Everyone who reviewed, THANK YOU! I decided to give this as an early treat (And because I'm in a good mood) The reviews really do encourage me (A LOT)
The 4th of July was yesterday, wish I was at Camp for the fireworks. They must have been amazing.
So, yeah, the demigods are one step closer to the Doors, and it's almost time for the book to end (*Do not think about this. Do not think about this.*)
Anyway… please ignore that bit of reminiscing. Onto Chapter 38!
Disclaimer: I do not *sigh* own HoO. If I did, wouldn't I be working on the real House of Hades right now?
Chapter XXXVIII Hazel
For a second after she noticed the Doors and the giant's shadow, Hazel was blinded.
Only after blinking away the spots did she realise that Gration was standing right in front of a mass of blazing green torches. Hazel reckoned she would be better off looking straight at the sun. All she could see right now was Gration's silhouette, and her eyes still burned. A few seconds later, Gration moved out of the glow slightly, and Hazel got her first good look at him. Her jaw dropped.
Hazel had seen giants. She had seen countless monsters, heck, even Gaia herself asleep. But Gration was in a totally different league – like, out-of-crazy-weird-Ephialtes-and-Otis-the-ballerin a-league.
For starters, he was tall – like the other giants. His hair was bright blue – like Disney's Hercules movie's Hades. The camp had watched that once and had almost died from laughter. Like, the mortals really thought her father had blue flaming hair?
Except this guy actually did have blue hair. It was braided in a French plait down his back – and tied up with a golden band. His skin glowed faintly with sparkles of gold and silver, which made some sense since he was the bane of Diana – Artemis. He was wearing a hunter's tunic – a dark green Ancient Greek chiton, belted around the waist with a blue sash. Gration was holding what looked like a handheld version of Leo's ballistae, Camp Jupiter's scorpions and a giant bow all mashed together, and Hazel instinctively knew that he would be able to use it, very, very effectively. The giant was wearing sandals. Overall, Gration looked like an average hunter who was living in Ancient times, except, of course, for the fact that he was over thirty feet tall. Yeah. Just a mistake that could be made by anyone.
Gration was standing only a few feet away from the Doors, which were radiating waves of death as strongly as ever. The temptation to look at them was almost overwhelming, as was the feeling of dizziness. Would she even see Percy and Annabeth in there? Were they even still moving? Hazel knew they were alive, but still, being alive wasn't much good if they couldn't move.
"Admiring the Doors, Hazel Levesque?" boomed the giant. "They are beautiful, are they not? Only, too bad you will never see them closed."
Hazel started, having not thought of the possibility that she would be singled out. Luckily, Frank came to the rescue.
"Are you Gration?"
The giant threw his head back and roared with laughter, the sound somehow dispelling Hazel's nausea, but replacing it with fear. "Am I Gration? What a question. You are the first in aeons to ask me that!"
"You've been stuck in Tartarus for aeons," pointed out Piper. "So of course Frank would be the first to ask you that in aeons."
Gration looked down at her. "A daughter of Aphrodite, with charmspeak? You have no idea how much I laughed when I heard your Seven involved a daughter of Aphrodite. Children of the Big Three, yes. Ares, yes. Hephaestus, yes. Athena, yes. But Aphrodite! Ha! You seem to be an interesting one, though. Different from your clothes-obsessed siblings, hmm?"
Piper gritted her teeth. "Shut up, you overgrown baby with overconfidence the size of the Olympus."
Amazingly, the giant shut up. It seemed Piper's charmspeak did work on giants, even hunter giants. Hazel thanked the gods for that.
"So, er, when are you going to try destroy W.C?" asked Leo. W.C?
Apparently the giant was confused as well. "W.C? Why would I, a giant, bother myself with destroying bathrooms?"
Leo realised what he'd said and blushed. "I meant Western Civilisation. It's a handful, so I shortened it down."
Hazel frowned. They already knew Gaia's plan of destroying everything on August 1st. So why was Leo asking again? Unless he was stalling for time, maybe. But out of all abbreviations, he had to pick the one that meant bathrooms?
Gration scowled. "I can see why Gaia does not want you as a sacrifice, idiot boy. Shortening Western Civilisation to bathrooms? No wonder. She wants the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena, you know, since they destroyed Kronos, but any pair of half-bloods would do. Except you. The reason is quite clear to me now."
Leo made a look. "But you always need Leo!"
Hazel agreed a little with that statement. It was Leo, after all, who had melted the eidolons, and gotten her and Frank out of the mess. Frank seemed to be thinking along the same lines.
Hazel looked around and started. Since when had they appeared? They looked vaguely wolf-shaped, but she couldn't see much of them due to the fact that they were all right beside or in front of a torch, preventing her from looking. Jason had evidently noted the same, because he frowned.
"Ah, you've noticed my pets. Nice, don't you think? Considering the wolf preys on animals, ah, dear to Artemis. And, of course, today they have permission to attack you."
The wolves instantly leaped out of the shadows and attacked; Hazel swiftly drew her sword to retaliate. To her surprise, the blade passed straight through the wolf, and she had to sidestep to avoid being bitten.
"They're some kind of werewolf!" yelled Piper. "Silver, Hazel!"
Silver – Hazel sent out her senses, looking for silver. It shouldn't be hard – she was in her father's shrine, and she had seen the traps in the first rooms that contained varieties of silver. It had to be there – there!
A spire of silver exploded out of the ground in front of Hazel, impaling a wolf running at her. Hazel recoiled as the jagged spire ripped through the wolf and left it hanging, speared through the side.
As soon as the first wolf was speared through, the others shrank backwards. Hazel sighed in relief. They backed into a circle, each of them watching the wolves warily.
Gration looked mildly impressed. "Interesting. Maybe you, daughter of Aphrodite, is not such a weakling. And you, daughter of Pluto – the spire is a nice touch."
Piper glared. "I'm flattered," she snapped. "Maybe that will teach you to not underestimate children of Aphrodite."
"Hmm? What was that? In any case, it's not important. And the wolves aren't werewolves, Piper. Good guess, though. They're just wolves that can't be hurt. But anyways… my job is to capture two of you, a boy and a girl. In case they don't make it out. Gaia can't say at the moment, so we need backups. As for the rest of you… well, you'll die anyway, since there's no godly help in sight. May as well." Gration sighed, as if killing demigods was the last thing on his mind, and lifted the ballistae-scorpion-crossbow combination.
They all scattered as the first bolt was released. It blasted a smoking, one-foot wide hole in the ground. The wolves growled and leapt forward.
Piper shot some kind of meat casserole over their heads, as far away as possible. Hazel realised a second later it was probably venison. Dear, huh. The wolves apparently liked it, though, because they were converging on the meat.
The second bolt almost got her by surprise. It created a crater only a foot away from her. Hazel quickly started moving again, keeping a wary eye out for the wolves, but they seemed to be focused on the deer meat.
Gration growled and released four bolts at once. Hazel didn't see how that was possible, but she didn't stick around to find out. She sprinted away as a bolt thudded into the ground next to her, ducking behind a statue to get a better view without being a target.
Coach Hedge seemed to be bashing away at the giant's foot, but there was no visible effect. Jason and Piper were both preoccupied with keeping the wolves out of business. Leo and Nico were both trying to stay out of range. Percy and Annabeth weren't appearing at all, but Hazel reckoned it was probably safer in the exit levels of Tartarus right now than to be in this place. The Doors were wide open, still radiating death. Hazel could almost feel Thanatos' presence, waiting for a soul.
At least the wolves seemed to be out of action. The venison casseroles seemed to be enough for now. The giant also seemed to have exhausted his supply of bolts. Hazel decided it was safe enough to go out.
Leo and Nico seemed to have the same ideas, because they moved out from their improvised shelters. Gration did not look very happy about the fact that he had no bolts left. Or maybe he wasn't happy about the wolf thing…
Leo took something out from his tool belt when Gration wasn't looking. It looked like a vial filled with green liquid – Greek fire. He tinkered with it silently before lobbing the vial into the air.
Hazel could only watch in frozen astonishment as the vial sailed into the air –
- and landed on the giant's belt.
The Greek firebomb exploded with tremendous force, sending a shockwave rippling through the air. Hazel was hurled backwards by the blast, smashing into a wall. It hurt.
When the smoke cleared and Hazel's ears stopped ringing, she saw that Gration had a giant hole in his side and was bleeding golden ichor. But even as she looked, it was fading. Giant immortality, she thought bitterly.
Gration looked more angry than hurt. "You will pay for that, demigod!" he roared. "I take back what I said about you being an idiot. You will be the first to die!"
"Great, well, in case you haven't noticed, I don't plan on dying anytime soon. Get used to that idea, lady," retorted Leo.
Hazel could visibly see Gration beginning to explode. "YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE, HERE, TODAY!" he roared.
"I think we're at an impasse," announced Leo. "You can't accept the fact that I'm not going to die. Dude, get used to this fact. Leo is not going to die. Repeat after me. Leo is not going to die."
"YOU WILL DIE!" boomed the giant. "You cannot kill me, but I can kill you! So I will kill you!"
"Why can't I kill you?" demanded Leo.
"Because, demigod, you have no divine help in sight!"
"Then obviously you need to get your eyes tested, Gration. What am I, karpoi?" a new voice said.
Hazel jumped and spun towards the source of the voice, her hopes rising. Leaning casually next to the bunch of torches and dressed like Gration, except in white clothing, and with a golden bow in his hand, was the god that had treated them to a terrible haiku… Apollo.
And there we have it, folks! Finished!
I hope you liked the ending. I know it was a bit like MoA and Bacchus, but I figured Apollo would be kind of stylish but casual entrance, and surprise would be the best way to do that.
Since the 4th of July was yesterday, here's a trivia question related to it. The people who get it correct will be rewarded with BLUE COOKIES!
What was the finale of the fireworks supposed to be in The Lightning Thief?
Happy Answering! (And Reviewing – please REVIEW)
(*wow, this chapter is officially 2068 words… A/N included. Wow.)