The Shadow Summoner | Book Three - PJO Universe

ten

CAPTURED

Tauri silvestres dropped from cracks in the ceiling - crashing into tents, flattening troglodytes, scattering hats and soup bowls and pots of mushrooms.

Almost immediately, Ariana lost track of Will, Rachel and Nico in the pandemonium. She could only hope Screech-Bling and his lieutenants had whisked them to safety.

The only reason she knew where Apollo was was because the pair immediately pulled on the others shoulder.

A bull landed in a heap right in front of them, separating Apollo and Ariana from Meg and Grr-Fred.

As the beast scrambled to gain its footing (hoofing?), Ariana parkoured over it, desperate not to lose Meg.

Ariana spotted her - now ten feet away, Grr-Fred rapidly dragging her towards the river for reasons unknown.

The close quarters and obstacles on the platform seemed to hamper the trogs' natural running skills, but Grr-Fred was still moving at a fast clip.

If Meg hadn't kept tripping as they wove through the destruction, Apollo and Ariana would've stood no chance of catching up.

They leaped over a second bull. (Hey, if the cow could jump over the moon, Ariana didn't see why the sun couldn't jump over two cows.)

Another barrelled blindly past her, lowing in panic as it tried to shake a bull-hide tent off its horns.

To be fair, Ariana would've panicked too if she'd had the skin of one of her own kind wrapped around her head.

They had almost reached Meg when Ariana spotted a crisis unfolding across the platform.

The little trog with the propeller beanie, their server during dinner, had got separated from the other children.

Oblivious to danger, he was now stumbling after his ball of crystal as it rolled across the platform, straight into the path of a charging bull.

"Apollo." Ariana pointed.

Apollo reached for his bow, then remembered his quivers were exhausted. With a curse, he snatched up the nearest thing he could find - an obsidian dagger - and spun it towards the bull's head.

"HEY! Apollo shouted.

"BAD IDEA!" Ariana screeched, hiding behind her boyfriend.

This accomplished two things: it stopped the trog in his tracks, and it caused the bull to face me just in time to get a dagger in its nostril.

"Moo!" said the bull.

"My ball!" shouted Beanie Boy as his crystal sphere rolled between the bull's legs, heading in their direction.

"I'll get it back to you!" Ariana said, which seemed like a silly thing to promise, given the circumstances. "Run! Get to safety!"

With one last forlorn glance at his crystal ball, Beanie Boy leaped off the platform and disappeared down the road.

The bull blew the dagger out of its nose. It glared at them, its blue eyes as bright and hot as butane flames in the gloom of the cavern. Then it charged.

Like the heroes of old, Apollo stepped back, stumbled on a cooking pot and fell hard on his butt. Just before the bull could trample me into Apollo-flavoured marmalade, glowing mushrooms erupted all over its head.

The bull, blinded, screamed and veered off into the bedlam.

"Come on!" Meg stood a few feet away, having somehow convinced Grr-Fred to double back. "Lester, we've got to go!" She said this as if the idea might not have occurred to Apollo.