Trapped | ✓

Chapter 14

Emily's POV

It was clear Blackjack and his friends needed a break.

'Why don't you set us down, here. You can go get some doughnuts!' I told him.

'If you're sure,' Blackjack replied.

They swooped down and landed gracefully. I stroked Blackjack's mane, thanking him. Piper grabbed my hand and helped me off his back.

"Are you sure you can walk?"

"No," I said plainly.

"The we'll need to get you, like, crutches or something," she said.

'You sure you don't want a ride, half-boss?'

'Yes. And don't call me half-boss,' I said with a laugh, which caused laughter from my brother also, and confused staring from the seven other demigods.

"Right, so I'm gonna just, hobble, it's all good, and we can go into town and probably get attacked by monsters. That's how quests usually work out, right?"

"Right," Percy laughed.

And then it appeared.

Materialising in front of us, a large black lump of drool and fur loomed in front of us, growling and spraying slobber all over us with a single shake of its head.

"Crap crap crap crap crap," I said, stumbling backwards. Tapping the rim of my ring, I steadied myself and notched an arrow in my bow. Percy and Jason instantly charged the hellhound, and Percy slashed at it with his sword. The hit was enough to send its essence back to Tartarus, but the strike just angered the beast even more.

"Heads up!" I shouted to Percy, who, without even looking over to me, took a step to the side, allowing me the perfect position to target the monster at.

I let my arrow fly, and it nailed the monster right in the eye. Yes, Emily, nice shot!

But the thing didn't die. It barely even seemed fazed by the arrow stuck in its eye. It shook its head a little, but the arrow didn't move. The hellhound didn't seem to care. It growled and took a single step towards me. It had covered  of a lot of ground in one step. I plucked the now string, willing it to become a ring again. Close combat? Fine.

Tapping the gem, a sword formed in my fingertips. I jabbed at the monster, but it raised its paw and batted my sword away from its body effortlessly. I wasn't particularly agile, what with my leg, and this was hard.

It was a good thing Percy, Jason, Frank, Hazel and Annabeth were all jabbing at its sides. Leo was fishing for something in his tool belt, and Piper was attempting charmspeak. The hellhound wouldn't even look at her.

The beast kept advancing towards me. I jabbed with my sword some more, but the dog was having none of it. And then I wasn't on the ground anymore, and I gripped Blackjack's mane as he took a startlingly sharp nose-dive, and kicked the monster in the head multiple times, before rearing back up. Blackjack repeated this again and again whilst the others attacked it from the ground, and, having turned my sword into a bow again, I sent an arrow flying towards the creature's open, snarling mouth. With a soft 'poof', the monster resolved to dust.

"Why didn't it die the first time?" said Jason. Annabeth bit her lip, deep in thought.

"Unless the Doors are open again," everyone shuddered when she said those words, including herself. "But that wouldn't even make sense either. Because it's dead now, and I don't see that trying to reform." She kicked the pile of dust, which caught in the wind, and was whisked away to some other demigod's feet.
I shook my head.

"This never happened before, did it? Could this be another big problem?"

"Could just be a mistake," Nico piped up, appearing from seemingly nowhere. He hadn't even been there for the fight, I realised.

I had no idea where he had gone to. "Dad could've just been busy today, it's complicated, but it happens, doesn't it?" He said to Hazel. She nodded.

"My great uncle lived another three years after everyone thought he'd die, and during that time, got hit by a bus, but remained alive. Like that?" I said.

"Yeah," Nico said, "Just like that."

"Hope that's the case," said Annabeth. I couldn't have agreed more.