Rick Riordan Presents Multiverse: The Path of Darkness

Why Does "Apollo" Have Three Syllables?

Meg was having a Meg day. She was out in the hot fields of her new home with her siblings, planting new dryads. It was a nice, sunny day. Maybe a little too sunny, seeing how most of the plant spirits were huddled in her little abode. Maybe next time Apollo came around to visit, Meg would ask him to turn it down a bit.

"Sapling! Your brothers and sisters need help negotiating with a cactus spirit. She says her spikes aren't getting their daily trimming. Honestly, Meg, you spoil the little beasts too much." Her friend and guardian, Luguselwa, complained.

Meg stood up. "Lu! Cactus plants gotta maintain their spikes. I'm on it. Where are they?"

"In greenhouse number 71." Lu responded. Meg groaned.

"That's, like, a trillion miles away!" She fumed. She'd have to ask an air spirit kind enough to get her there.

Lu shrugged, lifting her metal arms. "It was you who wanted to make 100 greenhouses," She noted. Meg stomped over to Lu's "borrowed" electric scooter and hopped on. She'd wanted a car, but Lu had refused to get a car for a 13 year old. Meg couldn't imagine why.

She sped along the dusty trail she had made months before, the scooter rattling under her. Dust flew into her face, but didn't bother her at all. She spat it out of her mouth and revved up the scooter to the highest level, jerking her forward.

"Woo hoo!" Meg loved the freedom this sanctuary gave her. It was a great break from Nero. She enjoyed being happy when she was by herself. Meg looked over at the greenhouse numbers. A blurry 48 flew by.

"Lu, I'm at #48 right now. Gonna be there, in, uh, maybe 4 minutes?" She talked into the radio.

Lu responded. "Gotcha Sapling. Just in time, the dryad is getting a bit prickly." Meg smiled at the bad pun. It reminded her of her adventures with Lester, and although sad at some times, was joyful at others. Her bliss was cut though, by a mysterious square cut-out in the middle of air. Meg had enough time to think, What in the name of Apollo is that? Before the impossible rip in the world dispensed 2 dudes and 2 girls. Meg stopped accelerating her scooter quickly, but it was too late. She was gonna run 'em over.

One of the girl's eyes widened as she spotted Meg careening towards them. "N'dah!" She shouted, lifting what looked like a stick to Meg. To her amazement, she rode over them, hovering a few inches above their hairs.

Meg took hard right and ran back. "Who are you people! What are you doing here! Are you looking for a fight!" She intended for those to be all questions, but somehow they came out all angry.

"Hey! Uh, look, kid-" A dude with curly brown hair started speaking but Meg stopped listening after 'kid'.

"EXCuse me? Did you just call me a kid? You have no idea what I've gone through!" Meg flared. The guy put his hands up in surrender. He looked helplessly at the girl who had yelled that weird word. The girl then proceeded to glare at him, sigh, and turn to Meg.

"I'm Zia Rashid. This is Sadie, Walt, and Carter." She said, pointing to each in turn. Meg looked at them suspiciously.

"What do you people want?" She said defensively. A glimmer above the Carter dude caught her eye. "What's that above you?" She pointed.

Carter turned. "There's noth-SETNE!" He immediately muttered something and blasted a bunch of purple smoke into the glimmer. And promptly poisoned the grass. The other companions followed his lead, totally messing up the trail. Meg got angrier and angrier.

"Hey! Stop polluting my home!" She launched a bunch of poison ivy seeds at the bunch and grew them. In a matter of seconds they were all surrounded by the toxic plant.

The Carter boy look at her, annoyed. "Stop interfering! We have to recapture this guy! Unless...you're working for him!" He slashed the vines up with a curved sword. Meg barely made a plant cover in time to block his attack.

"Must be an earth elementalist," A new female voice said. Another sword poked into Meg's shelter, triggering an explosion of thorny branches out. Meg suddenly remembered something Apollo had said when he first left: Hey, if you're ever in trouble, just holler something like "Apollo is best/Da best god is Apollo/He is really cool. Got it? Meg had complained, but that's a haiku. How da heck do I compose a haiku on the spot when I'm in trouble? But of course he just gave her a 'figure it out' look and went away. Meg figured she was in trouble at the moment, so she started trying to make a functional haiku.

"Apollo! Need help!" She screamed while dodging and attacking in turns. To her major surprise, it added up to 5 syllables.

The Walt guy asked, "Who's Apollo?" But Meg was trying to find a second, compatible verse.

Meg sent a blinding wall of lilies her attackers' way. "SEND HELP RIGHT NOW! SOS!" Even during the heat of the battle, she was proud of that one. The sky rumbled a bit, as if it was waiting for the last verse.

She twirled neatly around a stab. "You are kind of cool!" She yelped. A flash of light, and the god was next to her. Scratch that. More like Lester was next to her.

Carter emitted a noise that sounded like eep. "Where'd the guy come from?" He asked Meg. Meg poked Lester.

"Uh, in case you didn't see from the sun, I'm kinda battling right now, so, if you could, ya know, be godly and stuff that would be great." Meg whispered. Apollo looked at the 4.

"Okay, but don't blame me if they're mortal and can't see me," He huffed. Then he held out his hand and a bow flew into it. A golden light surrounded him and when it faded, godly Apollo was there in all his glory. Golden hair, golden robe, golden bow, yadayadayad.

"Mhmk, golden boy. Showtime's over." Meg grumbled, shielding her eyes from the glow emitted from his aura. Apollo look regrettably at the people Meg had been fighting.

"Hey bros, sorry about this, but I promised Meg I would keep her safe if she could make a haiku about me." Apollo talked in a melodious voice. Zia stared up with wide eyes.

"You look...just like a god." She stated. Apollo gave her a funny look.

"Well of course! I am a go-" He tilted his head as if thinking. "Oh. I see what's going on."

(1107 Words)