Signs of a Storm

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter 26: Gods, Monsters, And Pegasi, Oh My!

I dreamt of wonderful things. I wish.

The first weird dream was me inside of a dark space. I was trapped, and had no clue which way was out. It all seemed to be mushed together. I couldn’t even think straight. It bugged me very much. The cavern seemed to boom and shake.

I just sat inside of it until the next dream came. My thoughts were that maybe since the first dream was just strange, that the next wouldn’t be so bad. If I had a quarter for every time I assumed and guessed wrong, I’d be able to buy donuts for Blaze, 365 days a year. I decided that after all this was over, that I’d go buy him one.

“Just come outside of the stupid cave!” A familiar voice wailed.

I looked behind me to see my old friend Khione. She kept throwing herself at the cave entrance, but its magic held strong. She couldn’t enter. I smiled to myself. She was such a dumb goddess, it was actually funny. Suddenly a warm breeze came flowing out of nowhere. I turned behind me, and shielded my eyes, it was so bright.

Khione screamed and looked behind her. A shiny, red, convertible came flying in from nowhere and whammed her smack dab in the face. It backed up and parked in mid air. The goddess wailed as golden ichor ran down her face.

“Sorry, you know how hard it is to parallel park sometimes.” It was my actual friend, Apollo, come to my rescue. I smiled.

He swept his hand outward, and a fresh summer breeze flew through, making Khione’s ice and snow melt right away. I even felt warmer. She just cried out, but disappeared. Apollo turned to me and smiled brightly. “How about that for a knock-out?” I laughed, if that’s possible in a dream. The god made grass appear at my feet.

“I’ll try to protect you on your way back to the camp, but hurry. It’s morning time. Wake up sleepyhead. Time for you to hit the road.” And with that, Apollo vanished along with his car. I saw the pegasi show up at the cave entrance before I opened my eyes.

I woke up at the exact time as Nico, and we screamed at the same time as well. He was about an inch away from my face, and it was terrifying. If we were any closer, we could’ve kissed. We both shot to our feet and backed up. I slammed into a wall, still screaming. He whacked into a wall on the opposite side, still screaming as well. Eventually we calmed down, and I breathed out.

“Some wake up call.” I muttered.

“We should get going. I think we woke up half of Manhattan already.” Nico rushed over to the horses, and Blaze whinnied. He backed away and muttered unhappy things about monster donuts and Nico. I ignored both of them and hopped on Blaze. My bag was securely fastened and my dagger was still at my side. I may have thought I was ready for this; but gods, I wasn’t.

We had just taken off, and already there was a problem. Nico’s horse, Guido, was sensing danger. Blaze sneezed, and it sprayed all over me. Then, he could smell it as well. As I wiped the pegasi snot from my face, a giant gryphon flew directly at us.