❝i'll never be that me again❞
⤷ b.m.
△△△
"Do you think-"
"All the time. I'm a great thinker, you know."
"That's not what I meant. Do you think-" Kira tried again.
"Yep." Connor said, slurping his noodles for lunch.
"Will you quit that, I'm trying to ask you something," Kira said, hitting his arm softly.
"Ask away."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Connor said, waiting.
"Now I forgot what I was going to say!" Kira announced, glaring at the son of Hermes. He just gave her a noodle smile. She grimaced.
She sat at Hermes table today for lunch. Normally, Connor told her, the table would be overrun with demigods, but after Percy had made the gods promise to claim their children, they had kept their promise. The Hermes cabin table was practically empty.
She rolled her eyes, smiling at the dumb boy. She finished her lunch, making sure she had time to take a walk in the woods.
She had meant to find Bunker Nine, but she got distracted by some daises, and somehow ended up at the camp archway.
She glanced behind her, the familiar scene of camp making her feel at ease, making sure no one was following, and continued through the archway. She knew Mr. D or Chiron would feel her presence leave camp, but she figured she would have couple minutes before they found her.
She trailed a stream carelessly, letting her mind roam.
She missed Leo. That was obvious, but she had wished it had gotten easier. Everyone told her it would get easier. But here she was, 183 days, and still hurting just as much as day 1, just better at covering it up.
Her mind was torn with worry as well. Campers had been disappearing from camp for the last couple months, and it took a toll on Kira. She felt responsible, and she argued with Chiron for hours to try to convince her to let her lead a quest to find the missing campers, will no prevail.
Ellis was one of the people that had gone missing. He was her first sibling to make her feel at home was gone. She had grown close with him before he had disappeared, and Kira thought that he was just another person that she had failed.
She was about to make her way back to camp to avoid getting in trouble, she had a position to maintain now as head counselor, plus with all the demigods going missing she knew it probably wasn't safe to stay out in the woods too long.
Just before she was about to turn around, she heard a loud voice. "BLOFIS!"
She frowned at the unfamiliar voice, but made her way towards it in curiosity.
Brandishing her sword, she walked into a clearing. She saw three figures fighting some sort of monster.
With a closer look, she realized one of the people was no other then Percy Jackson.
Kira made herself be seen.
"Kira?" Percy called, making the other two unfamiliar people glanced towards her. "Perfect timing!"
One was a small girl dressed like a traffic light, and the other with curly brown hair, skinny, and a welt on his nose, as if he was beaten up.
"I know you!" The teenager declared. Kira gave him a wary grin, not wanting to admit she had never seen him in her life before.
"Let's beat up some..." Kira glanced to Percy, not knowing what these weird monsters were. They looked like ghoulish corpses with yellow eyes. Their clothes were tattered rags, their limbs covered with gaping wounds and running sores.
"Nosoi," The dude said, filling in her blank.
"Nosoi," Kira repeated. "Let's kick some nosoi butt,"
Percy and Kira planted their feet in an identical fighting position side by side.
"You know, I keep thinking, I have now killed every single thing in Greek mythology. But the list never seems to end."
"You haven't killed me yet," The boy noted.
"Don't tempt me."
At least she now knew that he wasn't mortal.
The three nosoi shuffled forward. Their cadaverous mouths gaped. Their tongues lolled. Their eyes glistened with a film of yellow mucus.
"These creatures are not myths," The guy said. "Of course, most things in those old myths are not myths. Except for that story about how I flayed the satyr Marsyas alive. That was a total lie."
Percy glanced at him. "You did what?"
"Flayed-" Kira's jaw dropped in disbelief. "Wha-Apollo?"
Apollo was wearing a strange disguise. She hadn't seen him since Zeus blamed Gaea waking on him back six months ago.
"Long story," Percy said. "Good to see you alive, Willows,"
"Guys." The girl picked up a dead tree branch. "Could we talk about that later?"
The middle plague spirit spoke. "Apollooooo..." His voice gurgled like a seal with bronchitis. "We have coooome to—"
"Let me stop you right there." Apollo crossed his arms. "You've come to take your revenge on me, eh?" He looked at at Kira. "You see, nosoi are the spirits of disease. Once I was born, spreading illnesses became part of my job. I use plague arrows to strike down naughty populations with smallpox, athlete's foot, that sort of thing."
"Gross," The girl said.
"Somebody's got to do it!" Apollo said. "Better a god, regulated by the Council of Olympus and with the proper health permits, than a horde of uncontrolled spirits like these."
The spirit on the left gurgled. "We're trying to have a moooment here. Stop interrupting! We wish to be free, uncontroooolled—"
"Yes, I know. You'll destroy me. Then you'll spread every known malady across the world. You've been wanting to do that ever since Pandora let you out of that jar. But you can't. I will strike you down!"
Apollo looked strongly...human. Mortal. Mundane. What had happened?
The spirit on the right bared his rotten teeth. "What will you strike us down with? Where is your booow?"
"It appears to be missing," Apollo agreed. "But is it really? What if it's cleverly hidden under this Led Zeppelin T-shirt, and I am about to whip it out and shoot you all?"
The nosoi shuffled nervously.
"Yooou lie," said the one in the middle.
Percy cleared his throat. "Um, hey, Apollo..."
"I know what you're going to say," Apollo told him. "You, Kira Willows and Meg have come up with a clever plan to hold off these spirits while I run away to camp. I hate to see you sacrifice yourselves, but—"
Kira was surprised the god remembered her name. She glanced to the small girl, who looked about twelve, who was apparently named Meg.
"That's not what I was going to say." Percy raised his blade. "I was going to ask what happens if I just slice and dice these mouth-breathers with Celestial bronze."
The middle spirit chortled, his yellow eyes gleaming. "A sword is such a small weapon. It does not have the pooooetry of a good epidemic."
"Stop right there!" Apollo exclaimed. "You can't claim both my plagues and my poetry!"
"You are right," said the spirit. "Enough wooooords."
The three corpses shambled forward. The god thrust out his arms, hoping to blast them to dust. Nothing happened.
"This is insufferable!" Apollo complained. "How do demigods do it without an auto-win power?"
Kira shifted uncomfortably. "What the hell happened to you?"
Apollo sighed dramatically. "I'd prefer not to talk about that right now."
Meg jabbed her tree branch into the nearest spirit's chest. The branch stuck. Glittering smoke began swirling down the length of the wood.
"Let go!" Apollo warned. "Don't let the nosoi touch you!"
Meg released the branch and scampered away.
Percy and Kira charged into battle side-by-side. He swung his sword, dodging the spirits' attempts to snare him, but his efforts were futile. Whenever his blade connected with the nosoi, their bodies simply dissolved into glittery mist, then resolidified.
Kira worked beside him, having the same results with her blade, as well.
A spirit lunged to grab him. From the ground, Meg scooped up a frozen black peach and threw it with such force it embedded itself in the spirit's forehead, knocking him down.
"We gotta run," Meg decided.
"Yeah." Percy backtracked toward the two. "I like that idea."
Kira held her ground, protecting her friends bravely.
Meg and Percy sprinted off through the orchard, and Apollo followed. After hesitating for a moment, she followed them into the forest.
Percy pointed to a line of hills about a mile ahead. "That's the western border of camp. If we can just get there..."
The three demigods and a ex-god passed an irrigation tank on a tractor-trailer. With a casual flick of his hand, Percy caused the side of the tank to rupture. A wall of water crashed into the three nosoi behind them.
"That was good." Meg grinned, skipping along in her new green dress. "We're going to make it!"
Kira glanced to Apollo, who was wheezing with the effort to make it to camp.
"We can't—" He gulped. "They'll just—"
Three glittering pillars of smoke plumed from the ground in front of the group. A single nosoi solidified into cadavers— the one with a peach for a third eye.
Percy ran straight into the plume of smoke, as did Kira.
"Don't breathe!" Apollo warned the two heroes.
Kira held her breath, watching as Apollo heroically ran into a tree.
Watching him fall, she had the mothery instinct to save him. Glancing to Percy, he was creating a mini geyser. She rolled her eyes. Percy was extra sometimes.
Kira rolled to the side, escaping the mist. Turning, she threw her sword towards the nosoi, but it went right through it, embedding itself into the tree behind it.
She ran towards her weapon, yanking it out of the tree as fast as she could. When she looked back, Percy was dousing Apollo. She struck the nosoi in front of her.
"GET DOWN!" Meg screamed.
All around the orchard, the frozen blackened remnants of the harvest were beginning to levitate.
Kira dropped to the ground, as did Percy and Apollo did. Peaches shot around the orchard, ripping through the nosoi bodies.
Meg simply stood there, unfazed and unhurt, as frozen dead fruit zinged around her.
All three nosoi collapsed, riddled with holes. Every piece of fruit dropped to the ground.
Percy looked up, his eyes red and puffy. "Whah jus happened?"
He sounded congested, which meant he hadn't completely escaped the effects of the plague cloud. Kira could feel herself stuffed up as well. Her throat itched, and she sneezed loudly.
"I don't know," Apollo admitted. "Meg, is it safe?"
She was staring in amazement at the carnage of fruit, mangled corpses, and broken tree limbs. "I—I'm not sure."
"How'd you do thah?" Percy snuffled.
Meg looked horrified. "I didn't! I just knew it would happen."
"Thah was ahesome!" Kira pronounced, wiping her nose.
One of the cadavers began to stir. It got up, wobbling on its heavily perforated legs.
"But you did doooo it," the spirit growled. "Yooou are strong, child."
The other two corpses rose.
"Not strong enough," said the second nosos. "We will finish you now."
The third spirit bared his rotten teeth. "Your guardian would be sooooo disappointed."
Meg looked as if she'd been punched in the gut. Her face paled. Her arms trembled. She stamped her foot and yelled, "NO!"
More peaches swirled into the air. This time the fruit blurred together in a fructose dust devil, until standing in front of Meg was a creature like a pudgy human toddler wearing only a linen diaper. Protruding from his back were wings made of leafy branches. His babyish face might have been cute except for the glowing green eyes and pointy fangs. The creature snarled and snapped at the air.
"Oh, no." Percy shook his head. "I hate these things."
The three nosoi also did not look pleased. They edged away from the snarling baby.
"Wh-what is it?" Meg asked.
"It's a grain spirit," Apollo said panicky. "I've never seen a peach karpos before, but if it's as vicious as other types..."
Kira groaned. "Grain spirits hat meh," She sniffled.
The peach baby turned toward the nosoi. For a moment, I feared he would make some hellish alliance—an axis of evil between illnesses and fruits.
The middle corpse, the one with the peach in his forehead, inched backward. "Do not interfere," he warned the karpos. "We will not allooow—"
The peach baby launched himself at the nosos and bit his head off.
That is not a figure of speech. The karpos's fanged mouth unhinged, expanding to an unbelievable circumference, then closed around the cadaver's head, and chomped it off in one bite.
Kira's lunch rose in her stomach.
In a matter of seconds, the nosos had been torn to shreds and devoured.
Understandably, the other two nosoi retreated, but the karpos crouched and sprang. He landed on the second corpse and proceeded to rip it into plague-flavored Cream of Wheat.
The last spirit dissolved into glittering smoke and tried to fly away, but the peach baby spread his leafy wings and launched himself in pursuit. He opened his mouth and inhaled the sickness, snapping and swallowing until every wisp of smoke was gone.
He landed in front of Meg and belched. His green eyes gleamed. Even after eating three whole nosoi, the little fellow looked hungry.
He howled and beat his small chest. "Peaches!"
Slowly, Percy raised his sword. His nose was still red and runny, and his face was puffy. "Meg, don move," he snuffled. "I'm gonna—"
"No!" Meg said. "Don't hurt him."
She put her hand tentatively on the creature's curly head. "You saved us," she told the karpos. "Thank you."
Peach Baby hugged Meg's leg and glared at us as if daring us to approach.
"Peaches," he growled.
"He likes you," Percy noted. "Um...why?"
"I don't know," Meg said. "Honestly, I didn't summon him!"
Kira assumed Meg was the daughter of Demeter, with the way she controlled fruit. It was odd to have such a powerful child of Demeter, but Kira thought it was awesome.
"Well, whatever the case," Apollo said, "we owe the karpos our lives. This brings to mind an expression I coined ages ago: A peach a day keeps the plague spirits away!"
Percy sneezed. "I thought it was apples and doctors."
The karpos hissed.
"Or peaches," Percy said. "Peaches work too."
"Peaches," agreed the karpos.
Percy wiped his nose. "Not criticizing, but why is he grooting?"
Meg frowned. "Grooting?"
"Yeah, like thah character in the movie...only saying one thing over and over."
"I'm afraid I haven't seen that movie," Apollo said. "But this karpos does seem to have a very...targeted vocabulary."
"Maybe Peaches is his name." Meg stroked the karpos's curly brown hair, which elicited a demonic purring from the creature's throat. "That's what I'll call him."
"Whoa, you are not adopting thah—" Percy sneezed with such force, another irrigation pipe exploded behind him, sending up a row of tiny geysers. "Ugh. Sick."
"You're lucky," Apollo said. "Your trick with the water diluted the spirit's power. Instead of getting a deadly illness, you got a head cold."
"I hate head colds." His green irises looked like they were sinking in a sea of bloodshot. "Neither of you got sick?"
Meg shook her head.
Percy turned to Kira, who sneezed as if on instinct. Percy managed a smile. "Look, at least Willows is sick with me."
"Shut it, Jackson."
"I have an excellent constitution," Apollo said. "No doubt that's what saved me."
"And the fact thah I hosed the smoke off of you," Percy said.
"Well, yes."
Percy glanced at the god, waiting for a "Thank you". Apollo stared blankly at him.
"Ah...thank you," He finally said.
Percy nodded. "No problem."
"Can we go now?" Meg asked.
"An excellent idea," The ex-god said. "Though I'm afraid Percy is in no condition—"
"I can drive you the rest of the way," he said. "If we can get my car out from between those trees..." He glanced in that direction and his expression turned even more miserable. "Aw, Hades no...."
A police cruiser was pulling over on the side of the road. The cruiser's roof lights flashed on.
"Great," Percy muttered. "If they tow the Prius, I'm dead. My mom and Paul need thah car."
"Go talk to the officers," Apollo said. "You won't be any use to us anyway in your current state. Kira Willows will direct us to camp, right?"
Kira nodded quickly.
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Meg said. "You said the camp is right over those hills?"
"Right, but..." Percy scowled, probably trying to think straight through the effects of his cold. "Most people enter camp from the east, where Half-Blood Hill is. The western border is wilder—hills and woods, all heavily enchanted. If you're not careful, you can get lost...." He sneezed again. "I'm still not even sure Apollo can get in if he's fully mortal."
"Oh come on Percy," Kira said, glaring playfully at him. "I'm more then capable of getting them to camp.
"I'll get in."
Percy glanced to Kira. "Don't let him die."
Kira rolled her eyes.
The police car's doors opened.
"Go," Apollo urged Percy. "We'll find our way through the woods. You explain to the police that you're sick and you lost control of the car. They'll go easy on you."
Percy laughed. "Yeah. Cops love me almost as much as teachers do." He glanced at Meg. "You sure you're okay with the baby fruit demon?"
Peaches growled.
"All good," Meg promised. "Go home. Rest. Get lots of fluids."
Percy's mouth twitched. "You're telling a son of Poseidon to get lots of fluids? Okay, just try to survive until the weekend, will you? I'll come to camp and check on you guys if I can. Be careful and—CHOOOO!"
Kira smiled and gave a mock salute to the boy.
Muttering unhappily, he touched the cap of his pen to his sword, turning it back into a simple ballpoint. A wise precaution before approaching law enforcement. He trudged down the hill, sneezing and sniffling.
"Officer?" he called. "Sorry, I'm up here. Can you tell me where Manhattan is?"
Meg turned to the ex-god. "Ready?"
She glanced back warily at Kira, as if she didn't know what to make of her yet, but Kira offered the girl a warm smile, which she returned.
"Sure," Apollo said. "Let's go."
Peaches the karpos grunted. He gestured for us to follow, then scampered toward the hills.
Meg skipped after him, swinging from tree branches and cartwheeling through the mud as the mood took her.
Kira smiled at the girl, remembering when she used to be so carefree. It wasn't like she was old now, but she had responsibilities, and now with the constant gloom of monsters, she wasn't so childish. She had lost that spark in her eyes 183 days ago.
"Are you sure, Zeus? It's not too late to tell me this was an elaborate prank and recall me to Olympus. I've learned my lesson. I promise." Apollo said from beside her. She gave him a weird look, but said nothing.
"Apollo?" She asked carefully as they strolled through the woods. She kept her sword out, on the lookout for any sneak attacks.
"Yes, Kira Willows?" Apollo asked.
"You, uh," Kira said carefully. "You don't need to say my full name."
"Oh, right. Of course."
"What happened?"
He was silent, looking out into the woods. "I will answer that once we get to camp, so I only need to say it once."
Kira nodded, using her elbow to cover another sneeze.
They trudged on.