Author's Note: Hey. Remember me? That friends-with-benefits that shows up to rock your world every couple of months before disappearing and never calling you?
I'm baaacckk! Enjoy my god awful attempts at writing a fight scene. I cringed too, don't worry.
Thanks to ShutUpPercy who beta'd this for me! - Quality person right here. sign me up.
Chapter Eleven
It took a while for them to decide what to do with Leila. Octavian had chased her down in the woods and she sat amongst the questers as they bickered. They'd bound her hands and feet so she wouldn't run.
Octavian had mentioned killing her more than once. Monster or not, she was an enemy. She had kidnapped and threatened 'one of his own' and that was punishable by death. That made Reyna blush slightly. Octavian had called her one of his own.
Jason wanted to take her back to Camp. There she could learn to get along with fellow demigods and not wage war. She'd be safe. Protected. Accepted. But getting her there was the problem.
"We could tell the police her parents live in Frisco," Reyna suggested. "Then demigods could get her when the mortals take her to the city."
"Lupa likes me, I could take her there," Jason suggested. "You two could keep going and I'll get enough money for a plane ticket from Camp to catch up with you."
"We could toss her in the river," Octavian suggested. "But since she'd incompetent at many things, she'll probably fail to drown and just catch a cold." Reyna laughed.
In the end, they called Camp and asked what they should do. They told them to take Leila with them to Chicago, and to leave her with people called the Amazons, who were allies and would ship Leila to Camp.
"Great," Octavian had huffed. "How in the hell are we supposed to get, not three, but four demigods to Chicago?"
Reyna thought for a minute. "I might have an idea…"
They sold some of their food cheap to a homeless person and found the nearest free-internet café. They boys got Leila into a booth and bought a cup of coffee to share. Reyna hopped onto one of the computers and bought up the search engine.
"I mean, it's not a bad idea," Jason mused. "And it's all we've got for the minute." He sat next to Leila, trapping her against the wall in case she tried to run. She'd been relieved of the rope bonds, but she still looked quite messy from running in the forest. So did Octavian, actually. And the boys and Reyna hadn't showered for days, and it must have been obvious. Gods, the quest was not going particularly well.
"It's not a great idea, either." Octavian sighed. "And we lost our loaf of bread to do it. If we get nowhere…"
"Were not going to get any further by doing nothing," Jason replied. He looked over to Reyna. The Café had a row of laptops on a tall table, a collection of barstools at each computer. Reyna was wedged between a white business man and a soccer mom trying to write a book. Both adults were giving her weird looks at the dirty ripped shirt, the limp she walked with and the messy hair. She hadn't had time to braid it, so it was stuck in a messy bun with an unintentionally decorative leaf.
"I think it's pretty smart," Leila chimed in, randomly.
Octavian just rolled his eyes at her. "No one asked you."
They'd almost finished the coffee by the time Reyna came over to their table, a napkin in hand. "Good news," she sighed, sitting next to Octavian, opposite Jason. "There's an Amazon business consultant who lives in Utah. I doubt an ancient race of female warriors would have a mortal business consultant. I think she's one of them. She lives in Salt Lake City."
That was the bad news, considering they were currently in Provo. "How are we supposed to get there?" Jason asked.
"Well I looked up train schedules," Reyna said, "but they're all pretty expensive. So I dug around on the internet to find deliveries of goods by train. There's one leaving in an hour, with like two people on board and they're busy driving."
Octavian was about to ask why that was relevant, but two seconds later, he understood what Reyna was suggested. Exchanging a look with Jason he sighed. "Well it's not first class," he said.
Jason paused. "As the quest leader I approve this idea."
Leila just looked lost. "I don't get it."
Three quarters of an hour later, they were hidden in the bushes, a few feet away from the train station, watching two men pack the thing with boxes. "This is where the train starts to speed up," Reyna told them, pointing to the tracks. "The drivers would have already checked it for hitchhikers, and will be concentrating on driving."
"How difficult will it be to jump on?" Octavian asked, nervously.
"It's not too difficult," Reyna mused. "It's scary the first time. Just grab the ladder at the end of the cart and jump onto the axis. Then it's super easy to climb into a cart. I just don't know how we're going to get Leila on board."
"I'll take care of that," Jason said. "I'm just worried Octavian won't make it."
Octavian shoved him in response.
"I'll do it with you, so I'll catch you if you slip," Reyna said, reassuringly. "Just don't think about falling."
When the train started moving, Octavian and Reyna stood up and walked over to it. It was still slow enough that they could walk alongside it – quite quickly – while looking for a suitable ladder. They needed a running start, so when they found one, Reyna took Octavian's hand, leading him into a run. Surprisingly, he didn't object. She grabbed the ladder first and he mimicked her actions, jumping onto the metal bar by the wheels.
Then they let go of each other and climbed over some railings to safety. "Oh my Gods!" Octavian exclaimed, panting slightly from the jump. "That was awesome! I want to do that again."
Reyna just laughed, looking really happy about the fact Octavian was smiling at her. "It does give you an adrenaline rush, doesn't it?" She replied.
Octavian just nodded, but before he could reply, Jason floated down next to them, holding Leila to his side with one arm. Reyna stared at him with wide eyes and an open mouth. "You can fly?!" She exclaimed, wondering how she never knew that before.
He nodded, casually. "Thanks to being the son of Jupiter, yeah," he said.
Octavian looked like he just remembered that fact. "You could have carried me on board," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I have only enough strength for one person," he replied, shrugging. Leila just looked kind of mesmerized by the view of the trees whipping past them.
"So, wait," Reyna huffed, "that time you made me walk all the way up that hill to Bacchus's Garden, you could have just flown us up there?"
Jason paused before nodding. "That's part of the fun," he said, as if it was obvious.
Reyna almost punched him.
The group found a nearby cart and sat amongst the wooden crates. For the first time in days, they weren't on their feet. They untied Leila and allowed her to move about. Jason took a nap. Octavian managed to have a look at Reyna's leg, from a medical perspective. "It's not getting better," he said, sighing. "It'll need stitches to stop bleeding properly. And there's beginning to be an infection."
"So what should I do?" Reyna asked.
"Eat the rest of the ambrosia brownie," Octavian suggested. "It should stop the infection and hopefully close the wound. Even if the scar stays."
Reyna just shook her head. "No. Bobby needs that."
Octavian looked into her eyes as if seeing them for the first time. "Why do you care so much about someone you've never met?"
Reyna paused before shrugging. "He's trapped and in pain. Scared. I know what that feels like." There was another silence as Octavian wrapped her leg back up, as tightly as possible. Reyna spoke first. "Hey, the other day when you were doodling those numbers… did they mean anything?"
Octavian shook his head. "They were… um, my birthday."
Reyna raised an eyebrow. "You were born on the 52nd of the 21st month in the year 387? Wow."
Octavian actually cracked a smile. "I don't know if they mean anything," he replied. "I don't even know where they came from."
The train ride wasn't going to be longer than an hour, so Reyna only let Jason sleep for half of it before waking him. Octavian had gone into another cart with Leila to see if they could find some supplies, so the two of them were alone.
"What do you want?" Jason grumbled as he woke up.
"You remember when you dragged me up that hill to see that view?" Reyna said, beginning to smirk. "Well I'm going to drag you awake to get revenge."
Jason just narrowed his eyes. "Reyna, we're in an ugly train. There's nothing pretty to see here."
She just pulled him to his feet and ran out of the cart. He paused, suspiciously before following her. But when he was revealed to the wind and fresh air, Reyna was nowhere to be seen. He looked through the door of the nearest cart and wondered vaguely if she'd jumped off.
"Up here."
He followed the direction of her voice to find her sat on top of the roof, smiling proudly with her legs crossed. "What are you doing up there?" He demanded. "Do you know how dangerous it is to stand on top of a moving train."
"I'm sat down, so I have some more balance," Reyna explained. "I used to do this with my sister, but she never allowed me to stand up. Octavian told me that your ability to fly comes from the ability to control the wind, so I figured – now's my chance."
Jason paused for a minute before finding the service ladder and climbing up to join her. He was working his magic before she'd even started standing up. She took his hands and dragged him to his feet and Jason did their best to make the rushing air go around them, and not hit them.
Her hair still flapped around in the breeze, but it wasn't as dangerous as he thought.
"Now look at the view," Reyna told him, still grinning.
Wow.
He'd been concentrating on Reyna before that moment, and he'd missed the view around them. So far, they'd only seen one city in Utah, so he didn't really know what kind of state it was. He didn't really know if it was grassy or snowy, straight or bumpy. What he saw instead shocked him.
On either side of the train, dark orange cliffs rose up in layers, rocks falling around them and little cactuses decorating the road. It didn't look like there'd be so much as a lake for miles, and he wondered how long these red mountains rolled on for. The railway was in a little crevice between the sharp, jagged cliffs. It was a beautiful scene. A stretch of land virtually untouched by man or machine apart from the little wooden tracks beneath them, and Jason was glad they were there, so he had the opportunity to see this.
"Oh," was all he said, without bursting out with holy shit! "This is better than Bacchus's Garden."
"Right?" Reyna laughed. "I win."
"You win," Jason agreed. There was another pause as Jason struggled to come to terms with what he was seeing. It was like a photograph that you found on the internet. You couldn't really believe it was real because you'd never seen it, but now that he was looking at it with his own eyes… it was hard to believe something could be this beautiful.
"This is going to be a really good memory one day," Reyna said. The two of them still held hands. "Amazing sights. On top of a train. With my best friend."
Jason nodded, before adding, "You know, Reyna. I don't have a lot of friends. You may or may not have noticed. But I think if I did, you'd still be my favourite. I'm really glad you're the one who sees this with me."
"Well for the record," Reyna mused, "I love being your friend."
-0-0-0-0-0-
Dakota had started to trust Gwen. He didn't like her by any means imaginable, but since she was the only person on that ship on the same metaphorical boat as him, he'd kind of decided to work with her. And that meant showing their strong alliance to Luke. He'd know that separating them would lead to a lack of support. Really, they were the only tie each other had to home. They didn't want to lose that.
So the two of them would sit together and play nice for the cameras. The metaphorical ones.
"This is so…" Dakota mused, sitting at the edge of the pool with his feet dangling in as Gwen lazed about on a deck chair. They weren't fighting and the sun was nice. Was he going to say cool? Peaceful? Despite all odds, enjoyable? "Boring," he finished. "Let's go do something."
"I am doing something," she replied, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses. "I am doing something, Sharman. I'm tanning."
He paused. "You're ginger, Roden."
She sat up straight like she'd been electrocuted and glared at him. "I'm actually strawberry blonde."
"You're getting freckles," he pointed out.
"No I'm not, I don't get freckles," she countered.
He sighed in exasperation. "If we're going to be 'friends' then we can't just do the things that you like. We have to compromise." So far, they'd been to see a movie twice, and checked out the mini-golf course. They had two inside jokes already.
But that didn't make them friends.
"Well what do you suggest?" Gwen asked, her tone cold. "I want class. But where you come from, people bathe in the river and use fruit for money. So your idea of fun is a little foreign to me." Dakota almost smirked. He just pointed to the slide behind him. The twisting, curling plastic trap painted in blue and white that was the largest slide on the whole ship. "No," Gwen answered.
"You scared?" He interrogated.
"Of ruining my hair?" She asked, wrapping her finger around one lock of her new perm. "Yes."
"If any of my real friends were here, I'd force them onto that ride," he told her. Technically he didn't have any real friends. He liked Reyna, but he'd always put his success above his social life. But if he did have a friend, like a real proper friend, he'd force them onto that ride.
After a pause and a glance to Luke, who was standing a little while away, she got up and threw her hand out to him, faking a wide smile. "Lead the way," she told him. Dakota took her hand, matching her look and leading her to the slide before realising something.
"What the hell happened?!" He exclaimed. He turned over Gwen's hand in his own and took note of the little white scars all along her knuckles. "Did Luke do that?" He asked.
"No," Gwen snapped, pulling her hand briskly away from him. "I fell over one time at Camp and um, cut my hand open. But It's fine, it's healing."
Dakota didn't really see how she could have landed on her knuckles but he decided not to question it. "Okay, let's go," he said, leading her up to the queue. As the special guests, they had VIP privileges, and cut all the lines. It was only monsters and demigods they were infuriating, anyway.
It was always hard to summarize the feeling of a ride. Roller-coaster, water slides. They all had that same feeling. Where all your guts are being lifted and moved about and there's that constant fear that you're going to fall off but you never do, and you want to close your eyes at every turn or drop. And he couldn't breathe. And the slide ended, and threw him into the air.
He landed in a deep pool after a minute of free-falling and barely had time to hold his breath. He heard Gwen scream and she landed next to him just a little bit after and they swam back to shore. They were panting around laughs and he felt the adrenaline go to his head. All he wanted to do was jump off the ship or sky dive or something stupid.
"That was awesome," Gwen laughed, her soaking wet hair clinging to her skin. Her eyes were bright and her smile was big. Different. Dakota had never seen her look like that. Gwen practised every move, but now she was shamelessly giggling with the brightest of expressions. It was real.
"I inhaled so much water," Dakota replied, coughing between laughs.
Gwen was about to say something when Luke joined them, looking down at the younger kids with a menacing look of anger. "Having fun?" He asked. Gwen and Dakota looked at each other before nodding. "That's the last time you have fun," Luke said. "You don't get all the VIP treatments just to lie to me about your camp. We tried doing this the nice way, so now we're doing this the hard way."
"What-" Dakota started, but he was grabbed from behind and felt another piercing in his neck.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Octavian ended up tying Leila to a railing and ordering Jason and Reyna to watch her to he could keep going without having to watch her all the time. He opened up every crate in every cart to check for clothes or supplies, but all he found was a couple pillows. He almost accidently stumbled upon the driver's room.
Three big, bulky men were fumbling about with controls, bickering amongst themselves about something. Their t-shirts were all too tight for their muscles, one of them had a tattoo of a skull and they must have stood three feet taller than Octavian did. He listened into their conversation for just a moment, and heard something he really didn't want to.
"The boys have more meat than the girls," one of the grumbled. "I want one of them."
"Fine then I get both the girls," another said, snappishly.
"No deal!"
Instantly, his radar pinged. At camp, they were taught how to identify a monster before it identified you as a demigod. And Octavian had learned one simple rule: Everything that can go wrong on a quest, will.
And right now, the last thing they needed was for the train to be driven by a trio of monsters.
Octavian almost sighed in disappointment, but he backed out and into the cart before. He started running back along the train, throwing doors open and climbing from one cart to another. He had left his sword with Jason, so he just prayed the men weren't coming his way. Just in case, he started moving crates in the way behind him, careful not to make any alarming noise, but making the run harder for any followers.
He burst into the cart where Jason and Reyna were sat casually and grabbed his weapon. "Monsters," he told them. No other words were needed. Jason and Reyna picked up their weapons and stood shoulder to shoulder.
Octavian felt his heart sink. Since when was Reyna Jason's partner, and not him? "We have to get off the train," Octavian said, shaking the negative thoughts from his mind. "We need to jump."
"We can't," Reyna said. "We're going way too fast. No matter how much we roll, we'll break our legs."
"That's what we have Jason for," Octavian reminded her.
"I can't carry three people at once," Jason exclaimed. "And we'd need to move fast."
"We'll figure it out!" Octavian insisted. He grabbed the food they had and slung the bag over his shoulder. He untied Leila and pulled her to her feet and the four demigods walked out of the cart, to the railings they needed to jump over.
The train was going too fast. If Octavian flew down with someone, the train would keep going. Fast enough that Jason's ability to catch up would be questionable to get the other people. It was Reyna, as always, who took charge.
"Take Leila and Octavian first," she ordered, taking the bag of food. "I'll run along the roof so you won't have to catch up so much."
"Reyna-"
"Jason, we're nearing a tunnel," she told him, quickly and confidently. "It's now or never, and I'm more likely to run across a train roof than Octavian." It was true. Reyna had hitchhiked trains before, and Octavian hadn't even seen one until a little while ago.
Jason gave her a quick, one-armed hug before grabbing Leila and Octavian. Reyna threw the food bag off the train and her friends quickly followed.
And because she was just so lucky, the door behind her burst open as soon as they left. She grabbed her dagger and got herself into a fighting stance as she faced her enemies. Then she gulped. Three giant brutes with bats and axes, thrice the size of her and with gnashing teeth. And one eye each.
She was good, but she wasn't that good.
"Crap," she whispered, running through the opposite door. Maybe she could outrun them. Slamming the door behind her, she started sprinting and cursed Octavian in her head. What were all these crates doing in her way? Damn it, Octavian.
Instead of sprinting, she climbed and weaved her way through the next cart, and started up the ladder to the roof, where her track was clear. She was almost at the top when she felt the giant hand wrap around her ankle. She kicked the cyclops in the face. He snarled but didn't let go. She kicked him again and felt his nose break under her foot, but he still held on. He was pulling and pulling, and she would land on her head or break a bone or fall off the train. In a blind, desperate attempt to free herself, she threw her knife with semi-perfect aim and he let go.
When she got to the top of the train, she looked back to see him screeching and pulling the blade out of his wrist. She started running across the roof, aware of the approaching tunnel. She heard the heavy footsteps behind her and kept going.
Wait.
There was only one set of footsteps behind her.
And three monsters.
Her heart was pounding in her chest but she couldn't look back. She needed to focus on jumping from cart to cart without dying. She looked around for Jason and Octavian, and spotted the on the ground a little while away. Jason was in combat with one of the monsters, and Octavian was backing away from the second one so he could use his bow and arrow. Leila was running away as fast as she could.
Crap, she almost said again.
She heard the footsteps behind her getting faster and closer, and she jumped out of her skin when her hair was yanked back by a fist. She was swept off her feet and fell into the cyclops, feeling his huge arms wrapping around her and trapping her.
No matter how much she wriggled and kicked, she'd lost her knife and was defenceless against this beast. She felt the blade of his axe touch her neck and thought, Jason won't have anyone to sit with anymore. Before she even realised what she had just thought, the monster recoiled.
Reyna saw the three arrows sticking out of his neck and he exploded into gold powder.
She felt a moment of relief before she saw that the front of the train had already entered the tunnel, and she had no more time. Praying to the God of crazy stunts, she ran a little forward before jumping off the train.
She prepared to tuck and roll, but she never needed too. Jason caught her in mid-air and she felt herself grin. "Who the hell gave you permission to save me?" She asked.
"I thought that's what we do," he replied.
Unfortunately, she only got a moment of relief before Jason's cyclops caught up. He grabbed the demigod by the ankle and shook him until Reyna fell from his arms and fell to the ground. Less dangerous than jumping off a train, but it still hurt.
Then the cyclops swung Jason so hard and smashed him into the side of the train, just as is disappeared from reach.
"Jason!" She heard Octavian yell. Jason fell unconscious and the monster dropped him, forgetting all about him for a minute. A few feet away, Jason had dropped his sword to catch Reyna, who picked up the blade to run the monster through.
Then she turned to the last and final cyclops, who was ascending upon Octavian, who was out of arrows. Reyna ran as fast as she could, but she didn't make it fast enough.
Someone else did. Two women who through themselves off the cliffs surrounding them, landing on the cyclops and running him through. Reyna ran over to them, instantly alert in case they were a threat, and Octavian ran to her side. The two of them face their two saviours, baring arms, but Reyna dropped her sword.
"Hey, little sister," one of the women said.
Reyna just blinked. "Hylla."
Author's Note: *insert cheesey lines begging for reviews here* -Izzy