"Get them out of there!" Percy ordered the rest of his little group, gesturing to Archer and Aquila. "I'll take care of the rest!"
They nodded and instantly got to it, slashing and hacking away at the swarm to get to where our two members fought desperately. Hector and I started forward as well, Hector stumbling, but Percy put an arm out.
"You two stay here," he warned.
"It's our-!" I began angrily, but he cut me off.
"I know it's your quest. But just trust me on this, okay?" Percy set his gaze down on the enemy. "Keep Hector safe." And with that, he took off at a sprint down the hill.
I sighed, but watched anxiously as I forced Hector to lower in to a restful position on another rock, pulling out Prowler and willing to stick it with a twist into any chicken lady that came near him.
To my surprise, Hector didn't protest further. His eyes were fluttering heavily, and his head lolled back onto the rock. I wondered, with another catch of breath, if there had been poison in the acid spray.
"Hang in there, Heck," I murmured, absently brushing some curly hair away from his forehead that was coated in a cold sweat. "Eat this." I handed him a small bit of ambrosia, which he shakily brought to his mouth.
Back down on the shoreline, the extra help had successfully backed the swarm of harpies to the water when Percy shouted at all of the others to stand back. As soon as they did so, a ten foot wave swooped up over the group of monsters, rolling over to swallow them whole and then return to the sea. It remained calm.
Telling Hector to sit, stay, and be good boy, I ran down to help Aquila and Archer limp up to the rocks. Archer rushed to Hector as soon as he saw him, kneeling down and impatiently taking Hector's hand off of his wound to check it. I'd forgotten, with Archer's cockiness and good aim, that he was also probably a good Healer.
"How does it look?" I said nervously, tugging on my hair that had come free of my braid. "Is there poison? Does he need ambrosia? Nectar? Did he have too much? Should I get the bandages out of the-"
"Shut up, girl; you're breaking my focus, here," Archer said while Percy and co. trudged up to us.
A bit of my pacing, Archer's hushed chanting, and the others' murmuring later, Archer stood. Hector's eyes were closed. "He'll be okay." Archer looked exhausted, but Hector's side was now expertly bandaged. "He's just unconscious."
"Eat this," Aquila commanded, shoving some ambrosia at Archer, who batted it away.
"I'm fine. The issue is where we go now. It's not safe out in the open."
I shook my head like a dog ridding its ears of water, remembering that this was my quest to lead. "Archer, listen to Aquila. Eat it, and then we'll figure stuff out."
He shook his head, taking up my past hobby and beginning to pace. My eyes narrowed. "Archer. Eat the ambrosia."
"I'm fine," he said irritably.
At this, I turned my gaze to Aquila. We shared a look of exasperation, and to solve this issue, I gave a simple order. "Tackle him."
So that's why, with a sinister grin, Aquila grabbed the bag of ambroisa and launched herself at the son of Apollo, who gave a strangled yell at the girl jumping him and attempting to pin him to the ground to force feed.
I turned to Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and big archer dude.
"Thank you so much," I said sincerely, realizing that I was so tired that I was about to fall over. I leaned against a rock to keep from doing so. "I have no idea what we would have done or if Hector-" my voice cracked suddenly, and I found that I could no longer use it.
Archer squawked behind me, and I glanced back to check the progress. Aquila did end up able to pin him down, and was in threatening mode. Sighing, I returned my focus to the orange-coats, who were raising their eyebrows at the scuffle behind me and frowning. It was Percy that spoke their concerns.
"You're welcome anytime. But what is your quest?"
"To seek the Holy Grail," I said dully.
He blinked. "What?"
"In other words," I translated, "I can't tell you. It's for the gods, I swear on the river Styx-" Thunder "but like Hector said; it's a dead person thing. It would be best if you didn't get involved."
"We want to help!" Percy said boldly, but I cut him off before further statement.
"Exactly why we didn't contact Camp Half-Blood about it. The gods asked us because they didn't want to endanger you." I gestured to Hector and the harpy footprints on the beach. This happened because one god was pissed. I don't want to think of what kinds of eternal punishment we'd get if all of them were for messing with their living kids."
"But," he said, more quiet, "What about you? You're alive."
"For now," I sighed. "If I complete this successfully, then I'll stay that way longer. If you get involved and make gods ticked at us, no, I'll go straight back down." I fixed him with a level stare. "I like living. Hector likes living. Archer and Aquila like living. So we'd prefer if you kept yourselves safe and out of it."
"But-"
"Perseus Jackson, I have been in the Underworld for fifteen fricking years. Please."
He stared.
"Please."
Percy turned away and began to whisper heatedly with his girlfriend. Nico, adorned with sculls, black, gothness, and hotness as usual, shifted awkwardly beside them, while the other boy counted his arrows.
Finally, the savior of Olympus faced me one more time. "Just let us get you somewhere to sleep. Okay? That's all."
I opened my mouth to answer, when I heard Archer shout out, "Fine! Fine! I'll take the (insert extremely naughty, descriptive words here) ambrosia! Just get off me, woman!"
So Aquila had won her battle. Time to win my own. I breathed out. "Okay. That's all."
"That's all."
That's when Archer grumpily slumped over, clothes wrinkled and hair messed up, but less scraped and bruised, which was more important. "What's the plan, 'io?"
I grimaced. "'io?"
"Well, what else would your nickname be?"
I rolled my eyes. "My name is only two syllables. Some people say it as one. You can hardly-"
"Well, I just did. Shall we call our cow?"
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Your… cow?"
"Cow goddess," Aquila specified, appearing on my other side. "Sorry, Annabeth, but she was the one that was going to give us info, so…" Aquila looked at me. "Gonna make the call, leader?"
"Yup," I said, and called out, "Hera! We're ready!"
With a flash she was here again, that same shimmery blue dress and stern gaze. "Well, demigods?"
Annabeth practically hissed, and Percy scowled, refusing to look at the goddess. Ignoring this, I said, "He was with someone, yes. And yes, in a relationship you wouldn't approve of. So, before you give him a talking to, can you give us the name and location?"
Hera's jaw clenched and she looked away from us for a moment, before saying quietly, "His name is Logan Keep, son of Nemesis, predictably. I do not know where Prometheus is, but as for Logan, he is staying with his step-mother upstate. Here is the address." A slip of parchment popped into my hand with fancy script.
After examining it, I slid it into my pocket and looked at the goddess, who finally met my eyes. "Why you?" I said finally. "Why did you know this and the other gods didn't?"
"They are distracted by their own demigod children, worrying." She played with her silky braid. "I have none to be distracted by but my husband who seems to have other things to give his attention to. I observe others. I see more, in my solitude. They do not know, except for Nemesis, who, though all about fairness, has begun to hold off a tiny bit for her own children. I cannot blame her."
Hera looked tired, lonely, and despite what I'd heard about her, I felt a pang of pity. But it was only out of fear of incineration that I said, "Thank you for your much needed assistance, Lady Hera."
Her eyes searched mine. "You speak well, Clio Concordan. Thank you for your information, and though I disapprove of most demigods," she paused, "I will wish you luck, not only for the quest, but for your own sake." A smile. "We could use more demigods like you."
I highly doubted that, because if there were, the world would likely be in flames by now, but I still gave another 'thank you' and a bow. Then a flash, and the goddess was gone.
"You did a deal with her?" Annabeth growled. "No wonder you were completely hopeless if we hadn't come-"
"Hey!" Aquila said, eyes narrowing. "We were not hopeless-!"
"Not hopeless? Then why were you surrounded by harpies and needed us to get you out and a hydra was about to take out two other members, one that was severely injured already-"
"It wasn't our fault! It was the terrier!"
"What? Well-"
"Enough!" I shouted over them, rubbing my temples where a headache was forming. "My gods, contain yourselves, both of you! You're both better than this! Who cares whose fault it was? It happened, it's over, now move on." I shot a tiny glare at Percy and co. "I'm sure you've been in bigger messes before. Monsters come after demigods; that's just how it works, and we were fighting the best we could."
Annabeth opened her mouth, but Percy rested a hand on her shoulder. They seemed to share a silent conversation between their eyes, and then Annabeth sighed. "Okay. Let's just… find where you're going to rest."
While they talked amongst themselves for a moment, I scowled, annoyed at how Athena kids can never seem to apologize. Besides, I knew it was my fault, but rubbing it in was not helping the situation. To my surprise, it was Archer that patted my back supportively. When I gave him a questioning look, he just said, "Don't let them get you down. They can't control that it's their time of month-"
"Hey!" Aquila protested, putting her hand on his face and practically pushing him over. He righted himself, hands up for protection, but I just stepped between them, laughing at the familiarity.
"Yeah, Aquila," I said, feeling a bit reckless today, "I don't blame you for your hormonal-"
"Okay," Percy cut me off, coming out of their huddle. "Come with me. We can get some cabs."
"Yes, kemosabe," I said, walking over the sand to kneel beside Hector. He looked serene, sleeping peacefully, mouth slightly parted and face tilted to the side on his hard pillow. Let's see if we could find him a softer one. With Archer's help, I propped him up, lightly tapping his cheek in the hope that he would wake.
I had hoped enough, apparently, because his eyes blinked slowly open. He rubbed them and yawned in a way that I admitted was clearly adorable, and squinted up at me. Hector looked confused for a moment, before saying, "Did I just kiss you?"
He just had to bring it up, didn't he? "Um." I considered jumping into the ocean, but I was sure I would come out with my cheeks steaming. Archer raised an eyebrow, smirking like 'when did this happen, 'io?' I also considered flipping him off. "Yeah, you did."
"Mmkay," he said wearily, not seemingly bothered by the information. He stood wobbly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "'bout time. Took me three effing years."
Hey kemosabes!
As I saw another author say perfectly, reviews = love and encouragement = more writing.
And it's about effing time that I posted. I've been procrastinating like crazy - one of my major talents. I tried to make this nice and long for ya, though.
Oh, and if anyone feels like shipping Hector/Clio as hard as I do, then my buddy WingDawn98 and I have decided that Clector is the ship name, because it sounds like something Henry from the Infernal Devices would name one of his inventions...
And to my lovely, angelic reviewers...
WingDawn98: I told Clio that, and she got very happy and says thank you. And here's more Percy for you and more coming up. Made sure to add some Aquila for you as well. :D You're amazawesome!
Miniaon: Thankzz! And a note for anyone reading this and confused: Clio has been dead for fifteen years from her accident. It says it in the beginning, but it was easy to miss, so thanks for mentioning that. :) Haha, she doesn't really hate animals, but she's just a bit wary and over-reactive about them because she used to obviously think that llamas were innocent (who doesn't?) but they killed her. So she's just a bit paranoid. As you'll find out later, she used to live on a farm with her dad, cows, horses, ducks (mean ducks), a dog, barn cats, so yeah, she doesn't hate them. And who could hate a panda bear? :P
Ave atque vale,
~LoneStorm
P.S. Virtual cookies to anyone who can tell me where 'kemosabe' and 'ave atque vale' are from... (different places)
