Anxious could not have properly described the way Snotlout was feeling. He kept watching more monsters arrive at the meeting. A few licked their lips hungrily at the prisoners, but no one dared attack them again. They all knew who would receive that meal. Snotlout just wished they would hurry. If it took much longer, Hiccup and Dagur would come, then scare off everyone before the leader's arrival.

"I guess monsters don't care about being on time," Snotlout mumbled.

"I think the last ones are finally showing up," Atalanta said, trying to peek around a centaur who blocked most of her view.

The sounds of footsteps went silent. In fact, everything went silent. Then there was a loud sound. The ground rumbled and the warriors raised their eyes to the sky. Peering down at them was the king. Snotlout's jaw dropped and his eyes widened.

"H-how'd he do that?" he asked. "He just appeared out of nowhere!"

Atalanta had no answers for him. Her eyes were just as wide. The giant king looked away from the duo, then at his subjects. They were bowing and gesturing to the prisoners.

"We have brought you an offering, my king," another giant informed him.

Eurymedon looked back down as his eyes narrowed. "Heracles."

Snotlout suddenly grinned. "Hey, you know who I am!"

"I do. Your death has been long overdue."

The boy's smile faded. "Oh."

Turning back to the others, the king pointed at Atalanta. "Who's she?"

"We don't know, but she was spying on us."

One satyr hesitantly spoke up. "They were going to eat the mortals, Sire, but I stopped them."

Instantly, the group glared at the liar. Eurymedon did not care and simply glared at the warriors.

"Where's the other mortal?"

"We don't know," a minotaur reluctantly admitted.

He tried to not shy away from the harsh gaze of the king. At least it did not remain on him for long. Eurymedon reached down, grabbing the cage. It had bones on the bottom as well. They allowed Eurymedon to lift the trap, shaking it in his hands. The warriors stumbled and bumped into each other.

"Where's Daedalus?" the king questioned.

"What's the matter? Scared to fight me?" Snotlout retorted, trying to not look dizzy. "Why do you care if we die or not anyway?"

"You both have the potential to cause problems. Soon, all the heroes of Greece will be slain. I don't leave loose ends."

"How'd you even know who we were?" Gradually, realization dawned on Snotlout. "Are you the one Sisyphus was talking to?"

The giant silently scowled at him.

"We know you're up to something," Atalanta stated. "We won't let you hurt the immortals!"

"The time has come for a great change on Mount Olympus and the world," Eurymedon informed her. "I'm helping that change come to fruition."

"What are you trying to do?"

Eurymedon's gaze became deadly. "That's enough of your questions," he growled. "Don't delude yourself. I will kill you." His voice suddenly became gentler. "I'll do it quickly if you tell me where he is. Otherwise, I might have to see how long it takes you mortals to die."

"Good luck with that. I don't die easily," Snotlout said confidently. "I'm not telling you anything."

Angered, the king shook the cage again. Snotlout and Atalanta painfully hit their heads against the bars, getting cut by sharper ends of the bones. They tried to not think of how much this disgusted them, instead glaring at the giant. Eurymedon looked at his subjects.

"They're traveling together," he stated. "Daedalus is here somewhere. Find him."

Speedily, the monsters ran off to carry out the order. As they did, Eurymedon kicked the ground. This created a large ditch. Then he let the cage fall in, landing with a thud.

"I really had planned on being merciful," he commented. "Now, you'll have to be tortured to death." A cruel smile spread over his face. "But I'll wait until you're all here. I think it would be nice for you to watch Daedalus die first."

Snotlout hatefully glowered at the ruler. Eurymedon just smirked back, going to watch his servants on their search. They knew better than to disappoint him. The monsters filled the forest. The woodland creatures nearly affected their ability to track. Every time the hunters would hear something, they would lunge, but it was only a deer or bird. Far on the other end of the forest, Hiccup and Dagur were still by the fire. The boy began frowning.

"It never takes him this long to hunt," he revealed. "Maybe he found Artemis's follower."

Dagur stood up and looked off into the thicket. Hiccup saw his eyes glowing.

"What's going on?"

"Snotlout's reaching out."

"Does he need help?" Hiccup asked, feeling worried.

"Not yet, but he will. He's trying to let us know about some danger. We should find him."

Swiftly, Dagur grabbed a stick from the fire. He handed it to Hiccup.

"Take this. You can use it to burn the monsters."

Hiccup nodded and accepted the weapon. He tied on his wings as well. They started going into the forest while Snotlout finished beseeching. He had wanted to wait longer, but he did not want the monsters to surprise his teammates. When he was done, he frowned at the giant again.

"He's not even paying attention to us," he complained.

Immediately, the same thought occurred to him and Atalanta.

"He's not even paying attention to us," he repeated quietly.

Carefully, the warriors began fidgeting with the ropes. Snotlout knew that he would not need to do much before he could break free. The main issue was the ditch. Snotlout pulled and snapped the ropes. It seemed loud and he quickly looked back at the ruler, but the sound was too quiet to have traveled the far distance to his ears. Breathing a sigh of relief, Snotlout untied Atalanta.

"Thanks," she whispered.

He gave a small nod and together, they pushed on the bars of the cage. They were able to break them. Snotlout started trying to climb up the sides of the wall, but they were too unstable. Every time he would grab onto some dirt, it crumbled in his hands. Atalanta was having the same problem. She let out a frustrated grunt.

"No! This can't be it! I have to help her!"

The warrior angrily hit the wall. She kept going until Snotlout gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"Lanto," he said, "we have to try to stay calm. The others will help."

"But this was supposed to be my mission," the girl said miserably. "I failed."

She sank to her knees, glaring at the clump of dirt in her palm. Scowling, Atalanta threw it off to the side.

"Why does it have to be you?" Snotlout asked.

The other prisoner looked at him, then sighed. "I owe Artemis everything. She saved my life when I was just a child. Without her, I'd be dead. She didn't have to do that. I was just another mortal. My life shouldn't have meant anything, but she still acted like it did. Ever since then, she's given me a place to live and a family I can call my own with her other followers. We're like sisters." Atalanta looked up at Snotlout. "I never thought I'd be able to repay her. She's a goddess, Heracles. There was nothing I could ever do to save her life or protect her, but there is now…and I'm failing her. I didn't deserve her kindness."

Tears filled Atalanta's eyes and Snotlout felt his heart aching for her.

"Don't think like that," he said. "I bet Artemis saw something in you that you still don't see."

"But I'm not helping."

"You're here," the boy pointed out hopefully. "We never would've come out here if you didn't. Now, we know that the king of the giants is leading the other monsters." Snotlout offered a smile and gestured upwards. "We even know you were right! You said that the gods were in danger and the king basically said they were. We know a lot more about what we're up against. So, even if you're not the one taking down the monsters right now, you aren't a failure."

Atalanta wanted to feel better, but she could not stop the feelings of doubt and shame. Snotlout saw this and sat down.

"Look, I get it," he admitted. "You start putting pressure on yourself…sometimes, you're not even the only one doing that. It's rough. If one thing goes wrong, you think you've screwed up everything and there's nothing you can do to fix it." He let out a heavy breath. "So, we try to become heroes and convince ourselves that we can actually do stuff right."

The other prisoner heard the unhappiness in his voice. She gave his hand a squeeze.

"You'll make a great hero."

"You too." His eyes started to brighten. "Maybe heroes don't have to work alone as much as the stories say. Teams can do a lot of good. Then when one of you wins, you all do."

Atalanta became quiet, thinking over what he had said. She had her team. She could have brought them on this mission. It was possible that she should have, but she was so scared of losing credit. Atalanta wondered how much more could have been accomplished if her friends were with her.

"Next time, I'll put the mission first," she promised. "It doesn't matter which one of us gets to help as long as we can protect each other."

"Plus, who knows? Maybe you'll be their new leader on missions. Atlanta, commander of Artemis's followers. Doesn't have a bad ring to it."

The girl chuckled and smiled at him. "Thanks, Heracles."

"Snotlout," the warrior said, with an unsure grin. "That's another name I go by."

"Minden is my other name. You're the only one outside of Artemis and her followers who knows."

Smotlout smiled at her and the duo stayed where they were as the other duo were drawing closer. They did not have to go far before they came in contact with the monsters. A satyr spotted Hiccup and ran at the boy. Quickly, Hiccup swatted with his new torch. The satyr moved back, bleating when some of the embers caught on his fur. When another monster approached, he saw his comrade and decided against attacking Hiccup. It looked at the redhead instead, but he immediately regretted this decision. Dagur grabbed the goat man by the horns and threw him so far that he landed in the sea. A centaur saw this display and was trying to run. Dagur caught its hoof.

"Where's Heracles?" he questioned.

Obstinately, the monster tried to stay silent. Dagur started to grin.

"I wonder if you need all six limbs," he mentioned casually.

Fear flashed in the creature's eyes. Hiccup was not sure if Dagur meant the threat or not. The Berkian learned that he did when the monster took too long to make up his mind. Dagur yanked off one hind leg of the centaur, tossing it aside. The monster let out a pain-filled yell.

"Was that…necessary?" Hiccup asked, eyes wide.

Dagur nodded. "Oh yeah."

He pressed his hand against where the removed limb had once been. This time, he did not take away any pain, but he stopped the bleeding. The centaur tried to steady his breathing, but he fearfully looked at the immortal.

"You'll be the one monster here who lives," Dagur told him. "Do you want to know why?"

Unsure what else to do, the monster nodded.

"Because you're going to spread the word that no one on my team gets abducted without there being consequences."

The centaur was going to nod again, but the pain caused him to lose consciousness. Hiccup watched as the body went limp.

"We can't question him now, though."

"No, but he probably wasn't going to turn traitor on the others anyway. At least now, he's a warning to everyone else."

Hiccup almost felt bad, then he considered how his cousin could still have been in danger. That made his sympathy vanish. Dagur shifted into a wolf and sniffed the air. Without needing to be asked, Hiccup hopped onto his back. He held onto the fur as Dagur began tracking Snotlout's scent. On the way, they came across a giant. Dagur lunged for his throat, mauling the monster. Another one came up on the other side, causing Dagur to bare his fangs again. He was already excited to take out these beasts.

"Get Snotlout while I deal with them," the immortal instructed. "He's in this area of the forest."

Hiccup quickly started to flap his wings. If he got an aerial view, he could see Snotlout better. He flapped harder, rising higher into the air. Happily, he spotted his cousin.

"You're okay!" He paused, seeing the other immortal. "And you found her."

"Yeah, this is Atalanta," Snotlout told him.

"I'd wave, but…" Hiccup said, looking at the wings.

Minden's eyes were wide with wonder. "H-how are you doing that?"

"He made those," Snotlout revealed. "Neat, right?"

Minden nodded, still awestruck.

"I can't bring you both at the same time," Hiccup admitted, "so how do you want to do this?"

"Get her out of here first," Snotlout said.

Hiccup flew closer and let Atalanta get on his back. Like this, he flew her to the outside of the ditch. She thanked him and he went back down for Snotlout.

"Are you going to be able to fly with me?" the bigger boy asked doubtfully.

"If you'd like to wait until Dagur's done with all the monsters, we can," he remarked.

Snotlout frowned slightly and hopped on. As expected, it made flight more difficult, but there was enough of a breeze from the giants fighting that this was possible. When they were out of the hole, Snotlout went to join in with the fight. He saw that Minden had already done this. She was grappling with a centaur, kicking it in the face hard enough for it to see stars. The satyrs were all defeated and Dagur was still fighting the last of the giants, so Snotlout went for the remaining minotaurs. They charged at him, but he was too fast to be hit. Regardless, there were a lot, but the ditch had given him an idea. Snotlout grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it, putting it in the monsters' eyes. They cried out and rubbed their eyes. This gave Snotlout enough time to cut one through the core. Hearing the sounds, a different minotaur tried to keep fighting, but it did not know to avoid a leg slice. Snotlout struck the third and final minotaur in the head, causing it to fall to the ground, dead. He looked around, listening for any odd sounds. Suddenly, he and Minden looked at each other.

"The king!" they exclaimed.

Dagur lifted an eyebrow at them curiously. "What king?"

"The king of the giants," Snotlout said, looking around. "He was here. It was so weird. He just showed up and now, he vanished. Can giants disappear? I've never seen one do that."

Dagur shook his head. "No, they can't." A thoughtful look was on his face. "The king is Eurymedon. Was he just leading the giants?"

"No, he was in charge of everyone."

The immortal's eyes widened. "If he's leading all the monsters…that would explain a lot."

"Did you find out anything else?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, we also know that the gods are in danger somehow, but no one said what they're doing specifically."

Dagur's expression became unreadable again. Danger—true danger—for the gods was almost unheard of. He was not sure what would cause that to be an issue. Snotlout turned to Minden and gestured to her.

"Atalanta's the one who thought that was going on."

"You've got good instincts," Dagur complimented.

"Really good," Hiccup added. "I probably never would have thought of that."

The warrior blushed slightly. "Thanks." She started to frown in worry. "Since we know that Eurymedon is the problem, should we just go to his kingdom and kill him?"

There was a pause as the mortals looked at the god. After a moment, Dagur shook his head.

"No, we shouldn't. It's too easy. There's more to it than this. Eurymedon can't just show up and leave without being noticed. Someone's helping him. Someone even more powerful. He might be leading the monsters, but he's not the only one behind all this."

"Then who?"

Dagur shrugged. "That's what we're still trying to figure out."

Minden looked at Snotlout and Hiccup. "Well, at least we also know the heroes are in danger. I'll tell my team back home. We can help protect the heroes as we work on figuring out what's causing all this."

Snotlout smiled. "Looks like we'll both have some team missions from now on."

"Seems so." Minden offered her hand. "Hope to see you again, Snotlout."

"Right back at you."

With a wave and warm smile, the warrior ran off into the forest again. Snotlout grinned, then turned pink when a knowing smile was on Hiccup's face.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm just not used to other people calling you 'Snotlout.' I guess she was special."

"Well, we were both prisoners and stuff happens when you're imprisoned together."

"Clearly," the smaller boy lightly teased.

Snotlout stammered for a good response, then crossed his arms. "Shut up, Hiccup."

The others laughed as Snotlout kept thinking of Minden. He hoped that she would be safe with her mission. The thought of heroes being singled out for death was concerning. It was a problem for all of Greece. Without people willing to fight for the weak, anything could happen. One hero had gone on a mission to protect Greece even before the cousins began their journey. At the time, Throk had prepared by going to the temple of Atê. This was where he went the most often. Berkians found it strange for such a great warrior to pray to the goddess of mischief, but for whatever reason, he did. Throk bowed deeply, resting his forehead against the ground near the statue.

"Dear, Atê," he prayed, "I beseech you. News has traveled to Berk about a gorgon going through Greece. I must make my leave and defend those she has turned to stone. If it is not too much of a burden, I ask that you guide me in my battle. I will need strength and the mental sharpness of mischief to not be overcome by this monster."

Throk opened his eyes and felt comforted, certain that the goddess had heard him. Rising to his feet, he left the temple. With Atê's blessing, he knew he could win. There would never be anyone he loved more than the goddess. She was his all and every fight was fought in her honor. Therefore, full of confidence, the great Achilles went to fight the gorgon Medusa.

To continue the Atalanta facts, Artemis saved her when she was a baby. There is speculation that her father wanted a son instead. So, he left her on a mountain. This was called being "exposed," where babies were left in the wilderness to die. Fortunately, one of Artemis's symbols, a bear, came and found her. She nursed the baby until some hunters showed up and took care of her.