"You can't seriously be leaving already." Will said I packed my stuff back in the cabin.
"Sorry, but I'm not leaving Arabelle to rescue Jasper alone." I said. "Besides, you heard the prophecy. Two half-bloods...me and Arabelle. Foes, also me and Arabelle. And then the child of Rome is Jasper."
"Okay, but who is she?"
I paused. "Not sure."
"Not sure?" He repeated. "You're going to go risk your life on a quest with a not sure?"
"Listen." I said. "Are you going to help me pack or are you going to whine about me leaving."
"Just to be clear I don't like this." He grumbled and helped me pack. He handed me ambrosia and nectar from the infirmary and I stuffed it in my backpack. I packed an extra set of clothes, drachmas and mortal money. I'd never been a normal quest before. Only one that involved travelling across the world to fight a primordial goddess.
"Hey!" Kayla and Austin walked into the cabin. "We've been looking everywhere for you. Gracie has a headache again and wants Advil. You know how she gets cranky when she..." Her voice stopped as she took in what was happening.
"Are you leaving?" Austin asked.
I nodded. "Rachel gave me a prophecy and I have to go on a quest."
"But you just got here! We didn't even get to be together last summer either!" Austin frowned.
"I know." I frowned as well. "But this time I'll make sure I'm back before the fireworks show for July 4th."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
We locked pinkies.
Austin tackled me in a hug. We might fight sometimes but at the end of the day we all really did love each other. And I wanted nothing more than to spend the summer with them. But I was starting to think that wouldn't be happening for a while.
After I said my goodbyes I made my way to Half-Blood hill. Arabelle was waiting there next to the golden fleece.
"You don't plan to change out of your armor?" I asked.
"Why would I?"
I raised my eyebrows. "Maybe because walking around New York City in gold roman armor is a little attention getting."
"The Mist will cover it up." She said waving my concern off. "Besides, if we get in a fight I won't have time to put it on."
I stared at the girl next to me. It had only been a year since I met her but she had already changed so much. She looked older, more mature and more Roman. She reminded me of Reyna somewhat.
"Why are you staring at me?" She narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, sorry." I said quickly. "I was just noting how much you've changed. You used to be all: RAHHH I WILL WIN! VICTORY IS ALL I KNOW!" I waved my hands in a fist in the air as a demonstration. She did not look amused. "Now you're more calculating and serious..."
"I used to be that way because I didn't know loss." She said icily. "Because of your father. Many fellow Roman soldiers fell in combat. Including friends. I don't want my brother to be buried next to Jason Grace."
My voice died in my throat. There was an ache in my chest because of her words. I could tell she was still hurting. I understood what it was like. Joining the Camp and being forced to fight immediately. And then suddenly the people you'd become friends with die before your eyes and you're told that it's a normal occurrence and life moves on.
"90% of demigods don't reach adulthood." She said in a low voice. "Jasper is almost nineteen. I want him to be in that 10%."
So did I.
Arabelle cleared her throat. "We should get going. I want to reach New York before nightfall."
"Are we not taking your Pegasus?"
She shook her head. "I rode Astra all night and day here. She deserves rest."
"Astra." I said thoughtfully. "It means star in Greek."
Arabelle rolled her eyes. "Of course you would know word meanings."
I tried not to retort back. It seemed she was in a foul mood.
"I'm also assuming you can't just summon that sun horse of yours anytime you want?"
"Yeah, it's best I just summon him during battle or in times of great need. Besides he needs to pull the sun in the morning and he can't do that if we're riding him." I said. "And he might burn you since you're not a child of Apollo."
"By foot it is." She decided. She began to walk down the hill towards the road. Well, not really walk. At the pace she was going it could've been considered a run.
I had to sprint to catch up with her.
"How are you so fast?" I gasped for breath as I finally caught up with her.
"My mother isn't just the goddess of victory. She's also the goddess of speed and strength." She said. Then she furrowed her brows as if perplexed why I was having to jog to keep up with her pace. "I'm actually walking quite slow. You shouldn't have trouble keeping up with me."
I ignored the part where she called me slow.
"Okay, let's take a break." I said grabbing her arm to stop her as I caught my breath.
"No, breaks." She said. "We just left."
I glanced back at the hill. It was already so far away I could barely see it! Jeez how fast was this kid walking?!
"If you think I'm about to run 200 miles to Brooklyn, you're crazy." I said.
Arabelle crossed her arms and scowled at me. "How do you suppose we will get there then?"
"Uh. Still working on that."
Arabelle rolled her eyes.
"Don't give me that look!" I said putting my hands on my hips and raising my voice. "Your best idea was to hitch hike all the way to Charleston!"
"Fine!" She shouted back at me. "We'll fly!"
"With that armor?" I said giving her a pointed look. "You'll never make it past TSA." I crossed my arms and we glared at each other.
Our quest wasn't exactly starting out that well.
"Fine," Arabelle said with an edge to her voice. "We'll call a taxi."
A taxi! Why hadn't I thought of that sooner! I'm really annoyed now.
I agreed and waited for her to do it. Except she never did.
"We don't have all day." I said.
"Why would I call the taxi?" She gave me another dirty look. "You're the one from New York."
"First of all, I'm from Kentucky. Second, I don't know how to call a taxi because once again I'm not from New York."
She grumbled complaints about me in Latin.
I looked around. We were the only ones on the road. And if my math was correct it would take at least 42 hours to get from here to Brooklyn. Maybe less if I could convince Arabelle to run with me on her back (but that was a slim chance).
I decided to go back to the original plan.
"By foot it is." I groaned.
Arabelle gave a satisfied smirk and continued down the road. I had to do twice the work just to keep up with her. Even when I was running she somehow still managed to stay five feet in front of me.
Seriously, her speed was inhuman!
It was about an hour later when I was starting to get really tired. Now, I was athletic and had been through a lot this past year. So getting tired wasn't something I normally admitted. But I was exhausted. Arabelle had to be walking faster than jogging. She was nearly twenty feet ahead of me and hadn't even broken a sweat.
That's when I heard something.
It sounded like a truck.
I glanced behind me and saw nothing. It must be still far away.
As a child of Apollo I can hear things at frequencies other people can't. For example I can hear dog whistles. But right now I was hearing a truck.
"Hold up!" I called to Arabelle. She spun around.
"If this is about another bre-"
"No." I cut her off. "I hear a truck." I pointed in the distance to a small figure.
Arabelle jogged back towards me and squinted. "Should we hide and wait for them to pass?"
"Nope!" I said smiling. "That's going to be our ride."
"What?"
I explained to her what I was thinking.
We hid on the side of the road in bushes and waited for the truck to get near. When the truck finally arrived, Arabelle jumped out of the bush and sprinted after it. She matched its speed easily and jumped onto the back of the truck.
It was one of those trucks with an open back with boxes and random items. She threw me her spear as planned and I grabbed it, and held on tight, she had attached a rope to the spear and pulled it hard.
I flew through the air and landed on the back of the truck with her.
"We should arrive in Brooklyn in about 2 and a 1/2 half hours." I said, leaning against the back of the truck to rest.
"How can you tell?" Arabelle asked, taking a seat next to me.
I pointed up to the sky.
"I can tell through the sun's positioning."
Arabelle nodded and began to fan herself with her hands. "I'm guessing you're not hot either."
I shook my head. "It's not that hot right now, actually." I eyed her armor shining in the sun. "Your armor is probably making you extra hot."
"Well I'm not taking it off." She said stubbornly.
"Gods what's with you that armor." I said.
"It's a gift from my mother. She gave it to me after she claimed me." Arabelle said giving me a scowl. "She said I could never lose as long as I wore this armor."
"Everyone loses at some point."
Arabelle gave me a cold look. "I always win."
I sighed and leaned my head back against the back of the truck. "Okay, whatever you say."
I closed my eyes and began to nod off. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night after my vision. I must've fallen asleep, because when I opened my eyes again. The sun was now covered with clouds and the road was a lot busier. It looked dreary and made me tired.
Arabelle shook my shoulder. "Wake up Night Light."
I rubbed my eyes and sat up straighter.
"Did you see anything about my brother?" She asked immediately.
"What?" I mumbled still not fully awake again. "Oh, no." I wished the sun was still out. It always gave me energy and kept me focused. "Actually it's odd that I didn't have a vision. Normally I have one every time I fall asleep."
"Maybe you weren't in a deep enough sleep."
I shrugged, accepting the explanation she offered. "I guess."
I looked around. I could see the buildings of the city around us. The highway was very busy and I was really hoping no one could see us. Because it might be hard to explain why two kids with weapons and armor are riding on the back of a truck.
The truck took the next exit and started driving through downtown Brooklyn.
"We should get off here, before anyone notices us." Arabelle said.
I agreed and we jumped off the back of the truck at a red light. The Mist must have been obscuring Arabelle's armor because no one gave us a second glance as we walked down the sidewalk.
I spotted a sandwich place I'd had before and my stomach began to rumble.
"Lunch and bathroom break?" I suggest pointing at the shop. "Please?" I gave her puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," She grumbled and followed me begrudgingly into the shop.
I bought us both sandwiches. As we ate we discussed our plans. I pulled out a map I had gotten from the street, and took a pen I'd found and traced our route.
"Okay, so we're here." I put a star on Brooklyn. "And we need to get here." I put a circle around Charleston. "I know a bus route that can get us there in less than a day." I traced the route down.
Arabelle studied the map. "Less than a day is still at least 15 hours. We still don't even know where Cupid is holding Jasper. Is wasting 15 hours on a bus with smelly New Yorkers really worth it?"
"Trust me," I said. "I don't like the idea of wasting time either but unless you want to wait around for another unsuspecting truck to appear that we can be stowaways on, this is our best option. Besides if we leave in the next hour we can get there by tomorrow morning."
I could see Arabelle considering my suggestion. "It'll also give us time to rest before we meet Aphrodite, because I'm sure she won't just give us Eros location with our some stupid task to complete."
"Okay..." She said hesitantly. "But just to be clear. I'm the leader here and the one making the decisions."
I bit my cheek from saying anything. There was no way I was about to get bossed around by an 8th grader...or well I guess she was going to be a freshman. But still! She was 14! I was almost 18! I should be the one leading the quest here!
I kept my thoughts to myself and gave a warm smile. "Of course! Never thought otherwise."
"You're a horrible liar." She stood up and threw away her trash. I folded the map back up and put it in my bag.
We left the shop and began to make our way to the bus station. I had brought enough money to get us both tickets, but I didn't have enough cash to get us tickets back. But that was a problem for Future Eliana to solve.
We were walking through a park near the bus station when Arabelle stopped.
"What's wrong?" I asked, turning around. She was staring at...pigeons?
I walked back towards her and stared at the pigeons she seemed transfixed by.
"Have you never seen pigeons before?" I asked giving her a confused look.
"I know what pigeons are." She gave me an annoyed look. "These...don't look like pigeons."
I knelt down and got closer to the birds. It was a plump bird with a small head and straight, thin bill. It's plumage was a gray back, 2 black bars in the wing, and a blue-gray head. The plump birds had short legs and small heads.
"Pretty sure they're just pigeons." I said.
Arabelle yelped and jumped back.
Suddenly the pigeons changed forms. I jumped back when I saw what they looked like. They had turned into voracious looking birds. The birds were the size of a crane, and reminded me of a ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of a ibis.
One had bitten Arabelle and her hand was bleeding now. She pulled her sword out and chopped one in half.
"There Stymphalian birds!" I called out to her as she swung her sword at any bird that dared to get near her. I jumped back and used my bow to shoot any that flew towards me. "My brother Will was attacked by them in New York when he was younger!"
Stymphalian birds have sharp beaks that can tear through flesh. They also have the ability to use their feathers like arrows, and were able to shoot them down at their prey from above.
Unfortunately we were the prey.
Arabelle and I ducked and dodged the arrows and the beaks of the birds. We ran around the park being chased by the creatures.
I could only imagine what the humans saw. Probably just two kids getting chased by pigeons.
"Don't let them near you!" I rolled out of the way of arrows. "Their beaks can tear through Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold armor!"
Arabelle was surrounded by dozens of birds. There had to be over a hundred in the park. "Great." She used her sword to swat away the birds and occasionally slice them in half. "How do we get rid of them?"
"If my memory is correct this was Hercules sixth labor. He had to beat the Stymphalian birds. He did it by using brass bells given to him by Athena to scare them into the air, and when the birds took off from the swamp that they rested in, Hercules shot many of them down with his bow and arrows."
"We don't have bells from Athena." Arabelle pointed out.
"We'll just have to improvise." I said.
"This better be a good plan because if it's not they'll strip us to bones before we can drive them away!" Arabelle said as another bird tore a piece of flesh off from her arm.
I quickly looked around for a solution. "Use that bucket over there and stand on that picnic table!" I pointed towards the items. "Distract the birds and get them all in the air and I'll shoot them down."
"A bucket is your best idea?!" Arabelle shouted incredulously but she was already speeding toward the items. She grabbed the back and stood on top of the table.
I nocked an arrow.
Arabelle began to bang on the bucket with her sword making a loud sound. I amplified the sound with my sound control powers and made the banging ten times louder. Arabelle winced at the sound as it was near deafening.
The birds screech and cried and flew in the air trying to escape it.
"HEY UGLIES!" Arabelle shouted. "GET YOUR UGLY PIGEON ASS FACES OVER HERE!"
The birds squealed and dived towards the daughter of victory. I launched arrows as quickly as I could shooting down the birds as they flew around.
"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT YOU VOLANTEM CACAS!" Arabelle shouted at the birds as she sliced the few I didn't shoot in half.
With one last cry Arabelle chopped the last Stymphalian bird into three pieces. We watched as it turned into dust.
"Enjoy Tartarus." Arabelle said with a sneer. I glanced at the Roman girl. Her braid down her back had come undone a bit, and her blue eyes shined bright with victory. Her armor still glistened despite no sunlight being present.
I took notice of the way she held herself and the way she dressed. She reminded me a lot of Reyna.
"Flying shits." I said. "Nice one."
"You know Latin?"
I shrugged and had a mischievous smile on my face. "Mostly just the bad words."
Arabelle scoffed and smiled. I don't think I had ever really seen her smile. But it looked so much like Jasper's it made my heart ache. I was suddenly reminded that this wasn't just another demigod. This was his little sister. I felt an overwhelming surge of protection for the young girl. I'd always tried to protect young kids (especially with my father being the protector of youth and all) but this felt like a different sort of protection.
Jasper wasn't here to do it. So I had too.
Drip.
Drip.
I reached out and gently grabbed her arm. It was dripping blood onto the concrete. I noticed a chuck of flesh missing. I could almost see the bone.
"That looks like it hurts." I said, placing my hand on top of it.
"Very much." She said with a wince as my hand emitted a small green glow. The blood running down her arm began to return to the wound. When I pulled my hand away, the missing flesh had returned and looked brand new. As if she had never been wounded in the first place.
"Thanks." She said quietly. She quickly pulled her arm away from me and sheathed her sword. "We should get going. We don't want to miss our ride."