Chapter 6

Pales

Archie stood idly for a few moments, then reached for his whip which he always kept in his pocket.

Jay saw him and yelled, "come on, Archie!"

"What is that thing?" Archie asked.

Raising out of the water was the head of something... something big. It resembled the shade serpent, but it was at least five times as big and was black. It had a spiky spine running along its back that stretched all the from its neck down to the tip of its tail, which stuck out of the water. And it looked all to ready to use its massive fangs.

As it turned its head, its cold blue eyes caught sight of Archie. It let out a roar, which actually sounded more like a wailing scream. It rose even higher out of the water, and slipped effortlessly onto the boat.

"I think," Jay said, answering Archie's question, "that is people keep calling it."

"What was that scream about?" Archie inquired.

"It grabbed Neil," Jay sighed, "and is holding him captive."

"Well," Atlanta said, aiming her laser crossbow, "not exactly unlike are other adventures."

"And I thought he was lucky," Archie said, "and if he's so lucky, why does he always get captured?"

Sure enough, Archie could see Neil stuck in a tight coil the serpent had made, quite like that of a boa constrictor.

"Help!" he yelled, "This... Thing... is SLIMY!"

The serpent suddenly dropped Neil and slithered toward Archie. It let out a hiss, but Archie could hear something inside the hiss:

"tandem occuramus! saepe cupio pugnere vos! accede! pugnabamus!"

"Great," Archie murmured, "an evil snake that speaks Latin." Though he would never admit it to his friends, he enjoyed studying Latin and knew a decent amount. He translated the words in his mind:

"At last... we meet... often I desire... to fight... what was that next word? vos... vos means you... so... often I desire to fight you... approach... we will fight... A serpent that wanted to duel!"

"cur facis non veni huc?"the serpent hissed.

Archie translated that one more easily: "why do you not come here?"

Archie took a step forward. The serpent watched him. He took a couple more steps. But at that moment, Atlanta fired a laser-bolt at the serpent.

"cur facis oppugna me?" it hissed.

"What?" Atlanta was obviously very confused.

"It asked why your attacking it."

"Um, because your evil?" Atlanta said.

"It wants to duel me," Archie said, "everyone else, stay back."

Archie jumped onto the serpent and slashed it with his whip, leaving a long, deep gash. It rolled over with such speed that Archie had no time to react. He was crushed under its body, and when it raised its body off of him, he had dropped his whip. He groaned and sat up, but was knocked down again by a whip of the serpents tail, which also sent his whip flying across the deck.

"Archie!" Atlanta yelled. She took a step forwards, but Odie stopped her with his arm.

"Lesson one about ancient Rome: don't interfere with duels."

Reluctantly Atlanta sat down, thinking only a miracle could save Archie now. And a miracle came, but not in the form she had expected.

A twelve year old girl came out of nowhere and landed on the serpent and stabbing it with a spear she was carrying.

The serpent howled and fell off the side of the boat, and the girl was barely able to jump off in time. She turned to Athena, who had been watching from her cabin door.

"Hello, Athena. You're a lot taller then you were before."

"Pales?" Athena asked.

"Yes, who else would I be? Arachne, perhaps? Ariadne? Medusa? Atropos? Persephone? Deme-"

"I get the picture." Athena said.

"So why are you so much taller now?" Pales asked.

"I'm four-thousand years old now," Athena said.

"Oh well," Pales said, "we can still duel and have adventures. I have my spear ready." She waved her spear in the air.

"No," Athena said, "I decided to stop playing those games after a certain... unfortunate event."

"What event-oh! That! Don't worry, it won't happen again." Pales said innocently.

"Somebody please explain what's going on," Archie said.

"This is Pales. About four thousand years ago, me, my best friend, Pales, and a few other mortal girls

played games with real spears. We usually didn't get hurt, but one day in a duel I accidentally... um..."

"Killed me." Pales finished for her. "But now Persephone decided to send me back up to fight the serpent."

The serpent stuck its head out of the water, but Pales calmly turned and threw her spear at it. She pulled it back out of the writhing monster with a single tug. The serpent turned and swam away.

"curre! curre stalte draco! Curre!" Pales yelled after it, laughing.

"What the heck did she just say?" Atlanta asked.

"Well, she was telling it to run," Archie said slowly, "and she also called it 'stupid'."

"How did you know that?" Atlanta asked suspiciously.

"Um... well... I..." Archie looked embarrassed, "no reason, really."

Atlanta stared into his eyes in such an accusing way that he finally said: "alright, I study Latin."

"What's so bad about telling me that?" Atlanta asked.

"Um... I thought you'd think I was a dork."

"I already think you're a dork." Atlanta laughed.

Archie sighed and walked away.

"Hello?" Pales said, "we've got a job to do here."

"We do," Atlanta said, "but you've got nothing to do with it, so just go, please."

"Well," Pales said, a hurt look on her face, "I never would of thought heroes were so rude. I already told you, Persephone sent me."

"She could of sent someone a bit more respectful," Archie said, "me and it were in a duel, and then you barged in and wrecked it."

"If I hadn't 'barged in and wrecked it', you would have been dead right now." Pales snapped.

"Pales has a point," Jay said.

"What!" Archie said.

"No," Jay said, "I don't mean about you being dead, I mean about us having a job to do." Though secretly he agreed with Pales about the first part too.

Atlanta looked over the edge of the boat and saw three red blurs under the water.

"We have company," she warned.

Athena looked up from the 'Prophecy of Time', which she had been reading.

"Actually," she said gravely, "it's not them you need to worry about."

"It's not," Atlanta asked.

"No. It's her." Athena pointed at Pales.

Pales turned to face her. "I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that thing out." Then she drew her spear and turned to face Archie."You chose the wrong side, Archie."