Maelstrom|Book 5| A novel in the Blue Moon series| An Avengers fan fiction series|

44- The Sound of Demons

Hello all!

IM NOT DEAD.

IM SORRY FOR LEAVING YOU FOR LIKE FOREVER. I've been editing Blue Moon ridiculously. It used to be 167,000 words and now it's down to 128,000. And still going. I've also been sick with a nasty cold for three days and didn't feel very inspired.

Hopefully, the length of this chapter makes it up to you.

Haley_Ferland Hopefully, you'll understand what I meant when I texted you and said that Thea is having trouble with ankle-biters today.

Please VOTE and COMMENT!

Chapter Forty-Four: The Sound of Demons

I haven't seen Peter in a while, and I'm thrilled when we're reunited at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. He'd landed first, so he's been waiting outside my terminal for my plane to land. I'd slept during the flight, so soundly, the flight attendant had had to wake me up.

Peter's dressed in a tank top and cargo shorts, and a Mets baseball cap hides most of his face. I recognize the hat as Kyle's. He must have stolen it from him in Iceland.

"Thea, my darling," says Peter, giving me a one-shouldered hug, "How has international travel been treating you?"

I yawn, "Tiring. How about you?"

"Eye-opening. In Morocco, we nearly got blazed by Neidra, but thankfully, Loki likes us enough now to save our butts. Although," he muses, "I think he was sort of questioning saving Jack's."

"Where's Jack now?" I ask, forgetting the locations Tony had given me yesterday. I'd been preoccupied with Videl. Not that I'm going to mention that to anyone, especially him.

"He's in Kuwait with Videl, Thor, and Ky," Peter reminds me, "So way up in the continent. By the way, you don't know the location of the rondayven, right?"

"Nope. I tried to get it out of Tony, but we wouldn't tell. Only group leaders can have them, apparently, so whenever Pepper gets here, we'll ask her."

While we wait for Pepper (and Fandral), Andrew and I walk around the airport. Peter only has kronas from Iceland, but I have euros left over from the Netherlands. I buy us some coffee so we can get through the day, whatever it brings. I'm seriously starting to get addicted to coffee. Which isn't good, but I've been doing too much international traveling to care much.

Pepper texts us an hour later, and we meet her at a terminal. She looks as tired as us, but manages to smile cheerfully.

"While we wait for Fandral, let's go over what we have to do," says Pepper, "Because trust me, it's not going to be a walk in the park. More like a let's-not-be-eaten-by-lions walk in the park."

Peter and I look at each other.

"Uh, lions?" I ask.

"Check it out," says Pepper, showing us a print out from a website. "Hluhluwe Game Reserve."

"Do what now?" asks Peter.

"It's a game reserve about six hours from here," says Pepper, "I told Tony we should've flown into a closer airport, but these were the only logical flights for all of us. The real difficulty is where it's hidden." Pepper glances around the airport, "We'll talk about in the car."

I don't point out that she's already mentioned the exact mouthful of a name the rondayven is located in the middle of a busy international airport.