The Invisible Demigod

Sam - XI

  If I had known how dangerous quests were, I might not have come.

We had just escaped the empousa when we ran into another complication about an hour later.

I had drifted off to sleep when someone shook me away. I looked around, still half asleep. Everything was blurry, then focused. Claire was staring at me, face pale and eyes wide.

"Don't move." she whispered. My whole body stiffened.

"What is it?" I whispered back.

"I think it's a hyena with wings, or I could be hallucinating from loss of blood."

I slowly turned my head to look into two large amber ones. This was a mistake. The creature let out a bird-like shriek and slammed it's beak into the car window. I guess eye-contact is a threat to these creatures. Claire screamed and I kicked myself away from the car door. The window cracked and Claire fumbled with the car lock.

"Where's the others?" It was just me and her in the car.

"They went to the rest stop to stretch and use the bathrooms. Zombies pee, who knew?" And Claire got the car unlocked and they tumbled into the cool air. We landed in the snow and I gasped.

"Is it really winter?" I said as we scrambled to our feet. "It's always pretty sunny at camp!" Then I saw a sign that said 'Welcome to Columbia!'. I guess we're right on the border.

Claire grabbed my hand and we both sprinted towards the lights ahead of us. I glanced back to see the hyena or bird or whatever flag it's wings and race towards us. It snapped it's lethal looking beak and it's eagle eyes glaring fiercely at us.

"Nico! Marry!" I yelled as we got closer to the restrooms. "Albert?" We both turned to see the bird thing swoop down and grabbed Claire's shoulders, lifting her into the hair. I jumped and grabbed her ankle, trying to anchor her down. Her leather boot was slippery from snow and her foot slid out from her shoe. "No!" I cried, tripping and landing in the snow and gravel. A thunk told me that her gun had landed next to me. I clutched her boot and stood, watching the struggling figure that was Claire being taken to who knows where.

There was a cry and I ducked just in time to prevent the bird-animal from impaling me with it's talons. I notched an arrow and loosed it, making a new home in the monster's neck. It let out a terrible scream and writhed in the snow. I stood and slowly approached it, another arrow in place. The creature let out a gurgle as blood dripped from it's wound. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, then loosed another arrow to silence the creature.

I sprinted towards the bathrooms, Claire's gun in hand. Nico poked his head out from the men's room.

"What's with the screaming?" he asked, pulling his sword out. "Where's Claire?" I gasped, clutching the stitch in my side. I swallowed, trying to speak.

"Giant bird...taken Claire...only her shoe..." I lifted her shoe in an attempt to make Nico understand. He put a hand on her shoe and pushed it away, we were almost nose to nose.

"Dude," Nico said. "Where's Claire?"

A scream made both of us look up, another lion-hyena-thing. Just great, I thought. Why not we have a few vampires join us and then bring Gaea back to life? I pulled my bow back, ready to send the demon back to Tartarus. I suddenly realized that there was something gripped in the creature's talons. It dropped it and I saw it was a piece of paper. Nico stooped to pick it up and his eyes darted back and forth as he read it. He went paler then he usually was, then ripped the paper up in anger.

"What did it say?" I demanded.

"That someone named Echidna has her and will kill her if I don't go up there." he growled, the look in his eyes honestly scared me. A shudder passed through me and I shook myself.

"Then let's go." I said, impatient to find Claire and kick her captor's butt.

"You don't understand," Nico sighed. "She said she'd kill Claire unless I went up there, alone." I glared at him.

"I'm coming too, you just want to save her because you think she'll fall for you!" I said, jabbing my bow into his chest. Nico's cheeks turned slightly pink, but he still didn't stop scowling.

"The note said she'd kill Claire if anyone else came!" He exclaimed. "She said shell make her 'pet'" He pointed at the monster waiting behind us. "Bring me and if you follow on foot, we won't ever see Claire again." The agony in Nico's voice was hard to ignore, he was practically begging for me to stay behind. He really didn't want Claire in any danger.

"Fine," I huffed. "I'll stay here with Marry and your zombie." I sat down at a slightly snow coated rock and put my head in my hand, pouting. Nico sighed in relief, then mounted the hyena bird with some reluctance. I let out a small huff of air, I hoped Echidna got a few hits in before Nico rescued Claire.