Chapter 70: Chapter 67: I practice my own dead scene
' Percy '
...
Someone was shoving down dirt into my throat, or at least I had the feeling someone tried too.
Still, sleepy I mumbled, "Stop Nyx, I'm sleeping." because she slept in my cabin, and she was the only one I knew who would shove dirt down my throat without any reason at all.
Except Gaia of course, she already did that in Alaska.
She giggled and I felt something burn into my stomach, it tasted like my mom's cookies mixed with popcorn.
Ambrosia, I realized.
I opened my eyes and stared into Nyx's glowing eyes, she smiled. "Percy, you're alive, I was so worried for a second."
I blinked and coughed, "Still alive." I mumbled.
I sat straight up and noticed I was sitting on a wooden bench, which I had not burned down yet.
Nyx smiled, "Well, I knew you could do it." then she whispered softly, "And if you had failed I would've personally gone down Tartarus and get you out."
I smiled back, "Ah, that's sweet but I managed to bend lava."
Nyx threw her hands in the air, "Hell yeah! Next level is bending darkness!"
I frowned, "That's a thing?"
She made a few gestures with her hands, and the shadow from the bank detached itself from the ground and reformed itself to a sword, machine gun and a vending machine; of course all made of shadows.
"You could do that all along?" I wondered.
She chuckled, "You have no idea what I can and how much I hold back, if you want I could show you something really cool, though we have to be in the dark first."
'Mom! Stop embarrassing me.' Hemera cried out.
I frowned, "What can you show me?"
Before Nyx could show me something Zoë approached us, "You're awake I see?"
I nodded, "Unless this is a dream." I joked.
Zoë frowned, guess she hadn't seen the Inception.
I got up and glanced around. We were still at the same pier. Bianca was petting the Ophiotaurus and Anne looked a lot better than before and Thalia was walking around on the deck of Anne,
She was slowly rebuilding herself. The holes in the sail began to reform and new wood replaced all the damaged planks and random pieces of woods fell into the sea.
"So how long have I been out?" I asked.
"Around a day." Nyx said.
"WHAT!" I cried out.
"She's joking," Zoë laughed, "Only an hour."
I let out a sigh of relief and got up from the bench, "Well, what were we doing before we were interrupted?"
"The drawing I made." Nyx said, "I made another one."
I glared at her, but she was totally oblivious to my glare.
"We were talking about the Ophiotaurus." Zoë said with a smug smile.
I got up, and we walked towards the Ophiotaurus who was swimming around Anne's prow happily Mooing.
Suddenly a full-grown lion appeared next to my side, though he was smaller than last time, he had now the size of a regular lion.
"Rebel!" I cried out and hugged his manes.
Rebel purred, which was weird considering he was a lion and began licking my face.
I let go of him, and he fixed his yellow eyes into mine, I see you managed to stay alive while I was sleeping? He seemed to say.
I chuckled, "You bet."
Then Rebel noticed the pirate ship and the Ophiotaurus.
"Yeah, meat Bessie and Anne."
I pointed at the ship and the cow serpent.
Thalia jumped down the ship and landed beside me, "Percy, still breathing!"
"Yes, still alive." I said.
"You drool in your sleep. You know that?" Thalia asked with a smirk.
"Shut up Pinecone Face." I mumbled.
Thalia stroked the names of Rebel, "He's smaller."
Rebel roared.
Thalia blinked, "Which is, of course, not a downgrade and as cool as regular size."
The lion shook his head as to say Demigods, you just gotta live with them.
Thalia returned her gaze to me, "Also why have you never told me your friends with a fucking pirate ship?"
I shrugged, "Must have slipped through my mind."
Nyx swung her arm around me, "These kinds of things are just casualties for us, right Percy?"
I laughed, she was totally right.
If I told Thalia about the fact that we sailed to a ship of nails the same summer and stole the hammer of Thor she wouldn't believe me.
Bianca got up from the kneeling position and asked, "What are we gonna do?"
I shrugged, "I guess we should bring the Ophiotaurus in safety."
"But how?" Thalia wondered out loud.
"You have to bring him back." Zoë said, "You can travel through the ocean."
"No," I said, "I have the feeling I should stay on this quest."
A honking sound filled the air for a second.
We looked up, "What?" I asked the pirate ship.
Anne honked again.
Zoë's eyes lit up, "Of course." she mumbled.
"Am I missing something?" Bianca asked.
I glanced at Anne, "Anne could you guide Bessie to Long Island Sound?"
Anne honked and the wood groaned, Duh!
I turned to Bessie and asked Chaos, 'Could you please tell him to follow the ship?'
'Done.' Chaos said satisfied.
I turned towards my friends, "I think we found our animal transport."
"But Long Island sound is so far away." Bianca argued, that will take weeks.
I laughed, "Yes but this ship can shadow travel and has powers over the ocean."
To prove my point Anne engulfed herself and Bessie in shadows and disappeared.
My friends watched with awe at the empty dock.
"Well," I said, "That took care of that problem."
"Cool, can we now go out and chill?" Nyx asked with a smug smile.
"We can't," Zoë said stern, "We still need to save Artemis."
"And Annabeth." Thalia added.
"But where's Artemis?" Bianca asked.
Zoë and I exchanged looks, Zoë sighed. "We need to get to my sisters garden."
"Sisters?" Bianca and Thalia both asked.
"The Garden of the Hesperides." I explained.
"Wait they are your sisters?" Thalia asked flabbergasted, "You're that old."
Zoë groaned, "Thanks for reminding me."
"But how are they your sisters?" Bianca asked.
Zoë pointed at the sun, "We should be on our way instead of talking, the garden can only be entered at sunset."
"We could try tomorrow and go play Pokemon Go?" Nyx suggested.
'That doesn't exist yet.' I told Nyx.
'I have it already.' Nyx told me with a smug smile.
"We can't wait, tomorrow the winter solstice will be over, and we will lose another year of war preparations." Zoë said glaring at Nyx who had taken out her iPhone and was swiping furiously on the screen.
"So how do we get to the garden?" Bianca asked.
Nyx absently waved her hand and her black chariot appeared along with Cerberus.
"Done." Nyx said.
...
"You're going to fast." Nyx complained, "My eggs don't hatch."
"Shut up!" I yelled while trying to remain in control, Shade and Shadow had somehow picked up the idea this was a race against Cerberus. Nyx offered me to drive, which was really cool.
The wind razed through my hair and the road was a blur, that's how fast we went.
Nyx had no trouble standing straight. Then I realized her own shadow was protecting here, keeping her in place.
When we neared the fog, I slowed down the chariot, "Thanks Shade and Shadow." I said.
"You owe us donuts." Shade told me.
"You guys talked to Blackjack?" I asked.
The both whinnied,"He told us about the mortal thing called donuts."
I laughed.
The chariot dissolved into shadows.
Nyx frowned, "Where are the others?" she asked fixing her gaze on the fog.
The answer appeared in front of us, the three headed dog barked happily.
Zoë and Bianca leaped of the back and landed next to us.
"Get that smile of your face." Zoë demanded.
I giggled, "Sorry but it's just fun we won the race."
"There was no race." Thalia said glaring at me.
Nyx shrugged, "Whatever helps you guys to sleep at night."
Rebel suddenly appeared next to me.
He opened his monstrous mouth and let out a booming roar.
The fog in front of us cleared and revealed, the side of the mountain with a dirt path leading up.
Clouds and thunderstorms swirled around the top, radiating raw power.
The path up the mountain led through the garden of twilight, shadowy flowers and thick grass littered the ground.
The garden was beautiful, the flowers gave of colorful glows and it was almost like they were dancing in the red sunset.
In the middle of the garden was a golden apple tree, the golden apples looked so appealing and I had to resist the urge to ask Chaos to let me taste one.
"The apples of immortality." Zoë said following my gaze.
"Whoever eats them becomes immortal." Thalia said with awe.
However, you could not look at the apple tree without noticing the enormous dragon curled around it.
His body was as thick as a rocket, he had hundreds of deadly pythons as head like they were slapped together.
The python heads were all sleeping, their eyes closed and my ADHD couldn't stop thinking about what Ladon would be dreaming about.
Food? Meat? Zoë?
'You really want to know what Ladon dreams about?' Chaos asked with a tone that said, trust me, you don't want to know.
"Ladon." Zoë whispered emotionally.
Then the shadows in front of us began to move. There was a beautiful, eerie singing, like voices from the bottom of a well.
The Hesperides.
Four copies of Zoë shimmered to existence, their caramel skin, silky black hair looking gorgeous and dangerous at the same time.
"Sisters." Zoë said.
"We do not see any sister," one of the girls said coldly."We see three half-bloods and two Hunters. All of whom shall soon die."
Rebel glanced at Zoë and then at her siblings in totally confusion like he thought, wow, five Zoë's, this is getting better and better.
"STOP!" I yelled, and the dragon opened his eyes, my friends looked at me with fear.
"Percy!" Zoë hissed.
I glanced at the dragon, or at least I tried to.
"Stop!" I commanded, to my surprise the dragon stopped.
Probably because he was confused by my actions.
"Zoë, this is wrong!" I said accusingly.
Zoë scowled, "What do you mean?"
I turned towards the lead girl, "And you, you do it wrong too!"
The girl copied Zoë's expression. "What do you mean?"
I raised my arms in the air and sighed, Nyx disappeared into my shadow.
"Where's the drama?" I asked the lead Hesperid.
She frowned, "Drama?"
I gave her an annoyed look, "You're doing it wrong. When Zoë says sister you are supposed to do this."
I fell to my knees and brought my hand to my heart, "Zoë, you returned. Finally,."
The Hesperid frowned, "What?"
I then turned to Ladon, "And you!" I said, my eyes piercing into his, making sure his attention was all focused on me.
"You are supposed to be asleep until Zoë says: I would rather die by poison than life in a prison."
If a dragon with hundreds of python heads could frown it would look like this. The snakes all looked at each other in confusion.
"So try again." I told him and to my surprise Ladon backed down, but he kept his eyes open.
I glanced at Zoë and silently told her, play along.
She sighed and looked at her sisters again, "Sisters."
The lead Hesperid frowned, but one of the girls fell to her knees with a smile, "Zoë, you returned. Finally,."
All the other girls looked at her in confusion, "What?" she asked, "Can't we have a little fun before we kill them?"
The other Hesperides frowned but one of them chuckled.
"So what now?" the kneeling Hesperid asked.
"Now Zoë tells that Artemis is trapped under the sky, and sky, and she is here to rescue her." I told them.
Zoë scowled at me but nonetheless said, "I'm not here for a family reunion. I simply wish to free Artemis."
The Hesperides looked at me, wondering what should happen next.
"Now one of you glares at Zoë and tells her that she left this place and became mortal."
The dragon hissed, I glared at the dragon. "You wait for your turn!"
The dragon pouted. Or at least I hoped it was pouting.
One of the Hesperides glared at Zoë, "You left sister! You gave up immortality and all for a male."
The Hesperid glanced at me, expectantly.
I nodded, "That was beautiful."
She beamed, Zoë glared at me but nonetheless she followed my instructions.
My friends watched the entire scene with awe, but I saw they were ready to run any moment.
"What now?" The lead Hesperid asked.
"Now Zoë says: I would rather die by poison than live in a prison."
Ladon got up, I glared at him. "Wait!" I said.
"But he would wake up that moment right?" one girl asked.
"But I don't have text." The lead Hesperid complained.
I facepalmed, "Oh, forgot one part. When Zoë says she would rather die by poison you say, Then die by poison!"
Ladon got up, I glared at him, and he retreated.
The Hesperid thought about my words, "That sounds good."
"And when that happens, Landon wakes up?" One of the Hesperides asked.
I nodded, "That's the part where Zoë and her friends run away from Ladon but Ladon is too fast because he was secretly awake all along."
Ladon nodded excitedly.
"Percy?" Thalia began but I cut her off.
"So let's do the rehearsal." I said.
"Rehearsal?" The lead girl asked.
"We practice it one time before we do the real thing." I explained.
"So we don't fail?" a girl said.
I nodded, "Exactly, we don't want our dramatic dead to be bad acting right?"
Everyone nodded.
I turned to Ladon, "So we are now doing the practice round. The next round you get to devour us, understand?" I asked.
Ladon nodded.
Zoë straighten up and said, "Sisters."
The Hesperid who fell to her knees before did it again, "Zoë, you returned. Finally."
Zoë looked uncomfortable but said, "I'm not here for a family reunion. I simply wish to free Artemis."
A Hesperid smiled at me and then glared at Zoë, "You left sister! You gave up immortality and all for a male."
Zoë glared back, "I would rather die by poison than live in a prison."
"Then die by poison!" The lead Hesperid yelled.
Nobody moved, "This is the point where Zoë and her friends run away, then we come back, and we can do it for real." I explained.
My friends nodded determined, understanding my plan.
We ran away full speed.
Zoë was the fastest, followed by Bianca. Probably because they were hunters and got have the blessing of Artemis.
Thalia and I had trouble keeping up with them but Rebel helped us with motivational growls.
The Hesperides and Ladon were watching us with a smile, then they realized we were actually running away.
"Hey!" one yelled from far away.
"You're doing it wrong!" One complained.
"Sorry girls!" I yelled back while running, "Though I must say you four are great actors!"
"Thanks!" one yelled.
Nyx appeared beside me, "well, how did it go?" she asked.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder. I saw Ladon charging after us, but we were already to far away.
"Great." I grinned.
We ran up a rocky trail that led up to the black peak on the mountain.
When we reached the ruins of the mount Othrys, we stopped running and slowed down. Zoë sat down on a black granite block and grinned at me, "You're totally crazy in your head."
Nyx was drinking cola and kicking a bronze statue,"I tell him that every day."
Bianca and Thalia were grinning wildly, "Where do you get those ideas?" Thalia asked with awe.
I shrugged, "I'm good at improvising."
"Can you improvise that away?" Nyx asked, and she pointed at the blood-red sky.
My heart froze and I curse.
The Stymphalian birds were back.
The swarm had probably followed us from San Francisco.
They appeared on the horizon and flew towards us. It were a lot less than last time. Probably because Anne burned a lot of them.
I raised my hands ready to shoot fire at them, knowing that the moment they would scatter we would be bird food.
Then something strange happened, a silver flash flew towards the birds.
An arrow.
The moment the arrow struc a bird silver string flew out of the arrow head and began to circle around the swarm. Hundreds of thin strings and wires crossed each other's path while they wrapped around the bird; trapping every single one of them until it was one big net filled with hundreds and hundreds of angry birds.
With their wings restrained the net fell down to the ground and with a satisfying ploff.
Then all the birds combusted into golden dust.
"What?" I mumbled.
"Bullseye." A voice behind us said.
In surprise, we all turned around to face, a girl.
She had rust red eyes and auburn long hair that was so long it wrapped around her neck like a scarf.
She wore a green dress that had fishing nets and hooks incorporated on it.
Zoë groaned, "Britomartis." she said.
Then it struck me, the stories Leo had told me about this trickster, who even placed a bomb under his chair.
"Goddess of hunting and fishing nets." I said.
She gave me a seductive smile, "Yes indeed young half-blood. You are very smart."
Thalia and Bianca looked at Britomartis with confusion, Nyx did not seem to care at all.
"Who?" Bianca asked.
Britomartis offered Bianca her hand, Bianca took it but the moment she touched it she jerked backwards.
"Auch." she cried out.
Britomaris twisted her hand and revealed a prank device Connor used once on me.
She smiled, "Zoë haven't you introduced me yet?"
Zoë glared at Britomartis, "This is Britomartis, a hunter of Artemis."
Thalia frowned, "I haven't seen you back in camp."
Britomartis smiled, "That's because I'm not always with the hunt, I also have my own duties."
"Like flirting." Zoë mumbled.
Britomartis threw her hands up, "That you can't have fun doesn't mean others can't." she said.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"To help Artemis," she said determined, "She's trapped under the sky by Atlas."
"You know that?" Thalia asked.
Rebel sat down, like he expected a long story to come.
"Of course, I've been shadowing you since you five left camp." she said.
Nyx randomly chuckled, "Shadowed."
Britomartis frowned, "Anyway. I'm here to help."
"You waited until now?" Thalia asked angrily. "Couldn't you help earlier?"
"She did." Zoë grumbled, "The net that saved us when the helicopter crashed was hers."
I glanced at Britomartis, "Really?"
She nodded, "Without me you would''ve failed."
"Couldn't you help more?" Bianca complained.
Britomartis laughed, "First off you needed to prove your worth second, Zeus is really strict about interfering with demigod quests and finally I did help you more, I sent the Erymanthian Boar."
"That boar almost killed me." I said accusingly.
"Hey, it's just a prank." Britomartis said innocently, studying her nails.
Zoë said something in an ancient language I did not understand, Britomartis however did understand it and replied in the same language.
They had a heated discussion and Zoë was getting more annoyed. It was clear she did not like Britomartis, probably because of her character.
Finally, Zoë sighed and turned to us, "Britomartis comes with us."
"Yay." Nyx said sarcastically.
I looked up the mountain summit, "Well, my guess is that we need all the help we can get up there."
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