Stolen

Ch.18: Ro explodes Niagara Falls

Ro:

An hour after they got off the bus, they were stepping out of a Starbucks adjacent to some fancy hotel, grateful Aphrodite had left them money in their backpacks or else they never would have gone into that ridiculously overpriced pastry heaven. Logan had eaten every single cinnamon roll in the building. And there were at least a dozen.

They strolled for a few blocks until they arrived at Niagara River. As they approached the river, everyone noticed Ro's eyes turning the same emerald green as the river. And they all felt the need to comment on it. Well everyone except for Fox it seemed had noticed. Her stony face had remained focused and impassive since they'd stepped off the bus. There was no sign of the giggly Fox high on pain meds, or the fun Fox who'd kissed a god and raced grocery carts with her. No, this was serious Fox.

A bridge to get to an island right next to the waterfall was about a mile down the boardwalk. They shuffled their way to the bridge, stopping only once so Ro and Xander could purchase souvenirs. Fox clenched her jaw at that, but didn't say anything.

As they trudged their way to the bridge, they strategized. They decided one group, probably a pair, should stay at the top and the rest should follow the other shards to the last piece that was supposedly under the falls. That could mean it was either in a cave or under the water. Both were accessible, considering Ro was a Poseidon kid.

They reached the bridge and traversed it in a timely fashion. Xander, the strongest out of everyone, held the shard again, this time by the handle, and it pulled him to the island. Logan had the other one in his backpack. A nearby sign read Goat Island. They got off the bridge and walked to a small forest. They hiked along the river until they reached a waterfall. Nearby was a tourist viewing point where tourists were safely out of the way in case something dangerous happened, which was pretty likely. They decided Xander would go down because he was holding the sword, Ro would go in case they needed help with the water, and Kane and Logan just really wanted to go. That left Fox and Ace on look out up top, which was potentially a lethal decision.

But seeing as Fox was an Apollo and Jupiter legend, she really didn't care for being underground or so close to such a big body of water for the same reasons Ro didn't particularly like being in the air. So they left her up top as areal support.

The others left quickly before things got bad. They walked down a steep forested hill towards the tourist lookout point and turned sharply towards the waterfall. They stopped abruptly at the mouth of a cave. Logan entered first, his mother's sacred torches in his hands to light the way. All children of Hecate could summon these at will. Ro walked in after him, chatting along side him with her glowing celestial bronze spear in her hand. Xander and Kane followed suite, swords at the ready.

The cave was a tunnel carved into the solid rock. There was no light except for Logan's torches and their glowing weapons. The cave seemed to go for miles with about a dozen other tunnels branching off towards who knows where. They walked and walked until they spied sunlight peaking through a curtain of water at the end of the cave. They truly were underneath the waterfall. Approaching the wall of water, revealed a small hole, barely large enough for Xander to squeeze his large frame into.

As they stepped in and let their eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. lit only by the few sunbeams that made their way through the curtain of rushing water, there was a collective gasp. Because sitting in the middle of the room, was the last shard of sword. The key they needed to free Gwen. Ro's chest pinched at the thought, but worry rushed in soon after. Why was this so easy? This should not be so easy.

"So," Xander said as he reached for the fragment. "Brad didn't lie after all."

His remark was answered by a low growl behind them. They pivoted to find a hydra snarling at them with its nine ugly heads, blocking the tunnel. It had massive claws and a long, pointed tail that dripped acid. Ro hated being right.