the Lost Son

Chapter 7

“Ah, shit.” Avery muttered, nudging Dakota in the side as they walked along the road, headed towards where they knew they needed to go-the junkyard of the gods. “Cyclops, two o’clock.”
“I think that’s a manticore.” Vivi muttered. “Six o’clock. They’re coming towards us.”
“Ill take the manticore.” Dakota said, grabbing her necklace and willing it to turn into her bow and quiver, which she strung over her shoulder as she notched an arrow, ready to fight. “Long range against long range, with that tail. You two get the Cyclops” With that, Dakota pulled back the string on her bow and turned to face the manticore, taking a deep breath before releasing her arrow. The beast leapt into the air, narrowly dodging the arrow, which sliced through some of the fur on its hind, barely leaving a mark let alone an injury.
Meanwhile, Avery willed his bracelet to turn into his sword and prepared to fight the large beast. Vivi pulled out her dagger as well as a sludge hammer from her toolbelt and prepared to fight alongside Avery.

Dakota managed to keep the manticore at a distance with her arrows and leave a few injuries while dodging the spikes that were shot her way and keeping them away from the other two all the same.  She wouldn’t go down without a fight, like both of her parents.
She winced as a spike grazed her shoulder, momentarily causing her to be dizzy at the sight of her own blood but shot at the manticore, embedding an arrow into one of it paws, causing it to roar in pain. The graze wasn’t that deep, and she wasn’t losing too much blood, but Dakota found herself growing weaker and her aim was getting worse as her vision grew blurry, but she tried to fight it. Suddenly, as she grabbed another arrow and shakily tried to notch another arrow, she felt a sharp pain in her back and cried out, blindly thrusting the tip of her arrow behind her and into the manticore that had appeared behind her.
“Dakota!” Vivi looked over in time to see Dakota kill the manticore and collapse onto the ground. She dropped her dagger and hammer as she rushed over to her side. She was losing a lot of blood and Victoria didn’t have the faintest idea on what to do.
“Avery!” She shouted at the male who was preoccupied with the larger creature.
“A bit busy here!” The black-haired male shouted, blowing his hair from his face as he rolled to the side to dodge a blow from the cyclops’ club.
“Then switch with me, O healer!” Vivi shouted, adding the last part semi-sarcastically. “Your sisters dying over here!” Avery looked over for a spit second, just long enough to see the blood and the unconscious body of his sister with her backpack, quiver, and bow laying discarded next to her and Victoria.
No no no no no no no no no Avery thought. Not Dakota. She may be an asshole but she’s my sister.
“Get over here then. I can't just leave a fight without someone covering me!” Avery shouted, slicing at the cyclops and managing to leave a mark on its calf. Vivi gently placed Dakota on the ground, picking up her dagger and hammer again as she rushed to switch places with Avery, attacking and getting the cyclops attention long enough for Avery to rush to Dakota’s side and pull his healing things from his backpack and set to work on healing Dakota.
He’d watched Will do thing before and he’d remembered everything he’d been taught but he had never done anything firsthand or fully by himself and he barely knew what he was doing but he wasn't going to give up. He hummed a hymn he remembered his dad teaching him as he got to work, pouring a bit of nectar over some of her injuries and forcing a bit of ambrosia into her mouth as he patched up her injuries, praying to Apollo, Hades, and whatever god might be listening.
Please don’t let her die. Please let me save her. She’s my sister. I don’t want to lose her. I know we fight all the time, but I love her. Please let me save her. He prayed silently as he worked, feeling a bit of his energy leave him as he worked on healing her, pushing that energy into her.
Meanwhile, Victoria lunged at the cyclops and did her best to keep it distracted away from the twins. She received a few injuries herself like a few cuts, scraps, and bruises but nothing too serious before she finally managed to kill the cyclops, a bit of blood trailing down the side of her face from a nasty blow she’d received. Tucking the hammer and dagger back into her toolbelt, she knelt next to the twins.
“Is she going to be ok?” Vivi asked worriedly.
“She’ll be ok.” Avery said, looking a bit weary himself as he looked back up at Victoria. “Do you want me to...?”
“No. I'm fine. Dont waste your energy on me” Vivi reached over and grabbed a small square of ambrosia from the bag and chomped it down, feeling some strength returning to her body as it healed.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Dakota blinked open her brown eyes with a soft groan as she immediately tried to sit up, only for Avery to gently push her back down. “Careful. You lost a lot of blood, sis.”
“I’m fine.” she insisted, pushing his hand away and sitting up very carefully. “What happened?”
“The manticore managed to over power you and it almost killed you. We tag teamed the cyclops and managed to kill it.”
“I killed it while he healed you.” Victoria added.
“You...you healed me? By yourself?” Dakota asked, looking twards her brother.
“You don’t see dad anywhere around here, do you? Or a doctor?” Avery replied, blushing a bit. “I thought I was going to lose you, ‘kota.”
“You didn’t. I’m here and I'm not going anywhere. You’re a blessing, you know that?” She pulled her brother in for a hug. “You may be a wanna be Athena kid, but you’re my brother-my wanna be Athena kid-and I'd have died many times without you. Maybe you’re not so much of a curse as I used to think you were.”




“I think that’s the junkyard up ahead.” Vivi said, squinting into the distance before taking off in a run.
“Wait up!” Dakota said, starting to run after her, her necklace bouncing against her chest as she ran.
“Slow down!” Avery shouted, chasing after the two while his yellow backpack bounced against his back slightly. “It's not smart to go running in there like that without a plan! We don’t even know if we’re in the right place, let alone what's out there!”
The two girls came to a stop near what looked like an abandoned taco stand from the 1920’s that was near a boarded-up house and a small white post office labeled “Gila Claw, Arizona.” beyond that were hills but the countryside was always too flat for things like hills and, upon closer inspection, the hills turned out to be mounds of old junk and cars alongside lots of scrap metal.
“I don’t entirely understand why we had to come here, other than the prophecy said to.” Dakota said, looking over at Avery.
“Me neither.” Avery said, sighing as he took off his backpack and unrolled his bedroll. “But its getting late, we should make camp, get some rest while we can. Who knows how much longer this quest is going to take or even when we’ll get a break next?”
“You’re right. Lets take what we can get.” Dakota said, pulling of her bag and doing the same as well. Victoria was next to set up a spot.
“Lets try to setup a fire.” Vivi suggested. “It might get cold and it’ll be better to eat warm beans rather than cold beans.” She pulled a can out of her backpack and offered it towards the two twins.
“I’ll work on a small pit. You go get wood. You can probably get some off of that boarded up house.” Avery said, immediately started gathering some rocks and using his hands and a little bit of water in order to dig a bit of a hole that he then arranged the rocks around in order to prevent the fire from getting out of control.
After a few minutes, Dakota and Vivi came back with some boards in their arms. The two dumped some of them in the small pit and Avery started to pull out some matches but Vivi stopped him.
“I got it.” She said and grabbed a board, lighting her hand on fire as she did, which soon caused them to have a nice fire that they were able to use to heat up some food.
“Where did you even get this food?” Avery asked as he looked over at Victoria.
“Your aunt and uncle gave it to me before we left. I’ve just been making sure we’ve had enough until this is over.” she explained with a small smile over her can.
As it started to near a bit closer to night fall and the sun neared being set, a car suddenly appeared, blinding them all with its bright lights and didn’t give them enough time to move as it came to a stop just inches from them.

“Who are you?” Dakota and Avery were quick to jump up, weapons drawn and ready to attack.
“At ease.” the figure said as he got out of the car, pulling off a pair of sunglasses and placing them on top of his head. He had blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a surfer’s tan, looking extremely fit and powerful.
“I’m not here to hurt my own grandchildren.” He said, sighing a bit as he shook his head. “
“Apollo.” Avery said in surprise, returning his sword to his bracelet as Dakota did the same with her bow and arrow.
“You did excellent, Avery, when you healed Dakota.” Apollo said, waving his hand and Dakota felt the last of her injuries heal fully and disappea r as she felt stronger. “The one gift I can give you, using my abilities, at least.”
“Do you know where dad is?” Avery asked. “Papa. He-’
“i’m aware. I've been watching everything. Will is safe, for the moment. He hasn’t been harmed-yet.” Apollo said. “I don’t know what he’s planning or how he didn’t die but your dad is safe, for now.”
“What who’s planning?” Victoria chimed in, looking over at the sun god.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Apollo said, shaking his head a bit. “Dakota, come here for a moment.” Hesitant, Dakota glanced back at Avery for a moment, earning a soft nod before she approached the god, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her away from the group.
“California. That’s where you need to go. I can’t give you much more information than that.’ Apollo said with a soft sigh.
“And you’re telling only me...because?” Dakota asked.
“Thats not why. You don’t have to be aphrodite to see that you have feeling for her.” Apollo said with a smile.
“I...what do you mean?” Dakota said, blushing.
“You have feelings for Victoria.’ Apollo smirked when the words caused his granddaughter to blush an even brighter shade of red. “I’m not aphrodite or the god of love, but I'm telling you to go for it.  That’s the last piece of advice I can leave you. Good luck.” With a small flash, Apollo and the sun chariot were gone, leaving the three legacies alone on the side of the road.
“California.” Dakota said as she approached the group after her little conversation with the god of the sun. “Thats where we have to go.”
“He pulled you aside just to tell you that?” Avery asked.
“Uh...y-yeah.” Dakota said, trying not to blush as she rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “I don’t know why, since you have a better connection to him than I do, but that was it.”
“If you say so.” Vivi said with a smile that caused Dakota to blush again, thankful for the fading light.
“Lets get some rest.’ Avery added as he crawled into his own sleeping bag and rolling over to face away from the girls as he started to fall asleep, his breathing starting to even out after a few minutes. The girls were quick to fall asleep shortly after.

The next morning, the girls were the first ones awake, having already eaten by the time Avery woke up.
“Hey...Wanna find out whats in his notebook?” Dakota whispered towards Victoria as they ate some of the dry food that had been stored in one of their backpacks.
“We...shouldn’t.”  Vivi said, shaking her head as Dakota walked over to where Avery was still sleeping with his notebook tucked against his chest. She reached down slowly and started to gently tug the book from his grasp. He shifted,muttering something as he rolled over, causing dakota to freeze and release the book but as he rolled over, it tumbled from his grasp, allowing her to pick it up and sit back down next to Vivi as she flipped open to a random page and starting to read quietly outloud.
“I want to tell you. I really do. I’d love to spill my secrets, my issues to you. Yet I can’t comprehend it. I can’t communicate to you and the fact that you could leave me. It makes my heart a tearful blue. You already look at me as if I'm broken. What do I have to loose? I want to tell you. I really do,yet I can’t cope with the fact that your presence may fade. Vanish without a trace. Except you’d still have that key. The key that can unlock the darkness in my brain.” Dakota read quietly, glancing up at Vivi.
“It’s a poem. What else is there?” Vivi asked with a raised eyebrow.
“let me see.” Dakota fipped toa new pageand started to read. “I never thought I'd matter. To anyone. Until you. Came alone. And changed my perspective. Of the universe. You made me feel. Like I matter. And I'm grateful. For you.”
“He’s really good at this. Read another one.”
“Hey. I love you. And it happened so quick, but. I love you. And I can’t wait to make memories, because I love you.” Dakota read from yet another page.
“He’s in love with someone. It’s a love poem.” Victoria said in surprise. “What else is there?”
“I lost my breath kissing you and now I'm loosing it again missing-” Dakota didn’t get to finish because the notebook was suddenly yanked from her hands and she looked up to see Avery glaring down at her with the same ferocity Papa did whenever he was angry, which almost made her shiver.
“Why? Why do you insist on going through my things?” Avery growled, walking over to his stuff again and starting to pack it up.
“I...i was just curious..” Dakota admitted, feeling bad again. “I won’t do it again.”
“You say that every time. I don’t expect you to stop anytime soon.” Avery sighed as he shouldered his bag, not looking at either of the two. “Let’s get going. We gotta trek across this whole junkyard in order to get to California. Who knows how long that’ll take.”  Very quickly, the girls packed their bags and followed after Avery who walked ahead of them as if he had no intention of speaking to either of them-and he didn’t, not unless he had to.
“Don’t take anything. It all has to stay here.” Avery said. “I’ve been paying attention to our history and Bianca di Angelo died by trying to take something for her younger brother.”
“That would be Papa.” Dakota said as she scrambled up a tall pile of debris in an attempt to keep up with her twin brother. “I asked Percy and Annabeth. That's what they told me. She was his older sister and he felt betrayed because she joined the hunters of Artemis and left him behind but after sacrificing herself, he blamed Percy for a long time before becoming friends in the end.”