Sorry for the Hiatus. Life and Writers Block hit me hard but I am Back on it. Truth be told i meant to post this a few months ago, but i couldn't find the flashdrive. I had just moved. Well Enjoy this and more to come!
Bella
Cadmus himself lunged straight at me with a hiss. I maybe fast, but Cadmus was just as fast as me. I barely jumped out of the way of his fangs. Knocking an arrow, I fired at Cadmus's eye. Cadmus twisted around and snatched the arrow out of midair with his fangs. With a loud crunch, Cadmus snapped my arrow in half. He whipped his tail, striking me in the chest. I flew back into on the stone walls, my bow clattering to the ground.
Cadmus slithered towards me, hissing loudly. He flipped out fangs, a green venom dripping from his fangs. For the second time in a month, I was defenseless and about to die, just like when the Leukrokotta was about to kill me.
Just then, a rock shot of nowhere and broke into pebbles against Cadmus's head, unbalancing him. Three more stones hit Cadmus, causing him to flip on his back. Taking advantage of the moment, I sped towards my bow, back flipped midair, and fired two more arrows. Cadmus twisted his long body, barely missing one arrow. The second arrow impaled itself in Cadmus's underbelly. The snake hissed with pain as blood dripped onto the floor. Kayla rushed to my side, completely covered head to toe in a copper brown stone armor suit.
Cadmus twisted himself around, breaking off my arrow. I was really getting tired of super snake over here, even if he was once a demigod. His wife, whatever her name was, was still wrapped around Ally, who was doing her best to reach her Atlantean sword.
That old creep Laocoon and his sons had disappeared down one of the tunnels. Apparently, he was to chicken to fight. Or he was pretty sure that Cadmus and his wife would kill us. Cadmus was tough all on his own, but Thomas and Nick struggling against Cadmus's wife.
Thomas had drawn his sword, while he and my brother tried to free Ally without hurting her. Cadmus's wife apparently could shoot poison, like good monster snakes. Thomas and Mal were doing their best to avoid the venom, not able to get close to Ally.
Nick was skirting around the edges of the rotunda, sticking to the shadows where he couldn't be seen. When Cadmus's wife was focused completely on Thomas and Mal, he jumped, wrapping the snake's body with one arm and tried using his mechanical arm to get to Ally. Cadmus's wife bucked and rocked like bull, trying to shake Nick. Nick couldn't stay on for long and was thrown off. He landed wrong, his right on his mechanical arm. One of the sprockets broke loose and shot around the rotunda, bouncing off the walls and Kayla's armor. The rest of the arm shut down, going limp at Nick's side.
Thomas went to Nick side and helped him up, bringing him to the shadows and leaving a trail of gears and metal. "Kayla!" Thomas yelled. "Kayla! This would be a good time to do the thing!"
"Are you sure?" her voice muffled under the stone armor. Cadmus attacked her again, trying to pierce her stone armor. Kayla grabbed his head and threw him down. "What if it doesn't work?"
"It couldn't hurt!" Thomas rolled away from Cadmus's wife's snapping jaws.
Kayla lifted her arms and the rocks below us began to tremble. I tried to land a good shot at Cadmus, but he was too fast. Fortunately he wasn't as fast as me, so I was able to avoid his venomous fangs.
Cadmus decided he had enough of me and turned attention to Kayla, who was still concentrating on her maneuver.
Cadmus reared backed his head and opened his mouth wide. Without thinking, I tackled Cadmus, grabbing onto his head and jerking him away from Kayla. We crashed into the ground. Cadmus reacted quickly, pinning me on the ground as his body coiled around me, restricting my limbs. I seriously need to stop getting into these situations.
The coils tightened. The air in my lungs blasted out of my chest. I struggled to breathe as pain pulsed from my body. My head began to swim and my vision clouded with black.
Then the ground exploded. Earthen hands shot out of the floor and grabbed Cadmus and his wife. The hands pinned the pair to the floor. Cadmus writhed and coiled, struggling to break free. His wife spat poison before a stone hand clamped over her mouth.
I collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. I felt like my chest was on fire and had been crushed into a snowball. Thomas dropped on one knee beside me and fed some ambrosia that tasted like German chocolate cake, my favorite kind. Immediately the air returned to my lungs and my chest stopped buzzing with pain. I coughed, blood spurting into my mouth.
Thomas rolled me on my back and poured some nectar in my mouth. It tasted like hot liquid German chocolate cake. My lungs started to fill with air again, and the pain reduced to a buzzing sensation. Energy refilled my body. I sprang up, bow in hand, arrow nocked.
Just then, Cadmus's wife's tail broke free of the stone hands and lashed out, knocking into Kayla. Her armor crumbled like dust and the stone hands dissolved.
The two snakes attacked again. I jumped up, barely avoiding the poison that Cadmus's wife spat at me. I fired my arrow, but Cadmus bit it out of midair. I was really starting to hate this guy's freaky fast speed and reflexes.
Ally pointed her sword at Cadmus. Small red pores opened along the flat of blade. Streams of dark blue water blasted out of the sword like fire hose on steroids. Cadmus hissed with surprise as the geyser shot him into the brick wall. Cadmus struggled to escape the water burst.
Taking advantage of the moment, I summoned two moonlight arrows to nock. I released, and my arrows sliced through the water blast and buried themselves in Cadmus's neck. Cadmus went limp and slumped to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Just to be sure, I fired three more arrows through Cadmus's skull. Cadmus began to dissolve into a thick cloud of golden dust.
Suddenly a rock pillar shot of the ground and struck Cadmus's wife in the head, dazing her. Thomas stretched his arms, and my ears popped as the air pressure lowered in the room. I felt like something was pulling me towards Thomas, like a vacuum, except it was passing over me. Cadmus's wife got the worse of it.
The suction was affecting her, pulling her towards Thomas. She tried to shoot poison at Thomas, but the venom whipped around Thomas, splattering on the wall behind him. Cadmus's wife coiled in midair in desperate attempt to escape.
Malcolm raised his sword and swung, cleaving the copper snake's head from body. The head rolled to the floor next me before dissolving into dust along with the rest of the body.
"Are there going monsters like that at every turn?" Kayla asked.
"Probably." Thomas said, exhausted.
"Great." Kayla huffed.
Then the golden dust around us began to churn. It never truly disappeared after we defeated them. The dust swirled into two separate inverse whirlpools. The dust began to form two shapes, two human-like shapes. Golden arms and torsos formed along with the head last. The two dust humans rose to their full heights, one male one female. Oh great, round two. At least this time they were human. The forms shimmered with a spectrum of rainbow lights and they solidified into full human.
Cadmus himself was different from what I expected of a Greek hero. Greek heroes to me were Mr. Universe contestants with deep tans and stern faces. Cadmus was a bean pole. His ribs showed under his thin pale skin. His long extremely curly jet black hair set on his shoulder. His brown eyes and grin said mischief was just around the corner. Cadmus reminded me of that prankster nerd in high school who was always stealing stuff and putting cherry bombs in toilets. He only wore a gold fur cape and a pair of cargo camo shorts.
His wife looked much better human than a snake. She looked serene, peaceful, like there wasn't anything that could bother her. Her long blonde hair was braided behind here in a French braid. Her kind blue eyes made me feel at ease. She wore a pure white blouse with a tight blue jeans and grey high heel boots.
Cadmus stretched, his spine cracking with a series of pops and snaps. "Well, that was new." He said, grinning. His voice was deeper than I expected. "Thank you. I didn't think killing us would work to reverse the curse or Harmonia and I would have flung ourselves off a cliff after we transformed back into snakes. Again!"
"Ok, I'm confused." Ally said, still holding her sword. "You guys just tried to kill us, and you're thanking us for killing you?"
Harmonia frowned and looked sympathetically at Ally. "I'm sorry about hurting you, but well I didn't have a choice. That awful Masked Queen said the only way to reverse the curse she put on us."
Thomas raised his hand. "Wait a minute; I thought it was Ares that turned you into snakes."
Cadmus nodded. "Well, that was the first time, after I killed his son. But my mother Athena and Harmonia's father Zeus wouldn't stand for it, so they turned us into gods. Ares and I got over that pretty quickly, well after a thousand years. But this Masked Queen, she's something else. She managed to turn us back into serpents again. "
"And she took my necklace." Harmonia reached her hand around her bare neck. She sounded like it was a tragedy.
"Your necklace?" I asked.
Cadmus sighed, like he was to blame. "It was what the Masked Queen wanted all along. She lured us into a trap and turned us back into snakes. Harmonia's necklace, it's bad luck to any wearer except Harmonia, like Eris's Apple of Discord. It can even cause a god's downfall. The Masked Queen took it when she captured us. What she had planned for it," Cadmus shuttered. "Let's just find it and get it over with."
"What do you know of the Masked Queen?" Thomas changed the subject.
Cadmus shrugged. "Only that she really hates you, Thomas Fairway. Like she dedicated a part of her whole world domination plan to killing you."
Thomas looked shocked. "Why? I never even heard of her before she tried to kill us."
"Well she knows you pretty well." Cadmus replied. "But that's only small taste of what she has in store. She managed to plant spies and turned gods in Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, that fish mer-people camp, even Mount Olympus, just waiting for her to the give the order."
"What happens when she gives the order?" Kayla asked.
"Thousands will die." Harmonia replied. "Gods overthrown; demigods turning on each other, monsters cleaning up afterwards, it will be a bloodbath. The Masked Queen plans to watch the world burn, she doesn't care for mortals or gods, only for monsters. I heard rumor that's only part one of her plan."
"So taking over the world is only the first step?" Mal said skeptically "What's the next phase?"
"There's rumors that she is taking orders from someone, getting powers from them. Whoever they are, it sounded like they are even older than the protogenoi of the Third Age." Cadmus explained. "You're here to stop here right? What Camp are you from?"
That was not good question. None of us spoke up; we just looked at each other, trying to figure what to say him.
Thomas stepped up. "We're… independent contractors working for Prometheus. He has a special interest in stopping Masked Queen and sent us to find her."
Cadmus looked suspicious of the answer but ran with it. "Ok, good luck to you. I wish I could guide straight to her, but this Labyrinth, it changes all the time, and for some reason only the Queen can navigate, even control it."
"Is there any hope getting out of here?" Ally asked.
Cadmus pointed at Adrianne's Clue. "With that probably, but I heard Laocoon say that if you got past us, your worst nightmare was waiting for you."
I frowned as a chill settled throughout my body. "Is there anything friendly down here?"
"Doubt it." Thomas replied. "Only things that come down here want to escape from eyes above."
"True." Harmonia said. "But we must head back to Mount Olympus now; see if we can convince the Olympian Senate to act to stop this Masked Queen."
Cadmus nodded. "Of course, good luck to you. I do have something that can help you. While we were snakes, I heard one of our guards worry about a statue that escaped them. They were worried that it could ruin their plans."
"How do they lose a statue?" Ally questioned. "or how does it escape?"
Cadmus shrugged. "If you can find it, it might give you an edge in beating the Masked Queen. Best of luck to you, and when you face her; be ready for anything. Now close your eyes."
"What?" I asked, but Thomas put his hand over my eyes and Kayla's.
"Do it." he told the others. A small bright light flashed through Thomas's fingers. The smell of roses and spring air drifted through the air.
"Well that was interesting." I said.
Thomas nodded and looked over at the Clue, which was leading us back the door we came from. "Let's get moving before more monsters show up."