The Titan's Daughter | complete

12. We Get Yet Another Detour

Thysía's POV

CHRYSÓS WAS ALL but healed by the time we were done with him. He had various scars and a splint on his wing, though. My arm was splinted and I ate some god food too. Which was a relief because hitting people with my left hand was tiring.

"So where are we going to stay the night?" Mana asked as he tied the last strap of our makeshift metal and rope splint on my arm.

"My house."

"Where he lives?" He gestured to Christopher, who was still unconscious on the concrete floor.

"Yeah. But I'll just lock him out." I said, sidetracked.

"Oh." He hesitated, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"If it's about my dad, then no." I told him, looking out into the downpour.

"I was going to ask about your mom."

"Ah." I sighed. "What do you want to know?"

He hesitated, picking up various items that were scattered across the ground. "Who is she? I mean, no offence, but-"

"You haven't heard of her?" I said, "Yeah, no one really has. The thing is, I'm not really a proper demigod, since Iphigenia isn't a goddess."

"What? But you, I can see your aura - it's strong enough for you to be a son of Athena." He was scrunching up hid eyebrows.

"Wait, you can see auras?"

"You can't?"

"I-" My voice trailed away as thunder shook the building. I cringed, shivering. "We should go. I'll tell you about my mother on the way."

Ahomana nodded and started to gather our duffel bags. I took one and he took Dallas' as well as his own.

We started walking, and I glanced over the three of us. I started laughing.

"What?" Ahomana looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

"Look at us." I cackled, "Ohr clothes are tattered, we haven't had a shower in three days, we are drenched, we're heavily armed, I have the weirdest splint ever seen, and we have a crippled flying horse."

Soon the both of us were laughing so hard our insides hurt. Chrysós was giving us the seedy side eye as we stepped into the rain.

It wasn't pouring as much as it had been when arrived a few hours ago, and I could see sunlight shining through in random places.

I looked around. We were in Burns Harbour, next to Lake Michigan. My father worked here, driving the equipment.

But that meant Michigan City and my house was around fifteen miles away.

We had a long walk ahead of us.

•••

Most of the four hour walk was done in silence, except for the beginning where I told Ahomana the story of my mother, and when the occasional little kid came up to us saying, "Can I pet your doggy?" Before being dragged away by their apologetic mothers. I guessed the 'doggy' was Chrysós. The pegasus didn't seemed pleased with being seen as a mutt.

The sun had dipped below the buildings by the time we reached my street. It castes long, sad shadows across the ground. It reminded me of my childhood.

I reluctantly walked up to the porch of my suburban house and knelt down, taking the house key from underneath the cactus pot plant.

I stood and unlocked the door.

"So there's no one home?" Ahomana asked as he stepped through the doorway, trying to wipe his feet and not trudge rainwater through the house.

I shook my head, then looked back at the winged stallion. "You wanna come in or..."

The horse looked appalled, but I could see he wanted to get out of the rain. He reluctantly followed Ahomana, and I locked the door behind us.

I showed Ahomana the shower and my old wardrobe that had a few clothes I'd left here from last winter.

I took a pair of khaki pants and a grey tee, along with fresh underwear and my old black Vans I'd left behind. I chucked the shoes and socks on by bed so I didn't forget them in the morning. I took a shower in the other bathroom and came back into the living room to see Ahomana sprawled on the couch.

"Mate," I said, sitting down across from him, "You gonna tell me what you found today?"

"Right." He yawned and reluctantly sat up. He looked me dead in the eye. "She got captured."

"She what?"

"A bunch of Atlas' minions are holding her captive in Columbia."

"Like, Columbia City, just south of here?" I said. Although I could already guess it wasn't.

"No, Columbia, near Kansas City."

"Oh great." I growled.

"She said that Atlas wanted to marry her. Just like in my dream." Ahomana explained, "Tomorrow afternoon they're transporting her to Mount Tamalpais, or Mount Orthys. She warned us that the Nemean Lion is Atlas's 'friend' from my dream."

"Oh god." I muttered.

"And I also met a veteran demigod."

"A Roman?"

"Yeah. Descendant of Diana." Ge nodded, "He helped me once before a few years ago, so I went to see him. He gave me that lot of ambrosia and gave us enough money for a train trip to Denver."

"Not further?" I asked. I cringed as soon as the words came out. It sounded really ungrateful.

"He isn't blessed in the money department." The Hawaiian replied.

"I see. Well can we use part of the money to get to Columbia first?" I asked.

"That's what I was thinking."

"There's some money in this house I can get us to Denver after that." I told him.

"Thanks man."

And then we trudged upstairs and plopped on our respective beds. I know I fell asleep instantly.