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The Family Gift

Frank's POV

Frank was relieved when the wheels fell off.

He'd already thrown up twice from the back of the chariot, which was not fun at the speed of sound. The horse seemed to bend time and space as he ran, blurring the landscape and making Frank feel like he'd just drunk a gallon of whole milk without his lactose-intolerance medicine. Ella didn't help matters. She kept muttering the exact same thing...

Ella: Seven hundred and fifty miles per hour. Eight hundred. Eight hundred and three. Fast. Very fast.

The horse sped north across Puget Sound, zooming past islands, fishing boats, and very surprised pods of whales. The landscape ahead began to look familiar—Crescent Beach, Boundary Bay. Frank had gone sailing here once on a school trip. They'd crossed into Canada.

The horse rocketed onto dry land. He followed Highway 99 north, running so fast, that the cars seemed to be standing still.

Vancouver, Canada

Finally, just as they were getting into Vancouver, the chariot wheels began to smoke.

Frank: Hazel! We're breaking up!

She got the message and pulled the reins. The horse didn't seem happy about it, but he slowed to subsonic as they zipped through the city streets. They crossed the Ironworkers bridge into North Vancouver, and the chariot started to rattle dangerously. At last, Arion stopped at the top of a wooded hill. He snorted with satisfaction as if to say, That's how we run, fools. The smoking chariot collapsed, spilling Percy, Frank, and Ella onto the wet, mossy ground.

Frank stumbled to his feet. He tried to blink the yellow spots out of his eyes. Percy groaned and started unhitching Arion from the ruined chariot. Ella fluttered around in dizzy circles, bonking into the trees and muttering "tree" repeatedly.

Only Hazel seemed unaffected by the ride. Grinning with pleasure, she slid off the horse's back.

Hazel: That was fun!

Frank: (sarcastically) Yeah. So much fun.

Arion whinnied.

Percy: He says he needs to eat. No wonder. He probably burned about six million calories.

Hazel studied the ground at her feet and frowned.

Hazel: I'm not sensing any gold around here...Don't worry, Arion. I'll find you some. In the meantime, why don't you go graze? We'll meet you—

The horse zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

Hazel: Do you think he'll come back?

Percy: I don't know. He seems kind of...spirited.

Frank almost hoped the horse would stay away. He didn't say that, of course. He could tell Hazel was distressed by the idea of losing her new friend. But Arion scared him, and Frank was pretty sure the horse knew it.

Hazel and Percy started salvaging supplies from the chariot wreckage. There had been a few boxes of random Amazon merchandise in the front, and Ella shrieked with delight when she found a shipment of books. She snatched up a copy of The Birds of North America, fluttered to the nearest branch, and began scratching through the pages so fast, Frank wasn't sure if she was reading or shredding.

Frank leaned against a tree, trying to control his vertigo. He still hadn't recovered from his Amazon imprisonment—getting kicked across the lobby, disarmed, caged, and insulted as a baby man by an egomaniacal horse. That hadn't exactly helped his self-esteem.