Hyacinths and Halcyons

cHaPtEr FiFtEeN: Follow the Pretty Bird Across the Sky (Delia POV)

OHMYGODS IT'S HAPPENING!!

I cannot believe that I finally get to lead my own murder tr- I mean quest!

As we walked outside the barrier to the camp, a barrage of questions flooded my mind.

I focused on the one most important to right now.

"What do we do first?"

I ran through the prophecy in my head until a certain line stuck out to me: "When life meets death, you must try to follow the pretty bird across the sky." Remembering that by "pretty bird" it meant halcyon, I searched the skies for the teal bird I had seen in my vision.

"Guys, do you see-" I was cut off by Kora.

"There!" She pointed to a bird flying away from us quickly.

I laughed. "That's just a normal bird, Kora. That's not-"

"No- there!" She adjusted my head the slightest bit to the left.

I gasped. She's right!

Right on time, Argus drives over in the van, ready to take us to our certain doom. His eyes seemed to ask, "Where to first?"

"Just follow the halcyon!" Sophie exclaimed, pointing up. Argus followed her gaze and nodded, motioning for us to get in.

As we began to leave, I wondered what we should do.

"Wait, what's the next line of the prophecy again?" Sophie questioned.

I looked in my backpack to find my notebook where I had written it. I flipped through the pages, searching for the one where I had the prophecy.

"Here! It's, 'Two lovers, driven apart / Reunited by another's broken heart / Father of the hyacinths, whose fate was left to the winds,'" I read.

"Father of the hyacinths has to mean Hyacinthus since he was killed with a discus that had the trajectory adjusted by Zephyr, god of the West Wind. Which means that the other lines mean that we can resurrect Hyacinthus!" Sophie pieced together. "What about the next lines?"

"'Can be resurrected by love's sins / Punisher of the unfaithful and the savior of romance / Is the only way to advance.'"

"Love's sins, huh?" Kora mused. "The goddess of love is Aphrodite, and the sins part could mean her unfaithfulness to Hephaestus."

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "So, the punisher of the unfaithful must be a child of Aphrodite and Ares."

"Oh! Maybe it's-" Sophie was cut off by the abrupt stop that shook the van. I instinctively reached for my bow and peeked out the window. Kora grasped her dark sword and Sophie grabbed an arrow, ready to shoot.

Thank the gods, the halcyon perched in a tree above us, safely out of reach of the monster before us.

A long snake with the head of a woman slithered in front of the van. When it met my eyes, a hunger sparked, and it lunged.

"Lamia," I breathed. I recalled a sentence from my Greek myths book: "A monster with the head of a woman and body of a snake that preys on children."

"A lamia?" Sophie said. "Its weaknesses are rosemary, salt and fire."

"I don't think that's gonna be very helpful right now!" Kora shouted as she leapt out of the van, ready to attack.

"Wait!" I gasped. "Kora, it eats children!" She struck at the beast, narrowly avoiding being eaten. She sprinted back to the van and shut the door.

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

I thought for a minute before gasping again. "Sophie, distract the lamia with arrows. Kora, you summon salt and rosemary. I'll set it on fire." They nodded and Sophie climbed on top of the van.

She fired an arrow and taunted, "Hey, you fat lizard!" The lamia growled and lunged again but got tangled in a bunch of rosemary. The lamia howled and tried to wrestle out of the tangle.

Kora managed to find a load of salt and threw it at the monster. My turn.

I closed my eyes and focused on the sun. I aimed a ray of light at the rosemary and soon enough, it caught fire.

The lamia wailed and it exploded into a pile of dust.

"That was fun," Kora said, then collapsed. I was surprised she even managed to stay conscious to have enough time to kill the monster. It's always hard to use an ability you have the first time you try.

Sophie climbed back in the van and I carefully set Kora down.

"Argus, keep following that halcyon!"

"Okay, so, back to what I was gonna say before the lamia came around," Sophie said. "The punisher of the unfaithful has to be Anteros, the god of reunited love. He also punishes those who cheat on their lovers."

"It has to be him!" I agreed. "The halcyon better lead us to him, since we have to, 'follow the pretty bird across the sky.'"

"I guess our next goal is to find Anteros."