{1} Princess - P. Jackson 🔱

"Just found out I'm worth some good gold. Wanna buy me?"

🕊️

"Heel, Orthus," The man told the dog.

The dog growled at us once more, just to make his feelings clear, then circled back to his master's feet. The man looked us up and down, keeping his club ready.

"What've we got here?" he asked. "Cattle rustlers?"

"Just travelers," Annabeth said. "We're on a quest." The man's eye twitched. "Half-bloods, eh?"

Percy started to say, "How did you know—" I pinched the small of his back making him stop and look at me with winded eyes.

"I'm Annabeth, daughter of Athena. This is Percy, son of Poseidon. Maria, daughter of Aphrodite, Grover the satyr, and Tyson the—"

"Cyclops," the man finished. "Yes, I can see that." He glowered at Percy. "And I know half-bloods because I am one, sonny. I'm Eurytion, the cowherd for this here ranch. Son of Ares. You came through the Labyrinth like the other one, I reckon."

"The other one?" I asked. "You mean Nico di Angelo?"

"We get a load of visitors from the Labyrinth," Eurytion said darkly. "Not many ever leave."

"Wow," Percy said. "I feel welcome."

The cowherd glanced behind him like someone was watching. Then he lowered his voice. "I'm only going to say this once, demigods. Get back in the maze now. Before it's too late."

"We're not leaving," Annabeth insisted. "Not until we see this other demigod. Please."

Eurytion grunted. "Then you leave me no choice, missy. I've got to take you to see the boss."

It was actually good because he didn't make us feel like hostages, Eurytion walked alongside us with his club across his shoulder. Orthus the two-headed dog growled a lot and sniffed at Grover's legs and shot into the bushes once in a while to chase animals, but Eurytion kept him more or less under control.

The only thing that wasn't good was the fact that we have been walking for a pretty long time. It was a hot day, everyone sweating. I hate sweat, feeling sticky and smelling bad, ugh it's horrible!

While walking I took the hair tie out of my hair, biting it while putting my hair together into a high bun.

"Sir, how can you live here? Walking around in this sun all day!?"

"Maria!" Annabeth said through her teeth.

"Annie, darling, I'm sweating more than if I were at a Carnaval party in Rio's 40 degrees Celsius."

"That made no sense." Grover argued.

"Imagine you're at Times Square on New Year's Eve in a sun of 104 Fahrenheit, but everyone is jumping around dancing."

"Damn, we got it now." Percy said.

Eurytion chuckled. "I've been living here for years. You get used to it."

Every so often we'd see a pen full of red cows or even stranger animals. Once we passed a corral where the fence was coated in asbestos. Inside, a herd of fire- breathing horses milled around. The hay in their feeding trough was on fire. The ground smoked around their feet, but the horses seemed tame enough.

"What are they for?" Percy asked.

Eurytion scowled. "We raise animals for lots of clients. Apollo, Diomedes, and... others."

"Like who?"

"No more questions."

Finally we came out of the woods. Perched on a hill above us was a big ranch house—all white stone and wood and big windows.