The next day we had to get off the train because our tickets only got us as far as St. Louis. Leo, Grover and I stood staring up at the big city, the famous arch in the distance.
"Wow," Leo breathed. "Imagine the engineering that went into that thing".
"Yes, very interesting. Can we move on now?" Grover shifted from one fake foot to the other nervously, as if remembering bad times from that arch.
"Well we're not here to admire arches," I said. "We're here only to be passing through. Come on". I had to drag Leo away by the sleeve.
"Why can't we see it?" Leo asked.
I looked at him. He was giving me this misty eyed little kid pout, like a cross between a heartbroken toddler and a poor lost puppy. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Fine. But only for a minute".
"Yay!" he said, and started running towards the arch. "Muy Bien!"
I looked at Grover, who shrugged. I rolled my eyes again and sprinted after Leo.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
"Can you believe it?" Leo asked, looking over his Spanish copy of the itinerary for the St. Louis arch. "The arch is made of nine hundred tons of stainless steel! That's seventeen thousand, two hundred and forty six tons in weight!"
"Amazing," I said, trying to formulate the alphabet soup that was the English version of the itinerary. I finally gave up and stuffed the brochure in the back pocket of my jean shorts. We were near the elevator to go up to the top of the arch.
Grover was looking around nervously, sniffing the air and bleating.
I leaned in and whispered, "Smell any monsters?"
Grover jumped, startled. Then he said, "Not yet, but I still have a bad feeling about this".
"Just keep your nose open," I said understandingly. "But try to enjoy it, ok? It's not every day you get to go cross-country".
Grover snorted but said nothing.
I had to admit I was impressed by the famous arch. I couldn't believe that someone could make something so big and grand. It also amused me how elated Leo was. He acted like a little kid on Christmas; wide eyes and the biggest grin I had ever seen on his face. His eyes sparkled with a light that reminded me of a five year old at Disney world.
We boarded the elevator to ride up to the top of the arch, Grover seeming even more nervous, Leo jumping up and down, me trying my hardest not to whip out my dagger and prod at the many humans that were all crammed in the tiny elevator to give me some personal space. When we finally reached the top my jaw dropped. "Woah".
Before me, out of the floor-to-ceiling window, lay the incredible landscape of St. Louis. Large buildings and streets, ant-sized people, and cars that looked like toy Hot Wheels. All with a glittering river flowing through it. It was beautiful.
"Wow," Leo breathed, leaning against the glass. He seemed at a loss for words, for once.
"Kid," said a voice. A security guard tapped Leo's shoulder, and Leo broke away from the window. "No touching the glass". She had a voice of ice.
"Oh, sorry," Leo said, backing away a few steps. "It's just…wow, that's a view".
"Yeah, yeah," she said passively, as if she saw it every day. "Just stay out of trouble. Not too long ago some stupid kid managed to blow a hole in the floor, fell though".
My eyes widened. "What happened to him?"
The guard shrugged. "Died probably". She walked on, telling more people not to touch her precious glass window.
"Why are you scowling like that?" Leo asked.
"Hm? Oh, I just don't see how touching the glass—" I streaked my hand across the window for emphasis, leaving a mark "has anything to do with blowing a hole through the floor and falling to our deaths".
Leo raised an eyebrow but laughed anyway.
"Crazy though huh?" I asked. "You think she was telling the truth about that kid?"
"Well one can never know," Grover said sarcastically, then leaned in and whispered something in my ear.
My eyes widened. "No way. Did he?"
Grover nodded.
I laughed. "Man, he can't go anywhere without making some huge fiasco, can he?"
Grover and Leo joined in laughing, and soon we were all guffawing all the way down the elevator back to ground level.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
On the way out the door, Leo wanted to stop in the gift shop.
"Leo, you do know that we need to save our money for emergencies," I said.
"I just want to have a look around," he said. "Maybe find a t-shirt or something".
"You forgot to pack an extra shirt, didn't you," I said.
Leo smiled sheepishly.
I hated gift shops. They were all full of cliché merchandise that took away from the awesomeness of the main attraction. I waded through mobs of people with cheesy t-shirts, coffee mugs, and fish tank decorations. While Leo and Grover were looking at all the "cool stuff" I decided to have a little fun. I looked around for my victim, when I spotted two strange men in black suits. They looked impeccable in their crisp suits and fedoras and sunglasses. But the oddest thing about them was their enormous size thirty feet. They all stood whispering in a corner, probably talking about business matters, but why in a gift shop I had no idea. I looked on the shelf I was hiding behind and saw a line of snow globes, the St. Louis arch in winter I suppose. Snow globes…
I knelt and unzipped my enchanted backpack. I got out the materials I needed and set to work.
*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*
I stood just out of eye range of the strange huge footed men. There were about half a dozen of them, all huddled in a circle. I chuckled. This is gonna be good…
I braced myself and pulled the rope. An avalanche of flour rained down on the men, sending the whole tiny, overcrowded gift shop up in a white fog. I let loose and laughed hysterically, pulling out a water gun and squirted it at what I thought was the group of strange men, though it was too cloudy to be sure. When the smoke cleared, I stuffed my water gun back in my backpack so no one could pin it on me. I looked at my victory. The men in now filthy suits were spluttering, trying to comprehend what had just happened. I stood there laughing.
"You," said one of the men. He pointed a finger at me and I stopped laughing. The look in his eyes was beyond mad. It was pure evil. "You nasty little pixie. Come here, so we may kill you for disturbing our peace!"
I gulped and ran. I found Grover and Leo with flour dust all over them.
"Jo!" Leo scolded. "Do the words 'low profile' enter your mind?"
"Sorry?" I said sheepishly. "But now's not the time to worry about that".
"Roar!" shouted someone behind me.
"Jo," Grover said, sniffing the air. He sneezed and said, "Did you anger a monster?"
"Um," I said, biting my lip, "Maybe?"
"Garrrr!" a huge-footed man stepped out of the white fog. He was followed by the rest, who glowered down at the trio with hatred. "Demigods," said the first with distaste. "You thought you could prank the skaipods and get away with it, did you?"
"The what now?" I said.
The men growled. Then things got weird, as they often do in the magical world. The men started shrinking until they were only three and a half feet tall. They tore off one of their legs, and I was horrified until I realized it was synthetic. If possible, the one real foot they each had grew even bigger, to the length of two skateboards.
"They're—they're—" I stammered.
"Haha, yes. You remember us little prankster," said the first dwarf. "We are the skaipods, usually peaceful dwarfs of the country. But now you have disturbed us, and you will pay! I am Sefo, leader of my brothers, and your captor!"
"Um, I'm not sure what you mean by remember because I've never heard of you—wait, I take that back. I think I remember Annabeth saying something about vertically challenged one-footed people, but…"
"Gah! Enough with your nonsense talk, mischievous one! We will lock you and your friends in our cages for all eternity!" I was about to do something, but all of the sudden the dwarf jumped and kicked me square in the face. I let out an oof and I blacked out.
So there's chapter 22! Just so ya know, muy bien means very well.