The Valdez side-effects

Chapter 3

An arrival party awaits us at the border.  It consists if Piper and Jason, Percy and his girlfriend Annabeth, Nico, Frank and Hazel, Chiron and of course Mr. D. 

"Percy." I breath and give him a hug, seeing he is alive makes me feel a whole lot better. 

Nico hugs me hesitantly as if he forgot who I was and what we went through together.  Piper squeezes me tightly. "Hey, I missed you."

"Missed you too, Pipes."  I say as I hug her back. 

Chiron walks over to me.  "Are you alright young lady?" He asks looking concerned as always. 

"Yes sir.  I had a Lastrygonian visit me but I took care of it."  I shrug.

"Excuse me?" Percy chockes.  "A Lastrygonian? Like the big evil things that almost-blew-me-and Tyson-and-Grover-and-Hazel-and-Frank-up type Lastrygonian?"

"Whoa buddy." I laugh.  "I understand if you aren't great at grammar and all that, but that was a lot of ands." 

"I couldn't fight a Lastrygonian!  Tyson had to throw their flaming cannon ball things at them. Even then we barely made it by the skin of our teeth!"  There is an impressed edge to Percy's voice. 

"Ok one," I cross my arms.  "Teeth don't have skin, and two, don't seem so surprised.  I am a boss at fighting."

"That's not what I meant." Percy frowns. 

I frown back.  "How strong are they exactly?" 

"Like ubber strong."  Frank says.  "Like, think the child if Crosby and Whickenhiser on steroids."  He taps his chin.

"You mean they could beat me at hockey?" I ask attempting humor. 

"I think they would be to big and clumsy. I don't even think a stick with a billion flex would be enough for them.  I mean-"  Frank and I are really getting into this conversation when Leo cuts us off.

"Alright!  Alright, we get it. The evil giant dudes are awesome at hockey." He massages his temples. "Let's just focus on how in the world didn't they kill you?"

"It didn't kill me because I killed it first."  I tell them. 

"But how?" Annabeth asks, obviously intrigued. "How could you kill a giant that has at least a hundred times your strength and walk away without a scratch.  You act like it was nothing."

"That's because it was easy, ok?" I am getting impatient.  "Do you guys seriously think I'm that weak." 

No one says anything.  Leo raises his hand.  "That's an unfair assumption." 

"Whatever."  I turn and head towards the cabin.  "I'm going to go settle in while you discuss hiw weak I really am."

As I storm away, Percy calls out after me.  "Leigh, wait!  That's not what we meant!  Come back!"

I ignore him and keep walking away.  "Let her cool down." I hear Leo whisper.  "She's been through a lot today." 

I almost want to scream in frustration.  I find that my feet bring me down to the amphitheater, the place where Ace had trained me.  At night, it looked eerie; the moonlight cast shadows along the bleachers and the battle dummies looked more... real. 

I heard something move and I pressed the orange stone on my necklace.  My bronze knife appeared in my hand.  Two figures moved out of the darkness. 

At first glance they looked like woman with fiery hair in greek robes, a at closer glance, they were terrifying woman, one donkey leg and the other made of metal, their eyes glowed red and of course their hair was literally fire.

"Hmmm..." One of them licked her lips.  "You were right, she does smell good."

"Oh I know," The other said.  "To bad she is a girl, her brother would have been much more appetizing."

I readied myself for an attack.  "But we should kill her anyway.  After all, she is a child of Poseidon and we don't like them."  The first on sighed.

"You know I can hear your entire plan, right?" I yell to them. 

"Oopsies."  the first one says sarcastically.  

"They know you're here!" I hope they don't hear the fear in my voice. 

"And that's why they sent you, a snack."  They jump on me. 

I slash at one as the other takes me down.  My knife sails clean through the first one's throat, but she dosen't explode into the usual yellow monster dust, in fact nothing happens.  She laughs, a guttural sound that makes me gritt my teeth. 

"You really think you can kill us that easy?" The one I just hit asks. 

"Well, stupid demigod, since this border of yours protects you from us, why shouldn't it protect us from you?" The one on top if me asks.  

I think maybe Percy was right, I am not good enough to kill a Lastrygonian on my own, it was luck.  And now I was going to die here, in the onlt place I thought was safe for me.  I let out an desperate scream.  What else could I do?  I could only hope someone heard me and that someone knew hiw to kill these things.

The both of them laugh at my feeble call for help.  The one on top of my smiles as she bares her fangs and brings them towards my neck.  I feel them brush against my neck and squeeze my eyes shut.  I'm dead.  I'm sorry Leo. 

I don't feel her teeth rip my throat open, in fact I don't feel anything rip my throat open. 

I open my eyes and see yellow monster dust floating down towards me.  Futher away, Nico di Angelo stands there, his sword in hand, panting over another pile of yellow monster dust.  

"Leigh!"  I hear Leo call.  Two hands pull me up from under my arms. 

I turn into Leo's chest and burry my face in his shirt.  "Holy flying Hades.  What the hell were those?" I ask.

"Empousai."  Percy says darkly.  "I hate them."

I look at Percy.  "You were right, I can't take on monsters."

"Leigh-" Percy reaches out towards me. 

I hold up a hand.  "Don't.  I know what you meant. It's ok."

I wriggle out of Leo's arms and walk over to Nico.  He looks at me, his dark eyes calculating.  "Are you ok?" He asks. 

I nod.  "Thank you.  Can I give you a hug...?" 

Nico hesitates before hugging me.  "I will protect you."  He whispers only to me. 

I squeeze him tighter.  "I'll protect you too." 

He lets go of me and Percy puts a hand on my shoulder.  "Ready to go back to the cabin?" He asks.