O. M. G. I'm so sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER! I was in Iowa… running the Bix 7 (did any of you guys run that? Or at least hear about it?) It's a brutal seven mile, uphill race. I finished in 1 hr. 40 sec… I think that's good? Idk. Annnnyway. I'll try to post more often now, but I have band camp all this week (this one time… at band camp…) Hahaha I'm such a nerd.

Oh yeah… also, one of you guys pointed out I skipped like, three days of the quest.

Totally true. But I wanted to keep the story going.

So, right now, they've just arrived at Mt. Tamalpais. This might be a long one! And here is… Macy!

Hiking sucks. I hate it. Jack decided to make a smart comment on how "It's hilarious that someone so lethal could trip over every single rock on the whole mountain".

So, I punched him in the face.

"Ow," he complained, clutching his now-bleeding nose. "That hurts, little child."

"Stop complaining," KP teased. (Mental note: Is she flirting? Must research further.) "And Macy, stop punching people."

I grumbled and started to aim a kick at Jack's shin, but Annabeth called, "No kicking either!"

"Her back is turned!" I exclaimed, disappointed.

"They don't call me Wise Girl for nothing!"

Finally, after what seemed like twenty miles and an incredible amount of abuse to my knees, we reached a seemingly normal tree.

"We're here," Annabeth said.

"We're at a tree…" Jack pointed out doubtfully.

"It's a very nice tree, though," KP added.

I have to say, it was a nice tree. It had a thick, tall, reddish trunk and a huge, bushy canopy. I could see little nests scattered about, with birds flying in and out of them. Small little spheres were glinting gold like Christmas ornaments. Then something clicked in my head.

"Wait…" I said, squinting as I tried to get a better look at the little gold balls. "Those aren't…"

"Apples?" Jack finished.

"Yes," Annabeth answered grimly. "We're in the Garden of Hesperides."

Immediately, the air turned cold and a cruel breeze made the leaves of the tree flutter. The effect was completely ominous.

"You should not be here," a chilly voice said. The four of us spun around to see three girls standing there. They were beautiful, with long dark hair, perfect pale skin, and long white dresses. The bad thing about it was that they could totally be right out of a horror movie.

"Well, we're here," Annabeth said. "We are not here for your apples. We are just passing through." I could tell that she was trying to make us seem like we were no threat.

"Leave," the girls said in unison.

"That's really creepy," Jack mumbled.

"We have no interest in the apples," KP said, repeating Annabeth's words. "We need to get to Mount Othrys."

Immediately the air grew cold again. I shivered. The Sisters looked at us curiously.

"Mt. Othrys?" The girl on the right questioned. Another icy breeze flew past us.

"Will you stop saying that? I'm freezing!" Jack blurted, rubbing his arms for warmth.

"Quiet, demigod."

"You wish to speak with Atlas," the one of the left said.

"Yes." Annabeth confirmed.

The girls stared at her. It was the ultimate death glare, but Annabeth didn't cower. She held their gaze steadily, gray eyes meeting black.

"You are either very brave or very stupid," said the center girl.

"Or both," Jack said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Jack is at least stupid," I said.

The Hesperides seemed to understand that we wouldn't leave without getting through. "Very well," they said, staring at us seriously. "We will leave you." They smiled wickedly, and then added, "But Ladon will not."

"Wait, what?" Jack said as the girls faded into the air.

"The dragon," Annabeth said to herself. Then she looked furious. "How could I forget? I've read this story hundreds of times! I've even been here before! How could I forget about the freaking dragon?"

"What dragon?"

"Ladon," Annabeth explained, "Is a huge, ferocious, hundred headed dragon that never leaves or sleeps."

I froze. A dragon? I suddenly remembered the prophecy. The young one will brave the dragon's might… Oh crap.

"Wait…" KP said slowly. "If it never leaves, where is it now?"

We all froze, hardly daring to turn around. I could feel hot breath on my back and I gagged. It smelled terrible. Say you took rotting fish, a messy diaper, and burning hair and shoved it all in a blender and hit Liquefy. It smelled as bad as that, times twenty million.

Yet suddenly I felt extremely calm. I knew that this wasn't the dragon from the prophecy. Because it said that while I was fighting a dragon, the others would be fighting Calypso, and we didn't even know where she was yet. And I would still need to live to fight another dragon, so I couldn't possibly die fighting this one. It was odd logic, but as I thought about it, I knew it was true.

So I did something extremely stupid. I turned around defiantly and faced a hundred-headed, thirty foot long dragon face to scaly face… or faces, I guess.

It hissed at me and I was blasted with a wave of revolting air.

"Annabeth, KP," I said, trying not to blow chunks, "You go talk to Atlas. Jack and I have this."

"Are you insane?" KP said, looking at me like I was indeed mad as a hatter. "You'll get ripped apart! I will not let another one of my friends get torn apart!"

I turned to face her. "Go. It's our only chance. I won't get killed, I know it."

"What- what about Jack?" she blurted. I could see real fear in her eyes now. And I knew she would kill me if I let Jack die. But I've already been there once, when I knelt beside a dying Ian. Thinking of him sent a wave of determination through me.

"He will be fine, now GO!" I yelled, turning back to the dragon, which was peering at me as if I were dinner on a plate. Not today, toilet breath, I thought. I saw KP looking hesitant, and then get pulled away by Annabeth. They disappeared into the trees and began making their way uphill.

The dragon bared its teeth at Jack and me. If it one dragon doing this, it would be scary. But this dragon had one hundred heads, so instead it was absolutely horrifying. But I wasn't scared at all. I felt impossibly confident. Meanwhile, Jack was going pale. He closed his eyes, and muttered a prayer to Hermes.

Suddenly, a pair of Converse appeared in his hands, white wings flapping energetically. "What the-" Jack said, staring at them in shock. Then his face hardened and he narrowed his eyes. "I know what to do! I know what to do!" He yelled. He kicked off his other shoes and pulled the winged Converse on. He hovered in the air a few feet above my head. "Keep him busy!" He yelled. Then he shot off, faster than a bullet, down the mountain.

I faced dragon. It seemed like it was sneering at me. I smiled and drew my swords. Once it saw I had weapons, one head struck out at me, so fast it was a blur. I instinctively jumped up, kicked off the head, and swiped at another. The dragon shrieked as green blood flowed openly from a now-empty eye socket.

I got the feeling it was toying with me, waiting to see what I would do. I laughed out loud, because I was doing same thing. Then I stopped laughing. I had hurt the dragon now, and things just got serious.

More heads began snapping at me, and I whacked them away with the flat part of my blade. I did this for maybe four minutes. My arms were starting to get tired and I was starting to sweat. I knew I couldn't keep this up forever.

Ladon drew back, watching me, perhaps planning out the most efficient way to kill me. For some reason, I remembered something from back at Camp Half Blood, when the Stolls had stolen a computer and hacked down magical firewalls to get to the internet. I recalled the YouTube musical I'd watched, the one with Harry Potter played by Darren Criss. I remembered what Harry did when he had to face the Hungarian Horntail…

I know it sounds absolutely crazy, but I started to sing.

"Hey dragon," I chirped, "we don't gotta do this…"

My voice cracked a bit. I hadn't sung in so long, and I was much better at singing slow songs, but I went on anyway.

"Let's reevaluate our options and throw away our old presumptions because really, you don't wanna go through with this," I sang. The dragon watched me curiously. One or two of its heads started to sway with the music.

I forgot the words to a whole chunk of it. I hummed a little, and Ladon began to look rather hungry again. Some of the other lyrics popped into my head and I started singing again. "I can't defeat thee," I sang, even though I knew I probably could if I was feeling more creative. "So please don't eat me…

"And all I can do… Is sing a song for you! Lalalalala…" I looked at the dragon expectantly. This was the part where it would start growling 'Rararara' in the musical…

The dragon must have decided it didn't want to sing, because it growled and charged.

I shrieked as a hundred heads approached, ready to tear me into pieces.

All of a sudden, I heard a yell- "WAIT!"

Jack appeared in front of me, shielding me from Ladon's jaws. "You can't eat her before you eat some breath mints, can you?"

The dragon cocked its many heads as Jack opened his backpack, which was filled to the brim with…

Altoids.

"What are you doing, you insane freak," I said dully.

"Wait," he said. He turned to the dragon, and opened a tin. He tossed one to a dragon head, which snapped it up happily. "Like the treat? Yes you like the treat!" Jack began opening box after box and flinging all the little white breath mints at the snapping mouths. I began to help him, and gradually the bag emptied and the pile of Altoids tins in front of us grew larger and larger.

Finally, he tossed the last mints into the air. We both stopped and stared at the dragon. It was panting slightly and it looked absolutely miserable. As I concentrated, I could see frosty mist coming out of its many mouths. Ladon whimpered as its mouth burned from mint overdose.

"Yeah, run away, stupid dragon!" Jack yelled as the dragon slouched away.

"You just defeated a dragon with Altoids," I observed dully.

"Yep," he said, zipping up his backpack.

"I can't believe that worked."

"Neither can I," he said happily. "Oh, by the way, nice singing."

"Shut up," I said, blushing.

"No, really, it wasn't bad. Not as bad as Travis, at least."

I laughed, remembering my half-brothers terrible screeching. I saw something coming at us from the trees, and I drew my swords, ready for an attack.

"Calm down, it's just Annabeth and KP," Jack said, blushing slightly.

"You like her," I observed.

"Annabeth? Of course not!"

"No, KP," I said. Jack blushed bright red and I giggled.

"KP and Jack, sitting in a tree," I started, but then KP said, "What's that?"

"Oh, nothing," I said. Jack's face was still red. "Did you get your information?"

"Yep." Annabeth said, smiling triumphantly. "We know where Calypso is."

Will Jack and KP get together? Have any of you guys seen AVPM and know what Macy was singing about there? Is Jack a genius or really, really stupid? Where exactly is Calypso, anyway? And what happened when Annabeth and KP went to talk to Atlas?

Whew, that was a long one. Hope you liked it… and Jack's interesting methods to bring down a dragon.

Tell me what you think, guys! How was this chapter? Good? Bad? Not as good as others? What could I do better? PLEASE REVIEW!

I'll update soon, hopefully. Sorry for the wait!