Olympus High

I trash talk with the God of war

"Hm, never seen this on the maps before." Abigail said.

"Maybe it's like a traveling pet store ." Payton reasoned.

I grabbed a newspaper from a nearby bin and rolled it up. "Yes, because it's definitely not gonna be hard at all to advertise for your pet store, ship animals to the place you're going, exchange the currencies, rent out a building, display everything, get everything organized, pack everything up, and repeat all within two weeks."

"Yeah, that's why I suggested it." Payton said as he stuffed a lonely wallet he found in his jacket.

"I doubt you would have gotten past the fates if the rest of us hadn't gone on the quest." I said as I smacked him with the newspaper then set it on a bench.

A lady with hair tied back in a scarf approached us. She was wearing tinted glasses that covered her eyes and on an army jacket. It was so torn to shreds I thought she could've almost been a half- blood.

"Well, howdy, kids! I don't see teenagers around here as often as I would see snow in Las Vegas!" She with a southern accent. "The name's Aunty Em. Would you kids like to be directed to the reptile room?"

"Um, we don't have money or any-" I said.

"That's quite all right. Kids just love the reptile room. We have a show coming on at seven. It's on the third floor." Aunty Em said and walked away.

Payton shrugged as he wandered near a dark hallway. "The snake emporium. Sounds cool."

"No, it doesn't sound cool. It sounds......... suspicious. We just got here and Aunty Em thinks we've known her for weeks." Abigail said.

"Look at this pair of snakes. They look like the caduceus Hermes has." I said. I was staring at a glass tank with two snakes entertained around an upright stick. They were both boa constrictors but one had blue eyes while the other had black.

Abigail snapped her fingers. "What if this pet could help us? This ties to Hermes, in some twisted way, and maybe they're, like, a reincarnation of the snakes Hermes has around his caduceus."

"I'm not sure a mortal pet could help a lot." Payton said, sitting down on a bench.

"Greek myths are always available to DemiGods. We just need to find something." I said.

I saw a painting of a lady with flowing golden hair and a green chiton. She was in a temple with a handsome man with glowing skin. But an image right beside it had a picture of an ugly lady with grey eyes and brown hair yelling a curse at the woman, causing green smoke to cover the woman's face and hair.

"Medusa." Abigail said.

"My mother cursed her for meeting in an Athena temple with Poseidon. She also cursed Medusa's sisters, Stethnno and Eurayle. " I said, ashamed of my mother.

"But didn't Perseus chop off her head?" Payton said.

"Specific characters like Medusa or the hydra don't have souls like us. They reform for more Heroes to kill them." I said.

I walked closer to the painting. I rubbed my hand over the Medusa's smoke covered head and a light emerged from the painting. I stepped back as a hole burned where the head was as a scroll landed on the floor.