I woke up the next morning to Philana nuzzling my face. I shot up. "Woah!" I said, "Your nose is cold!" She gave a little snort-laugh.
Sorry, but you were going to be late. We're leaving in an hour. She said
"I'm not ready yet!" I protested. I got up and took of the robe I still had on from last night. "What am I wearing?"
That. She said, pointing towards the armor stand.
"That's just some rags." I replied.
Exactly. You can't use clothing to your advantage. You have to beat the fox with the aid of nothing. She said.
I sighed and shimmied into my outfit. "So how am I to kill this fox?" I asked as I walked out into the commonplace.
Well, said Philana, Zeus created a dog that was destined to catch it, but the fox was too cunning, so he turned them both to stone.
"In case you haven't noticed, I can't turn things to stone." I said. She did her snort-laugh again.
I tried my best to stomach my breakfast, because my eggs tasted a little funny and I was pretty sure I found a hunk of a beetle in it. I asked Atlanta what exactly we would be doing.
"We will be freeing the Evil Eye from their animal hosts." She explained.
"How are we supposed to do that?" I asked.
"Easy!" She said, "You have to gouge their eyes out, then put them in the River Phlegethon."
"Gross! With your bare hands?!" It sounded totally nasty.
"Of course! If you used a weapon on them, the Evil Eye would escape instantly. This way, the Evil Eye stays encapsulated in, well, the eye." She said.
"Does the animal live?" I asked
"Well, most of the time. If you don't remove the eye just right, the Evil Eye will get stuck in their body, and you will have to kill it. Ocelots don't grow their eyes back, so they stay here for the rest of their lives." She said.
"That's horrible!" I exclaimed.
"It's better than the Evil Eye. Should it escape, around 10 people will die, and 100 more will suffer misfortune." She said
"Oh, well, if you put it that way…" I started.
"Hey, no pressure! You'll do fine." She said.
"I thought that the Amazons were famous for spears and bows and arrows and stuff like that… why wrestling?" I asked.
"We don't just fight animals, you know. Sometimes we have to fight neighboring tribes. They don't always welcome us with open arms." Said Atlanta.
"I see…" I started, but Klaus cut me off.
"It is time to leave! Let's go, everyone!" She shouted. Everyone stood up, and we were running out of the building.
It felt like I had been running forever, but I was not tired at all. The sun was breaking over the horizon by the tie we slowed down.
"Zenia," Atlanta whispered, "That one's yours." I shook my head vigorously, but I looked into the brush anyway. There was a little, bright orange monkey scratching at the ground. Atlanta nudged me foreword, and I leapt onto it. It let out a horrible, bone-shattering scream and clawed at my arms. Its eyes were pure black and oozing black goop. "Claw them out!" Atlanta screeched. I closed my eyes and did as I was told. I tried not to feel the squishiness or listen to the tortured wails of the little creature. I dropped the eyes to the ground, but Atlanta caught them. "Don't let them touch the ground." She said. She tucked them into her bag.
"That wasn't bad for a first time!" Daphne praised, patting me on the back. She handed me a rag so I could wipe off the goo.
"That was disgusting." I said, "Why do you need so many people here just to take down a pint-sized monkey?"
Atlanta chuckled. "That monkey was just the beginning. Wait until we get to the jaguars." She said.
I gulped. "Jaguars?"
P.S. No, I haven't forgotten about Orion ;)