A/N: Hey guys got a new chapter for you :) Hope you guys remember where the story paused in the last chapter because this one gets a little crazy.
Again I do not own PJO or any of the characters associated with it, however I do own the Plot to this story and the characters shown within it.
Hope you like the chapter :)
Chapter 10 – The Daughter of Boreas and the Dragon
I couldn't believe what I was looking at; if it wasn't for our current situation I would be very excited to see something like this.
"Do you see it now Kralus?" Asked Angie
"Yeah I see it but I can't believe it."
A few feet below our plane was an actual dragon or at least what was left of it, there was not a single sign of muscle or scales.
All I could see were ghostly white bones, where the heart was meant to be there was a ball of blue flames.
For eyes it had blue flames blazing bright, on its back it carried a little girl who looked no older than five.
I couldn't see her face since she was wearing a hood; all I knew was that our current situation had just gone from bad to worse in less than five minutes.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and instinctively went to turn around when I felt myself getting pushed against the window.
"Argh get off me child I'll get to you later let me just have a look at him first" hissed Lauren
"Oh you're not going to have a look at anyone lady" screamed Nancy
A second later Lauren let out an ear splitting scream, I felt the weight on my back get lifted as I turned around I saw Nancy grinning at me.
She was holding on to Lauren very tightly and I think she might have poked her eyes; blindly she walked towards the back.
It was then that I saw the washroom door wide open and knew what the girls were trying to do.
I had never thought that the girls could work this well together; a few minutes ago they were scared to the point of quivering.
As Lauren bumped into the door Nancy jumped off her, the second she was off Louise and Kathy pushed her into the washroom while Angie shut the door.
"Is there anything we can use to keep the door shut?" Shouted Angie "I won't be able to keep it shut for long."
"Just try to hold on for a while Angie we will try to look for something" said Louise sounding a little tense
After searching around for a while we found nothing that could be of use, the washroom door was beginning to creak a lot from all of the banging.
"Guys you might want to hurry" said Angie nervously.
Just then the view outside began to get darker; I could faintly hear thunder in the distance. The plane began to shake, slightly at first but then it began to get a little violent.
The tannoy buzzed as we were being thrown around like ragdolls.
"Lauren could you come back to the pilots seat, thank you."
As the tannoy buzzed off the washroom door slammed open.
"You will pay for that daughter of Aphrodite she hissed all of her children are admired for their beauty but you will not be."
She brandished her neatly filed nails and went to attack Angie.
I tried running towards her but it was useless, the shaking of the plane meant that I couldn't get a steady footing.
Using the chairs to barrel myself forward I kicked Lauren just as she was a few inches away from Angie's face.
Rather than cutting through flesh her nails cut through fabric.
"Arghhh How dare you that was a Dolce and Gabbana t shirt" shouted Angie
As she landed her head hit the wall, as if that wasn't enough one of the overhead compartments opened up causing its contents to fall on top of her.
"Arghhh! All right kiddies playtimes over" she snarled.
Her anger seemed to make her pulsate with power. Her skin began to boil, cracking and getting darker by the second until it was emerald green.
The legs had been turned into a five foot tail, the only sign that she had been wearing trousers was the shredded blue cloth held in place by a black belt.
The blazer and shirt looked like they were at their limits, bulging from the seams.
"Finally I can get out of this wretched form" she hissed "I hate being in that form, it doesn't strike fear into moral hearts."
At that point Louise rolled near her tail in a dazed state.
"Looks like I'll be starting with this one" she said licking her lips.
She picked up Louise by the neck, bringing her up to eye level and stroked her skin using one of her nails.
"You have very soft skin dear, almost baby like she purred I am going to enjoy this."
At first I thought she was being turned into stone from the way that Louise was shrieking but then I saw drop of blood falling to the ground and knew that something weird was going on.
"Hey Lauren aren't you like supposed to turn us into stone?"
At this Lauren's head popped over Louise's shoulder, her eyes showed murderous intent beyond belief.
"WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK THAT ALL GORGON SISTERS CAN TURN PEOPLE TO STONE…IT WAS ONLY MEDUSA" she spat angrily "SHE HAD IT ALL THE UGLY LOOKS, THE POWERS AND LETS NOT FORGET THE MEN."
"Uh so who are you?" Asked Angie quizzically.
"The name is Stheno" she snarled diving for Angie
She tackled Angie smashing her head again the window, if that wasn't enough she was going to turn her into a kebab.
Brandishing her nails she went to claw Angie but at the last second she was pulled out of the way by Nancy and the nail went through the window.
For a few seconds none of us moved, we were all praying that the window didn't break and miraculously there wasn't even a crack on there.
There were however five pencil sized holes all in a perfect circle, slowly she took out her nails from the window and we all expect it to just fall apart.
Thankfully that didn't happen but the fact that the window was damaged meant that we could no longer do anything reckless.
I was about to dive at her but was met with her tail, it coiled around my body restricting my movement.
From the corner of my eye I saw Kathy jump off the chair trying to kick Stheno but she caught her foot and flung her aside.
She hit one of the overhead compartments and fell down; as she was getting up I saw a trickle of blood escape her lips.
The tail kept getting tighter and tighter, soon I felt as if I could hear my own bones grinding against each other. The girls were trying their best to make her let go of me but nothing was working, it wasn't until Nancy threw salted peanuts at her that she loosened her grip.
Taking advantage of this I quickly snaked my way out of there before she had a chance to start crushing me again.
As I turned around I saw her writhing around frantically, she was fluently cursing in ancient Greek.
Looking closely I saw she had her eyes shut tight, I was guessing some of the salt from the peanuts went into them.
This was a good chance to regroup and come up with a plan; I silently signalled to Nancy and moved across the aisle.
One by one all the girls gathered near the pilot cabin door, which at this point was the furthest spot from Stheno.
Once we had all gathered there we began conversing in whispers so that Stheno wouldn't over hear our conversation, her fluent Greek curses were still being rolled out.
"Kralus how can we kill her?" Asked Nancy.
"We…we can't killer she's immortal" I sighed.
"So….what…what can we do?" Asked Kathy wide eyed.
"Are we going to die on here?" Asked Angie "we are aren't we?"
"No, no one is going to die today." "I didn't want to do this before but I have no choice left."
"Wait!" "What are you planning on doing?" Asked Nancy a little concerned.
"Just make sure you guys are holding on to something." "Also can you guys distract her for five minutes?"
"That's a bit too much" said Louise "we can barely hold our own against her."
"Just try to hold on for as long as you can and leave the rest to me."
"We will try to do our best but there are no promises" said Kathy
"Okay on the count of three."
I could feel the tension growing, a bead of sweat trickled down my forehead.
"One…two…three!"
On the count of three the bead of sweat hit the floor. The girls went to tackle a recovered Stheno, who at the time was charging at us.
Meanwhile I ran towards the main door, seeing the red lever and the message imprinted on the door itself I let out a sigh of relief.
"This is the biggest emergency" I said pulling the lever.
From behind me there was a very loud crash, without letting go of the lever I turned a little to see what happened.
I saw an upturned chair and a very dishevelled Stheno pinned down by the girls.
Renewing my efforts to pull the very stiff lever, I could hear the creaking protests from the mechanisms inside. Heaving one last time there was a loud click which signalled the opening of the door.
"Kralus watch out!"
The second I heard Nancy shout, I knew my time was up but the deed was done. As I turned Stheno was coming at me full tilt and I knew what she was aiming for.
I closed my eyes, ready for what was about to happen. There was a very loud thump, I was expecting to be thrown off my feet and stuck to the wall but it didn't happen.
I felt something bump against my knees and that was it. Slowly opening one eye I saw a metal tray with Stheno's face perfectly outlined, from the look of things she was going to take a bite out of my neck.
I saw a pair of ghostly white hands holding the tray very tightly, following them down I saw Angie leaning against my legs. Her breathing was laboured and she was shaking like a leaf.
A sound like the ripping of wax strips was coming from the tray, in a few seconds Stheno emerged from behind the tray with a goofy look on her face.
Without any further ado I flipped the level all the way and let go, immediately the door flew away all the air in the cabin was being sucked out.
Stheno was about to follow the door but at the last second she held on to the door frame.
"Curse you Kralus" she shouted over the howling wind.
She was frantically trying to climb back in but never succeeding. It was then that Angie got up, taking one step towards Stheno and looking down on her.
"Get lost bitch!" She shouted kicking her in the face.
The hit loosened Stheno's grip but did not make her let go altogether. Angie kicked her again to make her let go but she was very persistent.
After taking a third kick to the face there was a groan from the door frame and the place where she was holding just broke off.
It was as if everything had suddenly slowed down, Stheno was slowing rolling into a ball as she fell down. Angie was turning towards me breathing a sigh of relief, looking over her shoulder I could see Stheno now completely rolled into a ball.
As she was about to dive through dense white clouds something broke through, I could see two blue orbs again.
Even before it completely broke through I knew the dragon and its rider were here, Stheno hit the dragon head on causing its head to snap to the right.
Just then there was a very loud bang, it nearly made me fall off the plane. Half of my body was already outside; if it wasn't for Angie grabbing my hand I would have become street art along with Stheno.
From the corner of my eye I could see black smoke billowing from where the wing was meant to be. I felt my hands being tugged; very slowly I was pulled back into the plane.
Having being pulled in I noticed that everyone had created a human chain to pull me in.
"Guys we are missing a wing" I said panting.
All the colour drained out of the girls faces; Kathy was the first to go have a look out of the last window. She was there for at least a minute, when she turned there was utter disbelief and horror in her eyes.
"Kathy tell me the wing is still there" sobbed Angie tears freely rolling down her cheeks.
"I…Sorry Angie, there is nothing there."
Angie completely broke down at this point; Nancy and Louise were trying to calm her down while Kathy leaned against the upturned chair still in shock.
I went to look outside of the door and found the dragon getting closer to the plane or rather it was the plane that was losing altitude.
The girl on the back of the dragon had her hood off now and I was able to see her face, her skin was very pale almost ghostly white, she had stunning brown almond shaped eyes.
She looked very skinny but not unhealthy, her clothes made it seem like she had been in quite a few rough situations however she had the presence of a queen.
I could see her raising her hands and chanting a few words but because of the howling wind I couldn't hear anything.
Bit by bit the rain water was starting to coming into the cabin and it was starting to get unusually cold.
Looking at the water that had already accumulated I saw that it was starting to freeze over.
"This can't lead to anything good" I whispered to myself.
No sooner than I had said this there were a few loud bangs from the roof, it started off slowly but then accelerated. Just then a ball of ice the size of my fist rolled into the cabin; at this even Angie stopped crying.
All of our attention was on this ball of ice.
"That is the biggest hail stone I have ever seen" said Louise picking it up.
The roof of the plane looked like it was getting beaten down by a tenderiser, more and more of these hail stones were rolling into the cabin.
The girls were now in full panic mode, the dragon was still flying outside within arm's reach but I couldn't do anything.
If I jumped out of the plane the girls might die, if I stay on here we all might die.
As I stood there thinking Nancy walked up to me with a mean look on her face, one which I had never seen before.
"You are the son of the sky god, do something about this…if…if you don't do something we will all end up dead" she said sobbing a little.
I slowly looked around the little cabin at all the tired faces and knew that this would be the final round.
"Right let's do this" I said firmly "we need to block the door way so that the plane can stabilise a little."
"What about the wing?" Asked Kathy "if things go the way they are the fire will eventually reach the fuel tank and we will all be blown sky high."
"If you can somehow create a vacuum around the place where the fire is, there is a chance that it will die out" said Louise
"A vacuum?"
"It's a void with no air, fire needs oxygen to burn and if you cut out the oxygen it will surely die out" said Angie with renewed vigour
"Oh that's pretty clever for an Aphrodite girl" said Kathy jokingly.
"Haha Kathy I do pay attention in class you know" she said sticking out her tongue.
"Right let's get started guys, first we have to bring that chair up here and since it's already been ripped off we just need to carry it over here" I said in a commanding tone "Nancy, Louise help me with the chair, Kathy and Angie look for things like blankets and pillows we will need to cover up the small spaces left after the chair is in place."
We all got to work; getting the chair across was not easy, the space above the walk way barely allowed us to lift the chair above our heads.
In order to get the chair to the front we had to lower all other chairs to sleeping position, which made the whole job easier.
Kath and Angie were rummaging through the pile of items that had earlier crashed on top of Stheno. Once we had the chair in place thankfully there wasn't that much space left to fill out, thank god first class chairs were so big.
A few seconds later Kathy followed by Angie came over with their arms full of pillows and blankets.
"Will this do or do you need more?" Asked Angie
"Yeah this will do, there isn't that much space left to cover anyway." "Hopefully they won't get sucked out very easily."
We stuffed every inch of the chair that was allowing the air to be sucked out, once all the gaps had been filled we stood there in silence waiting to see if anything would get sucked out.
It was slow but I could see the pillows being sucked out from the sides where two crescent moons had been shaped thanks to Stheno.
"What can we do about that?" I asked rather nervously
"I have an idea" said Angie her face lighting up a little "Why don't we pin down everything that is able to get sucked out." "I have enough safety pins to hold these things in place for a while, they won't stay there forever but it will give us enough time to think of something."
"Sure let's give it a go" said Nancy with a thumbs up.
Angie ran back to her seat opened the overhead compartment and took out her hand luggage, from the bag she took out a small black pouch.
Bringing it over she poured out what looked to be like fifty safety pins, I stood there thinking about the conditions in which you would require these many and none came to mind.
It wasn't only me Nancy, Louise and Kathy were also looking at Angie as if she had gone mad. Using ten pins each she pinned down the items that looked like they were going to fly out anytime soon.
As she moved away I could clearly see no more movement from any of the pillows or blankets.
"Right now it's your turn Kralus, just use your powers and get us down safely" said Angie with a smile.
"Okay I will give it a try, everyone just go and get seat, make sure you use your seat belts." "As I'm not really sure how well my powers will work."
On the roof a fresh barrage of hail stones began their assault; the already dented roof looked like it was going to fall apart very soon.
"I hope this works" I whispered to myself "I have never flown one of these things before."
Closing my eyes I clicked my fingers, all of a suddenly I felt in control of the plane. Concentrating on the fire I began to see a bubble around it, it was a slow process but gradually the fire was dying out.
The vacuum theory that Louise talked about was actually working, but just keeping that vacuum bubble there was talking nearly all my strength.
Very slowly the plane began tilting until it was perfectly vertical, without breaking my concentration on the bubble I willed the wind to push us further up.
Using the speed from the one engine that was still working, the plane began to climb higher and higher until we flew out of the dark clouds.
I didn't know what time it was but afternoon sun was shining through the windows slowly melting the hailstones.
"Kralus…KRALUS!"
Just for a second I opened one of my eyes andI saw Nancy sitting in my chair shivering very violently.
"Do…do you think y-you could just k-keep the plane low e-enough that we don't f-freeze to d-death" she said very slowly.
"Um truth be said Nancy I…I don't know how to land this thing" I said scratching my head.
"You WHAT!" She shouted
"I have never flown one of these before, if you guys told me this morning that I would have been flying a plane in the afternoon I would have practiced my landing."
"Hahahaha and if I had known that we would be attacked by monsters galore I would have packed a lot more fire power" she said smugly.
"G-Guys l-lets j-just focus on g-getting down safely f-for now" said Louise shivering as well.
Just then the sunlight was blocked out by a huge figure flying past us, even without looking we all knew the dragon had found us.
There was no time to lose, I was struggling to keep the vacuum bubble in place and the girls were beginning to freeze over.
Trying to out manoeuvre the dragon was impossible with one wing we needed to bring it down to our territory rather than fight it in its own.
A loud roar brought me out of my thoughts and back into chaos, there was a loud grinding noise then silence. Faintly I could hear an alarm ringing, looking towards the door I was hoping that nothing worse had happened.
"S-someone go and check the pilots' cabin, I can hear an alarm ringing" I said shivering slightly.
Nancy got up very slowly and made her way to the door, as she pulled the handle down a torrent of hailstones rushed out of the little cabin.
I was pushed back quite a bit and lost my concentration causing the plane to lose altitude, as Nancy came out of the cabin her face was ghostly white.
"T-the p-pilot is…unconscious and we're losing f-fuel very quickly" she said in a shocked state.
"If we are losing fuel that means that they cut the fuel tanks, we will have to shut off the engines to make sure that a fire doesn't erupt" I said walking back to the front.
"Kralus if you c-cut the e-engines it is g-going to be the e-end of us" said Louise sternly.
"Well if I don't cut the engines we will die up here, I'm sure they attacked these fuel tanks so that they could set it alight" I said gritting my teeth
In front of me Nancy collapsed to the floor shivering very violently.
"Hey Nancy can you hear me?" "Don't go to sleep, whatever you do don't follow that white light dammit" I said taking off my jacket and laying it over her.
The plane was beginning to fall at a fast pace, once again I tried to concentrate on getting the winds to push the plane but it wasn't working I had used up too much energy.
Our descent soon became vertical;we were all thrown in to the pilots' cabin along with the few remaining items that weren't pinned to the chair.
"Kralus…you better do something….and fast" said Kathy craning her neck from the back of the co-pilots seat.
"If I could do something I would have done it by now, I have run out of steam." "We need to shut down the engines otherwise we will become pan cakes on the Canadian mountains" I said popping my head from behind Angie's shoulder.
"Fine shut them off but you better have a plan Kralus!" Kathy shouted.
"Well at the moment I don't have anything but when I do I'll let you know" I shouted back.
Pushing Angie off me I tried to get up, slowly I managed to get into the co-pilot seat and as I looked down I saw the ground fast approaching.
Grabbing hold of the steering I pulled back in hope that the plane would slow down or even take flight for that matter.
Looking around the dash board I found the engine switch and turned it off, even though we were still falling pretty fast I was sure that we lost a bit of speed.
Once again I tried to pull back on the steering and it began to violently rumble in my grasp, it felt like I was holding on to a jack hammer.
It was slow but I could feel the plane starting to level out, about two thousand feet off the ground the plane was horizontal. The only problem was that we were in the middle of nowhere, no matter what direction I looked in all I could see was snow and trees.
Even if I took the tyres out they would make no difference, in one way or another the plane was going to get shredded to pieces.
The only remaining question was, will we be able to make it out alive.
A flurry of snow came in through the broken window as we neared the ground, the girls were still huddled together and from the looks of it Louise was knocked out.
With an almighty bang we landed in the snow, but it didn't end there, the plane continued to skid through the snow and into the trees.
The sound of falling trees and grinding metal was ringing in my ears, a large amount of snow and pine needles had come through the windows.
In the main cabin all of the windows had been shattered, the one remaining wing had been torn off completely along with the tail end.
We were no longer just skidding along;because of the tail being ripped off we were now rolling for god knows how long.
As we were slowing down there was another crash no far from us, I had an inkling as to what it could be but there was no guarantee.
Being thrown around so much I was beginning to lose consciousness, it was then that the plane or at least what was left of it stopped.
I don't know how long I was out for but I could hear rustling from behind me, opening one eye I could see snow covered trees all around.
Broken glass and snow was littered all around the small cabin, I was neck deep in snow and there was no sign of the girls.
With the little strength I had I began trying to dig my way out, it was a lot harder than expected. After a lot of effort I finally managed to get out, the doorway to the cabin was barely open, the items from the overhead compartment have piled up nearly sealing us in.
The space left was only just big enough for me to squeeze out through, getting through i began pulling down this makeshift door to let the snow out.
After pulling down half of the makeshift door the snow forced the rest of it to crumble, as the snow piled out I saw Kathy clinging on the back of the co-pilot seat.
It was like she was a statue, she wasn't moving an inch, I shook her by the shoulders and it was then that she took in two deep breaths.
Quickly digging through the snow I found Nancy, Angie and Louise. All of them were not only tired but looked like they had been through hell and back.
Running around what was left of the plane I tried to search for dry blankets that could keep us warm, fortunately there were five blankets left in the a pile near the washroom.
Qucikly bringing them over i gave one to each of them and made sure that they wrapped themselves to keep nice and warm.
As Angie went to get up there was a very loud scream, we all tried to see what was wrong but could make anything of it.
It wasn't until my eyes followed a trail of ruby red blood that I saw what had happened. Her leg had been completely broken; the bone itself was sticking out of the tissue.
The look of sheer terror in her face was something that words could not express, even before anyone could say a word to her she passed out.
Carefully I carried her to one of the chairs and lay her down, it was a good thing that we had put the chairs down completely otherwise she would have had to put up with the cold floor.
Kathy began rummaging through her belongings to find a silver thermos, carefully putting itaside she began rummaging again to find a nice big block of ambrosia.
She carefully split it into even pieces and handed us all one along with a small cup of nectar, she finally went over to Angie and spoon fed her the nectar.
Eating the ambrosia recovered some of my lost strength, with this i went outside to have a look at the luggage compartment.
As i got to the place where the compartment was meant to be I was met with a large gaping hole, I looked down the trail that the broken plane had made.
I saw a some what intact luggage compartment some twenty meters away, we were out in the open like sitting ducks.
Going back inside I saw Nancy bandaging Angie's broken leg, well it couldn't be called broken anymore.
The bone was no longer jutting out and the wound had closed itself, the only sign left of the injury was the raw red skin.
"Guys our luggage has been left a little further behind, we need to go get it back before anything else happens" I said with a smile.
"Kralus" said Louise "I have been on two other quests before and I have never faced anything like this before." "You said before that you will make sure that every single one of us will make it out of this alive but I don't see it happening."
I didn't know what to say to her, with the amount of things that they had to go through in a space of a few hours. I wouldn't be surprised if they all just left me to get on with the quest on my own from here.
Getting out I started walking down the trail towards the luggage compartment, as i got closer to it I began to get an eerie feeling.
It was almost as if I was being watched, clearing a few fallen trees I found the object that had crashed after us.
Let's just say my hunch wasn't wrong but something seemed out of place.
There right in front of me were a pair of wings towering above me, however there was no sign of the girl anywhere.
Looking at the snow I could see a faint glow from what was the heart of the dragon, it seemed that it wasn't quite dead yet.
Rather than sticking around to find out how alive the dragon was I decided to walk on and gather our belongings.
Getting to the compartment I jumped in using one of the broken beams for support, there wasn't much in there just our bags and a small pile of snow.
One by one I threw the bags outside, as I went to get my bag I felt an added weight to it, looking at the holding strap I saw a ghostly white hand protruding from the snow.
Rather than digging this person out I just pulled on the bag and miraculously the person was none other than the dragon rider.
After throwing my bag out I slowly carried her outside, it seemed she wasn't completely unconscious and she kept trying to make me let go of her.
After getting hit in the stomach a few times I just let go of her and let her fall to the ground.
"You will pay for that you low life demigod" she hissed "do you not know who I am?"
"I don't know and I don't give a damn" I said rather crudely "if a lady doesn't want to graciously accept any help I don't have to stick around in the middle of nowhere to listen to her."
"Do you know who you're talking to, I could turn you into a Popsicle right where you stand" she said smugly
"Oh really, I would like to see you try" I grinned.
She got up in a drowsy state and slowly made her way to me , she fell down a few times and I just turned my back to her thinking that she would end up passing out but she didn't.
Somehow she managed to stumble towards me, i could feel an unnatural chill wrapping around me, as I felt her hand touch the middle of my back a jolt of electricity hit her.
Without even turning I knew she flew back towards the luggage compartment, as a hollow thud rang in the air I walked over to her with the bags in hand.
"I thought you were going to turn me into a Popsicle" I said smiling down at her "what happened?"
"Grabbing hold of the bags and my arm she managed to get back up, but she was now a lot drowsier."
"Don't worry sweetie I'll get you" she grinned foolishly.
"My, my I have never come across anyone with such confidence, who are you?"
"My name is Cynthia and I am the youngest child of Boreas."
A/N: Right that is the end of chapter 10 hope you enjoyed the twists and turns...all of you guys hoping for epic fight scenes don't worry there is more on the way :)
We are getting close to the end of the first book :) I feel so proud...I have already started planning out the second book in the series (there will be a total of three or four books haven't really decided yet)
In any case please do REVIEW :)