Making a Stop
"I'm sorry you had to leave your sister," Thalia said after a couple of minutes of awkward silence of us sitting on opposite benches on the top deck of the ship, after the two others went to sleep, "I know what it's like," she said picking at a hole in her faded black jeans. A tiara was set upon her head and she picked at it, eventually just taking it off.
"You have a sister?" I asked, looking at the dark water and the city lights as we moved quickly North, jazz floated across the water and I tapped my foot.
"No, a brother, Jason," she said staring at me with electric blue eyes, "You kind of remind me of him, except he's not an assassin, and he's on his way to Rome currently," she said gloomily.
"When did you have to say goodbye?" I asked, fingering my golden armor and spinning my tomahawk.
"Well, about a year ago, I found out he was alive, so that was good," she said smiling for a second before it faded, "He was on a quest to rescue Hera," she said stabbing a knife into the seat next to her.
"I take it you don't like Hera?" I asked. She glared at the knife, "Oh yeah," I muttered. "So, why is he going to Rome?" I asked.
"No more questions, "she pleaded, "Chiron can answer those," she said then smiled softly which looked weird with her punk/biker clothing, "Get some sleep, we'll be stopping for supplies in the morning," she said.
I lie across the bench and fell into an abnormally dreamless sleep.
"We're here," Thalia said poking me in the arm, delivering a slight shock.
I looked up to see a short skyline, nothing like in the cities I had been to, "Where are we?" I asked sleepily, my body stiff from being in armor.
"Des Moines," she said handing me a pair of jeans and a shirt that said "Apollo's Good but I'm Better"
I went below deck and changed keeping my tomahawks in my belt loops, remembering something important I ran to the deck as fast as I could too late, the sounds of fighting were heavy in the air. There were several skeleton thin figures boarding the boats and there were two huntresses dead on the deck and more being dragged over the sides of the boat.
"I've never fought these before," she said desperately, "I don't know how to kill them," she shot one of the creatures in the eye but it just turned toward her.
"Then you've never been to Iowa, they're windigos, get some Greek fire, I'll handle this one. Decapitate and burn, spread the message," I said drawing both of my tomahawks. I ran toward the beast and jumped, catching my axe on the sail and swinging myself over the creatures head, landing on the deck behind the thing, I did a quick slice crossing the blades and cut the things head off, then kicked the head away, so it couldn't reattach itself. Thalia passed me a jar of Greek fire and I threw the windigo off the deck smashing the body with a bottle of Greek fire, watching the head on the deck shrivel as the body burned to a crisp. Soon the Des Moines River was ablaze with the bodies of windigos.
"Why'd you throw them in the river?" Thalia asked her shield Aegis around her wrist, she looked at me oddly "Are you not scared of this, she said shaking her shield. "
"No," I admitted, "It's part of our training, not to fear anything," I said stepping off the boat.
"What are you doing?" Thalia said frantically, "there could be more of them."
"There are, but they won't bother us, we've shown that we'd be more trouble than we're worth," I said wiping my tomahawks on a rag that a homeless man offered me, "Thanks Dad," I whispered, he nodded and disappeared. I needed to clear my head so I started running, I ran over cars, bus stations, and eventually rooftops, free running was a skill many demigods could unlock, only a few used it in combat, mostly children of Apollo and a few others that really tried at it. After about an hour I was standing in a field one side held a school the other, houses, I had to see somebody, a cousin.
The bell rang and kids pushed out the doors, most heading for a bus, but a few saw me and headed toward me, but as they got near they were pushed aside by some invisible force, a burly kid with short black hair and piercing red eyes walked toward me. "Neil," I said giving the kid a hug, he was my little cousin, a son of Thantos, "I heard rumors of a hit getting put out on you," I said looking him in the eyes.
"What, why do I have to leave, I have friends, and nobody would kill me," Neil said. Almost immediately a girl pulled a dagger from her backpack and lunged at Neil, but her kill was blocked by my tomahawk. She prepared to engage me but glanced at my omega and the hood that was attached to my tee shirt.
"Let's get you camp buddy," I said slapping him on the back and pushing him ahead of me.
"Thanks," he said rolling his shoulders, his back expanding a little.
"Neil," I asked my eyebrows raised.
"What, the wings," yeah those have been growing in since about 6 months ago.
Be the time we arrived back at the ship Thalia was furious, she was ranting about how I could have been killed, yada, yada, yada, and how never to do it again.
"Okay, gotcha, Thalia this is Neil, son of Thantos," I said pushing past her and going down to the sleeping quarters, free running takes some serious effort.