Chapter 3: Chariot airline is the worse

The chariot was gold and silver with two sets of benches and a small standing area for the driver. The driver had aviator sunglasses and a pilot uniform. When we first boarded, Timber didn't say anything to the pilot. I tried to greet him but he didn't say anything back. Mr. Timber and I seemed to be exhausted. We both slumped down on the bench, and we both jumped when the pilot announced, "WELCOME TO CHARIOT AIRLINES. THE ONE AND ONLY MAGICAL AVIATION TRANSPORT. PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS AND FEET INSIDE THE CHARIOT AT ALL TIMES. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL, TWO HOURS. WE WILL BE TAKING OFF SHORTLY."

After he finished speaking he whipped the reins and the pegasus started running, then they started flying. When we got into the air it wasn't what I was expecting. The cold air and wind didn't seem to affect us too much while flying. The chariot had some turbulence at first then seemed to even out with the pegasus. The city below us quickly disappeared alongside lake . Lake Erie was soon approaching us. I finally started to feel comfortable.

Mr. Timber was looking out to his left overviewing the lake, resting his head on his hand. He then looked at me worryingly, trying to find something to say. "So any more questions"? I had about a hundred questions at least. I didn't know what to ask, theres a whole new world full of Gods and monsters. "So do you know who my God parent is"?

He winced and shook his head, " No sorry, at camp you'll be claimed and well find out then. You have your dad so we know its at least a Goddess. Oh and by the way it's godly parent not God parent."

The mention of my dad brought me back to what he told me about him and my mom needing help to have me. My mom used to tell me that she and my dad had trouble getting pregnant. Now I know that they had lied to me and-. No they were just trying to protect me, they both raised and loved me, they were my real parents. The way my dad talked about it however made it seem like my godly parent could be a God or a Goddess.

I was starting to drift off asleep before I heard someone ask, "Peanuts"? From my right was a gust of wind and dust swirling, I could make out a figure and it was holding a bowl of packaged peanuts. "Oh uh thank you." I took a packet and Mr. Timber took two, then started eating the packet.

"Enjoy your flight!" the wind person said before it seemed to disappear with the bowl. "So was that a monster too?" I asked Timber who was starting his second package of peanuts.

"No, just a wind spirit." He was focused on his food but wasn't as annoyed, probably because he had something to eat now.

"Earlier you said its "part of the job ". Is this something you do regularly?"

He swallowed his last bite "Kind of, I'm supposed to be retired. A couple of years ago the Gods made a deal to claim all their demigod offspring. There was more demigods than ever that needed to be found so I came out of retirement." That would explain why he was nervous around the teenagers.

"So is Timber your real name?"

He nodded, "Bernard E. Timber is my full name but my friends call me". He then proceeded to open his mouth and what sounded like a flock of birds flying through trees came out. "But you can call me Timber if that's what you're comfortable with."

I finally was able to get some more rest as the day turned to night. " FIVE MINUTES TO LANDING" was announced from the pilot which woke me up. Below us I could see the city of New York which was my first time and the lights from it. I was in awe seeing it so close from this high up. Floosh, went something flying up past me. Floosh went something again and this time I saw it was large, white and with wings.

"Caw" came from the front bench. I looked and saw a crane about three feet tall looking at me. Then a second crane landed next to it. This one however was brown like bronze and had the outline of a gear around its eye. "Shoo" Timber said, motioning his hands telling them to go away. They listened and flew away, the pilot did not seem to notice.

After the cranes were out of view we heard more "Caws" coming from a distance. Timber and I looked around and saw nothing before I looked down out of the chariot. Below us a swarm of cranes were flying toward us and fast. "Um, sir, can you fly any faster?" I asked. The pilot made a Uh sound but just then the swarm of cranes came flying up.

Hundreds of Cranes came flying from below. White and brown blobs shooting up past us, making the chariot shake. The chariot started to shake, Timber and I took hold of the benches. The pilot in the front was struggling to calm down the horses as the birds were also disrupting them. "So monster cranes also exist"? Timber looked surprised, this guy is supposed to be retired yet he still looked confused. "As far as I can tell these are just regular cranes. I can try talking to them." Timber said. He cleared his throat and looked like he was about to give the speech of his life.

Unfortunately Timber started to shake, and so did I. The chariot was becoming unstable and started to tip over. Timber and I both fell to the side of the chariot. I grabbed the bench to my side and looked down. We were hundreds of feet in the air and I could see more cranes on the way. I tried to look to see what the pilot was doing but couldn't turn around fully. The only thing I saw was the pilot holding onto the reins like they were climbing ropes, also screaming either out of fear or anger.

The cranes finally made it to the chariot and I braced for their impact and closed my eyes, still standing on the side of the chariot. I heard the chariot start to creak and groan. I only just found out I was a demigod and I was going to die to a swarm of birds. I tried to think of anything, there was that flight attendant wind spirit. Then I remembered that this was supposed to be a short flight. I never flew before but I figured she wasn't going to be back near the end of the flight. I've seen movies where there's a flight attendant button to have them come to you. I slowly opened my eyes to look around, nothing good, actually there was just nothing in the chariot.

The birds started to become worse and we tipped over completely. My fingers started to become numb and slippery and the worse happened. I started to fall, luckily Timber grabbed my hand. For being retired this guy knew how to handle his half-bloods. I looked down once more, we were luckily getting closer to the ground. Were probably about ten feet from the tallest pine trees, which seemed to still be hundreds of feet in the air.

"Hey Adin I know what i'm about to do seems crazy but I need you to trust me" Timber sounded stressed. This guy was holding onto me hundreds of feet in the air, he had all my trust in this moment. "Do it". I shouted. I expected him to do something magical, maybe grow a pair of wings or something. Nope, he let go of his grip and we went tumbling to the earth.

The fall at first seemed to take forever. Then we hit the trees, pine needles stabbed into me and stung like crazy. Then the tree branches started to hit. It happened so fast but I could tell I definitely broke something. In a split second I saw something and realized we were falling toward a lake. We were tumbling along the trees using the speed from the chariot ride.

Finally after some tree branches breaking the lake came fully into view and we splashed. I sunk into the water, the adrenaline masked the pain at first from the tree branches. Then after floating under the water for a second I tried to swim up, no luck I was in too much pain to move. I needed air but couldn't move. I don't know how long I was underwater for, but then everything went hazy and then dark.

When I came to I saw the sky, the stars shining overhead with clouds visible. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw two teens with orange shirts pulling my arms across what felt like sand. The pain eventually came back as well and I couldn't speak, only groaned. While gazing up to the sky a new figure came into view. This figure seemed to be middle-aged with long brown hair, he had a suit on that made him seem like he was getting ready for a business meeting. Then the weird happened and I looked down and saw that his lower body was a horse. I know some mythology as mentioned before and I recognized him as a centaur.

He knelt down in an awkward manner due to his body and pulled out a flask. He started to pour the liquid inside into my mouth, it tasted like a coca-cola float, both creamy and flavorful from the spices in the soda. The pain slowly went away and while laying down I tried to recollect myself before the centaur motioned to stay down. "Rest now you're safe, welcome to Camp-Halfblood".