Percy Jackson and the Olympians belong to Rick Riordan. All credit to him.
My monster fighting skills were so rusty that by the time we reached the state Iowa I counted 39 times the serpent had saved me by melting a harpy out of mid air before dive bombing me, gnawing off the head of a giant scorpion inches before it would sting me, or coiling around and crushing a giant Lastrigonian readying to drop on me from a building.
"I guess my skills are hundreds of years out of date but you don't have to mock me like that" I said. The serpent I needed to name was sitting amongst piles of monster dust grooming its hind end as a dog while I wrestled my shield back from one scrappy Harpy. After I cleaved the bird woman in half with my sword I joined the dog by his monster dust pile.
"Woof." The serpentine-turned-dog walked to my side and pointed to one of the piles of essence he came from.
"What? Are you trying to show off more?"
"Woof.'' The dog trotted back over to it, sneezed into the dusty to part it, and scooped something into it's maw. It came back to drop it at my feet.
"Great work. You got another trophy from your conquest of all those Harpies, now can we get moving before the sun rises because you are not letting me get any experience back at this monster slaying thing?"
"Woof!"
"What do you mean you won't help next time, that is your whole point of joining me!" I was shocked and a little skeptical if he was serious. The next encounter could be something big and I could be all on my own because I talked back to a snake. "Wait no. I'm sorry please do help."
"Arf!"
"No you can't. The ambrosia is for emergency injuries, you have raw steak and dog treats in here if you are hungry" I scolded, picking up and throwing the bag strap over my shoulder, out of the beast's reach.
"Woof!"
"You are using my life in battle so leniently that I think you don't care. I won't ask for your help next battle then." I started walking back into the direction we were heading through the forest before evil chicken ladies fell down on us.
432 miles and six days of silent walking with the serpent was odd when no monsters attacked to prove if he would help or not at night, day, or the early morning we were in at the past the halfway marker of our journey in the backwoods of Iowa.
"BARK, BARK, HISSS!" roared the dog, growing into his long serpentine self like all the times before we were attacked in the past but then pausing like he had forgotten something.
"Where from and how many?"
"Arf!" The serpent shrank back into a doberman.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'? You always know, please you stubborn hound." I willed Pistos to grow into it's large self from a ring and reached for Fanos in my pocket to turn it into a sword. I turned in a circle waiting for any sign of an aggressor. I looked down after spinning so much I got dizzy and saw a little blonde, ratty dog bearing its pebble sized teeth at me.
"Woof!" Fidi warned, stepping back.
"What do you mean watch out? It's only a tiny dog," I said, turning back to ask the dramatic dog. The sound of ripping cloth came to my ears right before a giant paw slammed into my head and slapped me into a tree to my right.
"Arf!" Fidi commented.
"I know you did but I didn't expect it to turn into a chimera and start to bat me around." I sat up, using my sword for a crutch, steadied my breath, and tried to remember all my sword training with the troops and the battles from the past days of traveling to prepare for a fight that I was clearly not going to get help in.
"RAWR!" This chimera was a trouble for the three sets of it's different animal eyes watching me.
"UP HERE YOU BEAST. Fanos!" I yelled, gaining a running jump to duke the beast as I whispered under my breath the word to light my sword for my plan to hopefully get away safely. The chimera leaped to slash at me mid air but I willed a root to ensnare the hind legs when it couldn't dodge from all the vantage points it has in its body. The chimera fell, thudding, to the ground, letting me continue to smoothly sail over it in the air and keep piling on the roots pressing it to the ground.
"Woof!"
"I know the ram head breathes fire. Let me fight my way since you won't help." I securely fastened the ram head facing its lion head so it could not spew flame without igniting itself. The chimera strangled, snapping smaller roots but kept getting squeezed tighter and tighter until popped into a cloud of golden essence. Only a smoking rams horn was left that I picked up and placed in the duffel bag stuffed with the serpent's trophies and supplies from Hera.
"Arf!"
"It wasn't a accident. I was planning to wrap it in roots from the moment I jumped. I was yelling at it to provoke it, it would jump, then I would catch it with the roots of these trees," I continued to explain to the serpent why my plan was full proof without its help.
"BARK!"
"No you're wrong. Why are you so confrontational, we are supposed to be a team."
"Woof!" The serpent elongated into its natural body and looked to its back, on edge, like the action was still happening.
"Why would I get on top of you? From how we've argued I would think you'd try and run me through a swamp."
"Woof!"
"The owner is coming? You mean the chimera's owner?"
I was puzzled about who would keep a beast like that, even as a chihuahua. Then I remembered that all monsters come from somewhere or someone, like a mother. Without a second thought about Echidna coming for my head with the drive to protect her demigod hunting babies.
I secured the duffel bag over my shoulder, threw myself onto the back of my partner in battle, and prayed to the gods I wouldn't regret the ride. As soon as I settled on the back of the serpent and squeezed my legs into the sides, we were darting through the trees of the forest faster than any horse I'd ever seen. The wind stung my eyes when I opened them to scan ahead at the zig zagging path that made the serpent jerk me back and forth. Of course, looking back with no wind in my eyes there was no horrifying mother of monsters chasing us like I feared.
The serpent didn't seem to notice that it was not in an active chase when he slithered through back trails at sickening speeds until early morning of the next day. We kept at the same pace until we passed a road sign saying Welcome to the Buckeye State Ohio and it finally collapsed.
I had to leap off the serpent to avoid getting squished like a bug. I ran to the serpent in the ditch by the side of the road where the snape went crashing.
"How can I help?" I asked the serpent huffing through its two slit nostrils, mouth open. The serpent flicked its eyes to the bag multiple times until I connected its need for ambrosia and nectar.
Whipping the bag around to my front I unzipped and tore through to grab the plastic bag of ambrosia and leather pouch of nectar, pouring a little of each into the mouth of the beast to recover it as much as possible.
The beast swallowed the godly consumables with a dry throat but immediately perked up gaining color back in it's scales and shifting into the doberman. It sat itself up on its front paws panting with an open maw like it was a normal dog.
"So that's it?" I asked expectantly. "Are you just perfectly okay now or what?" The serpent let out a gleeful whimper and grinned a sharp jeweled grin with perfectly lively eyes.
"Good to see. You did such a great job getting us all the way from Iowa to Ohio all in one day. I could stand to stretch my legs so why not let me carry you as thanks?" The serpent clearly appreciated the offer as it rolled onto it's back leaving it's legs and belly in the air waiting for me to carry it. I secured the bag by my side then scooped the dog up and threw it across my shoulders.
"Hey. Keep me updated on where we are walking," I said, hopping a little bit to keep the snake from taking a nap "We are so close with only three states left to cross to our destination." The serpent nipped at my ears from when we started walking to now midday when I interrupted its sleep when it started snoring.
"Are you a male serpent or female?" Throughout the whole trip the serpent took me through deserts, bases of small mountains, creeks, and back forests and sure we talked but I never asked it. I was proud of myself for growing to appreciate its presence on this lonely trip.
"Arf," answered the dog, saying he was indeed a male dog. All with one bark the dog told how his body was thrown together in three days time by the gods and in the last hours of his creation he was given the knowledge of his purpose, who he would serve, and what he was. The serpent was a week old being created not so earlier than I was released from the petrification.
"You are barely a puppy," I chimed, thinking on how this snake was born and given nothing but knowledge for a dangerous purpose in life in fighting with me. I was given nothing as a young nymph coming out of his sapling tree for the first time except odd gazes by the citizens of my destroyed city.
"Would you like a name beside serpent, beast, dog or whatever the gods and I have called you?" I asked, thinking my companion should be given something besides a dangerous fate. The dog looked at me with very human questioning in its eyes, thinking quietly.
"Arf," the serpent agreed to the gift with a rather excited tone. I hummed, trying to think of any names fitting. Lists of pet names were apparently not a basic necessity to know of the modern world given to me by Ares.
"Fluffy?" I asked, remembering Ares saying the name. The serpent wasn't a fan. "Pinch for the dog breed you turn to?" He didn't appreciate that. "Dobey for the breed?" A hard pass again. "Then let's think of old school Greek. Why not Fidi meaning serpent anyway, and it sounds like the name Ares first called you."
That was a clear cut winner. "WOOF!" the serpent barked in agreement, throwing his head to the sky shaking us both. "That's good to hear. Now we don't have to guess names all the way to Long Island"
We grinned, demigod and canine grins at our discovery of a fitting name, walking the rest of the day away on the side of a long back road until night creeped up on us, halting our progress and leading us to make camp for the night.
A breeze blew by my face and my mind went back to the past day and night I traveled on Fidi's back. "Fidi, do you think after I carry you for a day or two and fight our fights you can run us across Pennsylvania and as much as New Jersey as you can so we could make it to a bridge over the waters between New Jersey and Long Island faster than we have been traveling on foot?"
The dog sat in the darkness across the root hut I made, considering the idea. Fidi nodded his head, grinning because the idea could cut time significantly off the trip.
"In that case, then, if we run into any monsters I want you to stay back and save as much energy as you can cause this stretch might let us reach the end of this."
Fidi nodded in understanding, laying back down in our grass cushioned hut. It was a good idea to lay down and sleep now to get as much rest as we can before this final stretch. "Good night Fidi."
Next chapter we'll finally be getting involved with the main characters and plot.