The Son of Hermes (a Percy Jackson fanfic)

Chapter 5: My sword goes swimming in acid

As soon as I exited the magical forcefield my first thought was-'Why the hell am I getting hit by constant hot blasts of wind?'

Then I saw what was in front of me and...uh oh. It was the dragon. The hot blasts were it's breath. At first I didn't know why it didn't eat me instantly, then I saw that it's eyes were closed. If this thing started snoring now, Thalia and I will be the first fried humans in the world.

"The exit is behind it!"Thalia whispered, "What are we supposed to do now?"

I didn't understand what she meant but then I saw the problem. The dragon was blocking all the space and the gaps on it's sides were covered with acid pools. To get out, we would have to...problem. Big problem.

"We have to climb over it," I said unenthusiastically.

"Are you crazy!"Thalia cried,"If it wakes up, we'll become dragon biscuits."

"No choice."

"Luke, have you thought this through? "Thalia asked, looking straight in my eyes.

"No,"I admitted, "Now let's go before it wakes up."

"Fine."

I looked at the dragon and gulped. One slightest mistake and it's eyelids would open, the red lasers it had for eyes would spot us and we'd be dead meat. With these pleasant thoughts in my mind, I started to climb. The dragon's skin was worse than I had imagined. Some parts of it were slimy like a toad while other sections were hard as rock.

"Don't touch it's nose or it's eyes,"Thalia whispered in a barely audible voice.

For the first time I looked down to see which part of it's body I was climbing and it turned out to be the worst place. One of my feet was on it's snout while the other was on it's cheek. My hands were gripping it's horns. Did I mention that it had horns? I probably should have. I knew that it would wake up if I tried to get down again, so, there was just one choice - keep climbing.

I looked down at Thalia. She hadn't touched the dragon yet. As quietly as I could, I whispered, " Go to the side and climb it's arms."

Without waiting for her reply, I moved ,pulling my legs over the dragon's horns. Great, so far so good. I looked around and saw Thalia. She had climbed over it's arms already. That was one quick girl. I couldn't help being impressed. Then I saw where she was going. She was heading towards a piece of slippery skin. The side had a huge pool of acid. One false step could cost her life.

"Thalia! That part is dangerous!"

My warning came out louder than I had intended. The dragon stirred. It suddenly moved and my sword clattered out of my hand and went straight into an acid pool. It melted and turned to nothing. Iwas stunned. For the past two years the sword had been my companion. It had helped me survive but I had no time to dwell over those facts.

Thalia was startled by the dragon's movement but she somehow managed to leap aside. She came to stand, or rather crouch beside me. We were clinging to the dragon's neck waiting for it to wake up. All I could do was hope that we looked like fleas.

"Why did you call me?"Thalia demanded.

"You were going slip on that slimy skin and fall off!"I whispered back, "What more can you expect me to do."

"I knew I couldn't have lost my balance, that's why I went there!"

"But- Never mind. Point is, what do we do now?"I asked deciding that arguing with Thalia won't help.

"Once it wakes up -and it's about to wake up, mind you- it'll surely catch us if we try to run,"Thalia replied, still looking annoyed,"We have to kill it."

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that?"I said,"My sword just melted in acid. I'm weaponless! At least you have your spear. Wait, where is your spear? "

I looked around but the weapon was nowhere to be seen. Thalia took out a small film canister.

"My spear is in here. Convenient, huh?"Thalia whispered, " About your weapon problem..."

Her quick eyes searched the cave.

"Wait a sec."She said," I need to focus."

She closed her eyes and raised her hand towards the left. I saw what she was pointing at. It was a golf club, probably taken from a defeated golfer eaten by a dragon. Before my eyes it rose and sailed towards us until it hit my nose.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed, "Did you do that?"

"Yes," Thalia answered, "I can control the minor winds. It's a daughter-of-Zeus thing."

"What am I supposed to do with that golf club?"

"Distract the dragon. I know a bit about these things. To kill a dragon, you need to stab it's mouth. Get it to open it's mouth. I'll do the stabbing. Be quick, it's waking up!"

I need to battle a dragon...with a golf club. Brilliant. Just my luck.

"Be ready,"I whispered to Thalia.

Then I summoned up all my courage and slid down the dragon's snout and poked it in the eye. It may sound comical but it was the scariest thing I'd ever done. The eye opened instantly. Even the dragon looked shocked to see a human so close to its eye. It's eye stared at me like -'Dumb human!'

I did the natural thing. I put my hand into my pocket and ...Ah ha! I took out a pin, the kind you use to mark places on maps, and I stuck It into the eye. The affect was instant. The dragon bellowed in pain and got up, with a shell- shocked Thalia on it's neck and blew fire. I ducked behind a rock to prevent turning into charcoal. The fire stopped and I knew something was into the creature's head. Quick as hell a claw appeared out of the blue. If it hadn't been for my reflexes, I would've died but luckily I rolled aside. Unluckily the dragon's head was where I rolled and when I looked up I was face to face with a half-blind dragon with an equally murderous-looking Thalia on it's neck. Double trouble.I hit the dragon in it's nose and I ran to a side. The dragon followed. I moved at the last minute but I guess a charging dragon takes longer to stop than a tiny demigod because it slammed right into the wall of the cave. While the dragon was in a momentary daze,I saw a huge branch on the floor and picked it up. A crazy idea formed in my head.

"Thalia catch!"I cried as I threw the branch towards her," The dragon's mouth!"

She understood immediately .She jumped onto the dragon's snout and the dragon tried to snap at her. The timing was perfect. Thalia put the branch vertically inside the dragon's mouth while it was open. The poor beast couldn't close it's mouth. I almost felt sorry for it. Thalia threw her canister, which was now in spear form, towards me. I caught it and stabbed the roof of it's mouth. The creature disintegrated into dust in front of my eyes and Thalia jumped from it's back. She ran to me and hugged me.

"We did it!" she exclaimed.

It felt good to have a friend after such a long time. We hadn't known each other for more than an hour but she already felt like a sister but now, even without the dragon we had a big problem.

"Uh, Thalia, "I said,"How are we going to get down."

Her smile faded.

"What do you mean 'get down',"she asked.

"You do know that we're on a cliff about hundred metres high, don't you?"

Her expression was filled with horror. She took a deep breath and said," One problem solved, one to go. Let's do it!"

X----------X ----------X

Hi guys,

What do you think of the story so far? If you like it, please VOTE/ COMMENT. Do you like Thalia? She's my fave character in the Percy Jackson series, apart from Percy of course:-)

To those of you looking for good teen fictions to read, read The Bad Boy's Girl. It's awesome.

See ya later!