I do not own anything.
CHAPTER IX
Blaze and Winter
"Why aren't you two at Camp?" he asked.
"We're on a quest, dummy," I said, tending to Danny's wounds.
"So are we," says the boy named Bobby. "I don't remember this two from Camp, Jason. Anyways, we're the only ones who have gotten a quest in month, unless they've been on this quest for over a month."
"No, we've only been on this quest for like, three days. Hey, Danny? Where are we? I don't have a clue to where we're at."
"I don't know, but we need to talk." Danny took me back into the cave. "Fauna, where's Agathe?"
My eyes widened, and I realized that the monster dust was Agathe. "They disintegrated her!" I whispered to him. "What if she doesn't come back, for like, a century?" Danny's face was grave.
"Just calm down. We'll figure it out later," he said, bringing me in for a hug.
"if you wanted me to figure it out later, you should have told me later! I'm takin' them down right now, Fauna Style," I said, marching outside the cave, but he just pulled me back. "Hey! Let me go! They messed with the wrong demigod!"
"Fauna, they didn't know that Agathe was friendly!" I stopped resisting at that. I guess that they didn't know . . .
"Fine. Let's go and chat with our new friends."
I learned that Jason was my age, in fact. He told me about Camp Jupiter, and his friends there. I told him about Camp Half-Blood, but we didn't say where the camps were. He described Camp Jupiter, Lupa, and the Legions to me. I told him what Camp Half-Blood looked like, Chiron and Mr. D, and the cabins and stuff.
"So you're a daughter of Neptune?"
"It's Poseidon. And you're a son of Zeus-I mean, Jupiter. Why do you go by Roman terms?"
"Because I'm Roman."
"Well, I'm Greek. I have a brother and two sisters, but one is a spy for Kronos and the other is a monster." Jason's eyes widened when he realized that he slashed my sister to monster dust.
"Oh . . ." I laughed at his awkwardness.
"Don't worry. She'll reform eventually, but I would steer clear of her. She has the power to turn people to stone." Jason's face breaks out into a grin. He has a nice smile. I notice a little scar above his lip. "What's that scar from?" I ask him.
"Huh? Oh, I don't really know. Lupa told me that I had it when I was given to her."
"Cool. Hey, do you know where we can get a ride? We need to get to Olympia, Washington."
"We just came off some pegisi a few miles west. Go there, and you should be fine." Jason tells me.
"Cool. Hey, we should Iris message each other sometime. You seem pretty cool, and maybe Zeus wouldn't blast me out of the sky if I was hanging out with his son."
Jason didn't know what Iris messaging was, so I explained it to him. He agreed, and told me where to IM him. We said our goodbyes and set off in different directions, Danny and I going west, Jason and his friends going east.
Danny and I didn't see and pegasi, but we did hear them. We saw a giant dome, about a mile father than what Jason told us, and hear the clatter of hooves and pounding on the glass. We shared a glance and started towards the dome.
It seemed smaller from where we were standing. Way smaller. I couldn't see the top of the dome, and the building had a diameter that was easily over a thousand miles. There was a small lobby, filled with pictures of pegasi, unicorns, and horses., and one in a gold frame of a huge guy with three bodies and four wings, a two-headed dog next to him. There was one of those service bells, and Danny rang it a bit to loud for my taste.
The same man in the picture came out, the dog following him. "Hello!" he said, giving the demigods a grin. "I haven't seem you two before, but new customers are always welcomed! Would you like to buy a pegasus? Half-off, today only!" When we answer him with silence, his face turns into a pout. "Oh, I'm Geryon, by the way. This is my dog, Erytheia. We usually run a ranch, gives us a lot more profit, but it was overflowed with horse dung, and now they're on the loose, so until my personal guard catches them, horses will have to do. Would you like to take a look?"
Danny and I looked at each other. "Sure, why not," I said. We're actually looking for two pegasi."
"To rent or to buy?" Geryon asked, a smile still plastered to his face.
"To buy," Danny says. He waves us to a green door, whinnied and the clip-clop of hooves. The dome had a high ceiling, but the pegasi were restrained with chains and ropes, but those who managed to get free from them, had a layer of five-inch bullet-proof glass to get through. There were all sorts of pegasi, horses, and unicorns. Trees and Plants were dotted around everywhere, some horses eating them.
"Wonderful! Come on, the pegasi are over here."
I saw plenty of pegasi, horses, and unicorns, and heard them too. Free me, your highness! Help us your highness! Have mercy on us, your highness! was all I heard from them. I felt ready to drop-kick someone by the time we reached the main pegasi section.
White, brown, and golden furs were in my sight. I passed a black one, who talked like one of those gangsters or someone from Jersey. Danny picked a white one, but I was pretty picky with mine. I didn't want the black one; black wasn't my color.
After a while, I went off on my own, and that's when the begging became unbearable. "Okay! Shut up! I'll help you! I was going too anyways, after I was out of Geryson's sight. Jeez, don't you guys ever shut up?" They whinnied angrily. "Okay, sorry, didn't mean it. Just stop with the begging." I looked around and saw a red Pegasus. It was all red, except for its black eyes. I walked over to the pegasus.
Once I put my hand out, It nuzzled into it. It didn't talk like the others. Hello, it said. "Hello," I replied to her. I could tell it was a her, but I didn't know how. "What's your name?" I asked her. I am Blaze, daughter of Poseidon. I smiled at her, and took her reigns. I was about to go back to Geryson and Danny, but there was also all the other creatures in here. That's when a plan popped into my head.
"Ah, so the girl has chosen. Blaze is a tricky one," Geryson said, smiling.
"Actually, I want them all." Danny's jaw dropped, but Geryson's smile just grew wider.
"Ah, well, that would be about . . ." he paused, figuring out the math. "Two thousand drachmas, or five thousand American dollars."
"How about, neither," I said to him. "I battle you, and your choice of monsters in three round. You pick two other monsters to take me on. If I win all three matches, we go in peace with all of the horses, pegasi, and unicorns, but if I lose, you get your money, and get to kill me and my friends." At this, his whole face was consumed by a smile.
"Deal," he said, a glint in his eyes.
"Great. Now, choose your people. I don't have all day," I said, bringing out my weapon. It turns into a three-foot long sword, sort of like Percy's. It's color was a mix between gold and bronze. I felt power surge through me, and the sword sparked. That was defiantly not normal.
My sword sparked again, but shocked me this time. I let go of my sword, leaving it smoking on the ground. "I see you've learned about my no-weapons-allowed rule. A child of Hecate owed me a favor, so why not banish use of your silly weapons?" Geryson said.
He snapped his fingers. Then, right there before my own eyes, Agathe appeared. She looked startled, like she couldn't believe she was back. "What the heck? It usually takes me a whole week to come back, not a day!" she yelled aloud.
"This," Geryson said, "is my third choice for a monster. Now, let us see how well you do without that little sword of yours." He barked a command at Erytheia, and he bounded towards me once it was said.
I dodged the dog, rolling away. I looked around, hoping for an escape.
I went and grabbed a potted plant and threw it at the dog. It smashed into its left head. It yelped and backed away, but only for a second. Then it seemed even angrier than it already was. I didn't have many options, so I took a risk.
I grabbed my sword.
The leather grip burned my skin like acid, and soon my hands were smoking. I swung at Erytheia, catching it by surprise. Geryson roared in rage and fury as his guard dog disintegrated. "That's cheating! Weapons aren't allowed!"
"Too bad," I murmured as I thrust my sword at him. I stabbed him right in the middle, but he just laughed.
"Ignorant child! I have three bodies! Three hearts!"
"And one mouth too many!" I yelled at him. His face flushed scarlet, and he charged at me. I side stepped, and he ran past me into an oak tree. I whacked him in the back of the head with the flat of my blade, and he slumped onto the ground. I thrust the sword through all three hearts, and he went bye-bye just like his dog did.
I smiled triumphantly when the last monster I was supposed to fight spoke. "Are you going to kill me now?" Agathe asked. She had a scared look on her face, but I just threw my head back and laughed.
"No way. If he wanted me to keep my promise, he should have made swear on the River Styx." I went over and hugged my sister, and suddenly remembered the horses. I grabbed Agathe by the shoulders and put her at arm's length. "Hey, Agathe, got anyway to break the glass?"
It took us an hour to figure out how to break the glass, and two more hours to cut free all the horses, unicorns, and pegasi. Blaze and Winter (Danny's horse) stayed to give us rides. Agathe had her own way of flying, when wings sprouted from her back. The sun was finally setting when we headed off from Geryson's horse/unicorn/pegasus ranch. Blaze blended right in with the reds, oranges, and yellows in the sky I relaxed and enjoyed the ride, which could have possibly been one of my worst mistakes.