Okay, this next note is to my anonymous reviewer, Eleni. I think that it's great that you love my story and all, but I honestly I can't update, like twice a week. It takes a ton of my time for even one chapter a week-unless you want them in really crappy shape… I don't know if I'm going to put you in my story, but if I need an OC, I'll consider it. Also the fact that most of my stories are about Contestshipping because it's my favorite.
By the way I decided to change my pen name.
Okay, moving on.
Chapter 34
Leaf's POV
We entered through the gate. There was a dark tunnel we crossed, then when my eyes adjusted to the lighting I saw that we were at a river, Styx. The river had a distinct eerie green glow, but the most noticeable thing was the ginormous dog! It was about as tall as the Empire State Building. I'm guessing it was Cerberus. He was resting peacefully with three heads, glistening black fur, a spiked red collar, teeth bared, and razor sharp claws. It resembled a Beauceron, but with three heads. It stirred, then snorted and shot out a little flame out of its mouth.
"Guys, it's sleeping should I poke him with a stick?" Ash said out loud. I watched the dog's red bloodthirsty eyes fly open. The next thing I knew its teeth were snarling and it was on its paws.
"I'll take that as a no." Ash dodged a fireball Cerberus fired at him. I ducked for cover. A look of panic and fear was evident on my face. I saw that most of the guys were trying to defend against the raging beast. The one not helping was Drew, who was making sure everyone was okay, especially May. Normally I would be smirking, but currently a giant monstrous dog was trying to kill us! There was also Paul. He looked calm and was he…smirking? My curiosity peaked, but the growl of Cerberus brought me back to reality.
'I can't believe we have to rip one of those gigantic whiskers off of him. Actually, I'm not even sure that is Cerberus.' I thought, mournfully. I brushed off the excess dirt and examined the fighting. I saw something go past the river! I thought it was a hallucination at first, but then I noticed that it was a someone and they were running away and trying to get past a black metal gate. I couldn't believe I didn't figure out this from before!
That was someone trying to escape from the Underworld and Cerberus was the three-headed dog! Oh, gods! That person's trying to escape! I ran out into Cerberus's view and put my thumb and pointer finger in my mouth and blew. That sure got his attention!
"Look, boy! Someone's trying to escape!" I pointed to the running silhouette of the man. Cerberus's eyes shot directly from me to the man. He barked, and then chased after him. I made a sigh of relief.
"Okay, so anyone got a plan to get the whisker?" I asked.
"Oh, I know! We can yank off a whisker!" Ash said in a childlike way.
"Anyone else?" I asked hopefully.
"We could put it to sleep." Dawn offered.
"Great idea, but how?" I questioned.
"Deerling." Paul said.
"What?" I gave a confused face.
"Cerberus can't eat Deerling without falling asleep." Paul stated.
"Well, I don't really want a bunch of Deerling to die, so is there any other way?" I really didn't want any Pokémon to die for this one quest.
"Not that I know of. We could shoot paralysis arrows or hypnotic arrows, but none of us have any. We're all better at close combat." Paul shrugged.
"Do you know where we can get some?" I sighed.
"The nearest demigod base is miles away. There's only one per state." Gary said coming up to me.
"What about Adrian? Wasn't he an archer?" Drew asked.
"Yeah, but he's guarding Elysium." Paul said.
"Is there anyone else who's an archer?" I asked.
"Your blue haired friend, but I doubt she has any demigod weapons." I rolled my eyes at Paul. That was a 'no duh!' answer.
"We got to hurry. I bet Cerberus is going to be back any minute now." I checked to see if Cerberus was still chasing to escapee. Luckily, he still was.
"Is there another way?"
"We could just fight him and tie him up to take one of his precious whiskers." Paul snorted. Yeah, like that was doing well, I thought.
"I think we should just fight it and hope a miracle happens." I decided.
"Fine with me." Gary said. I saw Paul nod and the others agree in their own way.
"Okay, everyone got their weapons?" Drew asked.
"Yeah!" They said in unison except for Paul who looked like he'd rather die.
A thought occurred to me. "Why can't you guys use your powers? Like, lightning for Ash." I asked.
"They waste a lot of our energy. We'd probably faint if we used them more than once." Drew explained.
"Oh." I said not knowing what else to say. Misty didn't seem tired to me that day when she burst the sinks open and caused the room to be soaked. I felt the ground shake and I looked up. Cerberus was running toward us! I ran away knowing the guys would fight. I felt kind of useless just running away, but I didn't exactly ask to be a demigod, either. I had no training and the only thing I could possibly fight with was a rusted sword that would probably break if I swung it on the ground.
The swords all turned to silver chain necklaces. Ugly ones. I was really tempted to not wear it when I saw a reflection of it courtesy of Dawn's mirror. She of course ripped it off and refused to wear a 'crime against fashion' accessory. I examined the fight once again. Cerberus was doing a heck of a job defending against four boys! I saw Drew try to sneak attack his back, but Cerberus used his long black with a red tip whip him away.
To be honest I really wasn't sure what their strategy was, but when they got the rope out my brain figured it out in an instant. Drew and Ash were the distractions and while Cerberus was distracted Paul and Gary would tie up his legs. They were working on the first know, but Ash was proving to be an excellent distraction. He maybe wasn't the brightest light bulb in the room, but he sure knew how to distract.
Ash blew a raspberry at Cerberus while yelling, "I bet you can't get me with one of those fireballs!" That caused Cerberus to fire at Ash from every direction. I even had to jump when one nearly scorched my leg. Drew wasn't even capturing Cerberus's attention, so he started tying a knot on Cerberus's right hind leg. Paul and Gary finished the first knot on the right front leg. I looked at the knot and shook my head. They might be better fighters, but tying knots was definitely not their high point.
Actually, Drew was better at tying knots. He didn't just tie a bunch of square knots over and over; he actually tied knots. Drew went to tie a third knot. Ash was now flailing his arms while running around yelling, "Missed me missed me! Now you got to kiss me!"
I rolled my eyes. At least it was effective. They were on their last leg now. Finished.
"Pull!" Gary whooped. Ash joined them and pulled causing Cerberus to fall down.
"Hurry! Tie his snout!" When Ash gave a confused face Drew added, "His nose."
They ran with amazing speed and made a final knot tying his snout. I got closer to Cerberus. I realized he was only as big as a small building. He was actually kind of cute.
"So who wants to rip off a whisker?" Gary announced.
"Why don't you? You seem to love doing stupid, dangerous things." Drew suggested.
"My pleasure." Gary went up to Cerberus with extreme confidence and yanked. Cerberus barked and the ropes ripped.
"Oh, crap! Run!" Gary yelled. I ran along with them. I was glad that Dawn and May stayed behind, but Misty of course needed to get closer, so now we were running from a giant dog that was probably going to rip us to shreds if it could.
I ran faster, but my throat burned like crazy. I ignored it and ran faster ignoring the increasing pain, but for some reason the ground wasn't shaking from Cerberus's running anymore. I took a glance behind me and saw that he was…still? He was just standing there, but why? I didn't get to find out because Gary grabbed my hand and yanked me with him. We ran until we were in the tunnel again.
"I think this is safe for now. Everyone still okay?" Drew asked. I nodded. A chorus of 'yeah,' 'yep,' and 'uh huh' was echoed throughout the tunnel.
"Ash, you liar!" Misty screamed. I looked over and saw that Ash's arm was red and raw. From his hand to the joint of his right arm was damaged and throbbing. It was definitely worse than Dawn's injuries. Speaking of Dawn I saw that she was leaning on Paul for support. Her legs were the most injured, but they were wrapped with cloth made of a blanket we tore up.
This was the first task and two of us were already injured. We needed to get to a hospital, but would they be able to treat people with demigod injuries? Maybe that demigod base that Gary was talking about would be able to heal them.
"Hey, could a hospital help them?" I asked.
"Not really. These are magical wounds, well, not Dawn's. She's just hurt with liquid no one knows how to treat except for a dead old lady who's probably seeking vengeance against us as we speak." Gary replied.
"What about that demigod base you talked about." I asked.
"Maybe, but a lot of the demigods there don't like outsiders." Gary frowned.
"What do you mean? Aren't you all demigods?" I asked.
"Yeah, but demigods are assigned bases. Some are born, but are never assigned, so they're considered outsiders. Drew, Ash, Paul, Jimmy, and I are assigned, but you're not assigned, so I really wouldn't get my hopes up." Gary leaned against the tunnel.
"Well, you never know 'til you try, right?" I said with optimism.
"Yeah, sure. Let's go. By the way do you know a place to put this stupid whisker, so I don't have to carry it?" Gary said.
"Just suck it up and be a man." Paul replied. Gary opened and closed his hand rapidly while making faces and pretending to talk in a mock-ish way. Normally, I would roll my eyes, but I was too tired to do the simple movement. We started moving out to the camp with a little hope that they'd just heal Dawn and Ash.
Lisa's POV
I wondered if they were trying to get themselves killed, but that would be an understatement for the stupid thing that they just did. They're lucky I shot that paralysis arrow or they would be mourning over someone. Usually, I would be calm and nicer, but my laziness demands me to be grouchy. Stupid laziness.
I was hiding behind a large boulder the whole time. I stepped away and went to Cerberus. I climbed on top of the dog and pulled out the arrow. I started scratching his ear.
"How does that feel, buddy." I grinned. Cerberus barked happily. I jumped down with the arrow in my hand with a THUD!
"So buddy want to play fetch?" I joked, but Cerberus apparently thought I was being for real and started wagging his tail, crazily. I rolled my eyes and found a branch about average size on the ground. I picked it up and threw it. Cerberus chased it and brought it back to me. I threw it again, but I said, "I have to go, bye" first. Cerberus licked me with his extremely large tongue and chased after the stick.
I smiled and walked to the tunnel, but I was surprised when a familiar boy was there leaning on the wall with an arrogant smirk on his face.
"Oh, it's you. Weren't you tied up the last time I saw you?" I asked.
"Yeah, but you didn't hide me well enough for my brother to find me and untie me." Simon said.
"What about your guarding job?" I questioned.
"My shift's over. I decided to see what my friends were doing since they were running amuck in the Underworld causing rumors to erupt all over the Underworld. It wasn't hard to find that they were here. The queen of the Underworld was more than happy to tell me that they were here." Simon said.
"Okay, well, if you haven't noticed they're not here." I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, but then I found the nice girl who tied me up and I decided to have a little reunion with her." Simon shrugged.
"Okay, whatever, but I'm going." I sighed.
"Then I'm coming with you. I'm going to be like a leech. I don't know why you're so interested in stalking them, but they're your hobbies, right?" Simon smirked.
"Do you think I actually enjoy spying on them? It's really boring and stupid watching them do the stupid things they do." I rolled my eyes and started walking inside the tunnel. I made sure to walk stealthily, but Simon of course needed to stomp every step and 'trip' over everything while saying, "Whoops."
"Could you be any more obvious?" I shot him a pointed glare.
"I could, but I don't think you could resist ripping my head off then." Simon said innocently. I gave him a 'are you serious?' look.
"Could I just duct tape your mouth? I'd be more than happy to." I said.
"Go ahead. I'm waiting." Simon waited. I couldn't believe he actually took me serious. I shrugged and got the tape out. I ripped off a piece and taped his loud mouth.
"Hmm hmm?" He said.
"What?" I asked. He peeled off half of it and said, "Better?"
"Much, now stop talking. I have spying to do and I plan on shoving you back into Elysium when I get there." I sighed. This was going to be a very long mile.
Okay, this is an early update! Expect the next chapter tomorrow! Okay, bye! Review!
~TheDisguisedFairy~
