Count Your Nights By Stars: Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter Six

          I really didn't even need to see the rest of the damage to the car to know we were screwed. Both the boys were still hanging upside down, and who knew what injuries they might have. Obviously I didn't have the skills to fight it, otherwise I would've killed that monster in my apartment much faster. So essentially, we were sitting ducks. And none of us knew where the other car was, or we didn't look around for it yet. But it had to be worse damage. They were launched before we were even hit. "What do we do?" Justin hissed. Stitch just shushed him. None of us moved. "What do we do?" Stitch shushed him again. The monster got closer. "What-" "SH!" We all simultaneously tensed as the Griffin stopped in front of the car, leaning its large head down.
          I could feel my pulse in each of my toes, and my hands were beginning to shake from the adrenaline and fear coursing through my veins. The beak came into view first, long and sharp and definitely strong enough to snap my leg in half if it wanted to. It kept moving down, until the very top of its head was nearly touching the road, and a single, giant gold eye stared directly at us. I'm pretty sure all three of us stopped breathing. Time seemed to stand still for a moment, none of us moving, not even the bird, and the only sound was that of some small alarm going off in the car. I swallowed, gripping the sleeves of my jacket. A low noise sounded from the monster's throat, and it slowly lifted its head again. All three of us collectively exhaled.
     Before anyone could say anything, the whole car shook and slid a few feet back, most likely a result of the giant bird ramming its head into the front of the car. I grunted as I was thrown onto the top of the car, now on my side and looking up at Stitch and Justin. The car moved again, the top of my head slammed against the curve of the windshield, or where it used to be. Ow. The Griffin hit the car once again, and I winced as falling glass cut into my cheek. "Callie!" I glanced up. Both boys were looking down at me- or up, as they were stupidly still buckled into their seats. Their faces were beginning to turn bright red, and under different circumstances I probably would've laughed.
    "What the hell are you doing?" I hissed. "Get down! We need to get out of this damn car!" As if on cue, the car rocketed to the side- I guess the bird moved to aim for something else. I slid across the top of the car, my back hitting painfully against the top of the door. What was that bird trying to accomplish? The boys followed my instructions, unbuckling and doing their best not to just to crash to the floor. The car was hit again, but this time it crunched, bending in half slightly. I looked up, and the winced. The Griffin had pushed us off the road, and was currently slamming us against a tree. "Any suggestions?" I shouted, doing my best to avoid being crushed. "We need to get out of here!" Stitch yelped, ducking as broken glass rained over his head. "Thank you, Sherlock!" Justin snapped, scrambling and looking like he was trying to hide behind his airbag.
All of a sudden, the Griffin stopped, and the only sound was our collective panting breaths. Then I heard it. "...OVER HERE YOU OVERGROWN CHICKEN!" I flinched a little, hearing the sound of the monster moving outside, and gave the boys a frantic look, who both looked equally worried. We all knew that voice. "Jas" Stitch murmured, voicing my thoughts. We all sat there for a moment, stunned by the turn of events, then almost comically we all jumped at once, hurriedly trying to climb out of what was left of the windows.
The air was cool outside the car, sending a chill down my spine. It had started drizzling, and to my left it looked dark, like a real storm was about to roll through. The grass was cold as I crawled across it, scrambling to my feet and trying to get a better sense of what was going on. We were in the sort-of-woods beside the road, deep enough that the trees in front of us were blocking a clear view of the road. But it was admittedly hard to miss the giant brown feathered bird monster that was jumping around, its wings stretched out in an act of intimidation. Movement caught my eye, and I turned my head to see Stitch and Justin scrambling towards the road, obviously disoriented from having been upside down for so long and then trying to break into a run.
"Hey!" I called, hurrying after them- which didn't actually take that long. "Do you two have a plan?" "Yes" Justin grunted, his face still bright red, and his veins were popping out of his forehead. "We're going to save Jas." "Right" I deadpanned, making a face. "Because obviously you two are perfect for the job, seeing as you can barely walk in a straight line." "Do you have a better idea?" Stitch panted, looking over at me. I shrugged. "Give me a weapon and I'll see what I can do." Justin let out an airy laugh, sounding almost in pain as he panted, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Yeah, that went really well in your apartment. Which, may I remind you, you're still wounded from. Yeah, no. Doctor's orders says you're not fighting anything."
"You aren't looking too well yourself, Doc" I drawled, flicking his shoulder, where an open would was from the crash. He hissed in pain and shot me a look. "Whatever the case, we need to act fast" Stitch said, pulling a knife from his belt and handing it to me hilt first. "Try not to get yourself killed." I took the knife an examined it. It was laughably small, to say the least, maybe five inches longer than the length of my hand. He expected me to fight off a giant glorified eagle with this? What kind of defense did they teach in this survival camp? "Thank you" I said, shooting Justin a smug look.
"Let's get this over with" he grumbled, drawing a bow seemingly from thin air and notching an arrow. We hurried out onto the road, pausing just long enough to get an idea of how screwed we were. The other car had flipped, like ours, but it was a lot more crushed. Annabeth was crouched next to it, looking over an unconscious Percy. The Griffon was squawking and screeching, trying to claw and bite at Jas, who was dancing around the beast and shouting insults. Without a word, we all rushed forward, Justin running to Percy and Annabeth, and me and Stitch heading for the monster.
        "About time!" Jas shouted, ducking under a swipe from the monster's taloned claw. "I was beginning to think you might've actually died!" "Can't get rid of us that easy!" Stitch called back, grinning a little as he produced a large metal hammer, the kind I would expect a viking to use. He charged ahead of me, hitting the slick road on his knees and sliding under the belly of the Griffon, swinging his hammer hard at its front legs, and he hit the first one with a sickening crack. The monster roared in outrage, swinging its gigantic wing and backhanding Stitch a few yards back.
        Jas let out a war cry, sprinting towards the Griffon with nothing less than murder in her eyes. The beast let out a cry of its own, though I'd have to admit it sounded a little alarmed. Jas ducked under the first swipe from the Griffon, slicing at its second attempt, before running underneath its torso- similar to Stitch's tactic- and stuck her sword upright, cutting through the length of its body as she ran. The Griffon screamed, the sound so shrill I actually had to pause and cover my ears. A blow of wind rushed over my body, so forceful I almost fell over. The monster was flapping its giant wings, like it was planning to- "Don't let it get away!" Jas shouted, running forward and leaping into the air, latching onto the Griffon's side and climbing onto its back.
I glanced around. Stitch was still getting up, and Justin and Annabeth were preoccupied with Percy. Guess that left me. I copied Jas' movements, sprinting forward and jumping at the last second, gripping the bird for dear life. I grunted and started climbing up its side to get to its back, trying not to think about what would happen if the feathers I was holding onto suddenly fell off. But I managed to make my way onto its back, coming almost face-to-face with Jas. She looked like she wanted to yell something at me, but held her tongue as we rocked up and down as the Griffon started taking off. To be honest, I could not believe we were on a Griffon's back- not for the obvious reasons, more so I couldn't believe Jas was so hellbent on killing it. Why not just let it leave?
        "Find a way to get it lower!" Jas finally called, not waiting for a response before continuing climbing up the monster's back, heading towards its neck. I blinked, a little shell-shocked. Find a way to lower it? What, was she expecting it to be hanging on a string that I could just cut? I exhaled to myself, beginning to crawl more onto its back to try and form an idea. I gripped the beast's dark brown feathers, scanning its body for something I could use... My eyes fell on its wings, specifically the one closest to me. It was an idea- a bad idea, but an idea. I quickly crawled across the feathered surface and steadied myself at the base of the long brown wing, staring out as if moved up and down.
        Well, I wasn't going to just chop it off, for a multitude of reasons. One, it would just crash and end up killing me and Jas, and two, the wimpy knife Stitch gave me would never have gotten the job done. But we needed to get back towards the ground, and a dead drop just would've killed us. I gripped the knife and reached my arm out as far as it could go, then took a moment to brace myself before stabbing the knife into the wing and dragging it back towards my body. Blood exploded out of the open wound, spraying me in the face, and I tried not to gag. But weirdly, it wasn't read. It was gold. The Griffon shook and screeched, not giving me time to dwell on its weird blood, and we started descending. "Hold on!" Jas' voice called.
        I looked up to see her straddling the monster's neck, sword raised above her head and ready to strike. In one swift move, she stabbed the weapon down, burying it almost to the hilt into the monster's head. The Griffon let out one final shriek, then... disappeared, in a puff of golden sparkles. Once again, I had no time to dwell, for me and Jas were suddenly free falling into the trees. Our grunts of pain echoed through the new silence as we bounced off tree branches, until we finally hit the ground. My entire body clenched and I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the pain covering my body to go away. It faded to an all around ache, but I could deal with achey. I let out a long groan, slowly squinting my eyes open and blinking a few times.
        It had started drizzling before, but now it was turning into a light rain, the dark clouds overhead threatening to start pouring. I forced myself to sit up, wincing at the wound on my neck, sure the wound has started bleeding again. I spotted Jas a few feet away, looking to be in similar condition as myself. We stared at each other for a moment, despite the rainfall, and after a while she gave me what I guess was an approving nod, then winced as she got up and started back towards the road. I shrugged to myself, then did the same.
        As we stepped onto the road, everything already seemed calmer. Percy was conscious and had propped himself up on his elbows, talking quietly with Annabeth. Justin and Stitch were next to them, though they both seemed to be focused on Stitch's knee. All four of them looked up as we approached, then we all looked at Justin as he started spazzing. He made a series of noises- words that never took form- and started gesturing between everyone, before sighing aggressively and rubbing his forehead. "Was that supposed to mean something...?" I asked frowning a little in confusion. "Everyone is wounded" Justin responded, his words firing out of his mouth at rapid fire while he tugged at his hair, making it stick up in weird angles. "We have no cars and we're still on the middle of the island. Two of us are in no condition to walk right now. We essentially are stranded here for who knows how long-"
        "Will you shut up?" Jas said, crossing her arms and giving him an exasperated look, which he only returned. "You literally never shut up about how you were a Boy Scout. And the rest of us know full well how to survive in the outdoors- we're not even in the real wilderness. We'll figure something out." Justin let out another long sigh, looking at Stitch for help, but the male just shrugged. "Jas' right. We'll be fine for a night and we'll figure out what's going on in the morning." For the third time in a row, Justin sighed. "Fine" he said, pulling off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. But everyone needs to get checked by me before it gets dark."
        "Yes, mother dear" I drawled, smirking a little as he shot me a glare before going back to focusing on Stitch's knee. Jas smacked my arm and nodded at the flipped over car that she, Percy and Annabeth had been in. "Come help me grab what supplies we can. We'll hit the other car after." I nodded and followed her lead, trying to keep the swell of pride from showing on my features. This was the first time she'd acknowledged I have limbs that can be helpful to her. Maybe this training camp didn't breed and groom self absorbed freaks.