thunderstruck | a.c¹

2.17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN!
alternatively titled: party ponies

AURORA WONDERED WHAT THE PEOPLE OF MIAMI THOUGHT AS THEY WATCHED THE PARTY PONIES GALLOP BY.

Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting—as if each centaur step took them miles and miles. In no time, they'd left the city behind. Aurora wrapped her arms around Annabeth from where she was sitting and rested her cheek on the blonde's back.

They raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees.

Finally, they found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. They were in a centaur camp.

"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like: 'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

The centaur with the googly-eyed glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"

The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.

Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth and Aurora down on a picnic blanket next to Percy and Keiryn. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."

"Chiron," Aurora said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."

He gave her a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since Percy has cleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean ... Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

Percy looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun. Aurora hoped they knew what they were getting into.

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat Percy's wounds. "I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organised enough to pursue us. Nobody won."