Last time, the Praetors receive the blessing to have a quest in such dire times. They decide to bring the newest member of the Cohort and her mortal visitor along to achieve their goals.
I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. All story characters belong to Rick Riordan.
Chapter 9: Journey to Charleston Begins
Cary was doing another check on the list of things he was bringing along. He wanted to make sure he had enough snacks and water in case he got hungry, some spare clothes in case he got dirty, sunglasses, a pocketknife, some cash, and a backpack for on the go.
After Jason announced the quest to them, he was given the responsibility to prepare accommodations for long-term traveling. The party itself needed some camping gear, wagon repair gears, spare parts, and some self-defense weapons. Jason was bringing his own weapon, Ivlivs-or Julius in English- while Reyna was bringing her own standard issue weapon, Caivs, with her. Cary had only a Swiss Army knife courtesy of New Rome, and Amber had a dagger. Due to supply problems, this was the best the Legion could scrounge up. All the negotiating that went on in the Senate had paid off in getting the expedition funded. The deal was made behind closed doors so not even Cary or Jason knew what was negotiated.
With everything in place, Cary put his backpack on and walked toward the Praetorian Gate, "Hey Amber, how's the wagon's doing?" Amber had been placed on vehicle maintenance and pegasi inspections. When Jason mentioned traveling by flying wagon, he almost laughed at the ridiculous concept, but Reyna had made it clear it wasn't a joke. The wagon itself look like a normal one, but it was enchanted to take flight once it reached 55 mph and travel as fast as a public passenger plane. It also had a utility trailer hooked behind it to hold the storage. The wagon was being led by two pegasi, one brown and one beige. Their names were Scipio and Sulla.
"It's doing good. I still wish that we travel by plane instead of open wagon though," when Amber had heard about the news, she started preparing as soon as possible. For her, any reasons to leave camp was good enough. Although she had adjusted better to camp, she still underperformed physically and struggled with dealing with other Cohorts. When she was in the restroom, she heard girls from the Second Cohort badmouthing her for her performance in swords training and wanted to cry. Cary insisted on making them apologize, but Amber had held him back. While Amber had made friends in the Fourth and Fifth Cohort in Maylene's social circle, many had still shunned her. In fact, Cary was getting more popular than her. Cary passed around assisting with small errands and, strangely enough, tutoring math for them.
But this was not the time or place to think about public opinion, for now, there was a schedule to keep. "Well, let's start loading the wagon, with spare gears in case of emergencies and other luggage for overnight travel. According to the itinerary set up, the idea was to reach Charleston by tomorrow, stopping by Colorado for the night then reaching the city the next day. There, they would acquire the weapons cache, and head back the same way home.
By the time the praetors arrived at 730 hours, the luggage was all packed up in the utility trailer and pegasi were itching to go. "Is everything packed and tied down?" asked Reyna. Cary gestured over to it, "We've got everything on the list, as for tying down. I'm not an expert on knots, so I hoped you could inspect," Cary mentioned. Reyna looked to make sure.
"Godspeed, fellas. I hope you succeed guys," Sullivan prayed as Reyna joined the team.
"Once we're back then we continue training for battle," Reyna answered. She walked up to the wagon and took the reins, calling the pegasi to ride on in Latin.
The winged horses neighed before taking off in a dash, carrying the wagon and the party into the air.
Cary gazed out the window with awe and shock. If anyone had told him he could fly over California in a wagon, he wouldn't believe it. However, seeing is believing, and he sees the ground under him and the buildings looked like ants. The wind blowing past their ears was so intense that he had to yell to get a response.
"Jason, how are we getting to Charleston?!" he yelled.
"We need to get past the Sierras. Now we can't climb too high or else we'll pass out. Instead, we will be cruising at the just under 10,000 feet. We'll be going through Donner Pass, then cross the Great Basin. Following that, we make camp in Colorado. The following day, we head straight to our destination, then make the same way back," Jason answered.
"Remember, Mr. Chang. This is not a road trip. It's a quest. So, no sightseeing or souvenir shopping, got it!" Reyna yelled over the wind.
"Got it, whoa!" The wagon shook in the air a little, "What was that?" Cary yelped.
"Just some turbulence. Jason, keep the winds calm while I steady the wagon," Reyna ordered.
Amber hugged the rail and clenched her eyes shut. 'Please don't crash, please don't crash.' She regret jinxing the party when the wagon started to shake a little more rapidly.
"What's going on, Jason? Get the winds under control!" yelled Reyna.
"I'm trying. Something wrong." The wagon shook some more and the pegasi started to panickly neigh. "Shoot, we need to land now!" Jason ordered.
Reyna called the pegasi to slow down and go for a controlled landing. The wagon started rocking back and forth as they neared the ground. "Hold on, everyone!" The party made a landing by a lake and just avoided a crash landing as the wheels kissed the ground. They disembarked and went to inspect the wagon. "What's going on? Is this how traveling on wagon is supposed to go?" Cary asked.
"No, it's not. Hold on, I need to check the supply and the wagon," Jason hurried around to check on everything, while Reyna went to check up on the horses. Sulla and Scipio were restless and trotting in place. "Alright, the wagon's fine. I think the problem is in the atmosphere. I need to take a look in the air," Jason walked away from the wagon before taking a stance and jumping into the air. But he never came down, instead, he flew into the air like Superman. Jason flew higher and higher until he was a simple dot in the air.
"What's Jason doing, Praetor?" Amber asked.
"He's checking the atmosphere situation up there. If the winds can cooperate, we can continue in the air, otherwise, we'll be grounded for the rest of the day," Reyna answered. She had hope that this quest would be simple. Easy come, easy go. But it seems fate had other plans.
"So where are we now?" Cary asked as he looked at his watch. He was kind of wishing that he had a compass with him.
"Looking at the lake, I would say we're around Donner Pass, and that's Donner Lake," Reyna pointed to the body of water in the distance, "We don't want to stick around too long. This is where the ill-prepared Donner Party met their ends."
"What do you mean? Are the ghosts of the party who died here hostile or something?" Cary asked.
"Not exactly. What do you know of them?" Reyna asked.
"That they got trapped here in the winter and resorted to cannibalism when they ran out of food," Cary answered. It was a topic that was mentioned when learning state history back in elementary school.
"That wasn't the whole story. The Donner Party included members of the Legion who sought greener pastures out here in the west. When they were stranded, many died from hypothermia or starvation. However, some of those bodies drew the attention of local Laistrygonians around the area. They stole some of the bodies and ate them, and some of the Donner Party not only copied their behavior, but also join their tribe as well."
"Can we please stop talking about cannibals, ghosts, and dead bodies please?" Amber shivered at the discussion, "I just want to out of here." The sound of thunder rocked the sky as the three looked up. What they saw was a tiny dot flying back and forth around a couple of clouds in the air. 'What the hell is going on?' However, they should have paid attention to the eyes peeking out of the forest.
In the Air
Jason left the group behind on the ground while he flew to check the situation in the atmosphere. He flew as high as he could before the air got too thin. When he made his way up, he was greeted by a strong push that made him somersault into the air. Jason righted himself midair and took out his coin, then flipped his coin heads up and brought out his weapon in sword form.
'Whatever it was must be invisible,' he couldn't see anything, so he yelled out, "Show yourself?"
"Oh wonderful. It's the son of Jupiter," a tan man with curly black hair materialized. He was wearing a red tank top with Bermuda shorts and winged sandals. Jason asked, "Who are you?"
"Who am I? I am Favonius, God of the West Wind. I apologize for grounding your wagon, but I am need of your assistance," said the wind himself, "Summer has begun, but I am not ready to hand over the sky to my southern counterpart, Auster. You see I've lost my Karpos, Millet, in the mountains and I can't find him. I've asked Auster to wait a little longer, but he's losing patient and-"
"Favonius! Where are you?!" Jason felt a burst of heat permeated around him, causing him to perspire, "Stop stalling and give me the mantle," A bearded man materialized behind Favonius and blasted a fire ball at the two. Favonius dematerialized while, Jason, out of instinct, swung his sword and muster lightning in the blade. The collision generated a shockwave the echoed into the air. "Dang it, where did he go?" The West Wind appeared behind him, pleading to Auster, "Auster please, give me a moment. Why don't you take it easy for a while and sit on the lake?"
"The lake?" Auster looked at Donner Lake that the West Wind pointed out, "Oh, that's a beautiful body of water, I should take a vacation and- wait a minute, don't distract me! There's no time for nonsense, hand me the mantle!"
"Not until I find Millet! He's out here alone in the mountains. I'm not giving the mantle to you until I find Millet!" pleaded Favonius.
"No excuses, now give me the mantle!" rebuked Auster.
"With all due respect, my Lords!" Jason yelled over the arguing, "What seems to be the problem?"
"The problem is that Auster wants to take over my spot as per tradition. However, if I give him the mantle, then I turn over my duties and part of my powers to him, which means I can't search for my Karpoi."
"Wait, what do you mean share powers? I thought the four wind gods hold enough power to co-exist."
"Maybe in ancient times, but when the mortals began forgetting us more and more. Our presence couldn't be sustained. As such, we were forced to share powers under Aeolus," the West Wind solemnly answered.
"So every turn of the season, one of us four takes over, while the other three are stripped of their powers and omnipotent. Our status is reduced to those of minor gods, I mean, really minor gods. We still attend to our family, but otherwise, only one of us run the sky," the South Wind finished the subject.
"I won't turn over the mantle until I find Millet and I don't trust you to find him for me," Favonius complained.
"You dare call me incompetent! I oughta…" Auster continued to rant until Favonius got his turn to speak.
"That's why I am asking this fella, the son of Jupiter to find him for me," answered the West Wind.
"Wait I am?" Jason asked.
"He is?" said the South Wind.
"Yes. And if he finds him for me, then I will grant him fair winds for the rest of the trip," Favonius suggested.
"Hmph, fine. But I will grant him passage. As soon as that Karpos is found, then I take the mantle over. It's been long overdue. Now you," Auster gestured at Jason, "Son of Jupiter, find this idiot's Karpoi and bring him here. Try to get it done today!"
"I …uhh… sure Lord Auster," answered Jason. He took a deep breath and turned back to the ground to find the Karpoi. He was reviewing his knowledge of Karpoi and remembered they hung around meadows. He flew to the nearest meadow hoping that the rest of the party was doing well. 'Can't believe I'm finding a lost pet at a time like this. Hope Reyna and the rest are doing well.'
Reyna, Cary, and Amber were standing back-to-back against the cannibals.
'Damn it, their shenanigans drew the attention of these maneaters.' Reyna had continued to talk about the monsters that exist around America. When Cary asked about asking about extermination, she said that was not an option since camp have too many responsibilities to the gosds and to their camp, meaning there was no obligation to working with the mortal realm. The conversation soured when he asked about Camp's obligations to helping demigods from different cultures. Reyna insisted their own culture was more important than other cultures, thus any camper are raised as legionnaires, regardless of mortal parentage. The conversation turned soured about this insular worldview Reyna had.
"Are you saying my gods, my Chinese gods, are irrelevant compared to the Roman gods?" he lashed out.
"I'm just saying that Western Civilization today could not exist without our gods, your gods have no role in shaping our society in Camp Jupiter," Reyna answered.
"Oh sure, but your legion members get to work their way up in society, operating government, and then go around the world building empires and crushing other people culture," Cary argued.
While that conversation happened, Amber was writing symbols on her arm trying to perform some magic. Thanks to Alex from the Libri, she got her hand on a beginner's guide to spells. If her strength wasn't in weapons, then maybe it was in magic. However, her attempt resulted in a flare shooting into the air. Shortly after, a bunch of hairy giants surrounded them drawn to the flare like moths to a flame.
Amber repeatedly yelled sorry in her head. She didn't have the proper skills to fight these cannibals off. Reyna, heck even Cary, were better than her. However, Reyna had other ideas.
"Mr. Chang, grab the reins and get ready to take off," Reyna whispered into his ear.
"But we might get grounded. Are you sure?" asked Cary.
"You're not taking the wagon, it'll weigh you down but if we drop it, then you don't need to worry much about turbulence. Unhook the harness carrying Scipio and Sulla," Reyna added.
"There's only two horses, who's sharing?" Amber asked.
We're not sharing. I'll distract the Laistrygonians while you go find Jason and get away from here," Reyna ordered, "And no arguing."
Cary and Amber hesitantly obeyed and inched slowly to the horses. The giants mocked and jeered demanding that they serve themselves for dinner and describing how they'll be eaten.
"Please don't, Reyna," Amber begged with tears in her eyes. "Godspeed, Praetor," Cary saluted, holding back tears.
The duo released the pegasi as slowly as possible to avoid hinting the cannibals of anything. Cary sided with Scipio while Amber was with Sulla. The cannibals sniffed the air charged at the pegasi. "Crap. Ride, now!" Reyna went to intercept some of the giants so that the two could hoist themselves up and immediately rocketed into the air. Riding horseback was strenuous task for the two, though Amber had better luck getting adjusted. Cary turned around to find Reyna immediately in combat against the maneaters.
"We need to find Jason!" Cary yelled out, "Any ideas?" Before Amber could answer, Scipio immediately turned without directions towards the lake shoreline, with Sulla in tow.
Jason scrambled around the shore trying to catch the karpos. After finding no luck near the meadows, he decided to check closer to the lakeside to find the monster pet rolling on the beach. The next step was to catch it and Jason was struggling with it. A karpos does not obey any commands except those from its master. Jason was wrestling the monster down after it had escaped his grips for the 4th time. But once again, the karpos bit his arm and forced Jason to release it. The karpos fled until its escape was cut off by two nosediving pegasi. The karpos cried out before falling back into Jason arms.
"Finally got you, Millet," Jason monologued before realizing his companions had just shown up, "Guys, what's up? Where's Reyna?"
"I'm so sorry, we got ambushed. And then we left the wagon back there! And there were lary…laystir? Ummm," Amber pleaded in fragments and gibberish.
"We got surrounded by maneaters and we left Reyna behind! She told us to go on without her," Cary explained. He slowly let himself down after riding on Scipio and bruising his hips.
"We shouldn't have left her! We need to go back!" Amber begged.
"Not without a plan. And we need to make one fast. I don't know how long she can last," Cary wasn't fond of leaving her behind. Despite the situation, Cary wanted to stay. Reyna wasn't the friendliest Roman around, but that didn't make her a bad person, "Jason, what do we do?"
Jason tilted his head down to look at Millet. An idea popped in his head. "Hmmm, I got an idea."
Reyna was on her knees catching her breath. She had taken out twenty of the cannibals, but there were twenty more still around. Right now, a Laistrygonian was looming over her licking its lips. She could feel the warm air coming out of its bloody mouth. She rested her sword on the ground, 'I won't get any time to recover like this.'
"You fought well, but not well enough. Thanks for giving us a warm-up before we dig in. It's a shame your friends couldn't join us," the cannibal jested.
As the group gathered around her, Reyna was making her prayer hoping that death would be swift. Instead, she was awarded with a figure barging into the group.
"Excuse me. I'm a little lost here. Would you fellows give me a hand?" Reyna peeked over to see …Cary in shades holding a large stick and a bag around his back.
"Hey there, sapling. What do you want?" a cannibal asked him, not realizing that he was one of the two who escaped. Thank gods Laistrygonians were dumb.
"Oh, I was just strolling around and noticed that all of you guys were hanging out here. What's up?" Cary was playing the role of a random hiker to draw their attention while Amber and Jason flanked, "Look like you guys are setting up camp, why don't I step in to help?"
Jason had told him to stall and distract them, much to Cary's shock. Jason handed him a pair of shades to hide his fear. All he had to do was put a brave face and pretend that he was a mortal under the influence of the Mist.
Cary limped past the cannibals until he was next to Reyna, "Hey miss, why don't you help me set the camper up?" he helped Reyna up and whispered in her ear, "Follow my lead."
The two walked up to the utility trailer and the wagon to 'unpack'. The cannibals were taken aback at first at his bold, ignorant move. However, some of the cannibals weren't fooled and started to creep on them.
One cannibal was about to make his move until Cary handed him a tent set, "Why don't you set this up?" The monster was confused and started asking his fellows to help. "You there why don't you set up the fire pit," he handed another monster a shovel. However, the leader wasn't buying any of the deception. "Hold it, who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Cary. I just thought you guys were camping out. So, I offered to help set up your camp," Cary attempted to deceive him.
"Camp? We're not camping, we're getting ready for lunch," the leader answered.
"Oh, my bad. What are you having?" Cary asked.
"Simple, Chinese and Italian," the leader drooled. Before it could chow down on the two, Cary improvised some dialogue.
"Oh, in that case. You should get some fiber with it," he reached for the bag on his back and grabbed the thing the Jason had lent him from the meadows. From the corner of his eye, he saw the thumbs up gesture from Jason.
"Here you go, come get some millet!" Cary tossed some millet into the leader's face, temporarily blinding him. Then, he grabbed Reyna and gestured her to take cover. The maneater sputtered and brushed the grains off his face, "Damn it, why you…"
Suddenly, a screech penetrated the air as a fat, toothy monster flew into the fray and into the leader's field of vision. "AHHH, get this Karpos off of me!" the cannibals were left stunned by the bold move and hadn't recovered when two Romans jumped out of the trees to take down the cannibals. It was Jason and Amber coming to the rescue. Jason mowed through the cannibals and reduced their numbers as Amber ran with him.
"Amber, get the pegasi hooked up. I'll cover you." they rushed to the front of the wagon only to be intercepted by a random giant, "Stop right there-" it was immediately cut off by two pegasi dropkicking from behind and crushing the foul monster.
"Sulla, Skippy! Come on!" Jason yelled. The two harnessed the wagon up and turned towards their other companions, "Reyna, Cary, on your feet. We can't take off until we finish these giants off."
The two immediately leapt into action to swing their weapons at them. Reyna took the reprieve to rest her muscles and bounded to slice more of the giants down in action. Cary, meanwhile, used his walking stick bat them from a distance. It wasn't effective at killing them, but it did keep some of the cannibals at a distance and allow Reyna to pick them off one by one without worrying about being overrun. One of the cannibals grabbed the stick and yanked it out of his grasp, so Cary pulled out the Swiss army knife and proceeded to stab the monster repeatedly. The cannibal knocked him to the ground with a swing of its arm, but Reyna turned her attention towards the monster in time to deliver the killing blow, leaving the giant to keel over into dust. Cary got up to look for a reprieve and found their two leaders working in sync like a team. Things were turning around until one of the giants got the jump on Amber.
"Ahh, get off of me," Amber screamed as a Laistrygonian bearhugged her from behind.
"Finally! I get to eat a demigod!" The giant opens his mouth wide to take a bite until it screamed out in pain. The giant released Amber as it took a knee onto to get a blade through it neck. The Laistrygonian disintegrate to reveal Jason having come to her rescue, "Are you okay, Amber?"
Before she could answer, Millet, who had been clawing at the leader like a mangy cat, flew into her, tackling her to the ground. The leader had managed to pull the Karpos off him and tossed him like a baseball at her.
"You've killed my brothers! For this transgression, none of you will leave here alive." He reached into his pocket and threw a flaming rock at the party, scattering the members apart to avoid the explosion. Jason and Reyna were taking a knee, but no worse for wear. Cary had avoided the blast yield, but Amber, who was stunned by the Karpos-ball, had been knocked out cold. Cary dashed to Amber to check her vitals. "If I take the wagon down, you'll be stuck here," the giant was about to toss another fastball when suddenly, arms reached out from the ground to grapple him, "What the hell is this? Get them off me!"
The arms slowly dug themselves out to reveal ghostly bodies of mortals wearing pioneer clothes wrestling him down. The lone cannibal screamed in sheer horror as the ground slowly open wide to swallow him. The fissure glowed orange until it closed shut on the monster, ending the threat.
The three stared in silence at the whole thing. 'What the… did someone do that?' they all wondered who could have done it. They hadn't notice Amber has just been barely conscious with a glazed look over her eyes whispering in a foreign language. She blinked twice as she came to.
"Did …we…win?" Amber asked. "Ummm, yeah I guess so," answered Cary. Before Amber could answer back, she passed out.
"Seems like you guys are good to go," they all turned around to find Favonius waiting for them by the wagon, "I can't say I appreciate you using my pet Karpos into this fight. But the important thing is that you have him. Now bring him here!" Cary handed the Karpos from Amber's lap to the West Wind after Jason explained the situation to the party about how they got grounded in the first place.
"We've done our part; will we be able to fly now?" asked Jason.
"Oh yes, you're done here. Auster will take over now," the South Wind materialized next to him. Favonius took off the mantle and handed him to Auster, signaling the true transition of the seasons.
"Now that this mess is done, you best be on your way," the South Wind commanded, "Oh, and if you leave now, you can make it to the Garden of the Gods before nightfall."
Action scenes are pretty tough to write. I appreciate writers more when dealing with stuff like this. Well, next time pit stop in Colorado.