Lani
I was disappointed when the wheels fell off.
The horse seemed to bend time and space as he ran, blurring the landscape. So, as bumpy as the chariot ride was, it gave me time to think. I tried to remember more about the brand because thinking of Zoe made me feel homesick, but I couldn't remember what the goddess said. I could remember everything about the moment, down to the song I sang to Zoe, which I realized even though I was talking about the planets it made perfect sense as the names of Roman gods as well. I just couldn't hear what the goddess was saying to me after the brand was burned into my skin. Like someone had given me a movie to watch but the sound cut out at the last scene.
As memories of Zoe flooded my mind I had to try really hard not to cry. It felt like I was losing her all over again and I hated it. I wanted to kick and scream. I wanted to hit something. I wanted to hear her talk about anything. I wished I could see that confused look on her face whenever we made a joke she didn't understand. What I didn't want, was to feel the way I feel right now. Like cotton candy being pulled apart or taffy being stretched and twisted by those machines.
The horse sped north across Puget Sound, zooming past islands and fishing boats and very surprised pod of whales.
The horse rocketed onto dry land. He followed Highway 99 north, running so fast, the cars seemed to be standing still. Then the chariot wheels began to smoke.
"Hazel!" Frank yelled. "We're breaking up!"
She got the message and pulled the reigns. The horse was not happy about it based on the language he used as he slowed to a subsonic speed as we zipped through the city streets. We crossed a bridge and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction, more or less saying 'That's how we run fools', but I don't think this horse can actually go a single sentence without swearing. Seriously that horse cusses like a sailor. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Frank, Ella and I onto the wet, mossy ground.
Frank stumbled to his feet, blinking a lot. Percy groaned and helped me unhitch Arion from the ruined chariot. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering, "Tree. Tree. Tree"
Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back. "That was fun!"
"Yeah" Frank swallowed. "So much fun"
Arion whinnied.
"He says he needs to eat" I translated, not feeling like making a joke about the horse's language.
"No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories"
Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned. "I'm not sensing any gold around here... don't worry Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you"
The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.
Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Do you think he'll come back?"
"I don't know" Percy said. "He seems kind of... spirited."
I noticed everyone was looking at me and forced a smile. "Yeah, spirited is one word for him" I laughed. Hazel and Frank just shrugged, but Percy kept sending me worried glances.
Hazel and Percy started salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise at the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages so fast I wasn't sure she was reading, she might just be shredding.
Frank leaned against a tree and without a second thought I chose a tree a couple yards away from the others and began to climb. I perched myself on a branch so high up in the tree I could see for a while. I listened carefully and once I was sure none of my fellow quest members could see or hear me, I finally put my mask away.
Tears streamed down my face and my shoulders shook as I finally let out so much of the emotion I had been holding back. The brand on my arm got warm, but not in a burning way, it was comforting. The feeling just made me cry harder.
"It wasn't fair" I sobbed.
A couple minutes later the stream of tears slowed to a trickle and I started to calm down. That's when I realized something else, Zoe died when my brother got Annabeth back before. Yes, I remembered now, Annabeth had been taken and we were on a mission to rescue Artemis, but Percy had tagged along to find Annabeth, and when he saved her Zoe died.
To my surprise, this revelation didn't make me bitter, it just ripped any hope I may have had of maybe finding someone else to love as much as I loved Zoe out of my body and stomped it to a bloody pulp with a really big boot. I am convinced that as long as my brother is happy with Annabeth, I'll be alone.
I was startled out of my thoughts by my brother calling my name. "Lani! Lani where are you!"
"I'm up here" I struggled to stop my voice from breaking as I wipe the tears from my eyes, sniffling before I added. "We have a plan yet?"
"Yeah, we're headed to Frank's Grandmothers house, he says it's nearby" Percy called up as I put my mask back on and began to climb down.
"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go" I said with a smile.
"Why are your eyes red and puffy?" My brother asked, causing Hazel and Frank to turn to me. "Were you crying? You know you can talk to me about it, no matter what it is?"
"I'm fine, I was just trying to get a better vantage point and got a branch to the eyes" I lied.
No one seemed to believe me. Hazel opened her mouth, but I spoke before we got the chance.
"Frank lead the way, we're on a time crunch as it is" I reminded.
No one protested as we trudged through the woods. To Grandmother's house we go.
Frank was so distracted her would have walked right into the ogre's camp. Fortunately, my brother pulled him back.
They crouched next to Hazel, Ella and I behind a fallen log and peered into the clearing.
It was fully dark now, which didn't help with my vulnerable emotional state now that Zoe's constellation was staring down at us through the treetops.
Around a campfire sat half a dozen shaggy-haired humanoids. Standing up, they probably would've been eight feet tall- tiny compared to the giant Polybotes or even the cyclopes we'd seen in California, but that didn't make them any less scary. They wore only knee-length surfer shorts. They skin was sunstroke red and covered with tattoos of dragons, heart, and bikini-clad women. Hanging from a spit over the fire was a skinned animal, and the ogres were tearing off chunks of meat with their claw like fingernails, laughing as they ate, baring pointy teeth. Next to the ogres sat several mesh bags filled with bronze spheres like cannonballs. The spheres must have been hot because they steamed in the cool evening air.
I quick memory flashed behind my eyes of a high school gym, Percy and I were fighting those things. A kid was standing in front of us fighting them, Percy and I were on the ground. Percy was frozen in shock and I was scrambling around looking for the clip that had fallen out of my hair, knowing I didn't have time to wait for it to reappear.
I snapped back to reality just as Frank asked a question. "What are these guys?"
"Canadians" Percy said.
Frank leaned away from him. "Excuse me?"
"Uh, no offense." Percy said. "That's what Annabeth called them when I fought them before. She said they live in the north, in Canada"
"Yeah, well" Frank grumbled. "we're in Canada. I'm Canadian. But I've never seen those things before."
Ella plucked a feather from her wings and turned it in her fingers. "Laistrygonians," she said. "Cannibals. Northern giants. Sasquatch legend. Yep, yep. They're not birds. Not birds of North America"
As soon as Ella said that another shred of memory ignited, of Zoe, of course. Zoe was telling me a story of them running into the Laistrygonians while hunting Orion who hated both the Hunters and the Amazons.
"That's what they're called," Percy agreed. His voice snapping me out of my stupor. "Laistry- uh, whatever Ella said"
"Laistrygonians" I corrected. Causing all of my companions other than the harpy to turn to me with surprised faces for a moment. I rolled my eyes at them, continuing to look for a way around our enemies.
Frank turned his attention back to the dudes in the clearing and scowled. "They could be mistaken for Bigfoot. Maybe that's where the legend came from. Ella, you're pretty smart"
"Ella is smart" she agreed. She shyly offered Frank her feather.
"Oh... thanks" He stuck the feather in his pocket with Hazel glaring at him. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing" she turned to my brother. "So your memory is coming back? Do you remember how you beat these guys?"
"Sort of" Percy said. "It's still fuzzy. I think I had help. We killed them with Celestial bronze, but that was before... you know"
"Before Death got kidnapped," Hazel said. "So now, they might not die at all"
I nodded. "Those bronze cannonballs... those are bad news. I think we used some of them against the giants. They catch fire and blow up"
"If we cause any explosions" Frank said. "the ogres at the other camps will come running. I think they've surrounded the house, which means there could be fifty or sixty of these guys in the woods"
"So it's a trap" Hazel looked at Frank with concern. "What about you grandmother? We've got to help her"
"We need a distraction" Frank decided. "If we can draw this group into the woods, we might sneak through without alerting the others"
"I wish Arion was here" Hazel said. "I could get the ogres to chase me"
Frank slipped his spear off his back. "I've got another idea"
"Frank you can't charge out there!" Hazel said as I summoned my dagger. "That's suicide"
"It's a good day to die" I said, causing my brother to put an arm around me so I couldn't charge.
"You're not charging either" My twin scolded.
"I'm not charging" Frank said. "I've got a friend. Just... nobody scream, okay?"
He jabbed the spear into the ground, and the point broke off.
"Oops" Ella said. "No spear point. Nope, nope"
The ground trembled. A skeletal hand broke the surface. Percy fumbled for his sword, and Hazel made a sound like a cat with a hairball. Ella disappeared and rematerialized at the top of the nearest tree.
"It's okay" Frank promised. "He's under control!"
A skeleton crawled out of the ground. He wore camouflage and combat boots, translucent gray flesh covering his bones like glowing Jell-O. He turned his ghostly eyes toward Frank.
"Frank that's a spartus" I said.
"A skeleton warrior. They're evil. They're killers. They're-" My brother continued.
"I know" Frank said bitterly. "But it's a gift from Mars. Right now that's all I've got. Okay, Gray. Your orders: attack that group of ogres. Lead them off to the west, causing a diversion so we can-"
Unfortunately, the skeleton, Gray, lost interest after the word ogres. Maybe he only understood simple sentences. He charged toward the ogres' campfire and I tried to charge after him, but my twin tightened his grip around me to the point it hurt. I winced and he loosened his grip, barely.
"Wait!" Frank said, but it was too late. Gray pulled tow of his own ribs from his shirt and ran around the fire, stabbing the ogres in the back with such blinding speed they didn't even have time to yell. Six extremely surprised-looking Laistrygonians fell sideways like a circle of dominoes and crumbled into dust.
Gray stomped around, kicking their ashes apart as they tried to re-form. When he seemed satisfied that they weren't coming back he stood at attention, saluting in Frank's direction, and sank into the forest floor.
Percy stared at Frank. "How-"
"No Laistrygonians" Ella fluttered down and landed next to us. "Six minus six is zero. Spears are good for subtraction. Yep"
Frank glared down at the broken tip of his spear. "Let's go" he said. "My grandmother might be in trouble"