plague bringer - a heroes of olympus insert

𝗏. 𝗌𝗍𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗍𝗁 𝗆𝗈𝖽𝖾: 𝖺𝖼𝗍𝗂𝗏𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽

Aria followed the River Phlegethon for a while, stumbling over the glassy black terrain, jumping crevices, and hiding behind rocks whenever the vampire girls slowed in front of them. It was tricky to stay far enough back to avoid getting spotted but close enough to keep Kelli and her comrades in view through the dark hazy air.

The river warmed the air around her, so every breath was like inhaling sulfur scented fiberglass. When she needed a drink, the best she could do was sip some refreshing liquid fire. If Aria didn't end up getting some kind of immunity to normal spicy foods after this, she would sue. At least all of her injuries had seemed to have healed. She'd take small victories. She was thirsty, hungry, exhausted, and scared out of her mind, but she'd shaken off the hopeless cold of the River Cocytus. And as nasty as the firewater tasted, it seemed to keep her going.

She almost wished she had a friend here with her, but knew that she wouldn't want any of them experiencing this with her. She was going to make it out for them and, if she had any say in the matter, they would never know how truly terrible this experience was.

Time was impossible to judge. Aria trudged along silently, following the river as it cut through the harsh landscape. Fortunately the vampires weren't exactly speed walkers. They shuffled on their mismatched bronze and donkey legs, hissing and fighting with each other, apparently in no hurry to reach the Doors of Death. Once, the demons sped up in excitement and swarmed something that looked like a beached carcass on the riverbank.

Aria couldn't tell what it was— a fallen monster? An animal of some kind? The vampires attacked it with relish. When the demons moved on, Aria reached the spot and found nothing left except a few splintered bones and glistening stains drying in the heat of the river. Aria shivered, figuring they would devour a demigod with the same gusto.

She took a deep breath and forced herself to keep following the group. As she followed, she began thinking about everything that had happened since she had become a demigod. Although she had power difficulties and got into trouble before, it had grown to be a lot worse since she got claimed (thanks dad). Fights that got her expelled turned into fights where she almost died. Power problems went from accidentally hurting someone to having the literal earth wanting her as a death ray. Honestly it seemed like the gods or fates were just trying to see how much that she could take before something broke.

Aria was glad that her friends had been with her for all of her hardships before, but now she was completely on her own. Although she had Annabeth's dagger, it was difficult to stay positive when there were no familiar faces around or anyone on her side. She couldn't even distract herself from her thoughts with any fun memories with her friends. Instead of making her happy and motivated, they had started to make her upset and determined. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it wasn't great either. Instead of being motivated by positive things, she was beginning to be motivated by her desire to be back home. She also noticed that she had become very jumpy. Any time she heard a noise she turned, ready to defend herself. She constantly felt like she was on edge. If tarturus didn't kill her, it might end up making her go crazy instead.

After a few more miles, the vampires disappeared over a ridge. When Aria caught up, she found herself at the edge of another massive cliff. The River Phlegethon spilled over the side in jagged tiers of fiery waterfalls. The demon ladies were picking their way down the cliff, jumping from ledge to ledge like mountain goats. Aria's heart crept into her throat. Even if she reached the bottom of the cliff alive, she didn't have much to look forward to.

The landscape below them was a bleak, ash-gray plain bristling with black trees, like insect hair. The ground was poked with blisters. Every once in a while, a bubble would swell and burst, disgorging a monster like a larva from an egg. Suddenly Aria wasn't hungry anymore. Instead, she felt an urge to throw up and cry.

All the newly formed monsters were crawling and hobbling in the same direction—toward a bank of black fog that swallowed the horizon like a storm front. The fire river flowed in the same direction until about halfway across the plain, where it met another river of black water—maybe the Cocytus? The two floods combined in a steaming, boiling cataract and flowed on as one toward the black fog. The longer Aria looked into that storm of darkness, the less she wanted to go there. It could be hiding anything—an ocean, a bottomless pit, an army of monsters. But if the Doors of Death were in that direction, it was her only chance to get home.

She peered over the edge of the cliff. "Wish I could fly," she muttered, rubbing her arms. "Would make this a lot less dangerous if I could." Above her, dark winged shapes spiraled in and out of the blood red clouds. "Or maybe if Percy's friend or giant guy or something was here. What was his name? Like Bob or something?" She sighed, "That'd be convienient. Or maybe even if Percy could be here himself and go full battle mode on my behalf. That'd be pretty sweet."

A moment of silence passed as Aria realized that she was talking to herself out loud. "Great," she muttered, "The loneliness is already getting to me. That's not a good sign."

She couldn't see the vampires below her anymore. They'd disappeared behind one of the ridges, but that didn't matter. It was clear where she needed to go. Like all the maggot monsters crawling over the plains of Tartarus, she should head toward the dark horizon. Wasn't she blessed?