"What in Hades...?" Leo glared at the stowaways. "How did you get in my car?!"
Nico sighed. He might have guessed that if anyone had chosen to sneak onto this quest, it would be these two.
"Calm down, Leo. It's just Badger," he pointed at the boy, "and Snake."
"We came to help Nico!" Badger piped up, and Snake nodded vigorously.
Leo shot him a look that clearly said, Now what?
He shrugged. "They can come if they want." He addressed the siblings. "It'll be dangerous though. And you have to do exactly what I say. Agreed?"
"Woah, wait a second," Leo butted in, "why are you in charge?"
"Because, Flame Head, it's my quest. And even if it wasn't, you forfeited all rights to leadership when you told me I was doing it for the wrong reasons." He wasn't going to forgive the Latino that easily...
"What do you mean, dangerous?" Asked Badger, but Snake spoke immediately.
"Count me in!"
The siblings started bickering. Leo raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes to the open sun roof in an overly exaggerated gesture, causing a very faint half-smile to appear on Nico's lips. "Our army has swelled in ranks, General Nico. We now number over three!"
Nico punched him on the arm.
XxX
The Find-The-Kettle-Monster-O-Matic led them further and further north, then west, then north again. The 'car' (tank, whatever) must have been enchanted, Nico thought.
The fact that it flew was a dead giveaway.
Not only did it take off and fly just beneath the clouds, but it went so fast that what little land they could see went by in a blur. Soon, they had passed over into Canada, then into Alaska. They were beyond the help of the gods now.
Snake loved the speed of the 'car'; sticking her head out of the window to feel the wind whipping past her face, she would call out to any birds she could hear. Once, Nico had had to pull her back inside when a thing the size of a lion with razor sharp teeth and talons took a swipe at them, other than that, they met nothing larger than an eagle.
Badger, however, was Snake's complete opposite. Almost as soon as they took off, his face went a sickly shade of green, and it stayed that way for the entire time.
Nico did not love the vehicle the way Leo clearly did, but he did not hate it either.
It was just a means to an end.
They finally landed on a stretch of cliff by a steel grey, stormy sea. There was a sharp bite in the wind, and a layer of frost crunched under their feet. Nico was glad for the coats they had brought, but his ears and fingers still went red, and numb.
There was nothing alive nor dead anywhere in sight.
"I think your machine broke, Flame Head!" The wind snatched his words away from him, and he only barely heard the Latino's reply.
"It's over the sea!"
"So why are we here?"
"The car won't travel over the sea! We'd need a boat or something!"
Shaking his head, Nico trudged back to the car. Leo followed closely at his heels.
"Doesn't this thing-"
"It's a car, man! Not a thing!"
"I think it's the best car ever," enthused Snake. Her silver hair was messy and tangled from being hung our of the 'car' as they flew.
"Why thank you, Princess." Leo pretended to bow to her.
"I SAID," interrupted Nico, "doesn't this thing turn into a boat?"
Badger groaned from the back seat.
"Don't be stupid, of course not! We'd need to be able to walk over the top of the surface!"
"Are you sure your... find-y device works properly, Leo? It wouldn't be the first time it sends us to completely the wrong place..."
"I told you! Rio was a mistake, and that thing was a prototype! Of course it went wrong!"
"Isn't this also a prototype?"
"Look, the monster is a few miles out, in the middle of that ocean. If you want to get it, you'll need a new plan."
Leo folded his arms and set his jaw.
No help there.
This time, Nico walked straight to the edge of the cliff and looked directly down. The white foam looked half way to being ice already, and the spray froze when it hit his cheeks. Five creatures sat on rocks about a third of the way up the rockface.
They were pure white, with each feathery wing the size of a surf board (Will had tried to teach him to surf. It had ended badly.), and sleek, feline bodies. Tails the length of Nico's whole body flicked mesmerisingly in the gale, and their faces, though humanoid, were covered in a fine dusting of white fur too. Their yellow eyes were cold slits, with vertical pupils.
"Who're you?" Nico yelled.
They jerked their heads up towards him and batted the air with their paws. Their claws looked sharp enough to cut diamond.
Then the one in the centre opened her mouth to reveal needle-like teeth. "We are the guardians. What do you seek?"
He tried to hide the tremble in his voice. "I would see the Ehtel."
The one on the far left spoke next. "What for, little hero?"
"To kill it and take it's blood."
The guardians burst into a high, screeching laughter. When they had calmed down enough, the one in between the first speaker and the one on the right replied.
"The Ethel would make mincemeat out of you. And before you can even reach it, you must first walk over water."
"And defeat us!" The second speaker crowed. "When united, nothing can best us!"
The one on the far right dismissed him with a haughty flick of her long tail. "Begone, little hero."
Nico all but sprinted back to the others.
He would never admit it to anyone, but the Guardians did what few monsters could.
They scare me.
A/N I'm gradually coming to a conclusion here...
Your reviews make my life brighter!
~Fi