Chapter Nine
The next morning, we all groggily unzipped our sleeping bags and had a quick breakfast.
Piling back into our roomy van, we resumed traveling.
After a couple hours of driving, we stopped for a few minutes at a roadside rest stop. It was the first one we had seen in about two hours, so we had to stop.
Tobi and I were pacing back and forth on the sidewalk in front of the building to stretch our legs. Getting out of the van felt amazing to my restless limbs.
"I've been thinking Cassi," Tobi broke the silence.
"Have you now?" I asked teasingly.
He didn't seem to notice my jest, but continued studying the cracks in the sidewalk. "I'm worried about the line in the prophecy that says 'An unknown shall be the last, given into the hands of Lives Past'."
I wasn't feeling so light-hearted anymore. In fact, I had been thinking about that same thing. "I know."
I elaborated. "I was that 'unknown', so that part of the prophecy is talking about me, but I have no idea what it might mean."
Tobi nodded in agreement.
We were interrupted by a yell from the woods. It sounded like Andromeda screaming.
I threw a glance at Tobi. He mirrored my surprised look.
What was Andromeda doing in the woods? She and Leander were inside, last I knew.
I reached for my sword, Antigone, and Tobi unsheathed his sword. They had been strapped to our sides for the whole trip so far. You never knew what you were going to run into.
The two of us raced into the trees toward where we had heard the scream coming from.
"Help!" Leander's voice echoed through the forest. "Please! Somebody help!"
Tobi and I ran even faster in our urgency to reach our traveling partners in distress.
Bursting into a clearing, we stopped short in total shock.
An eight foot tall beast stood there. It was shaped similarly to a donkey, but had a lion's mane and tail. A wide, horrible mouth filled with sharp teeth foamed terrifyingly.
Neither Leander nor Andromeda was anywhere in sight. There was absolutely no sign of them.
"Oh, please help!" Andromeda's voice seemed to be coming from the monster. Creepy monster!
As one, Tobi and I whirled and retraced our steps as quickly as our legs would carry us.
The crashing of underbrush warned us that the beast was following.
I mentally kicked myself for not having my bow strapped to my back.
We didn't waste breath by talking, but instead, just dashed frantically around obstructions.
As we burst out of the line of trees, I spotted Leander and Andromeda standing on the sidewalk.
Leander's mouth fell open and he pointed behind us. "Leucrocuta incoming!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.
"We know! We know!" I called back helpfully.
Together, Tobi and I turned to face the charging monster.
The Leucrocuta thundered across the grass, shattering picnic tables and benches. The creature was definitely after us. The horrid thing smelled Half Bloods. And it wanted lunch.
"Yaaaaaaaaaah!" Tobi yelled, as he ran straight at the beast.
I followed with a similar scream, but mine was more terrified than his war cry.
Our charge didn't deter the Leucrocuta's charge one smidgen.
Tobi dove left, and I rolled right, out of the way of the beast's cloven hooves.
Leander whipped out his new bow, and leaped into the air. He shot rapid fire at the creature's head. The arrows didn't do much damage. Mr. Leucrocuta seemed to get more frenzied. Or is it a Mrs. Leucrocuta? How do you tell a monster's gender, anyway?
The beast faced Tobi and me again, shrieking in its fury. The creature rushed forward a second time, intent on smashing my poor, little, insignificant self to pieces.
What do you do when an eight foot monster is charging right at you?
Let me tell you. You don't stand your ground, that's for sure.
I turned to the side again and Tobi turned the other way. This time, however, we both got a good rake at the monster's sides with our blades.
Unfortunately for us, the animal monsters don't explode into a pile of dust when stabbed with Celestial bronze weapons. Only the humanoid monsters did that. Drat.
The creature returned quickly, only knocking over a couple trees in its eagerness to kill us all.
Leander swooped by, close to the beast's head, and sent an arrow hurtling into its monstrous eye.
It threw its head backwards, bellowing in pain at the sky.
Tobi and I both slashed at the creature's legs as it distractedly raced past us.
The monster recovered fast, although its left eye, where Leander had shot it, didn't seem to be functioning anymore.
I bet you can guess why.
Andromeda, who so far hadn't participated much in our monster fight, grabbed hold of the creature's thrashing tail as it turned.
Genius Andromeda. Real smart.
The Aphrodite girl dug her feet into the ground in an attempt to slow the beast down. It didn't work too well. The beast flung Andromeda easily off his body with one powerful heave of its tail. The girl was airborne for a few long moments, but crashed into a tree trunk and didn't get up again.
This fight was not going as well as the one with the bull had. Now what?
I searched hysterically around the rest stop parking lot for something, anything to stop the beast.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
I raced through the glass doors of the building.
With one smash of my sword, I freed the fire extinguisher from its case on the wall.
Charging back outside, I ran to the middle of the, thankfully, empty parking lot. I yelled to get the creature's attention.
"Hey you! I'm over here! Leave my friends alone!"
It helped that the Leucrocuta was already headed my way.
I held the fire extinguisher in front of me with both hands. When the beast drew close enough, I sprayed the contents of the can into the creature's face.
Miraculously, the monster started slowing down. The wounds, and not being able to see, combined were slowly getting to him.
I sprayed more fire extinguisher muck into his face.
Tobi raced to my side. He swung his sword at the Leucrocuta's neck, slicing through it with a sickening crunch.
The beast fell over, dead. Then, the Leucrocuta disintegrated into dust. Finally!
Tobi limped over to me. "You alright?" He asked, concerned.
"Just fine." I replied. "Why wouldn't I be ok? We only got attacked by an eight foot monster." I joked.
"Are you hurt?" I asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Not bad." Tobi responded. "He just barely clipped my side."
Even though he said it wasn't bad, I could see some blood soaking through his shirt.
Leander alighted on the ground next to us. He looked unhurt. I addressed Tobi. "I'll fix you up in a bit, but I think Andromeda is the most pressing injury at the moment."
Turning, I jogged over to where Andromeda lay in a heap at the base of a tree. She was unconscious.
Tobi and Leander followed me.
Leander knelt beside the girl.
"I'll grab some water. Be right back." I said. I spun and went back inside the rest stop building.
The manager was nowhere to be seen. Personally, I would have run away too if I had seen a monster attacking four kids outside my rest stop.
I bought a water bottle from one of the vending machines and pushed back through the doors.
Kneeling beside Andromeda, I uncapped the water bottle. I tilted that bottle slightly, trickling a tiny bit of the liquid into her mouth.
She coughed, and her eyelids fluttered open. She moaned.
"Welcome back," I teased. "How do you feel?"
Andromeda moaned again, but then articulated a bit better. "Not so great. What happened?"
Leander told her about the fight with the Leucrocuta.
"We should get moving," Tobi said nervously. "There might be another monster nearby."
I reached for Andromeda's hand to help her up.
She got up, but with a cry of pain, she fell back, clutching her ankle.
"I – I can't put weight on it," she cried.
Leander and Tobi each drew one of her arms across their shoulders, supporting her.
She limped between them to the van, which was amazingly still intact, in the parking lot.
When we had loaded back up and gotten on the road, I wrapped Andromeda's ankle.
"I guess we're even now," I smiled at her, referring to when she had wrapped my ribs.
The ribs are still painful. Just in case you're wondering.
Andromeda smiled painfully back, then reclined in the seat.
Pretty soon she was asleep.
We drove for the rest of the day, fortunately not running in to any more monsters.
Again, we camped out under the stars.
The next morning, we got started again. It was pretty boring.
Eventually, however, Leander told us we had passed the Minnesota border. Now we only had about five hours of travel left.
Whoopee.
Finally, finally, we made it to the North Shore.
The only problem was: it was pouring rain. That made it a bit hard to search for Boreas.
Scratch that off our list of stuff to do tonight.
We had to content ourselves with sleeping in the van until the rain stopped.
