Thanks to those of you who have read and voted for this story. It means a ton and I appreciate it so much <3 Also, thank you to my amazing friends who have inspired this story and keep supporting me and encouraging me to write more.
σας ευχαριστώ
(Thank you)
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How we made it to The Garden of the Hesperides, I had no idea. But we did, without any missing limbs or bleeding chests and that was all I could ask for.
The garden was genuinely the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Lush green meadows and shimmering grass was spread all around the area, enchanting flowers, it's colors bright and hypnotizing, decorating the entire garden. Black marbled stones surrounded an enormous tree, it's branches wide and thick, almost looking as if they were reaching for the sky. And on those branches hung beautiful, pure golden apples, so shiny that the light of the sun reflected off of them.
Somehow, I felt a pull inside of me, the thought of the apples making my mind hazy and lustful for them. I just knew deep down inside that one small bite would end up being the most delicious thing that I would ever taste. And that alone was driving me insane. The Garden of the Hesperides was a complete dream. I would even claim that it was a true paradise, if it was not for the large dragon resting in front of the grand tree.
"Zowie! Look at the size of that thing!" Nate exclaims, his blue eyes wide.
"Shh! You don't want to wake him up!" I hiss at him quietly, because I'm already nervous enough and if this boy ends up waking up that fire breathing beast, I will rip him in two. "What do we do? How are we going to do this, did anybody think about any of this?!" I whisper in panic.
"Umm, hello, that's why I'm here," Ana states, her cap and flag put away once we crossed the mist to get to the garden. "So Ladon is in charge of the tree. All we have to do is watch over him watching over the tree. No need to communicate or fight him. Now, in order to do that, we must stay away from his sights."
"His sights? He's got a hundred heads!" Nate exclaims and Thalia punches him in the shoulder.
"Shut up and listen! Seriously, if you keep yelling like that, you'll wake him up and I'll make sure you're it's first entree," Thalia threatens, causing Nate, and even me, to gulp.
"Alright, so first things first, we need to set up camp away from him. All the Hunters have tents, the rest of us will just end up sharing with them," Ana instructs.
"Hold it, sharing?" Dayi asks, a grimace on her face.
Ana nods. "Yes. Theodore here was in charge of them for us, but his thick skull forget to use its brain." Theo growls, eyes glaring daggers at Ana, but the daughter of Athena barely bats an eyelash. "So we will each be sharing with one of you."
"Which one of us?" I ask, eyebrow raised.
I feel eyes on me again and I turn my head just in time to see Percy look away. "That's a question that will be answered once we set up camp. Now, Hunters, mind following me?" Ana says, and the giant group of parka clad girls follow her.
"You don't think that thing will wake up at any moment and devour us when were not paying attention?" Nate asks, his hands slightly shaking in nervousness.
Melissa shakes her head and gives the blonde boy a sympathetic smile. "It's alright. You'll be fine. Just stick with me, I got you."
Nate's expression softens and he gives her a soft smile. "Okay," he says simply, and the two walk slowly together.
My brows furrow at the action. If it wasn't for Melissa having a caring and compassionate personality, I would have thought something completely different was going on with her.
Something forbidden.
"Dayi, where did the pup go?" I ask her, referring to Har.
She snorts. "Beats me, but I'm just glad he...."
Before Dayi even got to finish, a loud shriek shoots off from behind us. Both our eyes widen as we turn back to see Nate pale, his blue eyes as large as saucers, while Har was on the ground, laughing and chocking at the same time. And what could be worse than two idiots acting like fools? Two idiots foolishly waking up a hundred headed dragon.
Ladon's growls tore through the air, the ground rumbling beneath us. All of our heads shot forward as we saw large wings spreading out, nearly touching the sky.
"Holly..."
Melissa screams, cutting me off as I fall to the floor in surprise at the sight of the grand monster.
Ladon stomps towards us, his multiple heads hissing and growling and showing off their fangs and sharp tongues. I can hear everybody else yelling and running, but all I can do is stare at the monster, mouth opened and chest pounding.
"What are you doing?!" I hear a distant voice say, and strong arms grab me from my shoulders, but my eyes remain locked on the furious beast.
Nate comes running towards me, eyes frantic as he yells, but before he could get close, a ginormous claw traps him, causing the person holding me up to scream out his name. Ladon's claw shoots up into the air, Nate clutched tightly between it, yelling and shouting slightly comical expressions, but the scene was too serious to laugh at.
"Nate!" Melissa yells, and next thing I know, she is running towards the beast.
My throat is dry and my chest is beating rapidly. I want to scream, to go into action, but I am frozen in place. I can't move, not even when the person behind me tries to shake me out if it.
Melissa stops in front of Ladon, Nate trying to escape from its clutches. In one swift moment, she shoves a hand into her pocket and takes out a paintbrush. "H-hey ugly!" she yells, and Ladon's eyes are now fixated on her.
"Is that....is that a bloody paint brush?!" Nate yells from up in the air, panicked. "What are you going to do? Paint 'Starry Night' on him?!" he asks, and I can tell he believes he's going to end up being a dragon treat.
Melissa ignores him, eyes locked on the dragon, throwing the paintbrush in the air. In a split second, the paintbrush transforms into a spear in midair, and she catches it perfectly. Spinning the spear in one hand, she throws it with a grunt and it hits the dragon's chest, causing it to give a deafening, animalistic cry.
Nate watches the entire thing from above with an opened mouth. "I take back what I said before. You just do what you're doing," he says, but yelps as Ladon swings him around, using his other claw to rip out the spear from his chest. In a moment, the rest of the Hunters come running forward, Thalia leading them off. Melissa spots them and joins them, her spear turning back into a paint brush as she grabs her bow from her back.
"When I say go," Thalia instructs, and all the girls get into their straight line formation in front of the dragon. "Ready," they all raise their silver bows, arrows ready. "Set," I feel a slight push on my back and I nearly fall over. Though I want to join my sisters, though I need to, I cannot. I am paralyzed. "Go!"
29 arrows shoot off into the air, almost all of them hitting the dragon in various places. Ladon lets out an ear splitting cry and let's go of Nate, the poor Irish boy screaming as he plummets to the ground. Before he can make contact with the grassy bottom, Melissa blasts off to him, somehow managing to catch him bridal style in her arms.
I watch the entire thing in utter shock.
Nate's eyes open, having closed them in fear, and his mouth drops as he faces Melissa. "Y-you saved me. ...You saved me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Nate leans his head up and kisses Melissa all over her face, the rest of the Hunters watching with horrified expressions, as well as I.
Nate pauses, finally realizing what he was doing, and moves his head back, Melissa's blue eyes wide. There's a moment of silence before Melissa clears her throat and surprises us all as she drops Nate to the floor. "Watch what you're doing next time," she states, her voice bare of any emotion as she turns and walks towards me.
Nate is left on the floor, his eyes following her in confusion and his cheeks red in embarrassment. The arms behind me suddenly spin me around, and I come face to face with Percy.
"Are you okay? You froze! You nearly scared me half to death," he rambles, and there's an unreadable expression on his face.
I shake my head. "I'm alright. I just..." I stiffen as his thumbs begin to stroke my arms. Though the feeling is nice and I am calmed by his warm hands, I feel something odd in my chest once again and shove his hands off me.
He's touching me. I don't like him touching me. He cannot touch me.
"I'm fine."
Once again, Percy shoots me a hurt look from before, and I realize this is the third time I shoved him since I met him. I'm usually not this violent or aggressive, at least not all the time. I don't why I am...with him. I swallow and look down. "I'm just fine."
"Alright. Everybody good? Everybody okay? Great, let's set up camp, it'll be dark soon," Thalia says as she starts to walk away.
"Wait, what about the dragon? It's not dead, is it?" Dayi asks from behind her.
Thalia turns. "No, it's not. But it's temporarily withering in pain. I say we take the opportunity to go, and figure out what to do with him later."
Dayi nods and Thalia walks off once again, all of us following her.
I feel another hand grab my arm, but this time I know immediately who it is. "I'm okay Mel, really. In fact, I should be the one worried about you. You know, fighting the dragon and all. That was mighty tough of you, kid. Don't think Thalia's gonna mess with you anymore," I say as Melissa gives me a soft smile.
"Really Meli, what got into you? You were like Hercules out there," Dayi says, chuckling and patting her back.
"You also saved O'Connors bum. Very impressive, sweet lady." Har appears next to us, smiling this irritating smile at Melissa, and I instinctively grab him by the collar, glaring death at him.
"You idiot! We almost died because of you!" I shout at him. Har stares at me, wide eyed, before slowly beginning to laugh joyfully. I growl. "This isn't funny you twisted jerk. You nearly..."
"Made you all dragon food? I know. What a rush wasn't it? Now we have a funny story to tell when we get back," Har says, grinning crazily at me. I frown.
"If we get back," the son of Ares joins our conversation, fiddling with something in his hands. As I look closer, I see that it is a pocket knife.
"Why do you sound so uncertain?" Dayi asks, hands on her hips.
Theo gives a low chuckle, his eyes flickering up to look at us before moving his gaze back to his toy. "The garden may look like a fairytale, but it's not. Besides the dragon, we got the Hesperides to look out for, which I'm surprise haven't introduced themselves yet, and the force that threatens this place. And us. This is more than just a simple quest, kids. This is the real deal. Death is in the cards," the tan boy says, his lips curling into a twisted smirk as he lifts his pocket knife and points it at us one by one. "Now, the question is," he pauses as he lands on me, eyes glinting dangerously, "Is it you?"