THE HEALER| Heroes of Olympus

4.

With the help of a map and Aphrodite's directions, we reached the river by 4 o'clock. 

Arabelle looked down at the brown water. "I guess we can't just roll theshield around in this muck and call it a day."

"We'll have to go inside," I said."Hope it's cleaner upriver. Let's hug the bank and try to stay out of thewater."

But staying out of thewater proved hard to do.As we forged ahead into the tunnel, the sides turned narrow and slippery.I found it impossible not to slosh around in the stream. My shoes didn't startsmoking, and my pants didn't catch on fire, so I guessed the water wasn'tthat toxic. Still, I added really hot shower to my to-do list.

About a hundred yards in, Arabelle stopped. "Give me some light," she said. 

I moved the beam of light from my hand across the tunnel's ceiling, whichwas coated with moss and lichen so thick I couldn't tell if there was man made asphalt or natural rock underneath. Wherever my light passed,it left behind a streak of blue-green luminescence.

"Awesome." I used my light to draw a glowing smiley face on the wall. Arabelle rolled her eyes. 

The moss kept glowing for quite a while, filling thetunnel with a cool turquoise light.Up ahead, the channel widened into a much larger space. The sound ofthe current became louder and throatier. We stepped into a cavern so massiveit seemed like a different world.Under a cathedral-high ceiling covered with glowing stalactites, the riverwound north between rolling plains of yellow grass. Ash-colored treesdotted the landscape, leafless and stunted, their branches curled like arthriticfingers. The scene reminded me of the Fields of Asphodel down in Hades'srealm. A place I was not hoping to return to. 

Here and there, outcroppings of granite made islands in the grass, but themain attraction was the river itself. It wound lazily through the cavern,making big loops as if it were in no hurry to reach the daylight. Thick standsof reeds edged its banks. The current glimmered darkly in the blue mosslight. The water did look cleaner here. The putrid smell was gone. But in apool about twenty yards upstream, dozens of slithery, slimy whip-like creatures were rolling and writhing in the shallows. 

I yelped and stumbled back nearly falling into the dirty river. 

"What?" Arabelle turned around alert. "Is it a monster?" 

"Worse," I shrieked pointing. "Snakes!"

Arabelle gave me a look that said: What the heck is wrong with you.

"I hate snakes." I said trying to stand as far away as possible.

"They're just reptiles get over it." Arabelle said. 

"With poison," I said. "And cold blood. And a nasty bite. And-"

"SHH!" Arabelle hushed me. "Lights-out," I switched off my glow in the dark power. Luckily the snakes didn't seem to havenoticed us yet. They were too busy frolicking and power-washing theirscales.

 I scanned the horizon. "You think we can sneak around them, go fartherupstream?"

"We can try." She said. "I'll go first since you're..." 

"Completely and utterly terrified?" I suggested. 

"I was going to say a snake attractor." She stepped out of the river and into the tall grass. I followed. I was really hoping the snakes weren't hiding somewhere in the grass. I was starting to really hate this stupid creepy cave. 

We waded through neck-high grass as sharp as hacksaw blades. Arabelle managed to navigate us around the thickest patches, but I winced every timea wisp of yellow snagged my arm. To make matters worse, the field crackledlike bubble wrap as we walked through it. I imagined we'd be audible to anymonsters hiding in the undergrowth.Finally, we reached one of the boulder islands.