Equilibrium

Chapter 37: Jackie's POV

Ok sooo I miiiight have screwed this up. Maybe just a teeny bit.
Okay maybe a lot.
Pairs of yellow eyes surround us, glowing dimly in the darkness of the cave.
"Luka?" I whisper, breath quickening, "Do you see what I'm seeing?"
"Yeah. And I don't like it one bit," he mutters, pulling his bow off his shoulder. I press my back against his own, pulling out my shotgun. The eyes grow closer, glowing more fiercely as they close in around us in a circle. Luka swings the flashlight around, but the light doesn't catch on anything in the pitch black. Then, of course, it flickers and goes out. "Godsdamnit, not now! Not now!" Luka curses, hitting the flashlight against his leg, desperately trying to make it light up, but to no avail. The yellow eyes continue closing in. There's more of them now. What had started with just a few pairs is now up to at least seven.
"Any ideas, Jack Jack?" I'd normally be giving him hell about using that nickname but now is not the time or place. My body is in panic mode, my hands sweating so bad I'm afraid I'll drop my shotgun. Then I get an idea.
"Yes! Actually! Uhhh hang on a second-" I rustle through my backpack, feeling around for a particular relic. When my hand wraps around the smooth handle of Demeter's torch, I grin. "Got it!" Pulling it out of the bag, I send up a quick prayer to Demeter, and sure enough, the torch blazes to life. Green flames dance before my eyes, casting the cave walls in an eerie glow. Then I see them.
Seven wolves, massive beasts with matted gray fur, sharp teeth and glowing yellow eyes crouch in the shadows, surrounding us.
That's not good.
That's noooooooot good.
"Well fuck." I grimace, switching out my shotgun for my sword so I can have a hand to hold the torch with properly.
"Fuck indeed." I almost, I repeat, almost, burst out laughing. Luka pretty much never swears. Out loud at least. Who knows what goes on inside his head though.
"Maybe they're... friendly?" I try, smiling at one of the wolves. The beast growls, baring his teeth in a not-so-friendly way, and creeps a little closer to me. "Okay, scratch that. Definitely NOT friendly."
"Yeah. I second that." Luka huffs as a wolf edges it's way towards him. "So what's the plan, Miss Elway?"
"Ohhhh don't you 'Miss Elway me!'" I scowl, "I have no freaking idea! There's too many of them! Seven versus two? How are we going to fight them off?"
"Our odds aren't great," Luka admits, "But we're going to have to try." On that, a wolf lunges toward Luka's side. I see it out of the corner of my eye a split second before Luka does and lunge at it with my sword, managing to stab the beast in the eye. The wolf howls in pain, whimpering as it retreats back a few steps. Another wolf starts creeping towards me on my right, I turn my sword on it, but Luka yells, "Jackie, to your left!" I whip around just in time to stab at another wolf. Triumphant, I whirl back around but something slams me to the ground. One of the wolves has me pinned to the cave floor, jaws snapping at me furiously. My sword had gone flying from my hand when the wolf tackled me, so I reach for my shotgun with my left hand, the right one doing it's best to keep the wolf's teeth from coming in contact with my neck.
"LUKA!" I screech, arm growing weak. The wolf's hot breath fills my nose and I almost gag at the stench. Saliva drips from it's maw onto my cheek and rolls down, its deadly claws coming dangerously close to my throat. My arm gives out. I close my eyes, the wolf's yellow ones searing into my brain, and wait for death to take me.
THWACK
The beast collapses on top of me, and I open my eyes. In it's back, buried to the feathers, is
Artemis's silver arrow. It must have pierced straight through the wolf's heart. I push the body off of me with a little difficulty and try to stand up, but my ankle aches so horribly that I just remain sitting. I glance around the now silent cave. My sword lies about ten feet from me on the ground, and next to it is Demeter's relic, still flickering brightly.
Cast in green light, lying dead on the floor, are all seven wolves, arrow wounds on their chests pouring blood. In the center of the massacre stands Luka, bow in his hand, looking altogether unharmed. He makes a beckoning motion with his finger and the silver arrow flies into his hand. He tucks it into his quiver before walking over to me and crouching down beside me, brow furrowed with worry.
"You okay?"
"You saved me," I breathe, staring into his piercing blue eyes.
"Oh, yeah, I guess." He mutters, scratching the back of his neck.
"You guess? You saved me dude! That was amazing!" I grin, and he smiles at me a little shyly.
"You did some saving too. I didn't even see that first wolf coming. You've got amazing reflexes." I smile at the praise.
"And you're amazing with that bow!" He grins right back, and I go to stand up again but let out a very un-Jackie-like whimper as pain sears through my ankle.
"Guess that ambrosia wore off, huh?"
"I guess so," I sigh, glaring down at my injury, "I hate this! I can't stand not being able to fight properly because of my stupid ankle!"
"I know." Luka frowns, walking over and grabbing my sword and the torch. He hands me my weapon and then crouches down in front of me. "Here, get on my back. I'll carry you back to Harper and we can get the hell out of here. Then we can get you fixed up and maybe we can grab something to eat."
"Sounds like a plan."
With a lot of pain and a lot of cussing, I manage to get myself onto Luka's back. He stands and walks out of the cave, me clinging to his shoulders.
After we're safely back on Harper and in the sky, I have some nectar and we set course for the music shop in a small town in Colorado where Apollo's relic is supposedly located.
Once we get to the town, Harper sets us down in a little park and Luka gives me a piggyback ride to the nearest diner. It feels like forever since I last ate, and I can tell Luka feels the same by the way he scarfs down his food. We get a couple weird looks from other customers in the diner, but probably for good reason. My hair is a rats nest, the two of us are covered in dirt, Luka's shirt is tattered, and the bandage on my ankle is a bloody mess.
But honestly, the strange looks we're getting don't mean anything to me. I'm just happy to be warm, safe, eating food, and with Luka. He looks like he's in a good mood for once, and our close call back in the cave makes me appreciate him a little bit more.
I make some dumb joke and he laughs, nose wrinkling, eyes going bright. I lose myself in his blue eyes for a second, and in that moment I seriously want to kiss him but I hold back. We don't need even more people staring at us. Instead I just grab his hand and smile at the blush on his cheeks as we go to pay for our food. We head out of the diner and towards the music shop, me on Luka's back, sun shining, and smiling stupidly like we don't have the rest of a deadly quest ahead of us.