The Grace Curse

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I DIDN'T KNOW MOUNTAINS HAD FEELINGS, BOY WAS I WRONG. I looked up at Mount Umunhum and cringed. The mountain itself felt to me like it didn't want me here. I had only seen pictures of the places on Google Images, but this couldn't compare. From the base I could faintly spy out a large gray box. What is that?

"Oh, that was a radio tower during the Cold War," Megan explained. "Now the mountain is usually left alone..."

The actual rock in the mountain seemed to shift faintly. "What...?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," Megan began. "It's just another angry Ourea,"

I snorted. "Ourea? What the hell is an Ourea? Are they related to Oneiroi?" Andromeda eyed me a dangerous glare. The dream spirit incident felt so long ago, I couldn't even believe the amount of crap that happened between then and now. I wondered what was happening to Morpheus by now. Had Apollo taken care of him? Better yet, what had happened to Hera? Had she recovered from her drastic mood problem?

Andromeda frowned while stooping ahead of Megan and me. "Ourea, were the fatherless children of Gaea, the original Earth Mother," I nodded and went along with what she was saying. I pictured a green giant Goddess holding up mountains as children, what a lovely image.

Megan stopped at the base of the mountain. "This is where I must leave you two. At the summit you will find Typhon, or rather what is formed physically of the monster at the moment, be careful, please,"

I thought about what Grayson had said. Just stall out for another thirty minutes. Maybe I should just keep quiet from Megan. Grayson clearly wanted this to seem more secretive. I had to stall. Something wasn't right with Typhon. "I'm no expert at mythology obviously, but I remember one thing for sure, Typhon was buried underneath Mount Etna during the Titanomachy; last I checked that was in Italy,"

Megan made a face. "You're very resourceful Chase; it may save your life one day,"

"You didn't answer my question," I replied coldly.

Megan frowned not taking my rudeness lightly. Something wasn't right in her demeanor. "Mount Etna like Mount Olympus and the Labyrinth, moves along with Western Civilization or what you'd call popular culture...as do other things, you'll find that many things move along in Modern Culture from Greece, but this case it moved to Mount Umunhum,"

Andromeda eyed the mountain summit nervously. "Something is brewing up there, it looks like one monster of a storm to me," Megan and I looked up. Thick grey storm clouds encircled the summit of Mount Umunhum; it looked like something was bending the air around the peak. It was if something so powerful was bending space and time around it.

Megan backed away. "This is where I must go, I have no way to further aid you three. I bid you farewell and good luck," Megan turned back to the chopper.

"Megan," I said. She turned around. "Will I see you again?"

Megan formed a faint, but soft smile. "Of course, give me a shout when you defeat Typhon, I await your success," She turned back around and walked into the chopper. The loud propellers sounded as she took off.

As soon as she was gone Andromeda let out a grunt. "I don't trust her one bit. That woman is a raving lunatic," No. Megan was family; I doubted her intentions were anything less than loving.

I defended her. "Megan probably had a rough life since she was adopted; my Mom always said she had a bad childhood. Maybe she's just a little rough on the edges sometimes but means well,"