Chapter 8

Thalia's POV

I turned to look at Luke. We had arrived and were waiting for Percy to appear. Luke was holding his chest gasping for air. We had decided to run the last two miles. Luke was not used or cut out for this running. The two hunters were looking at him slightly disappointed at Luke. I looked around. There was a gate in front of us. Behind that there was a beautiful garden with a huge tree in it. The dragon called Ladon, that Zoe had told us about must have been hidden. Probably some magic conjured up by the Hesperidites.

There was a thump behind us. we all whipped round and watched in horror as the huge Talos, was striding towards us.

"Percy." Luke said. We split up and started to get ready to fight it. The Talos raised his arm as if to strike at Luke. We were frozen in shock.

Then the huge Automaton put up his thumb and gave us the thumbs up. There was a bang and a hatch opened up. Percy stepped out of the chest and was followed by Nemea the lioness cub. They landed on the floor.

"You miss me?" he said jokingly.

"Hello Perseus." Zoe said.

He smiled, "Onwards then."

"Yes follow me." Zoe said. She walked off and we followed her.

Percy's POV

I drew my swords and walked after her. I wanted to keep on guard. I did not want to have to fight Ladon if I could help it but if it was necessary I would. We stepped through the gate and Zoe tensed up. I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She tensed even more briefly, but then she realised that there was no menace in the touch, that it was just to comfort her. Four women walked out of the mist in front of us.

"Hello sisters." Zoe said.

"We see no sister here. We just see five demigods."

I put up my hand, "I am not an immortal not a demigod."

They looked at me surprised. "No matter. You need to leave the garden now or you will feel the wrath of Ladon."

"He will not attack us with me here." Zoe said assuredly.

The four sisters disappeared from in front of us and we heard a roar. "Damn." Zoe said.

There was a shadow coming out of the fading mist. "Scatter" I yelled.

We all ran in different directions. There was a smash were we had just been. A head flew towards me. One of Ladon's hundred heads. I slashed at it and it fell to the floor. His heads were attacking all of us at once if the sounds of hissing and metal sliding through flesh were anything to go by. I slashed at some more heads that were appearing. I came up to Zoe. Once I had come up behind her I touched her shoulder. She jumped round in shock. When she realised that it was me, she calmed a little.

"I am not part of this quest you four demigods are. I am only here because I bent the rules a little. You take the others and I will fight Ladon." She looked at me, "You need to keep going to save your mistress. You will need to fight your father and whoever else is there. Get the others and you will be fine." She looked at me as if judging her options. "GO." She jogged off to find the others.

Thalia

When Zoe found me she had already collected the others. We walked away from Ladon feeling a little guilty that we had left Percy to fight Ladon. We made sure that we kept up a decent pace so Ladon did not try to follow us. we heard hissing and the sound of metal slicing through flesh and bone. We then heard a roar of pain from Ladon.

When we had gone further up the path we heard a sliding of metal out of a sheath. We turned to see the eight sparti coming towards us with their weapons drawn. We drew our weapons and faced them. They came at us faster than we thought was possible for skeletons. I just managed to block the blow of one with my shield. I managed to duck under the blow from the other and then I jabbed through his ribcage with my spear. I hit the other one with my shield and it flew back. One of them looked down at the spear poking through his body and the other put his legs back on and got up. In the few seconds of respite I had I looked around to see the others managing to hold them off. We would not be able to do it for ever. I saw Luke behead ne only to have it put it's head back on. I faced the two who were once again coming towards me.

Percy's POV

After I sent off Zoe and the others all of the remaining head were focused of me. I went forward my sword a blur of celestial bronze. I sliced the first one that came at me. I drew my second sword and swept in a circle mauling a few more heads. I then jumped up avoiding one that was going for my feet. I landed and stabbed down at it. It dissolved just as all of the other heads had done. I sliced at a few more but missed one. It shot forward and hit me on the shoulder. I cried out in pain. I then got angry. I yelled and sea water came from nowhere. It hit the monster hard sweeping it's legs from under it. It crashed to the floor as water pooled around it swirling like a whirl pool. It hissed and roared trying to get out from the mass of water that was surrounding it. I suddenly felt a resistance and I saw the Hesperidites. They were daughter of Pleione and she was a sea goddess. They had significant power over the water and my whirl pool started to slow. The resistance was slowly increasing as they were putting all of their effort into stopping the whirl pool from drowning the guardian of the tree. The water's rotation slowed so much that Ladon was about to jump out. I increased the amount of power he applied to keeping it going. It increased in speed so much that it started to lift off the floor carrying Ladon with it. I then created it so that it was a ball of swirling water surrounding the monster. It then crashed to the floor in a mixture of monster dust, blood and water. The Hesperidites looked at me in shock. I did a mocking bow and walked off towards Mt Othrys.