"Don't shoot!" I yelled a little too late. Reyna had sent a volley of arrows at the three figures flying towards us. Hazel grabbed Reyna's bow lowering it so that the last arrow was shot into the ground.
Whoa! Alcippe nickered. Watch where you're putting those arrows! Nearly caught my wing.
"Sorry," I said walking over to greet the three pegasi. "Thanks for coming."
Anything for the son of the sea god, the paint mare said bowing.
"Can someone tell me what's going on?" Hazel interrupted glaring jealously at the pegasi.
"I can um… talk to them." I tried 2 explain winching at their expressions. "Well it's more like hearing them inside my head."
"That's cool," Hazel said shrugging it off now that she was in the loop. Reyna was obviously pleased with the idea of being in the sky rather than on water.
"What's this one's name?" Reyna asked. I silently asked then replied.
"Rain, and the chestnut is Theodosius."
"All right let's get moving." Hazel jumped up and ran away to clean up what was left of our camp. There wasn't much besides the sleeping bags. We quickly packed the remainder of our supplies and secured to them to each pegasi who weren't too happy about that. Finally we mounted and took to the skies.
Aclippe, I discovered, was quite a talker especially considering she didn't actually talk. I had to tune out for a while to make sure we were on the right course but something she said drew my attention.
"Wait can you repeat that," I asked.
"Um sure, I said I lost my brother a few summers ago to the titans. Luckily the Roman camp took me in, they needed more mounted warriors."
"What was your brother's name?" I asked, I felt as if I was onto something.
"Blackjack," she sighed. "I hope he's okay."
"Blackjack..." I stiffened.
Then Reyna called over from her horse. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I answered. What was it with these names!
If you ever get the choice to travel by plane or pegasus, I recommend the later. They can fly at amazing speeds and if you're like me Zeus will probably not blast you out of the sky. By noon we had already reached the Hoover Dam. It was a huge monument and I had a strong tug at a memory but I couldn't remember why.
"Can we please get out of this dam sky," Hazel demanded looking sick.
"Let's land," Reyna called over.
I started laughing again. "Sure I want to get some dam lunch."
Hazel caught on and started laughing but then stopped abruptly. The Romans were trained to well. They never really laughed, people could get killed in one of their capture the flag games, and everything was strict discipline. It kind of annoyed me, don't they ever just have fun? It bothered me because I didn't want to become like that. From trying to fight amnesia to being sent on a stupid quest, these people weren't making things any easier.
We landed just out of sight from the mortals. I promised the pegasi we'd bring them something back and we set off towards the shop. The line was out the door and for three kids with ADHD that wasn't going to go well.
"Let's go take a tour," Hazel suggested obviously bored out of her mind. I shrugged and followed her.
"I'll hold our spot," Reyna said.
"Okay, we'll be back in a minute." I said.
We walked over to a tour group and snuck behind them trying to pretend we were part of there group. The tour guide was a college student. He was a little taller than me with short brown hair, just visible under one of those stupid hats all the employees had to wear. The man went on and on about the architecture of the place but I found I knew most of the facts, even if it did bore me to death. I tuned out.
I turned to watch Hazel. She seemed casual enough but if you really looked at her you could tell there was a distinct pattern to her motions. The way she was scanning our surroundings, trying to act as if something had caught her eye from her peripheral vision. I blushed as she caught me staring. Clearing my throat I motioned towards the elevators. She stepped in and I cautiously followed.
"This place seems familiar…" I muttered so only she could hear.
"Have you been here before?"
"I don't know."
The tour guide started leading us away as the elevator chimed, saying something about the turbines. Hazel and I hung back a little as I tried to remember. But it was only a small flicker of light. So miniscule I barely noticed it. But the small thread of memory I had seemed to lead behind a blank locked door with no key. I grumbled in frustration.
Then, Hazel sneezed.
I whipped around. "Rachel?"
"I think it's 'gods bless you'," she responded with a frown.
I ignored her. Something was nagging me though. I turned back around and saw our tour guide eyeing me suspiciously. Maybe he was a regular mortal or not but the multicolored eyes, one brown and the other blue, set me on edge.
"Let's go," I said glancing over my shoulder. I grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards the elevator. Franticly I pushed the button multiple times. The elevator 'dinged' and opened. I shoved Hazel inside and she attacked the 'up' button.
"Come on, come on…" I whispered. Finally the doors shut and I leaned back with relief.
"You can't go anywhere without attracting a single monster can you!"
"It's one of my many talents," I grumbled scrambling out of the elevator and racing towards where we'd left Reyna. Thankfully she had barely moved. We half dragged her out of line.
"Watch it!" She snapped. "Just because your leading this quest doesn't mean I don't have authority."
"No one's questioning your authority." Hazel rolled her eyes. "We've got company."
Reyna nodded and we raced back towards the pegasi. Unfortunately our tour guide beat us too it. We'd almost made it but there he was with those multicolored eyes. He was no longer wearing that ridiculous hat but he was standing funny. Oh and one more thing he now had a tail.
"You shouldn't have wondered away from the group, children." He snarled. From behind him I saw Aclippe peak out from behind the tree. She had a look as if to ask Do you want me to kick this guy? Thankfully Reyna noticed them too. She rapidly spoke something in Latin and Aclippe nodded and disappeared.
The creature smiled. "It's been centuries since I've had your kind."
Reyna and Hazel exchanged a confused glance. Then fearlessly they drew weapons. A little behind, I uncapped Riptide and let it expand to its full length. When he saw the weapons he shifted.
"Manticore." I said.
"Names later." The manticore smiled bearing pointed teeth. His tail flicked.
"Duck!" I shouted. Hazel and Reyna hit the deck. I deflected one of the spikes with my blade and rolled to the side to avoid another one.
"Let's get out of here," I said as Reyna and Hazel jumped to their feet.
"Romans don't back down." Hazel said as Reyna launched an arrow.
"It's honorable to be killed in battle." Reyna grunted deflecting another spike with her knife.
"You're both idiots!" I yelled dragging them behind me as I ran towards the dam. Only later did I realize I'd again spoken in Greek. We sprinted past the small crowds of people who gave us strange looks, and well you would too if you'd seen three teenagers running for their lives. Hazel and Reyna were only inches behind me and 'lucky' us the manticore could run. Spikes kept flying but we were just fast enough. I was trying to think of a plan when something, something gold caught my eye. I stopped short causing Hazel to crash into me.
"Hurry up!" She gasped trying to pull me away.
I was looking at a pair of golden angels. Their toes were gleaming as if they'd been repeatedly rubbed, free from all debris and shinning like a new penny .
"We have to go," Reyna shouted a couple paces ahead. But it was too late.
"You can't keep running Percy Jackson." The manticore was standing only ten feet away, a perfect firing range.
"How did you know his name?" Hazel asked bravely without an ounce of fear in her voice.
"Everyone knows his name…" the manticore smiled. "An interesting game she is playing, but I'm here to help it fail." The last part was almost to himself but before any of us could use this as a distraction he whipped back around. I took one last look at the golden angels.
"Please Athena help us!" I shouted. Hazel gave me an are you nuts look and then we ducked hopefully avoiding the volley of poison spikes. They hadn't even come close. We heard a clang of something striking metal hard and we both glanced up.
"Ah!" One of the angels spoke. "Nice to get a stretch again." They had unfurled their wings as a shield, and they were no longer on their pedestal but standing in front of us. For some reason it felt like déjà vu.
"Hey!" the other looked straight at me. "Percy! You should come by more often."
"Yeah," the first one agreed. "We haven't seen you in over a year."
"Can you get us out of here!" Hazel interrupted.
"Always so pushy!" one snorted.
"All right grab on," and the other one lifted me into the sky. We gained a huge altitude in seconds, the manticore yelling some…unkind words. He tried to shoot another spike after us but Reyna was ready. With deadly accuracy she fired a large arrow. It hit home and the monster dissolved into golden dust.
"Oh gods," Hazel muttered. "That is not normal."
We looked back down and saw that the golden dust was making a shape. Even I knew that wasn't right. The monster was reforming. I wanted to pout like a little kid. It was not fair. Silently we flew east. And by silently I meant me. Reyna and Hazel were arguing in Latin about the manticore.
Finally they stopped long enough for Hazel to ask how I knew about the angels.
"If I have to say this one more time I swear… but I don't know. They were a gift to Z- Jupiter from his daughter."
"That is also not normal." She muttered.
"What now?" I asked. It wasn't anything new, so far nothing had been the slightest bit of normal.
"A child of Neptune favored by Minerva." Reyna answered perplexed.
"Oh I don't think she even likes our friend Percy here." The angel carrying me broke in laughingly.
"From the last time we saw her she was ready to kill you." The other one added.
"Are you enemies with all the gods?" Hazel said obviously annoyed.
I rolled my eyes. "I really give up with the questioning. Nothing is making sense and pieces aren't fitting together."
A huge tremor seemed to waken the earth below us. Like one very large, very abnormal earthquake. I realized I was shaking with frustration and willed myself to calm down.
"What now!" Reyna snarled. "We aren't even near any fault lines." Then she turned to me. "This is all your fault!"
For a second I thought that was a really bad pun comparing me to a fault line but I brushed it aside now letting anger seep through my words.
"My fault! How in Hades is it my fault. I can't remember anything then I'm sent off on a crazy journey with two people who probably want to kill me."
"Correction." Hazel butted in. "I'm the one who wants to kill you. Everywhere we've been so far there has been something to try and destroy us. You've made no sense so far and against my better judgment and Lupa's we have let you live. But the stupid oracle had to say something and now were stuck with you. For all we know you could be the downfall of everything. 'to storm or fire the world must fall' yeah you've caused some pretty bad storms."
I had a feeling she didn't just mean physical storm though something told me I had done worse before. I looked at Reyna who's eyes were blazing. I had turned up and pretty much started the worst prophecy ever, (another sense of déjà vu) then her boyfriend goes missing and she's blaming me. Honestly I would've done the same thing. Even the angels were silent after that.
They let us down a good two or three hours away from the Hoover Dam but we seemed much farther away, I was trying to figure out how fast we'd been flying.
"See you around Percy!" they called after taking off back home.
Without speaking we waited for our pegasi to come with our supplies. A small rustle of leaves stirred off to the right but only I heard it. I jumped up scanning the trees but I couldn't see anything. Something whizzed past my head nicking a few strands of my hair.
"You've got to be kidding me." Hazel shrieked and grabbed her weapon.
