The Silver Archer 2️⃣ (Percy Jackson)

09. Stables

Adira

In the afternoon, Percy and I went down to the Pegasus stables to visit Freedom and Blackjack; Percy's pegasus.

Yo, boss! He capered around in his stall, his black wings buffeting the air. Ya bring me some sugar cubes? Freedom's been getting me riled up about them.

"You know those aren't good for you, Blackjack," Percy answered.

Yeah, so you brought me some, huh?

Percy smiled and fed him a handful. Blackjack and him went back a long way.

Freedom whinnied. What am I, chopped liver?

"You gotta learn that you need to be patient, dude," I said, patting his nose.

He burred. Now, I do believe you owe me some sugar cubes. 2x worth.

I laughed, I held out my hand and gave them to him. I stroked his front as he ate, thinking how soft he was.

Blackjack brushed against me, trying to take some sugar cubes. I laughed even more.

So we got any quests coming up? Blackjack asked Percy. I'm ready to fly, boss!

Percy patted his nose. "Not sure, man. Everybody keeps talking about underground mazes."

Blackjack whinnied nervously. Nuh-uh. Not for this horse! You ain't gonna be crazy enough to go in no maze, boss. Are ya? You'll end up in the glue factory!

I mocked him, but didn't say anything too loud.

"You may be right, Blackjack. We'll see."

Freedom and Blackjack crunched down their sugar cubes. Then, Freedom shook his mane like he was having a sugar seizure, then Blackjack did. Whoa! Good stuff!

Well, boss, you come to your senses and want to fly somewhere, just give a whistle. Ole Blackjack and his buddies, we'll stampede anybody for ya! Blackjack whinnied.

Percy told him he'd keep it in mind. Then a group of younger campers came into the stables to start their riding lessons, and we decided it was time to leave.

🪨

That night after dinner, Quintus had us suit up in combat armor like we were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and I had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost. Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, we'd all slain monsters before. That's what we trained for.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about. The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together. Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat.

Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Brett Lancaster with Annabeth Chase."

Brett blushed, while waving at Annie. I laughed, then pushed him towards her.

"Percy Jackson with Adira Lancaster."

I gave Percy and high five, and he let out a whoop. I looked at his armor, squinting.

"Wait, your armor is crooked," I added, trying not to laugh, redoing the straps.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered. "Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover both looked at us pleadingly. I tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestured that they should move together. Tyson sneezed. Grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.

"They'll be fine," I said. "Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive."