Victorious

Alex

Alex's mouth almost dropped to the floor.

"Carter?" I asked in astonishment.
Carter snorted. "Obviously."
"Wait- how did you get here?"
"Here? The truck of course. How'd you get here?"
"I got a ride from that horse." Alex turned around.
"Dude, what horse?" Carter asked.
"She was just here."
"She?"
"At least I think so."
"So you rode a horse from like, where'd we leave off?"
"I don't know. Somewhere? Where's a map?"
"Ah, the meeting of minds." Someone said behind me. I turned around.
Cleo was sheathing her sword and adjusting her strap, a smirk on her face.
"Okay. That's it." Carter said. "HOW?!"
"How?" Cleo said, stepping forward, next to me, grinning. "What do you mean by how?"
"You're hiding something." I pointed out.
She smirked at me. "What makes you think that? We're in Ecuador, by the way."
"By how, I mean how did you get here?" Carter said, his eyes wide.
"Not worthy of discussion." She said casually. "We need to get going." She said more seriously.
"Where?" Carter complained. "I'm so confused. We where in Costa Rica, but know we're not! And you appear, talking about a horse-" he pointed to me. "And you appear with snarky remarks and a side ponytail!" He pointed to Cleo. Cleo touched her ponytail defensively and took her hair tie out.
"Who cares about a side ponytail? Let's keep going." Cleo said.
"Side ponytails are so 90s." I said without thinking. Cleo and Carter shared a look and then looked at me. "Sorry." I mumbled. "That happens sometimes."
Carter shook his head. "I don't know how you do it, Cleo, but I need logic. I need logic to understand something. If I don't know where we're going, I won't work right. Just tell me!"
Cleo looked at him angrily, which I was surprised Carter had stopped looking fearful. Cleo was kind of intimidating, and when she gave you the death stare, it's the death stare. Usually, when Cleo gets mad at Carter, he doesn't continue the conversation. But he faced her with newfound confidence. I was proud of my best friend. I don't know what the heck he did on that Sprite truck ride, but whatever it was, it worked.
"We're going to Rio De Janeiro!" Cleo yelled. "There. Is that 'logic' enough for you?"
"Finally!" Carter said. He pulled out something from his tool belt.
Cleo laughed evilly. "The irony. You were the first one to tell me not to use a phone."
"WILL YOU TWO STOP IT!" I yelled. I was done. So. Done.
"What?" Carter and Cleo said.
"Fighting!" I stated. "I understand that you don't get along. That's great. But don't bicker about it ALL THE TIME! It's driving me CRAZY! This is a quest. We're meant to be professional. We can't spend the WHOLE time fighting about MORTAL CRAP! Now PLEASE, CAN WE GO?!"
Carter shoved his phone back in his tool belt.
"Fine." Cleo said. "Let's go."
Cleo started walking. Carter joined her. However, I was more cautious.
"Guys," I warned.
Despite the beautiful sunset, there was something large blocking it.
Something large, hairy, and man like with horns.
Something like a minotaur.
Cleo snapped her head around.
"Whaaaa-" she said. She looked off her hinges for a moment. There was no way we would be able to fight a minotaur.
Carter turned around. Then. He tilted his head.
"What's so bad about a big wrestler?" He asked.
Cleo looked at him in agony. "Gods, it's a Minotaur. Get it right."
Carter squinted. "I still don't- AAHHHH!"
And that was when the beast charged.
Carter was the first that was almost torn to pieces- well, he would have if Cleo hadn't dived in and slashed the Minotaur in the mouth.
I ran up to the monster, stabbing it in the eye. I could feel the minotaurs hot breath on my face and the smell of rotting bones. I stabbed it in the mouth. Instead, it bit my shoulder and threw me across by the ocean.
"Oooh." A few mortal couples mused.
"Ow." I said. "OW OW OW OW OW!"
I opened my eyes. Carter was setting the monster on fire, but that wasn't doing anything. Cleo was nowhere to be seen.
I got up, which was a mistake. My vision turned red, as if it already wasn't.
"There's not supposed to be two Carter's." I reminded myself. "And a panther."
I got up, despite my sickening nausea, I needed to help Carter. I wobbled over, just as the monster did the exact same thing to Carter as it did to me. Then, it turned to me. It's red, beastly eyes Staring me down, leading me to think, I'm toast.
But then, it fell backward, like it was itching itself. It's hairy man legs were up in the air like a dog on its back. I ran up to the monster, slashing and dashing around its wild arms.
Am I still hallucinating, or is there a panther on the Minotaur?
I wasn't hallucinating, no matter how much I wanted it to. The panther was wildly scratching, and doing amazingly well destroying the Minotaur. Unfortunately, it slashed back. Poor panther. It must think it's fighting some rapid bear or something.
I deflected some of the minotaurs hands. I took a deep breath, raised my arm, and brought down the sword onto the minotaurs hand. It screamed wildly.
"This is the weirdest monster I've ever seen." I told the panther. Amazingly, it growled in what I thought was agreement. Then, we both slashed, the panther and I, at the Minotaur, like we were working in sync, which was pretty cool.