To An-Unnamed-Goose- (Tyrant's Tomb) 9 times is about ten times too many, for throwing up on shoes :P Poor Jessica (For this) The monster with mimicking Arnie's voice? Nope, not a Cyclops. It was a crocotta. It imitates the human voice, calling by name at night, and eats whoever approaches it. I have been reading up on my monsters as well as my gods! ^_^

To 8Ball3- Excellent :3


"Who's got my watch? Raijin…"

"Huh? What? No."

"Give."

"I don't have it!" He threw his hands up, showing them empty and his bare wrists. "Huxley was nearest to you!"

"I'm asleep!"

"You sound it!"

"I just need ta know where my watch is." Louisa cut across. Storm whickered her innocence, turning her head to rest her chin on Huxley's side, using him as a pillow. Ruby was reorganising their supplies, looking up when quiet fell over their little campsite. Louisa and Raijin were staring at her expectantly.

"I don't have it either." She protested. "Where'd you last have it?"

"On my wrist." Louisa replied simply, tapping her wrist in case Ruby didn't know what she was talking about. "Where it normally goes."

"Didn't take it off?"

"No." Louisa huffed. She looked down, nudging Storm with her foot. "Have you got it?"

Why would I have it? Storm sighed, determinedly keeping her eyes shut.

"'Cos you're a butt."

You're a butt. I'm trying to sleep, go away.

"No, get up 'n' help me look."

No.

"I'm gonna throw your apples away."

Mmmmm, I don't like you. Storm huffed, wriggling unhappily and rising. Her head drooped, staring balefully at Louisa. This is animal cruelty.

Louisa gave Raijin the job of getting Huxley up- a running, flying leap on top of him that cemented his theories they were gunning for his ribs- and began to look around. She shook out her blankets, on the off chance it had got caught in there, looked around where she had been sleeping and then where Huxley had been sleeping, as he had been the closest. Storm dozed off while standing up, grunting when Louisa poked her.

Ruby finished packing their measly supplies- they really did need to go shopping- and chipped in too. Huxley was busy throttling Raijin, so they didn't help until Storm huffed at them sulkily. If I have to be awake, so do you. Move.

They broke camp when they realised the watch wasn't anywhere there, moving further out. Storm walked alongside Louisa, swinging her head slowly and headbutting her on every other step. "Stop it." Louisa warned.

No, I'm tired. Storm blew the pegasus-equivalent of a raspberry, biting at Louisa's backpack. Apples please.

"You can have one." Louisa placated. Storm perked up a little when the fruit was presented, crunching happily.

THWAP!

"My hair!"

"Oh dear!" Louisa turned at the man's voice, reaching for the watch that wasn't there, fingers irritably squeezing the joint. Ruby was stuck to a tree by an arrow entangled in her hair, 'ow-ow-ow'ing under her breath. Raijin was trying to yank it free. Huxley picked the smaller boy up and moved him to one side, tugging the arrow out in one swift movement.

"You OK?" He asked. She sniffled, running her fingers through the uneven lengths. Louisa whistled sharply and they turned. The man had come into the clearing now. The trio froze, but Louisa just glared.

"Gold Man."

"Ah. Hello." Apollo regarded her for a moment, part-sheepish, part-curious. Louisa pointed and he looked down at what he held. "Oh." He said, feigning surprise. "Is this your bow?" He noticed the other three hurriedly bowing to him, stunned and speechless. He straightened his spine at that, glowing with just that little bit more godly radiance to show off. "Yes, demigods," he declared, "it is I, the one and only Apollo. You may bask." He spread his arms, flexing and showing off. Louisa grumbled, marching forward.

He didn't notice her until she bounced off his knee mid-pose, grabbed the bow and swung on it, twisting it from his hold. "Excuse me-" He began, freezing between pose changes. Louisa shushed him, testing the string. She heard the other three draw in a sharp breath- you did not shush a god.

"It's my bow. Why'd you have it?"

"I am the god of archery." Apollo put a hand on his chest, puffing up, all proud of himself. Louisa groaned, rolling her eyes. "As the overall expert of all things bows and arrows, I wanted to see what old Barnacle Breath had given you." Louisa shook her bow. It folded down into the watch, returning to its rightful place on her wrist. She turned on the god, frowning up at him, arms folded.

"Well, don't." She reprimanded. "It's mine 'n' you can't just take it."

"Lou!" Huxley hissed, cutting a hand across his throat. She lifted her fingers to wave him down, still staring Apollo out. "Ooh, she's going to get herself killed." Huxley winced, murmuring for the other two to hear. They nodded in agreement.

"I have a job for you." Apollo announced. Louisa snorted, shaking her head.

"Was waitin' for that. Lost your lyre again? Did a goat-man play better music than you?"

"Lou!"

"Actually, it's not for me, this time." Apollo said coolly, looking her up and down with a curl to his upper lip. "My sister needs to know the whereabouts of one of her elaphoi khrysokeroi."

"'N' what's that in normal words?"

"A golden-horned deer. There's four of them and they're sacred to her."

"Why can't she look for it?"

"She has asked you to do it."

"It'd be an honour!" Ruby cut in, materialising between Louisa and Apollo, hands clasped. She was smiling broadly, bowing her head to him. She cut a look over her shoulder at Louisa, a silent shut the hell up, and then back up at the god. "We would love to look for the deer, Lord Apollo."

"Yes!" Huxley agreed, shouldering in and adding another blockade between the god and Louisa. Raijin was a second behind him, bouncing over and straight into Louisa, hugging her. He shushed her with a look, clearly having taken lessons from Ruby, and then smiled up at Apollo.

"It'll be fun!"


"Fun?" Louisa demanded. "You think this will be fun?"

"It's a quest from a god!" Raijin hopped from foot to foot and spun, excited. "Of course it's fun!"

"I can't believe you were talking to him like that." Huxley swatted her arm, glowering. Louisa smacked him back. "He's a god, Lou. He'll kill you!"

"Pfft." She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I'll talk to him any way I want."

"Do you want to be vaporised?" Ruby squeaked, hurrying to fall in step beside her. Louisa hunched her shoulders, squashed between them. Raijin did a cartwheel somewhere up ahead, popping up and calling loudly for the 'magic deer!'

Ruby elbowed her, fuming. Louisa elbowed back, meeting her glare-for-glare.

"Last time he gave me a quest, I was told I shouldn't be born. 'N' he didn't even say thank you. So, very sorry if I don't like him, but I don't like him."

"Shouldn't be- what, you didn't know?"

"Mary- Marsy-Macie- ugh, Goat-Man stole Apollo's stupid lyre thing 'n' I had ta go 'n' get it 'n' Goat-Man told me." She recounted the story, but she could never pronounce Goat-Man's name, much to the others' amusement. "So, I go back 'n' Gold Man didn't say thank you or nothin' 'n' a dryad had ta explain it all to me."

"A dryad?"

"Tree lady."

"You've met one?"

"Loads." Louisa nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. A queasiness was broiling in her stomach. Even the mention of the dryads stirred memories she didn't want- memories of the fight against Popadom, memories of Arnie fighting beside her, memories of Arnie frantically hacking at the tree roots. Her eyes burned and she looked away, scanning their surroundings.

"Magic deer!" Raijin called again. "Here, magic deer! Come here! Pspspspspsp!"

"That's not a deer noise, that's a cat noise." Huxley corrected. Raijin stared over his shoulder, eyes wide in defiance and 'pspspspsp'ing louder. "Why are you like this?"

"PSPSPSPSP!"


They stopped for lunch, more beans.

"OK, we definitely need to go shopping after this."

"Can we get cookies?"

"You ate the lot last time. They were to share."

"Share?" Raijin echoed, tapping a finger on his chin and doing his utmost to look as innocent as possible. "What is this share you speak of?" Ruby sighed, throwing a twig at him. He deflected it with wild karate chops, karate noises in tow.

"Eat your beans, ninja boy."

"I can't believe we haven't found the deer yet." Raijin pouted. Huxley scoffed.

"Was your 'pspspsp's not working?"

"Not yet." Raijin insisted, nodding solemnly. "They will." Huxley just hummed, electing to humour him. Ruby wiped bean sauce from her chin, glancing over at Louisa- boys. Louisa simply shrugged a shoulder, feeding Storm an apple. "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

"I'd make people be quiet." Ruby said instantly.

"I'm glad so much thought went into that." Huxley remarked.

"You'd be first."

"Figured."

"I'd want to read minds." Raijin grinned. He sat up straighter, pressing his forefingers into his temples and squinting at Huxley. "I could be, like, a super spy, you know?"

"You're not quiet long enough to spy on people."

"That's not true! I'm good at being quiet!"

"Yeah? Prove it." Huxley challenged. Raijin lowered his hands into determined fists. Everyone watched him, Storm pausing mid-chew to see the outcome. Huxley counted the seconds on his fingers, reaching a grand total of four.

"I'm bad at being quiet, that was torture, how'd you do it? We need to talk, let's talk. What's your superpower gonna be, Hux? You're already super-strong, so-?"

"Stop babbling and I might be able to answer."

"Well, that's just rude." Raijin pouted. Huxley raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, fine, tell me. Quickly. I need to ask Lou next."

"Oh no, I'm good, thanks."

"Oh, come on, Lou-Lou!" Ruby jostled her arm good-naturedly. "If we have to put up with Raijin's questions, so do you." Storm whickered. Louisa turned her head to listen to her.

"Storm says she wants a power where she can magic all the apples she wants. You'll get sick." Louisa reminded her. Storm shook her head. "You will. I ain't cleaning up your barf. No, I don't care who you're related to, if you get sick, it's on you." The pegasus nipped at Louisa's fingers.

"I want invincible ribs." Huxley decided, patting himself on the chest. "You lot are so determined to break them every day, I want invincible ribs." He scraped his spoon inside his can, gathering the last of his beans. "Right, we nearly done? We have a magic deer to pspspspsp."

"Yay!"

"Not you though, Raij. You don't get to pspspsp."

"But it's my thing!"

"And this is where my quiet power would come in."


The golden-horned, magic deer did not respond to Raijin's noises, no matter how much he swore blind that it would work. He ignored all of Huxley's 'I told you so's and smug smirks. "Next he'll say this was his plan all along." Ruby grinned. Raijin flailed his hand at them, yak-yak-yakking at them with his fingers and thumb, like a sock puppet.

Louisa motioned to them, quietening them. Storm hovered by her shoulder, staring at the deer in amazement.

The creature was bigger than they expected, but unmistakably a deer. Its coat glistened with the pure whiteness of freshly fallen snow and its horns were elegant and large, the brightest, shiniest gold that enchanted Raijin to no end.

"It's so pretty." He breathed. He had the same sparkle in his eyes as he did when they met the unicorns. "I want one."

"They're Artemis's sacred deer." Ruby reminded him.

"So?"

"Do you know what 'sacred' means?"

"No…"

"Like, absolutely most special, do not touch, it's not yours, don't even think about it."

"Oh." Raijin looked back at the creature, startling when he saw it was looking at them. "Um… hello." He gave a small wave, smiling. "What do we do?" He whispered. He got blank stares for his question. "What do we do?" He repeated, waving a hand at them and then at the deer.

"Apollo just said ta find it, right?"

"I think so."

"So we found it. Yay." Louisa deadpanned.

"He said Artemis wanted to know the whereabouts of it."

"Well, it's there." Louisa jabbed a finger at it. "Can we go now? We've gotta go find dinner." She turned to go, gesturing to Storm.

The pegasus took two steps and froze. She snorted in surprise, watching something past Louisa. "What?" She asked. "What is it?"

Bad.

"Where?" Louisa faced the same way, sword jumping into hand.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked, flicking her hands. Her knives shot from her sleeves, settling neatly into her grasp. Huxley retrieved a keyring from his pocket, the concealment for his weapon. With a squeeze, it elongated into his double-headed axe.

Raijin didn't have a weapon. He hopped into the clearing- the deer simply watched him- and snatched up a fallen branch almost as long as he was tall, returning to his station within seconds.

"OK, I'm ready." He confirmed. "What are we looking at?"

No-one got to answer. Storm screamed and bucked. She span around and burst into the clearing, galloping away. The deer bolted too, heading off to the left and promptly vanishing into the woods.

"Storm!" Louisa shouted. "Storm, come back!" She started after the pegasus, the other three bringing up the rear. "Stor- oof!" She sprawled, pain flaring around her ankles. She managed to hold onto her sword without stabbing herself, twisting and spitting out dried leaves. A wicked chatter swam around her head, high-pitched giggling.

"Ghost, ghost!" Ruby shrieked.

Ghost? Louisa thought, Ruby grabbed her right arm and helped her up. The giggling had left her and she saw what Ruby meant.

A grey vapour was dancing around the clearing, like a wisp from a cloud. It twirled and bounced and span and spiralled in all directions, giggling and chattering gleefully. It seemed to be waiting for them to be watching it, loop-de-looping. A chill prickled Louisa's arms, her grip tightening painfully on the hilt of her sword. The vapour completed its loops, giggling again, and then raced off after Storm.