plague bringer - a heroes of olympus insert

𝗑𝗂. 𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇 𝗌𝗆𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝖻𝗈𝖻 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖼𝗅𝖾𝖺𝗋 𝗌𝗄𝗂𝗇

After a while, Aria's feet felt like Titan mush. She marched along, following Bob, listening to the monotonous slosh of liquid in his cleaning bottle.

Stay alert, she told herself, but it was hard.

Her thoughts were as numb as her legs. Every once in a while, she could hear one of her friends saying something encouraging, but she knew they weren't there and she couldn't see them. That was just another sign she was losing it. She could tell the dark landscape was getting to her the longer she was there.

Aria forced herself to focus on the situation at hand. "Hey, Bob, where exactly are we heading?"

"The lady," Bob said. "Death Mist."

Aria's brows furrowed in confusion. "But what does that mean? Who is this lady?"

"Naming her?" Bob glanced back. "Not a good idea."

Aria sighed. Bob was probably right. Names had power, and speaking them here in Tartarus was probably very dangerous."Can you at least tell me how far?" she asked with an uncertain smile.

"I do not know," Bob admitted. "I can only feel it. We wait for the darkness to get darker. Then we go sideways."

"Sideways," Aria muttered. "Naturally." She was tempted to ask for a rest, but she didn't want to stop. Not here in this cold, dark place. The black fog seeped into her body, turning her bones into moist Styrofoam. She wondered if her message would get to Rachel Dare. If Rachel could somehow talk to her friends and let them know she was okay...

A ridiculous hope, said the voice in her head. There is no way to know if your attempt at sending a note even worked. They probably think you're dead.

Aria was tempted to shout back at the voice, but she resisted. Even if she were going crazy, she didn't want to look like she was. She desperately needed something to lift her spirits. A drink of actual water. A moment of sunlight. A warm bed. A kind word from her mother.

Suddenly Bob stopped. He raised his hand: Wait.

"What?" Aria whispered.

"Shh," Bob warned. "Ahead. Something moves."

Aria strained her ears. From somewhere in the fog came a deep thrumming noise, like the idling engine of a large construction vehicle. She could feel the vibrations through her shoes.

"We will surround it," Bob whispered. "We will each take a flank."

Aria sighed, mentally preparing herself and drew her sword. She crept to the left. Bob took the right, his spearhead glowing in the fog. The humming got louder, shaking the gravel at her feet. The noise seemed to be coming from immediately in front of them.

"Ready?" Bob murmured.

Aria crouched, preparing to spring. "On three?"

"One," Bob whispered. "Two—"

A figure appeared in the fog. Bob raised his spear.

"Wait!" Aria shrieked. Bob froze just in time, the point of his spear hovering an inch above the head of a tiny calico kitten.

"Rrow?" said the kitten, clearly unimpressed by their attack plan. It butted its head against Bob's foot and purred loudly.

It seemed impossible, but the deep rumbling sound was coming from the kitten. As it purred, the ground vibrated and pebbles danced. The kitten fixed its yellow, lamp-like eyes on one particular rock, right between Aria's feet, and pounced. The cat could've been a demon or a horrible Underworld monster in disguise. But Aria couldn't help it. She picked it up and cuddled it. The little thing was bony under its fur, but otherwise it seemed perfectly normal. "How did...?" She couldn't even form the question. "What is a kitten doing...?"

The cat grew impatient and squirmed out of her arms. It landed with a thump, padded over to Bob, and started purring again as it rubbed against his boots.

Aria laughed. "Somebody likes you, Bob."

"It must be a good monster." Bob looked up nervously. "Isn't it?"

She felt a lump in her throat. Seeing the huge Titan and this tiny kitten together, she suddenly felt insignificant compared to the vastness of Tartarus. This place had no respect for anything—good or bad, small or large, wise or unwise. Tartarus swallowed Titans and demigods and kittens indiscriminately. Bob knelt down and scooped up the cat. It fit perfectly in Bob's palm, but it decided to explore. It climbed the Titan's arm, made itself at home on his shoulder, and closed its eyes, purring like an earthmover. Suddenly its fur shimmered. In a flash, the kitten became a ghostly skeleton, as if it had stepped behind an X-ray machine. Then it was a regular kitten again.

Aria blinked. "Did you see—? It's a skeleton kitten!"

"It's cute," Bob said, as the kitten sniffed his ear. The Titan and the cat had bonded. "I will call him Small Bob," said Bob. "He is a good monster."

"Dang straight he is," Aria agreed. "I love him."

The Titan hefted his spear and they continued marching into the gloom. Aria walked in a daze, trying not to think about pizza. To keep herself distracted, she watched Small Bob the kitten pacing across Bob's shoulders and purring, occasionally turning into a glowing kitty skeleton and then back to a calico fuzz-ball.

"Here," Bob announced. He stopped so suddenly, Aria almost ran into him. Bob stared off to their left, as if deep in thought.

"Is this the place?" she asked. "Where we go sideways?"

"Yes," Bob agreed. "Darker, then sideways."

Aria couldn't tell if it was actually darker, but the air did seem colder and thicker, as if they'd stepped into a different climate.

Bob struck off to the left. She followed. The air definitely got colder. She hugged herself, trying to keep warm. They'd entered some sort of forest. Towering black trees soared into the gloom, perfectly round and bare of branches, like monstrous hair follicles. The ground was smooth and pale.

With my luck, Aria thought, we're marching through the armpit of Tartarus.

Suddenly her senses were on high alert, as if somebody had snapped a rubber band against the base of her neck. She rested her hand on the trunk of the nearest tree.

Bob turned and looked back, confused. "We are stopping?"

Aria held up her hand for silence. She wasn't sure what had set her off. Nothing looked different. Then she realized the tree trunk was quivering. She wondered momentarily if it was the kitten's purr; but Small Bob had fallen asleep on Large Bob's shoulder. A few yards away, another tree shuddered.

"Something's moving above us," Aria whispered. "Gather up." Bob closed ranks with her, standing back to back. She strained her eyes, trying to see above them in the dark, but nothing moved. She had almost decided she was being paranoid when the first monster dropped to the ground only five feet away.

Aria's first thought: The Furies. The creature looked almost exactly like one was described: a wrinkled hag with batlike wings, brass talons, and glowing red eyes. She wore a tattered dress of black silk, and her face was twisted and ravenous, like a demonic grandmother in the mood to kill. Bob grunted as another one dropped in front of him, and then another between the two. Soon there were half a dozen surrounding them. More hissed in the trees above. They couldn't be Furies, then. There were only three of those, and these winged hags didn't carry whips.

The monsters' talons looked plenty dangerous. "What are you?" she demanded.

"The arai", hissed a voice. "The curses!"

Aria tried to locate the speaker, but none of the demons had moved their mouths. Their eyes looked dead; their expressions were frozen, like a puppet's. The voice simply floated overhead like a movie narrator's, as if a single mind controlled all the creatures. "What—what do you want?" Aria asked, trying to maintain a tone of confidence. It was difficult considering she felt like a cornered animal.

The voice cackled maliciously. "To curse you, of course! To destroy you a thousand times in the name of Mother Night!"

"Only a thousand times?" She murmured to herself. "Oh, good...I thought we were in trouble."

The circle of demon ladies closed in.