Nostalgia: Heroes of Olympus

A R L E N E

Honestly I didn't know what Rebecca's problem was. She gave me glares the whole way up, and I'm a thousand percent sure she was mad because Nico was holding on to me for his life. I wasn't upset with her at all, but at least I never had a crush on my sister's boyfriend. (Yeah. Hypocrite.) We got about halfway to halfway to halfway, which was quite a while up, when the mountain exploded.

That usually means bad things.

A horde of massive dogs surrounded us. Nico was already tired, Rebecca was being weighed down by her boyfriend, and I was starting to get cold. I hugged Leo's warm jacket, which surprisingly kept me a lot more cozy than the material should have. I brought out my sword and stood at the ready.

What I wasn't prepared for? Friendly dogs. Friendly, automaton dogs that liked to breath fire.

At first, they looked ready to kill. As they got near us, one of them shuttered, like when you would fix Festus while he's still running. Then the look in their ruby eyes turned playful. They ran around us, wanting to play.

That was kinda disappointing.

After making an attempt to distract the dogs, I helped Rebecca carry Nico into the small cave they had formed from the explosion. She set him down and I quickly started a fire.

"I don't like him like that, ya know," I said, poking at the wood. "Mhm," she answered, obviously not convinced. "He's like a brother to me, Rebecca. I know you're stubborn- believe me, I'm as stubborn as you. I'm not lying." I looked right into her eyes, which made me uneasy. I usually never stared into people's eyes. I couldn't tell what her decision was, so I let it go. "I'll take first watch." She looked at me with a small spark of worry, but was silent. She laid down beside Nico and fell asleep at once. 

I stared at the cavern ceiling, lost in my thoughts. I watched the soft bronze glow of my sword touch the rocks. I took the time to just go through my brain, sorting important things out. So far, interesting, I thought. I calculated we had roughly 24 thousand more feet to get to the top of the giant mountain. I groaned to myself and curled into a ball, hugging Leo's jacket to myself. I stared ahead, at the gentle flames. It was gonna be a long night. 

-------

I learned quickly that there were different levels, trying to keep us from reaching the top. We had managed to get Nico back to almost full health and continued upward, trying to take the shortest routes possible. Me and Rebecca had a hard time climbing, but Nico swung against the rock like nobody's business (makes me wonder how many times he's scaled the lava wall with it moving and such). 

We got to an estimation of 5,678 feet (1730.654 meters) in the air when the second wave hit. We heard hissing and found ourselves four empousai. Vampires. Me and Nico unsheathed our swords. Rebecca gripped her dagger. "Hello Rebecca," one of them hissed. It made me realize- they're all after Rebecca. Some of them looked at me for a moment, and rolled their eyes. They don't think I'm good enough, I thought. They're right. I felt myself hesitate and one of them turned towards me. I couldn't back down now. I took a shallow breath, my sword feeling heavier then usual in my hand. One of them hissed and jumped towards me- only to meet a very sharp point of Stygian Iron. "Arlene, this isn't the time to be a statue," Nico grumbled. He hurried back next to Rebecca, ready to protect her. I readied my sword. I knew we weren't getting pass without a fight. 

The obvious leader struck first- Rebecca and her began fighting, and the vampire seemed unstoppable. I was about to help but I was preoccupied- one of the ones who seemed confused on which one was me and which one was my sister had attacked me, and she quickly met her doom. After that, Nico seemed to be covering for me, slashing the girls to bits like nobody's business. I hurried over and knocked the alpha bitch to the ground, digging my sword into her throat. She let out a blood hurtling scream and turned into golden dust, which was carried away by the wind. 

"I could've protected myself," Rebecca rumbled. "Yes, sis, cause you were winning." "Why don't you give me a chance, huh? I had that one but no, you have to "protect" me and be an annoying big sister!" she exclaimed, using air quotations. "I was just trying to help you! If Nico helped you you wouldn't be mad and I know that's what he wanted to do!" Rebecca's face was bright red with pure anger. Black smoke was starting to come into view. "Let's just go, okay?" I said softly. Her face contorted and soon went slack, and she took a deep breath. "Fine," she said through her teeth. She stomped to be beside Nico and we continued on our journey to the top of Mount Everest.

I know it's only 868 words but I'm not feeling v good rn so bear with me.

-Arlene-