stollen things || c. stoll

2.3 ~ Demon Pigeons Attack

After a quiet breakfast, I went to search for someone to join up with for the chariot race. My half-siblings weren't interested and I had a half hour until it was too late to sign up. Annabeth was with Percy, the Ares Cabin would never branch out from their family, Beckendorf was nice enough but we weren't friends.

"Greetings."

I turned around. "Hi, Travis."

"So..." He looked around. "Wanna design a chariot with us?" Connor popped out from behind him.

I crossed my arms. "How can I trust that you won't just shove me off the chariot and into oncoming traffic? And isn't it only one driver and one fighter?"

Connor raised an eyebrow. "Since when have we ever followed the rules? I'm hurt that you think we'd even consider for one second what Tantal-ass has to say."

"Tantal-ass." I scoffed, smiling. "Cute."

"Well?"

"Fine."

We went up and the boys wrote their names down. They then added my name in some invisible ink they'd nicked from a joke shop out of camp.

An hour later, we were sitting on the Hermes cabin roof, notebooks in hand. Turns out, sixteen years of being prank masters really helps with designing the perfect armed chariot.

After a couple hours of designing and planning, we went to pick out our horses. I rarely spent time in the stables, but the Stolls definitely had some sort of bribe worked out with the pegasi and horses so I followed their lead.

Next step: actually building the chariot. I left that to the boys, while I figured out what weapons we would need and where they'd go.

We used the rest of the three given days working and reworking the chariot. We finally finished at night before the race.

It wasn't yet dark outside, but the sun was going down. All three of us stepped back to inspect the chariot. I tucked my pencil behind my ear and smiled.

"It looks great, guys. I never pegged you for engineers."

Connor threw one arm over my shoulder and the other over Travis'.

"There's plenty of things you don't know about us, Callaghan." He winked. "Let's make a deal. We win this race tomorrow, you sneak into the city with us for a celebratory dinner overnight."

"You think you can do that?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Sure we can! We're sneaking masterminds." Travis hit my arm playfully.

"Alright. Deal. But if we get eaten by harpies, I'm gonna kill you in the underworld."

•

The boys had built a little compartment for me to hide in until the race to avoid any complications. I had to admit, they were pulling out all the stops to bend the rules.

Our chariot wasn't much of a looker, but we had some nice things planned.

It was a hot and foggy morning, and there were probably thousands of birds sitting in the trees. Pigeon-like, but they didn't coo. It was more of a nuclear bomb alarm type of sound.

The racetrack was built between the woods and the archery range. It had gone up quickly, thanks to the metallic bulls.

The spectators — Tantalus, the other campers, satyrs, and the nymphs — sat in rows of stone steps. No Mr. D yet.

Tantalus yelled across the pavilion as we started setting up. I could only see the ground and Tantalus' feet through the cracks in my compartment.

"You all know the rules! A quarter-mile track. Twice around to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter. Weapons are allowed, dirty tricks are expected, and try not to kill anybody! Any killing will result in harsh punishment. No s'mores at the campfire for a week! Now, ready your chariots!"