The Last Olympian [Book Five]

New Monster, New You.

"Gods, Nico." I begin jokingly. "If my grandparents were alive to see you, they'll make you gain twenty pounds in one sitting with their food."

There's no response, and at first I think he's just ignoring me, but then I hear soft snoring and realize he's already fallen asleep. Smiling softly to myself, I begin walking before the alligator chooses to come back for a lunchtime snack.

For once I'm actually prepared for this situation. I pull the bag to the side of my body and begin to search through my things, and eventually procure a compass to find my way around. I'm following the compass southeast, careful not to jostle Nico awake whose cheek is resting on my shoulder.

"You guys lost or something?"

I blink and look up at the source of the voice, and a tall boy is standing on a muddy bank of the slow moving river. I had started to trudge across the river slowly, but the sight of someone walking around this massive swamp makes me pause in surprise.

"Did you guys somehow get separated from the tour group?" He asked again humorously.

"Tour group?" I'm surprised that someone else is walking around here, and even more surprised that there's a group of tourists walking around here.

"Yeah." This time he's smiling kindly. "They ride boats through the Bayou, ooo-ing and ahhhh-ing the entire way." The boy shakes his head at the last part and offers a hand to me.

In the other hand he's clutching these dark feathers tightly so they don't blow away in a breeze by mistake. I glance down at them in confusion, but with his help he pulls me and the sleeping Nico out of the water and onto dry land.

He whistles. "Man, how long have you guys been walking around out here?"

I'm utterly drenched from the waist down and mud from the bottom of the river cakes my shoes and the bottom of my jeans.

"An hour?" I guess.

He's shaking his head in disbelief. "Your family must be going crazy looking for you."

I think of Annabeth and nod slowly. "Yeah. Probably."

The stranger is looking us over again, this time the free hand is against his hip comfortably. He's dressed in a white t shirt, jeans with some tears, and he's got on a pair of boots that go up to his ankle, like he's been doing this for a while and knows how to dress for the occasion. Us, on the other hand...

"My name's Kyle." He smiles at us and holds a hand out, and I take it in my own dirty one.

"Reagan. This is Nico. Traveling makes him really tired."

Kyle nods a little at my lame excuse, though Nico is tired from the traveling we did so it technically isn't a lie. Kyle offers to take us to his grandmother's house so that we could eat and dry up, and I'm grateful because I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point while carrying Nico around on my back in alligator infested waters. I want to look at the map more and try to get a sense of where to even begin. We walk for a few hours in comfortable silence, Nico snoring on my back contently as I watch Kyle stow the feathers away into a clear plastic bag and zip it up before putting it into a small backpack he had on his own back. An almost solid blanket of dirt and grime cover his dark skin, like he's been wading through the muck of this swamp for literal hours even before finding us. It makes me feel guilty for complaining about being stuck out here all wet and gross while being stuck out here for only the fraction of how long he's been out here.

Eventually the Bayou becomes a lot less swampy: The ground beneath our feet turns more firm and stable to walk on, and I find myself not slipping on mud like before. The Cyprus trees begin to thin out as we walk, leaving the marshy forest behind us as we walk. I'm assuming we're heading towards New Orleans, but I see a house in the distance, alone and sturdy with a few cars in the driveway. A single cracked road leads away further east, and I can only guess that's the direction of New Orleans. But the house looks warm and inviting, and I'm fine with a rest here for a bit before we have to go on our way. Thanking him as he opens the door for me, I step inside and my attention is quickly drawn to the decorations. Not just paintings and happy family photographs, but animal heads, just like how the living room in Geryon's ranch home was, except these weren't monster heads. A few smaller, stuffed animal bodies lined the shelves, but bigger animal heads like bears and even an alligator head was hanging on the wall, rows of ferocious teeth on display for all to see.

I swallow.

Kyle smiles apologetically. "Sorry. My grandma's a little-"

"A little what, Kyle?" A woman inquires.

A woman stands in the hallway leading into the living room, her arms crossed over her chest. Her long hair is up in a thick braid that is tightly coiled atop her head. She's wearing a bright red dress that hangs off her dark shoulders and is cinched at her waist, and then flows down to a stop at her knees.

The boy smiles cheekily and rubs the back of his neck. "I got the feathers you wanted, Nan!" Kyle says instead and pulls out the clear baggy and holds them out to her.

I feel my jaw drop. "She's your grandma?" I whisper in disbelief. She's awfully attractive and young looking to be a grandmother.

Instead of getting angry, she laughs and takes the bag from Kyle and smiles, taking her time to examine the feathers closely before finally speaking to me:

"If anyone asks, I'm thirty-seven," she jokes with a wink. "Now come, you all look dreadful."

Taking our shoes off at the door to not track mud in, Kyle takes Nico's shoes off and leads me upstairs real quick, where I'm allowed to let Nico sleep on a bed in a spare room while we sit downstairs and eat. I drink my tea and glance around the kitchen, wondering briefly if the feathers were being used for my tea. It didn't taste like bird feathers, however, I've never tasted a bird feather before so how would I know.

"Won't your parents be looking for you?" She asks in concern.

"No, Ma'am-"

"Call me Marie."

I nod at her request. "They know that if we can't be found out in the swamp, they'll go back to our hotel because we agreed to go back there at any point that we're separated."

"Don't you have a cellphone?" Kyle asks in bewilderment, and I blush at how shocked he seems to be when I shake my head slowly.

"My parents say I'm too young to have a phone of my own still. Also I just don't need one." It's a lie since the real reason I can't have a cellphone is because the device seems to attract monsters like cats to kibble. No sane half-blood carries one on them for that reason.

"Reagan!"

My attention snaps to the stairway where Nico stands, still looking as tired as ever like he hadn't slept in weeks. He pauses as all eyes land on him, uncomfortable with the sudden attention, but he focuses on me alone.

"We need to get going."

Marie stands up with a frown. "But you just woke up. Would you like something to eat?"

Nico shakes his head adamantly. "They're looking for us."

Although confused, I get up. I'm not sure what he means exactly but he looks scared, and that alone makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.

"Your parents?" Marie presses urgently in concern.

Before anyone else can speak, a bloodcurdling howl fills the humid air. Marie and Kyle jump in surprise and look around as I go to a window to peer outside. The sun is slowly setting, and I frown. How long have we been here? It's going to get dark soon, and we need to get into town as soon as possible. Pushing that thought aside for now, I focus on what;s currently happening.

"A Hellhound?"

The son of Hades shakes his head and anxiously twists the skull ring adorned on his finger. "I- I don't think so. But-"

Another howl closer this time, and I squint to try and find the source and he's doing the same through other windows. Everything is eerily silent now, even the birds outside have stopped their chirping and right as I begin to lower my guard a figure rises right in front of the window. My eyes widen into saucer plates and I stumble back in fear, tripping over a leg of a chair and falling back. The monster looms, if I had to guess, around seven feet tall. it's body was covered entirely with fur and had a long snout like that of a canine. Panting, the thing opens its eyes and gazes at me hungrily with piercing red eyes like nothing I've ever seen before, the sight alone making my blood run cold. It almost resembles a Hellhound, except it stands on its hind legs, those eyes too Human to shake off.

Nico rushes over to help me up. "What in Hades is that?!"

"A je-rouge." Marie answers, surprisingly calm in the situation.

I frown, but before I can ask anything else, the creature howls again and lunges at us through the window.