So, one of my friends suggested that I put out one chapter every week rather than whenever I finish them. What do you guys think? Feel free to leave a comment.
Rory turned and got off the highway. He made a few wrong turns and misread a few signs, but eventually we made it to the bookstore. There was a bright white sign over the door.
"Read-a lot-Rick's," Kelsey read. Rory parked the car.
"I'll be right back." He took out the keys, closed the door and locked it. The sun was going down in the sky turning it purple with fluffy pink clouds. It looked like a kindergartener had scribbled in a coloring book, not caring about accuracy, but instead on which colors looked prettiest. But, all in all it was very beautiful. Kelsey reclined her chair back so far we were practically face to face. She looked seriously worn out even though she hadn't done much except answer questions and tell stories.
"I was up all night yesterday. I was so excited you'd be coming to camp with me." She smiled her goofy grin, and I couldn't help but smile back.
"Well, I'm glad I'm going with you guys," I said. Kelsey yawned and closed her eyes.
"Night- night," she mumbled. I laughed.
"G'nite." And with that Kelsey was out cold. I leaned against the car door and listened to her murmur in her sleep. I tried to go to sleep, too, but couldn't. I was still thinking about who my dad could be. I was both happy he was alive and sad that he hadn't "claimed" me yet. Did he not care? Was he really too busy for me? I mean, I'm his kid right. Certainly he's got time to go 'hey that's my kid'. It didn't have to be big. Even a little note saying 'Hi. I, _, am your father' would have sufficed. But, no. I guess I wasn't good enough. I pouted a little. I started to think of how little I knew about Greek gods and goddesses. Pretty much all of my knowledge came from that one Hercules movie that I haven't seen in years, and the few stories Kelsey had told me at our lunch table. Now, I was starting to regret not listening to all of them. I thought back on the movie and of all of the glowing people who were the gods, with their cloud palace in the sky. I wondered if any of them actually looked like that in real life. I could be any one of their children. I thought of Hades and his blue fire hair. What if I was his daughter? What if I was the daughter of a bad guy? Would that make me a bad guy, too? I shook my head. No, I'd just have to do what all of good guys did. Stand up to my parent and tell them I'd stop them.
"Pfft. Who am I kidding? I can't stand up to anybody," I thought to myself, "That's rule number 2." I could only hope my dad wasn't some sort of manipulative sociopath. Gold eyes and black hair. Those were the features I had inherited, and those were the features he would have.
I looked to the store. I saw Rory through the glass door, leaning against the counter, chatting with the woman behind it. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy every time he would give her a half smile or made her giggle. It felt like they were talking forever.
"Hurry up," I grumbled throwing my head into the back of Rory's seat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure move in the shadows. I sat up, hardening my gaze. Not only was it hard to see because it was nighttime, but also because the street light above us was out. As far as I could tell the moving thing was tall enough to reach my mid-thigh. It didn't move in a straight line but instead in a swerved motion. As the figure came into the dim light of the store I realized it was a dog. A bloodhound with big droopy eyes and long floppy ears wobbled into the light. A large black spot sat on its back, and its big black nose sniffed the ground in search for some unknown thing. The dog picked up its head and looked directly at me. Its red eyes were so bright I could have sworn they glowed. The dog barked, and bared its yellow teeth. Kelsey jolted forward from her sleep, eyes filled with alarm.
"Monster!" she cried. The dog howled, the echo of the call striking fear into my core. Even though my door was closed I could still hear its barks clearly. It had found its prey and now it was going in for the kill. The dog snarled and ran at the car. I screamed as it jumped at my window. There was a bang, and I scrambled back to the opposite side of the car. I could tell it had made a dent in Rory's car. The dog stood on its hind legs, black claws scratching against the window pane. Its beady eyes peered through the glass. They seemed to narrow at me. The dog dropped down, and disappeared from sight. Before I knew it, the dog was behind me at the other window. I yelped and Kelsey screamed.
"This isn't good," she cried.
"No duh!" I yelled angrily. Kelsey started opening Rory's glove compartment and center console, urgently looking for something. Rory, who had noticed the hound attacking his car, rushed out the store with two books, and his wallet in hand. As he came close to the car the dog ran at him barking loudly. Rory raised his arms up, carefully circling around the dog, and back to the car. The dog lowered its head and snarling angrily at the boy. Rory was calm, despite being practically pinned against the car by the dog. Rory slowly placed the books on top of the car, opened his wallet, and pulled a small shiny rectangle out. It was a credit card.
"Great. What's he going to do bribe it with money?"
"Get in the car!" I shouted, scared I was going to have to watch my new friend get mauled to death. But, instead of getting in the car, where it was safe and we could just drive away, Rory turned around and winked.
"What the-?" Before I could finish the thought, I saw the card began to change and shift in his hand. Rory flipped it, and as it twirled upwards the card grew larger and thicker. Once it had reach the peak of its height, the new object's momentum slowed. I saw what was once a credit card was now a large bronze shield. Upon seeing Rory's sudden movement, the dog took the offensive. The hound launched itself at Rory, fangs out. The new weight of Rory's shield brought it down just in time for him to grab the shield, and block the attack. But the bloodhound was as heavy as it was strong. When it hit Rory's shield it knocked him back into the car.
"Rory!" I shouted, tension rising. The dog snarled and scratched at the shield, its teeth coming inches from Rory's face. I looked back at Kelsey, who seemed just as scared as me. "What do we do?" Kelsey swallowed, and gave me an anxious smile.
"It'll be okay. Rory knows what he's doing," Kelsey said, a poor attempt at reassurance. I looked back to the fight. Rory grunted, and using all of his body weight, he shoved the dog back with his shield. The dog quickly regained its balance and Rory took a defensive stance. I noticed that at some point Rory had pulled a knife out, and was gripping it tightly. With a shield in one hand, a dagger in the other, and a look of determination on his face, Rory looked like an entirely different person. With new weapons at Rory's disposal, the murder hound behaved more cautiously. It was strange. I knew that despite their name, bloodhounds were gentle creatures that were used to sniff out drugs or follow a scent. They weren't vicious attack dogs like this one. I doubt other dogs had the same look of calculating murderous intent in their eyes either. The dog paced, looking for the perfect place to strike. Rory, however, was less patient.
"Come on!" Rory roared, his voice almost as clear as the dog's. He struck his dagger against his shield, trying to goad the dog into attacking. The clanging noise rang out, irritating the blood hounds sensitive ears. The dog whined, shaking its head. Rory's tactic worked. The dog rushed at Rory. Rory held his shield up. The dog jumped as high as it could. Unfortunately for it, that rash decision was all it took for the tables to turn in Rory's favor. Rory twisted his body and smacked his shield into the flying dog so hard the dog shot back five feet. The dog smacked against the ground and skidded backward. The dog tried to stand up, but Rory was on it in seconds. He pinned the dog down with all his weight so it couldn't get up. My vision started to get hazy. I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to get them to refocus, but my attempts were futile. Warped circles filled my vision and merged at one point. The dog's heaving chest. The world took on a washed out effect, the color draining away. But, that didn't matter. My focus was on the creature's vulnerable vital point. I watched as Rory flipped his dagger downward to get a better grip on the handle, and plunged it into the beast's chest. The dog whined, unable to move from its pinned position, its death inevitable. In a final attempt of retaliation, the dog snapped onto Rory's dagger arm. It bit down as hard as it could, but Rory wasn't fazed. Rory twisted the dagger into the beast's chest, and with one final whimper it died. Rory pulled the dog's jaw from his arm and stood. As he walked back to the car I watched as the dog's corpse shimmered, and turned into a large pile of dust. The wind must have picked up because the dust disappeared like the distortion in my vision. Rory flipped his shield up, and when it came back down, it returned to a credit card. He slid his dagger back into a sheath and slipped it into the waistband of his pants. Kelsey sat back, gripping her chest. Had it not been for her heavy breathing I would have thought she died of a heart attack. The woman from behind the counter in the store looked at us in both alarm and confusion.
"What did she see? Does she think Rory just killed some stray?" Rory grabbed the door handle to get in, but when he pulled, the door jammed. The dog must have done a lot more damage than I had thought. Rory gave the door a few more frustrated jerks, but it barely budged. Rory hung his head and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. He must have let out a very long sigh, because when he looked up he took a huge breath. Rory slammed his right foot against my car door, and pulled his with all his might. The door finally popped open, swinging all the way back, and making Rory rebalance himself. Rory grabbed the books, climbed in the car, and slammed the door shut. He jammed his wallet in his pocket, anger apparent. He looked to the back where I was sitting and groaned. He pounded his fists against the steering wheel.
"He even cracked my window. Do you even know how much that costs!?" He whipped around to Kelsey, glaring at the blonde, "What was all that talk about being good luck and not worrying about monsters?"
"I was asleep!" Kelsey retorted. She crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"With Penelope in the car? What if that thing had gotten in?"
"I would have handled it!"
"Yeah, right. You barely did anything just now," He said angrily.
"I couldn't find my sword!"
"And whose fault is that? You probably packed it away in the trunk with everything else!"
"Guys! Guys! Don't fight! Please," I pleaded. It was bad enough some demon dog just tried to kill us, I didn't need my friends to go at each other throats, too. Kelsey just clicked her teeth and turned away from Rory. Rory took a deep breath and rested his head against the steering wheel, trying to calm down from all of the adrenaline pumping through him. He opened the center console and reached in. I heard the crinkle of plastic, and Rory pulled out three suckers. He tossed one to me, which I caught, and one to Kelsey, which bounced off the side of her face. She glared back at him, but took the candy. I put my sucker in my pocket to save it for later.
"Would you mind telling me what that was?" I asked, as Rory tore his wrapper off with his teeth. He popped the candy in his mouth, and pushed it to the side of his mouth.
"Laelaps. The dog who is destined to always catch her prey," Rory said, his voice softer than before.
Kelsey pointed to the woman in the store, "I think your little girlfriend is calling the cops." Rory looked up to see that the woman who he was talking to before was in fact on the phone now, staring directly at us.
"We need to get to camp, quickly," Rory said, pulled out of the parking space.
"No duh," Kelsey mumbled. She sounded hurt, and I wanted to comfort her, but I didn't know how. I decided to just leave her alone for now. I turned around, not believing what just happened. I had a ton of questions, and wasted no time dumping them on the only one who didn't look too peeved to answer them.
"Rory, how did you do that back there? And how did your credit card turn into a shield? And why did the dog turn to dust? Why are we its prey?" Rory exhaled loudly, the long and winded exhale that would have made you think a part of his soul flew out with his breath.
"Look, Pen. It's getting late, why don't you get some rest. I'll explain more tomorrow," he said, unable to keep the exhaustion from his voice.
"Promise?" I asked.
"Promise," Rory replied, sincerity blending in with the fatigue. I smiled. "Oh, and here's your books." Rory pushed the books towards me.
"Oh! Thank you. What do I owe you?" I asked fishing out my wallet from my pocket.
"Hmm? You don't have to pay me. Just return the books when you're done."
"Oh, okay." I smiled at his generosity, and took the books from him. In the small amount of light, I had I read the titles. One was "Great Greek Myths for Kids" while the other was "Guide to Greek Mythology". I decided that it would be best if I waited until the sun came back up before I started reading. I had been scolded before for trying to read in the dark and was forced to eat carrots in everything for an entire month as punishment. Also, nearly dying left me feeling drained. I shifted my body in a way that I could lay across all of the seats comfortably, and closed my eyes. I didn't think I'd go to sleep so quickly because I still had tons of questions, but after a few seconds I was out.
I do not condone animal cruelty. That being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this little fight scene.