Destiny Calls (A Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

43: Dancing through the hoards

"Easy girl, easy, easy." I said, patting the anxious Silverswan as we rode towards the looming Mountain of Despair. Unlike Blackjack, who always acted macho and cocky even in the face of battle, my Pegasus was quite skittish as I tried to comfort her. Since I was riding her, I could feel her rising heartbeat as her eyes grew wide and panicked.

Dom was riding on Porkpie once again, to the latter's discomfort, while Leah was struggling to stop Treacle from ramming into Sugarcube, who had said some unflattering things about the cream colored pegasus, and all Emily could do was hold tightly on Sugarcube's wild mane as the two equine creatures argued. Max simply rode next to them smoothly, the red bay horse he sat on neighing softly as Max told him about all the things that had happened since he saw him. Joey still had a bit of a Blackjack attitude: sassy, arrogant but still a nice fellow.

Dropping down about a kilometre away from the Garden of Hesperides, I brushed Silverswan's mane away from her eyes, and touched foreheads with her. "You'll be okay, Silver. You may not be as heroic as Blackjack, but with me, you're number one"

You flatter me, boss. But don't kill yourself up there. I heard some nasty rumors 'bout the Dark Lady's horses, what were their names? Shade? Shadow? Creeped up names, I'll tell you, but I'm no horse to argue with you, but I ain't feeling too good with you going straight into that hell place. Silverswan said, butting me affectionately.

"Love you too, Silverswan. Don't come running after me, kay?"

No promises.

Meanwhile, Sugarcube and Treacle had stopped their bickering as they recognised that they had just sent five brave and probably incredibly stupid teenagers to become either heroes or matyrs. We'll be down here waiting for you five. Said Sugarcube, her mental voice soft.

Yea, hopefully I'll kick some ass down here as well. Added Treacle, Can't let you get all the fun.

As Joey and Porkpie agreed, even Silverswan couldn't back down to that attempt, and it was probably the grudging respect for Porkpie, a real War Horse, having battled in both the Titan War and the Giant War, that led her to say something that surprised me. No one's stopping us, coz I am not gonna let any monsters leave here alive. Am I right crew?

The pegasi let out a loud whiney, and it echoed through the misty air as they trotted quietly behind us. The Garden of Hesperides were only open at sunset, but with Nyx working her horribleness in the mountain, time wasn't flowing as good as it should. We slipped through easily, and by the time any monster even glanced at us, Emily had sliced their head off with a precise swipe, her movements as swift as the dancer she was.

A small group of chattering monsters passed the rock we currently hid behind, and after checking to see if there were no monsters except for them, I put a finger across my neck and and told them the amount of monsters. "We all go out together, the faster we get rid of them, the better." Dom said, a ball of shadows already coiled in his hand.

"No." Emily's high pitched voice interjected. "I'll go first. It'll be stealthier with just one of us attacking, instead of all of us just charging out there and wasting your endurance."

"Emily..." I warned, but I knew there was no going back. Sighing, I nodded, counting to three in my head before she crept out from behind our rock. Thank the gods, the monsters only consisted of about two dozen Earthborn, nothing more. But I spotted a Laistrygonian in the corner.

"Zeus." Hissed Leah, noticing it as well. "That's way out of her league."

I ignored her comment, hoping that Emily would be find. Sure enough, I saw her small figure slipping through the crowd of monsters, destroying the first six monsters at the back of the group, but a swish of her whip attracted the unwanted attention of the monster in front of her. "Hello monsters." Said Emily lightly. "Want to dance?"

What happened next was almost too bizarre to explain. She leaped above the crowd like a butterfly, her whips swishing and swirling in all directions that just mounds of dust were left. Every clumsy attempt to grab her was dodged with grace and elegance, twirling and spinning away from all the attacks. She would get down into an almost crouch position after a land and spun her legs around, only her hands still in contact with the floor, and the monsters around her fell to their knees, her combat boots stomping them to dust.

With nothing but a pink shirt and a pair of jeggings on, no armour or gadgets whatsoever, Emily had devastated the original hoard of monsters. In all my modesty, I could say that I was faster, but Em was both mortal and newly trained, yet she still managed to pull it off. The Laistrygonian turned, with an ugly tattoo that said "Babycakes luv Joe Bob." I recognised a similar tattoo from the time when Percy fought Laistrygonians in eighth grade.

Not wanting for there to be a huge fuss when Emily fought Babycakes, I deftly flung one of my daggers at the female Laistrygonian, as it spun through the air, relieving the monstrous female of her head and the dagger returning to my waiting hand. Emily made a start to run away from the collapsing body, but it turned to dust around her, covering her in a fine layer of monster powder. She looked at herself, appalled.

"That was me right?" she asked me quietly as we moved on. "Except for that giant thing. You weren't killing them around me, right?"

I sniggered slightly. "Look at you, warrior princess, covered in monster dust. You're one of us now." I gave her small smile which she returned gratefully. "And that's no giant. If you've fought giants like me, you'd know what's hardcore."

"You've fought giants? What giants? You never told me you fought giants?" Emily asked.

"When did you fight giants? I though the Seven got rid of all of them?" said Leah, coming into our conversation.

"I killed Alyconeus, and Polybotes, and Ephialtes and Otis. Even helped destroy a few others as well. Beat up Orion as an extra."

"That's what Percy and Nico did, didn't they?" interjected Dom. "You never did."

"Yes I did, but you never knew." I mumbled, slowly remembering that I had lived a triple life: my own, Percy's, and Nico's. "Just a few hours ago."

"I'm sorry." Gasped Dom. "I forgot. No questions."

I cracked a real smile, something that I hadn't done in what felt like and was ten years. "No questions."

No questions.

MhƉ@