Oracle have to say?"

"Valor and skill united shall prevail," Poly repeated, "but both must pay the cost." I frowned, what cost? "Warring gods, enemy sons shall reconcile." He went on. "And fair contention's daughter freed from bonds, make all right with her smile.

"We know who the warring gods are anyway," I said. "My dad and Poly's don't like each other one bit."

"Oh heck," he looked dismayed. "That bull, it wasn't just bad luck my dad sent it – after you!"

'Oh heck' didn't even begin to say it – but you can't use the kind of language that did in front of a mom. "And my dad's not going to let something like that pass." Darn right he wouldn't! Dad doesn't usually get involved in his kids' fights, he expects us to be able to handle ourselves, but he'd definitely make an exception for his least favorite brother going after his favorite son. I took a deep breath. "Fine, not to worry, whatever Dad sends I'll handle it like you took care of the bull."

Mrs. Stone sighed. "This is going to cost us another car isn't it, Poly?"

He gulped. "I hope not."

I thought of the kind of monsters Dad controlled and I had to agree with Mrs. Stone. "Maybe we should take the bus."

"No," she said firmly. "I'm not having you endangering innocent bystanders and public property. Staying here won't be any safer for anybody. I might as well drive you to Fire Island. Better the car than the house!" she turned to the Pony boys, "And what about you two?"

"We're going back to the ranch," Plex said.

"Yeah," Yury agreed, "I'd say we've had all the adventure we can take for a while."

"You're going to get in trouble aren't you?" Poly asked looking guilty. I wasn't feeling so good about it myself. Plex and Yury weren't just a couple of annoying Pony-boys any more. We were comrades in arms now, their problem was ours.

"It'll be all right," Plex said confidently. "We'll go back along the beach like we said and slip into the ranch by way of the river mouth. As long as we're back before dinner nobody will have missed us."

I glanced at Yury but he didn't look worried either so I figured Plex wasn't just snowing us.

"Good luck," said Poly. "And thanks for everything."

"Yeah," I agreed. "We'd never have made it here without you two." And I wasn't snowing either.

….

Having your companion's mom drive you to battle seemed somehow wrong but is taking the bus any better? I kind of focused on the un-coolness of it all to keep my mind off the nasty things Dad could pull on us. To start with Mrs. Stone drove a white Volvo wagon, surely the un-coolest of all cars in the known universe. Then she made Poly and me take showers and change into fresh clothes – his stuff just fit me. And finally she packed overnight bags for all three of us. By the time she'd finished organizing everything it didn't seem much like a quest anymore. Sometimes the 21st century just bites.

"I Mapquested our route," Mrs. Stone said as we climbed in the wagon, Poly in the front passenger seat and me behind the driver. "It's basically a straight shot due east on I-495, should take us about an hour, gods willing."

"I hope he will be," I said thinking of one god in particular. "Please Dad," I prayed, "Let me handle this, okay? Of course if you want to keep Hephaestus too busy to bother us again I'd really appreciate it!"

I was not too sanguine about that prayer being answered. 'Sanguine' is one of Mom's fancy words; it means 'confident' but also 'blood'. And blood was what Dad would be going for after his favorite son nearly got squished – even if I asked him not to.