The Pegasi weren't exactly happy that we had rushed them into the air so quickly. They stampeded through the sky at speeds well over what we had pushed them to before. Ellie was unable to steer the winged horse as it rocketed after Lexie's. After three hours they started to decelerate to a more manageable speed.
Ellie looked back to make sure I was still behind her. When she saw me, she smiled. "That was a little more than I expected, I don't think I've ever seen them fly that fast before." Her voice was still muffled over the sound of the rushing wind, but I could still hear her.
I was shaking a little bit, I had never been a person for height's. Riding a Pegasus at a speed like that felt like riding on top of a passenger jet while there's turbulence. I looked down at the ground two hundred feet below us. The scenery had drastically changed. The land was a lot flatter, and trees seemed to be less densely packed. I could see a large city on the horizons. "Ellie, we need to stop and talk to Lexie." I yelled over the wind. "We need to figure out where we are." Ellie nodded and was about to speed up the Pegasus, but Lexie got the same idea and veered her's toward the ground.
We landed in a clearing. All three of us climbed off our Pegasi and unpacked. "Where do you think we are?"Lexie asked. Me and Ellie both shrugged. "Great..." She looked around.
"I don't think we're anywhere near D.C. we were flying too long for that." Ellie placed her pack on the ground and laid back on it.
"Where are we going in the first place?" I asked as I checked my backpack to be certain Lexie hadn't thrown anything out.
"California, somewhere around the Bay Area. That's where Austin was when I last heard from him."
"I think we're in Texas."
Lexie looked over at Ellie. "How do you know that?" She seemed surprised.
"I'm from here.." She pointed to the skyline. "That's Dallas, my dad lives there. So again, you are welcome I came along." She threw me a bottle of water from her pack. "Now then, what's the plan?"
"Honestly, I never thought I'd get this far." Lexie admitted. The Pegasi made a horrible screeching noise. "What the Hades!" We all looked over at them. Again they reared up on their hind hooves. "Oh no!" Lexie shouted before the winged -horses bolted into the sky again and flew east.
"Well crap.." I cursed. "Now what we gonna do?" I kicked the dirt in front of me.
"We go to to the bus station. We've already made it halfway across the country in half a day, I think we'll be able to-" Ellie grabbed her gut and winced. I ran to her side.
"Move your hands." I ordered. After a few seconds I was able to pry her hands away to reveal four long, bloody gashes that went along her stomach. "Oh crap, things keep getting worse." I complained as I put pressure on the wound.
"The Empousa must have gotten me in the museum." She groaned. "Sean, get the thermos out of my backpack."
"I got it, Sean just keep applying pressure to that. I'm going to use your jacket as a bandage too okay?" I just nodded in response. Lexie jogged over and handed me an open thermos. "Give her some of this, just a couple of sips we need to save it and I don't want it to do more harm than good." I quickly took the thermos out of her hand.
I used one hand to hold it up to Ellie's lips while the other kept the pressure on the wound. She quickly took to large sips and I pulled it away from her. The gash started to slowly shrink. "You okay Ellie?" I asked as I held her hand.
"I still hurt's." She groaned. "I don't think I can continue for the day."
I looked over at Lexie. "You aren't going to ditch us are you?" I said sarcastically.
"We have to find and wait for a bus anyways, by the time we do that I think it'll be safe for Ellie to have more nectar and I think she'll be fine." Lexie threw me my saber that I had left laying next to my backpack. "Let's get moving."
I attached my new sword to my belt, pulled my backpack on and helped Ellie stand up. "You think you can make it a few miles?" I asked as she slung her arm over my shoulder.
"If you can make it, I think I will." She smiled. Lexie grabbed both her's and Ellie's backpacks and led the way towards the road.
The heat was not making it easy to help Ellie walk the entire distance to Dallas. By the time we arrived, we were covered in sweat and our legs were sore. We stopped at the first bus stop we could find. It wasn't one that would take us to the next state, but it would at least get us to the station.
Ellie flopped down next to me and rested her head on my lap. "Are you okay?" I asked. I opened the bottle of water she had given to me and passed it to her.
"Thanks." She said dryly. "Sean, you're a good friend." She smiled up at me.
"I'm not the good friend." I corrected. "You are the one risking your life to help." She passed me the bottle and I took a long drink from it, not even bothering to wipe it first.
Lexie was sitting on the other side of the bench rolling her eyes. She watched as a bus approached. It was still around four in the afternoon, but as the bus got closer it's headlights grew brighter. I had to shield my eyes as it pulled up to the bus stop.
When I could finally open my eye's I could see that the bus was a blinding yellow and said "the bus of hot shots" painted in dark red on the side. It's door's opened slowly, revealing a teenage boy with sandy blonde hair and a tan. He was wearing a bleach white T-shirt and torn jeans. "Well, don't just stand there, let's get a move on." He ordered waving to us and gesturing to the bus.
"Austin!"I looked over just in time to see Lexie bolt up from the bench and hugged him.
The boy smiled sympathetically and gently pushed her back. "I'm sorry Lexie," He apologized shaking his head, "but I'm not your boyfriend." Lexie's excitement disappeared just as quickly as it had come and had been replaced with disappointment.
"Who are you then?" She croaked.
The boy smiled showing off his shining, white teeth, "I'm sure that you've heard of me before. I mean I am the big hot shot on Olympus. Literally."
"Lord Apollo." She said blushing with embarrassment as she slightly bowed.
He smiled again before turning to a serious expression, "Right you are, I can see why my son likes you. Now we have no time to lose! Get in." He said motioning to the bus again. "I need you three to do me a favor."
Lexie grabbed her stuff and climbed aboard the vehicle. I looked down at Ellie, she rolled up right and had me help her walk to the vehicle. Luckily it was air-conditioned, if I had to sit in that heat for another minute I was sure I would burst into flames. I sat down on the first row of seats next to Lexie.
"Okay, first of all, thank you." Apollo said sitting back in the bus seat and starting it. "I didn't think anybody would come this far to find my son, I'd look myself, but I'm not allowed to..."
"Is that why you picked us up?" Asked Ellie politely, but still strained. "Just because you wanted to thank us for looking for Austin?" Her head rested on my shoulder tiredly.
"That's a reason." Answered the god. "But I need another thing, then I can help you three get to California."
I looked at Lexie, who appeared to be considering the possibilities of what he wanted us to do. "What are the terms?"
"You two," he said pointing to me and Lexie, "go retrieve something for me - she can stay here. I'll even heal her free of charge." He pointed to Ellie, who was clutching her wound. "If you succeed and return, I'll get you a ride to California."
"You aren't gonna leave me here alone are you?!" Ellie blurted out.
"Aw don't worry I'll keep you company." Apollo winked. Ellie scoffed and rolled her eyes.
Lexie ignored the comment. "What will we be doing?"
Apollo grinned. "Okay, so I was doing this music gig the other day at the Dallas football stadium, anyway long story short, cute girl - not as cute as you." He grinned over at Ellie who rolled her eyes. I felt like I was going to explode, who was he to be hitting on her - not that I- never mind... "Anyways long story short I left my lyre at the stadium and I need you two to go get it for me." Finished the god.
"Why don't you go get it yourself? Why send us to get something you forgot?" I asked.
"Because I am a busy god and if I go down there I will be swarmed by fan girls just because of my pure awesomeness." Apollo pushed back his hair like he was in a movie and smiled at Ellie again. "So are you going to help me?" He stopped the bus in front of a gigantic football stadium.
All things considered what choice did we have. "Okay, so where is your lyre?" Lexie asked as we stood up from our seats.
"It should be somewhere inside. Everything after the concert is a blur, I must have been... ah nevermind." He grinned. "It will most likely look like a guitar to you two, so the best advice I can give you is to look for a shiny golden guitar that screams property of Apollo. Now get going, I need to get moving within the hour if I'm to keep on schedule. The sun doesn't set on it's own if you know what I mean."
We nodded, then I looked at Ellie. "Hurry back." She stood up painfully and hugged me.
"We will." I promised. She looked a little worried as I pulled away from her. Lexie was already out the door by the time I turned around.