Chapter Fifteen

After what felt like hours, we reach the base of a mountain. Garrott confidently walks towards a gleaming apple tree. "Ladon," he whispers." Garrott gestures to me and Mia to come forward.

I stifle a gasp when I notice a green, scaly thing, slither up the branch. I hack out a cough when hundreds of blinking, yellow eyes, peek out of the tree. "Remember me? Garrott?" Garrott warmly opens out his arms. "These are my friends. Do not hurt them. Got it? We aren't here to take apples."

Dragon-like heads poke out of the tree and nod. Mia whispers, "I think I peed."

Terrified, I gaze at the large, scary monster, that loomed over our heads. "Are you sure this is safe?" I rasp.

Garrott nods, completely confident. My fear increases when I hear singing coming from behind the tree and monster. Four beautiful women come dancing and singing a strange hymn. All four of them wear flowy white chitons and their dark hair tumbles down their shoulders carelessly but perfect. The Hesperides immediately spot us, and they flock towards Garrott.

"A boy!" the first one says.

"Wait, have we seen him before?" another Hesperide speaks.

"It looks like Hera!" the third one observes.

The fourth woman drops down to her knees. "Great goddess," she breathes. "I hope my sisters and I have not disrespected you. You may come out of your disguise."

Garrott bursts into laughter. "I'm not Hera. I'm her son!"

The woman turns pink. "Forgive me, Hephaestus. I was not aware that your have changed your appearance."

Garrott sighs. "I'm not Hephaestus, Hesperia. Thank you for your respect, though. I am a lesser known son of Hera. I'm here to see Atlas."

Hesperia bows. Behind her, the other Hesperides found a new topic to gossip about.

"Look at the two girls the handsome man has brought," the first one giggles.

"Are they sacrifices?" the second one asks.

"Girls, come dance with us!" the third one calls.

Mia eagerly nods her head, oblivious to their previous statements, and she steps forward but finds my disapproving hands in the way.

"No," I say. "The Hesperides are known for dancing other women to death. You don't wanna mess with them."

"Fine," Mia huffs. Garrott pulls us away, much to the Hesperides' despair.

"C'mon, you guys. We have to go see Atlas. I need to ask his take on the prophecy…"

The stupid prophecy again. At my months at Camp Half-Blood (which included watching the fireworks with Caston), most of the campers were hype about this mysterious prophecy that circled around the forbidden children of the "Big Three". Each one of them disobeyed their pact on not fathering more dangerous children (except for Hades, who just prolonged his children's ages). Percy and Thalia are no exception.

We crawl up the mountain, Laden creepily staring at us from below. When we reached the top, I saw a huge man holding up what looked like a thousand galaxies bunched up in the form of a large boulder. The man was imposing and the scary type of handsome. His muscles were tensed, like the boulder-sky-thing would fall onto him at any moment, and his arms (and back) were the only things keeping it from falling. Atlas, General of Cronos, grunted when he saw us.

"Whadiya want," he says before a gallon of sweat trickle into his eyes.

Garrott ignores this and the environment. He clears his throat, all businesslike. "Have you heard about the prophecy?"

"Uh… yeah. So?"

"Are you planning to rise against the gods with Cronos?"

Atlas' face turns the color of sunflower. His eyebrows furrow deeply, either from reacting to the sweat or being exposed of his grand plans to take over the world.

"Depends," Atlas grunts. "Cronos is going to be much more powerful, and this time, he might win."

Garrott raises an eyebrow. "But what if the gods win again? Are you ready to be subjected to an ever harsher punishment?"

Atlas lets out a snort that turned into wheezing. "Why are you being loyal to the big guys up there? Didn't Hera, goddess of families, toss you out? Don't you crave revenge for being turned into a mere mortal?"

Garrott's nostrils flared. Mia gives Atlas the stink-eye. "What do you know about the gods?" Garrott hissed, stepping closer to the Titan. "I might detest Hera, but I'll let you know, not all of the gods are terrible. Also, being mortal is so bad, once you get used to it."

"I admire his loyalty," a soft voice comes from behind Atlas. The Titan's eyes grow as wide as porridge bowls. He looked like a deer caught in headlights, well, at least before more sweat dripped into his eyes.

"It's great," Atlas squeaks, obviously attempting to mimic the voice. It came out like a strangled cat's mew, rather than a calm, mellow, more feminine sound. I sniggered along with Mia, causing Atlas to turn the color of sunflower again. "Besides," Atlas snaps. "Didn't becoming mortal mean you can't visit that girl again? What was her name, Euterpe or something?"

Garrott ignores the comment and attempted to look behind the man's large body. "Who's there?" Garrott asks.

"None of your business," Atlas growls, baring large teeth.

However, it became our business when a bunch of girls and a startled Percy tromped up the hill. "M'lady?" calls the girl in front, who I recognized as Zoë.

"'M'lady'…?" I say, peering at Atlas, who was sweating bullets. "Is it, Artemis?"