ARIANA CUTS OFF A HEAD
Ariana was tired. Since their bus had decided to explode due to a kindly one kindly attacking them, they had been forced to walk through the woods of the New Jersey river bank.
Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupilled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."
Ariana was still in shock herself. This was the first time she had been allowed to leave Camp Half-Blood since she was brought there and already they were being attacked by a monster.
Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying. "Come on! The further away we get, the better?"
"All our money was back there." Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."
Ariana couldn't be bothered reminding both of them that she still had her backpack; to be fair it was sitting on her back already, clearly visible.
"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight -" Annabeth began to say.
"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?" Percy scoffed.
"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine."
"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."
"Shut up, goat boy." said Annabeth.
Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans... a perfectly good bag of tin cans."
They sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.
After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to Ariana and Percy.
"Look, I..." Annabeths voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave."
"We're a team, right?" Percy proposed.
Annabeth was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world!"
The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness. Ariana couldn't see anything of Annabeth except a glint of her blonde hair.
"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?" Percy asked her.
Annabeth shook her head and began to explain. "No... only short field trips. My dad.."
"The history professor?"
"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood is my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if Annabeth were afraid somebody might try to stop her. "At camp you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not!"
Ariana nodded in agreement, fully understanding the daughter of Athena.
Percy turned to look at her. "When was the last time you left Camp?"
Ariana froze for a moment. Everyone at camp knew not to ask her personal questions, her childhood was a touchy subject.
"I haven't." She mumbled. "I was brought to Camp Half-Blood when I was only a baby. Around one, Chiron told me, the only place I've known is Camp Half-Blood."
"Since you were one.." Percy whispered in amazement. Then he said. "And you still haven't been claimed?"
Ariana once more shook her head. "No."
"I'm sorry." Ariana noticed the sincerity in his voice.
"It's fine." It was the answer she gave to everyone when they asked her about her childhood, 'oh it's fine' or 'I don't really care'.
"You're pretty good with that knife," Percy said, changing the subject, speaking to Annabeth.
Ariana was glad as she wiped a few loose tears.
"You think so?"
"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me." Percy added.
Ariana couldn't really see, but she thought she might've smiled. Ariana shipped the pair already.
"You know," Annabeth laughed slightly," maybe I should tell you... Something funny back on the bus.."
Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill toot toot toot, like the sound of an owl being tortured.
"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried. "If I could just remember a "find path" song, we could get out of these woods!"
He puffed out a few notes, but the tune still sounded suspiciously like Hilary Duff. Instead of finding a path, Percy immediately slammed into a tree and got a nice-size knot on his head.
After Percy tripping and cursing and generally feeling miserable for another mile or so, Ariana started to see light up ahead: the colours of a neon sign.
She could smell food. Fried, greasy, excellent food. She realised she hadn't eaten anything since they left at Half-Blood Hill, and even then they lived on grapes, bread, cheese and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue.
"Have you ever tried a cheeseburger?" Percy asked. "You know since at camp they only serve healthy things."
Ariana smiled. "I have. The stoll brothers will give me some takeaway or candy now and again. Sometimes they leave camp to quickly get stuff."
They kept walking until they saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.
It wasn't a fast-food restaurant (like Percy had hoped). It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that.
The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was impossible for Ariana to read, because if there's anything worse for her dyslexia than regular English, it's red cursive neon English.
To her, it looked like: ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROIUM.
"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.
"I don't know." Annabeth said, trying to read the sign.
After a moment or so, Ariana figured it out. "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."
Grover nodded, he was the only one without dyslexia. "Yeah."
Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.
Annabeth and Percy both crossed the street, following the smell of the hamburgers.
"Hey..."Grover warned.
"The lights are on inside." Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open."
"Snack bar." Percy said wistfully.
"Snack bar." Annabeth agreed.
"Are you two crazy?"Grover said. "This place is weird!"
Her turned to Ariana for help who just shrugged. "She's a child of Athena, she's smart."
Annabeth and Percy ignored Grovers warnings.
The front garden was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.
"Bla-ha-ha!" he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"
The group of four stopped at the warehouse door.
"Don't knock." Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."
"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies." Ariana told him. "All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"
"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."
"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminium cans." Percy reminded him.
"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are... looking at me."
Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman - at least, Ariana assumed she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled.
Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all she could make out. Her coffee-coloured hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant.
Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"
"They're... um..." Annabeth started to say.
"We're orphans." Ariana blurted out, prepared to put on a whole sob story to the woman.
"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"
"We got separated from our caravan." Ariana continued, basically pleading with the girl. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?"
"Oh, my dears." the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area!"
They thanked her and went inside.
Annabeth muttered to Ariana. "Circus caravan?"
"Always have a strategy, right?" Replied Ariana, cracking a smile.
"Please, sit down." Aunty Em offered.
"Awesome." Percy said.
"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am?"
Before Ariana could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said. "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."
'Thank you, ma'am." Annabeth thanked, being the most polite.
Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so Ariana figured it must've been her imagination.
"Quite all right, Annabeth." The lady hummed. "You have such beautiful grey eyes, child?"
Their hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before they knew it, she'd brought them plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes and XXL servings of French fries.
Ariana was halfway through her burger before she remembered to breathe. Annabeth slurped her shake.
Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.
"What's that hissing noise?" Grover asked.
Ariana listened, but didn't hear anything, Annabeth shook her head and Percy was too busy eating.
"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."
"I take vitamins. For my ears"
'That's admirable." she said. "But please, relax."
Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her headdress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers and watched them eat.
It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at her when she couldn't see her face, but Ariana was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and she figured the least she could do was try to make small talk with our hostess.
"So, you sell gnomes." Ariana said, trying to sound interested.
"Oh, yes." Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden.Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know
"A lot of business on this road?" Percy asked.
"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."
Percy turned around and started staring at a statue of a young girl.
"Ah." Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."
"You make these statues yourself?" He asked.
"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that Ariana couldn't help feeling sorry for her.
Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said. "Two sisters?"
"It's a terrible story." Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."
The story sounded very familiar to Ariana and then it clicked. They were currently having a conversation with Medusa.
Ariana tried to catch Annabeth eyes, she knew she would've made the connection by now.
"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking him to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting."
"Yeah." Ariana agreed desperately. "Thats a good idea.
"Such beautiful grey eyes." Aunty Em told Annabeth again. "My, yes, it has been a long time since l've seen grey eyes like those."
She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly. Ariana followed her moves.
"We really should go!"
"Yes!" Grover swallowed his waxed paper and stood up. "The ringmaster is waiting!"
"Right!" Agreed Ariana. "Don't want to keep him waiting."
"Please, dears." Aunty Em pleaded. "I so rarely get to be with children. Before you go, won't you at least sit for a pose?"
"A pose?" Annabeth asked warily.
"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."
They were going to die if they had a photo, Ariana knew that. It was a trick - a trap. They couldn't do this, if they did they'd be turned to stone.
Annabeth shifted her weight from foot to foot. "I don't think we can, ma'am. Come on, Percy -"
"Sure we can!" Percy said. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
Ariana made a mental note to stab Percy with her sword if they made it out of this situation alive.
"Yes, Annabeth." the woman purred. "No harm."
She could tell Annabeth didn't like it, but she allowed Aunty Em to lead them back out the front door, into the garden of statues. Ariana reluctantly followed behind.
Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to the stone satyr.
"Now." she said. "I'll just position you correctly. The two young girls in the middle, I think, and the two young gentlemen on either side?"
"Not much light for a photo." Percy remarked.
"Oh, enough." Aunty Em said. "Enough for us to see each other, yes?"
"Where's your camera?" Ariana asked, skeptically.
Aunty Em stepped back, as if to admire the shot. "Now, the face is the most difficult. Can you smile for me please, everyone? A large smile?"
Grover glanced at the cement satyr next to him, and mumbled. "That sure does look like Uncle Ferdinand."
Ariana's heart was pounding in her chest. She couldn't think of a plan, her best hope was Annabeth.
"Grover." Aunty Em chastised. "look this way, dear."
She still had no camera in her hands.
"Percy -" Annabeth said.
"I will just be a moment." Aunty Em said. "You know, I can't see you very well in this cursed veil.."
"Percy, something's wrong." Ariana insisted.
"Wrong?"Aunty Em said, reaching up to undo the wrap around her head. "Not at all, dear. I have such noble company tonight. What could be wrong?"
"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover gasped.
"Look away from her!" Annabeth shouted.
She whipped her Yankees cap on to her head and vanished. Her invisible hands pushed Grover and Percy both off the bench.
Ariana threw herself to the floor. She could hear Grover scrambling off in one direction, Annabeth in another. But she was too afraid to move.
Then she heard a strange, rasping sound above her. Her eyes rose to Aunty Em's hands, which had turned gnarled and warty, with sharp bronze talons for fingernails, almost looked higher, but somewhere off to her left:
Annabeth screamed. "No Don't!'
More rasping - the sound of tiny snakes, right above her from about where Aunty Em's head would be.
"Run Percy!" Grover bleated. She heard him racing across the gravel, yelling, 'Maia!' to kickstart his flying sneakers.
Percy must've ran as Ariana didn't hear him yell again.
Ariana couldn't move. She stared at Aunty Em's gnarled claws, and tried to fight the groggy trance the old woman had put on her.
"Such a pity to destroy a beautiful young face."she told her soothingly. "Stay with me, Ariana. All you have to do is look up."
"The Grey-Eyed One did this to me, Ariana," Medusa said and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice invited her to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."
"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Ari!"
It was too risky for her to move; Ariana didn't want to get turned into a statue.
"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Ariana . She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Ari, you need not suffer."
"No." Ariana muttered. She tried to make her legs move.
"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Ari? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."
"Arianna!" Behind her, she heard a buzzing sound, like a ninety-kilogram hummingbird in a nosedive.
Grover yelled. "Duck!"
She turned, and there he was in the night sky, flying in from twelve o'clock with his winged shoes fluttering - Grover, holding a tree branch the size of a baseball bat.
His eyes were shut tight, his head twitched from side to side. He was navigating by ears and nose alone.
"Duck!" he yelled again. "I'll get her!"
That finally jolted her into action. Knowing Grover, she was sure he'd miss Medusa and nail into her. She dove to one side.
Thwack!
At first she figured it was the sound of Grover hitting a tree. Then Medusa roared with rage.
"You miserable satyr." Medusa snarled. "I'll add you to my collection!"
"That was for Uncle Ferdinand!" Grover yelled back.
Ariana scrambled away and hid in the statuary, next to Percy, while Grover swooped down for another pass.
Ker-whack!
"Aarrghh!" Medusa yelled, her snake-hair hissing and spitting.
Right next to Ariana's. Annabeth's voice was heard, "Percy!"
Percy jumped so high his feet nearly cleared a garden gnome. "Jeez! Don't do that!"
Annabeth took off her Yankees cap and became visible. "You have to cut her head off."
"What? Are you crazy? Let's get out of here!"
"Medusa is a menace. She's evil. I'd kill her myself, but..." Annabeth swallowed, as if she were about to make a difficult admission. "But you've got the better weapon. Besides, I'd never get close to her. She'd slice me to bits because of my mother. You - you've got a chance!"
"What? I can't -"
"Look, do you want her turning more innocent people into statues?" Ariana told him.
She pointed to a pair of statue lovers, a man and a woman with their arms around each other, turned to stone by the monster.
Annabeth grabbed a green gazing ball from a nearby pedestal.
"A polished shield would be better." She studied the sphere critically. "The convexity will cause some distortion. The reflection's size should be off by a factor of.."
"Would you speak English?"
"I am!" Annabeth tossed him the glass ball. "Just look at her in the glass. Never look at her directly."
"Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above them. "I think she's unconscious!"
"Roooaaarrr!"
"Maybe not." Grover corrected. He went in for another pass with the tree branch.
"Hurry." Ariana told Percy. "Grover's got a great nose, but he'll eventually crash."
He took out his pen and uncapped it. The bronze blade of Riptide elongated in his hand. He followed the hissing and spitting sounds of Medusa's hair.
He kept his eyes locked on the gazing ball so he would only glimpse Medusa's reflection, not the real thing. Then, in the green tinted glass, he saw her.
Ariana watched closely. She wanted to help him but all she had was her sword.
Grover was coming in for another turn at bat, but this time he flew a little too low. Medusa grabbed the stick and pulled him off course.
He tumbled through the air and crashed into the arms of a stone grizzly bear with a painful "Ummphh!"
Medusa was about to lunge at him when Percy yelled, "Hey!"
Percy advanced on her, which wasn't easy, holding a sword and a glass ball. If she charged, i'd have a hard time defending myself.
But she let him approach - ten metres, five metres.He could see the reflection of her face now.
Surely it wasn't really that ugly. The green swirls of the gazing ball must be distorting it, making it look worse.
"You wouldn't harm an old woman, Percy."
she crooned. "I know you wouldn't."
Percy hesitated, fascinated by the face he saw reflected in the glass - the eyes that seemed to burn straight through the green tint, making his arms go weak.
Ariana sighed knowing Percy wouldn't do it; she grabbed her sword and begun to creep behind Medusa.
From the cement grizzly, Grover moaned. "Percy, don't listen to her!"
Medusa cackled. "Too late." She lunged at him with her talons.
Ariana slashed up with her sword, heard a sickening shlock! then a hiss like wind rushing out of a cavern - the sound of a monster disintegrating.
Something fell to the ground next to Percy's foot. It took all of Ariana's willpower not to look.
"Oh, yuck." Grover said. His eyes were still tightly closed, but she guess he could hear the thing gurgling and steaming. "Mega-yuck."
Annabeth came up next to Percy , her eyes fixed on the sky.
She was holding Medusa's black veil. She warned them. "Don't move!"
Very, very carefully, without looking down, she knelt and draped the monster's head in black cloth, then picked it up. It was still dripping green juice.
"Are you okay?" she asked both Ariana and Percy, her voice trembling.
Ariana nodded. "I'm alright. Not everyday you chop off Medusa's head."
"Yeah, I decided, though I felt like throwing up my double cheeseburger.Why didn't... why didn't the head evaporate?" Percy was intrigued.
"Once you sever it, it becomes a spoil of war," she said. "Same as your Minotaur horn. But don't unwrap the head. It can still petrify you."
Grover moaned as he climbed down from the grizzly statue. He had a big welt on his forehead.
His green rasta cap hung from one of his little goat horns, and his fake feet had been knocked off his hooves. The magic sneakers were flying aimlessly around his head.
"The Red Baron." Percy said. "Good job, man!"
He managed a bashful grin. "That really was not fun, though. Well, the hitting-her-with-a-stick part, that was fun. But crashing into a concrete bear? Not fun."
He snatched his shoes out of the air. Percy recapped his sword. Together, the four of them stumbled back to the warehouse.
Ariana found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head.
They plopped it on the table where they'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.
Finally Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"
Annabeth flashed him an irritated look."Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple.That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him?."
Percys face was burning. "Oh, so now it's my fault we met Medusa."
Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of Percy's voice, she said: "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"
If Ariana had the energy she probably would've laughed, but she didn't.
"Forget it." Percy scoffed. "You're impossible!"
"You're insufferable." Annabeth remarked, still mocking him.
"You're -"
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"
Ariana stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS!
Percy got up. "I'll be back."
"Percy." Annabeth called after him. "What are you doing?"
After a few minutes he came back. He went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:
The Gods,
Mount Olympus
600th Floor, Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON
"They're not going to like that." Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent!"
Ariana smirked, "Add my name! I chopped her head off after all."
"Write it yourself." Percy smirked and threw her the pen.
She wrote her name so that it now read:
The Gods
Mount Olympus
600th Floor, Empire State Building
New York, NY
With best wishes,
PERCY JACKSON + ARIANA PARKER <3
:)
Ariana poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as Percy closed it, there was a sound like a cash register.
The package floated off the table and disappeared with a pop!
"We are impertinent." Percy decided.
Ariana looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize. She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that they had a major talent for ticking off the gods.
"Come on." she muttered. "We need a new plan."