SIX, mean old ladies
❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
ASTER KNEW HER SIBLINGS loved to stick their noses into everyone else's business. So did she, sometimes. She just didn't expect to get jumped when she walked through the door of cabin four.
"What'd Chiron say?" Miranda asked.
Aster jumped, her heart thudding wildly. "Gods, Miranda. You could wait until I crossed the threshold before asking questions."
Miranda stuck her bottom lip out, but stepped back, crossing her arms. "Whatever."
Aster let out a breath of amusement, walking towards her bunk. "He gave me a quest. Well, technically Percy Jackson did."
"A quest?" Steve said, leaning beside her bed. "That's huge, Aster!"
"Yeah, yeah," Aster mumbled. "Like everyone keeps saying."
Katie—who always seemed to sense her bad moods—clapped her hands. "Okay, give the girl some space. She needs to pack."
Aster pulled out her backpack and started shoving clothes into it. She felt Steve settle on the bed beside her, but she didn't look at her. "What's going on, tree-hugger?"
A corner of Aster's mouth quirked up at the nickname. The first time she had met Steve two years ago, she hadn't been having a good day. She'd fallen asleep the previous night at Thalia's tree, after another fruitless attempt of trying to speak to her lost friend. In Steve's defense, it had looked like she was hugging the tree, but he'd luckily never told anyone how disheveled she looked. Aster had a reputation of ruthlessness she needed to uphold, after all.
"It's nothing," Aster replied, but Steve gave her a knowing look. "I'm just... worried. Worried that I won't make it back again. Worried that I'll end up..." she swallowed, her throat suddenly tight. "That I'll end up like Thalia. Or that someone else will, and I'll be powerless to stop it."
"If there's one thing you're not, it's powerless. All of your training the last five years has seen to that." Steve laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We can't save everyone, Aster. And we can't pause life because of that fear. I know it's hard for you to trust people, but you need to at least trust yourself."
Aster was quiet for a moment, allowing her brother's words to sink in. "I know you're right. I–I'll try. Try my best, anyways."
Steve grinned, ruffling her hair. "That's the Aster Reed I know. Ready to face every challenge head-on."
Aster snorted, resuming her packing. "I'm not sure what gave you that impression."
"I think it was when you fell off the rockwall the first time and decided to make it your bitch."
"I didn't fall, okay, Clarisse pushed me–"
Steve shrugged. "I guess we'll never know. Get packing, tree-hugger, or you'll be late."
Aster rolled her eyes, but smiled. "When'd you become so wise?"
"Must be the archery class I have with Athena. Malcolm is always correcting me."
Before long, Aster was packed and ready to go. She gave all of her siblings a swift hug, and then Katie was ushering her out the door, worrying about her being late and making their cabin look bad.
When Aster arrived at Half-Blood Hill, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, Argus and Chiron were all waiting on her. Some seemed more patient to do so than others.
"Look who decided to show up," Percy said, crossing his arms over his chest. He was dressed in plain shorts and a t-shirt, with a navy backpack slung over one shoulder that didn't look very full. He wasn't armed with any weapon as far as Aster could see, which wouldn't work out for him in the long run. Unless he told a bad joke to scare the monsters off. .
Grover had his fake feet and long pants to hide his goat half. He also wore a green rasta-style cap, just in case it rained and his horns would show over his curly hair. He had a bright orange backpack, which was open and stocked full with scrap metal and apples—Aster knew those were his favorite snacks. Grover was a nervous eater. She also noticed his reed pipes sticking out of his pocket, though he only knew a couple songs.
Annabeth's magic Yankees cap stuck out of her back pocket, which had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored. Aster saw her bronze knife, a gift from Luke, hidden in her shirt sleeve. She had a black backpack with some other things packed inside no doubt. She was wearing jeans and a regular t-shirt, her blonde curls pulled back out of her face.
"None of your business," Aster quipped back at Percy. She had pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail, and she tightened the straps on her daggers, which were under the loose long sleeves of her shirt.
The four of them waved goodbye to the other campers, and Aster took one last look at the camp, her home. Her eyes lingered on the strawberry fields, where she could see some figures beginning their work for the day, and the grass roof of her cabin. She hoped this wouldn't be the last time she saw it.
Chiron was in his wheelchair next to Argus, all of his eyes blinking at them.
"This is Argus," Chiron explained, mainly to Percy. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things." Aster snickered at this joke while Argus glared at Chiron, with all of his eyes. There were footsteps behind the group, and Aster turned to see Luke running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.
"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."
Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around. Aster cleared her throat, looking sideways at her friend, and Annabeth stared at the ground.
"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told them. "And I thought... um, maybe you could use these."
He handed Percy the shoes, who studied them with a furrowed brow.
"Maia!" Luke said, and the shoes sprouted white bird wings from the heels. Percy dropped them, looking startled. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.
"Awesome!" Grover said.
Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.
"Hey, man," Percy said. "Thanks."
"Listen, Percy..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just . . . kill some monsters for me, okay?"
Percy nodded, and he and Luke shook hands. The older boy patted Grover's head between his horns. He hugged Annabeth and Aster, and her friend looked like she might pass out. "Kick some butt out there, you two. I know Aster certainly will."
"You can count on it," Aster grinned, and Luke turned and walked down the hill. Percy looked at her sideways, but Aster just ignored him as she watched Luke's figure grow smaller and smaller.
After Luke was gone, Percy turned to Annabeth. "You're hyperventilating."
"Am not," she said.
"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"
Annabeth flushed an even deeper shade of red. "Oh... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"
She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.
"Sore subject, Seaweed Brain," Aster whispered to Percy, who smiled faintly before turning to Chiron.
Percy picked up the flying shoes. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"
He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air... that would not be wise for you."
Percy nodded, then turned to Grover, his eyes bright. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"
His eyes lit up. "Me?"
The next thing she knew, Aster was watching a screaming Grover fly down the hill in Luke's magic shoes.
"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"
Aster laughed, then chased after the satyr, who had almost mowed down Annabeth. She didn't remember the shoes being this difficult the last time she saw Luke use them, but then again, she had been nine at the time. The shoes could just be getting used to a new person, someone who wasn't a child of Hermes. Or maybe they weren't meant for anyone but Luke. There was no way of truly knowing.
After waiting for Percy to be finished talking with Chiron, Aster saw him pocket something long and skinny, maybe a pen. She shrugged it off, and he slid in the seat next to her in the SUV. He looked slightly spooked, but Aster didn't ask about it.
Chiron was now standing in his usual centaur form, his bow high in the air to salute them. With one final look at Thalia's pine tree and Half-Blood Hill, the group was off into the unknown.
– ❀ –
ASTER WAS A BIT overwhelmed by the outside world, if she was being honest. She didn't remember it being so colorful, having this much detail. As the different billboards passed by them, she tried to read every single one, her curiosity suddenly insatiable. Aster hadn't realized how much she'd missed in the last five years.
"So far so good," Percy told Aster, his fingers tapping on his knee in some sort of incoherent rhythm. "Ten miles and not a single monster."
"Don't say that," Aster warned, her eyes wide, "you're going to jinx us, Aqua Man."
"Remind me again—why do you hate me so much?" Percy asked.
Aster scoffed. "I don't hate you."
"Could've fooled me."
"I don't hate you, I just find you... insufferably annoying," Aster said firmly, tracing the outline of her dagger in her sleeve.
"Oh, that makes it a lot better," Percy said sarcastically.
"Your head is full of kelp," Aster simply replied.
"Seeing as my dad is the sea god, it would make sense," Percy said, a sly grin spreading slowly across his face.
Aster stared at him, not amused. "Forget it."
"You know, with demigod anatomy–"
"I said forget it!" Aster insisted, and Percy smirked. She pretended not to see one of the eyes on the back of Argus's neck wink at her.
They didn't talk much for the car ride, the only sound being Grover trying to remember more songs on his reed pipe—spoiler alert, he couldn't remember. Eventually, the music lulled Aster to sleep, and Percy shook her awake when they reached Manhattan, starting to rain.
Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side. Aster noticed out of the corner of her eye that Percy had balled up a piece of paper and thrown it in the trash. She decided not to ask about it, considering his angry expression.
Argus unloaded their bags, made sure they got their bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch them as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Percy was staring distractedly down the street, but Aster was sure where it led. She was from a town in Vermont that had a population of 200, so the city was very disorienting. There would probably be more people on this bus than in her entire school.
"You want to know why she married him, Percy?" Grover asked out of nowhere.
Percy stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"
"Just your emotions." Grover shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"
Percy nodded.
"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover explained. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura... Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."
"Thanks," Percy said flatly. "Where's the nearest shower?"
"You should be grateful, Percy," Grover said. "Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy—if that makes you feel any better."
Percy looked solemn at this news, but he didn't say anything else.
The rain kept coming down. Aster got bored after waiting for the bus for so long, so she grabbed one of Grover's apples and started a game of Hacky Sack. She, Percy, and Annabeth went back and forth, and occasionally Aster used her powers to give her an advantage, which Percy totally knew about and accused her of cheating—lightheartedly. Annabeth was quite good, able to bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, wherever. The game soon ended as Percy nodded the apple towards Grover, and it got a little too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, their Hacky Sack disappeared—core, stem, and all.
Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Percy, Aster, and Annabeth were too busy laughing.
Finally the bus came. As they stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air nervously.
"What is it?" Percy asked.
"I don't know," Grover said tensely, then shook his head. "Maybe it's nothing."
Aster knew it wasn't nothing, that it was never nothing. She kept glancing over her shoulder, but no attack came.
Luckily, when the four of them finally boarded, they found seats together in the back of the bus. They stowed their backpacks on top, not needing them for a while. Annabeth kept fidgeting with her invisibility camp, and Aster drummed her fingers nervously against her thigh. She stopped dead in her tracks when the last passengers got on. Aster clamped a hand on Percy's knee, alerting him of their presence. "Percy."
Percy's eyes went wide. An old lady had just boarded the bus, donned in a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and complete with a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered.
It was Mrs. Dodds, as Percy would know her. Aster knew her as one of the three Furies, the leader of them. Percy scrunched down in his seat, and Aster followed his example.
Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like the first—same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. These were the three sisters, the three Furies. They were in for some trouble.
They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves. The bus pulled out of the station, and the bus headed through the slick streets of Manhattan.
"She didn't stay dead long," Percy said through gritted teeth. "I thought you guys said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."
"I never said that," Aster whispered back, "I said if you're lucky, which you're obviously not."
Percy cursed under his breath.
"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales! "
"It's fine, everything's okay," Annabeth said, but she was pale. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem, no problem. We'll just slip out the windows."
"They don't open," Grover moaned.
"A back exit?" Annabeth suggested.
But they all could see that there wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. They were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.
"They won't attack us with witnesses around," Percy said, his voice pleading. "Will they?"
"Mortals don't have good eyes," Aster reminded him. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."
"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?" Percy asked.
"They might, but you never know how they'll process it. They might think we're the ones doing it, a bunch of preteens beating up old ladies. We can't count on mortals for help." Aster looked around the bus for any sign of another exit, but there was none. They were trapped.
The bus went into the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark, besides the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.
The first Fury—the one in the orange hat—got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."
"So do I," the second sister followed.
"So do I," the third sister finished.
They all started coming down the aisle, and Annabeth turned to Percy, handing him her invisibility cap. "I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat. You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."
Percy obviously protested this idea. "But you guys—"
"There's a chance they might not notice us, we might not be powerful enough for them," Aster told him. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."
"I can't just leave you," Percy insisted.
"Don't worry about us," Grover joined in. "Go!"
Percy was hesitant, but with his lips pushed firmly together, he took the Yankees cap and put it on. He instantly disappeared, and Aster could hear him moving up the aisle, noticing little things fall from their place as he passed them.
Aster, Annabeth, and Grover took protective stances behind their benches, dropping to the floor and ready to fight their way out if necessary. Aster had her daggers comfortably in her hands, Annabeth was holding firmly onto her bronze knife, and Grover had a dozen tin cans ready to use as projectiles. Hopefully, they would just pass them by, but Aster had a feeling it wouldn't go that easily.
Once the Furies were a few seats from where they were croached, they took their true form, obviously having smelled the three of them. Their faces were still the same—ugly couldn't get any uglier—but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.
The Furies surrounded Grover, Annabeth, and Aster, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, lady," Aster quipped, but the Furies didn't seem to like that answer. They cracked their whips threateningly at her. The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.
"He's not here!" Aster yelled. "He's gone!"
The Furies raised their whips.
Aster was ready to send these monsters straight back to Tartarus, but before she could even think about her first swink, the bus jerked to the left, throwing Aster, Annabeth, and Grover into the seat, squishing them all on top of each other. The Furies smashed against the windows, but that only seemed to make them even angrier.
As the bus swerved wildly throughout the streets, Aster braced herself for what was going to inevitably happen next. Aster shielded Grover and Annabeth with her own body, her instincts taking over. The emergency brake sounded, and the bus spun and eventually found its resting place by crashing into a group of trees.
The door flew open just as Aster, Annabeth, and Grover were getting to their feet, as well as the Furies. All the passengers and the driver fled out the door, a blessing in disguise. Mortals tended to get in the way when one fought mythical creatures.
Aster waved her knives at the Furies, blocking the slashes they took with their whips. Grover threw tin cans at them, but it was no use. The Furies kept advancing on them, and Aster wasn't sure if she could take on all three at once. Annabeth yelled insults at them in Ancient Greek, but they didn't care very much. Aster finally got the sense to throw some of her knives at them, having them be so close to her. But the Furies were just a second too fast for her. They dodged every one of her knives. One got caught in the chest of the Fury who was in the purple hat, but it didn't do much damage. It was still enough to make her angry, and she narrowed her scaly eyes. Aster knew there was only one way she would be getting out of this: fighting. She would go down fighting if it meant Percy could escape and finish the quest.
Just then, Percy reappeared with a shout. "Hey!"
Aster didn't know if she was relieved or angry to see the son of Posiedon.
The Furies turned, hissing at Percy. The one that Percy referred to as Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle towards him, where her sisters hopped from seat to seat in order to stay in a short line. If they weren't about to die, Aster would have made a joke about them rehearsing their coordination.
"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, her voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."
"I liked you better as a math teacher," Percy told her. Mrs. Dodds bared her teeth and growled at him.
Aster, Annabeth, and Grover moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening. Percy just then took a ballpoint pen from his pocket and uncapped it. Much to Aster's surprise, it expanded into a long, celestial bronze sword. Last time she checked, Percy didn't have a magical item.
The Furies hesitated, looking at their own ugly reflections in the blade.
"Submit now," Mrs Dodds hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."
"Nice try," Percy told her. Aster saw Mrs Dodds's whip curl before Percy did.
"Percy, look out!" Aster cried.
Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around Percy's sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at him. Percy looked to be in a great deal of pain, but he managed not to drop his sword. He fought all three Furies on his own, striking the Fury on his left with the hilt of his sword, sending her toppling backwards into a seat. With a simple cut of his sword, she exploded into golden dust with a scream. The other Fury rushed away from Percy, not wanting to meet the same fate as her sister, but Aster met her there. She sliced both of her daggers across the Fury's neck, and she was screaming back to Tartarus.
Aster took the opportunity of Mrs Dodds being distracted by Percy to jump on her back, getting her in a wrestler's hold while Grover and Annabeth worked to rip the whip out of her hands.
"Ow!" Grover yelled when he had finally gotten a hand on it. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"
Mrs. Dodds fought to get Aster off her back, but she was unrelenting. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Aster held on while Grover and Annabeth got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.
"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"
"Braccas meas vescimini! " Percy yelled. Aster looked at him, confused.
"Why did you just yell in Latin?" Aster asked.
"I have no idea," Percy shrugged, his eyes wide. "I think it meant 'Eat my pants!''"
Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of Aster's neck, and she knew what was coming next.
"Get out!" Annabeth yelled. "Now! We gotta go!"
The four of them rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" Aster would have laughed at the sight, but a Hawaiian shirted tourist with a camera snapped a photograph before Percy could recap his pen-sword, Aster beside him. Considering that she was technically still a missing person, that wasn't a good thing.
"Our bags!" Grover realized, turning back to the bus. "We left our–"
BOOOOOM!
The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside showed that Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.
"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"
They plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind them, and nothing but darkness ahead.