𝐖𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐂! percy jackson

xxi. The Beauty Of Death

━━ chapter twenty-one
the beauty of death
(that's a capital 'd', by the way)

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

    ━━"We're in trouble," Fiona and Hazel hated to bring bad news to a table full of fries and burgers, but they had no choice. "I tried to get a boat. But ... I miscalculated."

    "No boats?" Frank frowned.

    "No, we can get a boat," said Fiona. "But the glacier is further away than Hazel originally thought. Even at top speed, we couldn't get there until tomorrow morning."

    Percy turned pale. "Maybe I could make the boat go faster?"

    "Even if you could," said Hazel, "from what the captains told us, it's treacherous━icebergs, mazes of channels to navigate. You'd have to know where you were going."

    "A plane?" Frank asked, hopeful.

    Hazel sadly shook her head. "I asked the boat captains about that. They said we could try, but it's a tiny airfield. You have to charter a plane two, three weeks in advance."

    They ate in silence after that. Fiona picked at her fries, unable to concentrate. How could they save their home if they couldn't even get to the glacier? Fiona wanted desperately for them to win, but it seemed impossible at this point (and yes, even she is starting to see that). And not just that, but Nico ... Fiona hoped he was still alive, and that Gaea had just been lying to make her unsettled. But Fiona had a terrible feeling that the goddess had been telling her the truth. Nico told her and Hazel that he'd search for the Doors of Death from the other side. If he had been captured by Gaea's forces ... they didn't always get along; their relationship was a rocky one. Fiona always felt like she competing with Bianca's ghost ... but he was her brother; the only brother she has ever had. He was her family, and she couldn't lose him.

    She may already have.

    No, she stopped herself. That's what Gaea wants me to think.

    A raven had landed on a telephone pole above and began to croak. Fiona tried not to pay much attention to it, but when it's cawing suddenly changed into a strangled yelp, she herself let out her own. Frank got up so fast he almost toppled the picnic table. Percy drew his sword, and Fiona unsheathed her pugio.

    Perched ontop of the telephone pole was no longer a raven. Instead, a fat ugly gryphon glared them down. It burped, and black feathers fluttered from it's beak.

    Hazel was the last to draw her weapon, the Stygian Iron glittering.

    Frank notched an arrow and took aim, but the gryphon shirked so loudly the sound echoed off the mountains. Frank flinched, and his shot went wide.

    "I think that's a call for help," warned Percy. "We have to get out of here."

    That was easy to say, but once they ran for the docks, it was a dead end. The gryphon dived after them. Fiona tried to reach it with her dagger whenever it stooped low, but it wasn't that stupid. It was intelligent enough to stay out of reach of Percy's sword arm as well, veering in and out, right to left. They had no choice but to take the steps to the nearest pier and race to the end. The gryphon swooped after them, its front claws extended for the kill. Fiona uselessly raised her weapon, but an icy wall of water slammed sideways into the gryphon and it was washed into the bay. It squawked and flapped its wings, managing to scramble to the pier, where it shook its black fur like a wet mut.