Horizon's Point: The Rise of the Lyre (Jason Grace)

Chapter 9: Spite is spiteful

We made sure that our rides weren't going to run or fly off while we were gone before going on a mystery-person hunt. Sunlight lay in dappled patches on the springy soil ground making the leaves shine from the gorgeous light. The forest wasn't too dense, but there were enough trees for us to be constantly losing the silhouette.

Finally, after a good deal of running, getting lost, running some more, finding their way back to the horses again, getting lost some more, oh, and did I mention running? The woman stopped and stayed still, perched on a tree branch, feet dangling down accompanied by a pair of high heels. She was wearing a torn white dress which I suspected was once beautiful. Her hair was dishevelled, entangled with hissing adders, which made me think back to Percy and Annabeth's description of Medusa. Oh, no. Was this a Gorgon?

She leaped down from her branch to examine us further, I noticed her flushed, angry complexion. The way that she held herself made her appear even more menacing, at full height (which, might I say, was extremely tall) with her neck craned forward, allowing those piercing eyes to examine us closer. Coal black hair got in the way of some her adder's mouths. But she carried no weapons, then I noticed the thin dagger hanging from her waist. I had had enough experience with traditional Greek daggers, thank you.

Jason's hand went to Juno's Gladius as Percy's went to his pocket to ready his pen. It turns into a sword so, no, he is not losing his mind... I don't think so at least. Out of fear (yes, I was scared of a woman with neck issues) I crossed my hands across my middle to grip the hilt of both my swords.

She cackled a horrible, ear-piercing laugh which sounded somewhere between a strangled cat and evil witch.

"Aw, are the heroes scared of me? That's cute." She smiled, which she clearly didn't do often because her thin lips just spread across her face, flushing her cheeks further and giving her a toad-like mouth. I decided that it was probably better for my health if I didn't point this out. "You must recognise me" she decided.

'No, I don't!' I mentally screamed, it was the most frustrating thing, like forgetting someone's name. You've known them for a long time but just can't put your finger on it. Who was this woman? One glance to my right and I saw that neither of them had a clue who she was either, at least I wasn't the only one.

Our dumb-founded expressions seemed to further irritate and anger this - whatever she was. "Ugh! You never know me, do you? I always need a golden apple to explain who I am!"

"Oh! Oh!" Percy exclaimed like a student desperate to give the answer, "You're Eris, aren't you? Annabeth said that you're the Goddess of - oh." He went very quiet as the realisation sunk in. Of course, this was Eris! Goddess of strife, feuds and chaos, which meant that we were in a lot of trouble, definitely shouldn't have followed the strange silhouette in the woods with snake hair.

"Yes!" She cried without any satisfaction "You always need the golden apple, don't you ungrateful, useless, pathetic demigods!" I was really wishing that Percy had kept his mouth shut at this point.

"Wait, Eris? Like, Bellona's Greek equivalent? We know your daughter, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano." Jason tried to amend Percy's mistake, holding up his hands in a please don't smite us gesture.

"No, I am not her mother. That's Enyo." She looked further infuriated yet more curious about him, "You were Praetor with the girl, both of you boys were." Her adder heads lifted and spat venom - no normal adders do this, just ones attached to Goddess's skulls - their slits for eyes bore into us. I squirmed uncomfortably trying to escape their line of sight.

"Y-yes we were." Jason confirmed catching a nervous glimpse of the snakes.

"You said that we need you, what for exactly?" I spoke up to redirect the conversation to something more important. Her dress blew around her as a breeze caught it, displaying all of the disorderly rips in its smooth silk. She and her snakes gave me her full attention, but I decided to meet each one of their pairs of eyes in turn, I could not show this Goddess fear or doubt.

Peering at me down her nose she smiled again which must have strained her muscles so much that she stopped quickly. "Abigail Ambrosia, I remember your mother's tragic death. Oh, how pathetic your attempts to get to her were. He should have helped her, and he very easily could have too, but he didn't. Don't you hate him for that? Your attempts were in vain child. You could have never saved her."

That hit hard, inside I was having a full mental breakdown. I should have gone deeper, maybe then she would still be here. But Eris was right, what was I thinking then? That a fourteen-year-old girl could save her mother's life? I could have stopped her, I could have done something more.

My legs wobbled slightly, I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she had got through to me, instead I glared at her trying to only convey strong, unhurt emotions. I didn't dare look at the other two, if she kept her focus on me maybe she won't target them. Maybe I could get some useful information if I kept her talking. The last part of that plan was easy because she continued to scold me about my mother's death.

"You know that it wasn't an accident, Poseidon killed her, now you are going to try to save him? Families are horrible, trust me on that one. Why weren't you afraid of the other meaning when he claimed you?" She continued showing no sign of stopping, but by some miracle, she moved on to another subject, "As for information, try to Iris-message Tyson, he can tell you a lot about the Kingdom." She sighed as if she wanted to continue scolding me for attempting to save my mother. "I have run out of time; a Goddess is always busy. Goodbye now, I look forward to seeing your distress underwater, Abigail."

And with a snap of her fingers a roaring fire engulfed her. When the smoke had cleared, we had stopped coughing and we could see without our eyes stinging again, Eris was gone.

I couldn't contain it any longer, I sunk to my knees and cried with my face buried in my hands. All of that, just to be told to message Tyson? Percy and Jason rushed over to where I sat and put their arms on my back. Just knowing that they were there made me feel so much better, like I wasn't alone in my misery.

I regained my composure as quickly as I could and sat up to look at them. "I guess we should head back to where our stuff is, the hunters will be arriving soon and we need to Iris-message Tyson apparently so- "

"Pup," Percy cut me off and took both of my hands in his, gently squeezing them. "Slow down, we will go back but you can't discard your feelings so quickly. Tell us about your mum. You can trust us."

"What she said about you being pathetic are not true, by any means. Don't take her comments to heart, ok?" Jason chimed in. I smiled appreciatively at both of them, then took a shaky breath. It was time for them to know, I decided.

"My mum's name was Diana Ambrosia, she was a free diver, always wanted to be the best, kept pushing herself further. She trained me to be a free diver, too. I could go about fifty meters, her best was one hundred and thirteen. We were constantly traveling so that she could go to different competitions, so I was home-schooled with Eric. Then, on one competition, she tried to beat the women's world record of one hundred and fourteen meters. She went for 115. I-" My voice got caught on a sob "I remember watching her go down, from the boat. The safety divers coming up, the panic after five minutes, I kept on diving down to try and find her, I was able to go deeper than the safety divers but-" I stared at my hands in Percy's trying to stay calm. This was the first time that I had openly talked about it, and I was hating every second. "She never came back up, her body became lost at sea."

A tear landed on Percy's hand, I shook my head thinking about everything that I could have done, maybe I could have pushed myself and gone deeper, maybe that way I could have brought her back up.

"It's not your fault." Jason assured me, his eyes full of sympathy. Which, again, made me so grateful for my best friend and brother.