cover you now ; pjo

eight ; let it be

Ben was jolted awake from his nap when the bus broke down.

Before he even opened his eyes, he heard Gabi whisper "shit", and he silently agreed with her, opened his eyes, and looked around.

"What happened?"

"The bus broke down."

Everyone sighed collectively. Ben rubbed his eyes and forced himself to stand up, slipping on his windbreaker and backpack. The group got off of the bus.

"Hey, at least we're still in civilization," Carolyn said, gesturing to a sign behind them. Ben turned around.

The sign looked around 100 years old, which it might've been, for all he knew. It read Cat Creek Community and Oil Field, Montana.

"If this is civilization now, I'll take Bismarck and crazy Psyche any day." Stef pointed her finger at the tiny town that lay a football fields length away.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad."

•••••

It was that bad.

The town consisted of a main street and two off shoot streets. Nothing else. It was like someone had taken a snapshot of a tiny town in 1920's America and built a town to be exactly as it was pictured. It was quiet and destitute and Ben was pretty sure he saw a tumbleweed skitter across main street.

They sat down at the only restaurant in town, a diner called Martha's. After the waitress took their orders, Carolyn pulled out the map.

"So, dudes, what's the plan?" She asked. "We happened to break down literally in the middle of nowhere, so literally any suggestions are game."

Ben cleared his throat. "We could just, you know, wait for the bus to be fixed up. It shouldn't take that long, anyway."

Gabi shook her head. "We can't waste anymore time. As much as I enjoyed Chicago, we shouldn't have spent the whole day there."

"I have an idea," Anela said, flipping the map over so it faced her. She traced her finger along a route. "The actual Cat Creek is just east of here and runs to a bigger town called Winnett. It's a long walk, but it'll get us somewhere."

The waitress came out with their dinner. Ben nodded at Anela. The plan was set.

•••••

Ben's backpack seemed to get heavier and heavier as their walk continued. No one really said anything, they were too tired.

The river itself was beautiful, green and shaded by oak and willow trees on each side. The light shone through the leaves in fragments, and flashed off of the fins of fish in the water. A voice at the back of Ben's head told him to chuck his sword into the river to see how to sun glinted off of it, but thankfully he ignored it. Birds sang, and for the first time since the quest began the boy's mind was truly clear.

After about two hours of walking the sun began to set. But, Ben and the others noticed something. He raised his head. He could hear the clanging of swords a few hundred feet ahead, and everyone else could too. He started walking faster, and as he did he pulled his own sword out of its sheath and held it in front of him.

There they were. The two fighters. A dark haired, kind of skinny kid holding two daggers, and... the manticore.

Ben heard someone gasp behind him, and he stepped forward to help. The were on the river bank, maybe he could use the water to wash out the monster.

Fuck, it was the manticore! And this kid thought he could take it on alone?

Ben turned his attention back to the fight, and the kid seemed to be moving all over the place too fast to be humanly possible, slipping in and out of the lengthening shadows.

The mysterious boy leapt into the air and grabbed a low hanging branch of the oak tree above him. He kicked the manticore in the eye. The creature howled in pain, but quickly recovered, grabbing for the kid.

Finally, the boy noticed the group of demigods watching the fight. He grinned. "Hey!" He said, "I could use a hand he-"

The manticore's scorpion tail dug into the boy's back, and he cried out in pain, falling to the ground.

Carolyn rushed to his side, and Ben set about to take care of the monster.

He leaped into the water, raising his hands so that he stood in a column of water far taller than the creature before him. The manticore swatted at him, but only met water.

"You're an asshole," the son of Poseidon whispered, sweeping his hands to the left. The monster was soaked with water, and it lost it's footing, giving Ben the perfect opportunity. He leapt off his water column, sword in hand, and caught the manticore off guard. With one fell swoop, he turned the monster into ash.

Ben went back over to where his friends stood around the boy underneath the oak tree. Carolyn knelt next to him, proving to be a useful flashlight. The kid smiled blearily up at his healer.

"Thank the gods," Gabi said when he joined the half circle. "You took care of him?"

"Yes."

"Good, because there's something you need to know. This kid is one of us."

"Well, duh," Ben answered. "Of course he's a demigod. He was fighting the manticore for Zeus's sake."

"No, I don't mean that." Gabi turned to Ben. She took a deep breath. "I mean this kid is a child of the Big Three. He's a son of Hades."