"You leave at dawn." Odin's voice echoed in my brain over and over again as I watched the stars sink and sun begin to awake from my upright position in bed. I didn't even try to sleep at all, but I was too nervous to be tired so it didn't matter anyway.
I couldn't stop thinking about what Sam said. I didn't want to walk right into the unknown enemy's hands, I mean, whoever it is must have planned this whole thing, why else would an assassin go out, kill me, and send me to Valhalla? Like what Magnus pointed out, it was unlikely that me being here wasn't a deliberate move.
The only thing that I felt that I knew was the ultimate main goal of whoever we were facing. He wants to kill the gods, and I assume that it wasn't just the Greeks. Well, theres that and the even more obvious fact that by throwing the two pantheons at each other was a way to divert our attention away from the real problem. I mean, it had to be a distraction of some sort.
A distraction from what though? That's the only thing that matters. I pondered all of this as I got out of bed, already fully clothed and packed. I left behind my family portraits, tree engulfed living room, paints and decked out closet. I made myself a to go cup of coffee and didn't look back.
Even if I succeeded in the quest, who knew where I'd end up in the end. Mallory had told it to me straight, which I appreciated: "You don't belong here."
She's right of course, and I didn't want to, Valhalla wasn't home, even if I did have some new friends. My only point of existing in this place was for a purpose I didn't even believe in. I was thrown into all of this, just for being born. What's worse is that I don't know what I get out of it, I had already died once.
I had my sword strapped on my back plus a few other stray weapons in my hiking backpack, an extra pair of clothes, first aid kit, water bottle, some cash, and a protein bar. I had my loose messy bun tucked under a baseball cap and a sweatshirt, the one I died in, on. A Valhalla shirt underneath. Now that I'm thinking about it, the whole outfit pleasantly reminding me how dead I was.
I met up with my hall mates and we sleepily started walking, Magnus leading the way.
I side glanced at Hearthstone and sipped my coffee, studying the stranger intently and not caring if I looked creepy. He was clearly an elf, his sharp jawline, nimble fingers that fidgeted with his candy striped scarf and bag of rhinestones. That, the slightly pointed ears, and multiple times he was called "elf" by Hearth was all I needed to know. He was also deaf, a painstaking fact that made awkwardness grow. He could read lips, I could tell as he frantically payed close attention to a person's face when they talked, his grey blue eyes zeroing on their mouth.
But that didn't matter, because I knew about two words in ASL, all of which are not appropriate to say depending on what age of kid is reading this if you know what I mean. It meant in any conversation or questions asked ended with either a nod or a shake of the head. That's what made it so awkward, I'm not a fan of silence, I'm a talker, what can I say? Well, with Hearth what can I not say if you know what I mean. At least Magnus had the sense to formally introduce us on the way, so we were strangers no more. Still awkward, but at least we both knew that the other knew each other's names.
Did that even make sense?
I sucked it up though and it wasn't long till we were at this alleged trash shoot in another random hall in the vast Hotel. Looked like it was nothing special.
I crossed my arms and took a last swig of my coffee. "So what? Do we just jump in and it will spew us out in a random place in the mortal world?" I cringed at the use of the word mortal, reminding me that I wasn't.
"Yeah that's the gist, so who's first?" TJ said, clapping his hands and rubbed them together, grinning in his union uniform that he refused to take off.
Alex didn't hesitate or say a word, he just motioned for Magnus to lift the Handel, stuck his legs in first then slid down and out of sight.
"See? Easy enough." Mallory said, sheathing her knifes and quickly following behind, her short curly red hair the last I saw of her.
I moved to go next but Magnus put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a word of warning. Jack was on the pendant around his neck, he wore the same shirt as me, and battered Air Force ones. He didn't look like a child of a god, but neither did I. "Listen, when we get down there, once you die you die, there isn't a Valhalla to come back to, so try not to attract any monsters until we all get down there. Okay?"
"Knock on wood!" Gunderson piped up encouragingly.
I just nodded and looked down the trash shoot. "This better be like one of those slides at the playground."
Gunderson chuckled, "sort of" he said, "only one way to find out" and with a shove from him I was plunged into and down the trash shoot with no warning so I couldn't even complain about the smell.
I'm just glad I wasn't claustrophobic.
Disclaimer for future residents of Valhalla: if you have an odd wish to recycle yourself, it's not even sort of like going down a slide, it was much much worse, Halfborn lied to me. You have been warned.
I was dumped out of wherever we were, managing to roll out of the way in time to not be squashed by TJ as he came tumbling out next. Hearthstone reached out a pale hand and helped me up. I dusted myself off and whirled around in awe and confusion.
Valhalla apparently has been sending it's recycling to the home plate of Fenway, the Red Sox stadium.
So we are in Boston I thought. Great, hope I don't run into my cousins.
It was barely dawn, so no one was around to see the rest of our crew get spit out on the ground. That was until I saw a shadow pass in the upper announcer box and quickly disappear out of sight. I squinted but whoever it was didn't come out, but I had a sneaking suspicion that they saw us, we were out in the open fumbling around home plate like 7complete idiots.
"So" I sighed, quickly hopping over the short wall and into the dug out, "let's try not to get caught instantly by the cleaning staff and take a hint." I said, beckoning everyone to follow. TJ with his union coat and bayonet, Halfborn squeezed into a T-shirt and two double blades aces sticking out of his backpack, Mallory, who looked relatively normal except her cold Gaelic stare and knife sheathes, and Magnus, Alex, and Heathstone, who spent the most time on 21st century earth to know how to blend in.
"Where's Sam?" I asked. She disappeared quickly last night, saying she had some business to deal with and she would meet us in the morning when we made it to Midgard.
Hearthstone signed something, and Magnus translated, "she's with Blitz, that dumbass doesn't plan for anything" he grinned at Hearth. Magnus stopped translating and put a finger to his chin, "he's our dwarf friend but the way, not sure where he is though."
"We could check your homeless shelter." TJ suggested.
Alex shook his head. "They'll show up, trust me, that's the least of our concerns. Magnus, do you even know where the camp that Percy and Annabeth even told you about is?"
He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, "Long Island?" He said.
"Great real helpful." Gunderson said, fidgeting with his backpack straps.
"It's not like there's a specific address, oh! turn right at the apple orchard, down a beach stretch up a hill with pine tree and boom! You've reached camp halfblood." Magnus replied sarcastically.
I sat and put my head in my hands while my friends continued to argue.
"Call Annabeth then."
"I've already tried, she's out of commission, I'm not even sure she's in New York, we can't count on her or Percy's help."
"We might not even be able to count on anyone's help in that place, why should they trust us or let us in?"
"That's true, it's not like Zeus or Hera are more forgiving then what we've got to deal with in Asgard. They're a lot less friendly from what my cousin has told me anyways."
"So maybe Speedy here can use her magical Greek demigod senses to guide us there."
"I don't think it works that way Halfborn, use your brain."
"No need to be rude Mal."
As I was contemplating how to step and and be the leader the hairs of my neck stood up and so did I.
"Every one shut up." I said, snapping my head toward them.
"Calm down Taylor, what do you suggest we do?" Alex said, rolling his eyes and playing with his belt.
"I know that you shouldn't be projecting for all of the world to hear that we're demigods. It isn't smart, especially with an obvious Assasin out looking for them on top of whatever Greek monsters."
Halfborn grunted and scratched his beard. "We're the only ones here, we should be fine, what we need to worry about is how we are getting to Long Island from Boston since none of us have a car or a clue on where this camp is."
I ignored him and made my way up the stairs and out of the dugout. Some internal signal inside me was going crazy trying to warn me. I heard a crash from the speaker booth and I whipped around back to my friends who were watching me intently.
"We need to get out of here." I said. They rushed up with me and started toward the stands but it was too late. Whatever had crashed through the glass of the speakers box window was now coming toward us.
I was never great with mythology, I had to read the Odyssey in ninth grade, but I just spark noted that whole unit. So there was zero chance that I could tell you what the hell type of monster was after us.
It had a face of a man, and that's as normal as this description's gonna get, because the rest of it had a body of a lion only three times bigger. Scary right? Oh did I forget to mention it's got a thorned tail with a scorpion stinger that didn't hesitate to start flicking weird thorns at us? Yeah, that's most definitely the part that scared me the most too.
We took off; sprinting to the outfields. "Evasive maneuvers!!" I screamed as I ducked and rolled from an incoming projectile. The monster was way faster then us, they hardly ever aren't, and even the few precious seconds of delay as it jumped down the rows of red seats weren't enough.
"What is it???" TJ panicked voice called out.
" definitely not Norse that's for sure!" Halfborn cried.
Hearth said nothing as he sprinted next to me, Magnus next to him. We slid to a stop at the outfield wall. I considered scaling it but I saw how all my other friends turned to fight.
Jack appeared and squeaked, "holy manticore that's a big one!"
"Just take him out!" Magnus yelled, and Jack nodded, flying toward the lion beast as it bounded toward us. I relaxed for a second, thinking it was over, but Jack's gold blade stabbed right through the monster like it was made of smoke.
"Bad news Señor, I can't kill it!"
"Yeah no shit!" Magnus growled.
Alex screamed, "dive!" And knocked us both to the ground.
"So we gonna have to kill this thing by good old fashioned choking, that'll be fun." My green haired friend sneared as he wiped a bloody scratch on his chin.
"Don't let the thorns get you!" I warned, dancing away again and this time pulling my sword. "Could use your help a little dad." I mumbled. After the explanation of how the gods worked from last night, I didn't expect anything to actually happen. So surprisingly, my Valhalla issued sword started to heat up. The blade had turned a molten color of its original state while being forged.
I screeched like a true hero and dropped it, waving my hand to cool it off while I ran on circles avoiding a tail whip from the monster. It was mainly trying to go after me so despite being afraid of being burned again, I quickly recovered and picked it up, only this time, the once gold blade cooled and had changed into a bronze.
"That seems useful." I grinned and looked up, a sudden rush of confidence overwhelming me.
"Guys I can kill it!" I yelled, they all turned to look at me, the rookie, obviously thinking I was on a suicide mission, Who knows? maybe I was. I was dead anyways. The monster turned to look at me head on, and my confidence wavered. I eyed it's tail and sharp claws and suddenly wished that I had gone to at least one monster fighting class to the death in the 24 hours I spent in Valhalla.
I never fully realized until that moment how unprepared I was for this quest.
That would've been pretty useful, i thought as I glanced around, having zero clue on what the heck I was doing. I probably wasn't even holding my sword right.
"Mallory, TJ, Gunderson, Keep the tail busy, Alex and Hearth, keep its face distracted." I hollered
I didn't need to see if they heard me and we all charged at once. Mallory used her Enjienhar strength to launch herself a dozen meter away and back into the battle. Halfborn did a running leap at the tail, slicing two darts that flew off it in mid air before landing with a roll. The tail had a mind of its own and the scorpion end jabbed at its prey narrowly, avoiding getting chopped off my Halfborn's axes while he did the same with the pincer.
The manticore was smart and fast, it kept snarling and only looked amused at our charge, before it started coming after us. With its big paws it swiped and slashed Alex's shirt to shreds as he tried to use is garrote to trip up the legs.
A hail storm of the scornful and poisoned thorns came sailing down. I was nicked in the arms in multiple places and felt the affects immediately. Still, I bobbed and weaved as I rushed the creature, my new super strength that I didn't even know I had yet keeping me on my feet. It saw me aiming for its exposed side as I got close to him and turned all its attention on me, the tail swiped my friends down and it shoved Alex and Hearth away, it prowled toward me, and I desperately held my bronze sword up. The fighting had brought us all back to the baseball diamond. My friends were getting frustrated that their weapons couldn't do anything, which put way more pressure on me.
That's when the time slow thing happened again. I wasn't sure what was going on, but the Manticore leaped toward me, ready to shred me to pieces, but I didn't feel scared. Kidding! I was on the verge of tears.
All of my senses were heightened and I was focused enough to even hear the song Jack was humming to himself. My mind came back to the battle and surged forward as well, my run kicking up dust. The Manticore was in the air so I did the most logical thing I could think of. I turned and slid feet first toward second base and stabbed up into its stomach as hard as I could. I'd managed to actually time the slide correctly, which is also surprising because I did two years of little league softball as a kid and immediately decided I hated it. I ducked and rolled out of there before getting belly flopped on. I didn't avoid the tale and it slapped me in the face and sent me flying into the outfield wall.
The pain as the strong tail smacked me in the face sent me volt all the way down to my toes. Even my finger tips felt sore. My noes was bleeding and I felt stiff as a board.
Magnus rushed toward me, my vision telling me that there was at least three of him. I lifted my head and suddenly felt the burn of where the thorns had gotten me. I pressed my head against the wall, my hair a complete mess and I croaked, "is it dead?"
Magnus looked over his shoulder and nodded, "it turned to dust Taylor." He said.
I nodded and tried to stand up, the bruise on my cheek was already forming and my spine wasn't too happy about being most likely fractured when I was thrown against the wall. The world started to spin and I collapsed before Magnus could try and help me up again.
"Let me help." He said, worriedly as he set me back down, my breath hiccuped as I winced again. My vision was blurrier then before.
TJ ran up next to me head, Jack hovering over his shoulder. "Aren't you going to heal her Magnus?" He asked as the rest of the group gathered around me.
"Yeah please do that Chase, everything's looking blurry." I didn't tell them that my blood felt like acid and every movement was like being stabbed.
Magnus nodded and his hands glowed, he raised them over me. My body began to warm up, but in a comforting way, like a warm fluffy heated blanket being wrapped around me. It took the pain away, and I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again I didn't feel perfect but I felt good enough to stand and walk.
"Thanks Magnus." I muttered. Alex and Halfborn threw their arms over my shoulders and lead me toward the exit.
"First monster killing." Mallory said, trailing behind us.
"Not too bad." Alex added, he squinted closer, "you banged your head pretty hard."
"The poison will make it harder for you to heal fully, so you may feel groggy for a bit." Magnus warned. Alex and Halfborn let go of me and Hearthstone tapped me on the arm as we reached the street, early morning light casting down on us.
He signed something and Magnus translated. "He said " good job, you did a lot better then Magnus when he first fought a monster, he practically wet his pants. It won't be the last one though, you Greeks have a really strong scent even compared to the undead Einjhar."
"See? I told you this was going to be fun!" Gunderson bellowed.
"You never said that babe." Mallory said, glancing up at him.
I held my head and tried to focus on the current problems at hand. "It doesn't matter. Let's just go find the dwarf and a ride, I'm praying that that will be the only monster to face today."
"Knock on wood!" TJ chirped, repeating something that Gunderson said a lot.
I threw out my arm to the side, punched the nearest tree and kept walking, showering everyone underneath with brown autumn leaves.
"Let's just go find the dwarf." I repeated with a groan. I couldn't believe that we'd only been on earth for 10 minutes before the first problem arose. Needless to say I wasn't looking forward to the next thing.