The Garden Of Evil: Book Two

Chapter 5: I Get Contacted By a Talking Seashell

Waking up and having a huge bronze fire-breathing eagle with celestial bronze talons outside my window put a small dapper on my day. The automoton was huge, with atleast a forty-foot wingspan and sharp, golden plummage that could rip through flesh to compliment the cuspidated beak. Again, I wasn't surprised when it did a nose-dive right into my bedroom. Before I knew it, shards of glass shattered the floor, and I was covering my face and hair from being attacked by the homicidal avian. So much for the Eagle being the symbol of America, this one seemed like it was stuck in the New York Zoo for all of it's life and "accidently" got out of its cage- except it was bronze, and well, big. For one, I wasn't a big bird maniac. I refused to join the bird watching club in fourth grade even though my science teacher begged me too- Thanks for the karma, Mrs. Johnson. I hated anything with wings except pegasi and butterflies, which both still gave me the creeps sometimes.

My screams of "GET THIS (insert curse word of your choice) BIRD AWAY!" must have echoed throughout the cabin and probably the rest of camp because my door slammed open, standing there was Callista with her dagger and Sera with a flamethrower. The possessed eagle swooped through the room and knocked over every photograph and personal object I owned, also somehow leaving a hole between my bed.

"What the Holy Hades is this creature?" shrieked Sera, fiddling with her flamethrower by turning small dials and switches, making last minute preperations before probably turning the bird into a Thanksgiving dinner big enough for the whole camp, plus the gods, plus half of the giants.

"According to my research, it's a caucasion eagle; a bronze automoton made by Hephaestus," Callista shot Sera a look as Sera swiped at the Eagle with her dagger and continued, "first originated by Zeus to feed on Prometheus.It's siblings include Hydra and the Nemean Lion, so it looks like we're dealing with a gold pain-in-my-ass."

"Is there anyway to defeat it?" I ask Callista, unsheathing my sword and swiping at the bird, making it angrier then it already was.

"The answer to your question is I have no idea."

Great, so today's wake up routine included an invincible eagle flying around destroying everything I owned. Before I could lunge forward to clash Typhoon against the bird's own celestial bronze talons, the bird gave a high-pitched warning or mating call and retreated out of the window it crashed in from. I ran out the bird-sized hole in the wall and to the front of the cabin, and I could of sworn that Flora would be bird bait (which I wouldn't have minded.)

But no, apparently Flora was either an eagle whisperer or just really wasn't stunned by the huge golden, fire-breathing, sharp-clawed, raving maniac, avian perched before her. The eagle stopped and cocked it's neck at Flora as if thinking weather or not to burn her to a crisp (which again, wouldn't phase me.)

"Flora get away from the creature!" screamed Callista, putting her hand up to summon water just incase the eagle got any ideas.

"Actually, I have a better idea," Flora says, and I secretly pray that she has a scheme to either a. light the thing on fire, b. drown it in the lake, or c. any other type of getting rid of the damned thing. Wrong- a better idea.

"Sera, do you think you can fix it up? Make it, you know, less firebreathy?" Flora questions, the eagle still in front of her, it's talons gleaming in the sunlight.

Sera looked taken aback but finally nodded, and I could see the wheels turning inside her brain. "If I can disable it correctly just permanently to bring it down to the forges, maybe we can train it and use it."

"And how do we disable it?" I ask, looking Sera up and down as if interviewing her.

"Ice," she replies, looking around at the three of us (four counting the eagle.)