Annabeth Chase and the Battle of the Labyrinth

Chapter 22 - The flesh-eating horses make a mess

Eurytion was the most unorthodox capturer ever. He didn't chain us up or demand we walk in front of him or anything. He just strolled along, his club bouncing on his shoulder lightly and we followed him. Orthus seemed like he wanted to prowl around us, but his master quickly called him away and the dog went off to explore instead. 

We followed a dirt path that led us past more holy cows and through the rolling hills. The sun seemed to beat down on us heavily, which usually I would have appreciated, except my body still seemed to feel adjusted to the coldness of the Labyrinth. It made concentrating hard when all I wanted to do was curl up under a tree and escape the flies that were swarming us. 

And cows weren't the only things we passed. We saw a multitude of random animals in different pens, animals from winged griffins to goats with claws instead of hooves. Percy became fascinated by a herd of fire-breathing horses locked behind a fence lined with asbestos. He approached the fence, only to jump backwards as a large stallion breathed fire at him from its nostrils. 

"What are they for?" he asked, sounding curious. 

Eurytion scowled. "We raise animals for lots of clients. Apollo, Diomedes, and . . . others."

"Like who?"

"No more questions."

We came around another corner and a house appeared before us perched on a hill. It was tall and wide, made of beautiful white stone with wooden beams and awnings and large windows that filled the house with light. I recognised the style, of course. 

"It looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright!" I gasped, feeling excited about being able to explore the place in more detail. 

The boys didn't seem to share my excitement. How dull their lives must be if they couldn't appreciate good architecture. 

As we started to hike up the hill, Eurytion turned back to look at us, a serious look on his face. 

"Don't break the rules," he said severely. "No fighting. No drawing weapons. And don't make any comments about the boss's appearance."

"Why?" Percy asked as we walked up the front steps onto the porch. "What does he look like?"

"Welcome to the Triple G Ranch," a new voice said. 

I looked up to see a man - if you could call him that - standing on the porch before us, smiling at us like he was thinking how best he could eat us. From the waist down he looked normal, but from there it got weird. Instead of one chest, he had three, all connected to the waist and each other's shoulders. The two outside chests had an arm each, but the middle one didn't. It was to this one that the man's head was attached, a regular head with a disgusting black pencil moustache that matched the greased back hair on his head. If I thought the moustache was bad enough fashion sense, the three shirts he wore were worse; each torso had a different colour of either red, yellow or orange so that he looked like a traffic light. 

"Say hello to Mr Geryon," Eurytion said pointedly. 

"Hi," Percy started eloquently. "Nice chests - uh, ranch! Nice ranch you have." 

Geryon opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by the door opening behind him. Nico di Angelo stepped out, eyes on the boss. 

"Geryon, I won't wait for -" His eyes widened when he spotted us and we all froze in shock. Then he drew his sword - a short but sharp looking blade that was as dark as midnight. I'd never seen a blade like it before. 

"Put that away, Mr di Angelo," Geryon snarled. "I ain't gonna have my guests killin' each other." 

"But that's -"