AN: It took longer because I lost my muse for a bit, but it came back. I have spring fever so it will be longer between chapters! Sorry! Continue to review and give me ideas!
I could hear the Basilisci still slithering towards us as we raced across the river. The current was rapidly bringing us downstream, so instead of a straight path it was more of a zigzag kind of trail. I was being bombarded by trash that was flowing down the river and it made the swim even harder. I mean it wasn't enough that I was swimming for my life, but trash just had to be thrown into the formula and make my day even worse.
"Swim faster!" Thalia screamed, well that's what I thought she was trying to say because water was going into her mouth, making her words sound like gibberish.
I finally got to the other side and I slowly dragged myself onto the shore, using the rocks as handholds. I turned around hearing Alex's screams and I saw the Basilisci slithering towards her in the river. The Basilisci was a huge green snake that was maybe ten feet tall and it had blood-red eyes that were staring intently at Alex.
I was not going to let a snake take Alex out so I pulled my bow out and I loaded three arrows into it and let them fly. They whistled toward the Basilisci and pierced its scales, but it did nothing. I kept letting the arrows fly, but to no avail. It let out a few sounds that sounded like someone bringing their nails down on a chalkboard, but it did not slow down.
"Aim for the mouth!" Thalia shouted and I jumped, I hadn't realized that she had been next to me.
The Basilisci was facing the wrong way for me to get the arrows into its mouth so I began to sprint downstream. While I was running Alex was throwing huge rocks at the snake's eyes, slowing it down, but not stopping. Finally I got far enough downstream that I could hit the snake in the mouth and I began to let arrows fly again and again. It was gaining on Alex when I saw another figure in the water near the Basilisci, running towards it. It was Thalia and she was letting arrows soar right at the snake, trying to get its attention by screaming, but it was not working.
"Thalia, get away!" Alex yelled at her, seeing that Thalia could get herself killed if she continued towards the Basilisci.
"No! It was foretold that I would save one of the biggest heroes of the millennium by sacrificing myself and Percy is obviously safe, so it's you and Jon!" She replied and the Basilisci turned on her.
"The future is not set in stone!" I yelled, stilling shooting the snake full of arrows.
"I wish that was true," she replied. The Basilisci was stilling slithering towards her as she threw her knife right into the snake's mouth.
Her knife gave me an idea and I followed Thalia into the water, as I pulled my two hunting knives from their sheaths and charged in. I threw one knife in and it spun into the snake's mouth hitting it in the little punching bag thing. I threw the second one and it spun in and flew past the first knife. The snake let out the ear-piercing nails-on-chalkboard sound again and we all covered our ears. It slowly turned into dust as Thalia stared at it in awe.
"I was supposed to die," she whispered to me, "and you were supposed to kill the deer before you could kill that thing."
"I told you that the future is not written in stone or cloth or whatever the gods insist on thinking it's written in," I explained and she stared at me in awe.
"You are the strangest hero that I have ever met," she pointed out, still amazed.
"Thanks…. I think," I replied and I turned to Alex, "are you okay?'
"You both risked your lives for me…" Alex said in awe.
"We know that," I answered, "but are you okay?"
"Yes… I think," and with that she both engulfed us in a bear hug that took my breath away. But it wasn't because of the pressure she was putting on my ribs, it was just her.
Thalia and I pushed her away, laughing. Now we seemed to be like one happy family not like Alex and I had been planning to mutiny earlier in the day.
"So, Thalia, were now?" I asked.
"We have to re-cross the river so we can get back to the tree that the Basilisci was guarding and then we have to get the poisoned aloe for the wound," she explained and Alex and I groaned at the thought of crossing the river again.
We slowly began to wade across the river much more slowly now that we were no longer being chased, well that as far as we knew. The current was still strong, but we weren't being swept away by it. Now I get the saying, slow and steady wins the race, but I still didn't want to be slow and steady.
"Oh crap! I forgot my knives in the stupid snake!" I exclaimed, as I realized my mistake.
"Then what are those two knives on your back?" Alex asked, pointing behind me. I pulled them down and lone behold they were my old hunting knives.
"Oh, well I guess that's good to know," I muttered and they laughed.
"Follow me," Thalia beckoned and we plunged into the woods.
Even if we didn't have Thalia with us we could have easily found our way to the tree. The Basilisci had left such an obvious path that only an idiot could not find his way there, and he/she would have to be so stupid they didn't know how to breathe. The tree was in a clearing with not other trees beside it and it emanated power from its leaves. Its bottom branches spread out for twenty feet and the other branches slowly got smaller as they got closer to the top.
Thalia walked over to the trunk and she plunged her knife into the center of the tree. The tree seemed to be crying out a crystal-clear liquid that flowed from the cut in the tree. She pulled out a crystal phial and put it under the river of liquid until the bottle was full. Thalia put the stopper into the phial and handed it to me.
"Why do you want me to hold it?" I asked, "I'm going to break it in a second."
"Because you will know when to use and who you will use it for," she explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Gods, Jon that is so obvious! Who wouldn't know that?!" Alex exclaimed, sarcastically. Thalia glared at her, good-naturedly.
"We need to stop somewhere else before we can go to Miami," Thalia explained at we followed her into the woods; again, "it's just a quick stop in Orlando."
"What are we doing in Orlando?" Alex questioned, suspiciously.
"We're just going to meet up with some old friends of mine," Thalia replied, evasively.
"Who?"
Oh, you'll see when we get there," she sang, her voice slowly getting quieter as she disappeared into the woods.
Alex and I gave each other a look, wondering what we were getting ourselves into, and we followed Thalia into the woods, hesitantly.
AN: Hoped you liked it! Remember to review and give me ideas! Five more before I update!