Annabel would have been jealous of a couple of newbie demigods who got to face harpies within 10 minutes of entering the Labyrinth. Me? Not so much.
Nat unsheathed her dagger and started swiping through the air. She clearly had practice back home. Otherwise, she would have been ripped to pieces within 3 seconds. God bless Natasha's mysterious old grandparents.
While she did all the killing, I thought. I was pretty sure I had read about harpies somewhere. They were half-women, half-bird monsters. They squawked and screeched relentlessly. My ears told me that much. They also stunk. My nose told me that much. They had an insatiable appetite. My eyes told me that much. They wanted to kill me really bad. My gut told me that much.
I unsheathed my blades. The harpies stared at them mystified for just a second. That gave me just enough time to tie my shoe lace quickly. Why must they come off at all the wrong times?
Natasha had already disintegrated one harpy. That left four more. Yay.
I calculated the odds of two dork demigods versus 4 lethal killing-machines. The answer was 1000000 to 1. Not great odds.
Then my thoughts were again rudely interrupted as a pair of talons ripped through the shoulder of my t-shirt and gave me a light cut.
"Ow."
Nat was swiping at the harpies at god-speed but they kept flying out of reach. They were blocking the only doorway in the whole chamber. We had nothing but three knives and a whole lot of useless money. Could we throw the gold at them? That sounds ridiculous even to me.
Another harpy came down and ripped apart a lock of Nat's pageboy hair. "Ouch! That hurt, you bully!" She said madly slashing at them.
I started thinking hard. How do we get out of here? We couldn't defeat them all by just slashing knives. That's when a totally obvious idea clicked me. I was about to express it when another mean harpy glazed through my knee. Blood started pouring out.
"Okay that's it – hold this Natasha," I have her the golden apple I had found lying on the ground. She pocketed it. I turned to the harpies. I knocked one out by the hilt of my sword and slashed it when it hit the ground. I watched it disintegrate. The first monster I ever slayed – a harpy. Yay.
The other harpies backed off. This gave me time to explain to Natasha my slightly far-fetched plan.
"Back in the earlier times!" I shouted through the screeching. "Palaces used to have underground treasuries! And we are underground right now!"
"Yeah, I can see that!" Natasha yelled. "What is your plan?"
"I think we could be underwater right now!" I said. "See those puddles? I think now I know why they are here! Because of the water surrounding us! Do you think you could -?"
But I did not need to say more. Natasha closed her eyes in deep concentration. Then suddenly the circular wall on the left side of the room opened a subsection of it so that water could flood into the room. Then another. And then another. Within a minute we were surrounded by humongous taps that poured water into the room. The harpies squawked, terrified. One of them was apparently dumber than she looked because she dived right at us. I managed to cut it off by my sword. The other two were apparently wise enough not to attack us as the water advanced. They turned and flew off into the corridor. And for some stupid, stupid reason, the humongous metal door of the treasury decided it needed to close itself right then. Joy.
"Quick, look for the apple!" I said, now shouting over the rushing of the water. We were waist-deep inside the water now.
Me and Nat worked furiously on the piles of gold. We looked for 2 minutes. The water was shoulder-length now. Nat was neck-deep but it didn't really matter for her because I assumed, she could just breathe underwater easily. Me? Not so much.
Then suddenly she screamed. "Found it!" in her hand she held a glowing golden apple.
"Come on let's get out of here!" I said and swam towards the door. Natasha was right behind me.
"Here hold this," she handed me the apple. She put both of her hands on either metal door and closed her eyes. She stayed like that for quite a while. She was fully under water now, meanwhile I struggled to keep my nose up. Then, without warning, the doors burst open and we poured out along with water. After about ten long minutes of pouring-out, we finally reached dry land. We were still inside the medieval corridors.
I was drenched wet and my left leg was covered in blood otherwise, I felt pretty okay. Natasha seemed fine except for the fact a spike of her was missing. She felt that place with her fingers uncomfortably.
"You can grow it back you know," I told her. "I mean, I think you can. Try it out."
Natasha looked at me like I was her fitness instructor who told her to eat chocolate 5 meals a day. Heck, I probably would recommend that. But anyhow, she tried to regrow her hair. The minute she closed her eyes the spike grew back. She looked delighted.
"You can probably change your hair color too," I droned on. "Like I can do with mine." I demonstrated the process by turning my currently brown hair with blonde-highlights into a fully blonde hairdo.
"WOW." Was the response of the audience. "I can do that?! Why?" She asked, amazed.
"I have some theories, but all of them are ridiculous. Try coloring your hair." She closed her eyes in concentration again.
"You have to pray," I offered.
"I want red streaks!" She shouted at the ceiling. She instantly got her wish. She looked even more amazed. "Now white!" She shouted. The ceiling did not oblige. It had guts, because no one in their right mind would refuse a command from Her Highness, Natasha.
"It's not letting me have more than one color," she pouted, as if her new iPhone model wasn't letting her put a ringtone of her own choice.
"Yeah, they don't let us get carried away. Come on, we have 2 more apples to find. We'd better get going."
She skipped along beside me as I limped slightly. Finally, we reached a T-point. On our left was an elaborately forested corridor. Vines snaked around and bushes grew at a rapid rate. It was lit only by the glow of the wild-flowers. On our right was a regular looking tunnel lit by LED lights. I think we knew which one we were going to choose.
5 minutes into the normal-tunnel, a bright glow reflected against my bronze blade. It was an apple, just lying there, 7 feet ahead of us. Natasha switched on her alert mode. She put herself into a stance and advanced at the apple. I did not unsheathe my blades. Instead, I looked for some trap around Natasha. There was no way Harley would let us have an apple so easily. Natasha was nearly to the apple when my brain clicked.
"Natasha watch out for that tile!" I said. She stopped instantly, bless her constant vigilance. Her right foot hovered in the air. It was placed exactly above the 4X4 camouflaged tile decorated with Hephaestus cabin figures. It was large enough to swallow Nat whole the minute she put her foot on it. She slowly backed off and gave me a thumbs up. After she had a distance of 5 feet from the tile, she started running and pulled of a huge jump over the tile. She landed on her feet without hurting her ankles and picked up the apple. I cheered. She grinned.
Our journey for the search of the final apple was pretty event-less. That is, until we found the prettiest corridor.
It was lit by bright lights and its wall were decorated with beautiful wall hangings. Dream-catchers and wind-chimes and crystals. It was mesmerizing.
We were halfway through it when a voice in behind us growled. Oh no. No, no, no. Two monsters in one day were way too much for Melody.
Me and Nat flipped around. A giant ant crawled out of the shadows. And by giant, I mean full grown German-shepherd size. Its eyes hovered over our apples and our daggers.
I racked my brain. What were these called, again? Murk-geeks? No, that wasn't it. Myrmekes. Yes, Myrmekes. They were giant ants attracted to sparkly objects. And right now, me and Natasha were slathered with sparkly object.
Then, as if one Myrmeke wasn't enough, another one hobbled behind it. I sighed and unsheathed my blades again. The ants gazed at it transfixed. This gave Natasha enough time to sneak behind one and stab it in the would-be gut. It disintegrated instantly. This made its partner snap back to its senses. It attacked us. It barely missed my forearm. Me and Natasha scrambled back. We turned and twisted and fought for about 5 minutes like this. Then, finally when the myrmeke seemed tired we both sneaked up to its either edge and attempted to stab it from either side. But the monster bolted dead before my bronze blade contacted with its body.
I looked at Natasha. But her look was as blank was as blank as mine. If none of us had killed the myrmeke, then who had?
That's when the monster's dead carcass fell to the ground and crumbled to dust, to reveal a figure behind it. It was a short girl with caramel hair and a too-bright smile. She was holding a golden apple.
"New friends! Yay!" She beamed at us.
I looked at Natasha, who looked as clueless as me. "I like rainbows," the girl told us still smiling. "And I found a pretty apple!" She held up the third golden apple.
I looked up at the ceiling. It felt like the gods were practically sitting in their thrones and saying "Oh look! Mel found another demigod! Classic."
I sighed. "Just. Great."
(Thank you all for the 100 reads guys!)