There were few things in the world that Hazel loved as much as Arion. Frank was the most obvious answer in response to that, and her father of course, but it would have been a very close run race. Arion was a true dream come true for her, in every sense of the word. When she had called for the horse she had not been certain that he would show up. Her relief mixed with a sense of childish delight when the stallion blew into the parking lot going from a full sprint to a dead stop in the matter of a few steps. "Hello Arion!" She said happily, summoning a gold ingot from the earth and feeding it to the horse. Arion munched the metal appreciatively and whinnied in response.
Percy sighed and shook his head while Ryker raised an eyebrow. "Hazel, seriously, your horse just got here and I he's already cursed more than I did when I was in Tartarus."
"I'm not sure that is actually possible, horse." Ryker said uncertainly, glancing at Percy.
The son of Poseidon mouth dropped open in surprise. "You can understand him?"
"Yeah, he's still pretty much wild-." Arion whinnied something and Ryker glared at him. "So I can understand him."
Percy seemed to find comfort in that fact. "At least everyone knows what I'm talking about now." He said with a small sigh of relief. "And before you ask, no, he doesn't get better. He actually gets worse."
Arion blew out a snort and Percy assumed the face of someone who had been greatly offended. Ryker frowned. What the horse had suggested for Percy to do was anatomically unlikely at best. Hazel patted Arion's neck, getting his attention. "Do you mind pulling a chariot again?" Hazel asked the horse hopefully. "Not too far, just to the Grand Canyon. Do you know where that is?"
Arion shook his mane and neighed. "He knows." Percy said dully. "I'm beginning to think that Arion can't string a sentence together without a minimum of three cuss words."
Nico and Will pulled the chariot over to Arion and looked to Hazel warily. "He's not going to like, kick us or anything, right?" Will asked.
Hazel patted her horse's neck fondly. "No, Arion is a big sweetheart." She said cooingly, hugging his neck. The stallion seemed to enjoy the praise and the attention, allowing the son of Apollo and the son of Hades to hitch him up to the chariot with no issues.
The chariot was much bigger than the average one, but it also seemed to be much sturdier. Hazel only briefly wondered if Arion would be able to pull it before deciding that asking the horse would probably only be received as an insult. She walked around to the chariot and grabbed her back, swinging it onto her shoulders and then returning to Arion and climbing onto his back. The horse barely seemed to notice her weight, again she chose not to comment in case Arion would take it as an insult, and seemed eager to get going. The other followed her example, pulling on their bags. They piled into the chariot, everyone except for Ryker, and began to tie themselves onto the chariot with industrial strength rope. The son of Cybele was staring at the chariot warily, and then back to Arion.
Hazel stared back at him curiously. "Gonna jump on?" She asked uncertainly.
It was clear to her that Ryker did not want to get on the chariot at all. "Actually…" He said slowly, walking around to the Arion's head. He raised a hand and placed it on the side of Arion's head. "I'd rather not. I'll run."
Hazel raised an eyebrow and glanced back to the others for clarification. They seemed just as lost as she was however. Annabeth cleared her throat and called, "You did see how fast Arion is, right?" She asked. "You didn't go temporarily blind?"
Ryker didn't answer, staring into Arion's eyes now. Hazel watched him with rapt attention, uncertain as to what he was doing. "Ryker…?" She said slowly, "What are you doing to my horse?"
"Talking to him." He answered off-handedly.
Hazel turned back to Percy for confirmation and the son of Poseidon nodded, seemingly dazed. "I can only hear Arion's answers, but yeah, he's talking to him."
"What's he saying?" Hazel decided that Percy would be the more likely one to answer his questions.
"Right now nothing. Like I said I can only hear Arion's answers. But they don't really make sense…" Percy's voice trailed off and everyone's eyes widened in shock and surprise.
Hazel turned back and her mouth fell open in shock. A golden thread of light seemed to be coming from Arion's chest and feeding directly into Ryker's. Ryker's eyes snapped open and Hazel was startled to see that his green eyes were now golden. The exact same color as Arion's. The exact same color of the thread of light that connected the two of them. "What did you do to my horse?" She demanded, afraid that Ryker had done something to hurt Arion. It didn't seem to be the case however.
Ryker looked back to Percy, not speaking. The son of Poseidon gave a slight gasp and shook his head. "Dude, watch your mouth." He said, mystified.
"What'd Arion say?" Hazel demanded. "Is he alright? What'd-."
"No, that wasn't Arion." Percy corrected. "That was Ryker. I can…. I can hear him sort of like how I hear horses. He says he formed a temporary bond with Arion. He should be able to keep up with us now. He also has acquired Arion's tendency to swear."
Arion did not seem to be uncomfortable at all, in fact the horse seemed eager to go. Arion whinnied and Ryker grinned back at the horse with true amusement in his eyes. "Oh great." Percy groaned, holding tight to the chariot's sides. "Hang on, Arion wants to race Ryker to the Grand Canyon."
"How is Ryker going to keep-?" Will began to ask. His words were lost somewhere back in the parking lot as Arion surged forward and quickly ate up a mile in seconds.
Hazel was nearly unseated by Arion's sudden movement, but somehow managed to regain her position despite the horse's ridiculous speed. She leaned forward and glanced to the side when a flurry of movement caught her eye. For the second time in several minutes and dozens of miles her mouth dropped open in shock. Running right beside Arion was none other than Ryker. The son of Cybele was still grinning from ear to ear, evidently enjoying the speed. Arion saw him as well and snorted in an evident challenge, pushing himself to even greater heights. Ryker's smile faltered and he redoubled his effort, his legs and arms a blur as he ran to keep up with Arion. Hazel looked back to the chariot to make sure that her friends had not been lost. She was relieved to see them still trailing behind her in the chariot, although it looked like Nico had nearly been thrown off. Will was only just now steadying him. Percy and Annabeth were as pale as Lares as the chariot jumped and shook in its effort to stay together.
When they had taken the Imperial gold back from Canada to Camp Jupiter it had taken Arion four hours of running to make the trip. Hazel had thought that she had seen her horse's true speed on that trip, but she realized now just how burdened he had been by the heavy metal. She wasn't sure how long it was that Arion ran, but it couldn't have been more than half an hour. Ryker kept pace with the horse the whole time, running right beside Arion's head. Hazel saw the shift in terrain as a watercolor collage, the colors blurring together due to their massive speed. She vaguely wondered what any mortal who happened to have a camera would think about the sudden gust of wind that undoubtedly was following them. Arion's speed began to slow and just when Hazel thought that he was going to slow to a stop Arion went vertical. Literally. The horse made quick work of the side of the Grand Canyon, but that did not prevent her from experiencing serious vertigo. A slight retching sound behind her as they came to a stop on the canyon floor informed her that she was not alone in that regard.
Arion whinnied out a triumphant call and Ryker slumped to the ground. The golden thread that connected them flickered once, twice, and then faded away. "Fine," Ryker admitted between gasps for air, "You win. Happy?"
Arion shook his mane and, after Hazel detached him from the chariot, looked down on Ryker with something that Hazel considered equine superiority. He nickered slightly and Ryker scowled. The others got out of the chariot slowly, staggering drunkenly as they attempted to reclaim their sense of balance. "Never again." Nico moaned, looking exceptionally green and pale which was a feat in of itself. "Never again will I travel in a chariot. I'm sticking to shadow-travel from now on."
"Do that too much and you fade into shadow." Will reminded him, searching his bag for something. He pulled out a vial of something or other and placed it under Nico's nose. The son of Hades immediately shivered and blinked rapidly. "Better?" Will asked happily, stoppering the vial and putting it back in his bag.
"Much." Nico smiled and then raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"
"Mythological smelling salts." Will said mysteriously. "Sort of. I came up with it a while ago."
Annabeth and Percy had somewhat regained their wits and were now staring around the canyon with interest. Hazel rubbed Arion's neck and summoned up a small horde of gold. Arion neighed happily and Hazel saw Percy shake his head and mutter something under his breath. Ryker was still breathing hard, leaning heavily against the metal wheel of the chariot. Hazel looked at him with some degree of concern, still unsure of what she had just witnessed. She decided to seek clarification before she passed judgement. "What was that?" She asked, crouching down to meet Ryker's eye. "How did you keep up with us?"
"Before I knew who my mother was I would have told you it was something I picked up thanks to Lupa." Ryker winced and massaged his chest with one hand. "That's when I first realized I could form bonds with animals. Now that I know who my mother is, I would say it's part of being her son."
"Bonds?" Hazel repeated uncertainly. "What do you mean? And what does Lupa have to do with it?"
"She's the one who taught me how to do it." Ryker explained. Hazel noticed that his breathing seemed to be coming easier now and the gold was fading from his eyes, being replaced by their customary forest green. "I'm not exactly sure on the specifics. But whenever I do it I take on some traits of the animal I am bonding with. It only works in short distances though. The bonds' limits aren't that far either. I have to be relatively close to the animal I am bonding with. And I have to be in direct contact with the animal to initiate it."
"So why are you so out of breath now?" Hazel asked.
"Because forming a bond takes a lot of energy." Ryker began to shift and Hazel stepped back as he got to his feet, using the chariot as a sort of crutch. "And maintaining it is hard too, especially when we are doing something like running several hundred miles."
Percy and Annabeth returned to the group after having surveyed the surrounding area. "Well, I guess it would have been too much to hope for to have Arion drop us off exactly where we need to be." Annabeth said with a small sigh.
Arion seemed to take offense at this and kicked in anger, sending the chariot flying away to shatter against the canyon wall. "In case you were wondering, Arion didn't like that very much." Percy said with a sigh that sounded to Hazel like he had resolved himself to Arion's vulgar language. "He says… You know what? Never mind. Probably shouldn't repeat it."
"Which means it's up to you, Hazel." Annabeth told her. Hazel knew what she was speaking about immediately. She could sense underground passages as a daughter of Pluto, which happened to be exactly what they were looking for. She closed her eyes and felt out the surrounding area, but nothing like they were searching for was anywhere near them.
"This might take a while." She warned, looking up and down the canyon. "Lots of ground to cover. And Arion is too fast for me to actually get a good sense, so that idea is out."
Arion whinnied again and shot off, running straight up the canyon wall with zero regard for gravity. Ryker and Percy watched him go with similar expressions of relief. "You know," Ryker began conversationally, "If he didn't have such a temper and such a bad mouth he almost would be a good horse."
Now it was Hazel's turn to be offended. "He is a great horse." She said defensively.
