Chapter 7: The Snake
We boarded the bus with caution. Being around mortals was the last thing we wanted to do but we figured that given our circumstances there wasn't a better way south. I gave the driver what little money I had. He gave us a quizzical look but didn't say anything. Before we had gotten on the bus we ransacked a small retail store for some new clothes that weren't cut up. That way we would be able to blend in a bit more an not attract any unnecessary attention. Thalia, like usual, grabbed some black jeans and a black winter jacket with a black beanie. I just grabbed some normal jeans and a sea green winter jacket.
It was a newer bus. It was pretty spacious and the heater felt really nice after being out in the cold. There were quite a bit of passengers but we were able to find a spot away from most of them. We sat near the very back of the bus right next to an emergency exit window. My last experience with buses had taught me to always be close to an exit just in case any monsters appeared.
From the garden emporium we had made our way to this little sized city, whatever it was called. It took most of the day and by the time we arrived the sun was already starting to set. We were able to find this night bus that was heading towards Richmond from a newspaper ad and made our way to the small bus terminal. Thalia really liked the idea of traveling by night and she thought it was the safest way. The bus wouldn't take us right to Richmond but it'd get us pretty close.
The bus hissed and then lurched forward. After a few moments most of the lights went out and it was really dark. I could still see Thalia's face dimly illuminated by the emergency light. I gazed out the window and looked at our surroundings. We were just leaving the city. Street lights quickly turned into trees. Buildings faded and were replaced with subtle black hills. There were some hushed conversations going on throughout the bus. But the loudest sounds were when we would hit a bump in the road that would shake the bus like a tin can.
Out of the periphery of my eye sight I saw Thalia turn her head to look at me. I turned to meet her. She looked comfy and relaxed, a great change from the past couple nights. She was slouched in her seat so that her knees rested on the back of the seat in front of her. Her arms were folded on her lap. A smile crept from her mouth when our eyes interlocked.
"I was just thinking of the time when Annabeth and I were on the run. At this point she was probably only 7 still, maybe 8. We had been having a rough couple weeks. We found out that the city we were in at the time had a museum of art and architecture. Things like that. When she found out about it she would not stop asking us if we could go and visit. We finally ended up taking her and you would have thought she was in heaven. Even to this day she'll sometimes talk about all the cool things she saw with me. I think that really helped her during that hard time in her life."
Hearing that little story about Annabeth made me think of her. Think of all the adventures we had shared. "When Annabeth and I were in the Sea of Monsters she really started to open up to me. I think before that she still had her doubts about me. While we were on that old ship we'd talk about where we wanted to be in the future. What our hopes were. Stuff like that. I think it was on that quest that I first started to grow to like her, even if I didn't really know it myself." We were both quiet after that. The bus hit another bump and the whole interior shook. I broke the silence. "Annabeth means a lot to you?"
"You have no idea, Percy. The love I have for her. When I don't see her as my sister sometimes I feel as if she's my own daughter. I mean, I was young when I met her, but Annabeth? She was so little. How couldn't I help her and want the very best for her?"
As Thalia finished the last sentence she began staring blankly at the seat in front of her. It was hard to see in the dim light but her face showed signs of guilt. Or was that just sadness? We were quiet for a few moments. I didn't know what to say or what was going on in Thalia's mind. I was kinda scared to ask.
"Could you tell me again what Athena told you when you met her in the forest?"
"Umm... I hope you die? You can never trust a descendant of Poseidon? You're an awful person?"
She shook her head. "No no, the part about loving Annabeth."
"I love my daughter more than I hate you?"
"Yeah that." She was in pensive thought. She unfolded her arms and put one of her hands on her chin. "You know, I think sometimes we're quick to give the gods a bad rap. Oftentimes they are able to do what we can't. I bet if any other human were in Athena's position they would have lashed out at you and taken revenge instead of helping you. That takes a lot of willpower."
"She is the goddess of wisdom."
Thalia shot me a pair of evil eyes. I thought I could see flashes of lightning in them.
"You get what I'm saying."
I nodded in agreement. She did have a point. Thalia's eyes were soft when we made eye contact again. Just like our conversation on the beach, her eyes are filled with longing; as if she wanted to say something. Her eyes darted away from mine.
"Percy, I'm just going to tell you how it is. I mean, you already know most of it anyways, but it helps saying it. I want to help Annabeth. I'm so worried for her. Like deathly worried. I need to know she is okay and get to her before anything bad happens. But I also know you feel the exact same way and that we're doing this together. But the longer I'm with you the harder it is to not fall for you even more. And I'm worried by the time we get to her we'll love each other more than Annabeth. And I don't want that. I don't want to do that to her. I wish I could say something similar to Athena that I love Annabeth more than I love you. But I don't think I can. I can't control how I feel. I want you Percy, but I'm afraid of what it will cost in the end."
Thalia's words hit me like a train. I looked back out the window away from Thalia. I couldn't look at her right then. What she had said was too true. That was pretty much exactly how I was feeling, even if it was to a lesser degree. What would happen once we got to Annabeth? We had been so preoccupied giving each other goo goo eyes that we'd forgotten the whole reason why we were together in the first place. We were both silent for a long time. The gravity of our circumstances weighed heavily on us. Rain started pattering against the window.
"What do we do then? Should we split up?"
"No. Don't be ridiculous." She sounded a little hurt.
I shrugged. This topic was too heavy for me; I decided to drop it. Coming up with a solution seemed near impossible. Things would probably end in a disaster. Annabeth would get hurt. I would feel bad. Thalia would feel bad. We would all feel bad. Great.
The rain was getting louder and louder, heavier and heavier. The bright moon was completely covered from the overcast clouds. We sat in awkward silence for a lot longer than I would have liked. I thought about starting some small talk, but it just didn't feel right. Thalia wouldn't look at me. I didn't really look at her either. We both knew what we were feeling. Guilt. What had Aphrodite said? I always love a good love triangle. They are so entertaining. The more I thought about it the more angry I became. Although I couldn't prove it, I started to think that the goddess of love played a bigger role in all this than I had originally thought.
Before I could think about it any more our bus came to an abrupt halt. We quickly looked at each other, immediately forgetting our previous conversation and its implications. Thalia sat up in her chair. She nervously tapped her bracelet shield. I looked out the window to find out why we had stopped.
"Maybe we ran out of gas?" Thalia offered. We both knew we didn't. The driver had essentially slammed on his brakes. The other passengers in the bus had stopped their conversations. It was dead quiet.
"Why'd we stop?" One passenger finally yelled out to the driver.
"There's this huge tree in the road!" He replied. "It must have fallen during the storm or something."
I gulped. Knowing our luck it probably wasn't a tree. It was probably something big, angry and looking for a demigod snack. Our demigod instincts and training immediately kicked in.
"I've seen the mist do some weird stuff, but if the driver thinks its a tree then whatever it is it has to be pretty big." Thalia started.
"We need to get out of here. Do we go out the emergency window or the front exit?"
"I don't know. I'm not too excited to get wet in the freezing rain." We slung our bags over our shoulders as we prepared to move. Something hit the bus, causing it to teeter on its right two wheels for a moment. The passengers cried out.
"Emergency exit." We nodded in agreement.
I slid the window up and was greeted with a slew of rain and wind. I wasn't even halfway out the window before I was almost completely wet. The passengers protested in confusion and got angry at us when they saw us slide out. Little did they know we were actually saving their lives.
Our feet touched the ground. It was dark out. I could see that we were on a small two lane road. The road was windy and surrounded by trees. The perfect place for another ambush. I pulled out my sword and Thalia got out her shield and spear. We cautiously walked towards the front of the bus. The headlights pierced the storm and illuminated the road in front. There wasn't any tree knocked over. There wasn't anything.
"We should have stayed on." I said.
"Like that would have done anything. We're going to have to face this thing no matter where we go."
"Do you think the bus would leave us here?"
Thalia was about to reply when we heard an awful hissing sound coming from the forest next to the road we were on. It sounded deep and powerful. I squinted at where the sound was coming from. I couldn't be sure but I thought I saw two green orbs floating for a split second before they disappeared in the dark forest.
"There's no way the gorgons could be back already." Thalia said.
I tried to think of Greek mythology monsters but nothing came to mind. My heart started racing faster and faster. I tightened my grip on Riptide. I listened to find out where the monster was at but I could only hear the steady rainfall against the road.
We heard the hissing sound again. This time a lot closer. It got louder and louder. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the monster emerge from the forest.
It was hard to see it at first. The monster slithered from the forest onto the paved the road. The headlights from the bus revealed a snake. A giant snake. At least 30 yards long and as thick as a tree. It's skin was dark green. When it hissed and opened its mouth I saw giant fangs that were ready to bite two unfortunate demigods. It had fierce green eyes that were filled with cunning and malice. The bus driver must have thought it was a falling tree or something because he quickly backed the bus up. In the confusion he drove the bus around the snake and headed off down the road leaving Thalia and I behind.
"We can't catch a break." Was all Thalia said.
With the bus gone the snake turned its complete attention towards us. We slowly backed up as it attempted to come close to us. It was definitely taking its time as if we were no competition.
"What the heck is that?" I muttered to Thalia trying not to attract any more attention to ourselves. "Why are you so pale?"
"It's Python. Son of Gaia. Guardian of the Oracle of Delphi. Do you know how screwed we are, Percy?"
If I wasn't scared before I was now. The monster continued to gradually advance towards us as we slowly moved back on the road.
"How come I've never heard anything about Python?"
"It's one of the less popular monsters. There are a lot of different depictions of it. Some show it being the size of a football field, others show it having arms and legs. We should consider ourselves lucky it isn't bigger than what it is."
"We can take it." I said with false confidence.
"Are you kidding? Python was only killed once and that was by Apollo. A god! What chance do we have?"
"You forget that I've fought titans and gods before. We don't really have much of a choice."
Thalia looked exasperated. "Fine. Here's the plan, You go -"
Python must have lost interest in stalking us. Thalia had to dive as far as she could to the left to avoid not getting eaten alive. Python had covered such a vast distance in such a short time, unlike anything I had ever seen before. Maybe Thalia was right, we were screwed. I tried to take a swing at Python while it was focused on Thalia but it must have seen it coming and used his head as a club to send me flying into a nearby tree away from where Thalia had dove for her life. If we had any chance of killing this thing we needed to be close together. I shook off the impact and rushed over to where Thalia was engaging Python on the road. Thalia had managed to give a few jabs at the giant snake but I could tell it was only annoying him rather than doing any actual damage. The storm was raging even more. I had a hard time hearing because the wind and rain were so loud.
Python had backed Thalia up against a large tree. The monster lifted its upper half as if poised to strike. He towered over Thalia. The size difference was mind boggling. It looked as if Thalia was snake size and Python was human size. Thalia looked uneasy but ready at the same time. When Python lunged at Thalia, she dove out of the way at the last second. Instead of getting a mouth full of demigod the monster got a mouthful of tree and hopefully (probably not) a concussion.
"New plan!" Thalia yelled as she got up as quickly as possible and passed by me, booking it down the road. "Run!"
I didn't wait to follow. Python was shaking off his collision with the tree. I turned and followed Thalia. I had never ran faster in my entire life. My footsteps pounded against the pavement as loud as the rain fell or as much as my heart was beating. I was just a few feet behind Thalia. Neither of us looked back, we were too afraid. It was only after a couple minutes that Thalia dared to look back. She started slowing down immediately after. We were out of breath when we stopped. Thalia was bending over on her knees. Python was no where in sight. The cold rain was quickly wearing us down. And sprinting at one hundred percent for a couple minutes definitely added to our fatigue. It was dark everywhere we looked. We had lost our bearings. We had no idea where we were at.
"It has to be close." I said between breaths. "Do you remember any of its weaknesses from the myth?"
"I don't. Its not a common myth. Fire maybe?"
"I don't think we'll have much of that here."
Thalia glared at me unamused. We were scanning our surroundings when we heard the gods awful hissing sound over the sound of the heavy rain. Thalia froze in fear. There's not a lot of things scarier than being chased by a giant snake in a dark stormy forest.
"We have to keep moving!" I grabbed Thalia's hand. She snapped out of her trance and we began running again.
"Its just trying to wear us down." Thalia said defeatedly as we ran along the side of the road. "We can't outrun a giant snake."
"Then we have to fight it!"
"How? I was able to stab it a couple times and it didn't even leave a scratch. The skin is too thick."
I tried to concentrate. I focused on my hand holding Thalia's, on the weight of Riptide in my other hand, the sound of the rain. I listened more closely to the steady beating of the colliding against the ground. It definitely sounded loud. But as I focused more and more on the sound the more I realized it wasn't just the rain. I heard the sound of rushing water to the right of the road, straight into the thick forest.
"Do you hear the river!?" I shouted over the storm as we continued running.
"No. I just hear rain and hissing!"
"Do you trust me?"
"With my life!"
"I hear a river, a powerful one in the forest. Maybe if we get to it I can be able to kill the monster."
Thalia nodded and we abruptly turned straight into the forest. It was thicker than I had anticipated. We had to continuously weave in and out to avoid running into trees and bushes. Behind us I heard the sound of trees being uprooted and scales moving against the forest floor. I started to doubt if we would make it to the river in time. If there even was one. I could feel the monster gaining on us.
With not a second to spare we splashed into the wide, roaring river. As soon as we turned around the giant snake was in the clearing poised to strike at us. I barely had enough time to think before it lunged right at us. Instincts took over and I willed the mighty river to intercept the monsters attack. The water diverted his attack so that his face landed in the river a couple feet away from where Thalia and I were standing. It was just enough to stop his fangs from impaling me. While it was in the river I did my best to drown the monster. The water started rushing over the giant snake first covering its head and then its body. It resisted as much as it could and it required all my power to contain Python. Just a few more seconds. I thought. I had neglected to emerge the entire monster in the river. Python's giant tail lifted up and swung at me like I was a baseball. I was unable to deflect the blow and went flying across the river, landing on the muddy bank.
Thalia attempted to take what little advantage of the monsters slightly weakened state while she had a chance. She rushed in and began stabbing and strafing around Python. The water slowed Thalia down while it made the monster more versatile. It wasn't long before Thalia was flown across the river and landed right next to me. She grunted in pain.
"If you or I get flung around one more time by a reptilian monster I'm going to lose it." She muttered as she tried to get back up on her feet.
I stepped into the river again. The monster quickly realized that the water was my greatest strength and only hope at killing him. He gave another swing of his tail to try to knock me out of the river but I jumped out of the way. Python was getting impatient.
I remembered the last two time Python had lunged at us his mouth was wide open. If I could time it right, I could stab Riptide in his mouth. I figured the inside of his mouth was the weakest part and it was the best chance I had. Python wasn't drowning any time soon.
I positioned myself in the middle of the river. Python was circling around me trying to find a potential weak spot. He poised himself up again preparing to strike. Okay, stop his lunge with the water and then stab. I had to time it right. Stopping him too soon and he would be too far away to stab. Too late and I would become a midnight snack. I let out a deep breath as the enormous snake hurtled toward me.
I willed the water to rush up and stabbed upward with my sword at the same time. Python hissed in pain and recoiled back. Because my hand had been inside his mouth some of the venom dripped down onto my arm. I recoiled back almost as quick as Python and dumped my hand into the river. But it was over. I looked over and saw the monster writhing in pain. I was expecting it to turn to dust any second now. But one second turned into five, and then ten. And the giant snake didn't turn to dust. I swear its eyes turned from a reptilian green to an evil red. The snake once again towered over me. I hadn't come close to killing it. Not even close. Thalia was right. I wasn't a god. There was no way we could kill this thing.
It let out a powerful and awful hiss that forced me to cover my ears. I was still in the water but I turned to run. Thalia was nowhere to be seen in the powerful storm that was raging on. I scanned my eyes around the area but lost focus when the distant dark trees turned upside down and right side up several times and my body seared with pain. Python had slammed me with his tail. If I hadn't dipped in the river Styx I would have been dead for sure. I went flying and landed right next to the river about hundred feet downstream. I was just a few feet from the river but I knew it wouldn't matter.
Python approached me with a speed that belied his size. I winced and braced for impact.
Before he could get any closer I heard a earth shattering BOOM! An enormous, powerful bolt of lightning shot down from the dark clouds and drove the monstrous snake to impact the river, making the largest splash I had ever seen. Python wailed in pain that made my mouth stab sound like a whisper. I looked over to my left and saw Thalia off standing majestically with both of her hands outstretched. Her entire eyes pierced the dark night with an electrifying bright blue glow. Sparks were coming out of her outstretched hands and then relayed up and down her entire body. Wind rustled all around her; her hair was dancing in her personal storm. She smelled heavily of ozone. Python rose again from the river but Thalia sent another giant lighting bolt aimed right at the monsters head.
"I said if we got flung around one more time I'd lose it!" She screamed at the monster and sent two more lightning bolts immediately crashing down on him before he could recover from the last strike. The sound was so loud my ears began ringing. It was as if a volcano had erupted right next to me. Python stopped moving but Thalia sent three more bolts down on him just to make sure he was actually dead.
Python's enormous body faded and turned to dust. Its remained washed down the river and disappeared. Thalia made her way towards me but collapsed halfway. I rushed to her side.
"I'm okay. That just... took a lot out of me."
"That was amazing! You saved my life. Again."
"You would have done the same for me."
"Can you walk?"
"Just as good as you can."
"Good, lets find some shelter and get out of this storm."
I extended my hand to Thalia and helped her up. We embraced and then put our arms around each other's shoulder as we trudged and staggered through the fierce rain looking to find refuge.
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Percy and Thalia are definitely realizing how tricky their situation is! Have you ever been in a love triangle or something similar? Sounds pretty awful tbh. I wonder how Annabeth is going to react when she finds out. And whats up with all these monster attacks? Something isn't right... Anyways, if you get a moment let me know what you think! If you are interested to see where the story goes from here make sure to follow! Have a great day!